>> not on your life i'm not going to apologize for unconstitutional, unthought out action as somebody has been united states senate for 60-some days. >> schieffer: we'll hear more from kerry and cotton's explanation of why he did it. plus democratic joe manchin and elijah cummings on that and the week's other news. plus report on state of race relations in america. because this is "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs man we begin with margaret brennan's interview as he prepared to leave egypt fly to switzerland for the talks. she asked him flatly had the cotton letter put the talks in jeopardy? >> i don't know yet. when i negotiate for the first time on sunday night with foreign minister i'll have better sense. what i do know that this letter was absolutely calculated directly to interfere with these negotiations. it specifically inserts itself directly to the leader of another country saying don't negotiate because we're going to change this. which, by the ways not only contrary to constitution with respect to the executive's right to negotiate but incorrect because they ca

. >> i will not apologize for an unconstitutional unthought out action by somebody in the senate for 67 days. >> correspondent nick robertson following the latest. nic, any sense of how it is going? >> reporter: it is hard to tell how it is going. they have another couple weeks to hammer out the framework to put flesh on the bones and get final agreement by the end of june. we are not in the final hurdle. we heard from secretary kerry over the weekend. he thinks there are technical issues but he feels this is more about a situation of political judgment. for his part iranian foreign minister saying this round of talks is more technical. one way we look at this sunday the two were supposed to sit down together but when secretary kerry arrived in switzerland, he decided because of a meeting of deputies earlier in the day a lot of ground had been covered. it was determined that kerry and zariff would get briefings from the teams. it doesn't speak to the speedy situation. a look at today, he expected later today to go to brussels to brief the british, french and germans about how the tal

. >> i will not apologize for the unconstitutional unthought out action by somebody in senate for 67 days. that is inn an appropriate. >> we have nic robertson following the developments for us. nic. >> reporter: secretary kerry before the meeting today over the weekend said he believes that the situation with the talk was iranians is like this that there are some technical issues to discuss with iranian foreign minister but it is a matter of political judgments. two weeks now is the deadline to get that framework agreement and final agreement by the end of june this year. however, when you listen to what the iranian foreign minister said, he feels this is still a lot of technical issues to get through here. both men were due to meet sunday evening. they did not. the deputies met earlier in the day. off to brucessels today to brief the germans and french. you get a sense they did not meet yesterday and a session this morning. it doesn't seem they are close to that framework agreement. >> nic robertson, thanks. >>> breaking overnight, three teenage boys out on bail in london after cau

he says an unthought out action by someone who has been in the united states senate for some 60 days.lking about senator cotton. he's also obviously condemning all republicans who signed onto this letter. what do you think? >> i think this is really a critical issue. we look to the fact that iran represents a threat to our national security. everyone agrees that iran should not be permitted to get a nuclear weapon. how do we get there and ensure the safety of our country while they pursue a nuclear weapon is of great importance. at the same time they've been pursuing missile technology that would reach the united states. that's not even part of the negotiations. beyond the criticism of the letter itself, i think the substance of the letter is very important. that is the issue that the president has been subject to bipartisan criticism and that he's said any deal he reaches with iran he does not intend to take to the united states senate which by the constitution the president doesn't have the ability to bind our nation unless he takes the aid deal with another nation to the senate for

tonight -- >> i'm not going to apologize for an unthought out, for splb who's been in the senate for 60-some days. >> that's why it's so important we communicated this message. >>> later -- >> 71-year-old robert durst is back behind bars. >> hopefully the lapd will keep him there. >> did not tell the whole truth. nobody tells the whole truth. >>> plus getting ready for another long dry summer. california is so water-squeezed right now. >>> and -- >> americans will december like rats on a shift. >> reporter: the u.s. embassy could be opening in cuba as early as april 10th. >>> thanks for watching. in just nine hours the people of israel will led to the polls. right now the race for israeli prime minister is razor close. benjamin netanyahu warned supporters on sunday he may lose in tuesday's election. never before have we seen an election play out in america as this has. he made international headlines after slamming the iranian nuclear deal in an address to congress. it was supposed to work. the prime minister was hoping the speech would give him a big jump in the polls. well, that di

i'm not going to apologize for the-- for an unconstitutional, unthought out action by somebody hohas been in the united states senate for 60-some days. that's just inappropriate. i will explain very clearly that congress does not have the right to change an exclusive agreement. >> reporter: sunday will be the first face-to-face meeting since that political firestorm erupted, and kerry told me that up to this point, negotiators havehave made progress on limiting iran's nuclear technology, but now it's time for some tough political decisions. >> axelrod: margaret brennan traveling with the secretary of state in egypt. margaret, thank you. and you can see more of margaret's interview with secretary kerry tomorrow morning on "face the nation" when one of bob schieffer's guests will be senator tom cotton who wrote the letter to the rawnlz government. newly released footage shows how a baby was rescued from a submerged car. and remembering the dancing machine who stole the show "the gong show" when the cbs evening news continues. >> axelrod: last saturday on this broadcast, we reported on

