The national conversation. Hes been in the having his moment in the sun this week. Something that was not guarantee guaranteed that he would ever have. I think that makes it a really good week for scott walker being taken serious for the first time. Hes visible now. Hes going to be traveling overseas. Well talk about him in a moment. More about him. Jeb bush had the best week for me. Just on the Detroit Economic Club speech alone. Very well received and i continue to believe his greatest strength will culminate at the edge of the year when its time to pick a president , when republicans are looking for a nominee, the speech he gave, the thoughtfulness of it, not long on specifics, and the quality of his performance during the q a, hes in the major leagues and he proved it and i think a lot of donors are going to see it. Speech very strong in the sense that it was a speech could he give in the general election which is almost the biggest thing in president ial politics right now is jeb bush fundraising behind the scenes largely. Hes going to have an impressive fundraising year and theres no one who can tell you whos going to be second to him. Ill be interested to see. We have this Bloomberg Politics poll coming out over the weekend of new hampshire. Want to see where he is on that. Lets go to who had the worst week. I think who had the worst week is a tough call. Because a bunch of them had bad weeks. But chris christie, i think were going to talk about him more. Between the vaccine thing the New York Times story and his expense account, a new federal probe, a criminal probe on him in new jersey. And handling it all really badly. I think it was a bad he got to london, it was supposed to be a great trip for him. It was a mess throughout to the point where he endeded up refusing to answer questions. Like everything was bad for him. I think its a bad homen of things to come. Horrible homen of things for him to omen of things for him to come. And rand paul. The worst thing you can do is to signal to voters, press and activists that pa what people think is the weakest about you is true. People say hes thin skinned and he says things he shouldnt and hes thin skinned about it. He did that this week on vaccines. He got scrutiny from the New York Times. His office just, when they were asked to do an interview on being thin skinned, acted a little thin skinned. Its going to be if hes going to be a player in had this and be the nominee, going to have to stop being thin skinned. He tries to have a sense of humor about it but its not enough. Bad week for him and christie. Finally, what happened this week in 2016 that you say was overlooked . We had this Bloomberg Politics at the morning register iowa poll that came out at beginning of the week. Scott walker did well in that poll. I was struck most by the fact that the two past winners of the iowa caucus was mike huckabee, rick santorum, neither one doing well in iowa at all. If you added them up together, they still were short of where scott walker was in the poll. Those guys us a tensably should be leading in the iowa poll in the Iowa Caucuses because theyre well known in iowa. The fact theyre doing so poorly there, not great. The iowa race is wide open for republicans. Bad sign for them. Overlooked is rick perry. Im higher on his chances than a lot of people. Hes building a good staff. Hes out there being aggressive on media and on money. Again i say, jeb bush will raise the most money for the republicans by a lot, i asked all the republicans, keep your eye on the ball, the ball is a giant piggy bank. Whos going to raise the second most . It might be scott walker, it might be chris christie, it might be rand paul but if you count superpact, it might be rick perry and thats a big deal and he put out a long list of people supporting him to raise money. Watch rick perry and money. Nobody has paid attention to that the way you have. You just mentioned scott walker. Hes in wisconsin playing full court press. Doing all kinds of stuff. He wants to borrow money for roads, he wants to cut spending from public universities. He wants to shell out hundreds of millions of dollars on a new basketball arena and on top of that, his office tried to edit the Mission Statement for the university of wisconsin which is sacramento sank for those badgers. These are all controversial things. Hes now getting a lot of scrutiny. My question to you is, because hes in the top tier all of a sudden, is walkers record in wisconsin going to be a net positive or a negative for him in winning the republican nomination . These are part of his budget release this week. Hes in a bad position. The locality state press is scrutinizing all his president ial stuff and saying, governor walker, you fought to get reelected, you were reelected and now youre out there gallivanting around in iowa and elsewhere. I think that his record now will be scrutinized. Theres some successes to be sure. But the budget and the way they were tone deaf about a number of things he cited suggests to me his staff is going to have a ton of work to do to make this a net success rather than something to put him on the defensive. If you were running for governor and youre under pressure, it makes it a lot harder. Theres a little bit of a minor League Quality to them at this point on this stuff right now. Especially the wisconsin crowd. Theres a lot of questions around various things that have happened out there. I think in the end, that the big victory over unions is still going to be a net, is going to push it always in the net positive. For so many conservative activist voters, so many grassroot its voters around the country, all they know about scott walker was, this is the guy who took on the Public Employees union, that will still be the thing they most lino about him at the end of this year. To some extent he needs to pivot away from that. When hes given his speeches in iowa, he focused so much on winning the recall, beating the union. He has to have a broader portfolio. His only calling card is governor of wisconsin. And this budget i dont think showed that they understand how to leverage being governor. More of a negative until they turn that around. I dont disagree with that but the depth of the antiunion sentiment, i know you know this, it is very, very deep in the republican party. Hes maybe the foremost champion of that position in the republican party. Theres no one whos done more. Maybe. Definitely. That i think on the line of positive and negative pushes him to net positive. Well see. He has to hope the wisconsin economy grows. To be or to be be or not to be be. Thats a question now for many members of congress and our Vice President , joe biden, who apparently will not attend Prime Minister neths speech to a joint session of netanyahus speech to a joint session of congress because Vice President biden is it turns out traveling overseas. How convenient. The day of the speech. So theres now questions swirling around, will there be a speech at all . Will netanyahu address a joint session . What do you think . Look, ive been really struck. This is has been a cluster s that obviously been this has obviously been a cluster thingy since the beginning of this thing. You think about michael and the former am bats doer to the United States for israel