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Trying to normalize relations. how do you view this in the whole view of other presidents not being able to move at all in trying to advance this policy toward normalization? >> well, sir, on the surface it is historic. as up, no other president has been able to do this. when you think of the political congratulations and how the republican party in particular used position on cuba as against democrats or anyone who wanted to normalize relations. what the president did today was not historic but brave. i think that's why a lot of people are looking at what did he with a neck snapping, whoa! he...

From other countries, that our values really do trump out. i think that's what will happen in cuba. >> so your bottom line is you think that alan gross seems to be okay physically right now? you say he was in good spirits -- >> absolutely. >> based on your eyewitness account, you were there, you received him at joint base andrews outside of washington, d.c. you seem to think he's okay? >> of course, he was with his wife, that always makes someone feel better, he was with some of his friends. he was clearly emotional about being back in the united states. but in great spirits. he was anxious, i...

Thing to do. >> you know, joe, the question bears asking. why couldn't democrats before this do this? >> do this before? i think once again, it is political. there's no ifs, ands or buts about it. you have to keep in mind that you have an older leadership that gets called up in it. florida plays a big role. particularly in presidential elections. that's where the bulk of your opposition comes from. you have new leadership. as a matter of fact, you have new leadership in cuba. you have a younger generation in cuba. my daughter went to cuba with a group called semester at sea. they've been going...

Country, it must stop. despite the blockade, measures have become law, the president of the united states may be able to modify its own obligation in years by his own executive action. we propose today to the united states to adopt mutual measures to improve the bilateral climate and to normalize the mutual links between our two countries. based on the principles of international law and the united nations charter, cuba reserves

The three remaining members of the cuban five, they are released as a humanitarian gesture, according to u.s. officials. the cubans have also freed alan gross, an american contractor who had been held in a cuban prison for five years. patrick oppmann is our man reporting live from cuba right now. patrick, what else did the cuban president, raul castro, say? i understand like president obama, he thanked the pope for his efforts behind the scenes as well. >> reporter: absolutely. it was not just what he had to say but it was a tone of what he had to say. he thanked president obama and said that ...