this sunday -- >> we can fot have -- we cannot have a society in which dictators start to impose president obama says sony pictures was wrong to cave to the demands of sony hackers and cancelled the release of the interview. has a dangerous precedent been set. how should north korea respond to the cyberattack. can the government protect businesses and the public? two police officers shot an killed in new york city this weekend, adding more tension to an already stressed city. >> they were quite simply assassinated.

>> targeted for the uniform. and for the responsibility they embraced to keep the people of this city safe. >> we'll have all the latest. president obama ends our cold war policy against cuba. >> this entire policy shift announced today is based on an illusion, on a lie. >> not everyone is happy. i will be joined by florida senator and responsible presidential contender, marco rubio. i'm chuck todd. joining me are msnbc's chris matthews, former bush white house political director, sarah fegan. former democratic governor of new mexico, bill richardson and news columnist, john nolte. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." good morning. in a moment, i will be joined by the lead lawyer for sony pictures to discuss the aftermath of the north korea cyberattack on sony pictures.

first, two new york city police officers, wenjin lui and raphael ramos were shot at point blank range killed while they were simply sitting in their patrol car. police commissioner william bratton and new york city mayor called it an assassination. ismaaiyl brinsley killed himself after he started his day by shooting a former girlfriend. they point to his actions being related to the deaths of eric garner and michael brown. the tensions between the police and the mayor were on full display. members of the new york police department turned their backs on mayor diblasio as he walked through a hospital. eric adams joins us from new york city. mr. adams, let me get your reaction first to patrick lynch of the patrolman's benevolent association in new york and mayor diblasio's office

response. here is mr. lynch. >> there is blood on many hands tonight. those that incited violence on this street under the guys of protest. that blood on their hands starts on the steps of city hall. in the office of the mayor. let me read the mayor's statement. it is unfortunate that in a time of great tragedy, some would resort to irresponsible overheated rhetoric that angers and divides people. mayor understands this is the time we must come together to support the families and friends of those brave officers that new york lost and the entire nypd community. what is your response to mr. lynch's response? >> our heart goes out to the family. when a bullet strikes the body of a police officer, the emotional path continues. i understand some of the

concerns that many people have in the law enforcement community. this is not about one voice. this is about the voice of the entire city crying out for unity, crying out, saying how do we come together and deal with real issues in policing and at the same time protect our officers? i wore that uniform for 22 years of my life, i had a bullet proof vest on protecting our community. i know how trying and difficult these times are. >> we have had a lot of protests and a lot of heated rhetoric. do you believe that contributed to this? >> no, not at all. those that were calling for police reform were not calling for police retribution. they were not calling for harm to police. we can not allow someone to get in the way of moving towards police reform. blood is not on the hands of the mayor. blood is on the hands of the sick person that took the life of two innocent police officers. innocent people should not die in america, it doesn't matter if

they are wearing a police uniform or a three-piece suit. innocent people should not die in america. we are better than what we are seeing. now is the time for adults to stand up and decide the direction. >> two weeks ago, we were talking about trust issues between the african-american community and law enforcement. today, we are going to talk about trust issues between law enforcement and the mayor of new york city. how do you fix that trust issue? >> i don't think that's the issue. i think the over 30,000 police officers in new york city are professionals. they are going to get up every day and do their job just as we saw when i was sent to a train collapse. police officers still respond. we can not allow what seems to be a contractual or other methods that are in the way of moving forward and policing, to think that the men and women that wear blue uniforms as law enforcement officers are going to move away. that was not an attack on individuals. it was an attack on our beliefs

in public safety. we can not allow an attack on public safety in america. >> you wrote an op ed in "the new york times" a couple of weeks ago. it used the headline, we must stop police abuse of black men. are you concerned that any reform efforts people have been talking about, that something like this haults it in its tracks. >> not at all. i think we have reached the point where the grandchildren are in the streets marching. it used to be in the african, caribbean and hispanic community. now, young people of all ethnicities are saying, america, we are better than the violence, we are better than the last of police reform. i don't think anything is going to derail that. we are not going to allow the sa disstick mind of one individual to get in the way of creating a symbiotic relationship between the police and the community.

