it's got to be the right deal or no deal and he's willing to walk away empty handed if he has to. >> this extension impacts congress f. the deal is struck after thursday, then debate doubles from 30 days to 2 months and remember that nothing is official until congress signs off. nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitch sell in austria outside of the talks. andrea? >> reporter: here in vienna secretary of state kerry and his counterpart are staying, postponed the final deadline until friday to see if they can still reach a deal. they know it's not going to be easy and there's a lot of posturing by both sides with the u.s. clearly concerned that they were beginning to indicate that they were too eager for a deal. that concern has led to this latest extension in part as some of the other ministers had to go home to their capitals for other business anyway. but will be returning in 24 or 48 hours we are told. that said, there are still some big disagreements over u.n. sanctions and whether iran still would be under a conventional arms embargo that would also affect nuclear technology on ballistic missiles. that is a key sticking point as the hardest issues still need to be negotiated in these closing days. andrea mitchell nbc news vienna. >> all right. andrea mitch knell vienna for us, thank you so much for that report. for more gary sick a professor of columbia university school of international and public affairs and chief aid to president kartder in the hostage crisis. great to have you with us professor. >> good to be here. >> how much should we make of the fact that the deadlines keep getting pushed and also of what iran is saying about how they're not really too concerned about the clock? >> well i think you have to take it with a grain of salt. these negotiations have been remarkably free of sort of posturing and showing off and people walking away and then coming back and all of the things you might expect in a negotiation. but this is the very end. there are a couple of sticking points that still remain to be done and i think the united states in particular is very anxious not to appear to be too eager because that's the people in congress and 0 poe innocentopponents of the deal said kerry is too willing to take a deal. that being said iran isn't a matter of days or weeks. i mean they don't have the same constriction as far as the congress is concerned. where they have the deadline is for the congress not for the deal. and so the question is do you rush, rush rush to do something to satisfy the u.s. congress so it can go on its vacation at the right time or do you stick around and finish the job? my understanding is they're extremely close to a final settlement and most of it is actually drafted. >> professor, we talk about this deal oftentimes as if the u.s. is negotiating directly with iran. obviously, there are six nations at the negotiating table, including china and russia who in many ways have been helpful here. talk to us about their role in these talks and why it's so important for them to be involved here. >> well basically, the whole business is going to begin with a resolution by the u.n. security council. and so you have to be certain that all the members of the u.n. security council and that includes china and russia are on board and ready to go. in fact as i understand it the current hang-up is about the resolution that the u.n. will pass and the united states and russia are negotiating now, not so much the united states and iran. so it is true. and in some ways you know this has been a kind of four-dimensional chess. the president deals with iran and the members of the security council and europe and then the u.s. congress and finally all of the countries in the regions. israel and saudi arabia for instance. so it's a very very complicated undertaking. >> professor a lot of people in the media are reporting that the key sticking point now is sanctions blocking iraq from acquiring missiles and arms. seems to be a huge impasse. what is it likely or possible middle ground that they could reach where both sides would be able to go home and say, see, we sked edsucceeded? >> that's what the negotiations are for to find that magic wording or whatever it is. the reality is that the restriction on iran's missile development and sales of military equipment conventional military equipment was imposed by the security council as part of the deal restricting their nuclear development. so it's reasonable to think that those restrictions will be lifted or at least ameliorated if a deal is done. that's, in fact what's being negotiated. i don't have the magic words but we've seen a number of cases where each side has completely different red lines and both sides satisfied each other that their red lines were satisfied. i think our negotiators are pretty clever about finding a way out of these apparently impossible impasses. >> and so you mentioned the magic wording john kerry and president obama are looking for in order to get this thing to the point of agreement but then as you mentioned earlier, pick back up on this the role of congress in this. they have to go back to the united states congress giving itself the power to potentially reject the deal. based on you have advised several presidents based on your time in d.c. and expertise here, do you think there's a chance for congress to potentially reject the deal and would that worry you with respect to the president's ability to negotiate the deals going forward? >> i think the key issue here is if the president signs the deal and all of the other countries, you know, all of the me believes of the security council and europe, sign the deal bring it back to the u.s. congress and present it then the congress is stuck with the possibility, okay if we reject this