joel ruben who worked at the state department's egypt desk. let me go back for one last time with peter alexander, the fact that the president put this out as a paper statement rather than going on television, what does that tell you? >> i think that's interesting. we've noticed that's sort of been the modus operandi. for this white house recently. when the obama care event, vastly different topic but certainly of significance, the white house put that out through treasury department blog on what seems like a critical event taking place now on the other end of the world not too far away from where the president was traveling again. we hear this in the form of a paper statement. >> it is strange. anyway, thank you, peter alexander, for the great report this evening. as i said, joel ruben who had the experience at working at the egyptian desk itself. we'll have more from egypt later in tonight's program. but up next, the latest on the hot trial for george zimmerman's life, pretty much, he's going to go to prison for a long time. this is "hardbal

joel ruben comes to us by phone. el, you worked the egypt deck while you were at the state department during the george bush administration. can you react to the developments we've seen today? >> joy, thanks for having me. this is really remarkable. it's almost like we're watching egypt hit the reset button from two and a half years ago where the generals come out, promise to install a democratic government one that is inclusive that enables egyptian society to move forward to improve its economy, to have diverse voices at the table. and so we'll see what happens. clearly the egyptian people over the past year in particular have grown impatient with mohamed morsi and the muslim brotherhood's leadership and prior to that with the military, as well. they have a reason to be impatient and a reason to be in the streets protesting. this day not necessarily mean we'll have smooth sailing in the days ahead >> he joel, could you give us a sense of how pivotal a stable egypt is to both u.s. interests in the region and to the r

joel ruben is former egypt desk officer at the state department. mr. ruben, you're the perfect person to ask about this coup question and significance of the lack of funding if all of a sudden it gets cut. how should this play itself out? >> well, michael, right now there's still chaos on the streets in cairo. there's blood on the streets, quite literally, and what we need to make sure is that this powder keg doesn't have a match lit to it and we need to not wade into a situation where cutting aid precipitously right now is that match. so there is an assessment under way. we have a chance, now, to engage the egyptians across the whole swath of political actors there and really push for where the revolution went 30 minutes ago which was to try to be inclusive and create a democratic path that's sustainable and the egyptians control. >> yesterday john mccain did something that so far few in washington seem to be willing to do. officially, at least, and that's call what happened in egypt a coup. >> it was a coup, and it was the second time in 2 1/2 years

. >>> joel ruben, director of policy and government affairs, an expert on foreign policy and national security and joins me now. with a thank you and happy fourth to you. >> happy fourth, alex. >> what has happened in this last year? he was a democratically elected president, mohamed morsi. what happened then to now? >> what happened from then to now is that we've seen egyptian society really respond negatively to the leadership of mohamed morsi. this is an internal egyptian matter, but it does have major external ramifications and for the united states, folks in the administration certainly must be breathing easier this morning, but the keyword is caution. as amman pointed out, caution in cairo as well. what comes next, how does this transition, these are questions they thought they dealt with a year, year and a half ago, but clearly they have not and they need to in a sense hit the re-start button. >> you can say that united states is breathing a little more easily, simply because they do have an interim president now who's been sworn in, but that said, if in the spaeight of a year