region. the president will formally request more than $2 billion to deal with the crisis on the border. this is one day after homeland security secretary jay johnson repeatedly dodged questions about whether most child migranteds would be deported. white house cleaned that up on monday and simply said that it does expect that most of these kids will be sent back to their home countries. >> based on what we know about these cases, it is unlikely that most of these kids will qualify for humanitarian relief. what that means is that they will not have the legal basis for remaining in this country and will be returned. >> this, of course, sparked a bunch of headlines that says, hey, the white house says a majority are being sent back. white house claims, though, this is not new and that it's true that the president said a week ago that in most cases the legal process will lead to these kids being sent back home. but it was always answered a bit ambiguously. yesterday there was less ambiguity. because he never actually said a mantle of the children would be deported. the reality is this. more than 26,000 unaccompanied minors apprehended on the southwestern border, just 11, 69 were deported because of a 2008 law that treats migrants from central america differently than migrants from mexico, turning them over to hhs, to be placed in the least restrictive setting in the best interest for the child. giving them an opportunity to appear at an immigration hearing. although the administration did not explicitly say so in last week's letter to congress, the white house does say it wants that law changed. administration official tells nbc news, quote, we already sent a letter to the congressional leadership last week on our desire for expanded authorities and we are still seeking those authorities and have made clear we will work with congress to get those authorities changed. now the supplemental request will be sent separately today. so, when you hear those word, authorities, that means they want the law changed. on capitol hill, democrats are making it clear they are the ones reluctant to give away even narrow changes to this 2008 law, given the fact that broader immigration reform is going nowhere. dianne feinstein said the white house can act within existing law to speed up the judicial process claiming this. the administration should use that flexibility to speed up the system while still treating these children humaneely with compassion and respect. new jersey senator bob menendez also signaled he is against changing the 2008 law saying, quote, he has serious concerns about rolling back or diluting any domestic legal requirements specifically designed to protect due process and prevent human rights violations. calling on the white house to reconsider the policy. yesterday those advocates rallied at the white house. >> our brothers and sisters are fleeing violence. we don't want the u.s. government to treat our children as criminals. >> meanwhile, many republicans blame the president for the border crisis, saying that his executive order that he signed for dreamers two years ago is what's responsible for luring these migrants here. that program only applies to migrants who were brought into the u.s. when they were children before 2007. >> the misinformation comes from the president's own programs, the deferred action for childhood arrivals. word is getting back home, if you come to the united states and you're a child, you tell them you want to come in and they're going to let you in. >> as soon as the administration in 2012 decided to do doca, the deferred action program, that's when the number of children started moving up. >> last week 33 house republicans signed a letter, calling on the president to immediately end the, quote, failed policies that encourages young individuals to put themselves in peril, adding the perception of eventual legal status has been generated through your administrative actions. that's not going to happen. not only is the president not ending doca, they're finding ways to expand it, which is why they're going to stick to their guns on the deportation of the central american children. tomorrow the president will be in dallas and austin, but he won't be going to the border. in a letter monday governor rick perry said the president won't be there when the president arrive arrives -- said he won't be there when the president arrives. a quick handshake on the tarmac will not allow for a thoughtful discussion regarding the humanitarian and national security crises enveloping the rio grande valley in south texas. >> the problem speaks for itself when the president who prefers to hang out with campaign donors and other political supporters would decide not to have any interaction with those that are directly affected by his failed policies. >> and yesterday democratic congressman henry cuellar raised the specter of hurricane katrina. >> president bush thought the same thing, that he could just look at everything from up in the sky and then he owned it after, for a long time. so i hope this doesn't become the katrina moment for president obama, saying that he doesn't need to come to the border. he should come down. >> white house spokesman josh earnest did acknowledge a decision involved not going to the border. >> we're not concerned about those optics, because the president is very aware of the condition that exists on the southwest border. >> now clearly aware of the optics, an immigration round table to the president's schedule in texas, but it will be in dallas. white house adviser valerie jarrett responded to rick perry's letter in a two-page letter herself, inviting him to join other leaders for a discussion they plan to have in dallas on wednesday. saying the president hopes he will join him in urging congress to quickly pass the emergency funding to deal with the situation at the border. arriving in guatemala