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crossing the right side line. the white house publicly declares that syria's president has used chemical weapons against his own people. shifting the strategy as the president gets ready to leave for the g-8. with that conflict spreading beyond syria's boarders we'll be live in tehran as there's an election going on there. here at home, it's all about 2016. there's hillary clinton, there's chris christie, they're sharing a stage in chicago. while all of christie's potential republican rivals, they are here in washington addressing the party faithful. good morning from south carolina and providence hospital. >> on sunday we're celebrating 75 years devoted to heal. >> it's friday, june 14, 2013. >> and this is "the daily rundown." >> now, here's chuck todd. >> thanks to the staff there at

providence hospitals in columbia, south carolina. hearing the southern accent made me want some barbecue, keep those videos coming. let's get right to my "first reads" of the morning. after months of internal deliberations the white house announced its first significant but small plan to intervene in the syrian civil war which has now left more than 90,000 dead. senior officials say the u.s. will provide direct lethal assistance to opposition forces and, of course, that means some military support. for months president obama has said bashar al assad's use of chemical weapons against his own people would be a red line and would lead to a change of u.s. policy, well, now, the white house confirms the red line has been crossed and there will be a policy change. according to new u.s. intelligence assessments, the assad regime has used chemical weapons including the deadly nerve gas sarin gas against its own people. u.s. intelligence estimates -- estimates that up to 150 syrians have been killed in chemical attacks, but officials caution that number could actually be

higher. this new assessment confirms a preliminary intelligence report that the president spoke about a couple of months ago -- >> what we have right now is an intelligence assessment, and as i said, knowing that potentially chemical weapons have been used inside of syria doesn't tell us when they were used, how they were used, obtaining confirmation and strong evidence. all of those things we have to make sure that we work on with the international community. >> since then the white house says that they have been quietly ramping up support for the syrian opposition. specifically helping a group called the supreme military council. the assistance has included some military support and it's being done through cia channels. for now, the cia will continue to coordinate this effort as more arms head to syria. now, white house officials say they will consult with allies on further steps and that

could mean additional armaments, additional humanitarian aid or even something bigger like a no-fly zone, but for now there's no talk of putting u.s. troops on the ground. and note as the white house made this announcement yesterday, it was a 5:00 p.m. conference call, the president was continuing his day, hosting an lgbt pride event at the white house. if he were even close to putting boots on the ground or doing something bigger, i assume we would have seen the president himself announcing this policy shift and not a deputy on the national security staff. now, it's no accident that this syria announcement comes as the president prepares to meet with g-8 leaders including britain, france, and, well, also russia. remember it's sort of a g7 on one side in syria and old number 8 on the other. britain and france who said early on they believed assad had used chemical weapons have pressed the u.s. to make a clear-cut decision. russia is, of course, supplying arms to assad and has blocked international action against him

by the united nations. white house also said hezbollah's increased role in helping assad added to the president's sense of urgency to do more. translation, maybe even israel wanted the u.s. to do more. by the way, there's been growing public pressure from john mccain on the right and bill clinton on the left. >> well, i applaud the president's decision, and i appreciate it. but the president of the united states had better understand that just supplying weapons is not going to change the equation on the ground. >> if we do not address the chemical weapons compromise in syria and end this war before these chemicals weapons flow out of syria, not only will israel be in the crosshair of radical islamists with weapons of mass destruction capability, it is only a matter of time until they come here. >> well, let's face it, the public is very skeptical. latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll showed that combined just one in four americans support either u.s.

military action in syria or arming the syrian rebels. if the president does decide to do more, he'll probably need more official support from congress and yesterday house speaker john boehner said, quote, it's long past time to bring the assad regime's bloodshed in syria to an end. but he said as president obama looks at his actions, we hope that he'll consult congress before taking action. although there is a small chorus in congress pushing for intervention, it's hardly a slam-dunk majority. at an off-the-record event with john mccain, former president bill clinton said public opinion shouldn't matter in this case. he said this, quote, the one thing you cannot say when all the eggs have been broken, oh, my god, two years ago there was a poll that said 80% of you were against it, right? you'd look like a total fool. now, a clinton spokesperson said his comments were taken out of context and yesterday the white house dodged questions about bill clinton's critique's, of course, moments ago president

