a lack of leadership. president obama publicly questions prime minister maliki quieting many of his critics, as a few hundred of american soldiers are on their way back to iraq. walker's woes, perry's pullback and schweitzer's screw-up. that's all in our friday focus of 2016. twists and turns this week. plus house republicans nail down their new leadership team. is speaker scalise in the future? and ending the embargo. young cubans are open to changing old ideas about cuba policy. and it's been shaping florida politics for decades. we'll talk about it. good morning from washington. it's friday, june 20th, 2014. this is "the daily rundown." last day of spring, how about that. so get ready for the mugginess. let's get right to my first reads of the morning. we begin with president obama's new strategy in iraq, one that's more akin to counterterrorism than a full-scale war. >> we're prepared to send a

small number of additional american military advisers, up to 300, to assess how we can best train, advise and support iraqi security forces going forward. american forces will not be returning to combat in iraq, but we will help iraqiis as they tae the fight to terrorists who threaten the iraqi people, the region and american interests as well. >> we know a lot of folks have allowed themselves in some ways to view the 300-troop number as something having to do with the old iraq war. let's remember what the real news here is. it's that president obama is publicly questioning prime minister maliki's leadership and he's putting a strategy in place to simply deal with these isis militants in the same way they deal with al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, using special ops and intelligence that can help identify targets with u.s. droens. think of this as the yemenization of iraq replicating

that strategy to attack terrorists in the arabian peninsula and putting that strategy to work against isis. as for maliki, the president really didn't mince words. >> it's not the place for the united states to choose iraq's leaders. it is clear, though, that only leaders that can govern with an inclusive agenda are going to be able to truly bring the iraqi people together and help them through this crisis. >> he had about four chances to totally pull the rug out from under maliki and he didn't do it but he came close. the administration has gone out of its way to make it clear that the goal here is about saving iraq, not saving the maliki government. secretary of state john kerry plans to lead a diplomatic mission to iraq soon. essentially he's going to deliver the message to iraq's leaders, lead or leave. >> that will require diplomacy and it will require willpower, leadership, decisions, by those who really hold iraq's future in

their hands. >> the question now is the pressure isn't just coming from the united states. this morning, iraq's grand ayatollah called for a new parliament and a new government. back in the united states, the criticism the president was facing before making his announcement is mostly melted away, and yet you can't help but wonder if having general david petraeus come out against a big campaign of air strikes on thursday helped silence some of the more hawkish members of congress. a statement from senators mccain and graham simply said this, the president's willingness to send u.s. military advisers to iraq is a positive step, but more needs to be done. florida senator marco rubio echoed similar sentiments thursday afternoon. >> i hope that that is not the only thing he intends to do. my hope is that it is the first step in a multi-step process to take seriously and put in place a significant counterterrorism response to this risk. >> but some democrats had a different take. instead of seeing this as the beginning of u.s. involvement,

they would prefer it to be the end. senator armed services committee chairman carl levin said we should be extremely cautious about taking anything beyond this step. chris murphy said he was willing to support the president, at least for now. >> many of us, who have been very skeptical about plans to intervene in the middle east in the past, i think will be open to listening to the president's case. it may be that a short-term limited engagement to help stand up the iraqi military makes sense. >> for more on what's happening on the ground, i'm joined my nbc's chief foreign correspondent, richard engel, live in baghdad. richard, i would assume that the iraqi government was not happy with the president's announcement because he seemed to make it clear he was more worried about counterterrorism than he was about propping up the maliki government.

