[applause] >> what would it on take to undo the helms-burton act? [inaudible] is ae helms-burton act 1996 act passed by republican congress and signed by a democratic president that codifies the embargo. until the embargo was an 1996, executive branch decision. there were presidential proclamations of an embargo and it changed with each administration. sometimes, it was weaker. sometimes, it was stronger. but in the cuban-american 1996, community working through an interesting group called the cuban-american national foundation went to senator jesse helms of north carolina, representative dan burton of indiana, and got congress to come this close to passing a bill that codified the embargo. we have had embargoes of various countries like north korea. but it has always been a presidential embargo. the helms-burton act would codify and president clinton said i will veto it. the constitution gives me, the chief executive, the president the right to conduct foreign , policy. and this codifying of the embargo is an infringement upon my executive branch p

>> we'll talk about helms-burton later as you anticipate. professor torres, let me ask you the same question. whewhen the president said that we're changing the policy because the old regime didn't work, was he right? >> well, it hasn't worked. but more to the point, why now. i do not think that this is a policy necessarily awarding the cuban government. i think it's aime aimed at ending bloodshed in cuba. the generals are more isolated than ever, and a continued pressure on a very precarious situation politically and economically can have a bad ending, so i think that offering a glimmer of hope of what could be an encouragement for a more peaceful transition is absolutely a positive step to take. >> ambassador. cuba has been excluded from the business of the oas. >> yes, they have. >> since 1962. >> yes, they have. >> there you were representing the united states in an international organization, and a country that was not there bass taking a lot of your band width? >> an awful a lot of the band width. >> i have to make a point, though, at

[applause] >> what would it on take to undo the helms-burton act? [inaudible] >> the helms-burton act is a 1996 act passed by republican congress and signed by a democratic president that codifies the embargo. until 1996, the embargo was an executive branch decision. there were presidential proclamations of an embargo and it changed with each administration. sometimes, it was weaker. sometimes, it was stronger. but in 1996, the cuban-american community working through an interesting group called the cuban-american national foundation. they went to senator jesse helms of north carolina, representative dan burton of indiana, and got congress to come this close to passing a bill that codified the embargo. we have had embargoes of various countries like north korea. but it has always been a presidential embargo. the helms-burton act would codify, and president clinton said i will veto it. the constitution gives me, the chief executive, the president the right to conduct foreign policy. and this codifying of the embargo is an infringement upon my executi

helms/burton was pass nld an overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion and signed by president clinton. on a bipartisan fashion this has been the policy of the united states for 50 years and helms/burton is 18 years. i would argue it's not because of bad policies, because we're dealing with bad and evil people, a repressive regime that has backed terrorists around the world and is going to threaten the national security of america and not improve lives of cuban people. >> senator cardin, that's the other side of the argument you hear, that president obama has given up too much to the cubans in return for too little. another senator from your foreign relations committee, senator marco rubio. >> these changes will lead to legitimacy for a government that shamelessly, continuously abuses human rights, but it will not lead to assistance for those whose rights are being abused. snoond just to add to that, cuban president raul castro pledged in a speech before his parliament yesterday, senator cardin, that his government will not abandon communism. >> chris, i can assure you that we will cont

. >> i will move promptly on the pending helms-burton cuban legislation. >> it is a slap in the face to a tyrant. >> the legislation passed in 1966 does write the embargo which makes it not just a presidential action to reverse it. >> this entire policy shift announced today is based on an illusion, on a lie. >> we have to try something new after more than 50 years. >>> tonight, the white house issued this statement ability the cyberattack on sony studios. the u.s. government has offered sony pictures entertainment support and assistance in response to the attack. the fbi has the lead for the investigation. the united states is investigating attribution and will provide an update at the appropriate time. the u.s. government is working tirelessly to bring the perpetrators of this attack to justice. and we are considering a range of options in weighing a potential response. u.s. officials tell nbc news that they believe the north korean government is indeed responsible for the attack on sony. government officials say the obama administration is figuring out what its response will be. b

you cannot revoke helms burton, the law that codified the embargo. it requires congress to do that. that's not going to happen, at least not in the foreseeable future. we have john boehner out with a statement. marco rubio has his own agenda, a cuban-american in florida running for president in 2016 in all likelihood. john boehner saying no how, no way. the president has this idea that he can normalize relations, but the power of the purse is with the congress. even if a diplomat wanted to write embassy with a sharpie, if he's paid by the united states and congress wants to stop him from doing that, they can stop him. >> i never heard anything coming out of a leader's mouth like i heard from mitch mcconnell today when asked what he thought. he deferred to marco rubio. he said marco rubio is the expert. i'm surprised that marco rubio is making policy for the republican party. was that an dodge? >> that's an indication of a couple of things. first, he deferred to marco rubio. not to another cuban-american in the senate, one ted cruz, who he's already butting heads with. and second of

