them afterwards with raul castro like dn them wit fidel. i don't know what is changing. >> neil, what did anybody think we would get from cuba? there wasn't a -- >> neil: you can say the same about north korea. no, no. you could not. they're not a nuclear power. frankly they were going to become a missile power -- >> neil: all the more reason to talk to north koreans. i'm not trying to tke sides here, steny. i'm trying to say if you look at this from the consistency perspective, you'd think your party would welcome talks, which been very open, the communication is best, to sit down with the other side, it's worth aneffort. a party that extolling the virtues of talking. it seems odd now that all of a sudden to a man or woman you guys are saying no, no, no. not this guy. >> no, we're not. i'm not saying that. i think sitting down, getting some -- making progress with north korea is important for the safety of the global community. he's a dangerous dictator he he and his father and grandfather -- >> neil: are you saying the president risks get

raul castro urged his economy to codify these changes into lawprivate businesses, from restau ra ntsappeared ever since he changed the rules. —— houses. these reforms will recognise the greater role in the new cu ban economy. recognise the greater role in the new cuban economy. there are other questions on the table as well, not least the issue of term limits. mr castro and fidel ruled for six decades. they will now only have two consecutive five—year terms. socially as well, cuba is changing. gay and lesbian rights have moved on a great deal since the repression of the 90s and 80s. the lbgtq led by raul‘s daughter believe they can change the laws. somethings will change. the social character of the political system was enshrined in law a couple of years ago. with raul castro leading the charge, nothing will change from the communist led revolution. 11 cities across russia are preparing to host fans from around the world for the world cup later this month. one of them is kazan. it's the largest city in the republic of tatarstan, a semi—autonomous region in central russia. the city is

the parliament, among them raul castro, observed a minute's silence for the 112 victims of the recentettled down to rewrite the constitution upon which the communist state is founded. it's no small undertaking. in stepping down from the presidency in april, raul castro urged the assembly to codify his economic changes into law. private businesses, from family—run restaurants to homes on aianb have cropped up in their thousands since he relaxed the rules. yet many business owners fear they have no legal protection under the constitution. these reforms would, at the very least, recognise their greater role in the new cuban economy. there are other questions on the table as well, not least the issue of term limits. mr castro and his older brother, fidel, ruled for the best part of six decades. their successors will be contained to just two consecutive five—year terms. socially as well, cuba is changing. gay and lesbian rights have moved on a great deal from the repression of the 1070s and 80s. the lbgtq rights lobby led by mr castro's daughter, mariella castro, is hopeful they can overtu

castro strategy. i'm not sure it's raul's strategy. who knows? he's a complete? we don't know much about him other than he was a protÉge of rodriguez and he's been around forever. >> so, have we already -- has a question already been answered can cuba's one-party system survive without castro's or is it too early to say that and roll is still head of the cuban military and head of the qmmonest party and the two mosi powerful organizations in cuba or has aggression been answered or not? what do you think? >> in think it can survive particularly because of us policy. i think as long as were in power ,in cuban and we had americans coming down and staying in these [inaudible] anything in private restaurants and binds veneers and there were 600,000 and i guess there still are people in the private sector you can hope for change and people were traveling more and more freedom to speak and things like that. to me is the way the cuban government will change is when people speak out when they begin to lose some of that fear and then you will have a widening of the cuban c

these are changes that fidel kasper schmeichel raul castro has wa nted kasper schmeichel raul castro constitution for some time. specifically in terms of the economy. he was a clear that cuba will move to a mixed and more mixed economy than the previous, com pletely economy than the previous, completely socialist economy. he wa nts completely socialist economy. he wants that reflected so perhaps small business owners that are permitted under cuban small business owners that are permitted under cu ban law small business owners that are permitted under cuban law have more legal representation under the constitution. there are other things also, particularly term limits on the president and all other high officials, age limits also. things that will make a difference to the way that cuba is run but not the underpinning philosophy. the political, socialist nature of the revolution is enshrined in law and they will not be touching that. revolution is enshrined in law and they will not be touching thatm is quite noticeable that the impact it has, when i was in havana last year, i noticed s

