michael hirsch is chief correspondent for the "national journal."e right back. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> if you believe in state's rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> do you think that there is any chance we'll see this president even say the words "carbon tax"? >> with an open mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. >> but you mentioned "great leadership" so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv. this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks ra

i want to bring in michael hirsch, chief correspondent for the national joussh national jo the articleits nerve" and the reluctance to deal with the chinese. and now let's talk about the relationship of the two leaders and why you are arguing that the u.s. is reluctant to deal with china. >> well, first, let's look at what came before this sunnylands summit which is about a lot of hack talk between the leaders who are meeting for the first time. chuck hagel the defense secretary recently went to a regularly scheduled meeting in singapore and got an earful from the chinese about the so-called u.s. pivot to asia which is countering chinese influence, and we have stories railing in washington about scyber securit, and the surveillance state which is a big issue between the u.s. and china as well, and the point is that underlying what is going to be, you know, a nice photogenic summit in california are a lot of tensions that are still disturbing the u.s./china relationship, and they are far from being resolved. >> and as you know, three lawmakers are introducing a bill punishing hackers ba

michael hirsch was in that square last month. he joins us for perspective.ple are saying we have a genuine movement on our hands in turkey. is that what you see? >> well, it certainly looks that way. it has echoes of the arab spring, in spite of the fact that as richard was just saying, this is a very different country, much more modern, not nearly as islamist. in fact, that's one of the issues here, is the islamist nature of the government. but there's no question. istanbul is one of the premier tourist spots in the world. the square features a maile-lon promenade with shops and really modern stores, kabob stands, ice cream stands. you see an incredible variety of people there normally. it's very peaceful. so this is a very shocking sight at the heart of this city. >> yeah, michael, and we know according to the reports thus far, this is different, as you said, in many ways from the arab spring. different in the type of country it's occurring in, different in the fact there is an elected government. yet, some of the tactics at a smaller scale do obviously se

joining me in the interim is michael hirsch, chief correspondent.et's start out with this brand-new interview with edward snowden. he insists he's hiding out and continues to hide out in hong kong. what do you make of the interview and words of them? >> frankly, tamron, he sounds like a very naive young man. i don't know what he thinks he's going get in terms of protection from hong kong, but there is an extradition treaty with the united states with the exception for political crimes. i don't think anyone is going to be seeing this as a political crime. i think he's likely to be charged with espionage and possibly tree zon. an extradition request will go through and it's highly luckily that the hong kong government backed by the united states will send him back to the u.s. so he's making a stand now with these statements, but i think he is perhaps deluding himself if he thinks that this small former british colony is going to afford him any protection. >> he's also aware of some people questioning his choice of hong kong to seek justice. he acknowl

national journal michael hirsch, we haven't gotten to the snowden story yet today.hy putin is loving it. whatever putin may be saying now about not wanting to harm the business-like character of our relations with the u.s., it is evident that russia's foreign policy is largely shaped by its leader's desire to meddle with america and its power around the world. he has hilt business entire rise to power on the idea of resurrecting the prestige and geopolitical impact of his former employer. some russia experts say the truth is even simple plefr than that. putin is essentially still the street tough he was when he was raised in the poor section of st. petersburg. his world view has been mostly shaped by that upbringing and his career in the kgb when his job was to oppose u.s. power and influence. >> everybody that knows putin says he is driven by resentment of the united states. this snowden situation is absolutely a dream come true for him. >> sure, it's back to the future for putin. he's a guy whose entire life is shaped in the '60s and the '70s. the ussr as mika jus