Transcripts For WPLG This Week In South Florida 20160221

So tonight im suspending my campaign. Jeb bush calls it a day after a disastrous showing in sout car luna. His nemesis donald trump was the easy winner. Well have a live report. There is no justification for president obama to make a visit to cuba. Miami congresswoman ileana ross late nent lasts the president for going to cuba but other cubanamericans approve. The congresswoman is with us live. And justice antonin scalias journey ends, the controversy over his successor is just beginning. We will take it to the round table. Good morning, welcome. Glad you could join us. The president will be going to cuba. No surprise there, really. And were going to talk about it in a minute with congresswoman ilian an ross late then. Late nen. Trump was going to b b the winner an he was the although not quite by the par begin. That he had hoped for. Marco rubio narrowlwl edged out ted cruz for second place, jeb bush was fourth. A death knell for his campan. John kasich was fifth. His campaign is barely alive. Our friend and comoderater of this program, our colleague glenna millburg is live with us. Glenna, good morning, great to see you. Give us your read out about what happened in the primary. Oh, wow, michael, it feels sometimes like were kind of in thth alternative universe. We have this millionare from manhattan who just took the south and its first primary. And then you have somebody who at his expense, the field is whittled down to a lot of people surprised, jeb bush bowing out before the florida primary. Up. We had South Carolinas numbers all along, even at long odds. There is nothing easy about running for president , i can tell you. Its tough, its nasty, its mean, its vicious, its beautiful. When you win its beautiful. Donald trump double digit win was so decisive itas called with just three percent of precincts reporting, even after a week taking on the pope, the legacycy of george w. Bush and questions about trumps conservatism. The battle for second played long into the night. Florida senator marco rubio overcame the debate debacle of New Hampshire, boyed by a Rainbow Coalition of state endorsements and late deciding voters who found him the most electable. For me the state of South Carolina will always be the ace of new beginnings and fresh starts. South carolina was senator ted cruzs to lose. Fourths of voters here who identify as of evangelicals but lost a significant number to trump, likely a jobs and economy vote over faithbased issues. From across the potomac,s the washington car tell in full terror that the conservative grass roots are rising up. And as his fourth place numbers remained in Single Digits, former Florida Governor jeb bush suspended his campaign in a dignified emotional speech with a final shot at trump. I firmly believe the American People must entrust this office to someone who understanan that whoever holds it is a servant,not the master. To the first caucus in the west, Hillary Clinton takes Nevada Democratic caucus by six points over bernie sanders. A decisive victory but senator sanders momentum had cost her there. Americans are right to be for real solutions. E are bringing working people and young people into the political process in a way we have not seen for a a very long time. applause so now the party, the gorks op heads to nevada and the democrats come here for their primary this weekend. You can already tell michael on the ground here because all of the people in South Carolina who have been just bombarded with mit kal ads over the last week or so, as of midnight las night, they have switched to bebeie sanders and Hillary Clinton ads and we expect that that will be what they see all week this week. And of course we in florida will be seeing that pretty soon as well. Well, we will. March 159 is our primary. A winner take all primary. And as our guest Ileana Ross Lethinen said a minute ago frk erred out in that primary, it would have been just a terrible embarrassment. But it is embarrassment enough for him to have inned his campaign as he did there in South Carolina. It was. You know, it was very bittersweet for jeb bush supporters. And could you hear when he announced there was this kind of grown and a boo. I think people were really surprised even with his low numbers all along, that he would get out before the actual primary in a state where he has such s song support. And we have been hearing talk that this was not maybe entirely his decision. Maybe some Party Operatives had asked him to step down. Used hundred, millions of dollars in superpac money that they can use because the gop as u know wants to see anyone but donald trump become the nominee. So thats a possibility. But you know, this was a place where jeb bush was supposed to be resurrected. His family was here. George w. Bush, former president is hugely popular in south it is a military familybased, its a faithbased state and you heard all the candidates, not just jeb bush talk about in their