loopholes to trap our troops in a vicious cycle of crushing debt. today we're taking a new step. the defense department is closing the loopholes to protect our men and women. it's the right thing to do. since the day marks five years since i sighed wall street reform into law, i will not accept efforts to roll back this law or its strong protections for our economy and the american people, including our military families. we're going to keep helping our newest veterans transition to civilian life. all 50 states have now taken steps to recognize the skills of our veterans when issuing credentials and licenses. so we have to make sure these laws are working so hard veterans actually get those credentials. we'll keep helping our veterans choose the school that's right for them under the post 9/11 gi bill. that includes the spouses of

fallen heroes. in 43 states veterans paying in-state tuition, we're working to make sure that happens in all 50 states. we have to make that happen. we'll keep partnering with communities that step up and welcome veterans home with jobs and opportunities worthy of their skills. as long as i'm president, i'm going to keep telling every business in america if you want somebody to get the job done hire a vet. hire a veteran because they know what sacrifice means and duty means and responsibility means. let's do more nation building here at home. that's part of our strength and american leadership.

vfw as i look around this auditorium. i see that the love of country and devotion to duty spans the generations. that spirit endures in those who wear the uniform today. we saw that once again last week in chattanooga. back in massachusetts, tom sullivan cheered for his boston teams in battle he was just everything that a marine should be. two tours in iraq he earned a combat action ribbon for his wounds two purple hearts. when he was warned that a gunman was there in chattanooga, he ran in so others could live. today we echo the words of his community. r sergeant thomas sullivan was our hero and he will never be forgotten.

thank you for protecting us. growing up in georgia, skip wells was a sur vant leader devoted to god and his friends, quick to lend a hand. various hometowns he was so proud to be a marine that he went in his dress uniform. just 21 years old. a a year out of boot camp. easy going always smiling, even during the hardest drills. skip is the kind of kid you want on your team. as americans we are forever grateful that he was on our team. as an eagle scout in arkansas david wyatt would be the first on top, he was determined to do his part for our country and found his calling in the marines. he led with courage in afghanistan and iraq. and with compassion as a mentor

to comrades with post-traumatic stress. said he was a gentleman and a gentle man. no one knew that better than his wife and two young children. today we see as they did why a friend would say that sergeant david wyatt was the kind of man this country needs more of. back home an embodiment of the spirit in wisconsin, population 1300. loved country music, loved to fish, hunt, to play football. and he loved the marines. showing up at his old high school in his dress blues. he's too served in afghanistan, was devoted to his family, his wife and their 2-year-old son. said his old coach carson always did the best he could. today our nation is stronger because america saw the best of

sergeant carson. and in his hometown randall smith is remembered as the high school baseball star with the fierce pitch who was a fun and outgoing guy. the guy that you just wanted to be around. his buddies in the navy knew it. he had just reenlisted. his family knew it too. his wife who he liked to call the most beautiful woman in the world, their young daughters, who he called his little princesses, today we join the people of ohio including post 587 with five flags flying. vfw our nation endures because citizens like you put on the uniform and serve to keep us

free. we endure because your families served and stayed strong on the home front. we endure because the freedoms and values you protected are now defended by a new generation. america is just like our patriots that gave a their lives in chattanooga. as a grateful nation we must honor them now and forever. god bless these american heroes. god bless all our troops and all of our veterans. god bless the united states of america. thank you, vfw. we're proud of what you do. >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the president of the united states protecting vets. president obama just spoke to the vfw convention in pittsburgh after that deadly attack in

chattanooga. >> we are going to keep doing everything in our power to protect the american people including our men and women in uniform. >> sweet 16 governor john kasich just speaking from ohio jumping into the republican field. >> there are a lot of people in america today who are not sure that that american dream is possible, that that american dream is alive, and i can understand their concerns. and no regrets, donald trump speaking this hour in south carolina today. ignoring calls for him to drop out of the race. >> good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president obama just wrapping up in pittsburgh. let's bring in our panel. welcome to both of you. paul first to you.