then what happens? and the reality is that the -- anything that comes about because of the u.s. walking away from it because of the u.s. congress, it's going to be very bad. at the very least, we'll go back to where we were a few -- well two years ago when iran was within weeks of having the ability to have enough material for a nuclear weapon when they had unrestricted you know -- when they had unrestricted research and development of missiles and everything else. that's why we did these negotiations and if we turn these down and walk away we'll go right back to that situation. the other thing is that if that does happen the other countries are going to say, you americans are the -- you can't get your act together. so are we going to stick around and impose these sanctions that hurt us for your benefit? i think probably the answer is, no. so the sanctions regime will begin to break down. the congress has to ask itself if we turn it down we own the results and are the results something we're willing to live with? my guess is this is just my guess, but after they look at that they will say, no. whether we like it or not, this is as good as it's going to get and they will either not -- maybe not approve but probably not disapprove but we'll see. there's a lot of water to go -- to cross between now and then. >> professor, this is something you understand better than anybody anybody and following this for a long time. you were the iran expert for president carter. during the iranian revolution and the crisis the iran hostage crisis. here's a photo of you in the oval office we showed of 1981. january 20th when you were briefing him on an american released out of iran. president carter on "morning joe" this morning and asked him if he would have done anything differently back in the day and here's what he said about that. >> i think the nation would have responded favorably politically speaking if i had bombs iran. >> yeah. >> and but it was a great temptation. even my wife on occasion said jimmy, you need to do more in a military way. but i didn't want to. i was committed to peace. >> what do you make of that statement? looking back, do you agree with him? do you wish that the country would have been more involved militarily with iran? >> if we had bombed iran that was, indeed considered at the highest levels and even the lower levels during that entire period you have to ask yourself the same question about this negotiation. would we have been better off? very likely what would have happened is that iran would have killed some or all of the hostages. that we would have ended up in a war which could eventually have turned into a land war in iran which would have been a catastrophe for both countries and, you know, at the end of the day i guess if i were a hostage, i wouchb happy to have jimmy carter as my president because the hostages all got out. they were all healthy and released. they didn't enjoy their time there. they would have liked to get out earlier. the president probably lost his job because he didn't get them out earlier but restraint sometimes is actually -- proves a point. i would say compared to theal termtives, jimmy carter probably made the right decision. >> fascinating to have your perspective today, professor. really appreciate it. and cycling now, hillary clinton is in iowa today and a second former president says that she has this race locked up. >> i don't think there's much doubt she's going to get the democratic nomination. >> but is it too soon to crown clinton the nominee with sanders bringing out crowds like this? 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with pg&e's free online home energy checkup. in just under 5 minutes you can see how you use energy and get quick and easy tips on how to keep your monthly bill down and your energy savings up. don't let your neighbor enjoy all the savings. take the free home energy checkup. honey, we need a new refrigerator. visit pge.com/checkup and get started today. will hillary need more than a rope line to keep bernie sanders at bay? as you may have heard, she is's under fire for keeping the press away on saturday in new hampshire. the campaign set up a rope line to corral reporters as clinton marched in a fourth of july parade. staffers said they did it so clinton is more viz to believe the crowd and now with sanders proving he has momentum they say perhaps they underestimated him. sanders clut clinton's 45-point lead to under 20. in iowa today. she lost to both barack obama and john edwards in 2008. when sanders was in the hawkeye state last week some 2,500 supporters with there are to greet him, not to mention the 10,000 who were on hand for him. in wisconsin. even sanders himself admits he is surprised about the excitement for his campaign. >> i am a little bit surprised. you know i knew we were going to do well. but the momentum is moving so quickly. yes, things are moving a little bit faster than i anticipated. >> but the -- can the bernie surge last? hmm. who should we ask about that? oh yeah! howard fineman, the global universal editorial director. >> intergalactic, my friend. >> at "the huffington post." highwayard, i feel like we have seen this movie before. party flirts with attractive fringe candidate who sort of speaks to their id. not flirting with the brazilian player before you settle down with the nice television anchor. you know i mean, dems in particular did this before. with howard dean and then always end up with the establishment candidate. >> well, yes. except you're forgetting the most recent example in iowa which is barack obama who -- >> hmm. >> -- outmaneuvered hillary in iowa and got inside position in the race and never relinquished it. it is possible. iowa can be the launching pad. sometimes the people who are the