the only blood thinner that lowers your risk of stroke better than warfarin and has a specific reversal treatment. talk to your doctor about pradaxa today. t this sunday the democratic showdown, that object in hillary clinton's rear-view mirror is closer than it appears. she now knows she's in a dead heat with bernie sanders in iowa and new hampshire. >> if he has a plan he should roll it out and explain it to people so you can make an informed decision. >> hillary clinton and bernie sanders join me this morning. plus, the republicans. donald trump opening an even bigger lead while the trump-cruz bromance comes to an end. >> he's got bank loans from goldman sachs. he's got bank loans from citibank folks. >> this morning two republicans hoping to benefit from the trump-cruz fight. senator marco rubio and former

florida governor jeb bush. and my sitdown with amal clooney. the human rights lawyer and wife of george clooney trying to rally america to save an island paradise from the threat of isis. >> if you're a woman lying on the beach in the maldives that another woman is being flogged. >> joining me for insight and analysis is republican strategist steve schmitt and msnbc's joy. >> and radio talk show host joe hewitt. welcome to sunday. it's kwooet meet the press." this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning and what a sunday morning it is. it's crunch time and four presidential candidates are joining us and with just two weeks to go before the first voting we have truly head-snapping developments in both campaigns. in just a few hours the democratic candidates will gather in charleston, south

carolina for the final debate in iowa and it airs at 5:00 eastern time and there is big news overseas involving iran, its nuclear program and a prisoner swap and for that we go to nbc correspondent richard edngle lie from vienna. >> reporter: it has been know confirmed that the move american prisoners have been freed. some of them including "the washington post" reporter leaving tehran this morning. it was not exactly part of the nuclear deal, but the nuclear deal certainly opened up a dialogue that allowed for this prisoner release to happen. that nuclear deal was brokered and announced here in vienna yesterday. it was an enormous breakthrough. this is what people are calling implementation day as the terms of the agreement are starting to take effect. >> after iran, it has been certified, lived up to its obligations and put checks in place to make it very difficult for iran to develop a nuclear

weapon. so what does iran get from this deal? first of all, it gets access to international markets. it can bank -- iranians can move money into and out of the country. iran can now sell oil legally. also, it unfreezes tens of billions of dollars effectively, an economy of 80 million people is now being welcomed back into the international community. chuck? >> richard, thank you very much. now let's get back to the presidential campaign. in a few minutes we'll get to my interviews with two men who hope to grab the establishment lane in the republican race, senator marco rubio of florida and former governor jeb bush. we start with the democrats in the hillary clinton, bernie sanders race that has turned out to be much closer than the experts thought especially the clinton campaign. we have the "wall street jour l journal" poll numbers and we still have her with a big lead over bernie sanders, 59-34. in iowa the story has been very

different. three polls out this week alone, including our own wall street journal-marist poll and quinn inian found sanders up by five and it had clinton up by just two. bottom line, it is too close to call. with the more aggressive race, is it against sanders? we ginn with hillary clinton joining us from south carolina. good morning, secretary clinton. >> good morning, chuck. >> let me start with the iran deal. yesterday in response to it you immediately said that iran is still straigviolating u.n. secu council -- what do you tell the american public that says you want new sanctions against i rain and they're still violating agreements and what did we do yesterday? we handed them $100 billion and a prisoner exchange, would you have done that concerning the missile program? >> absolutely. look, i have said for a long time that i'm very proud of the role that i played in getting us

to the point where we could negotiate the agreement that puts a lid on iran's nuclear weapons program, but i've also said that the way we're going to hold them accountable is to have consequences when they do anything that might deviate from the agreement or continue to fraught the kind of sanctions and the mandates that the u.n. security council has put on including on missiles. so i see these as mutually reinforcing, chuck. i was delighted that the prisoners are on their way home. that's a good sign. we still don't see bob levinson coming home. there's more work to be done there, but if the implementation of the agreement which is being done today is to be successful in the way that i expect we're going to watch iran, like the proverbial hawk and when it comes to the missile program they are under u.n. security council sanctions and if they are violating it, which the