. >> i'm not going to apologize for the unconstitutional unthought out action has been the senate for some 60 days. >> vicki: these senators are claiming that nuclear negotiations with i ran should be legislative as well of involving at the white house. >> there is growing and significant bipartisan say that want to the word in the iran negotiations. >> vicki: robert wilson the third a police officer was shot and killed during a robbery at a video game store and people are paying their respects. >> reporter: a final farewell for one of philadelphia's finest. saturday morning on march through west philadelphia . friend's family and officers from departments across the country are all coming together to pay respects to one man: philadelphia art police officer robert wilson the third. >> officer wilson was willing to take the heat and sacrifice his life. >> reporter: inside the store by himself he fought two armed robbers. >> he laid down his life for people in that store. >> i've been in policing for 46 years and i have never witnessed an act of bravery like i saw that day. >> reporter:

i'm not going to apologize for the unconstitutional and unthought out action by someone who's been in the united states senate for 60 some day nchs that's inappropriate. >> nearly one week later the man who wrote the letter says he's got no regrets. >> are you planning to contact any other of our adversaries around the country? for example, do you plan to check with the north koreans to make sure that they know that any deal has to be approved by the congress? >> right now ai am focussed on stopping iran from getting a nuclear weapon. that's why it's important that we communicated to them. we sent a clear message to a regime. we didn't coddle or conciliate with them. we told them that the american people 71% of the american people in a recent poll will not accept a deal. >> how funny. do you plan to contact anymore of your enemies? mitch mcconnell said he ain't saying he's sorry either and says it was appropriate to warn iran that congress has to be involved in any deal. >>> let's turn to business. the dow and s&p fell for the third straight week. meanwhile the price of oil continues

i'm not going to apologize for an unconstitutional and unthought-out action for someone in the united states senate for 160 some days. that's just inappropriate. >> pelley: kerry also told correspondent brennan he wouldcorres be willing to negotiate with syria's dictator, bashar al- assad, to remove him from power and end syria's civil war. today assad told iranian tv only syrians can decide his future. the civil war began four years ago in syria as a popular uprising against assad.ee more than 215,000 have been killed. nearly four million have fled the country. half of them children. yet in the face of unrelenting brutality, heroes have emerged. and clarissa ward went to syria to meet them. >> reporter: when the bombs rain down on syria, these are thers brave volunteers who run in. nicknamed "the white helmet," they claw and saw their way through the rubble to save those buried beneath. here a two-week-old baby trapped under a flattened house for 16 hours is pulled out alive. at a training session in atr neighboring country, the volunteers learned how to break through concrete and pu

>> not on your life i'm not going to apologize for unconstitutional, unthought out action as somebodyn united states senate for 60-some days. >> schieffer: we'll hear more from kerry and cotton's

. >> not on your life i am not going to apologize for an unthought out action by somebody who has been in the united states sen fatate for 60 some days. this letter was absolutely calculated directly to interfere with these negotiations. >>> secretary kerry and iranian counterpart are meeting right now in switzerland. they are working to reach an agreement limiting iran's nuclear program by the end of the month. now it is time for a look at who is talking. former chairman of the joint chief of staff insists iran is a bigger threat than isis. >> do you fear iran long-term more than isis? >> i do. actually i think iran is a much more difficult challenge and incredibly complex country that we don't understand very well. we have had no relations with them for 35 years. there's a complexity inside that country that is represented by enormous tension on the part of president rouhani who considered to be a reformer is some what a surprise selected as president and the ideological faction led by supreme leader and it is the supreme leader in his ideological group if you will that lead in the j

tonight -- >> i'm not going to apologize for an unthought out, for splb who's been in the senate fort we communicated this message. >>> later -- >> 71-year-old robert durst is back behind bars. >> hopefully the lapd will keep him there. >> did not tell the whole truth. nobody tells the whole truth. >>> plus getting ready for another long dry summer. california is so water-squeezed right now. >>> and -- >> americans will december like

i'm not going to apologize for the -- for an unconstitutional, unthought out action by somebody that's been in the united states senate for 60-some days. that's just inappropriate. >> secretary kerry and his iranian counterpart held five hours of talks today in switzerland. one u.s. official telling "reuters" rat the iranian delegation raised the cotton letter and called it ill-timed and ill-advised. late this afternoon i spoke to senator joe manchin of west virginia. so, senator manchin on this issue of the letter that 47 republicans signed last week the negotiations are resuming now in switzerland. do you think that switzerland could effect those negotiations and whether a deal is struck? >> well, steve, it sure isn't going to help. there's no way that letter can be of any help for us getting an agreement that's going to be good for us to keep iran from getting a nuclear weapon. that's the whole burp ofpurpose of what we're doing in negotiations. i signed a letter, there were ten senators with menendez, that we signed saying let's wait until march 24th. lay the deal out, let's see wh