the helms burton acted in 1996, jesse helms was one of the authors, that is the last piece of legislation putting embargoes in. congress still has that legislation on the books. it's going to be a lot of politics coming up on this issue. >> we could have predicted rubio's position on all of this, but i wonder how congress standings now. do you have a sense about how congress would feel now in terms of their general reaction towards the president opening up cuba, establishing diplomatic relations and asking congress to lift the trade embargo, has congress changed? >> congress has changed, so too has the cuban american voter. the [ inaudible ] which saw 125,000 cubans come here by boat in 1980. if you were 45 then, you are almost 80 now. that means you could have children, grandchildren, in some cases even great children, and a lot of that an mouse towards cuba has been diluted as the generations have grown up, as is typical in any community that you see. the same has happened in congress. there are are three senators of latin decent right now, all three are of cuban decent. we heard from r

this was the helms-burton act several years ago that basically said the president doesn't have the executive authority to do this without going to the congress. but this is huge. this is the legacy stuff for president obama and my hope is that we zero in on -- this is good but cuba needs to improve its human rights position, needs to release political prisoners, allow the internet in, allow more freedoms there. hopefully this is going to happen with this release, but this was the linchpin, the release of alan gross for the u.s. that's the news we were hoping to get so the relationship with cuba would improve. >> you brought up congress here and, governor, you've had just about every job imaginable, both political and diplomatic so you know the complications here. people say it doesn't seem likely, the congress itself will lift the embargo. there are democrats who oppose this move today. the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, bob menend menendez, put out a statement that said president obama's actions have vindicate it had brutal behavior of the cuban government. what's your

trading with the enemy act and the helms burton act that states that all political prisoners must beeleased and free fair elections held before resuming diplomatic relations. end of quote. i don't want to be too precise about it, but should he have gone to congress first and solved this problem? >> not necessarily. i think the real issue here is that the president has given away a lot. i think i agree with pat and eleanor that there was opportunity to have change there. clearly, along the road at this point, the embargo is not having the effect that the people who are probably suffering most are the cuban people. but what i would have preferred to see from the president is a series of smaller steps that working in concert with congress, bring them on board, giving the embassy immediately, i think loses some of the power that the united states could have in the progressive sense of doing economic development and then saying if you concede, mr. castro, in terms of opening up cuba and releasing some of those political prisoners, then we'll get to that step. giving it all at once is bad

when president clinton signed the helms-burton act, he invited the cuban-american community to miami to the right of the white house when you're looking at a from lafayette park -- in the signing ceremony, where they have 25 pence, and he with one and handed it to a campaign contributor and so forth. statement he attached to the law, he said i consider this law track a tory. i had to look that word up in the dictionary. it is advisory. it is a law. in what thexplicit cubans have to do. i consider this law precatory. if mr. obama were to and someone challenged him, it would be impossible to say mr. clinton said he never looked at this as what the words really say. will have a really interesting court case because i don't think there's ever been a challenge to a signing statement that has gone all the way to the supreme court. nobody wants to fight with this president. fighting with him is a losing proposition right now. saide, all by himself has i'm going to keep the embargo until cuba becomes a democracy. might touchoned you on the cuban missile crisis. how is that as far as our relu

because the congress controls the decisions on the trade embargo by a decision made years ago, the helms burton act which basically said after the downing of those planes by fidel castro. >> right. >> that the executive branch could not make these unilateral decisions and president clinton signed the law. you know, the congress, those that are very concerned about this normalization are getting something, too, but keeping the trade embargo in their own hands. >> i want to turn to north korea, a country that you understand perhaps better than any other american and played an important historical role in the release of hostages and preserving what little relationship there is between the two countries. it is now the judgment of the federal government, the u.s. government, that north korea is the guilty party in attacking sony, carrying cyberattacks against this country. is a military response appropriate, and how should we respond, if not? >> well, there should be a proportional response. i keep coming back to that word. what they did was very serious, which you don't want to happen, a cyberattac

clinton responded by signing the helms-burton bill which tightened their powers. >> that was jose.d then you have luis posada. >> he and orlando bosch had teamed up in october to knock down a cuban airliner, a passenger plane, which their agents excessively did over the island of barbados. the agents were caught and they anded on hose a koreas orlando bosch and both were arrested. then there was a long judicial process in which very little happened. one of them was freed, came to the united states. president bush, the first, brought him in despite the complaints from the fbi and justice department, saying he was a dangerous terrorist. bush ignored them and let him in. >> i want to go to a clip of your film, "will the real terrorist please stand up." this is the moment that the cuban that airlines, with 70 passengers aboard, is hit. >> we have an explosion. we are descending immediately. we have a fire on board. are you returning to the field? >> this is cubana 455. we are requesting immediate landing. closed a door. closed-door. it is getting worse. crash landing into the sea. >> t