we heard the president speaking about cuba, iran, what happened in chattanooga and the defense budget, all of the above. the backlog at the va, did he satisfy what you wanted to hear and fellow veterans wanted to hear from the president of the united states today? >> i think it was a strong speech. there were a lot of specifics. unemployment, va reform backlog, women's issues, the messaging is right. we're digging out of a deep hole. we need the president to keep the focus on the va, keep the focus on vet rans issues and make it more than just a run off speech. his tone has changed. he's really learned a lot over the years. you can see he spent time in the veterans community. we're going to need the congress behind us, all americans behind us. we have to tackle a variety of issues that aren't going to go away after the speeches are over. >> it was interesting, michael steele as we await donald

trump. we have a very crowded field now. we have john kasich jumping into the race. the president speaking out. and of course, john mccain controversy, more on that in a moment. the president and iran, he for the first time mentioned by name a all of the americans who were detained in iran. how high a climb is this? he has the vote so far in congress, we think in terms of an override, but it is controversial this deal. the administration now has a twitter handle going heavy on social media as well. you have $20 million so far being budgeted by the opponents of the deal. >> i think you know better than all of us because you have been on the front doorstep of the issue for the last few weeks, and you have seen this administration move from negotiating with iran to having to now negotiate it which may be

a harder lift in some senses with the united states congress. they have had an all-out push to make the case for this deal. and i have to give them -- they have been effective in framing the argument. you have not seen the congress fully engage. they are going to drill down into. this issue before they do their frontal attack on it. i think this is sort of the set up moment right now, and listing those hostages those folks still being held is the president's way of laying another card on the table and showing just how serious he's taking all this and how the congress responds to that is going to be the real test of whether or not they weather the storms on this controversial deal. >> let's talk about the republican race and donald trump and veterans. paul donald trump wading into this with john mccain. john mccain has just spoken in washington as well trying not to reignite it. we saw what he said on "morning

joe." donald trump about to speak in south carolina which is is an early primary state for republicans, but it's also a big military and retired veterans state. so we don't know how this is going to play out there. paul what do you take away from this whole debate over john mccain's military service? >> donald trump is completely out of line. he's insulted not jugs john mccain, but the veterans community. the outrage i have seen in the last few days is like nothing i have ever seen before. we are a bipartisan group, but everybody is united in understanding that donald trump said something wrong. . he needs to apologize and fix this and needs to present a real plan for veterans. it's easy to say i'm going to clean up the va. it's a throwaway political line. but specific plans on how you're going to reform the va and deal with accountability and funding and drop the backlog.

that's what we need to see from every political candidate that wants to be commander-in-chief. maybe we can have a presidential level discussion on veterans issues and candidates can show how they are going to handle it differently. >> michael steele for the republican party, this has been an interesting couple of weeks. what's your take away so far as to how seriously donald trump has shaken up this race? he's leading in the polls. >> there were polls done on the last day, which was the first day of this controversy so we haven't been able to gauge the impact. my suspicion is there will be little impact to donald because he's still speaking to people who believe in what he's saying. they think he's authentically laying out what he thinks. whether you disagree r or agree,

for a lot of folks out there, which you're seeing e reflected in the polls that he is resinating with them and the challenge for the republican party and quite frankly for everyone else who will be standing on stage with him is how not to get caught up in that. to effectively separate themselves and put out a different message to compare and contrast. showing the substance. it's one thing to say we have to fix this or fix that but here's how we're going to do it because that's not something that trump has laid out so far and creates an opening, i believe, for different conversation. until that happens, he's suck ing the air out of the room. he's driving the nature of the conversation and every show, whether it's on fox or msnbc or the national networks is opening up with donald trump. that's not a good space for these other players. >> michael and paul, thank you so much. following up on a tale of two candidates donald trump taking the stage in south carolina as ohio governor john kasich has squeezed into the crowded