we need to move forward and be responsible proprofessionals. >> eric adams, the brooklyn burrough president. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. now, to the story that has dominated the news this week, north korea's cyberattack on sony pictures. when seth program pitched the interview with assassinating north korean leader, kim jong-un, he can't have had any idea that the truth would turn out to be even stranger than the fix. the film, which wasn't expected to be a box office smash, is now the most talked about movie of the year, despite the fact that the public has yet to see it. >> we can not have a society in which some dictator can start imposing censorship here in the united states. >> the president calls out sony for caving to the demands of hackers. >> we have not caved. we have not given in. we have persevered and we have not backed down.

>> what started out as a hollywood comedy has turned into an international crisis. >> president obama's forceful comments followed a public statement from the fbi concluding that north korea was behind the hacking. >> it should be a wake-up call that a country like north korea has this capability. >> it says something interesting about north cre na, that they decided to have the state amount an all-out assault on a movie studio because of asa tear cal movie starring seth rogan. >> the cia would love it if you two could take him out. >> take him out? >> for drinks? >> i think they made a mistake. i with ish they had spoken to me first. >> a few days ago, i personally did reach out and speak to senior folks in the white house. we do not own movie theaters. we can not determine whether or not a movie will be played in movie theaters. >> stars burned up social media. ben stiller tweeted, rob lowe

blasted sony comparing the company to the british prime minister who rolled over to hitler. >> seth, how do you feel about sony pulling the plug on the film? eth is, any comments? >> clooney's secret efforts to rally hollywood's power players met with a deafening silence. >> i waited until hitler was dead. i don't know how crazy they are. so i'm going to ask you to stop talking about them. >> i think the audience has the right to choose what they want to see. >> we can't start changing our powers of behavior any more than boston didn't run its marathon because of the possibility that somebody might try to cause harm. >> i am joined by david boyce, represented the plaintiffs in the california proposition 8, which legalized same-sex marriage. he will be a familiar face. welcome back to "meet the press." >> good to be here. >> let me start with the statement that sony pictures

made on why they decided to delay the release. they said at the end of the statement, david, that we had no choice. >> how do you have no choice in releasing it? >> they had a choice. they just chose not to release it. is that correct? >> well, not really. you can't release a movie unless you have a distribution channel. the theaters were subject to threats of physical violence against the theaters and against their customers. quite understandably, a large number of them, a majority of them, decided not to show the picture when it was scheduled. when that happened, sony had no alternative. nobody was stepping up. in the three weeks where sony fought this issue by itself, nobody, maybe george clooney, a few other people like that, none of the second-guessers out there are saying, oh, what a terrible thing this is. none of them were standing up to help sony. >> mr. boyce, the president is

quoting in an interview he taped friday but it is new this morning. he is saying, had sony contacted him, he would have called the distributors and pushed these theater owners to air the movie. >> i wasn't there in the white house. you heard in the introduction torey segment the fact that sony did talk to senior people in the white house before this decision was made. i think we ought to move beyond who was responsible. this is a state-sponsored criminal attack on an american corporation and its employees. if the nsa had invaded people's privacy like this, people would have been outraged. north korea does it and couples it with physical threats. people sort of sit back for three weeks while sony fights this issue on its own i think what we have to do is use the president's recognition of the

importance of this issue as a rallying cry so that all americans it rely to a threat to our national security. if state-sponsored acts can be directed at snoony, it can go anywhere. >> if you get a legal ruling that this is terrorism, you get some financial cover on this? are you looking for that? >> i am not debating whether it ought to be called criminal, vandalism, terrorism. what we know is that this was a state-sponsored attack on the privacy of an american corporation and its employees. what sony has been trying to do is trying to protect that privacy, trying to get back what was stolen. and asking everybody to cooperate in that, not to aid and abet. whether you call them vandals or criminals or terrorists, whatever you call them. they are bad actors. people shouldn't be cooperating. >> did you believe that sony could be held liable had violence occurred in a movie

