State of the Union Address these are the wrong policies the wrong priorities. I have no more campaigns to run. I know because i won both of them. Yemens capital sanaa is still on edge. Trying to end that violent standoff. It could further destabilize the war ors on terror. The u. S. Is holding its highest level talks with cuba in 35 years. United states vowing to continue allowing cubansto who reach the u. S. Shore to remain in the country. The only hope this region has. The only area in the world. The mountain gorilla has. What is safe on our planet that can be protected . 13 people have been injured after a man started stabbing people on a bus in tel aviv. We begin with president obama taking his economic proposals to the conservative heart land a day after delivering a defiant state of the union speech. We accept an economy where only a few of us do splarl well. Spectacularly well. Or will we for everyone who makes the effort . But the president s trip to the red stayed of you idaho and kansas. Taxes for the wealthy are a nonstarter. He owes it to the representatives he elected. There is not a lot the law makesser can do with talking points designed specifically not opass. There is no sign the endless squabbling will end any time soon. House Speaker John Boehner announced wednesday he inviteed israeli Prime Ministering Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before the congress. I did knot consult with the white house. The congress can make this decision on its own. I dont believe im poking anyone in the eye. There is a serious threat that exists in the world. And the president last night kind of papered over it. As the speaker said, critics argued this president glossed over the rising threat of terrorism and presented in general an overly rosy picture of his domestic agenda. This is good news people. [ laughter ] for more were joined from capitol hill with democratic congresswoman jan shak offeringswsk iferg also joined bying being democratic congressman luis gutierrez. Educating the Broader Community about the president s executive actions. Good to have you on the show. Want to start with the state of the union. If you had just arrived on earth would you never know from the president s speech there was a big republican win in november. The president said in 2012 that elections have consequences. Congresswoman is there a bit of a denial there a laundry list that he laid out that republicans dont like . Actually one of the consequences is that the president is unleashed to offer the kinds of proposals that i think the middle class really wants to hear, to push back, to talk about. Being building an economy from the middle out and i think its very it is resonating with the American People. We saw some overnight polling and some focus groups. His numbers have gone up and there is a lot of support for the kinds of things he was talking about yesterday to help the middle class survive and thrive. You know ill get to you right now congressman. Much has been made with the tone the president took. L. A. Times described him as boast full confident even cocky. The guardian remarked on his swagger. We discussed on the show the gop actions did not bode well for bipartisanship because they focused on things they know the president will veto. Wasnt the president the flip side of the coin last night sabotaging bipartisan ship . It seems the republicans are fighting the last war they continue to fight on immigration, that battle is over, most americans support that. We should move forward. They continue to want to undo the Affordable Care act obamacare, they are continuing a war on women as we speak today so i think the republicans are off base. Congressman i wanted to get your reaction to that question. I thought the president was confident, looking towards the future. I didnt see a president with recrimrecrimination. He went up to the woman and the family that was sitting next to the first lady and he said it was hardworking americans like them and used them as an example of kind of all of americans picking themselves up by their boot straps. Here is what i heard i heard a president saying lets not point fingers at each other. Saying no before we finish a statement. A president that was confident turning the page not looking to the past how was it received by your colleagues across the awfully . Oh really well. I got to tell you i took out my calculator during the speech and i took 170,000, thats what a member of congress earns the congress of the United States will not raise the minimum wage but we earn in one month what we expect a person who earns the minimum wage will earn in a year. It won resoundingly even in republican states like arkansas. I want to talk about let me go ahead. Okay. I was just going to say it was like they were superglued though to their seats and that their hands were tied. Did you not see the republicans get up and clap or show any kind of approval, even when the president was talking about the good news of our economy. It was like they were not able to move. Again, worries a lot of people about the lack of exromgz on a lotcompromise about a lot of things. The president talked about taxing the rich. Congresswoman you say we tax people who make 400,000 the same as we tax someone who makes 40 million. Expected to raise 800 billion over the next decade by adding higher tax brackets for those biggest earners. But do you hope to get 74th from across the aisle and even if you do would that 800 million be a drop in the bucket when it comes to the deficit and the National Debt . First of all 800 billion is a significant amount of money. I have support from many millionaires and multimultimill airs who think they ought to pay their fair share but up to 400,000 there