today to meet with their president on issues, including this migration. i want to start with a question i had for you yesterday, stephanie. do you get the sense that the message that the obama administration claims they want to send to folks in honduras and guatemala, don't send your children on this treacherous path to the united states, is that message being heard? are you seeing it on the ground? >> reporter: we haven't seen it. we've been asking people all along since we got on the ground about it. some people have told us, chuck, that they've seen these commercials that we've seen as well from the state department but i haven't seen them personally. there was also talk of some 6,500 billboards that were going to go up with the same kind of message, the journey is dangerous and when you get there, you're not going to be able to stay. that kind of message. we just haven't seen it. also there have been people here that have told us even if that message does get here, it may not sink in, because there are conditions here in central america that are also pushing, whether it's uncompanied minors, their parents or families, complete families traveling together, it's not sinking in and they're still making that move. it's a combination of those factors. >> are you getting the sense that either country is prepared to deal with these children when they get sent back? have they been forewarned that planes are coming, filled with these children? >> yeah, they have. these countries have been dealing with people coming back, being deported from mexico or the united states for a while now. we actually visited one sector that was establish for the record that purpose. it looked like it had been there for a while, dealing with mothers and their children and getting them either back home or with family and trying to get the message across to them not to make that difficult journey. there may be planes coming, ten this week to honduras alone. they just don't have the capacity to deal with them. although they are delivered to major cities, the capital, or where we were, they still have to get back to their villages, their homes. there isn't the infrastructure in place to be able to handle it. >> stephanie gosk trying to cover this story from the ground, from what really is ground zero down there on the border of honduras and guatemala. thank you so much. for more on the crisis here at home, i want to speak with congressman tom cole from oklahoma. he is on capitol hill. good morning to you, sir. >> good morning, chuck. >> $2 billion request from the white house for this emergency funding. are you inclined to be in favor of this? >> if the money is to fix the problem, yes. if it's simply to facilitate the flow, no. we'll see what else goes with it. i don't think a $2 billion check is the answer. if i were to do that i would spend it in honduras, el salvador not to expedite the flow up here. >> it's interesting you put it that way. you would like that 2008 law changed and have that tied to this money? >> i certainly would. but i would -- look, i don't think this is the 2008 law. that law was in effect for four years and we didn't have a problem. i really do think this is at the president's doorstep. and this is the oldest trick in the obama book. blame george bush. it happened in 2008. really? they're in the sixth year of their administration. this is an administration policy. we need a solution. i'm willing to vote for the money if it's going to do that. if it's simply to facilitate the flow i'm not willing to do that. we haven't gotten any specific requests about changing the law. we'll have to figure that out for ourselves. i don't think congress will simply write a check. it will demand action as well. >> i understand the political back and forth of 2012 versus 2008. the 2008 law that governed -- that basically makes it so that it is factually correct, that any child not from mexico or canada that gets detained at the border is not automatically deported. >> we didn't have that problem for four years, chuck. to blame a law that was in effect for four years -- we had that problem once the president sent unambiguous signals that if you're an unaccompanied minor who shows up at the border, you can stay. you used the statistics yourself at the top of the show. 1,600 kids out of tens of thousands have gone back. i've been told those are all pretty much voluntary. that is, they requested to go back. if you don't stop the flow, you're not going to change the incentive. you can run all the ads in hondur honduras, guatemala and el salvador you want. but they know they're not true. somebody is paying criminal carte will. s to bring them up here. they don't walk across mexico. we have people here in this country facilitating a criminal enterprise, putting the kids at risk and destroying the societies they're coming from. >> you're getting at the root problem here. does the united states then need to invest in some sort of infrastructure, aid, something down in guatemala, honduras and el salvador? is that where it should be focused? >> that's part of the problem. i've always been willing to vote for those kinds of programs. we have a responsibility and an obligation in this regard. but having said that, you've got to be serious about stopping the flow. you are destroying the societies there, putting kids at risk and strengthening criminal enterprises. anybody who pays somebody to bring kids here is paying crimin criminals. we're not doing a background check on who we're turning these kids over to that's remotely adequate. so, again, this is a big problem. and i'm not seeing a lot of solutions out of the administration. >> i want to ask you a quick political question. eric erickson over at red state doesn't seem to be very pleased with speaker boehner's idea of suing the president. i realize john boehner and house republicans may lack the testicular