theater during a showing of this movie? >> i don't know whether there would be liability or not. what i know is physical threats against people's lives. there wasn't anybody. these threats were public. there wasn't anybody stepping up when those threats were made, we are going to take care of this. we are going to protect the public. we are going to make sure that nothing happens there. under those circumstances, whether it is a legal liability or not, i think you have to be very careful of people's lives. remember, sony only delayed this. sony has been fighting to get this picture distributed. it will be distributed. how it's going to be distributed, i don't think anybody knows quite yet. it's going to be distributed. what sony has been trying to do is to get the picture out to the public but at the same time be sure that the rights of its employees and them going public are protected. >> does the government need to

come up with a law that indemnifies corporations that get attacked like this? >> we did something like that in connection with the 9/11 attacks. i think we have to recognize that this is not a sony security problem. this is a national security problem. the government has got to lead. the fbi has just been terrific in this. they have been diligent, unbelievably competent in helping analyze and understand what the source of this attack was. now, the rest of the government has got to get behind it and has got to figure a way that we can protect our national security? this is a national security threat. i think the president is beginning to recognize that. i think that's a good thing. now, we have got to have some actions. >> do you think the president's comments were helpful on friday to you? >> i think they were helpful in some respects. i think it was helpful to have the president recognize publicly

that this was an unacceptable attack, that we can not have state-sponsored attacks that are designed to sensor what we do here in this country. i would have liked to have seen it a little earlier. i would have liked to have seen it without the sort of blame the victim aspect of it. but i think the positive aspects of it where i think we are now beginning to come together as a country and recognize this is a threat, i think that's positive. >> david boyce, lead attorney for sony pictures entertainment. thank you for coming back on "meet the press." i have a special guest well-known for many roles including kumar in the harold and kumar movies. he also worked for president as an associate director in the office of public engagement. cal, thanks for joining the rest of my distinguished panel here. sony's decision as an actor, was it something that bothered you? >> first of all, thanks for

having me, chuck. yes, it did bother me. i think i echo a lot of sentiments that other colleagues of mine in hollywood had. the folks at sony are our friends, their coworkers. i can't imagine the horribly tough decision they were in in terms of privacy and records least of all to mention the intellectual property. i think it sets a dangerous precedent. it is a tricky situation to say somebody's hands were tied. i don't think that was true. theater owners pulled the movie. sony owns playstation. they could have put it on video on demand when they pulled down their facebook and twitter pages, that shows me that they are not really backing the film. >> it was interesting, mel brooks' comments, he waited until hitler was dead to mock him. there has been some criticism that says, was this over the top in the way kim jong-un was portrayed. what do you say to that?

>> i haven't seen the film. i don't know. i think you can obviously argue was this movie in poor taste or was it not on both sides? that's always the conversation when you are dealing with sat tire. we had james adomian playing a fictitious george bush. is this in poor taste or not? i think that's the beauty of art in comedies like this. >> john nolte, first of all, welcome to "meet the press." you spend a lot of time covering media and hollywood. you wrote a defense of sony here. it was surprising to a lot of your conservative followers. you defended sony's decision to delay the release. it is not up to sony to fight the government. they kept their product viability. i don't think it is a good precedent if you are threatened

to qu to squandor an $80 million investment. people saying they should have streamed it. there is still a win that can be pulled out of this. the government needs to come in and make it as safe for hollywood to make movies about north korea as it is for the airlines to fly planes in the face of al qaeda. once the structures are put in place and the safeguards are put in place, some shield from liability, then, let's release the movie. we can all say nanny-nanny-boo-boo to north korea, make $100 million and that's a win. >> the president was trying to protect american eideals. then, you have sony worried about sony. >> i like to flip the thing to figure out ho he really thinks. suppose the president came on answering the question and he said, i agree with them, they had to pull the film. regal had refused to show it. he would have buckled. he would have been part of the buckling. he had to separate himself from