speeches god and being blessed. You heard so much of that. And it really was very disappointing to him that he never really got out of the Single Digits last night. And glenna, as you talked to various political operatives there and you certainly have over the last several days, you get the sense that the republican establishment is going to try to get behind marco rubio now . I think, im not sure i can answer that at this point. I think that would be the conventional wisdom because at thisoint, its so, there is so much time to go. Primaries are a numbers game with the delegates. And d ght now thats so early in the process. So now its all about momentum. You watch marco rubio, in all of his speeches, he kind of sub president , im this, im that. Hes got such energy and his speech is so compelling that he, you know, he has the attention, pecially with ted cruz and donald trump, if it is a threeman race now. Marco rubio would be the natural candidate that the gop witwant to get behind in this case. So you know, that may be premature but in this early stage, that could very well be. And also you know while were talking about tha it was so interesting for us here to talk to voters and hear how all of this messaging translates with voters and why voters would choose to vote for whom they chose to vote. And consistently we heard that they were attracted to energy and lech ability. And the people who actually attended jeb bushs townhalls, and there were a lo of them, left speeches or townhalls where swreb bush would discuss policy and detail, people who saw him and heard him were very taken by those who didnt see him up close and personal and just saw him on television consistently told us that they didnt see the energy. They didnt really feel like he wanted to be president that badly. And it was such an interesting perspective to hear from voters when i guess when youre closer to t you see things much differently. And you know, you and i both know jeb bush well. Weve covered him as governor. And when he was the governor of florida for eight years, he was a dime ig figure, largerthanlife in tallahassee and inhe life of the state of florida, like it or not, some of the ththg he did, Terry Schiavo and things like that. Yet i thinknk donald trump scored some points early onn when he said jeb low energy. I think whether it was accurate or not, that label stuck, didnt it. I think it did. What jeb is jeb was an absolutely by all aounts he is a leader by persona. Again, as you said, like his politics or not, theres no argument that it was his way or the highway. He was very thoughtful in his delib rations, he has principles that he stuck with. He ip a rock star leader in florida because of his record with conservatives. He is not a rock star personality. And in this race, probably because of donald trump and really when you blow it up a little bit in our society, rock stars get the attention. And sometimes, and i dont mean to suggest that this is style over substance with any of the candidates, but sometimes style over substance catches the attention and wins, at least in the short term. Right now the shortterm is momentum and momentum in this race could well lead to a win. Glenna, we are so glad that you have been in South Carolina and also in New Hampshire and iowa. Come home and rejoin us here on the set next week for this week getting on a plane now. All right. See you soon. Ank you very much. All right, up next president says hes going to cuba next month and reaction has been negative from two of our four cuban american members of congress. And we will hear from lehtonen thepresident will be going to cuba with the first lady on that announcement from ben rodes who is the president s point man on cuba. It really came as no surprise on thursday. Mr. Obama has made no secret of his dire to visit the island, that he indicated in december he wanted to see Good Progress on human rights and other areas of concern before he went. Turns out hes going to go anyway. That certainly rankles representative ilian an roslehtinen, a miami veteran republican without serves the 27th Congressional District which includes much of miami, hialeah, southwest miami dade. Congresswoman. Im not too rankled. Im disappointed but i dont to rankled well. Okay, you characterize it in your own way. On thursday you did say its shameful. It is. The president would go why is it shameful that a president trying to advance a policy, one you disagree with, would go to a country and try and sit down with its leader and say hey, youve got to do better on human rights and other things. Because, well, i agree with he said when the conditions are right we will advance human rights. All of those statements are positive. But t at we see here in my point of view, is justegacy shopping, new clear deal with iran, cck. Visit to cuba, check. We have seen 40 consecutive sundays of beatingof the ladies in white. In fact just this week, michael, when the rumor was that the president s with going to announce a trip to cuba, they were almost 30 ladies in white arrested. And these are peaceful demonstrators who are just calling out for respect for human rights. And so what the president s announceme on december 17th of the year before to now, what have we seen. Massive exodus of cubans. Right. Leaving the island. 