be cold enough we could have some pipes burst, so, again, nothing like the first hint of winter that gets to you, talking about 8, 10, 12 inches of snowfall in minneapolis. behind this snow is when it starts to really get cold, poppy. warnings are already in place and this is going to slide down to the entire eastern half of the country, get a break and do it again next week. hang in there. doesn't mean it's going to be a long winter. we'll have much more of poppy in the "newsroom" coming up. all right, we begin this hour with ferguson, missouri. with a grand jury decision may be imminent in the shooting death last august of unarmed african-american teenager michael brown. the 12-person panel has until january 7th to decide whether to indict police officer darren wilson for killing michael brown. prosecutesers say a decision is slykely by the middle of this month. protest organizers presented police with a list of 19

proposed, quote/qun quote rules of engagement. the first priority is no one else is killed and want a 48 hour heads-up before the grand jury decision is announced and want the actual decision two ma to be made on the weekend orring a 5:00 p.m. during the week. they're asking not to use rubber bud bullets, tear gas or military-style equipment. they want police to treat protesters as citizens, not, quote, enemy combatants. i want to bring in the panelists to discuss this. kevin jackson, executive director of the political website the black sphere, author of the book "race pimping." also with us again this hour, jo marc lamont hill who spent time in ferguson on the ground. nank thanks for joining us. let's start with you, kevin.

police haven't said whether they're going to follow the proposed rules. they want to work with protesters to make everything safe and calm on the ground as they can. what do you make of the list of rules? >> poppy, they're not asking for much, are they? the police have rules of engagement they have to follow. as is the case with shooting, you know, we're looking at the fallout from that. what's interesting about it is they aren't asking the protesters to do anything. if you really analyze that list, what they're saying is when we create disruption, when we do things to antagonize you, you should do nothing, you should maintain your professionalism, et cetera. and i think it's absolutely ridiculous. yet again, we're going to spend a lot of time and energy over a tragedy that should never have occurred but i believe is probably more michael brown's fault than people want to admit publicly, but i'm not afraid to admit that. so this is a ridiculous thing that they're asking for, because guess what, most of it the cops are going to do anyway, and a lot they're asking them to do

are things that would put police in harm's way. >> let me bring in marc lamont hill. you spent time on the ground during the protests at the height of it. the mayor of ferguson says they're preparing for the worst if need be. one of the requests here is the grand jury give the public, the protesters advanced notice of when this decision is going to come. is that the right move? does that help? does that hurt? >> i think it absolutely helps. i think the last thing we want is a sense of surprise. i think the last thing you also want is for people to feel as if this news was floated out at a time that was convenient. people do it all the time. politicians do it. corporations do it. they float out things that moments where they think it's going to be a slow news cycle, where it will go undetected. all that would do is further stoke the situation. i also strongly disagree, kevin said that protesters are asking police to main tan their professionalism in the midst of an uprising.

they're asking them to do that. however, the protesters are not saying we want to antagonize you and you do nothing. what they're saying, we don't want you to interpret protests as antagonism. people have a right to protest. people have a right to stand in the streets. when i was there, often titimes what i saw, many were standing in the streets doing nothing, some of us were praying, some of us had our hands up like this. police were aiming guns at us, shot tear gas at us even when they said they would not. it's dishonest, inaccurate to suggest the police were minding their own business. protests is fine but respect and community engagement is necessary. >> kevin? >> yeah, well, the response to that would be, you get a molotov cocktail thrown at you, get spit at, get all the things that were happening. that's a ridiculous comment, marc, to be honest with you. >> which part? which part was ridiculous? >> you look at the 19 -- what part's ridiculous is most of the

things you just said. what you're essentially saying is if the cops get molotov cocktails thrown at them, people firing firearms in there, they're not supposed to respond to any of this? >> i didn't say that. >> i'm going to jump in here. >> no, no. hold on. i didn't say that at all. i said if they're protesting or tr praying. i didn't say molotov dococktail >> i'm going to break in here to be able to understand what each of you are saying. when you talk over one another, they can't hear you. i like you both to address this question. okay? everyone saw -- some people on the ground experienced what happened. no one wants -- no one wants things to get escalated like they did. whatever side you blame. so what can be learned? i'm going to begin with you, marc, then i want you to address this, kevin. what can be learned from the past protests that we saw in ferguson in case there are protests again and everyone has the right to make their voices heard? what can be learned, marc?