republican field. our team is in place. katy tur is live in south carolina. casey hunt is live in ohio. let's start with katy tur with what we expect o to hear from donald trump. doesn't strike me he's going to back down or apologize, but we don't know. >> it doesn't seem likely he's going to apologize to john mccain. he did dial comments back a bit last night saying he has respect for him and that in his statements were misunderstood, he takes them back. but after he did not call the war hero, he did call him a war hero. we expect him to touch on this. there are a lot of veterans in the crowd. a number of trump's people have been troll inging the audience trying to find veterans to speak to afterwards on stage. a photo opportunity that some of them are describing. and so we do expect for him to

speak about veterans issues. unclear on the specifics. he's had had a lot of big talk about issues. you want to fix veterans issues and wanting to build a wall between the u.s. and mexico but he hasn't laid out any of these specifics yelts. we'll see if he actually does say anything that he would do if he were to take the white house anything specific to take care of vets. he wants better health care for them. how he would do that is still unclear. we expect him to mention immigration. that's been his lightning rod. but he's going to try to rally this base of supporters. he's going to try to speak in an outspoken way as he has done. he'll try to blame the media, if you will for distorting his words and go after his critics for being weak on immigration and for being weak on other issues. he's gone after the des moines register for calling for him to. drop out of the race. there's a lot of donald trump being donald trump today.

>> katy tur, thank you so much. speaking of ohio always a critical state. now a candidate with its own presidential race a two-term governor with experience in away. he was in the private sector and starting near the back of the pack. . >> i mean humbly tell you that i believe i have the skills and i have the experience i have the experience and the testing. >> political correspondent kaycasey hunt is live in columbus. john kasich has a lot of experience. he's popular in ohio, which is a must-win state for any

republican candidate. how does he now get into the top tier? the first debate is in ohio and right now he wouldn't qualify for it. >> you heard him say he was tested and experienced. what a contrast with donald trump, who has managed to despite having no political experience to speak up to use bombast and rhetoric to shoot to the top of the field and poll at the top of that recent abc news poll. so for kasich the challenge really is trying to e get some oxygen here. like you said the first debate is coming up in cleveland. announcing late in the game his advisers are hoping will give him a boost. they experience a bounce in the polls. it could help him slide into the the bottom of that first tier. really where that could mostly hurt him is fundraising, and that's a critical area he'll need to focus on as he tries to rise out of the pack. new hampshire is the place he'll

make a stand. he has the prickly personality. so the question is whether there's space for him among jeb bush scott walker marco rubio. they think that jeb bush probably has to make a major mistake for him to float into the top tier, but you never know. he's a big state governor here. >> and he's got the support of the u.s. senator, former senator. thank you very much. going back to south carolina let's listen to a bit of donald trump speaking. >> totally bigger ships, cars, cars, cars, they just cut their currency. now it's going to be even harder. a friend of mine is a great excavator excavator. he digs foundations. those are my people. this guy is great. he's a great ek ka va tor and he was very upset because his order for new ek ka va ter, he said i

didn't buy cater pillar. now i went to a new cane company. i said why? he said, because japan just cut their currency so low, donald that i had no choice. i had to do it. i feel so guilty. he said but i owe it to my wife and family and my employees and the company that i built. they couldn't compete with it. i said isn't that sad. do you mind if i use that story? he said use it. i said i'm going to run for president. that's a good story for me. but it's happening worse with china. they manipulate their currency better than any country in the history of the world in had history. they are killing us. and if you want to do business with china, it's almost impossible because believe me they tax you. we don't tax because we have

people that are stupid. free trade, i believe in it. i'm a free trader. the problem with free trade is you need smart people on our side. we need smart people. i can tell you some of the people up here and they would do a great job. but we need smart people. when you don't have smart people free trade is not a good thing because it's killing us. i believe in free trade, but we have to get the right people. now china loves me. who is worst to china than i am? i am talking about how they are ripping us off and yet i just signed a lease with the largest bank in the world from china. i sell apartments for 45 million dollars to people from china. i own a big chunk of the bank of america building in san francisco. i beat the people from china. i win against china. you can win against china if you're smart.