4 3,000 have arrived at the u. S. Border with mexico. More than 8,000 cubans have been detained, harassed, jailed in cuba. Youe got it. We know the record. Those are not just little i mean, this is the reality. And so the president s visit will just further cement an already cemented regime and power and the cuban people will say oh, well, the United States is reaching out. And to the regime, not really reaching out to the people. He will meet with some folks. Ileana. But will he meet with the ladies in white. A real substantive discussion. In a operate meeting. Or what happened when terry went over there. That was just a show. All right, andre sopenheiler the fine columist for the miami herald wrote an excellent colume this morning in which he said it will be one thing if the president meets, say at the embassy where the whole group of cuban intellectuals, Business People and a few approved disi dents. But hes got to meet with itu nes and the others. The people who have been meet with them separately. Thats what needs to be done. And then show the cubanpeople need to see that image. I wush him luck with that, i wish him success. That is the image that ed intos to be broadcasto the disdents dont feel they have been shunned by the greatest democracy in the world. President obama is our leader. And we want him to protect project a position of strength of human rights, that we want to advance democcy on the island where there are no multiparty elections. There is no elections at all, there is selection. There are no labor unions. Everything that president obama stands for as he sought the democratic nomination. None of that is exist ent in cuba. And we want him to advance that. And i wish him the bes hes going to go, there is nothing i can do to stop himment but if hes going to go, then we want him to advance American Values that we want for all people to be free. This is god given. I want to play a sound bite from ben rodes, his deputy Nation Security advisor where im sorry, we dont have a sound bite, ben rhodes said yeah, we understand, human rights is a huge issue and the president was is going to tell raul castro, your people need freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, free elections. And i am sure that at some point the president who knows the tone in which that conversation will take place. But i mean, isnt it at least positive for our president to look eyetoeye with raul castro and say those things . It is positive to say those things. Bubu i dont think president obama has any illusion thatuba is going to change under the castros. In fact,t, grandma, the official communist paper of cuba where they dont have a free press, you dont have a Michael Putney this week in south florida there. La messa. All the favorite cuts of the castro government sit around and talk. So their editorial yesterday proof that there are no human rights vlations in cuba. So you already see that there is no opening. That is absurd. They are not going to change. Since secretary of state kerrys visit to the island nation, what has happened since then. More rression, more exodus and thats not going to happen. There have been progress. We have a. Oh well, commercially there has been progress, Civil Aviation agreement, by the fall there could be commercialegular flights between the United States and cuba. Theres been progress on immigration, on human rigs, human trafficking, nar cottics. There have been these talks. I mean is that not some kind of progress. That is not any kind of progress. We dont want a look f there were a starbucks on every corner and a mcdonalds on the opposite side of the corner, that is not going to help the cuban people be free and have elections and have freedom of expression. Theres such a difference u. S. Side to cuba and we have yet to see whether castro is going to accept any of these concessions. Its been onesided. President obama has not really demanded any of those changes take place. And raul task tro castro said they will not take place. That is the difference. Castro has already said we will not change. And this visit is val daition that what we are doing is correct. That is how the castro regime is interpreting this visit. Thehe is no question, raul has said that i want to quote from an op ed piece in todays new york times. I dont know if you have seen t steven radnr, prominent wall stet executive and opinion writer has reason this piece in todays new york mes and it says at one point at the end, with so much of the economy, cuban economy remaining under ate controlled cube has an exceptional exceptionally long to do list. But while our embargo didnt succeed in reforming the country, the slow steady i disagree