these are changes that raul castro has wanted to see codified in the constitution for some time now.ts it clear that cuba will be moving to a mixed, and more mixed economy than the previous com pletely more mixed economy than the previous completely communist socialist economy and he wants that reflect that so that perhaps the small business owners that are permitted under cuba law have a bit more legal representation under the cost of tuition. and there are other things too, particularly term limits on president, on the president, and on other high officials, age limits, too, things that will make a difference to the way that cuba is one but not the underpinning philosophy, the political philosophy, the political philosophy, the political philosophy, the socialist nature of the revolutionaries enshrined in law and obviously they won't be touching up. i mean, it is quite noticeable, you know, the impact it has, i mean, when i was in havana last year, i noticed that small businesses, small restau ra nt noticed that small businesses, small restaurant owners, were really trying to make

when the president was sitting there with raul castro i'm thering to myself, you are not equals with this man. >> do you understand why people feel like there's maybe bad faith or double standard here? >> this negotiationings with cuba, have you cuban people who have long been oppressed. >> so have the north koreans. >> except here with regards to cuba, we wereaking dozens of concessions and not getting reciprocation. that was a big issue. >> you were criticizing them sitting there as equals like that's the whole point. >> because we were sitting down with the cubans and we were making dozens of concessions on our part. >> he just sat down with kim. >> but president trump wasn't sitting down with kim jong-un and making dozens of concessions and not asking for anything in return. additionally, let's just say president trump did sit down to make dozens of concessions with kim jong-un. my problem with that situation is that kim jong-un similarly to the castr family, they won't deliver that sanctions relief to tear oppressed people. the way the system is in place in north korea similar t

i met probably 20 times with raul castro's son before president obama actually met with raul castro. you have no relationship you have to plow a lot of ground and set up a lot of the agenda before you put the president in that kind of situation. so i would advise doing more work. i'd also avoid, frankly, telegraphing that you need this deal. i worry when he is awarding himself the nobel peace prize and kind of declaring victory just because he's having the meeting, i worry that that sends a message to north korea that if they make some kind of hollow commitment to some day give up their nuclear weapons, that they could get what they want which is international legacy and sanctions relief without actually having a deal in place that accomplishes rolling back their nuclear program and that has inspections to see that they are keeping their commitments. >> so china may not be in the room for this negotiation, but they're the big elephant in the room trying to play an outsized role in any negotiations that might involve north korea or even in the asian region. in your book, you talk a li

but i met with raul castro ayson 20 times before we put obama in the room with raul castro. it took a lot of prep work, well over a year or two. what iouthis, what i feel happened here is that they were on a road to conflict. president moon in south korea was very uneasy with that. he took the initiative. he brought that back to the white house. but then trump kind of took this out of the hands of the south koreans and accelerated this process to get to this summit. normally you would have much longer lead time to develop the agenda, to figure out, as nicolle was saying, what are we trying to achthe meeting before we put the president in the room, how are we going to be positioned coming out of this. the south koreans took the initiative. trump wanted the show and here we all are. >> it wasn't just the south koreans. he literally took the south koreans out of chairman mcmaster's office. if you go back to how it actually happen it was a meeting that trump wasn't even supposed to participate it in. it have been someone with your job doing the groundwork. >> it's still not clea

castros. or is it too early to say that. obviously raulis still head of the cuban military and he's also head of the communist party. the two most powerful organizations in cuba. or has that question been answered or not. what do you think? >> well, i think it can survive, particularly because of u.s. policy. because i think as long as he were empowering the cuban people, as long as we had a lot of americans coming down staying in these polidares, eating in these restaurants and buying souvenirs and there were 600,000. i guess there still are people in the private sector. you could really hope for change. people were traveling more. people had more freedom to speak, things like that. and that, to me, is the way the cuban government will change is when people begin to speak out when they begin to lose some of that fear. and then you'll have a widening of the cuban communist party so you can have descent within the party. >> i actually think that the party made a very smooth transition from fidel to raul. i thought it was kind of genius the