that decision. he had to play churchill, not chamberlain. that's his role. sony had their profit-making decision to make. different decision. the president of the united states should stand for strength and confidence. what he could have done better a couple weeks or days before, he would say, we are going to find a way to indemnify these theaters. we get on airplanes all the time, every one of us, with these threats floating around. the american people have to be resilient. that's the number one call for the president to keep us resilient. >> there is still an active lawsuit against united airlines from 9/11. >> that indemnifies the big partners. >> if you are in sony's point of view, you think congress is going to go there? >> i think congress is going to have to do something. you can't have american businesses being threatened by bullies around the world. the thing that's really scary, as bad as it is for sony, free speech, hollywood, an american institution, imagine if this was

a financial institution. imagine if this was the electric grid. that's what's frightening. >> you have been to north korea and negotiated with these rogue guys, you didn't believe north korea was capable of this? you have been very skeptical? >> no, no, i think the proof is conclusive. the issue is going to be what kind of response. i do think we need to respond. >> is it terrorism? >> i think you put them on the terrorism list. i think, secondly, you also find a way to squeeze cash so that the leadership of north korea can't get that money through mccow banks but key here is china. the telecommunications structure of north korea is held by china. china has to press the north koreans to stop this cyber terrorism. we have to get rid of some of the north korean hackers in china. lastly, the internet process in

china for north korea needs to be shut down. we don't know if china will help us. >> kal penn, if you get offered a script that could be controversial, you think you and other actors may say, on one hand, i want to be a part of this, this looks fun, sat tur rising terrorist acts, rogue leader. it is human nature. do i want to be in the center of this, the middle of this? >> i don't know. it is obviously easy to take a moral high ground and speculate. this is something that actors deal with all the time. usually, the reaction to something that you know might offend a certain group of the population, you know they are going to write letters and mitigate protests outside of theaters. there are rarely calls to censor and pull down a film. those are conversations most actors and writers are used to having. i don't know. >> why are you one of the few that has been comfortable

speaking out publicly? >> i don't know. you invited me. i don't have anything else going on. >> i say that, because george clooney didn't get anybody to sign publicly on this petition? is there fear in hollywood? >> i think there is fear but i also think there is probably some confusion about exactly what's going on. on wednesday, when sony said that they have no plans to release the film. on friday, they then said that they might release it, video on demand they are fully backing it and on saturday morning, they pulled down the social media. >> i still have movies from six years ago that the trailers are on youtube. the studios don't take them down. there is longevity to keeping it up. i don't know it is fear as much as confusion. i don't think we are saying anything controversial that's going to anger our friends at sony or anyone around the world. >> kal penn, thanks for joining us. we are going to talk about cybersecurity. how should the government officially respond to this north

korean attack? what do he with have to do to protect corporate and private citizens? we are going to be joined by our expert panel. threats with our panel in a moment. my grandson's got this blankie that gets filthy. but he's got such sensitive skin that you worry about what you use in the laundry. so i use new tide pods free & gentle, to get a deep clean that's gentle on skin. new tide pods free & gentle. i have the worst cold with this runni better take something. dayquill cold and flu doesn't treat your runny nose. seriously? alka-seltzer plus cold and cough fights your worst cold symptoms plus your runny nose. oh, what a relief it is. ♪ (holiday mhey! is playing) i guess we're going to need a new santa ♪(the music builds to a climax.)