evidence seems to suggest they should be held accountable. they need to know that this is a good step forward with respect to the nuclear weapons program, but there are other areas of their behavior that we are going to continue to be focused on. >> do you consider iran a national security threat to the united states? >> well, certainly, we have lowered that threat because of the nuclear agreement, but they continue to destabilize governments in the middle east. they continue to support proxies and terrorist groups like hezbollah. they continue to threaten israel. there are a lot of concerns, but what i've said for some time now is i'd rather have the nuclear weapons program off to one side and work to make sure they abide by the agreement and then turn our attention to some of these other behaviors that are threatening, certainly in the region and therefore cause concern for us. >> to try to figure out why this

race has gotten closer in i wach and we spoke to a number of voters and i want to play three sound bites about iowa voters about some potential cause and i'll play it and get your reaction on the other side. >> you get the impression from her that she believes the rules don't apply to her or the same rules that apply to everyone don't apply to her. >> i just feel bernie sanders has a little bit more fire lit up in people. >> i hear people talking about questioning her honesty p, and i don't necessarily do that, but i think that's one thing people are not sure and they've felt that way about bill clinton, too, so i think some of that rubs off. >> madam secretary, how do you answer that pause from democrats some pause that they have. >> well, first of all, chuck, i always thought this was going to be close, and i can't speak for

anybody else, but i've worked as hard as i can to build an organization in iowa, to be out there listening and talking with iowans as they move toward making the first in the nation decision in the caucus on february 1st, and i've also been very consistent over the course of my public life. if i tell you i'm going to fight for something i will do my very best to get results, and i think that's why i have such strong support, and i feel very good about where we are, but we're going to just keep working until the very last caucus is decided on february 19st. >> another problem you may be having in iowa, you don't ideologically fit and this was in the poll. 43% of democratic caucusgoers identified as socialist, only 38% of voters identify themselves as a capitalist. bernie sanders calls himself a democratic socialist. if you don't win in iowa, do you think that will be the reason? >> i don't know how people take

all of this information. i support a free market economy. i support the competitiveness that has created the greatest economic engine in the history of the world. what i am worried about is it's not continuing to do what it used to do which is to give the vast majority of americans a chance to get ahead and stay ahead. that's why i've got a very vigorous jobs agenda. that's why i've put raising income at the center of my economic position see is to get back to good, old-fashioned job opportunities that will help someone get ahead through manufacturing, infrastructure and clean energy and the kinds of plans that we've been putting out. when we have a democrat we do better. we saw that when my husband was president and we saw president obama dig us out of the huge ditch that republicans put us into.

so i feel confident that i know what will work. if we have the right commitment as a nation and that's what i want to do as president. >> let me ask you about whether going in chicago. right now mayor rahm emanuel has been under fire over what he may have known about a shooting incident. do you think he has what he needs to win chicago and law enforcement? >> like everybody else who watcheded that video on television, i was just outraged by what happens to laquan mcdonald. i was one of the first to call for a complete department of justice investigation and in fact, urged that it include the entire chicago police departm t department. this is not a problem that is unique to chicago, unfortunately, and we've got to do a lot more to deal with the systemic racism and policing that has been demonstrated. mayor emanuel says he is

committed to reform. >> do you think he still can do this? >> that will be up to him and up to the people of chicago to prove. the movie "13 hours" about the incident in benghazi and i know there is a lot of chatter about the movie itself. and let me ask you about the controversy if everything was done that night to rescue ambassador stephens. looking back, do you think everything was done that night that could have been done to save his life? >> based on everything i know and based on a republican-led intelligence committee investigation, a republican-led arms services committee investigation, the answer to that is yes. that people were scrambling trying to figure out what could be done, if anything, and i can't speak to a movie, but i know people have raised questions about, you know, some of the dramatization. i testified for more than 11 hours, as you know.

i answered every question i was asked and my real focus, chuck s what do we do to make sure that when we send americans into harm's way, military or civilian, our diplomaters on soldiers, we take every precaution to the best of our ability to make sure they can discharge their duties and be safe while doing it. >> i have to leave it there. >> we look forward to seeing you tonight on stage for the democratic debate. >> thank you. >> thanks a lot. >> you got it. >> just a few minutes ago i interviewed bernie sanders. last night in what the clinton campaign is referring to as a debate-eve conversion you came out in favor of essentially repealing immunity for gun manufacturers when it comes to being liable for gun debts and that's a switch of your positions.