because the capitalism in cuba is statecontrolled still. You know, this notion that there are entrepreneurs in cuba, who gets those licenses. The regime relatives, pals of the regime. And we want this alice in wonderland myth that these things are happening in cuba, that cuba is opening up to capitalism, and its not happening. But people like mike ern fern of coral gables. I respect him. Really an extraordinary guy. I agree. And he and joe and former Congress Secretary geut area easy and carlos all these really prominent cuban americans have said we want to encourage the private sector in cuba. We all do and its not possible. Under a statecontrolled regime that controls the economy as well. It controls the tourist sector. Look, i would like to go to their optometrist because i would like to get those because i dont see it, its not happening. We hope that it does. And if this is a president obama brings about those changes, then god love him for it. But it hasnt happened yet. And youve had murder of u. S. Citizens. Youve had ladies in white being beaten. And the regime says were not changing. Were going to continue. So i dont know how. The president says hes intent. Well talk about this more and i want to hear you out on donald trump as your president s president ial nominee. Stay withh us. Roslehtinen in just a minute we are riff this morning with the one and only Ileana Roslehtinen. Congresswoman from the 27th Congressional District. Congresswoman, i need to ask you. I askeded you this question on thursday. Need to ask it again. 1972, Richard Nixon went to china, a stawnch anticommunist could do that because ofis record and subsequently the ended. This huge commercial relationship and i think you would have to admit the lives of millions of chinese people, because the economy there has flourished kind of in a down period now, but the lives of millions of people there improved. And so what is the differenc 1972 a barack obama going to cuba in 2016. ` a huge difference. And you mentioned the excellent colume in todays paper, read it to see how he differentiates between the nixon visit to china and the obama visit to cuba. And i would add to his thinking, a few other items. Nixon went from a positio of strength to try to get china to cooperate more with the United States. Unfortunately, what has happened after that visit and since is that china developed two models. Political repression but economic freedom. We dont have even that differ rent yaition in cuba. Also what we have seen of the concession. He did it with the iran deal weakness. Not from a position of strtrgth of Richard Nixon. And we got something out ofhe visit to china. It. Be so involved with this, in the vietnamese war to helping the north vietnamese. And we got them to be more of a member of the community. World community in cuba you have a small country that has beenviolently antiamerican, that has killed american citizens. When was the last time that china killed american citizs. When was the last time that we have a teenmen square every sunday because you have china, huge country, cuba a small country. I see your point. Its political repression. So openly. Und what we see in obama is an idea logical visit that is in line witith his philosophy and legacy building and thats not what nixon. As andre pointed out, the difference between saudi arabia orietnam or the other really autocratic regimes in the world with which we have better relations, cuba is in our in our hemisphere and cuba has signed on towers goioi to respect human rights, et cetera. Something that the other countries have not. Yeah. All right. Congresswoman, need to ask you, donald trump leading the republican ticket in november. Its now a reall possibility youre going to be on that ticket. Thats not going to help you. Aycaru mba. I tell you, carlos cur beb curbelo, mario and lincoln diaz balance ard were together watching those returnsome in. I am not going to sugar coat it. It was like a body blow. You supported jeb for many years. And itsot a surprise that he has bowed out. Because it was a tough tough road, deks ter and i went to New Hampshire, went to townhalls with jeb. Heas doing is well, becoming a better candidate. Keith fern fer nan dez, my Legal Counsel il there, we saw this just not happening for jeb. We have the donald trump over policy. Jeb would give detailed answers to the student loan crisis. Too detailed though. And was not connecting with the voters as he should. He was ready from day one to be president. I was proud to support him. Mario lincoln and i, and carlos are going to be together tomorrow at 1 30. Were going to announce what our next step is for the president ial election. And we are proud to be with jeb. Can you give us a preview. I have a feeling you could be a lot mororat home with marco rubio than ted cruz. I think we canan we know and love marco. Weve never said oneegative word about marco. But we will see. Were talking to the candidates as we speak. We will be there to cover whatever