but our people don't have a clue. we give state dinners to the heads of china. i say why are you doing state dinners with them. they are ripping us left and right. take them to mcdonald's and go back to the negotiating table. seriously, it's true. so then they talk about the tone. hillary and all of them. i see rick perry the other day and he's doing very poorly in the polls. he put glasses on so people will think he's smart. it just doesn't work. people can see through the glasses. but he's got the glasses, the whole deal. i say you did a lousy job with the border. the new governor has put in things that should have been put in a long time ago. he's so vicious. he used to be a nice guy. he used to come see me for support. all of a sudden he wants to show he's a tough guy with trump.

so tough. but the whole thing, he was very nasty. then you have lindsey graham. here's a a guy in the private sector he couldn't get a job. he couldn't do what you people did. you're all retired and rich. he wouldn't be rich. he would be poor. but lindsey graham they say, donald your language is inflammatory. i was a great student. i built a fortune. i have had had many best sellers. did a show that everybody said is going to fail and it was a tremendous success. by the way, 15 copies of "the apprentice." they thought i was going to do it. they said you don't understand. the head people from nbc came to my comcast, they came to my

office and said please please don't run. we've renuewed "the apprentice." even after 12 years, 14 seasons, had a great season. and all these copies everybody did a copy. i won't name the names, but important names. not like trump, but they are important. they all failed. most of them immediately. most of them immediately. so nbc renews "the apprentice." everybody said i thought you were running for president. they don't understand. i told them i'm not doing it. they didn't believe me. they have given you a major renewal. 28 shows, that's a lot. you know how much money i give up by doing this. these politicians run and win and sometimes they lose and they keep running. it's all they do is run. most of them don't know what they are doing. they just run. like you wind them up and they

run for office. they don't do anything when they get there. so they say they didn't like the way that, you know i'm a little loud. i'm a little too strong. they don't like it. then i watch this idiot lindsey graham on television today calls me names. i built a company, they all said i would never run. i u announced i was going to run. he will never file his form papers. that was two weeks ago. he'll never file his financials. my financials are like 98 pages. by the way, a lot of these politicians haven't filed them and they are like half a page. i'm the only one that's filed practically. a lot of these guys haven't filed. that was one of the things you have to do to get in the debates. so everyone figured, keep trump out of the debates because he'll never file his financials

because he doesn't want people to see that maybe he's not as wealthy as people thought. it turns out i'm much wealthier than people thought. i wanted to file. if for no other reason, i'm a private company. i can't tell you how rich you are. you have a lot of money, but who knows. nobody knows how rich i am. so it's over $10 billion, hundreds of millions of dollars, i made $213 million. so that means when i give up "the apprentice" to run to help people straighten out this mess that everybody has created, it's very expensive and it's very everything and i don't care. and what i say about the $10 billion, much more than that, but. i wanted to be conservative, what i say about the $10 billion i'm not doing that to brag. who cares.

if i have a billion, you can live nicely. who cares. what i'm saying is that's the mind set that we need as a country. we need to take back our jobs from china and other places. we need to make great deals with other countries. saudi arabia they are very nice nice. i make a lot of money with them. they buy all kinds of toys from trump. they pay me hundreds of millions, but you know what they make a billion dollars a day, folks. whenever they are in trouble, our military takes care of them. south korea, crazy is right, who said that? stand up. it's true. it's crazy. they make a billion dollars a day. yemen, the war that obama

thought he won a year ago, two weeks later it was gone. they took all our equipment and all our trucks. think of this. we make 2,300 humvees, armor plated shots fired and the guys we gave them to, our allies they run. so the enemy takes over 2,300 humvees. when i saw the numbers, i said no two or three, you mean. no 2,300 armor plated humvees. they were the best. we have such stupid leadership. and if you think that with yemen, you take a look at that border with saudi arabia, if you think they are stopping at yemen, they don't want yemen.