are seven tax brackets. Why should they stop there especially since so much money that is gone to the serie rich in the country the top 1 , the tax bract i have are going up to 49 at a Million Dollars there are people who own a billion dollars in the United States,. There are some. There are and thats still lower than tax rate through most of the reagan administration, the top tax rate. So i think we ought to ask them to we ought to update our tax code. But what the other side would argue is treasury records are at record high, so is it it spending . Let me say this antonio you signal out maybe its a pessimistic note for the rest of the country. Ive heard paul ryan, he is chair of the ways and Means Committee, he is looking forward to work with the president. I was against north American Free trade agreement in 1993, a democratic proposal under bill clinton. I thought it was a bad proposal. But the president it this right cord. If there is an agreement it has to be a fair trade agreements. I want to make sure American Workers are protected. There was applause. Paul ryan, chairman of the ways and Means Committee helping people raise their kids and giving them tax credit, i they there are avenues in which we can reach agreement. Look antonio i think many of the things the president spoke to are american values, that the American People support. I mean, if you if everything we do is kind of say well what would the republicans agree othen lets not have a two parties system. I think this is about challenging one another so lets challenge. Lets look at the issue that you oar big leader on. Immigration. The president didnt say much about that on the state of the union. Cutting funding on Homeland Security that would stop some of the president s actions on immigration. The department of Homeland Security isnt ready to process the millions of immigrants, because the system is overburdened. Are you concerned . Well look absolutely were always concerned about every application that is made before the federal government. But i have complete confidence in the secretary of Homeland Security. In mr. Johnsons ability to get this done. Lets remember, he ran he was second in command just about and did the oh dont ask dont tell review and change and implementation over at the department of justice. So he knows what it is to make systemic changes and hell make that systemic change now over at Homeland Security. And let me just say there. You know what . I heard that antonio from other people. The president didnt speak. But he spoke so loudly on november 20th, i mean, its still being echoing throughout our community. We had a wonderful event full house Providence Rhode island, we had a full house in new jersey on friday. Im going to charlotte and im going to charleston and jan and i are going to have an activity in this wonderful Catholic Church on valentines day illinois folks hanging together. Saturday its going to be valentines and were going to be sharing the love of this congress and this president. So he doesnt really have to we have to sign up 5 million people. Want to get a couple other questions in here. One terrorism something the president didnt speak much about. Dana millbank in the Washington Post contrasted the domestic issues and the way he spoke about terrorism. Is there a disconnect the way people have on terrorism and the way the president addressed it last night . Congresswoman. I really resent the fact that the republicans may be critical of the president on Foreign Policy and on terrorism and they are the ones that are holding up adequate fudged for the department of Homeland Security, even after paris. We had a vote, and they had the nerve to attach these poison pills of antiimmigrant amendments on to department of Homeland Security. I think president talked about a wise and measured and thoughtful Foreign Policy. And he did ask the congress to come together, and to fund this effort against i. S. I. S. He didnt go into great elaboration. But i they the president has conducted a thoughtful Foreign Policy and right now the republicans wont even let us have an adequate Homeland Security bill. I think antonio unless were going to send 100,000 young men and women in harms way into the theater of the battlefield theyre sometimes just not happy. Look mr. President i remember when george bush, antonio remember when the president said oh not that important to get Osama Bin Laden . Barack obama got Osama Bin Laden. Ever time i think about da hussein hesadamn hussein. You have a wrench stronger than ever this president gets you get the argument that i. S. I. L. Is the result of civil war in syria and pulling our troops out of iraq. Lets not get into that debate. Speaker john boehner inviteing Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu to speak before congress and not following protocol. What is your reaction . Of course israel is our great ally in the middle east. I think it is awkward just a short time before the president ial election in israel which is going to be happening in march and while we have before the house some important discussions about how we address the negotiations with iran, to prevent iran from having a nuclear weapon. So i think there is a certain amount of politics in this invitation. Although you know we certainly do want to have a dont have a bipartisan close relationship with the state of israel. I dont know that it is going to serve the best purposes of achieving peace and reconciliation in the israelipalestinian conflict. I have always been for a twostate solution. I want israelis and everybody to live in israel to be able to live in peace and security but i also want a Free Democratic prosperous free palestinian state where they can have a nation too. I think