the chief negotiator for the united states and counselors for the president was john podesta who also once was bill clinton's chief of staff. we are pleased to have you here today, john. >> great to be with you. >> tell us a little bit about how this deal finally emerged. >> the deal didn't finally close until monday night. and its president saw president xi jinping on tuesday night. and they kind of sealed the deal at that time. but by then we had had a text that both sides agreed to. and of course it was announced on wednesday. >> when you pet ins about ton with secretary kerry at that restaurant overlooking the boston harbor, did you get a sense then that they really wanted a deal seriously? ness well, before that lunch, at the u.n. climate summit in new york, in the previous month, the executive vice premier of the chinese government came and represented china at that summit. there was a private meeting between president obama and-- and at that time they, the chinese side indicated that they would like to take the united states up on its offer to do a joint announcement of our pos

as looking for you in february. >> maybe i will be going door-to-door. >> john podesta, thank you souch. ♪ >> with all due respect to kim kardashian, she might have broken the internet, but we fixed it. tonight, obama care's evolving shift. the white house tries to keep a nuclear deal in its grip. senator mary landrieu cracks the whip. first, our special time travel episode. there are a cluster of issues going into the future and we do not have the patience to see how they get there. we'll use our clairvoyance to answerhe

the chief negotiator for the united states and the counselor of the president was john podesta, who wasnce bill clinton's chief of staff. we are pleased to have you here today. tell us a little bit about how this deal finally emerged. >> it did not close until monday night. the president saw president xi on friday night and they fueled the deal that time. by then, both sides agreed to and it was announced on wednesday. >> you met in boston with secretary kerry at that restaurant overlooking boston habor. -- harbor. did you get a sense they wanted to deal seriously? >> before that lunch in new york, in the previous month, the executive vice premier of the government represented the government at that summit. there was a private meeting between president obama and him. the chinese side indicated that they would like to take the united states up on its offer to do a joint announcement of our post-2020 climate targets, it being important because that is what is being negotiated in the international negotiations which will culminate in paris next year, a bout a year from now. we thought, the

joining me now is white house counselor john podesta.nks for joining me on what i know is a busy and exciting day at the white house. >> good afternoon, alex. nice to be with you. >> i guess i wonder from someone inside 1600 pennsylvania avenue, are you surprised at the level of vitriol coming at you guys for this decision not just from conservatives who are railing about amnesty, but from the likes of tom coburn suggesting there will be anarchy or violence and righting in the streets. >> that's wildly overstated, i think, and regrettable. i think what the president's trying to do tonight when he will address the american people is fix a broken immigration system, he will secure our border and deport felons, not families and try to do what he can within his authority which is well-established precedence and they've done this back to dwight eisenhower and president reagan and h.w. bush. he's operating under a legal opinion under the office of legal counsel and under the context of what previous presidents has done and that rhetoric is reg

. >> rose: we conclude this evening with al hunt on the story of john podesta, counseler to president>> the chain ease side has said that it would peak around 2030 but with try to do it earlier.

go back with john podesta, way before that. a a big week for us last week, no question. if you look back to the arc of what we were doing with china, 2,013 was already quite positive. we established a new working group in april of 2,013 on climate change and got a number of initiatives, significant ones launched. the president negotiated an agreement. so there was good momentum. we got together in january of 2014 wanting to think about what we could do next, how we could take this relationship forward in a significantly stepped up way sec. kerry secretary kerry was getting ready to go visit china. we kind of hit on the idea of trying to do a joint announcement of targets that would go all the way up to the presidential level, assuming that both sides looked at each other's proposals and felt comfortable. so i accompanied secretary kerry to china in february. i started talking to my counterpart at that time about this idea. sec. kerry talked to the president and the premier and others in china about this notion, and that started the conversation. the chinese were open to

john podesta, the counselor who came up with this agreement, is about to leave the white house. it's expected that he is going to work on the campaign of hillary clinton. and he basically wrote a plan that will have to be enacted by the next president. in many ways, if you look at this plan, this is candidate clinton's climate change policy. >> but a republican can come in and say scratch it. accident absolutely, absolutely, yes. >> absolutely, absolutely, yes. this plan depends on the next president continuing the path that president obama has taken, moving without congress, using executive authority, executive regulations. if we were to see a president clinton, probably the first -- we've seen so much of president obama's big regulations. we will only see more of that in any clinton presidency. gwen: coral, if we can forget the politics for a minute. what does it do to actually address the core problem of climate change? >> this is a really big deal. gwen: you've got about 15 seconds to tell us. >> the u.s. and china are the two -- are the world's two largest submitters. if th