. >> now the larger trade embargo is known as helms burton after the law passed in 19 6. it's still in forced and would require congressional action to lift that. that does not appear to be in the cards. john boehner said that there was no way he was going to lift the trade embargo. >> thank you very much. as we mentioned the release of alan gross was a key theme to trigger the final deal to come together. alan gross spoke this afternoon. at times he was feisty and at times quite humorous. >> well, david, quite the day in u.s. history and quite the interview as well. popcorn on the plane and it seems that alan gross is almost back to his old self. who is this man held by the cubans so long. who we were told was becoming sicker and more depressed every day that passed. >> alan gross on home soil for the first time in five years, and not afraid to show it. >> i'm incredibly blessed finally to have the freedom to resume a positive and constructive life. >> a website said that he has traveled the world for a quarter of century helping people in 50 countries to create jobs and

after those planes were shot down, the helms/burton act made the economic embargo against cuba something that the president couldn't dissolve on his own. it would take an act of congress to get rid of the economic embargo. is congress going to do that? is this congress going to do anything? i mean, substantively this congress is deeply split on this issue. it was a bipartisan and bicamera group of lawmakers that flew to cuba to bring alan gross home. chris van hollen, he's alan gross' congressman from maryland. he once went door to door canvassing for van hollen when he ran for congress. he was there today. he was joined by pat leahy who has been deeply involved in trying to get alan gross freed. they were joined by jeff lake of arizona, he supports what president obama did today. not just to free alan gross but everything else the president did to try to reset our relationship with cuba. other republicans as well as democratic senator bob menendez who himself is cuban american, they were harshly critical of the policy change today including marco rubio saying he would do everything in h

the helms burton law of many years ago that passed after the downing of those planes, basically saysident doesn't have executive authority to deal with the economic embargo issues so that's going to be in control of the republicans, very powerful cuban-american senators, that's not much going to happen. but this is legacy time, this is a major initiative. i think the first breath is going to be a summit in pan na ma in april where the president and president castro are probably going to meet and i bet you that's when they issue the joint invitations. this is a major initiative that removes as an irritant one of the big problems the united states has had in latin america where every country there has ganged up on us and said, look, do something. this relationship needs to be mended. the trade embargo is not working. i think the president has national support for this. i mean look at rand paul, although he's building a national coalition, there is public support for this change in our policy. >> yeah. the other republican senators support what the president is doing. jeff blake, the re

i understand the helms/burton law that was passed codified the embargo in federal law. in order for that to be lifted it takes an affirmative act of congress. as you know, doing anything in congress, even things people agree on, is almost impossible these days. beyond, that we have to look at venezue venezuela. we don't have an embargo against venezuela and the place right now is a socialist hell in that it's sitting on some of the world's largest oil reserves. you can't get cooking oil there. you can barely get toilet paper. so the actual political systems that exist there have caused a lot of problems. the idea that cuba will suddenly become a vibrant capitalist style, democratic style, capitalist economy, that's probably doubtful. but there is a strong belief, a voice now by president obama notably, that if we start to thaw relations, it will improve things in cuba and improve things in the united states. there are a lot of people in south florida, miami and key west, who would stand to make a fair amount of money from this because there -- if you do have increased t

order to get rid of the trade embargo, you have to go to congress because of what is called a helms burtonafter the downing of those airplanes. so, mine, not minor, but human rights initiatives can take place like easier travel through and from cuba remittances of cuban americans and cuban's money going back and forth to cuba, travel by coup bans and cuban americans. and hopefully some human rights initiatives and improvement in cuba of human rights treatments of disdense. i'm in spain now so i haven't seen all the details about what cuba is going to do to advance the u.s./cuba relationship. >> ambassador, we to want get more of your thoughts if you're able to stay, we would love you to. we're going to take a quick break and hope to get you to the other side of the break. appreciate it. rescued. protected. given new hope. during the subaru "share the love" event, subaru owners feel it, too. because when you take home a new subaru, we donate 250 dollars to helping those in need. we'll have given 50 million dollars over seven years. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. and for many, it'

now congress has a lot of work to do because we have a very onerous law called the helms-burton law and go back and repeal that, or amend it. >> does it bother you, the prisoner swap aspect of this? because cuba's going to get back these three cuban spies, they're -- they were spying for cuba on united states soil. they're responsible for the deaths of some humanitarian aid workers. should this swap have taken place? is this a good thing? >> well, remember there's that trial which was held in miami has been appealed as to whether it was even a fair trial and there's new evidence that our government influenced the media there very strongly to get those convictions. we've already allowed the release of two prisoners before their terms were finished so i think these other three prisoners have been there a long time, paid their dues. i think we've been swapping prisoners in other parts of the world. we hear more about cuba prisoners and less about the other ones but i think this is all presidents have done prisoner swaps but we open up all kinds of opportunities for americans. this is a gre