>> i think what can be learned, again, we have to make a distinction between forms of antagonism and forms of protest. obviously, again, let me be clear on national television, lest i be misunderstood, i'm not saying anyone should stand by idly by if they get hit with molotov cocktails or shot at. this isn't conjecture. when people have their hands in the air, when people are praying as the pastors were doing and get dragged by their hair or shot at or tear gassed, that's inappropriate. conversely, citizens have to draw and respect the lines that have been laid out for them. meaning that everyday citizens can't antagonize. they can't throw cocktails, can't shoot people. i don't expect police to do nothing if they get shot at. >> kevin, quick response. >> first thing you need to do when you have a protest is be right. how about you be right on the principle? the idea that darren wilson actually shot this kid in cold blood is a false notion, so we're going to spend a lot of time, energy, and money.

these people put out 19 points i suggest marc take a look at that essentially put all the blame on police. >> i saw them. >> i'd love to have the counterpoints to that that says what is the responsibility of a protester? if you want to protest something, i'm all for it. protest the right thing, do it in the right way. don't put all the law enforcement and law enforcement. >> protesters have done that. >> it is going to be up to the grand jury to decide on that. we will see what happens. we, of course, will be watching. gentlemen, thanks for joining me tonight. >> my pleasure. over the next few days we may get clarity on reports that isis leader abu al baghdadi may have been injured or even possibly killed in recent coalition air strikes. the u.s. military is not confirming whether al baghdadi was even in the convoy that targeted this week that isis group. also, our correspondent brian todd has more on how al baghdadi became so powerful. >> reporter: some call him the new bin laden.

he's ruthless, known for ferocious attacks. his mission, to fight for an islamic fundamentalist takeover of iraq and syria. much about abu bakr al baghdadi is a mystery but not his viciousness. >> very brutal. very extremist fighter who would execute his rivals. >> reporter: as the leader of the islamic state in iraq and syria, al baghdadi is seen as the man behind the capture of iraq's second largest city, mosul, and now a push toward baghdad. but al qaeda leaders recently severed relations with him saying he was insubordinate, killing too many civilians. >> al qaeda thought his infliction of random violence was too extreme even for them. >> reporter: now with his recent victories on the ground, he's growing in power. >> abu bakr al baghdadi is a central figure in the jihadist movement and growing ever more popular. >> reporter: a counterterrorism official tells us al baghdadi is

based primarily in syria and is just as ruthless as his well-known predecessor al cz zakari. al baghdadi keeps a lower profile. some call him the invisible sheikh. >> except among his very, very inner circle, he's rumored to disguise his identity, wear masks. wear turbans. wear face cloths. not let his identity be known. >> reporter: according to his biography circulating on jihadi websi websites, he got a ph.d. in islamic studies. he may have built ties with other jihadists. he was freed in 2009 and within a year was the leader of iraq's al qaeda affiliate, heading up a renewed campaign of bombings and assassinations. what's abu bakr al baghdadi's

future? >> if he's able to hold on to territory in northern iraq he may eclipse zahari. >> all three of his immediate predecessors were killed and right now abu bakr al baghdadi has a u.s. bounty on his head of $10 billion. brian todd, cnn, washington. >> thank you for that. let's talk more about this brutal isis leader. joining me, michael daley for the "daily beast" and bob baer, former cia operative and author of "the perfect kill." of course, sentcom is not saying whether baghdadi was in this group of isis leaders that was struck, but how does it change the situation if we were injured? >> if he were injured my guess is it doesn't change things much. i mean, i think there's many many guys than him, and i think

really their power is not him. their power is they took kind of islamic islamic fanaticism and combined it with the old saddam hussein guys and created quite a power. >> so he shouldn't be the focus? >> that's my feeling. i think by declaring this islamic state and putting himself at the center there, that's kind of part of their delusion and their propaganda, but i think that if he wasn't from tomorrow, i think they would probably be just as powerful. >> interesting because bob baer has been saying something along the same lines, by the way, right, bob, you don't know who he would be replaced with if coalition forces were able to take him out. >> no. we don't understand the organization well enough. we don't understand the military officers which is driving the isis offensive. he is well educated. he's particularly articulate. we don't know anything about his organizational abilities and i s suspect there are a lot more people behind him. killing him and his convoy

