warner, he has a cat. he is a high value eddie tan knee who -- valued detainee who agreed to testify. so pre i'm blee the pet was a perk. in a separate letter, he wrote to his attorney who is from ohio, quote, dear mr. warner, lebron james is very bad man. he should apologize to the city of cleavland. "red eye" obtained stap from the chattiest detainee. >> it looks like a fun cell. what is wrong with that? let's get to the important question first. what do you think this cat did to get sent to gitmo? >> i am so allergic to cats. it would be like torture. i am not a cat man. they are cute from very far away. i like that it says "i can't confirm nor deny he wants an adorable kitten. it is -- kitten." it is so adorable. >> they all are. >> even more adorable. >> i don't think that's true. he was the first high value gitmo detainee to reach a plea bargain. doesn't he deserve a pet? >> i think some of our an teargas techniques are questionable. if we can just reward someone with a cat instead of doing harsher t

mr. warner: mr. president, i ask consent to speak for as long as -- for up to 15 minutes on two subjects. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. warner: mr. president, i rise today, first of all, to address the important legislation pending before this body, s. 3414, the cybersecurity act of 2012. i have followed this debate and want to compliment particularly senator lieberman and senator collins and senator rockefeller, senator feinstein, and folks like senator kyl and senator whitehouse who have been trying to find some common ground in this area. and i hope at some point in the next day or so we will be able to proceed to this bill and have it fully debated. many senators bring different levels of expertise to this issue. i hope my voice as someone who spent 20 years in the cooling field and the telecom industry before i entered government service and somebody who has had the honor in the three and a half years i have been in this body to serve on the intelligence committee, the commerce c

this may be the worst merger since aol bought time warner. with me are two veterans of politics, bob shrum and former republican chairman michael steele and msnbc analyst. i want to start with you, michael, because you are always a straight shooter around here. is cold feet too cold a term to tough a term for the feeling some are having about ryan with his difficult budget to sell? >> i don't think it's so much cold as it is nervous. i think that as the dust has settled on this and particularly those down ballot congressional races, we're only talking about 25-seat change in the house. when half are close to half of these seats may be in districts that are too close to call for some republican because they lean democrat, it becomes a major concern. now that you already noted, the conversation has shifted away from even, you know, taxes and tax returns and the like to okay, let's talk about the specifics of your budget. let's talk about the specifics of medicare. a lot of those can't i have begun to hear a little bit of the rumbling, among som

margaret warner has the story. oday we've announced the defect of mr. riyad hijab syrian prime minister. >> with that, a spokesman for the prime minister delivered another blow to president bashar al-assad's government. >> he was chosen to be part of the criminal regime but he decided to join the syrian people and their blessed revolution. >> word came that three other cabinet members had defected. syrian statexq minister riyad hijab was fired. and a replacement assumed his duties. riyad hijab is a sunni sworn in six weeks ago. he was thought to be a loyalist to assad and served home to a large population from the president's minority sect. in neighboring turkey today rebels with the free syrian army that riyad hijab's defection is a sure sign that time is running out for assad. >> what happen second natural. the regime is get close to the end. the collapse began after the killing of the committee in damascus and the defection of the prime minister is the beginning of the end and will be followed by the capture of aleppo in the future god willing. >> m

and one interesting things about mrs. obama is her poplarrity has actually grown since she was first introduced to the public. she's done a very good in the white house-- >> warner: with the obesity. >> she's picked noncontroversial subjects so nobody except my children can argue with being told to eat their vegetables. and she does does particularly well in an area very important to the president which is independents. she polls significantly better than he did does in favorability among independents. >> warner: that's interesting. speaking of polling, michael, self new polls show the president with a white seven- to nine-point lead. there are stale couple of polls that have him tied or have romney ahead by a point or two. i realize it's the middle of august but what is the significance of this kind of lead for the president at this point? >> whatever the level is-- and that's not clear-- the trend is not good for romney. he's lost support among independents, clearly. he's lost support among women, particularly women-- w

mr. john brennan also did not rule out u.s. involvement in syria, and called on congress to pass a cybersecurity bill. mr. brennan was with the cia for 25 years. >> i am margaret warner and i think most of you are aware of the floor rules, please turn off your cell phones and pagers, which i am doing so myself. i ask that you not even put it on vibrate because that could interfere with the system. this meeting is on the record. it is my pleasure today to introduce today's guest, john brennan. he is assistant to the president for homeland security. and counterterrorism. and a deputy national security adviser. he is the chief advisor to the president of counterterrorism strategy, as well as policy and implementation. and he also coordinates all the homeland security related activities throughout the executive branch. preparing for and responding with cyberthreats of terror attacks. he will open today with remarks about u.s. politics in the yemen and you now have a conversation for 15 minute