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welcome back. we have been discuss welcome back. we've been discussing the north korean cyberattack that's sent shocks through hollywood.

how vulnerable are we to further attacks? what more does the government need to do to protect businesses. i am joined by michael lighter, michael churtoff and christopher hill, a former ambassador to korea. michael lighter, let me start with you. at the counter crism center, cyberterrorism seems to be something that washington has had a hard time getting, quote, unquote, excited about and trying to do something about. people have called for this problem to be tackled and yet nothing has happened. is this the wake-up call? >> i think it probably is. it seemed too he have femoral for people. they couldn't get their hands on it. they didn't fully understand. as it was told to me by an executive at sony, if it takes a salacious amount of gossip to get companies to listen that

companies can get hacked, maybe there is a silver lining. congress and the private sector will take note and we will get some action. >> secretary chertoff, does it matter whether we call this terrorism or not? >> i think it does matter. it puts it in perspective. there are a couple of things that are different from what we have seen before. this was a destructive attack. it wasn't just theft of information. this actually damaged and destroyed infrastructure in a major company. this is the first time we have seen an act of terrorism that attempts to coerce behavior. that is the es accepts of terrorism. the threat that we are going to commit physical acts of violence if the movie is not pulled out of movie theaters is the exact kind of things that the cartoons about mohammed that affected

extremists. >> ambassador, you have a lot of experience with north korea. were you surprised at the s sophistication? >> north koreans don't mind that the rest of us don't like them. they don't like to be mocked. i have seen that on several occasions. i'm not surprised that they did this or the technical prowess to do this. it is a complicated economy with most of it very much third world but certain segments, including their nuclear program that are first world. i'm not surprised they did this. i think we do need to punish them and i think we do need to be proportionate in how we do this. probably, it is something where we may not want to get up and acknowledge our fingerprints on it. i think we need to be deliberate and look through what the options are. we actually do need to respond.

we have to detour this kind of behavior in the future. >> let's talk about these deterrences. michael light ter and secretary chertoff, i want you to both comment about the act of retaliating with a cyberattack. nobody ever confirms this. there has been a debate whether this is ethically something the united states should do. are we going to start getting into the cyberwarfare business? >> we already are in the cyber warfare business. the real challenge we have is we live in a glass house right now, chuck. it is not just sony. sony is good at defenses. they have invested in this. they have seen attacks before. the rest of the u.s. corporations have the same vulnerabilities sony does. we can't just look at the private sector. the u.s. government is going to get much more involved in

defending and then, then, we will finally have the option of being more offensive. until we set up those defenses, being offensive is going to be very challenging. >> secretary chertoff, should we be engaging in cyberwarfare, ethically. >> i don't think there is an ethical wish here. as mike lighter points out, there is a practical issue in terms of our own vulnerability. north korea is a nuclear state. it is very close to south korea and japan. i agree you cannot let it go unanswered. in addition to putting them on the terrorist list. we ought to consider some covert action to let them pay the price. if they are using the chinese infrastructure as a way of carrying out these attacks, we have to have a much more serious

agreement with china. when the president signed this climate agreement, china becomes the attack vector for a major terrorist effort against the united states. that's a problem. >> it does seem the leadership is split about how much more political capital should they be spending against north korea. should the united states try to drive a wedge through there? >> the chinese are never very happy to be defending hollywood i was just in china. i was really struck with the degree to which they are just fed up, sick of the north koreans. i think it is a good time to be engaging with them in a deeper way on north korea. i think ultimately, these cyberissues, this needs to be further developed. there need to be more than international covenants, maybe international laws. that's, i think, down the road. i think we need to work very closely with the chinese. they are the key to this issue and north korea's nuclear issue.

>> ambassador hill, secretary chertoff, michael lighter, we have a lot of work to do to catch up our laws president obama made some history by deciding to extend an olive branch to cuba. there are some in congress who are not happy about that, including my next guest, florida senator, marco rubio.