they want the oil. if you look at reuters july of 2004 headline trump said don't do iraq. i'm the most millitaristic person ever. i will take care of our vets. they are treated like third class citizens. but i'll build a military that's so strong that we'll never have to use it because they are going to say we're not messing with that guy. and we're not messing with that country. because our military is decimated. i'm in the real estate business. i get these listings the bases are always for sale.

i say how many bases can they sell? when you sell the bases, that means they are closing up. and right now our military is the smallest it's been in decades. we need it more than ever. and our vets are being treated worse than they have ever been. so the waiting list as of this morning, i just saw a report. they had the big scandal because it's the most corrupt thing. this is why i'm angry at john mccain. >> we have heard donald trump speaking on a lot of subjects. the fact checking is difficult. this is a classic trump speech. he's not responding or talking about john mccain. he certainly appealing to veterans because he's in south carolina. he has a friendly audience there. he's a phenomenon. >> he's a phenomenon and let's just say he's not dialing himself back. he's actually give inging people like

rick perry and lindsey graham, candidates that are low in the polls more attention than they would have gotten if he hadn't mentioned anything. >> john kasich declared today. john kasich from ohio, a popular governor with years of experience, someone who knows how to put budgets together. the president of the united states saying that he will not agree with the defense budget because of the sequester. the defense budget is a problem for the military. >> there's so many things to unpack there. first of all, we're setting ourselves up for a a very big fight over both the budget and the debt ceiling later on this year. second of all, the notion that somebody like john kasich, who is a major state governor with lots of experience in both washington and his home state of ohio, a critical state, who has

some very intriguing positions in the republican party. he expanded medicaid in his state. very bold move. the notion and i'm let ingting my views show here, but the notion he would not be on the debate stage and would be eclipsed both in the conversation that we're having and in the forthcoming debate by donald trump is pretty amazing. >> other what was criticized by some as clown shows, but now reached a whole new level. there is a legitimate as we have been reporting a legitimate anger that donald trump is tapping into. but this is now a much broader conversation about the republican party and the way we elect presidents and candidates. >> with herman kain just as one example that you cite he came from nowhere. it's not as if people knew about

her main kain. donald trump has been active in public life for a very long time. everybody knows who he is. that's why i'm stunned by his rise. donald trump guy i want to get to know more about him. i think it's about he'll say and do anything message that does appeal to some people. i just don't think donald trump has a very long shelf life. i think that message potentially has a longer shelf life. but i think you're right about sort of the broader questions it raises about who we pay attention to and who we don't. donald trump has no policy proposals. building a 30-foot wall is not feasible and costs billions of dollars. charging mexico money for every

undocumented worker who comes to this country isn't going to happen. beyond that, what has he talked about from a policy perspective that is at all feasible or close to getting answers. >> talking about the veterans and the defense budget there's no such things a a donald trump budget proposal. >> i think you have it totally right. donald trump raises questions about two things. one is who the republican party is and what happens to this anger, where it goes once people get. tired of the donald. the second is the character tests that he poses for other republican candidates when he says things that are offensive but perhaps not offensive as going after a war hero like john mccain and how scared they are of aggravating and annoying his voters and supporters. and whether they are willing to stand up for him, that's what i'm going to be looking at as i listen to him over the next i hope it's just a few weeks, but

maybe a few months. >> and right now we should point out that the white house has lowered the flags to half staff in honor of the four. marines and the one navy sailor killed last week in tennessee. this has been controversial. we can see the lowering of the flag because they had not been lowered at the white house or on capitol hill in the immediate aftermath. there was quite a bit of anger about that. president obama talked about the iran deal only moments ago. >> we're seeing that strong and principled edd diplomacy can resolve a problem peacefully. instead of rushing into another conflict, i believe that sending our sons and daughters into harm's way must always be a last resort and before we put their lives on the line we should exhaust every alternative. that's what we owe or troops. that's strength and that is american leadership. >> secretary of defense ash carter was j jerusalem as the