clinton did address the issue on "morning joe" -- >> i've been a little amazed by the coverage of this. i just did a question-and-answer session for senator mccain's institute, and the last or next to the last question was something about syria, and i said that i didn't think we should give up on them. i think that we should support the rebel groups more vigorously. and the white house announced that they intend to do that. it looks to me like this thing is trending in the right direction. >> no story there, folks, that's what he's saying, by the way. bottom line, syria is a political challenge for the president but it's not a domestic one, it is an international one. can the president create an international coalition to stem the tide? can the president help lead an international coalition that pressures china and russia to be more involved in the solution here? and, of course, to try to get russia to back off helping assad. these are the president's challenges as he heads overseas on sunday. turning now to iran. millions are casting votes today

to choose the successor to outgoing president mahmoud ahmadinejad, but while the man in power will change, few expect any real shift in policy. it's a far cry from the scene in 2009, when that presidential election was preceded by reformist rallies and followed by an anti-government protest after ahmadinejad appeared to win a rigged election. this time the iranian government and the supreme leader all eer have worked to assure a qualified election. the former president had attracted support from the real reformist groups before being barred by khamenei's guardian council. a former ally was barred from running. the half dozen candidates offer very little among distinction. most prominent are the nation's

nuclear negotiator, the mayor of tehran and a former foreign minister. the sole moderate candidate is rahani a cleric that has draw e from on reformers. and our tehran bureau chief joins us now. how has voting gone? has it been anything like what we saw four years ago and how do you think this election's going to play out? >> reporter: well, it's nothing like four years ago. there's none of that sort of emotion playing out on the streets. we've been out since early this morning and the key to this election was voter turnout. if there was a low voter turnout, that would favor the hard-liners, the conservatives, but a high voter turnout would favor the closest thing to a reformist. this morning things seemed to got off to a slow start. there weren't massive queues at the polling stations, but as the day progressed, huge number of people turned out. any notion of a boycott had gone out of the window and a lot of

people have shown up. in the poorer suburbs of southern tehran, the vote seems to be split among the reformists and northern tehran and many people have come out in support. there are 50 million eligible voters in tehran and iran and those are the people they want to tap in and they seem to have come out and voted. if there's a huge backing, we may even get the results of this election as early as tomorrow morning, if one candidate has amassed a huge amount of votes. chuck? >> very quickly, what role has ahmadinejad played since the guy he wanted to replace him got disbarred? >> reporter: he's been unusually silent since his man got disbarred. he said he would dispute that decision. we didn't hear anything else from him aside from that. i think that should be probably a cautionary tale to any future

president not to challenge the supreme leader's office. >> our man in tehran covering this election, we'll be getting updates from you, i imagine, all day long and all weekend. thank you, sir. turning now back to politics. thanks to bill clinton's comments to john mccain, there are probably some former hillary clinton staffers who are having not-so-fond flashbacks of what's taking place in chicago this weekend, because look at it. after the best-laid plans for hillary clinton's rollout yet again she got overshadowed by the other clinton. it's a reminder that as much as hillary clinton of today has emerged from her years in the administration with a political brand that's distinct from her husband, she can't totally get out of his shadow. he can still overshadow her when he says something as we saw. the clinton global initiative gathering hillary clinton, though, did begin to fill in the tbd that we all laughed at on her twitter bio, laying out an

agenda for her post-state department life and it focuses on issues she's worked on for decades and it doesn't have much to do with foreign policy, it's early childhood education and women. >> this should be a no-brainer, when women participate in peacemaking and peacekeeping, we are all safer and more secure, and when women participate in politics, the effects ripple out across society so -- >> unlike her husband, clinton is not talking foreign policy. her speech previewed how she plans to use her experience at the state department to build a domestic policy platform. >> after visiting 112 nations for 4 years, i'm still jet-lagged. all the research made the same point. what people wanted was a good job. i learned that lesson not far from here growing up in

parkridge. one of my earliest memories as a little girl is helping my father in his small fabric printing business here in chicago. >> hillary clinton's chicago debut was halfcourtship of the second city, half building a bridge to team obama. she even named dropped the blackhawks. and she ended the day being honored on the navy pier by the axelro axelrods. she announced her initiative focused on early childhood development called too small to fail. >> every parent has looked into their newborn baby's eyes and seen unlimited potential and now we know how to help them achieve that. so, please, join us. for the future of our kids and the future of our country. >> today the clinton global initiative wraps up with new jersey governor chris christie. once again polishing that bipartisan image of his hanging out with democrats while every other 2016 republican hopeful is