department, which is already working to loosen restrictions that can be loosened without changing the helms burtonakes the trade embargo a matter of law since 1996. it is not just a matter of executive action. there's only so much the president can do. they're going to increase the amount of remittances that cuban americans can send home by a big measure. that's important to a lot of people in florida. and as you know there's a lot of political opposition. as soon as congress gets back you're going to see republicans principally, very strongly against this trying to attack the efforts of the administration by going after the appropriations. that's the funding power that congress has to go after treasury and other departments that are trying to loosen the trade sanctions. >> andrea mitchell always a pleasure. don't miss her interview with jeh johnson. >>> president obama is now weighing in speaking to abc news before sony pulled the plug on the film "the interview." >> the cyber attack is very serious. we are investigating it we are taking it seriously. we will be vigilant. if we see something that

. >> well, a lot of that is going to have to be changed in congress when we deal with the helms-burton lengation that's in place. there's a chance of doing that on foreign relations committee. senator corker has been very thoughtful and balanced. senator jeff flake who traveled to florida with me is lp to dropping some of these restrictions. we should craft a policy out of that foreign relations committee that open things up, that drops the embargo and moves us in the right direction. >> senator tom udall thank you so much. we'll be talking about this at the top of the hour. much more. great to have you on. coming up from the top songs of the year to taylor swift's boycott of spotify. we'll take a look at the year in music. watch out rand paul if you think you can run for senate and president in 2016 there's one woman who wants to path stop to that one kentucky. we'll be right back. it's more than the driver. it's more than the car. for lotus f1 team, the competitive edge is the cloud. powered by microsoft dynamics, azure, and office 365, the team can gain real time insights and instan

decisiÓn ejecutiva no la puede tomar en la cuestiÓn cubana porque en 1995 de acuerdo a la ley helms burtoniones diplomÁticas entre cuba y estados unidos y por lo tanto continuaremos nuestra cobertura aquÍ en univisiÓn. y tendremos amplÍsimos reportajes y puntos de vista esta noche en el noticiero univisiÓn. por su atenciÓn y por su confianza, muchas gracias. lili se va a comprar una moto color rojo. >> besos a la flaca! yo no tengo moto, dinero y nada que dar, pero tengo un bebÉ. >> ¿otro? >> no, estoy embarazada! >> es virus aquÍ. >> este bebÉ quiere imitar a su papÁ bailando tap. >> quÉ lindo! >> baila como alan. >> tiene mÁs ritmo que alan. >> baila mejor que muchos que yo conozco. >> quÉ ternura, hermoso! >> asÍ nacen las grandes estrellas, desde pequeÑitos. >>asÍ empezaste tÚ. por eso debo recordarles. y usted tiene un hijo, johnny, que desde pequeÑo se contoneaba, y quiere compartirlo con nosotros, mandrelo para mostrarlo en el programa. >> paul, me dijeron que orlando tiene un vÍdeo tuyo en el gimnasio. ( risas ) >> quÉ creatividad la tuya, paul! >> es que fui a hacer ojos al gimnas

>> you know, the helms-burton act which is really the embargo is codified into law. be lifted without a vote. when you get into whether you can open an embassy, how far you can go on commercial ties, there are going to be things there that may overlap at the embargo. so this is another thing that could derail this. now, the cubans know this.  w, the cubans know this. derailed in a matter of months, a matter of weeks, in a year. but in the meantime, they got what they were looking for. they got their heroes back. they got recognition. they have been accepted into the latin-american hemispheric community. they have been accepted by the u.s. so they're sitting pretty. they've also got some economic relief since vernz way la is not able to give them all the relief they had before. so for them it's a -- you know, it's a victory. >> when the president -- we had a sound bite where he said, you know, it's been 50 years and it hasn't worked. i kind of thought, you know, where are we getting at this point? it's been the same story for 50 years. >> yeah. >> and it almost made

more money home, travel will be easier although the embargo cannot be lifted without lifting the helms-burton 2003 are being released from cuban prisons in havana. an american spy who has been in a cuban prison for 20 years is being sent home. three cubans, three men who have been imprisoned here in the united states for 15 years who the cuban have argued were unfairly convicted in the miami court are also being sent home. they were on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage. this is an opening of all of the economic possibilities between the two countries that are permissible other than the formal embargo that came under jfk. so president obama is doing something. john kerry flew into andrews coming back from europe, embraced alan gross i'm told, got popcorn and a corn beef sandwich on rye with mustard on that plane. he and his family have said it's significant that today is the first day of chanukah, a holiday very, very important to them, they are very committed and observant jews and he is coming home after five years. he was accompanied home by pat lahey, dick durban, chris van hollen,