i guess in some quarters-- has to be to the president, john kerry, the secretary of state, to john podestar whom it's been a priority at the white house. i think it's significance because one of the principal arguments against moving on carbon emissions has been that the united states, to act unilaterally, that would let china off the hook. and now with the united states and china, the two biggest polluters globally moving together, it puts pressure-- it blows the cover of those other countries. it puts pressure on india and other places. >> sreenivasan: david? >> i hope so. first, it's a big deal because we reached a major agreement with china. u.s.-china relations have been deteriorating, not because of anything the u.s. has done or barack obama has done because of what china has done. they've gotten more aggressive on fronts, in the ocean, and there were dangers the u.s. and china could have a much more hostile relationship. it's good to see some positive agreement. it's good to see goals. and i guess my question is what exactly-- what's changing? china promised in 15 years or a little

where we were, you before copenhagen the president was in a transition -- >> i was working for john podestaobama administration. >> the fact you have a full 12 months. i guess the question is, and you actually alluded to this earlier, i think given you have a unique perspective having been involved anyone here through copenhagen and now through the successor to copenhagen and will really be the lasting contribution here, you know, if you could just offer your thoughts about, first of all what copenhagen them by the lessons of copenhagen are your try to apply here. you talked a little bit about how the u.s.-china relationship has been. are there other things, i mean, that you think are important to maintain that you want to build on, and otherwise we think you will do things a little different? >> well, first of all, the process is quite different. as you said, we came in the end of january, 10 months, on to it very quickly moving train to try to deal with it, where as here we sort of see the underlying mandates and have been working through from early phases, central thesis in the early yea

i think john podesta has done a good job but he's going off with hillary clinton soon. >> but he created a czar one day and he sort of -- he sort of knocked him off the next day. here's the president of the united states to give us the real news. >> good after, everybody. have a seat. today i had a chance to speak with john boehner and congratulated mitch mcconnell on becoming the next senate majority leader. i told them both i look forward to finishing up this congress's agenda and working together to advance america's business. i appreciated leader mcconnell's words last night about the prospect of working together to deliver for the american people. on friday i look forward to hosting the entire republican and democratic leadership at the white house to chart a new course forward. obviously, republicans had a good night. and they deserve credit for running good campaigns. beyond, that i'll leave it to all of you and the professional pundits to pick through yesterday's results. what stands out to me, though, is that the american people sent a message. one that they've sent for several

and in a special white house counselor, john podesta has been working on behind the scenes for almost a year now. so if they can get this done, and you just mentioned there are lots of doubts as to whether or not they can do it, this would be a huge part of the president's legacy. i remember covering the president's first presidential campaign in 2008. if you asked president obama what was the one thing you wanted to do as president, he said tackle climate change above all of these other things he's done as president. so if it can get done, it will be a big deal for him. >> to have the u.s. and china being the two biggest offenders coming to a deal, that's a good start to say the least. jim, good checking in with you from china. >>> chris, so much international news to tell but this morning. several developing stories out of the middle east. escalating tensions in yemen, forcing u.s. officials to consider evacuated personnel from the embassy in the capital and iraqi security forces have retaken a key city back from isis fighters. that city is home to iraq's largest oil refinery and a

i was partway back at the beginning and go back with john podesta before that.ast week. if you look back to last or even the arc of what we were doing with china in 2013 was already quite positive and on a good path we established a new working group in april of 2013 on climate change and we got a number of initiatives, significant ones launched. the president negotiated an agreement on the hfc so there was a good momentum going forward and we got together in my office in january of 2014 and wanted to think about what we could do next and how we could take this relationship forward in a significant way and a step up way. secretary kerry was getting ready to go visit china in early february and after talking about a number of possibilities we had on the number of doing a joint announcement of the targets that would go all the way up to the presidential level assuming that both sides looked at each other's proposals and felt comfortable with it so i accompanied the secretary and started talking to my counterpart about the idea that the secretary talked to the pres