yesterday wouldn't get us much. assassination works when a group like isis is falling apart and you decapitate it, then it will speed up the falling apart. right now i don't see the islamic state collapsing on its own. >> michael, what about western hostages being held by isis? is there any strategy here when it comes to how the west is targeting isis to keep in mind and try to protect as much as we can? >> it's not working too well because they keep cutting these poor guys' heads off. i don't think that they're going after isis just to go after isis. i don't think they're thinking if we keep hitting them they're going to say, all right, we'll let the hostages go, stop hitting us. >> or by targeting specifically the leadership for al baghdadi. >> i don't think so. i spoke to the guy who ran the camp where baghdadi was held for those four years and he remembered him and said that he wasn't anything special as far as he can tell, he's not someone

who really stood out, not someone everybody in the camp looked to for leadership. he was actually very surprised that he went on to such prominence. >> bob, are you surprised hearihear ing that and what you know in terms of al baghdadi, his past, that he's in a prominent position in isis now? >> i suspect he's a figurehead, poppy. by the way, his arabic is beautiful. i listened to the sermon he made a couple months ago. he's very well educated. he can speak in koranic arabic. as a figurehead he speaks quite well. there are clearly officer, military officers or very well qualified jihadists who know who they're doing in the battle. siege of kobani. if we decide to embark on assassination, we'd have to hit more than just baghdadi, we'd have to keep going for possibly years. >> and to continue on that, bob,

the strategy that the u.s. is using right now, this ramping up of military advisers, up to 1,a00 more going in, but no, quote/unquote, boots on the ground. you believe this is not the right strategy, it's not enough? >> well, i'd go farther and say it's foley. what we're doing is we're taking these 1,500 military advisers and we're putting them with shia units. which in the eyes of the sunni, and that's accordiwhat isis is, taken sides in the civil war. this war goes back to the 7th century. do we want to get into this? what we need is a legitimate government in baghdad that represents all iraqis and once you get that, then you go on the offensive against isis but not before. >> do you agree with bob on that point? >> yeah, absolutely. i've got a friend who was over in iraq previously training guys, helping to equip guys. we gave those guys billions of dollars in equipment and they ran away the minute someone stood up to them. the same guy i know is going to retrain some other guys. >> that's what was asked at the

pentagon, what's different this time around? stand by. we'll have you both back with us later this hour. michael daley and mr. baer. mikhail gorbachev warns the world is on the brunch of another cold war. what exactly did he say? is he right? we'll discuss next. erman group. gunderman group is growing. getting in a groove. growth is gratifying. goal is to grow. gotta get greater growth. i just talked to ups. they got expert advise, special discounts, new technologies. like smart pick ups. they'll only show up when you print a label and it's automatic. we save time and money. time? money? time and money. awesome. awesome! awesome! awesome! awesome! (all) awesome! i love logistics.

images and memories came flooding back to berlin today. the city and the world commemorating the berlin wall literally being torn down piece by piece. fireworks and music marks this 25th anniversary. thousands gathered around the city's iconic brandenburg gate. angela merkel offered a word of hope. >> translator: showed us that dreams can come true. nothing has to stay how it is.

even if it's so difficult. this memory, we want to share with our partners in the world. >> look at this. beautiful. as 8,000 glowing balloons were released into the night sky, representing where the berlin wall used to stand. and while berliners celebrate tearing down that wall and really for decades symbolized the frosty relations between the u.s. and soviet union, it is worth remembering it happened just two years after then-president reagan spoke at the brandenburg gate. >> mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. >> mikhail gorbachev was the leader then of the soviet union and didn't seem possible when reagan said those words that it would happen or happen any time soon. yet the wall came down. the cold war ended. well, gorbachev now in his 80s

was one of the elder statesmen at today's ceremonies in berlin, but he said this. listen. >> translator: the world is on the brink of a new cold war. some is even saying it's already again, and yet while the situation is so dramatic, we do not see the main international body, the u.n. security council, playing any role or taking concrete action. >> michael daley, special correspondent with the "zadaily beast." he joins me again now. what did you think of those comments. >> i immediately thought of mr. putin. he was in east germany when the wall came down. if he watched the fireworks today and beautiful balloons, he was remembering a humiliate, remembering from his point of view a betrayal. and i think that that's been compounded from his point of view of what's going on in ukraine. i mean, you know, crimea is part of the russian soul. it's, you know, the sevastepol,

