representative. they arrived at joint base andrews outside of washington, d.c. and have been whisked to this office. he s together with his wife, judy. we re anxious to hear what he says now that he s back in the united states. senator tom udall of new mexico is with we just got a statement from bob corker of tennessee. he s going to be the new chairman of the senate foreign relations committee. 54 republicans in the next u.s. senate, the majority. there s going to be 46 democrats. 44 democrats, two independents that caucus with the democrats. a careful statement. let me read it to you, senator. this is senator kaworker. i was notified of the release of gross. i m pleased he ll be reunited with his family after suffering unjust imprisonment and mistreatment by the castro regime. the new u.s. policy is no doubt sweeping and as of now there s no real understanding as to what
president that he was grateful not just for his release, but for the president s change in policy toward cuba. and i think it s very telling that, you know, an american who has been locked up in five years is not only pleased to be free and out of prison, but also believes that the president s announced policy will bring more freedom to the cuban people. thank you so much chris van hollen. i know this has been an historic day for you because of your efforts in the past and thanks for calling, jeff van hollen, and thanks of course to pat leahy as well and to jeff flake. and joining us now from new mexico, senator tom udall who travelled to cuba for his imprisonment, joins me now. senator, your reactions about all of the rapid, the evolving events. these have been difficult secret negotiations, some of them hosted by canada in fact over the past year. well, first of all, joyous
congress as to what we should be doing because the president has been pointed out can take certain actions, but it s really congress that drops the embargo and that moves towards dropping the embargo. i think we should do that. i sit on the foreign relations committee, i went to cuba with senator flake and met with alan gross, and i think we ought to get down to our work at the first of the year here and see if we can t craft a good, bipartisan effort forward to drop this embargo. thanks so much, senator udall. and now for a very different perspective, this is marco rubio, the florida senator also speaking on capitol hill. whose rights are being abused. it is just another concession to a tyranny by the obama administration, rather than a defense of every universal and inalienable right that our country was founded on and stands for. and short with these changes are going to do is they will tighten
senator flake, what was your impression? we spoke with his wife, judy, a few weeks ago and she was afraid she would never see her husband again. she thought he was actually dying in that cuban jail, losing sight in one eye, having all sorts of other problems. but he looked pretty good, at least in the video that we re showing our viewers right now here in the united states and around the world. you spent three hours on that plane with him. give us your impressions, senator flake. well, he was ready to come home. i met with him a month ago myself and senator tom udall in havana in the cuban prison. at that point, he was at wits end. and he said many times, i ve spent my last birthday here. either i go home or i go home another way. so he was really at wits end. this was a welcome thing for him. i m sure my colleagues view, it was just very emotional. great to have him home. what do you say to your
joining us, senator tom udall of new mexico with us, donna brazile is here, our democratic strategist who s with us as well. senator udall, thanks for coming in. you ve hard to get alan gross out there. tell us what it was like. i was there a little more than a month ago with senator flake. we spent two hours with alan gross. it was an engaging conversation. my sense is his condition was getting better. it seemed like something was up. we were at the point where it really seemed that the cuban government was easing things in order to get to the point to do some behind-the-scenes negotiations. we felt very encouraged by what we saw.