schedule today. tomorrow, again, pope francis addressing that joint session of congress. i hope of this country to offer words of encouragement to those called to guide the nations political future. fidelity to the founding principles. with me now, the washington post columnist ej dion, senior fellow at the brookings institution and a msnbc contributor. thank you for being with me, sir. great to be with you. pope francis saying he wants to offer words of encouragement to congress and there s question about striking a political tone in the viz in it cuba. he did not. exact we expect from this pope tomorrow? you know, i think he gave us a preview today. he is not mincing words n. a very short address, i think
francis. they disagree on issues. i m not sure that francis can bridge the political gulf between them. and yet, he does bring people together in admiration for who he is and a lot of what he says. the images that we have seen so far, ej, yesterday, for me at least, so far one of the most striking has been that picture of pope francis being greeted at andrews by the president of the united states, the first lady. their two daughters. his mother-in-law. the vice president. jill biden, as well. i mean, this is a pope who has managed to upstage the leader of the free world for at least two days in washington, d.c. right. no. i have rarely felt a mood like this in washington. i think kasie hunt alluded to this earlier. there really is a buoyant mood out there. i don t think that s just because i m catholic and hope to like pope francis. i think a lot of people out there feeling that. and it really is striking.
and very much who he is. it is also going to be interesting, think, ej, to hear the tone that the pope uses with members of congress. this is not a congress making fighting climate change a top priority. is there a reason to believe that words from the pope are going to spur this legislative body to action? i wish i could say yes, but and i suppose maybe he can chalk up a miracle toward sainthood if he achieved that but i think it would take a mirac miracle i think one of the interesting things of the pope is getting people even those that disagree with him think about certain issues. i was really struck at the white house today to see jim mcgovern, one of the most liberal members of government, near paul ryan, one of the most conservative members. and happy to welcome pope
it seemed, you know, another thing by the way the pope talked about without mentioning cuba and iran, he welcomed those initiatives. the pope and president obama seem on an awful lot of issues on the same wave length and you never know but they seem to like each other. president was sure happy to give him a particularly warm welcome today. ej, thanks again, my friend. do appreciate your time. great to be with you. we have much, much more on the pope s visit this hour and at 3:00 p.m. eastern, be sure to tune in to special coverage hosted by brian williams. any moment now, again, donald trump set to speak in south carolina before the state s african-american chamber of commerce. trump has been in trouble again for his birther boosterism as it s dubbed by some. this time for not pushing back when a man-made a bigoted comment about muslims and president obama. katy tur is in south carolina covering trump for us.
hillary clinton folks and they re saying, look, what we have to do is we have to change the narrative here from the defense as opposed to the server on e.j. s point and make it something hillary is going to stand for, that she s going to fight for. i so appreciate both of you go right to the important politics of it, and i did as well, but there is also part of me that thinks, why in the world is this part of the political football? there are some things i wish were off the table. i don t think we should talk about the bill of rights. i don t think we should talk about whether or not if i get to be president, then ufr tyou hav right to marry. i think there are some basic rights and to me this is a settled matter of the supreme court. people have a right to privacy, and that right to privacy extends to the right to terminate a pregnancy. but i think that s one of the key pieces of the republican party. the abortion piece is one of the huge pieces. every republican cycle we ve had sa