sir nicholas i whose portrait hangs in putin's office. the first movie the russians ever made was about the battle of sevaste sevastepol. if you ride the subway with russian people as i do coming from brooklyn -- >> me, into, come from brooklyn. >> you look and say, how is it ever possible we almost vaporized each other? >> sure. >> i look at these nice women and kids and say, we were going to turn each other into ashes? >> when you hear comments from gorbachev -- look, we heard dianne feinstein from the senate intelligence committee a month or two warning about this given when the plane was shot down, et cetera. but do you really think that we are near a brink of another cold war? >> i mean, i don't, but at the same time, when i look at those russians on the subway, it seems so insane that we ever were at that point. it seems so illogical that we were at that point. >> we were at that point. >> i say to myself, maybe logic,

insanity is not the way to predict what's going to happen. >> we heard gorbachev comment on what he calls a complete lack of action by the u.n., by the security council. on that fronts, does he have a point? could more be done? >> i think that first of all he's got a big pal of putin. for him to be saying this means from his point of view this is a real thing, and, i mean, clearly there are russian sensitivities. i'm not a big -- you know, putin, as far as i'm concerned, is a gangster. there are russian sensitivities, and there are russian feelings that i think we just need to be more cognizant of and that, you know, we won that cold war, right? but we got to be a good winner. i think from their point of view we've not been very good winners. >> so let's talk about the fact that this is the 25th anniversary of this historic moment. right? and there's been a lot written about what can be learned, whether it's how the west and the middle east, you know, co-whico co-exist in this world, whether it's about how we move forward with u.s./russia relations.

what do you think can be learned? >> i think what we should learn is that the -- that not everybody viewed that wall coming down as a triumph and that some of those people who didn't view it as a triumph now have tremendous power in this world, and it may be mainly destructive power, but they have that power. i think that one of the things we -- you got to look to the totality of it, and we need to somehow convince everybody this was a victory for mankind, humankind. that's my feeling. >> the g-20 about to begin in australia. the president, president obama will be there. vladimir putin will be there. see if the two men will talk and get accomplished. two americans once detained in north korea are now free. they're home safe this weekend. these two men. it seemed to capture everyone off guard. it happened so suddenly. why did it happen now? we'll talk about that next. kne.

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three words. papa john's pizza. that's what we're told kenneth bae and his family ordered for a welcome home celebration meal last night. what a night it was. he and one other american, matthew todd miller, are back on u.s. soil, suddenly freed from custody in north korea. and their long hard labor prison sentences. our paula hancocks is in seoul

with more on how their freedom was negotiated. >> reporter: mission in the dead of night. a top spy chief from the united states arrives in pyongyang carrying a letter from the u.s. president. he leaves one day later with two former prisoners. no conditions and no strings acatch attached according to the u.s. why this sudden humanitarian gesture from north korea? >> clearly they crave having this kind of high-level attention. obviously they're pleased general clapper came. >> reporter: kim jong-un wants to show he's still in charge after disappearing for six weeks. he's back in the spotlight, limping but without the cane. others believe pyongyang's recent charm offensive including a high-profile visit to seoul, technically enemy territory is a pr exercise to improve its image. the trigger, abuses a report termed crimes against humanity. >> had to basically show a lighter side, humane side to the

international community. although there could be labor actions or international criminal court proceeding against north korea, north korea is also very much conscious of its reputation. >> reporter: the release of matthew todd miller and kenneth bae comes after jeffrey fowl won his freedom no american sttcitis remain in north korean captivity. pyongyang released a statement claiming the u.s. president made many requests and also an apology. now, if that is the case, this domestically is propaganda gold for a leader who wants to remain and show that he's relevant on the international stage. pa cnn, seoul. >> thank you for that. president obama vowing to act on immigration despite republicans taking control of congress. so will we see some compromise? or more years of gridlock? ahead, we'll discuss that, next. ♪