>> reporter: this government is deeply divided. as you saw that call today from the grand ayatollah, we're in a bit of a period of limb po in ts country. a couple of months ago there were elections, those elections have been certified and iraq is supposed to be having a new government. maliki, according to rules that are in place right now, could come out as the new prime minister here, as the new government is formed, but there are a growing number of calls in this country, including from some of his shiite allies, who want him to step aside, to have another person, perhaps even from his party, certainly from his political alliance to come forward. and i think we're seeing growing calls for that government to be formed and perhaps even for maliki not to be a part of it. >> you know, richard, the thing with maliki that i hear talking to folks is that he's a bit of a

conspiracy theorist, thinks there's a lot of people out to get him, which is why he's been so hesitant about trying to build -- why he's been chasing sunnis out of his government rather than figuring out a place for them. is there any thought that somebody that replaces him won't feel the same way, that those same tensions won't be there? >> frankly, no. right now most people expect that the problems in this country, the deep problems, oil divisions, who gets what, the kurdish north, the shiite south, the sunni center and northwest, those problems are still going to be here even if maliki is replaced because somebody would come from his coalition. but maliki personally has been so associated with the problems here. he hasn't just been prime minister, he's been gathering portfolios. he's minister of defense, minister of finance. he is blamed for overseeing a

government that is incredibly corrupt as well. so there is a hope that if he steps aside that a better government could be replaced, a more effective government could be created. but, no, people don't think that a new government is going to erase the deep-seeded sectarian problems that this country still has. >> all right, richard engle in baghdad for us. richard, thanks very much. joining me now ken pollock, former cia military analyst. he's currently a senior fellow at the brookings institute. okay, ken, you want it the president to do something. what do you think? >> i think the information that we have right now suggests that this is a smart move. as everyone has pointed out, myself included, our options in iraq are very poor and i don't think that a big bombing campaign right now makes any sense, because it won't be in pursuit of any objective or have a complementary ground force. that makes it at best useless and potentially counterproductive. >> and it may look like we're

picking sides. >> that's the counterproductive part of it. sending a small number of advisers, it will give us a greater sense of what's going on. it may allow us to have some influence over what maliki does. it hopefully also will entice maliki and some of the iraqis to say, look, if you guys actually do the right thing, there can be more behind this. but there's also some very big questions that we don't have answered yet, chuck. >> and they are? >> well, the first one is what strategy are these advisers going to be implementing? i think we want to defend baghdad. i think maliki wants to reoccupy the sunni heartland. i think that a big question mark is what authority are these guys going to have. >> well, it seems -- you tell me but it seems as if the president believes, okay, you've got to defend u.s. interests in baghdad. that's a small part. but that this is really about counterterrorism with isis. >> that clearly is his focus. i don't think that's a mistake in focus, but the advisers themselves, this group is supposed to be attached to strategic level iraqi headquarters.

these joint operation centers that they use to run their campaigns and certain division and brigade headquarters. that means these guys will be in a position to potentially guide or even command iraqi formations that are composed of both iraqi security forces and vicious shia militias. when these guys start going into sunni territory, they may commit atrocities. what is our authority going to be to stop them. what complicity will we have if that's the case. >> what do you then -- then do you think the president ought to make sure that they're not -- that they're simply there to be training the iraqi security forces in counterterrorism measures and back off and not go out? how do you avoid this? >> i think the way to put it is i hope that they have had these conversations. all we know is the president saying i'm sending these guys. hopefully they have already worked this out with the iraqis, what these guys are going to do, what access, what authority, what the strategy is. it's just that they haven't told us, right. as people in the general public trying to assess whether this is

a good move or a bad move, that's the kind of information we need. >> you know, it's interesting, and like i said i've had plenty of people describe this to me, that they're hoping to replicate -- they believe yemen -- the yemen strategy has been basically a successful counterterrorism strategy in general and they want to try to replicate it in different parts. the yemen strategy, i think, works because nobody notices it. i hate to put it in those terms, but it can be done under sort of a cloud of -- a cloak of secrecy. that's not going to be the case in syria and iraq, don't you think? >> absolutely. >> so can this be successful if we're all -- if it's a more publicly noticed operation? >> i think that's an important piece of it. i'll add a second piece on to it which is let's be very honest here. yemen is not iraq because yemen doesn't have oil, and counterterrorism isn't our only problem in iraq right now. the bigger problem honestly is iraq's oil production and its potential to create a global recession that would affect our

