Transcripts For MSNBCW The Rachel Maddow Show 20141218

Barrel. Then the ranking of the Civil Service jobs goes all the way up from gs1 to 2 to 3 all the way up to the top jobs, the very bottom level of the chart there, gs14 and gs15. Then depending on your level of experience, once you are at that high ranking level as a Government Employee at the very top end with a Civil Service pay scale if youre in gs14 or 15 with a lot of of experience you can make over 100,000 a year. Being at the very top end of this scale, being a gs14 or 15 is kind of a big deal if you work for the federal government. Ana montes was a gs14. She was a big deal. At the very top end of the scale. Top secret security clearance, worked at the Defense Intelligence agency. She was also a spy for another country. And she was a good spy. She was first recruited to spy on the United States for cuba in 1984. At that point shed only had very low ranking u. S. Government job, but once she was signed on as a cuban spy, she not only got hired at this incredibly sensitive agency, the Defense Intelligence agency but she also rose through the ranks. She briefed the joint chiefs of staff. She briefed the National Security council. She even briefed other countries heads of state on matters of her expertise at the Defense Intelligence agency. She had access to high level information, high clearance, a gs14 and had been there forever and she had access to information and she fed it all to cuba. When the pentagon and the intelligence agencies did their assessment of how much spying ana montes did, she concluded she was one of the most damaging spies in the history of the United States. Part of the reason she was able to do so much damage is because she was a high ranking government intelligence official. Here she is, for example, with a man you will recognize as the former director of the cia, george tenet. Theres george tenet giving an award for Excellent Service to a woman who at that moment was serving as a cuban spy. So part of it was that she was able to rise through the ranks. Thats part of how she was able to do so much damage. But the other part of it is that she was able to get away with it for so long because she was really good at it. She was a really good spy and did really well at the Old Fashioned spy movie kind of spy stuff. She was trained on how to beat a lie detector test. Ten years into her spying for cuba, she reportedly passed a pentagon polygraph with flying colors. Even though she had been an active spy for a decade at that point. So she was clearly lying about some of the stuff they were asking her about but she passed with flying colors. She used advanced spy cryptography that included writing down long strings of numbers that were secretly broadcast for her on weird frequencies of short wave radio just like youve seen in the americans. She wrote secret messages in cryptological keys on this magic spy paper that dissolved when it touched water. She was so good as a spy, she was even able to fly to cuba on two separate occasions in disguise. Incidentally, she also got to go to cuba not in disguise as part of her official government business as a pentagon Intelligence Officer but twice she went secretly, put on a wig and used a fake cuban passport and was able to escape everybodys notice as she flew to havana to presumably meet with her handlers. Her name was ana montes. Shes now serving 25 years in federal prison. Kendall myers was also a really good spy. Kendall myers also had top secret clearance. He worked at the state departments intelligence and research bureau. He had a decadeslong career in the state department. He too rose through the ranks and had access to high level information that was of great interest to cuba, and he, too, fed everything that he had to cuba. American intelligence secrets for nearly 30 years he was feeding that information to cuba before he got caught. Again, part of the reason he was able to do so much damage over such a long period is because he had really good training and he was a good spy. He also use the short wave radio trick to pick up the numerological codes for his encrypted messages. He used the magic dissolving paper apparently. Although his wife did not work for the state department, he also got her in on the spying as well so they essentially worked as a two for the price of one spy couple. That might have helped with some of the weirder ways that they passed information to their handlers. One of the things famously that they did to pass u. S. Secrets to their cuban spy handlers is they did this trick in the Grocery Store where they would leave information in a Grocery Store cart and then very slyly somehow manage to switch carts with somebody else in the store thus completing the handoff of the information. Kendall myers and his wife gwendolyn were good at spying. Nevertheless, they right now are in prison, both of them. His wife may get out some time in the next few years but Kendall Myers will never get out. His sense ten was life without the possibility of parole. Cuba and the cuban people have had a very atypical modern history, right, in which their development and the cultivation of the talents of their people have been oddly and dysmorphiccally stilted by this half century of American Economic embargo against their country. Cubas been a weird country in the history of countries over the last 50 years, but in cubas