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the midterm ballots just counted when president obama met with house and senate leaders at the white house this week. immigration emerged again as a political flashpoint. the issue dominated friday's power lunch. the president said, again, today that he is prepared to work around congress and take executive action if speaker john boehner can't get a bill through the house. >> i'd prefer and still prefer to see it done through congress, but every day that i wait we're misallocating resources, deporting people that shouldn't be deported, we're not deporting folks that are dangerous and need to be deported. so, john, i'm going to give you some time, but if you can't get it done before the end of the year, i'm going to have to take the steps that i can. >> all right. let's talk about this. immigration. and the midterms. mickey is a columnist for the "daily caller." thank you for being with us from l.a. appreciate it. >> thanks, poppy. >> you have written a lot about

this. i mean, when i looked up your articles and read through them, i feel like every other one was about immigration. this is something you are very invested in. but does the president have a point saying he's waited and he's waited and hasn't seen the house take up the bill? >> i don't think he has a point, because first, this bill he wants was a big loser in this past election. several democrats who voted for it got bounced by the voters. it was an issue in several other races where the democrats supported it and didn't win. and in oregon, the only place that had direct immigration issue on the ballot, the voters voted 2-1 not even to give illegal immigrants driver's licenses. so there's no ground swell of support and he's asking for the whole enchilada, saying he's going to go ahead and do this by himself unless boehner passes this bill which boehner's caucus doesn't want. >> it brings it up. brings it up. brings it up. >> no. no. he said past.

other people suggested to just bring it up, but obama said pass. >> i want to tell our viewers if you go on to the "daily caller" website and look at what you've done, you have documented all of the democrats who lost on tuesday who supported the main democrat-backed immigration bill. do you think that comprehensive immigration reform, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, at this point in time with the makeup of congress that we will have come january, is a loss for democrats, that there's no way to get it done? >> there's no way to get that done. i mean, they've already given up on citizenship. they're willing to settle for just legalization, but they're not even going to get that done. there is a comprehensive bill that would involve securing the border first, then waiting and then having the legalization once all of the border security measures are done. that's what obama should have done from the beginning, and, you know, he might have gotten his bill. but instead they passed a bill that legalized people immediately and then did the border security and our side

just doesn't trust them and the republican caucus doesn't trust them. i don't see a way to bridge that gap. certainly before the end of the year when obama has locked himself into doing this executive amnesty. >> one thing that no one wants to see in the next two years is the gridlock in washington that we have all been living through. and experiencing. and we heard speaker boehner warn the president of that this week saying don't go it alone on this, you're going to make it even harder, going to increase the gridlock. you're going to burn yourself. do you believe that is the case if we see the president go it alone on immigration, do you think that changes the game completely from both sides we've been hearing saying that we will work together? >> i think it certainly poisons the well for a few months. i think it ends up in the courts. i think if obama does this, the -- i don't think the house -- the republicans can block it, but i think the court wind up making a decision on it. but why are we talking about this? there are so many other things

we could break gridlock on. i think the voters are wondering why are we still talking about immigration? >> let me ask you this before we go. fareed zakaria on cnn made a fascinating point. he believes the president has to use the next two years to make a big foreign policy move. whether it is something with iran, whether it is with china. rather than focusing domestically saying that there's no way that he's going to be able to accomplish things with the republican control of congress. do you agree that should be the president's focus now is something big on the foreign stage? on the international stage? >> that would be good, but i don't think -- i think there are things domestically he could do. there's corporate tax reform, regular tax reform, trade deals. there are all sorts of things he could do domestically. i don't think immigration is one of them. >> i wish we had a lot more time for a longer conversation with you. thanks for coming in. we appreciate it. coming up, a former federal agent apparently knew about terror attacks before they happened. a pretty shocking report.

but really didn't do a lot, anything to stop them. we're going to talk about it next with our experts.

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oh no... geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. well, "the new york times" rattled the u.s. intelligence community today when it published a report naming a former government agent and suggesting that that agent kept contact with the terrorist group operating inside of iran. the report goes on to say that this agent knew about at least one deadly bombing before it happened. so far, the cia and the fbi and

the pentagon aren't saying anything about the report. i want to bring in bob baer, former cia operative, and can shed some light on this for us. bob, i know there's still a lot of outstanding questions. this is a report in "the new york times." but what do you make of it in terms of, you know, what people in the field on the ground, the contacts they have, who they stay in touch with, what they know, what they report, what they don't to keep those sources? >> yeah, poppy, i know the detective at the center of this, he was in new jersey, worked for the port authority. very capable, aggressive. and he made contact with these iranians, beluch, as they were, who happened to be -- have relatives that were committing terrorist acts. and his position was, well, we should know about this and pass it on to the white house which he did. you followed up the context in afghanistan and pakistan. he was well wired into this group. told the white house everything he knew. but at that time, frankly, the