700 miles away speaking at the faith and freedom coalition gathering here in d.c. in fact, you're looking at live pictures right now that's, of course, john cornyn, he's up for re-election in 2014. a christie spokesman defended the choice of the new jersey governor going to clinton instead of d.c. saying this -- cgi presented a platform for governor christie to discuss post-sandy economic recovery, rebuilding and the kind of bipartisan problem solving that was needed to help new jersey after its greatest natural disaster. ralph reed the founder of faith and freedom, he responded yesterday -- >> schedulewise it just didn't work, but we invited him. in fact, i think we've invited him to previous conferences. we have a strong organization in new jersey. they are big fans of him, they worked hard to get him elected, they'll work hard to get him re-elected. >> notice how ralph reed treated chris christie treated chris christie not to come versus how cpac did.

rand paul is playing it a lot differently than his dad did, showing up to events that his dad wasn't showing up to and he's made a careful play for social conservatives. yesterday he did so using foreign policy as a way to talk to his audience. >> these days christians i think are unified, or seem to be, in our defense of the not yet born, but i exhort you to remember the 19-year-olds sent to nevada. i can't imagine jesus at the head of an army of soldiers and i think as christians we need to be wary of this doctrine of preemptive war. >> meanwhile marco rubio made a moral argument for immigration reform stressing that compassion is at the heart of this debate. >> every single human life matters and every single human life is worthy of the protection of our laws and our society and our people. >> by the way, while christie has plenty of crossover appeal, remember he's got a lot of work to do if he's going to win the support of the voters you need these days to secure the republican nomination. no one has higher negative

ratings among republicans and core conservatives of those thinking about 2016 than chris christie. well, we'll have much more on the 2016 republican cattle call going on right now in d.c., but up next senator ron johnson on the end game in syria and the push for immigration reform and why he says citizens should not trust the government. but, first, a look ahead at today's politics planner. busy day. the wnba champs are coming. obviously we've got a lot of 2016 stuff. i am trying to figure out why we're using "slow ride" to make the connection to this. ♪ slow ride from capital one, bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjorn's small business earns double miles on every purchase every day. produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? ahh, oh! [ garth ] great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. here's your wake up call. [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards.

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public trust in government, of course, is already low before

the revelations on the nsa surveillance program, the irs, but one lawmaker says a healthy distrust in government is actually a good thing. take a listen -- >> when i hear politicians talk about restoring faith in government, no, no, no, no, no, no, that is the wrong solution. we need to engender that healthy distrust, that healthy distrust that our founders found in government. >> joining me now is wisconsin republican senator ron johnson. by the way, who is also a member of the foreign relations committee and homeland security committee. the country has a distrust of government earlier, we were talking about the public opinion polls of congress and washington in general. is it an unhealthy distrust that they have? >> well, good morning, chuck. well, i think distrust of government is going to be healthy. that's certainly what our founders understood, chuck, you know, the problem i'm seeing that far too many americans are looking to the federal government to solve all their

problems. but here's a news flash, the federal government was never intended, it's not designed, it's not capable of running 23% of our economy. i mean, that's how big the government is right now. and it's on a trajectory, chuck, to hit about 39% of our economy. in other words, the federal government, this entity that americans don't believe is particularly effective or efficient, that most americans understand how dysfunctional it is going on to in about 30 years consume 39 cents of every dollar that our economy produces, i think that's madness, so what i'd like to do is restore that healthy distrust so that americans will start limiting the size of government, its influence and control over our lives. >> okay. i want to get to this budget issue in a couple minutes. i know you had an interesting meeting with some folks at the white house, but i want to start with syria. president's decision yesterday, what he put out in the intelligence -- what the chemical weapons usage by assad,

the idea of ramping up military assistance. where are you on this? how much more involved do you want to see the united states when it comes to the syrian civil war? >> well, the situation in syria is dire. syria has all these chemical weapons. now the administration is admitting they've been used repeatedly with the help of iran, with the help of hezbollah, with the help of russia. the assad regime was able to take over a rebel stronghold, and now, you know, they're really -- you know, aiming their sites at aleppo. and if assad continues to use those chemical weapons or even worse, if those chemical weapons were to fall into the hands of the al qaeda rebels that are also, you know, part of that very dangerous mix and equation in syria, we've got some real trouble on our hands. and, you know, the problem is this administration has once again led from behind, they have not provided the leadership.