weird modern history, one of the things cuba has turned out to be really good at, like good as anybody in the world at is spying. Cuba has an excellent world class spy agency. And they have run world class spying operations around the world and very specifically here. In 1998 an investigation led by the fbis miamis field office exposed the huge and long running very sophisticated cuban spy operation that targeted the castro regimes most potent and tireless and aggressive enemies on earth, the anticastro cuban exile groups based in the United States and specifically in south florida. Spies for the cuban government infiltrated those groups. It was a spy network. They called it red avispa. They called it the wasp network. The fbi figured out this wasp network had infiltrated all the groups. By 2001 theyd gotten convictions for five members of the wasp network. Those convictions for those cuban spies came down in 2001. Three of the five men who were convicted in that wrapup of the wasp network in 2001, three of the five were still in prison until today, but today those three from the wasp network had their sentences commuted by president obama and they were sent back to cuba in a trade. And what the United States got in return for those three guys, those three spies, what we got in exchange for those three guys was our spy who was being held in a cuban prison. Our spy specifically who provided to the u. S. Government the information that led the u. S. Government to the wasp network and also to Kendall Myers and his wife at the state department and also to ana montes from her highfalutin gs14 job. The Senior Administration official saying the person who the u. S. Just got freed after two decades in cuba was such a valuable intelligence asset to the United States that his information led not only to the arrests of the people he was traded for today but also to two other huge and really damaging cuban spy plots in the United States, both of which ran for years and years and years and years before they were exposed. And that only scratches the surface of the skulduggery thats gone on between cuba and the United States over the last 50 years. But that trade that i just described, that trade, that spy for spies trade, that is at the heart of this absolutely epic surprise announcement made by the president of the United States today. I mean, there have been signs that something was going to happen, that maybe something was going on, little signs. Tony blinken, this guy when he was up for confirmation, one of things he got asked about at his hearing was about the chatter in washington that something was about to happen on the issue of cuba. So maybe that was a little bit of a sign. Then on the hill they were hearing chatter. In october, the vatican had hosted cuban officials and american officials to talk about issues of concern. The vatican seemed interested in cuban american relations. John kerry met with the vatican where they discussed issues related to cuba. And now we learn that all along over the past several weeks and months, the issue of canada has been hosting secret meetings between u. S. Officials and cuban officials about what was announced today in this shocker of an announcement. But it has culminated with this. Yesterday were told there was the first direct contact between an american president and a cuban leader since the 1959 revolution that brought fidel castro to power. Raul castro spoke directly with president obama on the phone yesterday, were told, for about 45 minutes they talked directly. That in itself is historic. Then today americas still unnamed spy in cuba was flown from cuba to the United States and the three cuban spies held by america were flown from the United States back to cuba. Both countries president s addressed their nations simultaneously at noon. Both president s thanked their spies for their good work and expressed appreciation and thanks for their spies being brought home. In addition to the spy exchange, an american subcontractor who had worked for usaid, alan gross, who been held in a cuban prison for the last five year, alan gross was also flown home today. This was officially announced as a release on humanitarian grounds. Indeed mr. Gross was thought to be in worrying decline in terms of his health although he was elated to be released today and returned to his family. The cuban government also today agreed to release 53 other prisoners, 53 other prisoners who cuba calls run of the mill prisoners but who the United States considered to be political prisoners. That big trading of the spies and all those prisoner releases, those were the transactional details today. The u. S. Cut off diplomatic relations with cuba in 1961. Today our diplomatic relations were restored by order of the president of the United States. The United States will now move to open an embassy in cuba for the First Time Since the eisenhower administration, cuba will open an embassy here. Travel restrictions will be somewhat relaxed. Cuban americans will be able to send more money home. Our government and the cuban government will Start Talking about a host of diplomatic issues. For more than 50 years the United States has been trying to bring about regime change in cuba with this weird unilateral isolation policy that we dreamed up. We isolated them diplomatically from us even though the rest of the world didnt. We isolated them