the test is even written let alone given, i'm not going to apologize for an unconstitutional and unthought-out action by someone in the united states senate for 60-some takes, that's inappropriate. >>> take that tom cotton. joining me now is christopher hill dean of studies at the university of denver sean former ambassador to iraq and other countries. he led the six-party negotiations over the north korea nuclear issue. good to see you, ambassador. let's talk about the letter and what impact that might have on the iranians as they go the final weeks they think at least of these negotiations over iran's nuclear program. >> well i don't think it has a big impact on iranians sitting across the table. i think the real impact is back in tehran where they look at it and see a united states that's very divided. by the way they probably see the united states as being weak in these circumstances. there will be an extra amount of critics over in tehran about any deal that's eventually worked out. as soon as this deal is worked out, there are critics in washington also going to be real critics in tehran

>> not on your life i'm not going to apologize for unconstitutional, unthought out action as somebody we'll hear more from kerry and cotton's explanation of why he did

. >> i'm not going to apologize for the -- for an unconstitutional unthought out action by somebody who has been in the united states senate for 60-some days. that's just inappropriate. >> is it possible this letter is hurting the goebls negotiations? >> i don't think so necessarily. in a way it's helped but the obama administration has been benefiting. the owebama administration are worried about the democrats. because this is a partisan issue, things like this letter. i think it's made it harder for the dratsz to oppose the administration. i think it's easier for them to believe they can sell this deal. >> we heard how wild it is because of all the conflicting interest including those outside of iran and in the middle east. here's what the saudi prince al faisal told the bbc. i've always said whatever comes out of these talks we will want the same. so if iran has the ability to enrich uranium to whatever level, it's not just saudi arabia that's going to ask for that. the whole world will be an open door to go that route without any inhibition. obviously, the ripple effect from these t

i'm not going to apologize for an unconstitutional unthought out action for someone who's been in the united states senate for 60-some days. >> but congress is making things more difficult for the white house. it was argued that his proposal giving sign-off on the deal would have a profoundly negative impact on the disploepcy and kerry argued that congress is fully brief and should give him room to negotiate. >> we have been in full discussion of congress with this. we've been in full discussion with allies in the region. we have had our team go to with israelis in washington or elsewhere to brief them regularly in this process. this isn't a complete mystery. >> kerry said progress has been made on limiting iran's nuclear technology. now a major challenge is convincing hard liners in iran to allow access to nuclear sights and military bases and to persuade t to slow down research and venom. the challenge for the u.s. is to get all those assurances and convince congress to back off. >> margaret thank you very much. >>> this morning israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu is fighting

i'm not going to apologize for the -- for an unconstitutional and unthought out action by somebody that'seen in the united states senate for 60 something days. that's just inappropriate. >> wow. nearly one week later the man who wrote that letter republican senator tom cotton says he still has no regrets. >> are you planning to contact any other of our adversaries around the country, for example, do you plan to check with the north koreans to make sure that they know that any deal has to be approved by the congress? >> bob, right now i and most every other senator is focused on stopping iran from getting a nuclear weapon. that's why it was so important that we communicated this message straight to iran because they're not hearing it from genevatlemen nefevea geneva. we sent a clear message to a dictorial regime. we told them the american people, 71% of the american people in a recent poll will not accept a deal that puts iran in the path to a nuclear weapon. >> all right. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell will also not apologize saying it was appropriate to warn iran that congress mu

>> i'm not going to apologize for an unconstitutional and unthought out action by somebody that's been in the united states senate for 60-some days. >> reporter: but congress is making tough negotiations more difficult for the white house. chief of staff denis mcdonough wrote a stern letter to senate foreign relations committee chairman bob corker arguing his proposal giving congress signoff on a deal would have a profoundly negative impact on the policy. and kerry argued congress is fully briefed and should give him room to negotiate. >> we have been in full discussion with congress on this, we've been in full discussion with allies in the region. we have had our team go to israel or meet with israelis in washington or elsewhere to brief them regularly in this process. this isn't, you know a complete mystery. >> reporter: kerry said progress has been made on limiting iran's nuclear technology. a major challenge now is convincing hard-liners in iran to give access to nuclear sites and military bases and persuade them to pull back on research and development. a challenge for the u.s. is