fortitude to fight president obama, but i kindly ask that they save the taxpayers money on a political stunt solely designed to incite republican voters. >> our problem here is we don't control the senate and we didn't win the presidential election. we've cut the deficit. we've blocked the president time and time again and the speaker has been the leader of that. and suggesting anything -- >> you're in favor of this lawsuit? >> i want to see the specifics. look, the president has routinely changed the law with respect to obamacare. he has routinely changed the immigration laws and now is complaining we need more legal authority. he hasn't waited for legal authority in the past. he could act now. and so, yeah. i mean, i think it's probably worth doing. i want to see the specifics of what we're going to lay out. and i haven't seen that so far. >> all right. tom cole, republican from oklahoma, appreciate your views this morning. thanks for coming on. >> thank you. new details ahead on a fight to contain a political standoff in afghanistan. dual governments being formed. epicenter of instability in the middle east. a look at the crisis in syria and why it's become the most debated policy dilemma in latest history. a look at the daily planner. rnc later today will announce their decision, where are they taking their talents? we're putting our money on cleveland for now. orld of passengers. the red-eyes. 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>> chuck, did we ever really have a serious policy to try to push assad out? in fact, even though rhetorically we said that assad must go, we haven't really put much substance behind that policy in the past. instead, what we've seen are these sort of efforts, fruitless efforts to pursue a diplomatic resolution to the conflict there without sort of taking the steps necessary to shape that diplomacy, to shape the diplomatic outcome that the president has won it. now you have seen an announcement that we will give $500 million, a very serious amount of money to the effort to strengthen the moderate syrian opposition. i think that starts in the right direction, chuck. we don't need a major change in policy. we need to back up the stated policy that's been there for some time. the question is it now sort of too late in the game? that's really what's at the crux of that debate. >> jane, i'm not asking you to totally backseat drive. essentially, did the president pay himself into the corner when he got too aggressive toward assad? >> i thought that was the right position, but he didn't back it up, as you point out. i basically agree with michael here. although i wouldn't see iraq and syria as a different struggle. isis is in both places and i do think what we -- the assets we put, you know, forward to moderate muslim groups ought to be in both places. there's some good news here, which is that maliki is having trouble forming a coalition that would allow him to win a new election in iraq. locally, he is getting pushed out, one would hope, by both s hichlt a and sunni elements in iraq. he has done an absolutely dreadful job of governing the country and squandered the goodwill we created through both the surge that we had but also they created through the sunni awakening. rolling back the videotape here, i think we should have done limited air strikes early last year. it's a good thing chemical weapons are being dismantled but syria still has chlorine and that kills people, too. it has a leader, in quotes, all about taking out much of his population in order to survive in power. that ought to be unacceptable to us. >> and, michael, this is the con conundrum that the administration faces. it has to deal with isis. what isis is doing to assad is the biggest threat to assad. if we destroy isis, we may strengthen assad. it's as complicated as you can have in the middle eastern dispute and, frankly, usually they are all like this. >> that's spal right, chuck. congressman harman is exactly right. this is a regional problem. isis is operating in both iraq and seara. each of those conflicts have local elements but there's this regional issue to contend with. you have to fight both, against radical jihadism and fight against leaders like assad who, in many ways, are the magnets for these foreign fighters and jihadists who are coming in. >> right. >> the fact is, chuck, if we were to support assad somehow and say let's now try to keep him in power, he will still be a magnet for jihadists for some time to come and it will be seen as taking the side of iran, assad's main sponsor, against our allies there in the region. it's not a viable policy. we need to push back on both of those trends, which have both contributed to the instability. >> jane, wouldn't it be easier to get rid of assad first and then deal with the fallout? >> i think it all goes hand in hand. it's complicated. and let's not forget yemen and al yasiri, the bombmaker and threats to air safety we're trying to deal with at the same time and israel and gaza. hamas issues. this is why our president gets paid the big bucks. >> yeah, it is. and syria has been the single most complicated polish that they have tried to deal with and nothing seems to work. michael sane, jane harman, thank you. candidate that says he may be the next eric cantor. first, the tdr trivia question, how many u.s. presidents were born in neb rask? ♪ [ female announcer ] we love our smartphones. and now telcos using hp big data solutions are feeling the love, too. by offering things like on-the-spot data upgrades -- an idea that reduced overcharge complaints by 98%. no matter how fast your business needs to adapt, if hp big data solutions can keep wireless customers smiling, imagine what they can do for yours. make it matter. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. 