economically from us with the superstrict economic embargo which banned americans from traveling there, spending money there and doing business with any cuban companies, but we did that alone. The rest of the world didnt participate in what we were doing. So its always been sort of a strange policy. Kind of like us covering our own eyes and saying that were invisible. The rest of the world did not go along with this isolation plan. Just us. And were not the whole world. So maybe it is because we tried to do it alone. Maybe its because isolation tactics dont tend to be an effective tool. Trying this for more than 50 years didnt work to make cuba not communist any more or to get the castro brothers out of power. It didnt work. Now today the economic embargo remains intact. The Obama Administration signaled today theyll do everything they can administratively to push against it and theyd like to see it ended, but the reason they cant end it directly is because congress enshrined the economic embargo into u. S. Law in 1996 right after cuba shot down two small planes, two cessna aircraft that were piloted by members of one of those anticastro exile groups based in florida. After those planes were shot down, the helms burton act made the economic embargo against cuba something that the president couldnt dissolve on his own. It would take an act of congress to get rid of the economic embargo. Is Congress Going to do that . Is this Congress Going to do anything . I mean, substantively this congress is deeply split on this issue. It was a bipartisan and bicamera group of lawmakers that flew to cuba to bring alan gross home. Chris van hollen, hes alan gross congressman from maryland. He once went door to door canvassing for van hollen when he ran for congress. He was there today. He was joined by pat leahy who has been deeply involved in trying to get alan gross freed. They were joined by jeff lake of arizona, he supports what president obama did today. Not just to free alan gross but Everything Else the president did to try to reset our relationship with cuba. Other republicans as well as democratic senator bob menendez who himself is cuban american, they were harshly critical of the policy change today including marco rubio saying he would do everything in his power to try to thwart president obamas actions and stop him from implements these new changes. Its not clear what marco rubio can do, if anything, but he says hell do everything he can. As this fight happens, there does remain this problem at heart of the argument that the embargo should stay. Right, that the only way to defeat the castro brothers and bring about regime change in cuba and make cuba not a communist country any more is to keep that embargo. The problem at the heart of that argument is that if the embargo was such a good way to get those outcomes, why hasnt it worked in the 54 years that we have been trying it . The most significant changes in our policy in more than 50 years, with will end an outdated approach that for decades has failed to advance our interests. To those who oppose the steps im announced today, let me say that i respect your passion and share your commitment to liberty and democracy. The question is how we uphold that commitment. Die not believe we can keep doing the same thing for over five decades and expect a different result. Moreover, it does not serve americas interests or the cuban people to try to push cuba towards collapse. Even if that worked, and it hasnt for 50 year, we know from hardearned experience that countries are more likely to enjoy lasting transformation if their people are not subjected to chaos. The embargo and the diplomatic isolation of cuba is a policy that our country embarked on at the end of the 1950s in the beginning of the 1960s. And we did it basically because of the soviet union because cubas revolution was a communist revolution because the soviet union was who cuba allied themselves with against us. And we desperately didnt want cuba to be that kind of society and that kind of geopolitical threat just 90 miles off the american coast. Thats why we did it. It didnt work. The castros are still there now. Cuba is still communist even if the soviet union doesnt exist any more and hasnt for decades. Today president obama ordered a change in course, over all the thing weve done to try to change cuba, is this finally the thing that might work . Joining us is nbc news historian michael beschloss. Let me ask you the big picture question first. I guess how big a deal do you see this as . I mean, can you put it in context for us in terms of other important Foreign Policy 180s announced by an american president . Look at all those names of all those president s youve got on your wall there on your screen. None of them did this, and it was barack obama who did. This is not at the level of Richard Nixon going to china, which after all was an immense world power with the fact that nixon went to china and ultimately that led to the restoration of relations. Look where wed be today if nixon had not done that in 1972. The island of cuba is not exactly central to International Relations in that way, but cuba has been a thorn in our side for half a century. During the cold war there was an argument, as you said, that since castro was defying the Monroe Doctrine that at least as an expression of our displeasure the embargo had some root in reality. But