. >> i am not going to apologize for an unconstitutional and unthought out action by someone who has senate for 60 days. that say just inappropriate. i will explain very clearly that congress does not have the right to change an exexecutive agreement. >> no regrets at all. >> the secretary with a strong statement statement. cotton argued he served in iraq and knows the most powerful ied's were backed by iran. >> you have seen democrats and the white house try to use the cotton letter to fan up resentiment along democrats in the senate showing republicans are acting in bad faith and don't support corker bill. but a lot of senate democrats say they disagree with the cotton letter but that is not changing they believe that congress should have a say so in the iran deal so support for the corker deal went up. one senator one democrat signed on after the letter. >> is that veto-proof? >> it takes 67 votes to override a presidential veto. there are 54 republicans looks like they have 11 democrats and they are two votes short of saying we have a majority to overturn your veto. >> if that is

i'm not going to apologize for the -- for an unconstitutional and unthought out action by somebody inrheaded by freshman senator tom cotton but the white house could see dissensions from certain democrats. joining me chris jansing. so chris, how concern is the administration about push-back from the left? >> reporter: well they argue that is different. the letter sent out directly to the ayatollah was signed by republicans. there are some democrats that are supporting a congressional bill that would give congress 60 days to look at any agreement and the administration although they don't like that length of time, they say they have never suggested that congress doesn't have any oversight. it is just that it doesn't make any sense. in fact nearly unprecedented to get involved in a negotiation like this foreign policy which they say is the president's purview, in the middle of sensitive negotiations. as you know, thomas the clock is ticking. they have set a deadline at the end of this month, the 24th perhaps, where they want to get this done. and so they say it is a very clear distincti

. >> i'm not going to apologize for an unconstitutional unthought out action by somebody who has been in the united states senate for 60 some days. >> reporter: despite tough talk from kerry and even the president -- >> it damages the country, it damages our standing. it's not productive. >> reporter: -- the freshman senator isn't backing down. >> the congress stands ready to impose much more severe sanctions. >> reporter: but cotton is gaining critics who point out he once mocked the president's own communications with iran's leadership. >> like a love-struck teenager he has sent four secret letters to the ayatollah. >> reporter: still, the iran talks are becoming a new litmus test in the 2016 campaign with likely gop contender ted cruz saying candidates must repudiate the nuclear deal or else. >> any candidate in my view who will not say yes to that is not fit to serve as commander in chief of this country. >> reporter: over the weekend, white house chief of staff dennis mcdonough sent a letter to bob corker assuring him congress will have a role to play and will have to take a vote

i don't want to give some unthought-through answer.ut we are committed to their collective defense. where they are being destabled, we would intervene and help them with their stability. where they're being cyber attacked, we'd help them with their cyber defenses. i think we need to do more, frankly, in the area of information. one of the complaints you get from the baltic states that there's nothing to counter the deluge of sort of russian paid and bad media spreading this information. we have to recognize one of the strengths we've got as a country, we have a very strong and impartial media. we have a wonderful brand in the bbc that's known for its impartial news and we should be supporting the bbc to provide news services and news channels where people otherwise are getting a diet of russian disinformation. >> going back to the question though, if militia activity did start over the border, would we consider that a breech of article 5? >> we would consider those sorts of threats to states, we would consider that something that we wo

. >> i'm not going to apologize for the -- unconstitutional and unthought out action by somebody who has been in the united states senate for 60 some days. >> if the president and secretary of state were intent on driving a hard bargain. they could point to this letter and say they're right. >> in political speak that's about as good as smack talk gets. they're trying to wrap up a deal by the end of the month. if that happens the full accord would have to be signed by july. we'll be watching carefully in washington. back to you. >> thanks. iran goes into these talks there will be mow demands. they're like you know that nuclear site we've been building i want that excluded. we don't want that included in the deal. i don't know where this agreement is going, but i hope they don't keep giving in. >> one day before zael israeli voters go to the polls t there's an investigative committee that is launching a probe into an american non-prophet that is funding efforts to oust the prime minister. they're looking at something called a one voice movement. it's received $50,000 inrtment grants.

. >> i'm not going to apologize for an unconstitutional unthought out action by somebody who has beeninappropriate. >> you hear secretary kerry essential disowning senator cotton and the senators who -- >> and the buzz is the-mile-an-hours are untrust worthy in large part because of that letter. what we're hearing this weekend is they're sending the message for republicans in congress to cool it under the end of march when they reach the deadline to try to get a framework and then they say congress should weigh in there. >> erin mcpike, we appreciate it. much more from "newsroom" after this. mfortable it can be. but did you know that the lack of saliva can also lead to tooth decay and bad breath? well, there is biotene specially formulated with moisturizers and lubricants... biotene can provide soothing relief and it helps keep your mouth healthy too. biotene, for people who suffer from a dry mouth. nobody told us to expect it... intercourse that's painful due to menopausal changes it's not likely to go away on its own. so let's do something about it. premarin vaginal cream can help i