what brought you to this conclusion? >> well, not really. you know, i understand that secretary clinton and her campaign understand that, you know, they're losing ground. we started this campaign off at 3% in the polls and we're closing in iowa and we're doing really well in new hampshire. you'll see a lot of nonsense being thrown around. >> you did change your position on this, though. >> what i said -- what i said, chuck, what i said several months ago having a d-minus voting record from the nra and having voted to ban assault weapons in 1988. yeah, that was a piece of legislation that i wanted to re-look at and it had armor-piercing ammunition designed to kill police officers. it had language in it for a childlock safety for our kids, an important provision. there were things in it that i did not like and i was willing to rethink.

there was a bill being introduced and i like the bill and it made big changes and we will be supportive of it. >> the issue of a waiting period and the clinton campaign is hitting you for supporting a three-day waiting period and not being in favor of something like a five day or seven day window is the man who killed nine folks in charleston last year. if there have been a longer waiting period he might have been prevented from buying a gun. >> what i am seeing is a tragedy of inspeakable dimension and i hope we don't have to politicize this issue and i believe very strongly a background check. i think we have to expand it and make sure 100% that we keep guns out of the of people and people

who are meant lal alley unstable. that has been my view from day one. i think the reason the campaign is getting defensive, they see that the issues we're talking about the disappearing middle class it's going to a top 1% and a campaign finance system where people like secretary clinton can raise millions of dollars through super pacs. these are the issues that they don't want to discuss and and the rich get reacher and almost change those dynamics? >> a 57a background check. we are looking for anything that makes sense to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them. i lost an election in 1988, probably lost that election because i had the courage back then to say that assault weapons should not be sold in america.

>> let me ask you quickly about the iran deal. is iran still an enemy of the united states given what's going on with the diplomatic relations? >> well, you know, it's funny. if you think back to 2007 during the campaign at which secretary clinton ran against barack obama she was critical of him and a question was asked to obama and said would you sit down and talk to the iranians and he said, yeah, i would. point being that you talk to your adversarieadversaries. secretary clinton called him naive. turns out obama was right. so, clearly, we have many, many issues and many concerns with iran, but clearly also we want to improve our relationships with this very powerful country. i think the agreement to make certain that iran does not get a nuclear weapon was a huge step forward and the fact that we had this prisoner release today was a good, important step forward. so i hope that we can continue

to go to are waforward on impro relations. >> senator martin o'malley on nbc. >> it will be a humdinger of a debate and you just heard senator sanders and i think you heard hillary clinton in every single answer. >> trump and cruz are finally going at it and nobody may be happier about that development than my next two guests. marco rubio and jeb bush. they join me right after this. e me pain here. in my lower back but now, i step on this machine and get my number which matches my dr. scholl's custom fit orthotic inserts. now i get immediate relief from my foot pain. my lower back pain. find a machine at drscholls.com after a dvt blood clot.mind when i got out of the hospital what about my family? my li'l buddy? and what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital

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donald trump and ted cruz ended their flurry of charges and countercharges and while trump and cruz fight it out at the top, many are desperate as some emerge as the establishment candidate and now they're not the only ones beating each other up and senator marco rubio of florida and jeb bush. in thursday's republican debate he took on steted cruz. you used to say that you're supporting the number of doubling green cards and you used to support legalizing people that were here illegally and now you say you're against it. you used to say that you were in favor of birthright citizenship

and now you say you're on again test and you used to support tpa and now you say you're against it. i saw you on the senate floor flip your vote because it would help you in iowa and we all saw you flip your vote on ethanol in iowa for the same reason. that is not consistent conservatism and that is political calculation. >> last night i began by asking rubio if he wasn't also guilty of changing his positions particularly on immigration. >> if circumstances or learn anything along the way and it's reasonable to say if a different approach would work better. no comprehensive solution to immigration will pass, but don't go around pretending that you never do and don't go around pretending and telling everyone like ted cruz does that he's the only consistent conservative running for president and the fact of the matter is ted has shown a propensity throughout his career to take one position in front of one audience and change his position in front of another so he raises money in new york and criticizes new york