it hasnt worked in recent years. Its almost been a simple of failure to do something to get rid of the castro brothers. But making this change, if it works, barack obama can consider this a feather in his cap. In terms of americas desires for cuba and our not just historic but ongoing disclosure with their form of government, with the way they treat their own people, with their geopolitical alliances, the embargo was part of that. Sure. What else did the u. S. Try to do over the years to change that . Obviously, a lot of things that theyve done, that different president s have tried have been covert. Absolutely. To begin with in april of 1961 as the president said this morning john kennedy authorsed the ciabacked invasion of cuba by exiles. It didnt work. Over a thousand prisoners were locked up. We americans had to ransom them, then John Kennedys operation released operation mongoose which was paramilitary raids and sabotage and efforts to poison the cuban sugar crop and so forth and also led to assassination attempts against fidel castro, who the president may or may not have known about at this time. Castro interpreted all this as the prelude to an american fullfledged invasion of cuba and so he went to nikita khrushchev, the leader of the soviet union and said, do something to stop these americans. So khrushchev said ill put in missiles to stop them. That led to the missile crisis. In terms of why it happened and what took so long, did any president s before obama try to take this different route, try to take a route of ending the embargo, lessening the isolation and hoping that more exposure to the world might bring about the kind of change that these other kinds of force werent able to do . Sure, jimmy carter made some moves and i think bill clinton would have liked to and toward the end of his administration tried some things but the time was not right. There was a domestic political feeling in this country that any president who did that would suffer politically. That if a democratic president did that, you were basically saying goodbye to the state of florida and its electoral votes for a generation. What weve now seen in recent years is that the fiercely anticastro cuban americans in florida, its not as large a group, its older and not as dominant as it used to be, president obama calculated that in doing this he was not taking that risk. Nbc news president ial historian michael beschloss. Interesting day. Amazing day. Weve got more on this historic day in americas Foreign Relations ahead as well as one other huge news story that broke late tonight totally unrelated to this but a very big deal. Thats next. So,as my personal financial psychic, im sure you know what this meeting is about. Yes, a raise. Im letting you go. I knew that. You see, this is my amerivest managed. Balances. No. Portfolio. And if doesnt perform well for two consecutive gold. Quarters. Quarters. Yup. Then amerivest gives me back their advisory. Stocks. Fees. Fees. Fees for those quarters. Yeah. So, im confident im in good hands. For all the confidence you need. Td ameritrade. You got this. That list you keep on your refrigerator, the list that the United States does not formally talk to. Here was the list, these are the countries on earth with whom we do not have diplomatic relations. Iran, bhutan, north korea and cuba. Thats pretty much the list. Yeah, there are countries with strained relationships or suspended visas or we sent the ambassador home because we were mad or something, but as far as no diplomatic relationships, no embassy, thats the list. And now today, if you want to take out a sharpie and update the list, today that list has been slashed by 25 . Thats whats known as a big news day. Huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Everybody knows that. Well, did you know genies can be really literal . No. What is your wish . No. Ok. A million bucks oh no. Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. We have a rapidly developing story about one of the last remaining countries on the earth that the u. S. Does not have diplomatic ties with. The nation of north korea. For months now the north korean regime has been furious about, of all things, a new movie called the interview. Its a comedy about journalists to kill kim jong un but theyre then recruited by the cia to assassinate him when they meet him. Ever since details started to surface, north korea has objected loudly. Last month somebody hacked into the Computer Systems at Sony Pictures and stole reams of data of people that work at sony. The more embarrassing portions got sent to news groups around the world and they appeared in print. It was embarrassing for Sony Pictures. And we got a string of apologies from those whose content had been revealed by this illegal hack. As uncomfortable as it was to have their private correspondence stolen and published like that, there was still the unsettling fact of the breakin to their servers and the question of who carried out that hack. And what else they might be capable of. Since then the story has gotten even more unsettling. The attack on sony did not stop with the theft from their servers and the releasing of all those private documents. Yesterday a Group Calling itself the guardians of peace released a new batch of material stolen from sony and along with those files they included a threat to theaters that might be thinking about