these are changes that raul castro has wanted to see codified in the constitution for some time now. mixed, and more mixed economy than the previous completely communist socialist economy, and he wants that reflect that so that perhaps the small business owners that are permitted under cuba law have a bit more legal representation under the constitution. and there are other things too — particularly term limits on president, on the president, and on other high officials, age limits, too — things that will make a difference to the way that cuba is run, but not the underpinning philosophy, the political philosophy, the socialist nature of the revolutionaries enshrined in law and obviously, they won't be touching that. 11 cities across russia are preparing to host fans from around the world for the world cup later this month. one of them is kazan. it's largest city in the republic of tatarstan, a semi—autonomous region in central russia. the city is home to half a million muslims and restaurant owner aydar is getting ready to welcome fans, ensuring that the muslim ones from iran and els

the cuban president, miguel diaz—canel, has announced that a team led by his predecessor, raul castroeform the constitution and formalise economic reforms of the past decade. among the proposals are the introduction of presidential term limits and the legalisation of same—sex marriage. the government has stressed, however, that the nature of socialism in cuba will be maintained. spain's new socialist prime minister, pedro sanchez, has been sworn in at a ceremony in madrid. catalonia's new regional government also took office during the day and immediately called for talks with mr sanchez. don't forget, you can keep up to date all with the latest news, business and sport on our website. for reaction and analysis, including updated live pages and reports from our correspondents based in over 80 locations around the globe, just go to bbc.com/news, or you can download the bbc news app. now, if you're afraid of confined spaces, this might leave you feeling a little bit anxious. a french performance artist has embarked on a "less—than—comfortable" trip back in time by locking himself in a w

raul castro. what's next shakes hands with north korea dictator kim jong n jong-un. then yesterday this. president trump is the real deal maker and is successfully moving north korea in the right direction with maximum pressure campaign and working towards denuclearization. maximum pressure? >> maximum pressure is done. once you say he's a lovely guy, funny guy, talented guy. so that policy is over. >> beyond just the flattery, they decided not to do the sanctions. he decided not to impose more sanctions because he wanted to make sure the ground was fertile. >> the biggest instrument we ever had of pressure was the military exercises. once you take that off the table, there is no pressure anymore. i make a prediction. there will start to be pressure from china and south korea to remove the existing sanctions or ease up on the sanctions on north korea so kim jong-un can begin to repair the damaged economy. there is going to be a lot of pressure. from china and south korea's point of view they will

. >> the hypocrisy from democrats, barack obama goes to cuba and has a baseball game with raul castro billions of dollars to the irani and mullahs, opens american banking systems, you can't get that money back but the double standard, donald trump, the first of 9 innings, the first quarter, democrats, fire and fury, my gun is bigger than yours, he's a warmonger but all of a sudden has a piece summit and their freaking out that he is weak. patty: 1 of our guests trying to do that. we pointed out cuba to him. those were not the only scandals that plagued the obama administration, four americans killed in the benghazi attack in 2012 and the fast and furious operation that puts thousands of guns in the hands of criminals. kid rock hopes his endorsement can catapult this candidate to victory. the rocker appearing at an event with john james of michigan. the veteran is looking to replace democrat debbie stabber no in november. he is confident james can win. >> in this country we do the hard things. in this country we do the right thing. we need combat veterans on the floor the senate who un

although many of the brief i got from fidel and raul castro was that economic cooperation was the most important thing and immediately afterwards fidel even told me in writing that i was to prevent any discussion between the party in east germany and the party in cuba. it was a difficult task the ambassador was informed of fights and stabbings almost every weekend. or so. but they were the result of the culture shock experienced by the young cubans and the young germans they also occurred on saturday nights when everyone was out drinking and dancing. these clashes didn't just affect cubans algerians and yugoslavs were also affected your going to follow you were wrong but the calls came in about fights all over the place it was like a world war. where i got to know i mean we had. been socialist cuba the hostilities the contract workers were exposed to in east germany remain a taboo topic to this day. that's particularly true of the fatal events in master book in august nine hundred seventy nine. nevertheless we did manage to find someone and have anna who was actually there marcello fig