you have to say. Its always a delight to speak with you. Thank you michael put nee. Mi amigo. All right, after the break were going to take it all to allstar panel for you today. Good morning, good morning, hello, my name is patricia rodriguez. Good morning governor, counsel, and jim allen. Good morning everyone. I think its still theheost important thing we can do for ananfamily in this state is to create an opportunity for them to get a job. Im a single mother of three. Ive been working g r the seminole tribe for fifteen n ars now. This company has given me the opportunity to provide for my children. How does it make you feel when you worry about whether thisisompact gets signed . If the compact isnt signed, then it does affect me tremendously because i would be out of a job. A month ago my sister passed away. So are you taking care of them . Yes. This compact not being signed would affect me and many people that have grown with me at this company. If would affect them immensely. Jobs for florida. The new seminole compact. Living well your immununsyst rks s rd to keep you on top of your game. You can support it by eating healthy, drinking fluids, and getting some rest. No otherereading munini brand gives you more vitamin c. Plus it has a specially crafted blend of 13 vitamins, minerals and herbs. So when you want to support your immune system, take airborne, and enjoy living well. It is time now to take a much closer anmore analytical look at the weeks top news stories add add some opinion in the mix. We do that with our powerhouse round table. Here they are what a lineup, cateie fang, miami attorney. A former prosecutor in both mark capu to is a round table regular, florida correspondent for politico, the website forall things political. He also rights the politico daley play book which is a mustread. And we are glad to welcome ba dr. Jorge du ane director of the Research Institute at Florida International university. Professor of anthropology. I thought Governor Scott said there shouldnt be anthropologists any more. Evevybody should be a stem student. Good to see you for coming in. Mark, let me t tn to you first. Is it now inevitable or is donald trump close to becoming the republican president ial nominee . If you made me bet, i would say donald trump is goi to be the nominee. Leads well if delicates and he has a really good propi shus calender that he is facing. The in the southeast. Lean heavily trump and that he will be heading too florida on march 159 and doing well here in the polls. Katie fang, you follow politics closely. To donald trump this week. I saw him on the cnn townhall forum. And he says things that are frankly inappropriate. Yup. That would for any other politician be death. I mean in South Carolina, to crititize george w. Bush, say he caused the war. He called him a liar. He didnt yus criticize him, he cacaed him a liar. How does he survive and say all these things. He says incredibly socially and politically unacceptable things and the terrifying component is people are saying he is saying things that we are all thinking. I find that to be particularly offensive because its not what i think. But its the idea that mlions of voters out there feel disenfranchised by the Current Administration and theyre looking for a change, to borrow a former obama phrase. They want change, they think trump. Is but we were talking about this before we got here for the round table. Trtrp has got a way to go hes got to get the number of delegates to be our nominee for is going to do it. There is kind of a mechanical aspect. You have to collect all these delegates. But hes got a very strong campaign. Jorge, i have to ask you, you are an academic but you follow the political world. When you watch all what happened this week in soh carolina, what do you think . I think it is a polarizing trend. Over the campaign we have seen more and more white voters and evangelical voters voting for the trump. But the other groups have fallen away. I think one of the issues will be when the Campaign Comes through florida, how are hispanics going to vote. Theyre not going to vote for donald trump, are they . I mean the guy without said we have to build the wall and the on the border. I think that hispanics are just going to say no, were not going to vote that way. I will say, i spoke to a lot of floriri house members and Florida State senators who had endorsed jeb bush. I asked them when i was in tallahasse who you are dens election were todayhow would the republicans vote. Donald trump. If you are a repubuican from south florida are you generally cuban american and have a sizeable cuban american population. Are you going to forget marco rubio, come on. That is what is amazing, they were taiing trump. My next door neighbor say cuba american, he fled cuba as i kid. He likes trump. The only thing that took a shine off him are his statements on planand parenthood. Dont count trump off at hees in the republican primary. What about ted cruzment i was watching