screening sonys new movie about north korea. And im not going to quote from their threat because i dont feel like amplifying it but it does include a direct mention of the 9 11 attacks as a way to scare people away from going to see that movie. President obama addressed the threat today in an interview with david muir from abc news. Watch. I know you met with your National Security team in the last 24 hours as you often do heading into the holiday. Do you consider this a legitimate threat and how concerned are you . Well, the cyber attack is very serious. Were investigating it, were taking it seriously. Well be vigilant. If we see something that we think is serious and credible, then well alert the public, but for now my recommendation would be that people go to the movies. My recommendation would be that people go to the movies. President obama responding today to this anonymous threat of a 9 11style attack on american movie theaters. But people will not be going out on christmas to american movie theaters to see this movie that north korea does not like. The top five theater chains in the United States announced today that they would not show the film. This afternoon sony announced theyve canceled the movies Christmas Day release. They called it off. Maybe some day theyll release it some day in some form, we dont know, but that leaves us with the question of who made this threat on american movie theaters. Was it north korea which does object to this sony movie but also does a lot of meaningless sabre rattling all the time. Was it another group . Was it a hacker group with some ax to grind that we dont understand and we just dont know about yet . The threat sounds scary, but how seriously should we take it . Late today with the news of at least who the white house believes did the hack into sonys computers, u. S. Officials are telling reporters tonight that the north korean government was, quote, centrally involved in the attack on sonys computer system. One official telling the new york times, quote, this is of a different nature than past attacks. It started as a cyber attack and has now turned into the threat of the safety of americans if that sony movie made it into theaters. That same official says theres no specific credible information that an attack is imminent. We can report that a Senior Administration official has told nbc news chief Foreign Affairs correspondent andrea mitchell, that there will be some sort of response from the threat that they believe comes from the government of north korea. Its not clear what the options are but the u. S. Cannot let this go unanswered. Weve had a statement attributed to the National Security Council Spokeswoman which says that the u. S. Government has offered Sony Pictures support and assistance in response to the attack. The fbi has the lead for the investigation. The United States is investigating attribution and will provide an update at the appropriate time. The u. S. Government is working tirelessly to bring the perpetrators of this attack to justice and were considering a wave of options in weighing that response. That just out from the National Security council in the last couple of minutes. Joining us daniel sanger. Good to be back with you. In terms of the attribution first, what can you tell us about the administrations investigation into this, how confident that they are that it is the north korean government and how confident we should be in that assessment . A very good question because attribution is always a very difficult thing to do. You think about this summer when president obama was told that it was russia that was behind the attacks on jpmorgan chase, which were less severe than this one. And it turns out now there are a lot of people that have doubts about that. We still havent quite gotten to the bottom of those attacks on the white house and state department unclassified Computer Systems. But in the case of north korea, there is much more confidence in the intelligence officials and other officials im talking to and that my colleague has been talking to what were the basis of that article that you just mentioned. The reasons for that could be varied. Partly it may be that theyre looking at what north korean said about this movie, that it was an act of war, that it wouldnt go unanswered and so forth, though the north did say a week ago that they werent responsible for the attacks. They couldnt rule out that people who were sympathetic, patriotic hackers, whatever, have done this. But Many American officials now seem to think they can trace it right back to north korea. What theyre not discussing is how they know that. But we do know from a variety of sources over many years of reporting on this, that the u. S. Has put implants in systems in adversary countries including north korea, so they may be able to see the attack massing or at least gone back and seen it. We dont know that for a fact. In terms of the magnitude of the threat, obviously the cyber breach itself is a significant one and sony as a corporation has been significantly hurt by this breach and itself is a display of a type of force. To the extent that this is seen as a different type of threat, though, a qualitatively different threat because theres the threat of physical violence on u. S. Soil and that it may be coming from the same place, i mean, if it is north korea, i can quote a lot of north korean