administration offers more military aid. that isn't quite inging the fierce opposition to the deal. the united nations voted unanimously to approve the deal yesterday yesterday. angry critics in congress with a 60-day review period has only just begun. that's where i started with secretary kerry late yesterday. >> i'm going to ask you about iran because the u.n. security council has now volt eded edvoted. the resolution has passed. congressional critic says they are trying to preempt of the prerogatives by moving ahead before congress has been able to see the documents and study the classified annexes. >> not at all. that's just not reality here. in fact, i mentioned earlier today two instances in which other administrations went to the u.n. before they came to congress. so there's a precedent number

one. number two, we were negotiating under the u.n. auspices without a multilateral framework. these are sovereign nations. if the parliament in england said we're going to do this or that, do you think we would sit there and do what they sell us to? of course, not. >> opponents say that they are going to spend $20 million, one group in particular $20 million saturating the air waves with commercials against this. how do you combat that? >> with common sense, with the truth, so much of what i have seen is not factual. i think one of the virtues of this time period for engaging with congress is congress will learn what the facts are. we'll have an opportunity starting this week. we'll have a team on the hill briefing senators and congressmen. we'll have a chance to have a

hearing. they will ask us lots of questions. i think the facts speak for themselves here. the simple reality that you won't hear in the advertisements is they really don't have an alternative. they just want to kill it. but they don't have an alternative, and the status quo is unacceptable because in the status quo iran was marching full square towards having a bomb. so these people who worry about confronting this in 10 or 15 years are actually setting it up to confront it right away. and the fact is that may mean war because it's not going to be done through a negotiation right away. there's no way the aye toewill come back. this runs counter to common sense and over time people will see that. >> senior israeli leaders at the

highest level say that one of the flaws is that their intelligence and our intelligence just aren't good enough. we didn't know about the nuclear reactor in syria until it was already built. we didn't know a about iranian activity underground. >> that's an argument for doing this deal. because we will have inspectors all over the place. because we and the chinese will be involved in one of the reactors. because we will have the opportunity to go wherever we haven't been able to go. if you don't have a deal if you don't have inspectors, you don't have people on the ground, you won't know what they are doing and believe me, if we walk away from this deal, they will say, look, they have given us a reason to have a bomb because they will fear the military attack. this is the best opportunity to a avoid the conflict and know what their program is doing. if at the end all those

inspectors and all the rest of our knowledge of their program shows us that they are trying to step outside it we have every option available to us then that we have today. e we lose nothing. and if you turn around and don't have the agreement, you're doing nothing to roll it back and nothing to stop it. i would remind you and them that prime minister benjamin netanyahu called the interim agreement one of the biggest mistakes in the world. he then wanted the interim agreement to be continued rather than go down this other road. so he's been mistaken previously and we believe that in fact he's not looking at this situation r for the way in which it will provide us the greatest way to protect israel. we believe what we have done actually protects israel more than getting rid of this deal. >> for more on the nuclear deal and what happens next in congress i'm joined by a democrat from kentucky who played with the golf with the

president this weekend. who won the golf round? >> actually it was joe from connecticut and i. we were partners and the president and courtney and actually they won the entire match but because we had bet. s along the way, we won $3 from them. >> congressman, i know you realized this. i don't know if our audience realizes that this is the first time since 2013 that the president has gone out with a member of congress. he does not golf with people other than his close friends and staff. so you must be somebody special or else you are a key vote on iran. >> i have been outspoken in support of the iranian nuclear deal from basically the outset. he didn't need to lobby me to get my vote. and actually it was an afternoon of pure golf. we never talked about the nuclear agreement. after the round was finished he said to all of us, you have to

admit i did lobby you at all, but i will be calling. so i guess that set the stage. but it was a wonderful afternoon. actually the president and i have been talking about playing golf literally since he took office. every time i have seen him, which is probably 25 times, he says we need to play golf. it finally happened. >> in terms of iran what is your sense of your colleagues? because we all anticipate at least the vote counters here at nbc anticipate that he does have the votes in the final round, but this could be vetoed and he would have to get the votes to over override a veto. what's your tally telling you? >> i feel very confident that there are enough votes in the democratic caucus to sustain a veto. i think the vast majority of our members have either taken a position in favor of the agreement or they are working very hard to get to a position

