joining me right now is cnn's national political reporter peter hamby in washington. t be good news. of course he has not been convicted, this is strictly an indictment, meaning the case can go forward, but what is it that the governor is likely to say in this 3:00 scheduled press conference? >> well, we've already gotten signals from perry's legal team that they're going to fight these charges aggressively. i expect perry to come out and say this is -- you know, these are charges in a democratic county, travis county is where this grand jury was 'em impanelled. that county is a fleck of blue in a sea of red. it's a hub of liberalism in the state. the travis county district attorney who runs the public integrity in the state has often clashed with perry and the republicans who have power in the state house in texas. so i expect him to come out strong. we've already seen other republicans rally to his side. ted cruz, who's actually not, you know, one of perry's best friends, to put it lightly, already came out attacking this indictment saying that it's flimsy. we've eve

with us to share reporting and insights maeve reston, manu raju, peter hamby and maggie haberman of politico. u.s. war planes over the skies in iraq with a green light to target islamist terrorists, their orders issued about i a president to counts ending the iraq war as his proudest achievement and insists he's not about to start another. >> american troops will not be returning to fight in iraq because there is no american military solution to the larger crisis in iraq. >> why? this is a question a lot of people are asking, why did the president clearly reluctant do this? the white house says it's for humanitarian reasons, to protect americans. lot say if you're going to go in, do something more decisive than this. >> absolutely, there's a huge debate over that as we see that roll out over the next couple of months. lot are arguing he should have gone in sooner, should have done more than he's dealing with everybody on the left who doesn't want further engagement in iraq and it was so interesting in his statement this week that you just saw that hesitance and the fact that he did not want

peter hamby., peter. let's imagine if we were part of the lovely people invited to this party this evening. a lot of democratic all-stars on the vineyard. who and what would we see? >> no sarcasm, by the way there, from eric schultz at the white house at all. look, tonight, obviously the president is vacationing in martha's vineyard. vernon jordan throwing a party tonight for his wife and jordan. vernon jordan, powerful attorney, long-time clinton confidante. it happens that hillary clinton is going to be there, as well, signing copies of her book as part of this never-ending hillary clinton book tour. she is vacationing -- >> no sarcasm there, as well. >> in the hamptons. none. but look, you know, obviously the political world is watching, because they're trying to see how hillary clinton is going to calibrate as she decides to run for president. her relationship with president obama, the comments to jeffrey goldberg in the "atlantic" were certainly newsy. it is going to be fascinating to watch h

i want to see, guys, do we have peter hamby who can join us now? i believe we do. peter, i hope you can hear me. let's go straight to governor perry and we'll bring you in on the back side. >> thank you all for coming out here today. as governor, i took an oath to faithfully uphold the constitution of the state of texas. a pledge that i have kept every day as i have worked on behalf of texans for the last 14 years. that's the same constitution that clearly outlines the authority of any governor to veto items at his or her discretion. just as i have, following every legislative session during my service as governor, i exercised this authority to veto funding for an office whose leadership had lost the public's confidence by acting inappropriately and unethically. i wholeheartedly and unequivocally stand behind my veto and i'll continue to defend this lawful action of my executive authority as governor. we don't settle political differences with indictments in this country. it is outrageous that some would use partisan political theatrics to rip away at the very fabri

our reporter peter hamby is following the story. take us back to the start of this whole thing.. she has the integrity unit. they investigate public corruption cases. after the drunk driving arrest, perry threatened to veto $7.5 million of state funding for this unit. that raised alarming for a left-leaning watch dog group that filed an ethics complaint. special prosecutor spent months with the grand jury bringing witnesses into the ethics complaint. last night, he dropped a two-count indictment. one was abuse of power and coercion. arguing it was inappropriate for perry to use state money to threaten the district attorney to resign. perry's people were saying this was fully within his constitutional authority. they are saying politics are at play in travis county which is liberal. this is where austin, the capital of texas is. they are vowing to fight very, very hard against this, christi. but look, this really threatens his presidential prospects. i'm not going to say yet it is fatal. we don't know how it plays out. the word indictment is going to be associated with rick perry

let's bring in peter hamby. he is here with us as a senior washington correspondent, joe johns. r and we expect that he may be coming out in just the next few minutes, he is planning on speaking before he goes in to be finger-printed, to be booked, to take his mug shot. he is speaking after he comes out, we have learned. so what does that say about what he is trying to get out of this? >> this is the opposite of how chris christie reacted to the scandal, which is go into bunker mode for about a week. rick perry is rather embracing this head-on. we were just talking about this before. >> i'm sorry to interrupt you, peter. he is arriving right now. we will turn our attention there to the travis county courthouse and watch him walk up an speak to the crowd. >> reporter: he is nearing the podium where he expect him to make several public comments, then go inside and be booked. rs here is the governor. >> so that is governor rick perry. you hear local reporters give their reports. this is certainly not the normal arrival of someone at the courthouse there in travis county texas. >> i'