we ll see. i definitely believe it is going to provide a tone contrast that i think the campaign desperately needs right now. i wish i could think it s a lasting effect long after the visit is over. back to andrews for a moment. chris, you can see elements of the white house motorcade from where you are? reporter: we can see the travel pool. as you know, the folks that cover the president and walking by, getting into position. the last of the buses that were carrying people who are going into the stands. i can tell you, brian, the s only 1,000 tickets here and a 1,000 people in 2 sets of bleachers. singing, chanting. a little bit of band music playing. talk about the hottest ticket in town. it s been a nightmare if you re a parish priest, if you re someone who works at the white house, if you re someone who has any relationship at all to either the catholic church or the venues. where the pope is going to be. but this is one of the smallest
events that shall we say regular folks can come to and say zoo the last of them arrived. the motorcade we understand has just arrived on the other side of joint base andrews and the chanting has started. i can t even imagine what it s going to sound like when the plane that touches down and the excitement is building. they have been chanting louder. they actually have some people who are kind of like cheerleaders standing out front keeping folks excited as if they needed any help, brian. not unlike a notre dame home football game. not at all. chris, thank you. our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell listening in to all of this and also joining us. andrea, i don t want it to get lost in all of this, what the pope accomplished earlier today with his visit to cuba and perhaps we could all use a little review because people just come and go so quickly around here. well, it was extraordinary
more general message out there about some of the things he wants to accomplish as he continues in the last year and a half of his presidency. all right. chris, we ll be going back to you upon arrival there at andrews. thank you very much. across the area in northeast washington, d.c., on the grounds of catholic university, the basilica there is maria shriver, our own special anchor. maria, the overall question to you, what are you thinking about this visit? how does it affect you? well, it s very exciting to me as a catholic, as someone who was educated by the nuns and the jesuits. this is the first jesuit pope, pope francis. so it s exciting to me. on a personal level. but i think it s really if you step back, it is exciting for the 70 million catholics, exciting for those who say they re no longer catholics, people of different faiths because this man i think as
considers russia an equal and you an equal which is the way you want to be treated? well, you ask him. he s your president. how could i know what he thinks? i find myself thinking of house of cards this season. was there a little bit of sarcasm in there maybe? there was a russian hollywood fictional character came in and the president couldn t get on seems like on a personal level, chris, there s not a lot of warmth. frosty. what the white house likes to say, official, business-like relationship, doesn t look like any business relationship that i ve seen that is in any way productive. having said this, why do you meet with the guy and give him credibility? what he wants, respect. right? that s why he s coming here and doing what he wants. he wants russia, himself to be shown respect.
groups. we think it is an enormous mistake to refuse to cooperate with the syrian government and armed forces fighting terrorism face to face. we should finally acknowledge that no one but president assad s armed forces and militia are truly fighting the islamic state and other terrorists organizations in syria. the white house and the kremlin publicly debating the details of today. the white house said that the talks focus on ukraine and the kremlin said syria and isis. later the obama administration confirmed syria will be high on the agenda. let s bring in chris j ansing and ayman mohyeldin. both of you here in new york. love that. chris, let me start with you. what s the white house saying as we get closer and closer to this