outsiders, underdogs, anti-establishment candidate can win. can bernie sanders follow that same path? interestingly hillary in iowa getting ready to have a press availability out there and she's in iowa city another university town where bernie sanders draws the big crowds as he did in madison, wisconsin. you know that's the way to go because in 2008 hillary clinton did very poorly in iowa city. in part because that was home turf as it turned out for barack obama. she wasn't viable in many of the precincts there in iowa city. i think hillary's trying to send a message she knows she has to compete everywhere in the state. but the hillary people trying to lower expectations. by the time late fall comes around, it will be considered a huge upset if hillary wins in iowa. bernie has to worry that the expectations are getting a little out of hand at this point. >> you know, bernie sanders represents i think the complete opposite of hillary clinton which is what people like about him. accessible. not afraid to answer any questions, talk to anybody. i can't wrap my head around this rope situation. she has some of the best people in the campaign running this. the optics are terrible. especially in new hampshire all about being on the ground being flexible, being willing to talk anyone coming up to you. i look to the numbers released pod. "the washington post" has hillary clinton leading with announcing per day $500,000. you look at the logistics, logic, all of that of the campaigning and think with the money like that she can do whatever she wants with the way politics is today. >> yes and no. i think to me the more remarkable numbers is bernie sanders raised $15 million. >> yep. >> which is not chump change. the key question is whether he's technologically up to date enough to capture the e-mail addresses and the modern mechanics of digital politics. but yeah. i mean iowa is made for bernie sanders in a way to give hillary a rough race. and tom vilsack who used to be governor of iowa democrat who's been agriculture secretary for the entire time of the obama administration, and i had a conversation the other day. and he was -- i think, part of the expectation lowering exercise for hillary. he said you know, there are 30 to 40% of the caucus goers on the democratic side in iowa when are very very progressive, the words he used. so i think he's predicting and trying to get us to accept the idea that 40% is like the floor for bernie sanders. but also also tom vilsack has dispatched all of his top campaign people. he was governor of iowa. they're organizing in every precinct. hillary at least will not make the mistake organizationally of last time against barack obama and the problem is she is the establishment. jeb bush on the democratic side the establishment. they're familiar names and people out there in iowa and new hampshire and elsewhere around the country are sort of agitated and upset. they don't like congress. they don't like the political system. they don't like the media. they don't like anybody telling them anything that they don't want to hear. they want blunt speaking. they want honesty and they want an outsider. even though bernie sanders is a politician most of his life he's deemed the outsider in this circumstance. >> yeah. keep in mind it's not just iowa howard. new hampshire bernie is making inroads and what does it say about the democratic party, somebody not part of it taking the party by storm? is there a gap between the leaders of the democratic party and the grass roots at this point? >> i think there definitely is. and in new hampshire, somewhat different situation. yeah there's a smaller proportion of quote, very very progressive unquote voters in new hampshire on the democratic side. also bernie is from vermont, right across the river. >> right. >> he can spend a ton of time campaigning there. by the way, bernie sanders is more to the right on gun control than you might imagine. >> i saw that. that's surprising. >> which is a vermont thing and a new hampshire thing. >> yep. >> so he's going to -- i was in new hampshire this weekend and talked to democrats for hillary and they had said look bernie gives hillary a rough go in new hampshire, as well. so hillary's going to have to figure out how to get through iowa and new hampshire. if she can squeak through, she will be fine. losing both she's not necessarily dead. but it -- it will be a strong indication that the democratic base after having given their hearts to barack obama and then been sort of -- you know somewhat disappointed on some issues, it's not a one to one translation of obama support and hillary support. that's what hillary has to worry about. >> right. the person on the republican side seems to be surging in the polls at the moment is donald trump. so i'm going to take the flip side of blake's question. what does it say about the republican party that this guy seems to have momentum? >> it says that the republican party's an even bigger mess than the democratic party at this point. and, you know you don't have anybody with basically over 15% support. it's like the political equivalent of entropi. donald trump, his showmanship, his aggression, his blunt speaking, you know this is an election season where everybody says i want to be blunt. i want to be in your face. you know? chris christie mike huckabee on and on and on. well, if that's the level of the contest, donald trumps them all. he's the most aggressive the most obnoxious, the biggest showman. the most in your face. and that is enough to get them at least 10% or 12%, for sure. i was in new hampshire. i spoke to top republicans there over the weekend including the legendary editor of the biggest newspaper in new hampshire. down the line conservative. put it this way, he is not dismissing donald trump out of hand. even