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this week's announcement on u.s. relations with sxwr. >> this week's announcement on u.s. relations with cube wa will do little to change the situation in guantanamo bay where 132 detainees are being

held. those that call to its closure point to it as a rally. the others see it as a practical prison option for detainees that cannot be moved. we asked chris sanders of the american civil liberties union and cully simpson to argue for and against the closure of this controversial prison camp. that and more can be found on our website, meetthepressnbc.com. when we come back, more with marco rubio. military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa auto insurance could be one of them. if you're a current or former military member or their family, get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life. which means it's timeson for the volkswagen

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stunningly youthful, award-winning skin. never settle for anything less. the regenerist collection, from the world's number 1 olay, your best beautiful welcome back. this week, president welcome back. this week, president obama announced normalizing relations with cuba. it goes back to the spanish american war of 1898. i will be joined by one of the fiercest critics of the new policy. let's take a look at why our relationship with our near neighbor, off the coast of florida, has been so fraught. >> it starts in 1959, the u.s. has huge influence on cuba. a group of gorilla fighters overthrows the cuban president

bautista. and establishes a socialist revolutionary state. many in the u.s. saw him as a potential ally welcoming the end of bautista's regime. here is castro on this show in 1959. >> i am not communist. i do not agree with communist. >> fast forward to 1961, the height of the cold war. president kennedy wary of castro's relationship with the soviet union sends cuban exiles to invade the island at the bay of pigs. his failure to oust castro alien nates many first and second-generation cuban americans from the democratic party for a generation. 1962, the kennedy administration establishes a full economic embargo on cuba. that october, the cuban missile crisis, u.s. spy satellites discover soviet nuclear missiles on the island. the president orders a full naval blockade of the island.

at the blink of nuclear war, a back channel deal with the soviet union is made anwar averted. 1980, the marchal boat lift. cuban fidel castro allows the mass immigration of 125,000 cubans to the united states. relations continue to sour as it appears castro emptied out his prison. month are trouble in the '90s, he shoots down two civilian aircraft opted by an american castro group prompting congress to pass an act quantifying the embargo into u.s. law making it impossible for the president to end it unilaterally. in 2000, the emgraimmigration s of a young cuban boy. the state that decides the most closely contested presidential election in a century. 2014, a break in the stalemate,

something that candidate obama hinted at. it is time for more than tough talk. the prospect of normalized relations with cuba on the horizon. steep challenges ahead in the form of opposition on capitol hill. i am joined by florida senator and potential presidential candidate in 2016. welcome back to "meet the press," marco rubio. what was working with the old policy? >> i think that's not the question. what new policy will we put in that will achieve our goal. my goal is flee dom and liberty for the people. my opposition to what the president has done. it won't do anything to further that cause. just yesterday, raul castro made very clear, there will be no political changes on the island. if you are going to make concessions to cuba, recognize them diplomatically, there has to be some reciprocal opening on their part towards democracy. there was none. that's why this policy is misguided. >> you acknowledge the old

policy wasn't working? >> the old policy, i keep hearing these reports about how the old policy was designed to overthrow the castro regime. that's false. the embargo's original purpose was to protect america companies. american companies in cuba had their assets seized. that was the reason why the embargo was put in place. the new purpose was to serve as leverage, leverage towards democracy. we now have sanctions in place with the embargo that allows us to remove those sanctions and it is codified in exchange for a democratic opening. the president has given away much of that leverage in exchange for zero democratic opening. >> you have heard the criticism that it flies in the face of u.s. policy towards china, u.s. policy towards myanmar and vietnam. why should cuba be treated differently than china? >> we should learn our lessons from those policies. you tack about china. we reestablished commercial and diplomatic relations with china

in the 1970s. certainly, the chinese economy is grown. politically, they are more repressed, no freedom of religion, or speech or free access, no elections, no political parties. that is the model the cubans will try to follow. they wholly control the economy. they are going to use all the benefits of access to the u.s. markets to line their own pockets with the government but there isn't going to be any political opening, raul castro made it clear. vietnam and china are the model for that. >> if you are president, would you change our policy with china? would you pull back on the engagement? >> first of all, comparing china and cuba is not a fair comparison. there are geopolitical realities as well why we reengaged with china, including splitting them from the cold union. it is the second largest economy, the most populous nation, and the third largest in the country. cuba is a small and impoverished

island in our hemisphere that our policies have an opportunity to help bring freedom and democracy. if i were president, what i would have done is actively and vibrantly engaged with democracy activists inside the island of cuba, many of whom wanted changes in cuba policy but who all feel betrayed by this president. he completely ignored them and threw them to the side in this process. >> you made it an interesting charge in a previous interview earlier this week. i want to play that clip and ask you about it on the other side. >> if cuba was a right-wing dictatorship, the obama administration would be calling for increased sanctions and i would support them. because it is a left wing dictatorship, they find some support in some editorial pages around this country. it's outrageous. >> the president of the united states this week signed new sanctions gets a quote, unquote, left wing dictatorship of the aauthor tear yun dick tear tore ship in venezuela. isn't there a contradiction?