last night, heres the fourth place finisher making a victory speech. They all m me victory speeches last night. Ive got to say there is something about ted cruz that is so offputting. There is something selfpitting about the way he presents himself. Last night here we see him making ts speech. And maybe we should run the sound bite but he said they said i couldnt win in iowa. They said i couldnt win in new they said i couldnt win in South Carolina. And i won if i am not the nominee, the Second Amendment will go away. I just i listen to this and i kind of think to myself, where is this guy coming from . He has to justify his poor performance in South Carolina, which typically wouldldave been the evangelical vote. He thought he was going to corner the market in an incredibly conservative state. So trump brought in the he vab gel kal voters so cruz had to figure out a way of saying dont count me out yet, im still in the mix. But real it is the delegate vote. Cruz has got some. Hes got pretty much dead heat with rubio. But trump is so far ahead. But you know cruz has to maintain his relevancy. They all do, and people like john kasich will be out soon because he is not going to be relevant and plettee much were teteifyingly going to be left with three candidates. Is it a three man race right now. Not yet, if kasich doesnn get out and march primaries the nexex two states up are ohio and florida. And thoses are two states that rubio needs to win, especially florida. But ao ohio because hes got 66 and 99 delegates. That is john kasichs state there. If kasich doesnt get out in ohio, the chance of rubio winning that are pretty slim and right now tht polling shows the chance of trump winning ohio are pretty high. It doesnt look good for folks who dont want trump as the nominee. Maybe we should poll the pope and ask him if he thinks trump is going to win. How doesex immensely Popular Pope Francis andnd jorge, he gets into this spat where the pope s sayayon his plane back to rome that somebody wants to build a wall instead of bries is not really a good christian. And then trump fires back and survives it. Again, i think thatsnother devicive issue. The whole shoof immigration, of coursewhich trump has lead the way in terms of controlling the borders and so on. Particular, and hispanics more generally have supported some kind of reform. That is not going to happen any time under. And what, eye im sorry, make no mistake. South carolina is evangelical. They are protestants. They protested a ainst the pope. Bashing the pope is not bad politics. T tts right. They saw that only 13 of voters in the primary i think are catholic. What about the catholics down in florida there are a bunch of catholics in florida. They love pope francis. Before, and before we wrap u this aspect of the round table, ive got to ask you, mark, Hillary Clinton won by five points in nevada in the caucuses. That was just a mustwin. She had been ahead by 25, 30 points at one point. But a win is a win. And its a pretty solid win. It is. The exit polls are a little confused. It does seem she won thehispanic vote, the black vote big. If that trend holds ef sanders. Jt think about that. Hillary clinton versus donald trump. I cant. The bern will be cool today. Okay. Stay with us. Well be back with more talk donkey sound elephant sound theres a big difference between making noise, tapping sound and making sense. elephant sound donkey sound when it comes to Social Security, we need more than lip service. Our next president needs a real plan to keep Social Security strong. elephant nonoe hey candidates. Enough talk. Give us a plan. We are in the midst of the roun table. Du an. Jorge, let me ask you about the president s trip to cuba. He had said as ileana had said earlier, that in december he wanted to see progress on human rights before he went. But there is really y t been any progress. So is this is he caving in to the castros by going . Why is he dping now . I think for him its important to make this a policy change so that the next president , the next congress with g back before december 17th, 2014. So it rlly is the pa of his a againa to make it so difficult for the next president , the next white house to reverse the reproachment with cuba. The progress, Ileana Roslehtinen said it wasnt progress but we have commercial flights, will begin, Carnival Cruise line wants to start cruises down there this summer, beginning this summer. There is agreement onn narcotics and human trafficking. There has been some movem even though there hasnt been there has been the capitalism that you and ileana spoke about before we took to the round table am but the question i have for the president is ist going to be a carefully curated group of dissidents with whom he is going to be meeting. Are you joking . You think the castro regime is going to allow him to go to the jail and ask the people in the jail what they think about, how civil rights are progressing. It is absurd. And im all for normalization of relations