they didn't start providing the support that might have made a difference early on. i hope it's not too late. but, you know, possibly better late than never, but i'm afraid it may be a little too little, too late. >> what should be the limits on u.s. support? >> well, let's start with trying to secure a safe haven for the good rebels, the ones that are vetted, that actually are, you know, pro-democracy as opposed to the al qaeda affiliated rebels and, you know, it's looking like we'll probably initiate some kind of no-fly zone near the jordani iaian bor. >> and you're okay with that? >> yes. this is a national security issue for the united states. if those chemical weapons and the assad regime has a lot of chemical weapons, if they were to fall into the hands of al qaeda-backed rebels, that directly threats the united states of america. so, whether we like it or not, i mean, trust me, i'd like to just be an isolationist, i'd like to

just not worry about the world, but we can't. we're in a global economy. we have global threats. we need to face up to those threats and america needs to lead or else we create voids and vacuums and very evil people fill those voids. >> i've not seen you talk much about immigration publicly in the gang of eight bill in particular. where are you on it? are you inclined to support or inclined to oppose? >> well, we have a horribly legal immigration system. it's not good for anybody. it's not good for americans. it's not good for our security. it's certainly not good for those 11 million people who are now hiding in the shadows who i believe the vast majority of americans are going to want to treat with humanity. a lot of these are young kids who are here through no fault of their own. but my bottom line is supporting any bill. we need to actually fix the problem so 20 years from now we're not back here having to grapple with the same issue, so that means border security. we certainly are bankrupting our nation already. we certainly can't be providing benefits to people.

if people want to come in here and immigrate, let's face it, we're a nation of immigrants, they need to come here contributing, not feeding off our welfare system, so it's really borders and benefits are the strong controls we need to apply to any immigration bill. >> all right. so, how does the gang of eight do on those two issues? >> well, they didn't do good enough, so we're going to hopefully have an open amendment process here in the senate. but, again, this greatest deliberative body, you know, harry reid wants to wrap this thing up in two weeks. we haven't really voted on any amendments yet. from my standpoint, not the type of thoughtful processed that really needs to go into this incredibly complex issue. my own preference was to let the house go first, pass the individual components. border security, some sort of employment verification, a guest worker program. pass those components over to the senate. we could have put the icing on the cake in terms of the path towards some sort of legal status. >> let me ask you about ongoing budget talks. i know you were involved in one of those dinners with the president. i understand via the white house

that i've heard that you -- you were involved with some other senators with some meetings this week. where are we on this? is there going to be the so-called grand bargain? is anything -- any progress been made? >> well, what i'm trying to bring to the table here is, first, defining the problem. appreciated the president reaching out and appreciate the president and his staff continuing to engage us. and, you know, i realize the white house is eager to get toward, you know, putting solutions on the table, which republicans are eager to find those solutions as well, but until we agree on the size of the problem. and what we've been doing now is trying to bust out of the ten-year budget window which really minimizes the problem and we presented 30-year projections which, chuck, they are jaw dropping, minimum 72 to over $100 trillion of deficit spending in the next 30 years because of the baby boom bubble, so we really need to define this as a 30-year problem. i think that will direct us to looking at all the entitlement programs so we can reform them to save them for future

generations. >> this issue of ten years versus 30 years, was the white house receptive to it? >> i believe so. you know, we've presented our numbers a couple weeks ago. they came back this week. and they had it broken down into decade number one, decade number two, decade number three. now, they have different numbers. now our staffs are working with omb staffs to let's compare the assumptions. let's face it, we're talking about 30-year projections, nobody's going to accurately predict that, but the only way you can come to solutions is if we agree on the size of the problem. i come from business where if you're trying to buy a business and the seller has one set of books and the buyer on the other side of the table with another set, you'll never come to a successful agreement. you have to have the audited set of books. >> ron johnson, we have to leave it there, senator from wisconsin. we got through a lot of stuff. thank you. >> thanks. up next the new developments on the worldwide search for edward snowden and just how did he manage to smuggle the top

secret documents from the nsa? but the daily trivia question. mike rogers expected to announce whether he'll run for the u.s. senate in michigan, yes or no. he said he'd do it today and we'll ask you this, who was the last sitting republican congressman from michigan to become a senator? i know who the last democratic one was, it was debbie stabenow, the first person to tweet the correct answer. let's get the ball rolling. in parks across the country, families are coming together to play, stay active, and enjoy the outdoors. and for the last four summers, coca-cola has asked america to choose its favorite park through our coca-cola parks contest. winning parks can receive a grant of up to $100,000. part of our goal to inspire more than three million people to rediscover the joy of being active this summer. see the difference all of us can make... together.