in support. i think most of our democratic members want to support this deal because they recognize that there really isn't any realistic alternative to this deal and the worse deal is no deal. >> senator john, congratulations on your round of golf. thank you very much. up next more of my interview with secretary of state john kerry about the u.s. and cuba. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. [ school bell rings ] ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] everything kids touch at school sticks with them. make sure the germs they bring home don't stick around. use clorox disinfecting products. you handle life; clorox handles the germs. to folks out there whose diabetic

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we are not going to relent until we bring home our americans unjustly obtained in iran iran. a former sergeant in the marine

core should be released, iran needs to help us find our americans who need to be back home with their families. >> the president speaking out about the american prisoners in iran. senator joining me now. you're going to hear from secretary ker kerry and the others on thursday i believe. what do you want to hear about this deal? >> i want to hear some more specific and detailed answers about how we're going to be able through a regime catch cheating or efforts to sneak out of this agreement. second, i want to hear about the administration's plans to s tos to contain support in the region. if the agreement goes forward and there's more than $100 billion of frozen assets that go. back to iran i'm gravely

concerned about what they will do in supporting hezbollah and others in the region. i want to learn in more detail about the iranian path forward for their supposedly civilian and peaceful nuclear program under this agreement. there's details about r&d for centrifuges and plans for iran's enrichment after year ten in this agreement. and more than anything i'm going to be pressing for questions about what would the consequences be if we reject this deal if congress did you want embrace it. what's the consequences for being able to reimpose sanctions for our european allies and for our standing in the world. there's a number of tough topics on the table before us on the foreign relations committee. i am still work through reading the full agreement. there's classified annexes that have just been delivered. it's about 160-page document and then dozens more pages that we need to get to separately here. i'm looking forward to the hearings this week to the briefings and to really digging into the details of this

agreement. >> they say that the they are going to spend $20 million on advertising and other lobbying. have you felt the brunt of the pressure so far? >> i have heard from lots of people who are concerned that have reached out to my office or contacted me directly by e-mail or text or twitter or phone. i know there are folks who are concerned who don't fully have confidence in this agreement, and i think my job as a senator is first to read it thoroughly access as many advisers and experts as i can from the administration and folks outside and to consult with allies. we had a a chance to meet with the saudi foreign minister. i'm looking forward to meeting some members of the british government this evening. i think it's important for us to do our homework and to worry less about the partisan politics and the lobbying and more about

the substance of the deal and whether this is a possibly durable positive deal that will leave america and its allies safer or is not and is a deal that will simply inevitably lead to a nuclear arms race in the middle east. there's two very different narratives going on about this agreement, and i think the starting place has to be fully rooted in and well informed about what's on the page and what's been signed and agreed o to. >> senator coons from delaware thank you. on the other major policy initiative from the administration, cuba and the united states have now embarked on a new era with opening of embassies in havana and washington. >> there's still some tough issues. human rights questions from the u.s. side and cuba's fierce opposition restated yesterday to the trade embargo approved under president eisenhower and the

naval base at guantanamo that was leased in 1901. big challenges for john kerry. >> the united states hold on the hemisphere because of the occupation of guantanamo bay, because of the trade embargo. as long as those two issues and others stand in the way, how far can you go toward normalizing relations relations? >> obviously, those are key issues in the normalization process. we both said o today that it will be long and complex. president obama wants to lift the embargo, thinks we should i agree. i think that the measure of progress and success is really going to come from what happens in the next month since we go through this early diplomatic rekindling of relationship.

my suspicion is that it is a possibility it could move faster than people think because i think the cuban people want it. >> from the tone today, it certainly seemed as though they do not want any interference on the human rights issue with their sovereignty. >> well no nation does obviously. they are no exception. they don't want interference but they know we are not going to stop raising human rights issues. we made that clear. we could not have been clearer in the course of conversations that we're not giving up the dna of the united states of america, which is a deep commitment to human rights to the values of democracy, freedom of speech and so forth. >> do you sense any give at all on human rights and free elections and freedom of speech. >> there's been a little bit of give with respect to some agreement on human rights.