values. on the approximately see issues he used to be in favor of legalizing people that were here illegally and he said so in front of one audience and then he portrays this sort of notion that he's the harshest and hardest when it comes to that issue and that's not been his record and that was in response to an attack to him in the debate and i think it's important that on the issue he's attacking me on his record is different than what he makes him sound like. >> are you still for findinging a way for them to legally stay in the united states. >> if you're a criminal alien, no. you can't stay. if you're someone that hasn't been here for a long time you can't say. >> define criminal alien. >> anybody -- >> a felon. >> immigration law. >> no, but i've said that before, todd. a felon, someone who has committed a crime, a non-immigration related and that's what i've talked about in the past so i do believe, i don't think you're going to round up and deport 12 million people and here's what i said, it is very clear now more than

ever that we are not going to be able to prove to people that illegal immigration is under control and america is safe and isis poses a vur unique threat unlike anything we've faced in the past. >> very quickly, you brought up ted cruz and his use of the phrase new york values. is -- what does that phrase mean to you? >> i've never used that phrase. i think we're all americans and i'm camp calling on behalf of american values and i don't seek to divide people against each other and that's the current problem with the president. ted has raised a lot of money out of new york. he didn't say that when he was there raising money. he says that in one state and says something different in another. time and again, it's proven to a level of political calculation that voters are starting to find out about now as the campaign gets deeper and more heated. >> let me talk about the global news of the day having to do with iran. do you think these americans would be coming home if it wasn't for the iran nuclear deal? >> i don't think these americans should have ever been in prison.

they didn't do anything wrong. they're hostages and now we have an american who has traded hostages in exchange for prisoners who did commit a crime and had a trial and that sort and what the president is not doing with this and what he did with the castro brothers and bergdahl is he's put a price on the head of every american abro abroad. our enemies know that you can get something in exchange for it. the iranians know where he is and they're not cooperating and it's an outrage and we continue to remember about him. that said, at the end of the day when i am president i will repeal the deal with iran and it will end when i am president and if iran tries to build a nuclear weapo weapon. >> you would not negotiate a prisoner exchange. >> when i become president of the united states our adversaries around the world will know that america is no longer under the command of someone weak like barack obama

and it will be like ronald reagan where as soon as he took office the hostages were released. >> you wouldn't have given iran anything. >> we would have gotten them home. >> without giving them anything? >> we would have given them sanctions, crippling sanctions. in fact, there would never have been a discussion on these dealses until they were released. iran needs more from us than we need from them and we need to remind ourselves of that. this week they kapt oured our sailors and tried to humiliate them on video and putting their hands behind their back and on their knees and videotaping them apologizing. that does not happen when i am president and they will have a strong president unlike the weak one we have now. >> senator marco rubio, thanks for coming on. >> joining me now jeb bush from the snowy state of new hampshire. governor, welcome back to "meet the press".

>> thanks, chuck. >> i want to start with something grew said from kathleen parker before thursday's debate. you said to her, i'm referring to donnal trump. i'm going after them and the problem is there's too much low-hanging fruit and you'll highlight the multiple bankruptcies people, quote, getting stiffed including a widow whose house trump attempted to replace in the mid-'90s with a parking lot referring to emnant domain issues and it was a detailed game plan here. governor, i don't remember hearing that. what happened? >> we talked about the 35% tariff that would create a global depression and lay people off and create hardship and retaliated by chinese in making sure that we could sell our boeing planes a mile away, and i was the only person that goes after trump on these issues. he's not a conservative and should the opportunity come up in the next debate and four

times he went bankrupt and he claims he was using the law and a lot of -- and the emnant domain issue has the symbol of conservatism and conservatives should use emnant domain for private use and not for public purpose that has been hammering donald trump on this in both iowa and new hampshire. none of this stuff sticks. how does this guy have teflon? >> you've gone after him hard and i could argue that you've probably gone after him more than any other candidate on that stage and you're on the air with the tv ad hitting him, but he's got a teflon about him. what do you make of it? >> there's a lot of anxiety. people are so angry with washington and so frustrated about their own lives. i saw a survey that 63% of people can't afford a car repair $500 and more than half of americans have less than $1,000 in savings and the big guy comes in and offers the moon and the stars and people are latched on to that and the reality is that