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on our radar this morning, britain isn't putting out the welcome mat for edward snowden, in fact, it's quite the opposite, the associated press reports the british government has told airlines around the world that snowden should not be allowed to get on flights to the uk and we've learned he used a

computer thumbdrive to get the documents out of the nsa facility. he's in hong kong and has yet to be charged with a crime. protesters remain in taxim square tonight despite overnight talks with erdogan. the issue that parked more than two weeks of unrest, and he urged them to end the protest saying their message has been received. much different tactic there by erdogan, they are considering the offer. five people have been killed in the demonstrations and more than 5,500 protesters and police have been hurt. finally, the republicans may dominate in the house but the democrats dominate on the field. they won again last night, 52nd annual congressional charity baseball game. look at this, they won 22-0. gee whiz, they pitched seven scoreless innings and the gop tallied five errors on just three hits. it's the third time in a row the

democrats have beat the republicans. it's cedric richmond versus everybody else and that's what the game has turned into and that's why the democrats have suddenly started to dominate again. up next former governor christie whitman will be here. she'll help me take a deep dive into the politics of climate change but we'll talk about other things happening in her old home state of new jersey, the back-to-back elections coming up there. you're watching "the daily rundown." expenses while he ca, he can focus on his recovery. he doesn't have to worry so much about his mortgage, groceries, or even gas bills. kick! kick... feel it! feel it! feel it! nice work! ♪ you got it! you got it! yes! aflac's gonna help take care of his expenses. and us...we're gonna get him back in fighting shape. ♪ [ male announcer ] see what's happening behind the scenes at aflac.com.

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we make our coffee with it. but we rarely tap its true potential and just let it be itself. flowing freely into clean lakes, clear streams and along more fresh water coast line than any other state in the country. come realize water's true potential. dive in-to the waters of pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org. did you know that last year's hurricane season was bad and this year's may be even worse. a deep dive into our changing climate and what is being done to do about it. we did a huge dive about this last year, and the worst was sandy, the storm that begins with "s" which means we've had a ridiculous amount of storms and sandy killed hundreds of people along the east coast, devastating new york and new jersey, but 2012 was supposed to

be normal, 9 to 15 storms with eight hurricanes and in reality it was far worse, 19 storms and ten reaching hurricane status, by comparison, 2013 is supposed to be an normally active, 13 to 20 storms with as many as 11 hurricanes 6 of which could become category 3 or worse in the areas hardest hit by sandy officials are trying to put plans in action so they are ready for the next big one. earlier this week new york city mayor michael bloomberg announced a $19 billion proposal to prepare for rising sea levels and includes building surge barriers and tidal wetlands and new levees and floodwalls and the mayor said doing nothing is not an option. >> we expect by midcentury up to a quarter of all new york city's land area where 800,000 residents live today will be in the floodplain. i strongly believe we have to prepare for what the scientists say is a likely scenario. whether you believe climate change is real or not is beside the point. the bottom line is, we can't run

the risk. >> in new jersey where beach communities were devastated, the state has begun the process of buying up hundreds of flood-prone properties in order to create artificial floodplains. governor christie said recently that he was focused on the work at hand not on scientific theories. >> i haven't been shown any definitive proof that this has caused it. listen, this is distraction, i've got a place to rebuild, we've got time later on to study it and let me be more informed about it, but i'm not going to buy things of whole cloth about them, i'm not going to. >> joining me now is former ed of the epa christie whitman. good morning. >> good morning. pleasure to be with you. >> i want to ask you about this issue, we heard michael bloomberg say this, do you think we can get to the point where the politics will allow to be able to say, okay, climate change, you don't have to believe it's mand made made or

the reality is it's happening and you have to prepare in some form for this change, let's just look at the atlantic ocean, this change and how storms create -- are created, where these hurricanes come, the shifting of hurricane alley. >> yeah. no, it's absolutely true. i think the american people now have made that connection more and more. i mean, they're looking around them. they're seeing the consequences of increased, more frequent and more severe storms, floodings, droughts. look across the country. we have all different things happening all because of weather pattern changes. now, no reputable scientist will say this particular storm was due to climate change, but everything we're seeing is part of what scientists will tell you are the natural outcomes of a changing climate. and, again, okay, you don't want to believe that human activity has anything to do with it, i think you're stretching things to think we have no impact. we don't cause it. i've said that over and over again, the earth changed since it was formed, but clearly our activities are having an impact.