white house was looking at possible covert action in iran. even lethal covert action. and this was sort of kept on a back burner. so it gets very murky and we can't blake this detective. >> what about you, bob? i mean, all the time that you spent in the field, cia operative, when it comes to keeping those contacts, keeping your list of sources, what is the protocol when one leaves the cia? >> well, when you leave the cia, you're not supposed to go back and get in touch with your assets. you want to, you know, give them to the next guy. but, you know, even when you're in, i'll say this again, you want to keep in touch with the dark side. and it's up to washington and the lawyers back there what they do with the information. for instance, should we have passed if to iran before these bombs went off? this was a very violent group, by the way. they killed women and children and attacked buses and the rest of it. so this is, again, very murky area. >> are you -- we have to go

quickly, but are you surprisedd we haven't heard reaction from the intelligence community yet? >> not now. the iranians are going to be furious about this. count on it tehran is blanket covered with this story saying, look, the united states was involved in terrorism. this is not going to do us any good with iran. >> bob baer, appreciate the expertise on this one. thank you. coming up, kenneth bae now home after being held captive in north korea for two years. moments after he landed he spoke with the media. ahead, we're going to discuss what he said. >> it's been amazing two years. i learn a lot. i grew a lot. (receptionist) gunderman group. gunderman group is growing. getting in a groove. growth is gratifying. goal is to grow. gotta get greater growth. i just talked to ups. they got expert advise, special discounts, new technologies. like smart pick ups. they'll only show up when you print a label and it's automatic. we save time and money. time? money? time and money. awesome.

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freed american kennethbae back on american soil. he described his two years as a prisoner in north korea like this. >> it's been amazing two years. i learn a lot. i grew a lot. lost a lot of weight. in a good way. but i am standing strong because of you. >> joining me now, michael daley, a special contributor for the "daily beast." you heard this, i heard this. he said thank you to all the people around the world rooting for him, helping him. thanked the government of north korea for letting him go.

i think hearing those comments certainly stood out to some people saying it's been an amazing experience i learned a lot. granted, he has just been released from two years of hard labor. what is your reaction to that? >> my reaction is that you shouldn't put a guy in front of cameras until two weeks after he -- >> i was very surprised he spoke. >> -- stopped being traumatized. it's easy to look at this guy as minimizing it, maybe he got cushy treatment. the fact is he must have been terrified. >> absolutely. >> the whole world was surprised he was released. guess who was more surprised than us? him. all of a sudden you're sitting in north korea, got to figure you're not going to make it out alive. 15 years there hard labor. you figure that's it. >> health was deteriorating. >> right, he's got to figure its over. next thing you know he's in the airplane with head of american intelligence? >> for hours and hours and hours. lands at midnight eastern time. and i was very surprised that he went in front of the cameras. >> yeah. i mean, personally if he was my relative, i would have gone off to a holiday inn for a week.

>> we know the family has said we want our privacy and, you know, that he certainly is not doing interviews right now. however, kenneth bae's sister, terri, who's been very outspoken on his behalf trying to get him out talked to our ana cabrera tonight. listen first to what she said. >> he went there because he wanted to contribute to theirmy and wanted to tsh -- he wanted connect with the people. he has a love of that. i think he still -- you know, he still wants that connection and he still wants, you know, to see the country and the people thrive and to be happy. >> i think that's a very important point. a care for the people of north korea. not necessarily the regime. so in those comments, do you think he could possibly have been saying something also about the people of north korea? >> maybe he, in that camp, saw some remarkable people who were surviving in terrible circumstances. that could be very inspiring. i mean, you could be, you know,

in terrible circumstances and see somebody do something and you can walk away saying that's the most amazing thing i ever saw. >> i think that's important, he took 15 trips to north korea taking tours there. according to his sister, the people meant a lot to him. go ahead. >> we're talking about the berlin wall coming down, that's a wall that's ten times the berlin wall. the people on the other side of that wall are suffering terribly. but maybe along with suffering terribly, he saw some noble things. >> also, we know his religion is very important to him and his family. his family went to church this morning. so i wonder what your perspective is on that, having unique sense of peace in terms of finally, finally coming home, getting to be with his family? >> he may feel the prayers were answered. >> yeah. his family talked a lot about that. >> you know, and if you feel that god has delivered you here, what are you going to do, complain? the other thing is he may have had a couple of roommates he's thinking about back at the camp.