with countrieses because i do believe that it does make forward progress for both nations. But why not ask for more before you go. Why not demand more before you go. Or is this just a swan song event on obamas part . I think you make an excellent point. And later in a little commentary the end im going to say a condition of him going should be appearing on cuban state tv to speak directly to the c can people. I mean he could have demanded that, couldnt he, jorge . I think he might actually be going in that drerksz. President carter did it when he i think as we speak there must be some very strong negotiations going on. I hope so. What will probably happen i think in terms of the disdnts is they will meet separately at the ambassadors house in havana like they did with secretary kerry when he went for the embassy. An interesting thing about cuba policy in the president ial election, is not only y sanders and clinton support obamas ra proachment with cube but so does donald trump who has kind of completely reversed himself. Before he ran for, decided to maybe run for office in 2 thousand, he was a hardliner. And now hes basically saying well, yeah, its time to move on, time to chang hes also a casino developer. He is an uber capitalist. Casino developer. So. Open up mira lance kees old casino. Okay. All right. I want to move on to another big story and katie, i know that you have thought a lot about that. And that is the death of antonin scalia. And naming a successor, the due time. Yes. What does that mean . Whatever that means for obama. A week or two. There is no set time frame within which hes going to make this decision. But we all know and we can all anticipate a filibuster to occur when and if the nom naitionz process happens. The thing that troubles me isthat o bma can plan this trip to cuba, which is particularly involved International Travel but cant go down the street to antonins scalia funeral. He sent joe biedern and his wife in his steadily. I think it was a sign of disrespect. Scalia was the longest serving justice on the highest court of our land and Everybody Needs to know, its not just awyers that are affected by these decisions. Its everyone who lives in the United States. So why not show some respect and actually go and pay your respects to scalia. A got good point. Did yoyo say, mark, that you thought that maybe the scaliafamily had indicated this. This is the problem with reading too much, eecially on social media, i say allegedly i it could have been some phoney troll line there i word among liberals who are saying no, its not that obama intentionallily snubbed scalias family, word was sent that his presence o bamas presence would not be looked unfavorably at the funeral. Dont know if thats true. But if there is any pushback it is that. Getting a straight answer out of the white house or anybody these days iss problem. It is almost impossible. Jorge, the stralt gee, it appears from the white house theyre considering is either a appoint a moderate republican to the court or nominate, like governor sandoval of nevada who is a republican but you know, kind of a middle centrist republican, former attorneyy general, former federal judge. And then what did the republicans on the Judiciary Committee do when you get a mination like that. Im not an expert on the toing. What i heard is the republicans were waiting to seeho is going to be nominated, and then develop their strategy because they dont want to be seen as obstructing whatever proross may take place. We never hell them back before. Remember, on the day after scalias with dead, mitch mcconnelelwas already promising to block whichever nominee it was. Maybe obama will decide to nomina a republican, a moderate republican. But you know, democrats have had enough of democrats trying to be like republicans. It would be atrociously unpopular in the democratic primary. Which is why i personally think somebody like loretta lynch, the attorney general who is africanamerican, Harvard Law School graduate, former u. S. Attorney, i think that the rejection of her nominatn probably would stimulate democrats in the november election. These are lifetime appointments. Constitution, its for good behalf yemplet andhats literally how it is defined but they are live time appointments it is a serious idea, a nomination and the process has to be well vetted. It affects all of us. In the brief time we have left, jorge, i dont know about you b ive got an iphone. I would not like the government to be able to hack into it at will. If they suspected me of dng something wrong. But the government says the iphone owned by the San Bernardino killer, thats the only one they want apple to open up. So. It is a broader legal issue t im sure the question is whether this will threaten further Civil Liberties and the right to progress to the right over government to pursue. Right. Katie, where do you stand on this . It is an unenviable position to be on either side of this. Im all for making sure we combat