absolute hold as far as infrastructure and economy. if the president if president mubarak decides to, a, make this announcement that he will not run for yet another term and that he ll turn the internet back on, the railroads will start running again, schools, banks, universities, all those things get up and running again, it could take a real edge off of the protest movement. and, of course, the egyptian people may well say, well, we ve heard promises before. there s a vice president in play. prime minister in play. both men evof the military as i the incumbent. why should we believe you now? is that likely to be a fear? reporter: well, let s keep in mind the events of the last eight days. the possibility that hosni mubarak would run yet again for president and with free and fair elections, the chances that he would win are pretty slim at this point. so most people realize that one
what role does president mubarak want to play after he makes this announcement? will he aggressively bring new people in, or try to run out the clock, if you will, and continue the crisis in a different way? but this is a defining day. as we watch this unfold, yes, we will watch the u.s./egyptian relationship and michael can talk more smartly about this, an interesting question is, what will the response from iran be, other territories, the region? how will they describe fairly or unfairly the role of the united states in all of this and how will that stoke the unrest in the region? of course. we ve seen tunisia, algeria, jordan today. a lot of eyes on the middle east. i want to get back to egypt, a big, big friend of ours, hosni mubarak a friend of president obama. the number one recipient of u.s. aid. how would this affect the u.s. s relationship with egypt? well, the u.s. hopes to have a lasting and stable and trustworthy relationship with
whatever comes next. obviously the military to military relationship is critical right now. secretary of state clinton will be critical and the president of the united states willing critical. we need to learn more about who president mubarak is will to bring into the government. we know there is a strained relationship right now with president mubarak but a longstanding relationship. the vice president and chief of staff has long relationships. elbaradei had his tensions wlt united states but a known figure on the world stage. but as anderson was noting earlier and others have noted on the square, there is no face of this revolution. that is one of the complicating factors. you do not know who. who could you bring into the government that will satisfy at least be a relief valve to allow dialogues and conversations about doemt ick institutions? the important thing is, brooke, the administration made the calculation even though it couldn t answer many of those questions, it felt he had
erupted. it was only a few weeks ago that there was some demonstrations in tunisia, and then the longtime president there, president ben ali, had to flee, and we see what happened there, but that was a spark, and now there s a forest fire going on, and egypt has caught that, and it s really stunning to see how quickly this has led to this point where president mubarak who has been in power for almost 30 years is on the verge of stepping down either immediately or within the next few weeks or months. we ll see if the crowd, if the people on the street are willing to wait that long, but there s every indication to believe it s over for president mubarak. one way or another he s going to have to leave. certainly he s going to make it clear that he s not going to seek re-election in the scheduled september elections. the question is what happens next? not only in egypt, brooke, but what happens in the egypt? does this wildfire spread to other countries? whether to friendly countries to the
nothing left to do except tell mr. mubarak it was time to do something different. let me quickly follow up on that. is this anticipated move on behalf of hosni mubarak a direct result of the u.s. sending wisner to cairo? i think that would underestimate the reaction of president mubarak s own people. there s no question the administration wanted to send someone president must bark trust out of the fear that the people closest to him weren t giving him kand itd and blunt support, that he had lost the bond with his people and that the united states shaw that, other key players in the western world saw that and it s important to take the step. this is a nudge from president obama, but a nudge that comes after eight days of a pretty blunt and direct and clear message from the people of egypt. i ve got to ask you this, it s michael. i can t when i look at what mubarak looks like he s going to