neil: have we gotten anything with raul castro and the changes with the castro leader. >> fidel castrogo. neil: i didn't see advancements with the new leader with raul and earlier with fidel, i don't know if anything is changing. >> what does anybody feel we were going to get from cuba. neil: and you could say the same about north korea. >> no, no, you could not. they're not a nuclear power. neil: all right. that was with the number two ranking democrat, steny hoyer who kept calling me larry, that's okay. and everyone was enraged about sitting down with the north korean leader even though when the talks were temporarily canceled they were enraged we weren't talking to the north korean leader and a lot came from the same people who said it was good to talk to even those we might not like because the heads of countries with whom we must be talking, period. and that was fine, or when barack obama reached out to the cuban leader raul castro to normallize relations, even though that was, too, as politics was played, universally panned by republicans and now universally panned by the same de

kim and hisather and grandmother all so barack obama goes to cuba and has a baseball game with raul castroruthless dictator. not only that he sends billions of dollars in cash to the iranian mullah's, and can get that money back. donald trump as you mentied, this is a first of nine innings. this isof the first four, and by the way democrats from donald trump said, my button is bigger than yours. while he's a warmonger and all of a sudden he has a peace summit. >> craig, you are a reagan biographer extraordinary and anyone who has to understand reagan is going to read your book. i believe it was on msnbc, and she was talking about the reagan comparison. let's watch. >> reagan did exactly the opposite of what we are were talking about with trump. he was able to find a way to negotiate with the soviets to be extremely tough with the soviets and also toe a line, and a that is bad. so trump -- >> she is exactly wrong because both trump talked tough and then engage the enemy. ronald reagan talked tough about sylvia and then engage the enemy. that's what you understood, to get up and dealing from

barack obama goes to cuba and has a baseball game with raul castro, a ruthless dictator. billions of $ on pallets full of cash to the iranian mole eyes. you can't get that money back, richard. the double standard here, donald trump, this is the first of nine innings. this is the first foray into peace. democrats, when donald trump said fire and fury in my button is bigger than yours, they were like him he's a warmonger. but he has a peace summit and they are freaking out that he is weak and going to give this doorway. >> crag, you are a reagan bipher extraordinaire. susan glasser of the new yorker today i on msnbc if my memory serves me right. she was talking about the reagan comparison. let's watch. >> reagan did exactly the opposite of what we are talking about with trump. he was able to find to negotiate with the soviets to be extremely tough with the soviets and also to preserve a line a vision of human rights and democracy. >> laura: trump obviously -- >> she is exactly wrong. speech would tl us why. >> both trump talk tough and engage the enemy they ud you have to d

the opening to cuba, i must have it 20 meetings with castro, raul castro's son before we put barack obama in the room and in north korea you are talking about issues of nuclear program and what is their program and what do we put in place in inspections and do with our sanctions and very intricate details and frankly i don't think president trump has done the necessary preparation to have this successful summit. >> low expectations. you are speaking before the iran nuclear deal which the president ripped up. you were part of the team that put that deal together and now a senate report from republicans are saying the obama administration, you served in the obama administration, actively misled congress about an -- an effort to help iran before the deal was signed get access to $5.7 billion held in -- and the treasury department would lift sanctions for the one-time deal and they are angry that you did this and they say you never informed congress about it. >> no, look, jack lew said -- >> he was the treasury secretary. >> yes. and we said we'll have to find ways to help iran get access to