economy. and, you know, you put it very nicely. the president seems focused on counterterrorism. i don't think that that's a dumb way to approach, given our limited options. but we've got to recognize the bigger problem is the wider iraqi civil war. counterterrorism will have no impact on that. >> where are you on partition at this point? they're never going to give back kirkuk so they're self-partitioned? >> i think kirkuk should have always been kurdish. i also think that the kurds deserve their own state. they're a nation by any reasonable set of criteria. i think there's a high likelihood that they will declare independence over the course of the next year. i think the key for them -- >> will the united states recognize it? >> i would say if the turks recognize it, the united states should too. >> should the united states encourage the turks to recognize? >> they should. look, kurd -- the kurds have never wanted to be part of iraq. there's been enormous instability and conflict in iraq and the middle east because the kurds have been forced to be

part of a country that they don't want to be part of. the problem was always that we worried that if the kurds declared independence, baghdad would fight them. baghdad is not in a position to fight them. >> so the kurds are out so that means this becomes pure sunni/shia. >> correct. >> this is a regional civil war at this point. >> absolutely. it's syriaque. partition is not what any iraqi wanted and it will be a sad outcome but may be the de facto outcome of this. >> i've seen a lot of the word stability but i've not seen the utterance of democratic iraq. people seem to be on the stability side of things. is that fair to say? >> i think the partition may be the stable solution. we have to believe getting to stability could take years and hundreds of thousands of deaths. >> ken pollack from brookings,

thank you, sir. >> thank you, chuck. coming up, wisconsin governor scott walker at the center of a criminal fund-raising probe. we'll get into the details of that. first a look ahead at today's politics planner. there's a house hearing under way on those lost irs e-mails. later this morning, president obama meets with new zealand's prime minister. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. i got this. [thinking] is it that time? the son picks up the check? [thinking] i'm still working. he's retired. i hope he's saving. i hope he saved enough. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. whether you're just starting your 401(k) or you are ready for retirement, we'll help you get there.

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potential 2016 shakeup to be paying attention to in wisconsin. prosecutors in wisconsin are alleging that governor scott walker, who is up for re-election this year and of course is mentioned as a major 2016 candidate, they allege that he was part of a criminal scheme

to illegally coordinate fund-raising and spending between his campaign and conservative groups, like the wisconsin club for growth, during recall elections two years ago. the documents were unsealed by a federal appeals court judge on thursday, who is reviewing a lawsuit which is attempting to actually end a multi county investigation into walker's campaign. the probe was blocked last month by a federal judge and is currently being appealed. but the prosecutors cite one e-mail walker sent to karl rove on may 4th, 2011, during the state senate recall elections highlighting this. a.j. johnson's importance in leading the effort. rrchlts j. helps keep in place a team that is wildly successful in wisconsin. we are running nine recall elections and it will be like running nine congressional markets in every state -- in every market in the state and twin cities. in another state with another set of laws, this might be a much smaller deal. in wisconsin with its tough campaign finance laws and this

sort of tradition of high ethics, it's a big deal. it's also unusual for any candidate himself or herself to put themselves in the center of coordination that's alleged here. now, there are no criminal charges that have been brought against walker. on thursday he simply wanted to call the probe a partisan investigation with no basis in state law. >> i ask people to look at the facts. the facts are pretty clear. a judge at the state and federal level made it clear that they didn't buy into this argument. they said to move on. >> but walker, whose race for governor was tied in a recent poll and is eyeing a white house bid has a big perception problem here. he reserved $250,000 worth of tv air time but the buy was long planned. not something that's responding to this. this morning, though, he offered another explanation while on fox. >> are they trying to do to you