he's not offering anything to lift people up and i think the cumulative effect of pointing that out respectfully, look, the guy's entertaining for sure and his ideas aren't going to help people and he doesn't have the skills to push people together. my path is to say "i do." i have a proven record and i don't blame other people and i don't disparage people and i get to unite, the ideas i'm laying out would help america and that's my fath. you said the following and you argued that finding a way to re-weave the web of civility before progress on substantive issues can be made and that has to be first, second, third, fourth priority because after you get civility, and this is not a civil time in this republican primary debate and i guess i'm wondering, do you have the wrong temperament for what republican primary voters are looking for in 2016? >> look, i'm talking about

washington, d.c. and the reason people are angry in the republican primary is there's no civility in washington and the president's first impulse is to push someone away and down to make himself look bigger and higher and we have to have a president that begins to solve problems. about a month ago when it came to donald trump there were leaks from your campaign that said you know what? i can't support him if he becomes the nominee. you've since backed off and some of the harsher criticism on him. is that a fair way to read that no, i can't support him if he's a nominee even if i'm not happy about it. >> the prospects of hillary clinton or bernie sanders to be the president of the united states is pretty chilling to me. i'm going to win this nomination. that's my focus and that's what i'm trying to do, but anybody would be better than hillary clinton or bernie sanders. >> you're in on trump if it's him? >> he's not going to win the nomination, and i am going to continue to be critical of him when he doesn't advocate cop

serve tiff principles. he's running for the conservative party's nomination. he should be a conservative and he hasn't shown it. >> is it a point when you think it's important for the -- for more mainstream conservatives to unite around one candidate at some point to stop ted cruz or donald trump because you don't think they can win? >> the point is we're running for the presidency and nevada will shape the election in mark. we have the resources to go the distance and i'm going to do it. >> we have a lot to chew over, do we? when we come back we'll do just that. it's a new york state of mind for the front-runners and the republican side. ted cruz apologizes for his new york values comment and donald trump is hitting back and hitting back and hitting back and later, human rights attorney amal clooney also happens to be george clooney's wife on the small island paradise that's become a breeding ground for isis. >> if you're a woman lying on the beach in the maldives you might want to know that a

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welcome back, you just heard welcome back. you just heard hillary clinton and burdeny sanders. joining us where the fro front-runners and martin o'malley will go to iowa. i will join lester holt and andrea mitchell. our coverage starts at 8:00 eastern tonight and just before the debate starts tune in on your local nbc station a few minutes before 9:00 and we'll have more coverage. we'll be back with the republican race in just a moment. can you pick me up at 6:30? ah... (boy) i'm here! i'm here! (cop) too late. i was gone for five minutes! ugh! move it. you're killing me. you know what, dad? i'm good. (dad) it may be quite a while before he's ready, but our subaru legacy will be waiting for him. (vo) the longest-lasting midsize sedan in its class.

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>> hillary clinton and andrew cuomo and bill de blasio have demanded an apology and i'm happy to apologize. i apologize to the millions of new yorkers who have been let down by liberal politicians in that state. >> a lot of people do not like ted to put it mildly. am i the only person that thinks he's a nice guy? so as it turned out, you know, he finally went off the wagon a little bit and went a little crazy. >> welcome back. the two front-runners, donald trump and ted cruz are no longer playing nice. former senior adviser to john mccain in '08 and joy ann reed and author of "fracture," barack obama and the clintons, the divide. and influential talk radio host hugh hewitt.

trump versus cruz. hugh, is this the fight the establishment has been waiting for? >> well, it has certainly got jeb bush's attention. the big guy from new york. the last time a big guy from new york took aim at a would-be president who was born outside the country was july 11, with alexander hamilton and it was not good for either man's career and i don't know if the fight was good and the national polls and bush, christie and they need ted cruz to beat donald trump in iowa. if ted cruz doesn't win the state of iowa, donald trump is gone and he'll win in new hampshire and he'll be tough to catch as the race moves south and moves into the bigger states. >> i think the problem is for the establishment and the lane is closing very quickly. i think even if you saw all of the establishment candidates or have consolidated around one person, our polling and other polling is showing that in a three-way race between trump,