i must have met 20 time with castro's son before we put president obama in the room with raul castro. so they're having this meeting quickly. it doesn't seem like president trump has done a lot of preparation, and they haven't been clear about what they're ying to achieve. they keep saying they're going to succeed, but we don't know what that test is for them, and there's a lot of uncertainty coming out of this. >> and to peter baker, how damaging do you think the president's treatment of the allies was to people trusting him on the world go one on one against kim jong-un? >> yeah, it's a great question. look, if you're a negotiator coming into this, what you saw this weekend is an american delegation that came to an agreement on a communique, they were very hard on a couple of the points that they wanted to make, and in the end, all seven signed off on it. and then suddenly, the president at the last minute, unsigns off on it in effect. so what trust do you have in a negotiator other than the president? what that tells you, the only person that can make a deal on behalf of donald tru

obama shakes hands with dictator raul castro, next shakes hands with kim jong-un she suggested and yesterdayid feeling great. obama failed in his diplomacy in dealing with cuba. gave it all to raul and expected nothing in return. president trump is the real deal maker and is successful moving north korea in the right direction with maximum pressure campaign and working towards denuclearization. >> this really -- that sounds like a propaganda arm, absolutely. when you're basically saying our guys can do everything, but the other guys to everything wrong. >> all right. bill, brian, thank you very much for explaining all of this to us today. >>> we're following a lot of news let's get right to it. >> he is absolutely committed to get airtight verification on this. >> this is the most anemic and very little substance on anything. >> i support stopping the exercises. >> with the money we spend training with our allies, its money well spent. >> the fact that we spent about the brink from a nuclear war is a positive step. >> he's got a great personality. he loves his people. >> he obviously doesn't

when you think about it as a handshake think of when president obama shook raul castro's hand there had been a lot of back and forth. president reagan invited unsavory types to the white house. in general this comes down to the president of the united states as commander in chief can do whatever he wants in the same way he can declassify information. i will be curious to see what the historical analogies are. did eisenhower -- what was his relationship with the salute and saluting unsavory types? what is clear from president trump is he will not let human rights cloud any negotiations. he made clear that human rights weren't on the agenda. it is such a stark departure from long standing republican orthodox. remember president bush always brought up human rights. president trump not so much. >> a very busy morning at the pentagon. now we have develops news on michael cohen. sources tell us he will split with his legal team as scrutiny around him builds. new questions about what that means for potential cooperation with federal prosecutors. the president's current personal lawyer rudy giu

let's not forget president obama just two years ago went and shook the hand in cuba of raul castro. and then -- dagen: while there is at terror attack at one of our allies in europe. it was the same day he sat on the baseball game doing the wave is one of our allies is being attacked by terrorists. maria: we want to remind people of that. your thoughts in terms of legitimizing kim jong un. >> that's an important point. up until now was only north koreans making sanctions. making denuclearization pledges. and all of a sudden, we make a big concession, which is this meeting. that is a loss of leverage for us. to make that loss of leverage acceptable, we should have gotten something more in return. i think that is certainly not it irreversible loss on our part because essentially we can put pressure on north korea and china and russia. right now president trump is working uphill. he did need to do that. maria: he did mention the destruction by north korea agreeing to destroy the site which you brought up at least twice during a press conference. >> and that is important. nonetheless, t

you even saw it with president obama when he shook raul castro's hands in 2013. that was a bit of a controversy. the general rule here seems to be that you can blunder more by not returning a salute. but the rules that apply to saluting, again, this is a long road trip for you and me. you can salute outdoors but not indoors. was the president indoors? he was on a veranda. was he covered? there's so many different rules to this. the takeaway is he's the commander in chief, and he can probably do what he sees fit. >> all right. hans, thanks very much. >>> coming up next, what's being done to protect the children separated from their parents at the borders. i'm going to talk about this policy with a top official from u.s. customs and border protection. >>> and an historic milestone in the auto industry. general motors will become the first major car company to have a woman ceo and a woman cfo. the new chief financial officer is the woman on the left. she's going to join the ceo, the woman on the right, mary barra, to lead gm in september. this is a logical promotion

meetings with them that would eight or nine hours before we put president obama in the room with raul castro. the fact is when you haven't talked to a country for decades and you have no relationship with the leader of that country and yes, he's a bit of an enigma with us. the idea that you would know within the first minute how is this going to go. that makes no sense in the context of the history of diplomacy. the fact is this is really complicated. this is a good deal? i haven't heard president trump articulate what he's trying to achieve here. if you go into a meeting and you don't know what you're going to get out of that meeting you're less likely to achieve something. my guess is, sure, we will give up our nuclear weapons, we'll denuclearize, but there's nothing underneath it. >> well, to your point not knowing exactly what the end goal is of this particular meeting. this president has lowered all of the expectations. >> yeah. >> he said it's going to take several meetings to get a deal. who do you think, ultimately, ben, is holding the bigger cards? and how badly does president trump