>> he is sanctioning a quote, unquote, left wing dictatorship in venezuela. with cuba, he is trying to change the policy. >> look at the ex maample of honduras. it was the supreme court that ordered the president removed who tate was a left wing, basically had become a dictator, which is a model we have now seen followed throughout the hemisphere. the venezuelan example is perfect. i'm glad you raised it. on thursday, he signs a bill imposing sanctions on venezuela. their human's rights violators have learned all their tactics for violating human rights from the cuban government. there is no consistency on behalf of this administration. >> i want you to react to a

fellow republican, rand paul. he sent you a series of tweets about his support for lifting of the embargo versus your criticism of the lifting? he has various questions. if it doesn't hurt cuba, why do you want to keep it? essentially, calling you the isolationist. >> if rand paul wants to align himself and become a supporter of the obama foreign policy towards cuba, that's his right. he has a right to do that. >> my interest is singular, freedom and democracy for cuba. i want people to have what people in jamaica and the dominican republic, which is freedom and elections. i don't think this policy furthers that goal. it makes it harder to achieve. you are going to provide hard currency for a repressive regime to repress those people. >> can you imagine running in the same republican primary as jeb bush? >> if he runs, i have tremendous

respect for hip. when you reach a point where you are thinking about running as president, what you have to make your decision on is not about who else is running but if that's the right place for you to serve. if i make that decision, i'll run for president. that's what my decision will be built on. i will have tremendous respect for jeb bush. if he runs, he will be a very credible and strong candidate. >> marco rubio for senator, thanks for coming on "meet the press." >> it was a big hint that he is more likely to run than not. 2016, is the coverage going to be all about the cable cat nip of jeb versus hillary. i will be back with the nerd screen to explain. those primaries are going to be tumultuous. you can get out of the c-max hybrid. it's about how much life you can fit into it. ♪

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nerd screen time. this week, jeb bush took the first step toward nerdscreen time. jeb bush tookt first step towards a 2016 presidential bid. he announced on facebook he is exploring the possibility. he is going to start a leadership pack to start funding that exploration. what is his first hurdle? according to our wall street journal poll, it will be winning over the conservative base. take a look at these overall numbers. among republican primary voters, just about every group he does pretty well. second overall, 63% say they could see themselves supporting

jeb bush. only mitt romney does better. let's look at tea party conservative, about half of overall republicans. on this, jeb bush doesn't break 60. look who does. rand paul tops them. romney, mike huckabee, ted cruz and jeb bush. you see why a lot of folks are saying, okay, jeb bush in a general. maybe. how does he get through the primary. for jeb, he is thinking, make sure all of these guys run. the more, the merrier. when it comes to the democratic primary, our new poll numbers showed how dominant hillary clinton is. she had support from 80% or more of voters in the democratic party and every demographic group within the democratic party, she is well in the 80s. if she decides not to run, what would a race look like between joe biden and elizabeth warren. joe biden edges elizabeth warren among every democratic voting

group except one, white democrats. white democrats the progressive elites of the party, the same folks that fueled bill bradley, fueled gary hard, fueled paul tsongas. you could see, this could end up breaking down in the same way we saw gore/bradley, mondale/hart, perhaps clinton. m mondale had something going for him when he had progressive whites.

we are back. the political earthquake inside the we are back to the political earthquake inside the party. he is running until he says he is not. before, he was thinking about it but we all assumed he wasn't. he is in. you are from bush world. is bush world excited about this? >> they are so excited. one of the operatives told me there was a palpable cheer outside in the bull pen when that came across the transunm. all of us close to the bush family saw our inbox line up. financially, he would dominate raising money in texas, florida, maybe even wall street. one of the reasons i wanted you on, representing the wing of the party. that is going, wait a minute. no more establishment. no more bushes.