cruz and filling the establishment candidate trump still wins in a two-way race, even rube io. >> you're helping him produce. let me put those numbers up in the three-way race that shows trump-cruz and rubio and we have the two-way pairings and here's what you need to know, trump versus rubio, trump wins. what does that tell you to me? the establishment can't win. >> that's right. i don't think there's enough strength not being the republican at the table and more knowledgeable, but it doesn't seem to be enough of a, and the outsider candidates and for the establishment cruz is almost as bad a scenario because he's spent the entire senate career blowing up his home team's court. >> who do the democrats want to run again snvt. >> there are pathways on both. let me say that. back to the polling, i do think it's interesting that if you look at these polls as many as half or trump's support, say they're open to persuasion to other candidates and it's soft

support that these two have and what they're doing to each other -- >> i disagree because the knife fight is bleeding. ted cruz will win iowa and donald trump will win new hampshire and with downward momentum as you said in the green room and that does allow consolidation to happen and we're headed to cleveland with an open convention and it's too much fun to stop. we're going cleveland and if donald trump wins iowa, couldn't he be the nominee before hillary clinton? >> think he will absolutely be the nominee before hillary clinton? this is a momentum business and past is prolonged here. you win iowa and you win new hampshire and it puts you in good position going into south carolina and ultimately to florida and ultimately to the sec primary on march 1st. so if donald trump wins in iowa give me the scenario by which anyone catches him in new hampshire. at the end of the day the person who gets the most votes, they win and the chances of an open convention and brokered convention are very, very

minimal. >> i think when the son and former is conceding that you're the big man in the race. i think that is a concession that you cannot walk back. >> i have to say that was a big lie. >> it was surprisingly deferential. >> it's unconscious, in fact, that there is a big guy in the race that you can't bring down. >> that's how he feels. >> you know, it's shining through everything he says and does. he feels like trump has taken all of the oxygen. he's untouchable and while jeb has good ideas and has been effective as a governor, he can't understand why trump is winning. >> steve, you were -- you cut your teeth being a guy that knew how to push a negative message and i say this as a compliment and you have rubio trying to paint cruz as a flip-flopper. >> ted cruz -- people are going to think he's some sort of establishment ing iffer in the wind politician, that will be tough to sell, isn't it? >> no, i think it is very tough to sell and it misses the point

about what this race is about, so you haven't exasperated jeb bush wondering, how is it that the big guy is ahead in the race and he's ahead because he's sucked up the oxygen and his base, blue collar, downscale economically and noncollege educated and no real wage growth in 25 years. these people and republicans in general believe that barack obama has won. he has changed america and that he did it over a complicit, corrupt, republican congress and when donald trump says make america great again, that is a powerful message for that republican electorate. >> i do think on cruz, however, these arguments that rubio is making, they happen to have the virtue of being true on ted cruz. i don't think it will hurt him in the primaries and if he becomes the general election candidate. >> the flip-flopping has occurred rubio's own career and marco rubio's debt in

washington, he's been walking back from that for various reasons and he keeps changing the reasons why. >> ted cruz is very happy with what happened over the last 48 hours. they read this as consolidating iowa. i've never run a national campaign and i didn't stay at a holiday inn last night, and team cruz is very happy and so is team rubio. >> very quickly, i want to show you what the cruz campaign is pushing out this hit on donald trump. it's donald trump praising hillary clinton and i'll play a quick piece of it. i think we have it here. >> hillary clinton is a terrific woman. i'm a little bias because i've known her for years. i know her very well and i know her husband very well. >> jeb bush tried this with donald trump and it didn't work with ted cruz, can it work? he can message this better. >> i also think it's a better -- this is the time to be doing it. this is how you want to close a race. this isn't news to anybody. in fact, it allows donald trump to sell a virtue which is

honestly that hey, i was in business and i needed to be friends with everybody and it's what people tend to believe and he's not penalized with these relationship. >> and the people supporting donald trump are not the hard core conservatives. those people are with ted cruz. i don't think he pays a penalty. >> some of them probably voted for bill clinton back in the '09s. we'll take a pause here and we have the big take on the democratic race from you guys. in just a few minute, but up next, my sitdown with amal clooney. she's a human rights law whier and has a famous last name because she's the wife of george clooney and we talked about her work to free a political prisoner after this. and includes b vitamins to help convert food to energy. mmmmm, these are good! nice work, phillips! the tasty side of fiber, from phillips'. at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like ordering wine equals pretending to know wine. pinot noir, which means peanut of the night.