what they did to chris christie in new jersey? >> oh, again, i think there's no doubt this is one of those where the media jumps on this, some on the left spin this. you get our detractors trying to claim there's something more than there is. if you're just reading this for the first time you might think there's something there without knowing that the courts already looked at this. >> well, he clearly admits that there's potentially a perception problem here. now this isn't the first time a document release has caused problems for walker. in february, e ma-mails suggest his 2010 campaign was coordinating with his county executive officer and he's the latest governor with a ballooning ethics problem. you heard the mention of chris christie. the u.s. attorney for new jersey is closing in on governor chris christie with indictments of associates near certain. nbc news has not confirmed that report but we can tell you the investigation hasn't been going well for him. there's been a daily drip, drip, drip, and nothing has come out that has erased questions. if anything, they have caused

more questions about christie's role. but christie himself seems more fired up than ever about running for president, hoping that if he treats the scandal as a local nuisance, over time it somehow will recede. meanwhile in washington, there's a lot of other 2016 action. here's a live look at the faith and freedom coalition's cattle call. we got some potential 2016 hopefuls and other party leaders who will be courting religious conservatives. terrain here can be tricky for republicans who eventually have to appeal to a general election audience. yesterday texas governor rick perry offered a mea culpa after he compared homosexuality to alcoholism during a stop in california last week. >> i may have the genetic coding that i'm inclined to be an alcoholic, but i have the desire not to do that and i look at the homosexual issue as the same way. >> i got asked about an issue, and instead of saying, you know what, we need to be a really respectful and tolerant country

to everybody and get back to talking about the -- whether you're gay or straight, you need to be having a job. i readily admit i stepped right in it. >> sounds like he basically apologized for answering the question. perry issued that retraction after hamhandedly trying to defend his comments monday on cnbc on what can only be described as a buzzsaw of an interview. now, as republicans look for a leader to unite the party, house republicans picked some new ones on thursday. they promoted kevin mccarthy to majority leader and picked republican study chairman steve scalise as majority whip. scalise is the only southerner now in the leadership team. >> they elected a guy that's only grown up through the grassroots. they elected a guy that spent his time going around recruiting many of these individuals to get the majority. >> i mean this is a win for

america because we're going to be a more united team moving forward. >> win for america. anyway, joining me now, perry bacon is live at the faith and freedom coalition conference. here with me on set, manu raju and amy walker. i want to get first to scott walker. amy, let's take everything at face value that, no, he didn't commit any crime. there's a carelessness aspect to this. the same thing with christie. if you're a donor on wall street and you're thinking to yourself, really? you're your own political operative? you're sending e-mails to karl rove talking about coordination? that's just -- that's just stupid, okay? to be like totally cynical. we all know campaigns are always looking a way to skirt these laws. so let's set that aside for a minute. this was just stupid. >> well, the best thing about being a governor is i'm not part of washington that has an approval rating of, you know,

zero. i can prove i'm an executive on how to get things done, i can rise above all this silliness. now you're right smack dab in the middle of all of it. regardless of where this ends up, there are front page stories now that say governor walker, focus of probe. governor walker equals scandal. and if you noticed in the "wisconsin state journal" today, below the fold is a more important story which is the economic situation in wisconsin, the employment situation not as good as nationally, right? and that's a bigger problem for him. >> it's like a 1-2 punch. you know, you felt as if, boy, scott walker has survived so much politically in wisconsin. he's destined to win yet another race 53-47. >> i don't think that's clear at all. you guys show the poll that's tied. >> marquette, one we think is a good one. >> if this continues to drip, drip, drip through november, of course democrats will use this as a rallying cry. even if scott walker does have

support from conservatives, groups on the outside who will spend a lot of money to support him, democrats despise him in that state. he's enough to bring voters out to the polls in a year when they're going to have turnout problems nationally. >> but i do wonder how this really hurts him with the national donors. they'll help him win re-election, that's one thing. >> remember who's coming in big-time. it will be afp and the koch brothers which can be linked back to this story. >> and if he loses re-election, does that mean for 2016? >> perry, you're at faith and freedom. i'm going to pretend i'm talking to you over here. it's the magic of television. so, perry, you're there. we just had another guy named perry, rick perry, do this mea culpa. i wonder how much so far are you hearing about gay rights at faith and freedom? are they talking about it in a, we've got to role back marriage. is this part of that agenda or are you not hearing that there?

