u.s. citizens to go to cuba. they re not going to change overnight. but they certainly aren t going to change if we continue our embargo. senator flake, you re a republican. we heard marco rubio, he hates this decision by the president. where do you stand in terms of trying to normalize u.s./cuban relations? well, i ve been in congress and the house and the senate for 14 years now. all 14 of those years, i pushed to lift the travel ban and to normalize relations. i think our policy has done more to keep the castros in power than anything. so i think it s high time for a change. 50 years is long enough that we ought to do this and do whatever we can so that ordinary cubans can have more control of their destiny. this does that by allowing americans to travel and more commerce, more contact. this is a good thing. congressman van hollen, tell us what it was like.
johnson, president nixon, president ford, president carter, so on, saying just hang tough, we ll get rid of the castros. 50 years later, they re still there. it s a reality, it s time for us to face reality. but would you like to speak with the others who are there with me? yes, i would. one final question to you because i know how involved you ve been with rome, tell me about pope francis s engagement in this? well i wrote to the pope, i sent him some thoughts on this. i know he saw them, and whether, i don t think he needed me to push him to do it, i think he felt very strongly, now is the time for normalization. i know he weighed in heavily and i appreciate that fact. and i think you have senator durbin and congressman chris van hollen there senator flake came with me. let me talk to senator flake, and then congressman van hollen.
groups at least continue to put the pressure on and not accept this as an excuse to not happen. does this coup represent an opening for the dechl carats? no. i think it makes it tougher for the democrats because one of the dynamics i ve seen is republicans are sort of being again, as mr. van hollen pointed out, a small group of tea partiers are really sort of driving the agenda, at least in the house and by fear, right? there s so much fear of being primaried by a tea partier and what they might do. i think that continues to be a problem for democrats who are series about trying to get something done unless we continue to take them on and find those voerts and turn out the voerts who want to get something done. all right. karen finney, thanks for your time. thanks so much. take care.
is going to step down which will set off a race among house republican caucus members as to who will replace him. what you ll see is the same civil war going on throughout the country among republicans and at least from last night s result, it s pretty clear that the most extreme right wing tea party faction is prevailing and that will send a shock wave through the house republican caucus some of in an ins studtin where things are not getting done, things will unfortunately result in even more gridlock because the tea party folks, they just don t want to work together to solve the country s problems. it s unfortunate, but that s the realts. no doubt. congressman van hollen, in light of these results and with eric cantor stepping down, do you
lose the conversation with the broad american public because the broad american public whether they re democrats, independents or even many republicans are looking for a congress that wants to solve problems and to the extent that the republicans here in the house continue to answer to a very vocal but very small and extreme group in the country, i think that i gore doing continue to loose the flose the floor to american people. i think the country loses as a result of this but the country has a response, which is try to make sure you elect people who solve problems and the democrats were asking for votes on these important issues. from your mouth to god s ears. congressman van hollen, thanks so much for your time tonight. it s great to be with you, thanks. let me bring in m ssnbc political analyst karen finney. what does this say if indeed