. >> he shook raul castro's hand, dave, and you made it sound like he took him to the prom. >> i didgroup when you're on this show, guys. you have to take the whole right and van has to take the whole left. he'll have his time, don't worry. >> i'm on cnn, not fox. >> and we're happy to have you here. re's what we're pointin o to you. van, finish your point, please. >> listen, language matters. positioning matters. i remember when bill clinton had to go and get somebody from north korea, or maybe it was al gore had to get somebody, i can't remember who it was -- >> bill clinton went to deal with the two journalists. >> right, bill clinton went over there, and he made sure he had the most dour countenance the entire time. he didn't even want a photograph of him smiling next to the president. he was sending clear signals. this is a horrible person, i am doing it for political expedience. he didn't say you're honorable, you're great, everybody loves you. if president obama had used that language, it would have been bedlam across the entire spectrum because youon't them. you don't have to

i met 20 times with castro's son before we put president obama in the room with raul castro. they had a more accelerated time line. that is giving kim all the rewards before they've taken any action. >> and some of that, mara is how desperately the president needs this win politically. some of that isn't because there aren't people around him that understand. i have to believe that people like mike pompeo, i wonder if you guys jump in if you agree. there are people who understand the value of those 20 premeetings. very few preconditions have been met other than the release of the detainees. this is not just a meeting about foreign policy. this is about donald trump's political survival. he has said to friends he plans on taking a win in north korea to the voters. that's their med term message. that's all they've got. >> that's what's so terrifying in part. wee going to this, if we're thinking about this realistically, we know enough about president trump he's not going to come home and say that he failed. he's going to call this a win no matter what. >> he has rick perry over

couldn't help thinking about watching that is i remember the first meeting president obama had with raul castro, for instance. we made very certain that in that press availability they had president obama said we're going to continue to have differences. we had to say something that got at the fact that just because we have a meeting doesn't mean we agree with everything. we obviously had differences with cuba on human rights. i didn't hear anything about that from donald trump. i just heard how great it is to be there, an honor. second thing, is the north koreans have the state-run media. they can splice that footage any way they want. so they just g the president of the united states of america sayings it was an on to sit do with kim jong un. his father, his grandfather never achieved that. he just accomplished something neither his father nor grandfather achieved. >> clapping him on the back, holding him by the arm and smiling and giving him the thumbs up. >> that will run in a loop on north korean television. >> at end of the cold ware found out that eric honor kerr, the last dictator of ea

an american flag and cuban flag in cuba with raul castro. president in singapore with kim jong-un with both of the flags. we deal with horrible people because we're hoping the for solutions. we lifted sanctions in myanmar because we were hopeful. we deal with awful people because mother teresa and the pope don't have nuclear weapons. it's these awful people that have these things. it's a terrible situation. horrible human rights. i agree with matt and karen. it was a start. we don't know where this is going to lead. north korea has been deceitful before. and probably deceitful this time. but this is an important start. >> unfortunately, we're out of time. thank you for being here. thanks to "the roundtable." we'll be back in 60 seconds with the moment of hope and goodwill on the baseball field this week in washington. >>> before we go this morning, we wanted to wish a very happy father's day to republican congressman steve scalise of louisiana. you see him there making the first play at this week's congressional baseball game one year after