>> he is already showing bell inge rans toward the base. how much you need the base to turn out. >> here is the thing, chuck. all you have to do is look at the florida press core that covered jeb bush when he was governor. they are shocked that people are calling him anything but a conservative. >> this guy vetoed $2 billion from state budgets, including republican lawmakers. he was vetoing spending before the tea party exited. he cut taxes every year in office. he was a very strong governor. >> a lot of democrats are fearful of jeb bush. >> i'm fearful, specially his connection, potential connection to the hispanic vote. a republican in a presidential race, all they need like his brother is about 40% of that national vote. >> did jeb bush do well? >> he has a hispanic wife.

he speaks a little spanish, not too good. >> better than hillary's. >> i think his drawback will be foreign policy. i think you saw this with rubio where i think president obama's initiative on cuba is going to be very popular by the time the election happens. although i think rubio has a point. what we don't know on cuba is how fidel castro is going to react to this. >> where is fidel? >> he was down on this. i think cuba has to release political prisoners, be more positive on civil society. they have to end the repression of prodemocracy groups, open the internet. this is going to be a debate in 2016. >> i will be curious if it is a debate. >> i this i think this is at least a debate. >> i want to ring the bell for

peggy noonan. she is for this deal. she hates castro like the rest of us. she says, she once imagined castro as an old man looking out the window of his sick room and seeing the tourists snapping pictures of him with their iphones as he goes down and realizes he lost. >> let's go bush/clinton, dynasties. is this the american way? >> it is more the republican way. the republicans are more gentile. >> i don't think this party. >> nixon got a second chance, bush got his second chance. dole got his fifth chance. the democrats are acting more like that with hillary. the republican party, who is the hot hand of the republican party? the guy whose turn it is. we know the hot hand of the democratic party is elizabeth warren. >> who is the front-runner in the democratic party? >> i think there is a series of primaries occurring, the, quote,

unquote establishment primary. >> jeb is way ahead? >> i think he is ahead. for sure. then, who is the opposition party? the rand paul, marco rubio, ted cruz primary and then the everybody else primary. there are some really strong candidates in the everyone else primary. >> john, you agree with that? >> i think that someone could still come in. i think a guy like governor walker, the establishment likes him, the base likes him. he might be able to unite this. i think jeb bush is going to have a big problem with common core. >> education is going to be bigger than even immigration. >> i'm going to keep it there. i want to show this before we go. president, before he leaves for his holiday vacation, whoever the president is, he gives an end of the year press conference. this year is one that is for the record books of sort. see if you can guess why. >> josh has given me the who's been naughty and who has been nice list. i'm going to use it to take some questions. we are going to start with terry

buddha, cheryl bolen, julie pace, melissa clark. pauline nelson and juliet alsprin. >> well, it's juliet alprin. >> sara fagan, when you were there, how gender diverse was it? >> it is a lot more gender diverse. the bush white house was also more gender diverse than the obama white house. >> a plug there. it was a very diverse white house. >> i think it was a neat little thing there for josh. good for him, the white house press secretary for pulling that off. that's all for today. happy hanukkah. merry christmas. we'll be back next week. we are not taking a holiday break. if it is sunday, it is "meet the press."

a reporter under attack. a referee goes down on the mat. >> he headbutted me in the left temple and it was lights out. >> and the next thing you know, we hear something yell, it's going the wrong way. >> a falling tower sends a cameraman and others running for cover. a police officer faces an out-of-control chimp. >> are you kidding me? this chimp is going ape on my car. >> they're on the job facing unbelievable situations. >> and all of the sudden, i just feel a blast of water hit me. that was it. >> from bizarre --