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at least not as far as state senator chris mcdaniel is concerned. last night, the mississippi republican party submitted their certified vote total in the runoff race between senator thad cochran and mcdaniel, showing cochran had a lead of over 7,600 votes. mcdaniel and his campaign show no sign of stopping their legal pursuit to challenge the vote. campaign canvassers started searching through courthouse records looking for documentation of ineligible voters who may have voted in the runoff. the campaign claims they've found 5,000 irregularities but have not shown this evidence publicly. senator ted cruz, technically a vice chair of the nsrc, officially supporting cochran, commented on the runoff in an interview with mark levin. >> what happened in mississippi was appalling. i mean, primaries are always rough and tumble, but -- but the conduct of the washington, d.c., machine in the mississippi runoff was incredibly disappointing. >> we'll see what happens there, but you shall know mcdaniel's campaign, the reason we know about these incremental developments, they always come in a fund-raising e-mail. surprise mechlt a culpa of sorts from senator pat roberts, expressing regret for renting out his home that he owns in dodge city and switching his voter registration to a supporter's home nearby. roberts said this, quote, now, hindsight, maybe i shouldn't have done it. i am from dodge city. i've been there 30 years. i've owned houses, rented houses, paid taxes in dodge city. i vote in dodge city. i don't know what else ooey can do in dodge city. roberts also worried that he might be, quote, the next eric cantor," referring to his defeat last month. his challenger, milton wolf, a distant cousin of president obama, is up with a new radio ad that hits roberts, highlighting the gaf we told you about yesterday. >> every time i get an opponent -- i mean every time i get a chance i'm home. >> he doesn't live in kansas anymore. pat roberts lives in virginia, right by washington, where roberts has been for 47 years. desperate to re-establish ties to kansas. >> kansas primary, by the way, is august 5th, less than a month away. time for the first nim in today's data bank. sticking with the 2014 theme. it is 41. according to the national journal, that's the number of congressional districts that both the nrcc, the house republicans, and the dccc have reserved tv ad time insofar. that means together they believe those are the 41 districts in play this year, already spent an estimated $74 million combined to reserve tv ads in those 41 districts. for now democrats have reserved them in 26. in 2012 -- now the playing field is down to 41. which means the map is only getting smaller, which means they'll be spending more money to win more seats and it's an adm admittance by the democrats that they can't win the house in 2014. secretary of state john kerry arrives in china. cyber spying, climate change, currency, nukes and even syria. can he stop the downward spiral in our relationship of late with china? 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we're going to go become friendly with south korea? >> affirmative diplomacy out there and not just be defined by the points of friction. and there are plenty. i think they've done a pretty good job, south korea. i give them good marks for taiwan relations, generally stable and positive as well. >> where are we in this -- on one hand you can look at president obama's term and say, okay, he developed this six-month -- this is a six-month meeting. every six months they meet, treasury secretary and secretary of state. they go to beijing or counterparts come to washington. so they do have a regular way of hashing out issues. it's sort of like a g-2, if you will, on various things. is progress being made? on things outside asia, it seems like there's steps back. >> look, it's great to have a communication channel, good to have interaction. two leading economies, leading political powers. that's very healthy. i think it's correct to say there's not a lot to show for materially. it's called the strategic dialogue. it's much more tactical than strategic, fixes minor things. currency adjustments. fundamentally about how china is developing its role in the south china sea and to what extent is that viewed as harmful to u.s. interests remains. >> how aggressive does the united states have to get as far as vietnam and japan are concerned on this issue of maritime security? >> i think we're going to see more of what we've seen over the last six months, which is to say chi china increasingly confident in the region and increasingly building out its claims in the region and that leaves vietnam and also the philippines on the receiving end. >> can you imagine a situation where china would provoke military action from the united states? >> no, i don't. i think they've been forward leaning. you could even say aggressive in some respects. i don't think they've gone beyond that. there's always the prospect of miscalculation, vis-a-vis china or the south china sea, somebody overstepping and turning it into a hot incident. >> i have to leave it there. living in hong kong these days. good to see new washington. >> good to be back. >> thank you, sir. trivia time. only one u.s. president was born in nebraska. it was gerald ford, born in 1913, lived in omaha about two weeks before his mother then moved to grand rapids, michigan, where he, of course, grew up and become an iconic figure. up next, we're off to see the wizard. the politics behind oz. menu. veggies you're cool... mayo, corn dogs...you are so out of here! ahh... the complete balanced nutrition of great tasting ensure. 24 vitamins and minerals. 