>> very little of that, i was very struck by that. we've had something like 20 rulings over the last year saying -- moving toward gay marriage in various states. there's been one speaker of eight so far, a person who is a pastor whose name i honestly don't know who spoke just very brief briefly before i came on, but rubio, cruz, very few references at all. we've seen very little of that among the speakers and the people i've talked to here say that issue has moved on, we've lost that issue. we have to be cognizant of the libertarians in our party. >> i think that's fascinating, amy, how quickly -- this is the social conservative wing of the party. they're going to stick to abortion. they're going to throw up their hands on marriage. that's very fascinating. >> what got perry into trouble, of course, was that the texas republican party put this in their platform, the issue that there's reparative therapy. >> so that made the question legitimate to ask him. >> he would not talked about

this for a minute had it not shown up in his state. >> let's be realistic. that wasn't an appaology for believing that, that was an apology for uttering -- >> for saying it. >> for saying it, right. >> and it's going to reignite these questions about whether he can handle questions under pressure. we saw it in the debates last time. can he deal with it when the spotlight really turns on him? >> honestly, i think this was the disqualifier. i think they sort of like -- he was already walking a fine line. perry, i think this is -- this makes it -- this just introduces, well, he's just not disciplined. forget whether he's on the wrong side of history where this is headed, but he also just lacks discipline. perry? >> i think he was always going to have trouble getting the credibility to run a second time. the oops thing, let's be honest, the thing he couldn't remember last time, i think he was always going to be a problem for him to raise money in a real campaign for president. this adds to it. not disciplined, not thoughtful, and just not ready to run for

president. i think it just adds to the same stuff that we had before. he's tried, he's got the fancy glasses now. he's tried to portray himself as being more thoughtful but i don't think he's getting there. >> it shows the problem that he has in texas which is now ted cruz's party. >> speaking of undisciplined, let's talk about brian schweitzer. look, i don't take this guy seriously. >> talk about disqualifying. >> and then he starts -- he sounded like a stereotype from the '80s talking about gaydar with eric cantor and he has since tried to apologize. but there's sort of a buffoonery to him. >> and feinstein. >> she was the woman standing under the streetlight with her dress pulled up over her knees and now she says i'm a nun when it comes to the spying. maybe that's the wrong metaphor. >> maybe. >> this is the reach why a lot of montana democrats didn't like him and didn't want him running for the senate. he'd run his mouth.

even though he is gregarious, popular style helped him win two terms, he angered a lot of democrats, other folks who saw him as a vindictive, petty politician who will say and do whatever he wants, self-serving. when his name started emerging as a possible senate campaign, those knives came out. if he ran in 2016, those knives would be even sharper. >> i've never taken this 2016 seriously. it feels like it's an attempt by him to get a speaking fee or something. i should mention he's a paid msnbc contributor. so who knows. >> he's trying to get a lot of attention for himself. >> right. that's what this meafeels like. after this, nobody is going to take him seriously. >> it reminded me of a biden comment about obama when he said in 2007, i think obama was, i think the words he used were clean and articulate. the campaign pretty much ended that day for biden. i wonder if these comments are

no one will take you seriously after this. >> biden was taken seriously enough to be obama's vice president. >> that's true, yes. but he wasn't in the campaign. >> all right. perry bacon, manu raju. steve scalise, kevin mccarthy, who's going to be the next speaker of the house? >> paul ryan. >> i like that. up next, the pope weighs in on pot. bet a lot of you want to know what he says about that. that's a good tease. he's seen all sides of war. an outspoken lawmaker himself, former virginia senator will be here. first, today's trivia question. who was president when construction began on the gateway arch in st. louis? the first person to tweet the correct answer will get the on-air shoutout. the answer and more is coming up on tdr. remember, tdr 50 has been in missouri this week. we've got rising stars at the end of the show. (mother vo) when i was pregnant...