no matter what, we need to prepare for it because it's happening to us. i happen to think we also ought to try to do whatever we can to slow it down. we're not going to stop it, but to slow it down so that we can better prepare. but also take what steps we can. as expensive as what mayor bloomberg is proposing as what chris christie is doing, the alternatives are far more expensive and far more devastating to ignore it. >> i was just going to say, do you think that maybe climate change activists ought to put this in budget terms and just say, well, here's the budget for cleanups that are going to be if we don't rethink floodplains, if we don't rethink levees, if we don't think about basically giving the army corps of engineers a whole heck of a lot more money right now to -- to protect our coastline? >> well, we know that we respond well to economic incentive in this country and certainly if you start to break it down for people and say, look, you, no matter where you live, are paying for this because our taxes help do what government should do, which is to help our

citizens when they are in critical need. not provide every service for them every day, but when there is a disaster, that's where you need to have government step in to help. but, oh, by the way, where does government get its money? it gets it from us, so it's costing all of us a lot of money and, you know, you saw the statistics recently of the last storms, $110 billion or something. really that doesn't speak necessarily to the strength of the storms so much as where we are building more expensive properties, where we are building in places that are flood prone or storm damaged prone, and that should tell us, we need to change some of those policies as difficult as that is. >> i want to ask you a little bit of new jersey politics. chris christie's decision not to combine the two elections, the special for the u.s. senate and the governor's race. what did you make of his decision and would you have made the same decision? >> i don't know what decision i would have made because i'm not there and it's always dangerous to second-guess, i think i know what i might have done but, you know, i'm not going to try to second-guess him on that.

but, i mean, the two elections at least lets people focus on the important of the senate race, it doesn't get lost. you have to understand in new jersey the power of the governor is such that is the dominating race whoever is on the ballot. whoever is running to the senate, with all due respect to the senators and their importance to the state, in this instance it takes second place, it's no accident the elections are staged the way they are. that's part of the thinking as well. >> there wasn't many republicans at all that decided to run in the senate. do you think that's just the changing nature of how federal elected -- elections have become for republican primaries, that those that could maybe win a general election feel like they can't survive a primary? >> well, it's getting to be more and more so even in a state like new jersey, but still new jersey is a pretty moderate state for republicans as well. do we have a strong conservative? yes. but they're not as unified around some of the more divisive issues that you see in other

parts of the country, so a moderate can certainly get through that process i believe. it was more that you only had four months to put something together and that's typical. because in new jersey, of course, as you know, campaigns are enormously expensive. we have to buy new york and philadelphia media. >> it didn't stop the democrats. there's a lot of democrats that decided to jump in. >> they've been doing it for a while. if you look at frank pallone, he has $4 million in the bank, cory booker hack ves been very forwad open that he's going to run, and they've been gearing up for it for a while. >> wish we had more time, always good to have you on and thanks for your thoughts on the climate issue as well. >> thank you. we'll be back with the gaggle. politics behind the syrian announcement and what it means for next week's g-8. i should have had a g-8, but anyway, the white house soup of the day, ragin' cajun gumbo. we'll be right back. [ stewart ] this is the kind of food i love to cook. i'm very excited about making

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live pictures here. this is jeb bush. he's speaking right now at the faith and freedom coalition meeting here in washington. moments ago he updated the crowd on his father, president h.w. bush, he said he's, quote, doing better and he's getting stronger every day. we saw the superman socks the other day. quite the man of steel promotion there. trivia time, we asked who was the last sitting republican congressman from michigan to become a senator. robert griffin, he was appointed to the senate by george romney that was created by the death of robert mcnamara. a lot of people are betting no. congratulations to the winner and today's champion and former hotliner richard skinner. if you have a political trivia question, e-mail us. we'll be right back. one ordinary family goes big...