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welcome back. amal clooney was a prominent international human rights lawyer long before she acquired a famous last name from her husband, george clooney. she met with lawmakers to discuss the plight of her client, mohammed nasheed, the former president, democratically elected in the maldives, islands in the indian ocean. they're known as an idyllic vacation destination and they've become a top recruiting ground for isis. this former president nasheed was thrown into prison in a coup and was sentenced to 13 years. it would allow nasheed to travel to the united kingdom for back surgery and that's not at all clear if it will happen now and it's a pr stunt for amal clooney's trip to washington. i sat down with her and began by

asking what she's hoping to accomplish on this trip to washington. >> you have an increasing authoritarian regime where protesters are being rounded up and arrested, where lawyers are being attacked and tv stations are being closed down and every opposition leader in the country is now either behind bars or being persecuted by the government. so my client is one of them, and he was subjected to a political show trial as has now been recognized by the u.n. and others. since i've been in washington i've been meeting with members of the administration and members of congress to discuss the imposition of targeted sanctions against members of the regime. >> let me ask you a basic question that many in america when they hear stories like this it's tragic, but then they say why is this america's problem? >> i understand the question. the maldives is not usually at the top of anyone's political agenda. it may be on a short list of holiday destinations. i think there are two reasons.

first of all, u.s. values are at stake. we just had the president's state of the union address and he said american leadership in the 21st century means rallying the world around causes that are right and that -- and he gave an example the u.s. supporting ukrai ukraine's fight for democracy and that's what we're asking for in this case and maldiveans are asking for democracy. at moment the maldives has the highest per capita rate of recruitment to isis in the world and this is really shocking. so the figures that have been released by the state department say 200 fight verse gone from the maldives to iraq or syria. >> is this a country that is enabling isis and a breeding ground for isis. >> the president says there is only room for islam in the maldives and sharia punishment should be imposed and you've had

survivors come back to the country and not be prosecuted. also last year you had a rally on the streets of mali in which people were waving isis flags and the police did not crack down and no arrests took place. you have were attacked by one of the -- at the time vice presidents that helped end the coup. he chalked you up to being just part of the hollywood fictional world that is trying to make up things about the maldives. >> yes. >> and what happened to this gentleman? >> so his attack was that i didn't let facts get in the way when i was saying nasheed had been subjected to an unfair trial and there were political prisoners in the country. what's happened since them is that he himself was arrested because the president is now increasingly paranoid, i think, and is going after members of his own party having dealt with his opposition in its entirety. he now sits in a jail cell and penned a very different op-ed and said "what are these lawyers talking about?"

he now says -- and i believe this is a direct quote "i join the swelling ranks of political prisoners many the maldives, including president nasheed." and he also adds "any casual and he also adds "any casual in the maldives knows it's impossible to get a fair trial here." >> is this a case where your connection to celebrity, is it an asset or liability in something like this? >> i think it's easy to dismiss criticisms on that basis. i think the kind of attacks i got from that vice president just smacked of desperation and was easy to blow off it so's not something worrying. on the other hand, if in representing this client and trying to secure his release and the release of other political prisoners, if people are made aware of the situation in the maldives that's a good thing because there are thousands of tourists going every year and i think if people know what's going on, they might find they don't want to support that regime, either. if you're a woman lying on a beach in the maldives you might

want to know a kilometer away another woman is being flogged and you might want to find your own way to protest that. >> next time you're around, give us a call. amal clooney, thanks for coming. >> thank you. we should note, the maldives government still insists that mohamed nasheed return after his surgery in the united kingdom and that, as of now, he has not left the country. when we come back, our end game segment. how much should hillary clinton be concerned about the surging bernie sanders? coming up, "meet the press" end game brought to you by ♪ why blend in with the crowd? why shy away from the extraordinary? why fit in, when you were born to stand out? the 2016 nissan altima has arrived.