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it's time for the first number in today's data bank, 23. new york is set to become the 23rd state to legalize medical marijuana. lawmakers announced an agreement that would legalize nonsmokeable forms of medical marijuana for severely ill patients in the state. meanwhile, pope francis is stepping into the debate around legalized recreational marijuana. speaking in rome this morning, the pope said, quote, the problem of drug use is not solved with drugs. there you go. up next, new poll numbers that could have lawmakers rethinking the 50-year trade embargo on cuba. i'm talk with a former member of congress who fought hard to keep that embargo in place. he'll be here right after the break. ♪ ♪ yeah ♪ don't stop now, come on mony ♪ come on, yeah ♪ i say yeah ♪ yeah ♪ yeah ♪ yeah ♪ yeah ♪ yeah

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views on the cuban embargo may be shifting, a new poll could provide political cover for politicians who have been wary to challenge the policy. according to the poll released this week by florida international university, slightly more than half of cuban-americans in miami-dade oppose continuing the embargo. it's really a plurality of cubans in miami are opposed to continuing the embargo which has been in place since 1963 and it prohibits trade with cuba. this has been a long standing trajectory downward here. among the younger generation the numbers are higher. 62% of cuban americans 18 to 29 and 58% of those who left cuba since 1995 favor an end to the embargo. overall, a large majority, 68%, favors re-establishing diplomatic relations with cuba. that number grows to 88% among 18 to 29-year-olds and 18% among the more recent immigrants. 69% favor lifting travel

restrictions which stop americans from traveling to cuba. again, those numbers are much higher among younger cuban americans, the third, fourth generation of cuban americans who came to south florida. cubans one of just four countries that's dedicated as a state sponsor of terrorism. 63% believe cuba should be on the list. only 44% of recent immigrants want them removed. cuban americans are a voting group that's increasingly up for grabs. 53% of registered voters said they would vote for a candidate who supports diplomatic relations. 57% would support a candidate in favor of replacing the embargo that increases support for independent business owners in cuba. 81% would support a candidate with a policy that increases pressure on the cuban government over human rights. joining me now, former republican congressman from florida, from south florida, lincoln diaz-balart. i want to say a few caveats on this poll. fiu got rid of people that were

undecided and don't knows and redid the number as if everything added up to 100%. all of the numbers are probably 5 to 10 points lower, but the trends are still there so i want to get that out of the way, those caveats out of the way a little bit. congressman, i ask you, this is a trend we've seen. it has been a downward trend. has your mind changed on the embargo? >> no, no, nor on the dictatorship. the reason, chuck, that we have an embargo -- and by the way, we codified it 18 years ago, made it part of the law. and included the reasons in the law for the embargo. in order for the embargo to be lifted, there has to be in cuba a legalization of all political parties, a liberation of all political prisoners, and the scheduling of free elections. when you ask that question -- by the way, this particular poll, chuck, is -- it's particularly

sloppy. for example, 62% say are you an american citizen? 62% answer yes. are you registered to vote? 90% answer yes. it's particularly sloppy. >> it was definitely sloppy methodology but i've seen similar numbers -- >> what i was trying to get at -- >> go ahead. >> what i was trying to get at is when you ask -- when you have a serious poll and you ask are you in favor of conditioning the lifting of the embargo to those three conditions that i mentioned or are you in favor of insisting on those three conditions before lifting the embargo, in other words, the liberation of all political prisoners, the legalization of political parties, the press and labor unions and the scheduling of free elections, it doesn't matter the age group, doesn't matter when they arrived, scent matter the political party they're registered, it's an 80% to 90% issue. that's reality. that's consistent with the fact that in the two overwhelmingly