threats from memory. They threatened to turn the sea of japan into a nuclear sea of fire. The way they sabre rattle is quite exquisite. Is there a degree of skepticism about the i guess about how likely they could how likely it could be that they could carry out this threat even though it is a very serious one . I didnt hear a whole lot of real concern about the threat on the theaters. But i think what people have missed in all of the news about, you know, emails that called actresses spoiled brats or revealed the salaries of studio executive, which have all been embarrassing to sony, the real significance of this attack was it was the first one on american soil in a long while that appeared to be state sponsored and was destructive. In other words, it wiped clean those computers. Those are called infrastructure attacks. Weve only seen a couple in recent history. There was an attack attributed to iran, so did saudi arabia, there was an attack from north korea with great similarities to the sony attack that hit banks in south korea. And then the largest cyber attack that we know of, Olympic Games which was a u. S. Israeli Attack on the Iranian Nuclear program that sort of revealed itself in 2010. But we havent seen one on american soil. And i think what really shook people was that this attack not only happened, but it was repetitive. North koreans or whoever it was kept getting back into the system to put these threats up on sony computers. David sanger, National Security correspondent for the new york times. This is a scary story. It is also absolutely fascinating material. It is. Thank you for helping us understand it. Thank you. Its more than the driver. Its more than the car. For lotus f1 team, the Competitive Edge is the cloud. Powered by microsoft dynamics, azure, and office 365, the team can gain Real Time Insights and instantly share information around the globe. When every millisecond counts, staying competitive begins with the cloud. This is the microsoft cloud. We givecold symptoms. Om your you give them the giggles. Tylenol® cold helps relieve your worst cold and flu symptoms. But for everything we do, we know you do so much more. Tylenol® its not about how many miles you can get out of the cmax hybrid. Its about how much life you can fit into it. The ford cmax hybrid. 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Three more people were indicted with poisoning the water supply with a chemical leak in West Virginia this year and vermont gave up on extending a singlepayer health care system. And that pea party that voted to redact High School Biology textbooks, they decided theyre not going to react High School Biology textbooks any more. And president obama announced 20 president ial pardons or commutations of peoples sentences. Most are low level drug crimes plus one moonshiner. Then also the president announced that were normalizing relations with cuba for the first time in 53 years. Thats the last 24 hours. Todays the day when we scheduled a few evergreen interviews and segments that really could run any time when we thought that surely there would be no news today. Congress went home, president is ready to go on vacation, nothing planned in terms of news events for today. We thought ahead well have to make something up there. 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So while your life may be everchanging. Your Beautiful Skin will stay beautiful. Total effects from olay. Your best beautiful. In 2008 a young president ial candidate named barack obama traveled to miami to try to win the allimportant florida president ial vote. George w. Bush won florida by 5 points in 2004. You might also remember that he famously won florida by a squeaker in 2000. At least thats what the Supreme Court said. So in 2008 barack obama knew that florida was key. And in the runup to the president ial election that year, this first time young candidate for president he went to florida, the cuban stronghold of miami and he said something that everybody in washington thought would derail his president ial campaign. I know what the easy thing to do for american politician is when he or she comes down to miami. Every four years they come down, they talk tough then they go back to washington and nothing changes in cuba. Thats what john mccain did the other day. He joined the parade of politicians who made the same empty promises year after year, decade after decade instead of offering a strategy, a strategy for change. He chose to distort my position and embrace george bushs and continue a policy thats done nothing to advance the freedom of the cuban people. Barack obama went to miami in 2008 and said at that speech that he would be open to meeting with cuban leader raul castro. He said decades of isolation had failed as a policy. He said said he would get rid of that policy and he would do something radically different. This was seen by the belt as a president ial candidate going to iowa and denouncing both corn and pigs. John mccain promptly tried to nail barack obama with that position. He put this out with them running side by side, like obama was running with fidel rather than joe biden. It meant aligning yourself against the castro regime as much as you possibly could. But then what happened is barack obama won florida. Twice. And in 2012, the exit polls had him breaking even or even winning the cuban american vote in florida despite