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end game time. the panel is here, we turn the democrat. stephanie cutter, there is a feeling of some democrats of deja vu all over again with hillary clinton and iowa. we spent the week talking to iowa voters about hesitance -- iowa democrats but the hesitance for clinton. here's a compilation. >> she comes from a wealthy, privileged family. so for me it's a bit -- do you understand really what individuals like us, we're underrepresented, may have come from low income families, are you going to understand our standpoint and defend us? >> her tie ins on wall street and connections there which are very good for running a government are -- may be exciting for people to view wall street in the negative. >> i don't want to harp on the e-mail thing but that's a barometer. first of all there's this kind of denial and oh, well, yeah, and, then oh, well, we paid the

guy. it's not like you're getting the whole story all the time up front right now. >> it's not one thing. that's what we found out. it's a little bit of something but they found something and they can't figure it out. >> we've always known this. this is -- there's not much about hillary clinton that people don't know. and people have very strong opinions. but let's not mistake this. she still has very strong support on the ground in iowa and even more important than that she has a terrific ground operation which, as you know, in a caucus atmosphere, is critical. >> she thought she had a good ground operation eight years ago. >> not as good as obama. >> joy, i had a flashback of the "new york times" does this what's wrong with the clinton campaign, here we go, the blind quotes are coming and all this stuff. the flashback i had was not to clinton '08, it was to al gore, 2000, to george w. bush '88 when you're running for the third term, you're passionately fighting for continuity. bernie sanders is passionately fighting for change. >> but at the same time there is a flashback to '08 that the

clinton team has the talent for underestimation and overcorrection. they underestimate the threat, that i did so with barack obama and when they realized it belatedly they overcorrected and overattacked. and this defcon 1 response to everything in the clinton world is a bit of a throw back. >> steve, you absolutely captured this the other night during state of the union coverage. you said it's remarkable that she's made a 74-year-old former gadfly senator popular. >> absolutely. much of this is about hillary clinton as a candidate but it's also about the democratic party. and we've talked about on the republican side the rise of the tea party and the drift right. but remarkable polling numbers. 43% of iowa democrats identify as socialists not as capitalists so what hillary clinton -- what hillary clinton in this race has found herself in is an ideological fight with the challenger to the left.

and i don't think anybody should doubt that had elizabeth warren gotten into this race she would have been the likely democratic nominee for president. >> or deval patrick. >> so hillary clinton has a challenge from her ideological left and he has every capacity to win in iowa and new hampshire. >> iowa has always had -- whether they call themselves socialists or liberal democrats has always had this tremendously liberal strain in the democratic party. >> just like really conservative on the republican side. >> it was there in '08 and there in 2012 which is why, as an obama campaign official we never pushed too hard back on the socialist arguments that people in your party were making. >> because it helped in iowa. >> i think hillary clinton has done everything right. she has run a good campaign. she has outperformed in debates. she's raised money. she's got a great ground game. what she can't control is this

string of anger that is connecting both parties right now. it's what's given rise to trump and given raise to sanders. >> i agree with stephanie here. >> the republicans haven't figured out how to handle it. >> it has impacted the democrats. >> and that's the rise of bernie sanders and it struck me when i was watching the two interviews that he's got this sense of anger and injustice about the economy and she's talking about advanced manufacturing and there's a difference in that when you're two weeks out from an iowa -- >> her weakness -- her ten minutes with you, chuck, was her best and worst i've seen thus far. she was very good at the top on iran, she dodged the rahm emanuel question, she did not answer the "13 hours" question, i hope tonight you follow up and ask if she's seen the movie and "groundhog day," the day after the night of the iowa caucuses she is going to have the bill murray experience of living the same thing that you did eight years ago. >> voters will vote for her. >> that's all right. but a "groundhog day" reference, you wind the end game segment. [ laughter ]

that's all for tonight. don't forget to tune in to tonight's democratic debate. our coverage will begin at nbc nbc news and nbcnews.com at 8:00. tune in a few minutes before 9:00, our i'll be there, lester and andrea, if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." good sunday to you. here at the msnbc headquarters in new york city we are now seeing our first picture of "washington post" reporter jason rezaian, one of four americans released yesterday in a prison swap with iran. this picture uploaded by special envoy brett mcguirk. we've learned three of the americans have arrived in germany. just this past hour their second stop on their way back to the united states. you're looking at video right now of them landing earlier in geneva. today for the first time we heard from president obama on yesterday's development which is came on the same day as the implementation of the iran nuclear deal. now, the president says the world is