cuban american districts, congressional districts, you know, they just got re-elected without opposition. so that's reality. so you have these push-pulls. it's an agenda. i heard that this push-pull was paid for by the group that's put billboards in the metro and d.c. asking the president to lift sanctions unilaterally. so, you know, we love and respect fiu, but unfortunately they got -- you know, they sign on to a really sloppy poll. >> look, i don't disagree on that, on the sloppiness of the survey. but when i say it matches. let's look at the fact that president obama basically split the cuban vote. i guess my point is this is no longer a third rail of south florida politics when it comes to the cuban american vote. is that fair to say? the embargo. >> president obama has always supported the embargo and president obama has been very clear on that, just like president clinton -- >> he's been lenient about it, though. >> well, yeah. you know, he's done things that obviously we don't agree with,

but he's obeyed the law on the embargo in the sense that, you know, it stresses that for the embargo to be lifted, those three conditions, political parties, no political prisoners, the scheduling of elections have to be followed. so if people really are making a mistake, if they think that on the essence of support for sanctions conditioned, they're lifting conditioned on a democratic transition in cuba, that there's been a change. so we keep on hearing this thing, the wishful thinking from the people. it's basically business interests who would like to see this changed. >> let me ask, we're over 50 years now. this hasn't worked, right? that's the other argument against -- that's one of the other arguments for lifting the embargo. has it really worked? and maybe lifting the embargo, bringing in free market, basically treating that you'll create change in the way

basically closer free market economics in some form or another has changed china to a point. >> oh, yeah, gosh. talk to the dissidents in china. >> i'm not saying it's great. >> we won't know -- we've always -- by the way, we've always opposed, you know, the policy of investing trillions -- you know, billions of dollars so the chinese regime can owe press its people more but we couldn't effect that policy. with regard to cuba, i lived in spain with franco and saw that democratic transition, i was there. europe never -- it was never asked of the european union. they were called the common market back then. it hasn't worked. the fact that franco and the dictatorship in portugal couldn't join the european union and all of its institutions and get all of the aid, you know, financial aid from europe hasn't worked. what do you mean? at the time that franco died, that was instrumental in the democratic transition. the democratic opposition in cuba overwhelmingly in consensus form knows how important this

leverage is in their hands. the democratic transition will come. the castros are in their 80s. fortunately, they'll be gone soon. but it's important that now we not reward the castros for, you know, increasing the repression on the opposition and the cuban people and lift and give them now unilaterally billions and billions of dollars. as i say, this is an issue doesn't matter when people arrived, doesn't matter the age or the political party, they're supportive of conditioning the lifting of sanctions to a democratic transition, but we continue to get these push-pulls paid for by economic interests but they're not credible. >> lincoln diaz-balart, i will leave it there. former congressman from my hometown there in miami. you would have been my congress had i still been living in my old address. anyway, thank you, sir. good to see you. up next, he fought in war and he also has fought against war. former virginia senator jim webb will join me here. first, our tdr soup of the day

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trivia time. john kennedy was president when construction of the arch began on february 12th, 1963. i'd have blown that one. i thought the arch was a lot older than that. congratulations to today's winner, devonte lewis. we'll be right back with jim webb. and polluting the airwaves with lies. they're trying to overturn the epa's carbon pollution... standards by lying about electric bills. the same kind of lies they told about limiting smog, soot... and acid rain. they're fighting against energy efficiency measures that... would lower your bills. just to protect their profits. washington: tell polluters to stop the lies and clean up... their act.

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start with the best writing experience.? make it incredibly thin. add an adjustable kickstand, a keyboard, a usb port, and the freedom of touch. and, of course, make it run microsoft office, with the power and speed to do real work. introducing surface pro 3. the tablet that can replace your laptop. he fought in vietnam as a marine and against the war in iraq as a u.s. senator. the virginia democrat is sharing his own experiences of war "i heard my country calls." senator web can trace family members to every single war that has been fought by america. senator? pretty much. pretty much. it's not really a book about war