i think that over time the elections discussion and the more pointed human rights issues are going to be very much part of the discussion. >> the critics in congress say they are going to deny the new embassy in havana money and also not confirm an ambassador. does that matter? >> it always matters when congress is stepping in the way of something being able to really be fully affected, sure. but it's really why because the policy has been so successful? because they can show so much change that's taken place in the last 60 years that this is is a crazy path. it doesn't make sense to prevent our diplomats from carrying the very message you and i were just talking about. to not be able to meet with more people in cuba to know what is going on is a huge cut off of

opportunity. i just think it's cutting off your nose despite your face and it's a a shame. >> what do you want to see from cuba now, from the government there? what steps do you want to see? >> i think we all want to e see, first of all, a true deep engagement. a willingness to work through these issues. there's so much that we can cooperate on right now. we want to cooperate on law enforcement. there are a a lot of issues of concern. we want to cooperation on the environment and there are obviously places where we are going to agree to disagree. that is true in lots of countries, china, russia various countries where we have relationships to this day, but we don't stop those relationships. we don't pull our ambassador out because we know there's a a value to having an ambassador there. that's why we think this is a major step forward. >> what was the sense as you met with the human foreign minister

the first time since 1958. he was here in this building, the flag went up at 4:00 this morning. did you have a sense of history? >> absolutely, we both had a sense of history. we shared it and both understand this is an historic moment. i will be the first secretary of state to visit cuba i think since 1945 or something. it's an extraordinary period of time. so this has been too long in happening and i think we both understand the importance to our countries and the region. >> can you understand their caution in they are a small country u and we are enormous. this trade embargo is not matched by anything else in the world and could easily be reversed. the executive steps could be reversed by the next president of the united states. >> nobody can guard against every eventuality of the future but i believe the president has taken an irreversible step. i do not believe a next

president, republican or democrat, will change it. >> and john kerry speaking about cuba and earlier about iran at the state department. that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow on the show, energy secretary just back from the iran talks. follow the show online on facebook and twitter. thomas roberts is next. a powerful new dell 2-in-1 laptop and durable new stellar notebooks, so you're walking the halls with varsity level swagger. that's what we call that new gear feeling. you left this on the bus... get it at the place with the experts to get you the right gear. office depot officemax. gear up for school. gear up for great. i'm caridee. i've had moderate to severe plaque psoriasis most of my life. but that hasn't stopped me from modeling. my doctor told me about stelara® it helps keep my skin clearer.

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jackass. >> they say they didn't like the way -- i'm a little loud. i'm a little too strong. they don't like it. and then i watch this idiot lindsey graham on television today. >> so a new poll shows trump with his biggest lead yet in national polls. take a peek for yourself. 24% in a new poll. however, that same poll came with a major caveat. support fell significantly on the one night voters were surveyed following the comments about senator mccain. trump has not apologized specifically to john mccain but he had this to say last night in. an interview on fox news. >> i have respect for john mccain. i used to like him a lot. i supported hism and raised a lot of money for his campaign against president obama. certainly, if there was a misunderstanding, i would totally take that back.

but hopefully i said it correctly and certainly shortly thereafter i said it correctly. >> so let's get to the trump campaign in south carolina. jane, let's talk about the crowd. what was it like for this event? especially when trump took on lindsey graham in his home state. >> reporter: good morning, they are really enjoying it. they were laughing along, cheering at the various vibes. he read out his cell phone number to the crowd and had them call it. it was a bombastic sort of rangy speech. he didn't say anything very long except lindsey graham. e he would talk about immigration and jump back to lindsey graham. and really wanted to get the crowd riled up. what people like here about donald trump is he speaks his mind. they feel like you know what it may not like everything he says which