joining me now is dana milbank of the "washington post." ening, reverend. >> you know, this is another example of the gop taking unprecedented steps, dana but this letter wasn't just intended for iran. what point are they trying to make here? >> you know it really is like it's no longer a congress, it's now the breakaway state of republicania conducting its own foreign policy. first we had speaker boehner inviting netanyahu without consulting with the white house for the expressed purpose of having netanyahu criticize the administration over this same deal. and now we have the senate, not to be left out, taking its own foreign policy action here. so, i mean there are two things going on. the primary function is to disrupt and try to prevent them from getting to a deal on -- a deal with iran and the second is more generally to weaken and make the president ineffective in this final year and a half of office. >> but dana this is offensive. i mean did it used to be like this? i mean have you ever heard of anything like this under bush? reagan?

joining me now is congressman greg meeks, democrat from new york, and dana milbank from the "washington post." thank you, both for being here. >> good evening, rev. >> good to be with you, rev. >> congressman meek republicans are holding loretta lynch's confirmation's hostage really hostage to push abortion restrictions. what's your take on this? >> well this take is that this is a mcconnell and the republicans, they're playing the same games that mcconnell started from the very first time, from the very first day that the president was elected trying to block the president's appointment. here we have a serious position the attorney general of the united states of america, and mcconnell is holding up the president's nomination of a woman who is absolutely qualified who no one can talk about. mcconnell just as they did with dhs, just as they did with the budget before just as -- he again, is playing the same political game at the state, or to the detriment of the american people and putting in someone who has proven herself to be a great prosecutor and would be a great attorney general.

correspondent peter baker bloomberg politics managing editor john heileman and "washington post" columnist dana milbank. you heard the man of the hour here in washington senator tom cotton, this 60 days in the united states senate now he's at the top of every story. what did you make of this? >> certainly didn't back off in response to your questions including about whether he's going to try to send letter to the leaders of north korea. what surprised me not that tom cotton would choose to write a letter like this the most senior republicans in the senate including senate majority leader would sign such a letter that is as with the netanyahu speech really the kind of steps we have not seen taken before. >> schieffer: what do you think senator cotton's -- what was his objective here? >> i think in some ways. i do think he feels strongly lot of people in congress feels strongly that these talks are not leading to deal that they feel they can support. his north korea example is reasonable one to look at, did that show that inspectors can do what we ask them to do this time around. what is interesting abou

and dana milbank from the "washington post" who just wrote about the controversy today. thank you, both for being here. >> thank you ref rapidverend. >> thank you. >> congresswoman, let me ask you, why do you think it's important not to attend the prime minister's speech tomorrow? >> you know, the house of representatives is probably the most prestigious venue in the world for someone to speak, and now it is being used strictly for partisan political reasons. john boehner didn't consult with the white house, consulted only with the republicans to set this up for his own partisan political reasons. that's very dangerous for the state of israel. it's not good as a jew, i say, for the united states either. and beyond that the intention of the speech is to undermine the president and the -- our allies their efforts in order to make sure that iran does not have a nuclear weapon. and my question is what are the alternatives? seems to me a likely one is war with iran if we don't have a negotiated agreement. >> you say to undermine the president's strategy in terms of iran and h

with sights on war and peace and chlamydia, dana milbank, thank you very much.sure to tune into "nbc nightly news" tonight for andrea mitchell's full interview with benjamin netanyahu. >>> and up next, the key pieces of evidence introduced in the boston bombing trial today. we get the latest developments from ron mott on the scene for us. >>> and will amanda knox be dragged back to italy? her future is once again uncertain. i want my foyer to smell more like a foyer. i want his bedroom to smell like he's away at boarding school. surround yourself with up to 6 hours of luxurious, long-lasting scents... ...introducing new unstopables air refresher. there's nothing more romantic than a spontaneous moment. so why pause to take a pill? and why stop what you're doing to find a bathroom? with cialis for daily use, you don't have to plan around either. it's the only daily tablet approved to treat erectile dysfunction so you can be ready anytime the moment is right. plus cialis treats the frustrating urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. t

joining me now is dana milbank. i see some wisdom in what "the washington post" suggests. perhaps netanyahu revealing himself to be who he is frees this president up to have more of an aggressive position against him, to pursue a nuclear deal with iran. >> there's always wisdom in what "the washington post" is saying. it's clarifying. it is a surprise victory. the magnitude of it is a surprise and probably in large part because of those last-minute positions that really did reveal what they're dial dealing with her. there's a limit on what the united states can do in terms of a peace process going forward. it poses interesting questions for both sides. republicans have been out there celebrating the victory as if this was a republican congressional victory, but how closely do they want to tie themselves to the prime minister? it may, in fact liberate the president since he is getting no support in any sense from b.b. whether it is on iran or whether it is on the palestinians. he's got a whole lot less to lose now. >> if you look at the president today having an adversarial

joining me tonight, huff post live host caroline "the washington post" dana milbank, and radio host stephanieg here tonight, to all of you. let's start with the latest secret service scandal. two agents reportedly drove a government car into security barricades at the white house after a night of drinking and they were allowed to leave the scene and go home without a sobriety test. one of those agents is the second in command of the president's security detail. it's the latest in a string of alarming disclosures about the agency that's triggered a major overhaul there. dana people may have assumed things were being fixed in the secret service, but this incident raises the question -- do they get it? do they? >> well apparently not, reverend. you just couldn't make this stuff up. it's extraordinary, and my colleague at the post has been doing this tremendous reporting on this for a long period of time. we wouldn't even know about this. it's not as if the secret service disclosed this. she was able to dig up this information. so it's hard to tell what's worse here. was it the alleged drunken be

. >> joined by dana milbank and former united states senator from arkansas blanche.rings out the tommy gun and mows down these guys. cruz demogogary is not a good career move and government surveillance is the big problem in their life someone going into my e-mail is more important than fighting these wars. your thoughts sth. >> welcome to the primary season. anybody running in the primary or whether it's those trying to assist in some way, it's all going to be about sensationalism. he was thinking of good things to say to those firefighters to get them excited and that's exactly what he was doing. >> jim, what happened to the 11th commandment, speak no evil of a fellow republican? i think he was. i liked it. >> i mean i think the people he was attacking are the people that made that commandment. >> well said. explain that. because people don't -- he went around looking for incumbents to knock off. >> right. it's to get more conservative republicans elected and if that environment, the gloves are off. peter king is like if you come at me i will come at you. >> the re

the "washington post" main editorialist dana milbank says "the house gop budget is a gimmick." politico says "republicans try end around spending caps." and then we come to the senate. senate gop blasts house plan for their way to boost the budget for defense. now, this budget is a compilation of every tired idea we've heard talked about and we are not going to watch the republican party roll around in the street trying to make sense out of this. the fact is, the republicans in the senate aren't going to go for it for one simple reason -- it repeals aca and this will be the 50 -- i don't know, 56th or 57th time you tried that. but the budget is really out of step with reality by repealing that because so many people, 16.4 million people, are receiving health care benefits today that were not before the aca. the level of uninsured in this country is the lowest point it's been in many, many, many years. and this allout assault on medicare is -- it's been going on since i came here with gingrich. gingrich said "we want this thicke thing to whither on the vine." well, here we are o