so much as growing up. >> growing up inside a military family. all about my father and then myself going off into vietnam. >> you know you tell me this, one of the ways i feel like you found your way to the democratic party, one way on economic fairness issues. you've been talking about that. the war in iraq seemed to be one of these critical moments for you to rethink the republican foreign policy. so i have to ask you what did you make what the president announced yesterday? >> i think, first of all, rubbing as a democrat was kind of a return to a lot of the family principles we had when i was growing up in economic fairness and giving people who did not have a voice or -- >> fdr. >> yeah. fdr, reagan, democrat, too. by the way. it was comfortable to come back and run as a democrat. as someone who spent all of my life either around the military in and reporting on it or in the

pentagon. i spent five years in the pentagon. i had warned early it would be a strategic mistake to invade iraq. we've been blundering in our foreign policy in that part of the world for about 25 years. since i was secretary of the navy. if you remember during the iran/iraq war. hundreds of thousands of iraqis were killing each other. we pretty much stayed out of it until 1987 we tilted toward iraq, ironicallyronically. >> there was time we were for iran. >> there was an allegation we were tilting toward iran when the contract came out. we tilted toward iraq. i wrote memoranda saying we don't belong as an occupying power in that part of the world. if you look what is going on, in my view, there were two bad mistakes that contributed to what we see today. the first was invasion of iraq. the decent gracious of the country into sectarian pockets

they haven't had it before despite the authoritarian government and the arab spring this administration put into effect. which really, whether by intention or neglect brought chaos to the entire region. and get rid of mubarak, get rid of gadhafi don't have a clear policy in syria. when libya went down, it went down without a vote of the congress. bad mistake and we saw weapons going all through the region that gadhafi had had. if you combine those two right now you have a situation we're facing in iraq today. it's region wide. it's a region wide problem. not simply an iraq problem. >> it seems the president decided it's not going to be a problem he can solve now. i know, people told him it may be 25 years before the arab spring settles. so all the united states has to do is worry about counter terrorism.

is the right strategy gp. >> i think what we have to have in the area is action only when there's a clearly defendable. you cannot export democracy at the end of a gun. hopefully we have learned that concept. we're going to be paying for a long time with the results of this so-called arab spring. it was a terrible mistake, i think. so -- >> you think mubarak is going to be a mistake? >> i think the way we went about the arab spring and the fact that a lot of this was done with the unilateral actions of the president, particularly the libya situation without coming to the congress. on the grounds of what they call a humanitarian intervention. which is impossible to define did send a lot of chaos through the region. it's going take us awhile to recover from that. >> do you view the syria situation, would have been -- do

you think had others not gotten the hopeful the united states stepped in and got rid of mubarak that means the united states will get rid of assad? >> i think there was a lot of incentive among some of the opposition groups that was based on things that were being said rather than policies that were being made. i don't think there's any doubt about that. i think there were bad actors that moved into syria. i was journalist in beirut in 1983. one of the great comments from a marine was never get involved in a five-sided argument. you look at syria, you know, beirut situation on steroids. and i think the best way that we should be moving forward was articulate probably most clearly by jim baker, former secretary of state and the jewall street journal when he said we need to get a multinational conference together with all the people -- all the countries that have a

stake in the solution and start working this out. >> he never used the d-word. democracy. he only used the s-word stability. "i heard my country calling." it's unusual for a politician to be a good writer. that's it for the edition of "daily run down." head to our website for missouri's rising stars. powerful screening tools, and guaranteed 1-second trades. and at the center of it all is a surprisingly low price -- just $7.95. in fact, fidelity gives you lower trade commissions than schwab, td ameritrade, and e-trade. i'm monica santiago of fidelity investments, and low fees and commissions are another reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. call or click to open your fidelity account today. but we're not in the business of spokespenaming names.kswagen passat is heads above the competition, the fact is, it comes standard with an engine that's been called the benchmark of its class. really, guys, i thought... it also has more rear legroom than other midsize sedans.

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right now faith, freedom, and the republican party. many of the biggest names in the gop eager to burnish their conservative credentials. rick santorum getting started there. calling the conference the road to the majority. today's speaker. it reads like a list of who is who of the 2016 who is hope. chris christie, paul ryan, rick santorum. we'll check in at faith and freedom in a