taking the ill meet with castro position. The beltway common wisdom about the politics of this issue has been getting stale for a while now. The largest concentration of cubans anywhere on the planet other than cuba is in Miami Dade County in south florida. Look at this. The last poll this year of cuban americans in Miami Dade County found that a majority of them want the embargo to be lifted against cuba. Yes, older cuban Americans Still want the embargo in place. People aged 65 and older. But among younger people aged 18 to 29, look at that. Its not even close. Cuban americans oppose the embargo by a margin of 628. The policy that the president overturned today is a very old policy. The common wisdom about what it means politically is just about as old. Realistically, how should we expect this to go over . Joining us is alan gomez, a reporter at usa today. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. How does miami feel about this today and how can you tell . Well, i mean it sort of depends who you talk to. A lot of what you were leading up to there is absolutely accurate. When you talk to the older cubans, the ones who are that were at least teenage or adults when they left cube barks this was a really stunning blow. This was a very disappointing moment. They feel as if theyve been fighting this fight for 40, 50 years and all of a sudden the president just stabbed them in the back. For them its very difficult. Theyre ones that spent time in political prisons, theyre the ones that had their property taken away, they have that personal connection, that firsthand view of what this castro government did to them. For them, this is absolutely a horrendous day in their fight. But as you were mentioning, you talk to younger cubans, to those that maybe grew up here in miami or left a very long time ago and have been able to put it past them. They take that step back, look at it objectively, this hasnt worked in 50 years. The loudest ones who were against what the president did today but quietly in corners around the city you definitely heard a lot of people who supported what the president did. We highlighted from that poll the fact the question about the embargo itself. If you look at the polling actually on restoring diplomatic relations, which actually is what the president did today, the polling on that is even more popular. The president s move to restore diplomatic relations is an even more popular move among cuban americans. I wonder because this basically is something the president has done and then something hes recommending that the country do further, this action that hes taken today is something thats less controversial. Restoring diplomatic relations will be an interesting thing but even more people like that. As Congress Starts to fight about whether or not theyre going to try to block this, whether or not theyre going to do what president obama wants and act on legislation to repeal the embargo, what do you expect the cuban american influence to be on that debate in washington . I can tell you it will be extremely theyre not going to let a, theyre not really going to embrace the idea of changing the embargo. They wont reduce that in any way. What theyll do is stop what the president has done. It costs money to change what we have in havana from a cuban intersection to a full embassy. It costs money to do things that hes doing. Much like weve seen with the immigration debate, Affordable Care act, theyll try to use the power of the purse to try to limit what the president can do. So thats what well be seeing in the next couple of months because in is a process that takes a while. The president s actions arent going to just start immediately. We wont suddenly have an embassy there tomorrow. Cubanamerican influence to be president did today. Obviously this is going to be a Practical Impact in cuba. Its going to have an impact on cubanamericans, particularly those who still have family back on the island. As the Practical Impact starts to be felt, it will be interesting to see if that also moves peoples politics on the issue, generationally or otherwise. Fascinating stuff. Well be right back. When i crave a smoke thats all i crave. Thats where this comes in. Only nicorette gum has patented dualcoated technology for great taste. Plus nicorette gum gives you intense craving relief. And that helps put my craving in its place. Thats why i only choose nicorette. Winter is hard on your face. The start of sneeze season. The windblown watery eyes. And of course, the snow angels with your little angels. Thats why puffs is soft. Puffs plus lotion is gentle on sensitive skin. They help soothe irritation by locking in moisture better. So you can always put your best face forward. 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The ballet world, also professional baseball, the world of soccer, the world of music. The cultural and sports life of cuba is so rich, the world has been immeasurably enriched with artists and athletes who have found their way here. Defectors if they get here, they need to get a license from the u. S. Treasury department to unblock themselves as a foreign asset so they can be paid to do their work in this country, in ballet, in baseball, in i love hearing your perspective on it. Thanks, rachel. Finally, we have an american president showing what real leadership looks like on cuba policy. And u. S. Government sour