this is something that you had said about when you're critiquing president obama meeting with raul castro to say as a critique which represented a lot of republican party critique of that effort. take a listen. >> the castro regime is made up of bad dangerous people. if president obama wants to help oppressed cuban people, he doesn't have to kiss the ring of raul castro in the process. when the president was sitting there with raul castro i'm thering to myself, you are not equals with this man. >> do you understand why people feel like there's maybe bad faith or double standard here? >> this negotiationings with cuba, have you cuban people who have long been oppressed. >> so have the north koreans. >> except here with regards to cuba, we were making dozens of concessions and not getting the reciprocation. that was a big issue. >> you were criticizing them sitting there as equals like that's the whole point. >> because we were sitting down with the cubans and we were making dozens of concessions on our part. >> he just sat down with kim. >> but president trump wasn't sitting down with kim

a few moments ago, if barack obama when he went to that baseball game and a blocked hands with raul castroand others had a field day. the president is now sitting down for short ribs and vanilla ice cream and his stomach the dictator is starting his own people. >> can i contrast the two? in one case, you have the president who is going to the present complication nation of cuba, watching the baseball game sitting next to the dictator, doing the way of. that's when you legitimize the dictatorship. in contrast today, where there is a very stiff protocol event. i watched they were playing cricket down here yesterday. why are they here? to stop nuclear war. why that's a big difference. very big difference between that and saying, i'm here to try to prevent nuclear war. i think the comparison just doesn't sit. >> ed: you've heard the perspective from the trump camp. dr. sebastian gorka came here with our own sean hannity, and has been on this program. you will be hearing his analysis tomorrow night. sean hannity was all over this. by the way, my colleague sean hannity interviewing the president

remember the baseball game attended by obama and raul castro? it was a very friendly meeting.here, too. there she is in havana, shaking hands with the foreign minister bruno rodriguez. and very little criticism of the disastrous iran nuke deal. cuba and iran, fine, but trump bringing north korea to the table? bad. and let's not forget nancy pelosi's response to the very successful trump growth plan. $1,000 bonuses were crumbs she said, and the historic low unemployment rate is unspeakable. must deny prosperity. it's come to this. five months to the election, and there's an element of desperation among democrats. they can't admit to any trump success, even though it's staring them in the face. who's looking out for america? isn't peace and prosperity good for us all? the third hour of "varney & co." is about to begin. . stuart: well, you heard my rant, i call it editorial. reaction from list peek, a columnist for foxnews.com. cozying up to cuba and iran, but, oh, you go near kim jong-un and it's terrible. >> superseded the risk from iran, certainly, though they were trying to g

. >> it is the castro's that control the military, i mean, raul retains his commander of the armed forces. the guy who runs the military sort of corporate industrial complex, is the ex- son-in-law with whom he's very close. this is-- interestingly and i have frequently told people that brought rule castro is sort of cuba's ceo because the military runs a so much stuff you don't imagine the military runs. they run hotels and cars, restaurants. they run everything. >> here is the thing. there's one really strong institution in cuban as a military, second behind it is the party, so you have to have those institutions change and how many of those institutions change? they change because they are forced to buy that economy and that's when you begin to get opening. that's when you have raul buddy 600,000 people going to the private sector and let cubans travel without having to have permission in advance. that's what you have to have. you have to have economic reform and that is possible. that is possible, i mean, you have to have unification of the currency, a change in the way that bureaucrac

it has a lot of resonance in florida and how he stood up to raul castro after obama gave away the storenk it's a critical endorsement. i'm honored to have his support. voters will say desantis is fighting the good fight. he is an iraq veteran and the president's endorsement, good enough for me. >> sandra: speaking of which things you've been working with the president on congress, immigration, fixing the crisis at our border. what is next in this heated debate in washington, congressman? >> if you want to deal with the border it is simple. you can do a targeted bill that people like mark meadows and ted cruz have offered that would say if people are coming illegally across the border not through a port of entry you keep the family together, you do a speedy asylum adjudication, most of these asylum claims aren't valid and so you do it and you can repatriate the family as a family unit. what the democrats want to do is they want to say any adult who crosses the border illegally, if they have a minor with them, then they should be released into american society. so they want to institution