and they may say, this guy's best friend. if he starts complaining about it over there, that might not be good for his pals. >> all good points to put that in perspective. thank you, michael. good to be with you. coming up next in the "newsroom" president obama entering his last two years as president. if we do not see major compromises with the republican caucus, will his legacy be two years of success and six years of gridlock? will it be all gridlock? what will happen? we'll see. next. turn the trips you have to take, into one you'll never forget. earn points for every flight and every hotel. expedia plus rewards.

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president obama will spend his final two years in office battling with the republican-controlled congress. he's also entering the phase of his term when many presidents really begin to focus on their history. their legacy. let's talk about all of that with an expert in that and the political challenges that they face. how he got to this position. et cetera. we're going to talk about it with princeton university historical. thank you for fbeing here. author of the book of "the fierce urgency of lyndon johnson, the congress." let's talk about the midterm elections. the president said in this interview on cbs this morning the buck stops with me. i think he certainly took some responsibility for the losses. do you think he's taking the right amount of responsibility for this? do you think it is the gridlock that he also pointed to that is

equally to blame? >> it's both. look, republicans ran a campaign that primarily revolved around president obama. that was the theme. you're like obama. that's what they said. >> many democrats distanced themselves. >> right. it registered. it's out there in the electorate. americans are also tired of the gridlock which is about the republicans as well. so both things are happening at once. i think both parties are trying to figure out politically what do we do in the next two years? >> because the landscape, the map of the seats that are up in the next two year is very, very different. and tougher for republicans than it was this time around. when you look at what the president said also in his interview this morning that i found very interesting, bob schaffer asked him, do you like politics? do you like politicians? because there have been many that have criticized the president said he's too isolated, not reaching extending a hand out enough. >> it's a great question about president obama. does he enjoy the political part of his job? he, himself, admitted he often

thinks the right answers are enough and he's learned that's not enough, he has to be out there campaigning, fighting, and setting the agenda and making his arguments. i'm not sure he's fully comfortable with the job that he has in that respect. >> you know, it's interesting, you wrote recently, "obama campaigned in poetry and continued far too often to govern the same way. and that approach repeatedly failed to yield results." what do you mean? >> well, i think he's a great orator. i do think he has many ideas that are important, but it gets back to what we're talking about. sometimes he was not willing to get engaged in the kind of hard ball political fights that are necessary in washington. >> two years left. >> not a lot. >> well, you can look at it as not a lot or look at it as plenty of time to work together. >> well, plenty of time to work together, or executive power. and that's something he's been hinting at. that's the aggressive move to deal with immigration, to deal with climate change. not through capitol hill, but to use the power of the presidency. i don't know if he will, but he's hinting --

>> what happens if he does go it alone? >> well, he can get things zone. he can make progress on policy. it will fuel the political fire. if he does that on immigration, he'll have even more intens and stronger anti-immigration forces develop on capitol hill, but he'll get policies. >> if this were the end of the president's term, let's say before the midterm election results, right, i mean, how do you think president obama would be remembered? >> he has the potential to be remembered well. he has a lot of policies on the fable. what we don't know is how they'll do. well the health care act not just survive this new supreme court challenge, but will it thrive? what will happen in the middle east ten years from now based on this? >> historically speaking when we look back and remember presidents, what are they most remembered for in the long run? not just the near term. >> their policy. not about approval ratings, not about whether they were liked or not liked. what did they do? who were t

who were the policies put into place and how did that change the nation. >> two more years left. i think it's plenty of time. can see it as not much time left. thank you for coming in. good to be with you. >> thank you. good evening, everyone. you're in the "cnn newsroom." i'm poppy harlow. thanks so much for joining me this sunday. president obama arrives in china within the next hour or so, kicking off a week-long trip to asia. he left washington late last night for the asia pacific economic summit as well as the g-20 summit in australia. a big week ahead for the president. let's head straight to beijing. it's early monday morning. our senior white house correspondent jim acosta is standing by there. what is most important about this trip, jim? >> reporter: poppy, what is most important about this trip, white house officials say, is that the president wants to get back to this rebalance with asia. the president wants to really sort