domestic terrorism. There is an interesting deputy commissioner, this is a dead man. He has no expectation of privacy. So if you are committing domestic terrorism on our soil and we have the ability to access the information to find out with whom you may have been con spiring to be able to protect the rest of us, i think its important to have this information. There should be an app for that. All right, thats the. Fine that terrorist, click on the app. Mark and katie, jorge, thank you very much for coming in. Always. We appreciate it. Always fun. Still to come my personal perspective about president obama and what he might be able to accomplish in cuba living well your immununsystst rks s rd to keep you on top of your game. You can support it by eating healthy, drinking fluids, and you can combmbe these simple remedies with airborne. No otherereading immunini brand gives you more vitamin c. Plus it s a specially crafted blend of 13 vitamins, minerals and herbs. So when you want to support your iune system, take airborne, here now is a live look from our miami towercam. It looks beautiful out there. But lets go to a little beautiful meteorologist with your sunday forcast. Jennifer, hello. Thank you, michael. Youre going to make me blush live on tv. Im doing very well, i hope are you doing awesome. And south florida, i hope you there whether you are going to the beach or not. Just head outside. Its absolututy gorgeous. By the way, hi rip current risk is out there, be careful well that sunshine, use the sunscreen, at 79 in pembroke pines, winds 10 to 15 m mes per hour currently. Winds should stay around 10 if are y u out at the beach with a surf of one to two feet. Boaters, no advisories but just moderate drop. Seas 2 to 4 feet. Occasionally up to five. Now after all this sun sheun for the end of this weekend, we are going to see a few changes to this upcoming week, starting tomorrow, a little more cloud cover, better chance for shokers tuesday, especially wednesday when that cold front arrives. And after the cold front, we start to cool things down by the end of the week. Were talking 50s and well be usek our sweaters by then, michael . Jennifer, thanks. Before we leave you this morning, a personal perspective about the president s u Upcoming Trip to cuba. I have said it before, i will say it again. I dont think its a good idea for the president to visit cuba until the castro government has made significant improvements in human rights. Mr. Obama says yes, he will bring up Human Rights Concerns when he sits down with raul castro. Im sure castro will nod and say concerns. So do we about all those unarmed black men who have been shot to death by police in the u. S we have concerns too about the in the u. S. Who struggle to get buy. Of course most peoplp in cuba are poor. The average salary there is 25 a month. As the old joke goes, the revolution has been great except for three things, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Theres nothing funny of course about the lack of basic human rights in cuba. The ability of people to freely elect their leadersrs to assemble without harassment, to speak out and demand change. And here is hoping the president directly tells raul castro that must cnge. And the whole u. S. Benefits until it does. The most important thing the president could do i think in cuba is to meet with a group of prodemocracy activists, real activists, the people who are regularly harassed, beaten, detained and jailele and there has to be a way for that meeting to be seen by the cuban people. We dontnow if cuban state tv will give mr. Obama air time. Condition r his trip. The cuban people what his policy goals are. They need to know. The u. S. Goal is to create a successful Civil Society that does not need thehe cuban government to exist. It is a society that will prosper. Lets not be naive about mr. Obamas visit three popes have gone to cuba in the last two decades and the government is still autocratic and repressive. President obama could change things for the belter but he has to stop giving concessions to the castro government without getting anything in return. This new relationship has been a oneway street so far. Thats my perspective. Hope you have a great sunday, remember, as always, stay informed, get involved. We like to know what you thihi and invite you to weigh in on any topic, email us, send us a addresses. Were easy to find. We will respond. Announcer the following paid presentation for cooper chef is brought to you by Tristar Products incorporated. Are your kitchen drawers starting to look like a bad garage s se steamers, rice cookers, roasters, slow cookers. And just how many pots andndans does one kitchen really need . And every time you cook, cleanups a disaster. Scraping, scrubbing what a chore. What if you could replace all this with one single, nonstick pan . And what if this pan was innovative in design and made of the highestquality craftsmanship . 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