that is road to how would i say democracy and freedom and justice. I dont know just before an election an election right, in which this could play an important card, we want to invite Somebody Just before the election really . I dont know. Look just because you might not think netanyahu shouldnt come and speak and this might not be an appropriate time doesnt have any indication about your fidelity to the cause of peace between israel and the palestinians and reaching a peaceful solution. Congresswoman congressman pleasure to have you with us. Thank you. Thank you antonio. Turning to the conflict in yemen, where Houthi Rebels reached an agreement to end a violence stanoff in the capital city. The insurgents tightened their controlled holding abd rabu mansur hadi as prisoner in his own home. They said they would release the president ial palace and release the chief of staff held over the weekend. The question who was in charge of the country a critical u. S. Ally against al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula the group who claimed responsibility for the recent tack in paris. For more were joined by christopher swift an adjunct professor, author of a book, the fighting vanguard. Very good to have you back on the show. Washington the white house there must be breathing a sigh of relief since president hadi is an important ally in our fight against the al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. How does the power ever these Houthi Rebels effect affect our ability to fight aqap . It makes it more complicated and here is the reason why. Yemen is a very decentralized society but has a very stralingsed state always. Centralized state. Other tribal and political factions exercise their option and try to get a larger piece of a shrinking pie in yemen the harder that is to hold institutions together. Thats the kind of vacuum that aqap and its allies locally have stepped into in the past and something theyll likely spep into in the future. You talk about decentralization it used to be two different countries. Is this again all about the sunnishia divide . Weve got iran supporting the shia hughts who houthis and then we have got sunni saudi arabia and the United States supporting the current government led by hadi whos sunni. Deny claims that they are being supported by iran. What do you think . Well, the situation is a whole lot more complicated. One of the difficulties we have in washington is we tend to look at whats hang in places like yemen in great terms of Regional Power politics. We ig 94 whats going on sort of from the ground up. There are lots of different tribal and political factions in yemen. The sunnishia split is not necessarily whats dispositive here. What is dispositive is a society going through a period of economic collapse. You have a population thats growing very quickly and you have a political system that is not able to come to terms with those realities in the ground. Weve had houthi ribles in the north we have had successionists in the south and aqap and all these other dynamics. Iran versus saudi arabia really simplifies the whole thing. Looking at the question of whether the houthi are supported by iran, yes they are. They get some money they get some weapons but if the United States marine corps were to show up and support the houthi with arms and weapons they might be their proxy for a day too. Lets see how this would play out in your opinion. A influence deal worked out with the houthi and president hadi, it appears hadi had little to do but agree to their demands. A u. S. Ally will be eventually pushed out of office do you feel . Well if the whole Gulf Coordination Council process sort that they are in the middle of now anticipated that hadi would be the new interim president and after a new constitution is written, it is hard to teld tell whether hadi will tholdwillhold to an agreement with a gun held to his head. But at the end of the day couple the new yemeni constitution will hold on to autonomy for a number of different regions. In order to keep that country together given how diverse and dynamic and factional it is. If it is a power vacuum you referred to earlier some say the houthis are not ready to govern so there could be another failed state. Could yemen become another afghanistan with aqap doing whatever it wants . Some report says that i. S. I. L. Is trying to expand into yemen too. Look the situation in yemen and the situation in afghanistan or syria or iraq or any of the other conflict zones in the a middle east that weve been looking at are very different. Some of dynamics are the same. To the extent that the Central Government and the Yemeni Security services cant enforce their where writ outside of the capital, its been that way for several years. The difficulty is not that yemen books failed state. The difficulty is that people take advantage ever the short term chaos between the lack of political equilibrium they have now and whatever the preliminary equilibrium will be. It is an opportunity ink situation. The yes yes yemenis are not able, what are we going to do . The number one thing helping president hadi and his government helping people back to the negotiation tables and the muscle off the street. It is pretty clear the tribal faction will use their muscle to force people to thearms couldnt be won around the negotiating table, to the extent that the United States and our allies in the gulf can get people back to the negotiating table that should be our first priority. In terms of dealing with aqap, Security Services continue to be loyal to the yemeni state and not particular individuals or factions within it, thats going to be very important. And then look at a certain point with organizations like aqap and i. S. I