9 grams of protein... with 30% less sugars than before. ensure, your #1 dr. recommended brand now introduces ensure active. muscle health. clear protein drink and high protein. targeted nutrition to feed your active life. ensure. take life in. the summer of this.mmer. the summer that summers from here on will be compared to. where memories will be forged into the sand. and then hung on a wall for years to come. get out there, with over 50,000 hotels at $150 dollars or less. expedia. find yours. >> as i've been teasing you all morning, our tdr 50 focus on kansas today will focus on "the wizard of oz." as a children's book and a movie it's become a touchstone of american culture. for more than half a century after the book came out, some began arguing that it was a lot more than it appeared to be. in 1964, an historian named henry littlefield published an article, claiming that the book was actually a thinly veiled political some including his own family discounted the theory. other scholars and historians think there are too many parallels to ignore. bob was a mid western political journalist before he wrote the book. at the time the midwest was reeling from the panic of 1893 and the subsequent description along with a string of natural disasters. this is where the storm game. against the colorless and backdrop of kansas. dorothy is swept away of the economic chaos which is the tornado. now a little background. he was writing the book in the 1890. it was prime time for the new populous movement. a movement particularly big in kansas. which elected two populous governors during the decade. the leader of the movement, of course, was william jennings. a gifted or or it who ran for president three times. the populous and democrats united behind brian who pushed for the silver and gold who pushed fpus push. the yellow brick road can be seen as the gold standard. in the original version they were silver. the idea gold and silver together will get you where you want to go. in the book, dorothy kicks the wicken witch of the east and frees the -- but littlefield said the witch stood for drought and disasters facing mid westerners she was killed by what? water. on the journey she's joined by the scare you, the tim man, and the lion representatives william jennings brian himself. together they go to the only place they can get help. the emerald city. the entire city is awash in what color? green. the money. the wizard can be a stand in for any number of presidents. he refuses to grant them a favor until they do something for them. i said come back tomorrow. >> the great oz has spoken! >> pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. >> of course, the great powerful oz is exposed as a fraud. if you see that as a thinly vailed statement as washington politics. it's not hard to see. in the book's introduction he writes, quote, written solely to pleasure children of today. some may ask meant to entertain children unless you are implying exactly the opposite. joined by a man who has written about this quentin taylor. a history professor in oklahoma. how did we do in connecting the dots? >> sounds like you read my article, chuck. you did a fine job. you pretty much summarized the entire al gore call reading. >> why did the family admitting it had political undertones? >> i never understood that. it makes it a much more interesting book to be written on both levels. both as children's adventure story as well as a political monetary ally gory. >> you know the other part of this that is unique as a friend of mine pointed out, that women were the main characters in many of these. women were the ones driving the change, which if you think about it in the '30s that's unusual or in the 1890 that would have been unusual. and it's my understanding that the wife was a suffrage activist? >> that is true. it's true in some of his subsequent oz books, there was a series of them, some 13 or 14. i think in the second book someone send up on the suffrage act movement which was involving women's rights particularly the right to vote. and so that adds to the concept he was engaged in political satire as well as some others. >> being a political reporter there was evidence he was a pretty big fan of william jennings brian. that seems to add to the evidence. >> that's been discredited. some of the earlier writers like littlefield, like you mentioned, believed it was a pro populous track. subsequently they found out that he was more or less pro-republican. most of the editorial work he did as a journalist tended to be pro republican. it's reported that he was something of a eccentric when it came to politics and didn't take it terribly serious. one day he gave a speech in favor of the republican, the next day in favor of the democratic opponent. >> when you see the movie, do you feel as if thinking about the times, you know, when it was made at the time, was it trying to reflect the politics of the '30s? >> i don't see that. i think they -- if anyone at the time was aware that there was a political sub text to the book, i think that was removed. i think it's a nonpolitical movie as far as i can tell. and there are so many differences between the book itself and the movie. not just simply the silver slippers as opposed the ruby slippers. there are many other references, metaphors, symbols that support that there was a deliberate political allegory. >> fascinating topic. thank you for coming on and talking about it. >> thank you. that's it for the edition of the "daily run down." coming up next. craig takes the baton. i'll see you tomorrow. i'm here with the business travel forecast. we're looking a the threat for severe thunderstorms once again. but the threat will be far east away from the midwest. areas from out zarks into western new england should be on the lookout. it will be a warm and humid day in the northeast with temperatures in the 90s across the major cities. .com, he gets a ready for you alert the second his room is ready. so he knows exactly when he can check in and power up before his big meeting. and when alan gets all powered up, ya know what happens? 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