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american public is worried about getting involved in this civil war. more americans saying provide humanitarian assistance or nothing. bring on michael steele, and democratic polster margie o'mara. since i talked about a poll, margie, what was remarkable about syria, there was no difference. it doesn't matter if you're a romney supporter, this is a unified question, unified response when it comes to syria, a lot of weariness. >> absolutely. not only that, other polls show nearly identical results, two-thirds oppose some action. a lot of times we see questions are very subjective, depends on question wording or context given. this is not one of those topics. >> you don't see any difference being obama's supporter or nonsupporter. >> this is a four point

question, others are a two. two-thirds say they oppose some action. >> liz, i said this is a political problem for the president but not a domestic one, an international one. >> correct. >> this is one of those where the international community doesn't know what else to do but beg the u.s. to lead on this. he's hesitant, it is a political domestic issue. this is a problem for him. and there's big criticism for him on this. >> he's in a tough spot. you have the international community pleading with the world's largest super power to intervene, the international community with the exception of russia pleading for the super power to intervene. at the same time, nobody here wants this. so i think what you saw is an add event. they say they were killed, the administration feel they have to do something. the optics of it all was very

strange. >> the president doing an lbgt event. >> illustrates the challenge he is in. >> michael, this is one of those we won't know what the right call is for 25 years. let's not pretend we know the answer today. >> right, right. >> we are not going to know the right call. in 25 years, who knows if acting earlier. >> it is true. it goes to things the bush administration went through in, getting intelligence that says one thing, trying to develop a policy around that. this administration is in the same boat, getting intelligence information about whether this crosses the red line. their line, by the way, an arbitrary line they put in place, and this policy is going to unfold. the question the american people want to get some sense of is are you prepared to take the steps that are necessary, and if you are, what are those steps, how

far does it go. the administration hasn't answered. >> margie, is it important if the president feels reluctant, and it is clearest reluctant, there's divide in the administration, my own reporting proves that out, people are truly divided on this issue, is he going to have to sell the public if it means maybe not necessarily u.s. troops on the ground, maybe u.s. troops helping train in jordan, maybe something like that. is he going to have to sell the public on this? >> he may. it depends what the next steps are and also depends on how much people are following. polls show twice as many aren't following as say are following it closely. >> there's no pictures here. remember what pushed bosnia over the top is the constant media attention to those starving, those concentration camps that that guy was holding them in, starving people, suffering humanitarian crisis. it was one of those the american

public did pay attention. we don't see those pictures. >> we're tired of war. the american public is exhausted. we have been at it 12 years already. different wars. but even the notion of any kind of military intervention is weighing on everybody now. >> and of course the issue is who are the good guys. >> well, that's the rub, yeah. and that again to the point i think he does have to explain to the american people what he's going to do and why he's doing it because we like to know who he thinks the good guys are. >> and what's been interesting, hezbollah's involvement now has suddenly i think made israel more comfortable with trying to help the opposition. remember, israel has been on the fence about what replaces assad. shameless plug, michael. >> out last week, recovering politicians, a group of us got a new book out called 12 steps. >> i thought you might run again? what step are you on? >> working on my book, 12 step

program to deal with the crisis. >> is that right? thinking about running again. you clearly got to repeat some steps. >> shameless plug. father's day this weekend and looking forward to spending with my husband. he is a great dad. >> that's great. >> one of my sisters, ann and jason rogers married ten years today. i am going to celebrate going to jacob's field, watch the nats take on the tribe. they will be rooting for the tribe, i will be rooting for the nats. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." honor all of those fathers out there. see you monday. i will be in europe with the president attending g 8. coming up next, kris jansing. bye-bye. [ children laughing ]

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would you take it? well, there is. [ male announcer ] it's called ocuvite. a vitamin dedicated to your eyes, from bausch + lomb. as you age, eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. ocuvite is uniquely formulated to help protect your eye health. now that's a pill worth taking. [ male announcer ] ocuvite. help protect your eye health. and now there's ocuvite eye + multi. an eye vitamin and multivitamin in one. good morning. i am richard lui in for kris jansing. are we heading for another war? the united states is going to arm the syrian rebels. the questions are what are we going to give them, when, and

how deeply will this drag the u.s. into another foreign conflict. this morning, britain saying it is not ready to arm rebels, russia still is not convinced bashar al-assad used chemical weapons. all of it coming days before the g 8 summit where president obama will meet with leaders from the u.k., germany, japan, france, canada. last night, ben rhodes telling reporters on a conference call the assad regime crossed the line by using chemical weapons and that changed the president's calculus. former president bill clinton praised the obama administration on "morning joe." >> the white house made it clear they intend to do more, they're exploring their options, and right now don't want to talk about the details and i don't blame them because the less they talk about the details, more likely increased assistance is likely to be effective, and as i said, they want to see whatur