calling fournetten yahoo to stop, to get out of this. For netanyahu to stop, to get out of this. There are democrats who are now lobbying rob dermer to try to get netanyahu not to come. I dont know whether theyll prevail but the fact that theres opinion inside israel thats pushing netanyahu to try to get out of this because it might damage the ultimate cause of stopping iran Getting Nuclear Weapons the main focus has been on the fact that he and boehner cooked this up without telling the president. Three other key things. One, is he wrote a letter to netanyahu inviting him. Boehner. Boehner did. But said it was a bipartisan invitation. He didnt consult pelosi. And are you calling john boehner a lier . Some israelis are now saying, we thought this was a bipartisan invitation. Second hes going not just to speak but to lobby in effect against the president of the United States. That makes it an extraordinary invitation. And the last thing is, netian hue doesnt back down netanyahu doesnt back down. I think he might find a way to cancel. This i didnt think so until today but now i think its possible. I think so too. You hear things from inside israel, the notion that hes doing very well in the polls right now. Though its a very close election. The notion that everybody in israel knows the relationship with america is sant sank. Although they dont love barack obama over there, they know hes really important to israels security and doing this might screw that up. Hell have to travel overseas that day somewhere else. Right. We are used to hearing lies and untruths in cases of miss remembering because mark and doctor misremembering because mark and i cover people in politics. The feggetters have been ruffled because of Brian Williams. The question i have for is you whether journalists like brian, like us and others, should be held to a higher standard than politicians . We should be held to a super high standard. We dont know the facts about what happened with Brian Williams but these are questions that should be asked about his credibility. I think its crazy that journalists should be held to a higher standard. I think we should be held to an equal standard as politicians. Youre doing your job, you need to be honest. I wouldnt say higher. Id say equal. I tend to think that i think we do have to be held to a slightly higher standard. At this point now, politicians, the notion of spin, of fish tails, of evasions, of all those various things not i dont think anybody should outright lie but politician does all that stuff. We basically accept it. Because thats the way politics are. Thats not the job of journalists. Journalists should be we are entrusted with the notion of being truth tells of tellers. If were going to take that mantle and parade as truth tellers, we should accept the notion that were going to be held to a higher standard. What about nbc doing an investigation of what happened with Brian Williams consulted by someone from nbc news . I think that an internal investigation is where you have an organization investigating itself, in all cases, not just in this case, are inherently suspect every time. I think in a journalist who sees that, whether its in a corporation, whether its in a government office, if youre investigating yourself, people are never going to completely believe its not a whitewashed account. Thats true across the board. You . I think its probably not a good idea. But its not uncommon. I know. Its done in politics too. I think Brian Williams is going to do himself a favor, if he does some interviews with journalists who have tough questions. I agree with that. This sunday it is the best night of the year, the grammys. John and i were not invited because johns baremake ited ladies cover band hasnt quite figured out barenaked ladies cover band hasnt quite figured out how to do it yet. Album of the year song of the year, record of the year. Those are the big ones. Everybodys got their eye on this dude, sam smith. I think theres a lot of flage rift sam smith pladge rift sam smith. People think could he win for record of the year for stay with me which is the pladge rised song that youre talking about. Hime hoping taylor swifts shake it off will win that prize. The song of the year category, all about that bass. I think that song will win. And might even should win. Its pretty catchy. And then you look at the album of the year, thats beyonce and thats the right thing. Will win should win. Taylor swift, only shake it off is available for these grammys. Should win i think will win and the sam smith song is great but i just dont see how a plagerized song should win. People think he might win a ton of stuff. I dont get it. I think a lot of grammy winners will discount it and voters will discount it and he might win. Im hoping we have the sweep of the first two ladies of rock n roll and pop music. Beyonce and taylor swift. I think theres a decent chance. I will say for anybody who cares that in that album of the year category, someone who will not win is bec ks recent album. Chris christie will not take questions but we got some jersey reporters to ask them anyway. A very onesided press conference is coming up next. It was not exactly a great week for chris christie. London trying to look like a president. He said some weird stuff about vaccines. Then there was that story about his lavish expense account. And his response to all of it even after he returned stateside was, no questions, please. We asked the press corps in new jersey to submit the questions they want answered most. Lets take a look. If i had to ask governor christie one question today it would be governor, do you think its appropriate for someone who is running for president to accept essentially a 30,000 gift from the leader of a foreign country . If i could ask him one question today it would be about his budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Id like to know how he plans to pay for muchneeded road and bridge repairs, what hell do with employee pensions, the payments are going up and hes cut them in the past two years, leaving the unions to file suit in court. And also, proper taxes. For the first time the average tax bill in the state topped 8,000. Meanwhile, property tax programs have been slashed under his administration. That was a good Double Barrel question there. Heather haddon is here with us. Great to see you. I want to ask you that question first. First question out of the box is, if you could ask one question to the governor, what would it be . Can we all go back to london and try to do it . The trip was filled with hope and promise for access and a lot of time with the governor and it started that way. We had the whole soccer match with him where he was parading through the streets and we were asking him questions and hes clearly enjoying it. We watched the super bowl with him at a bar. And then that measles question came up on monday. After that the mood really changed quite a bit. The press availabilities we had were canceled. We really didnt have access to him again. It was a bad trip. History was going to record it as a bad trip. Do you think christie and his people know it was a bad trip . I wouldnt say its romneylevel bad for london. If you had to do good or bad, it wasnt a good trip. The conventional wisdom was, he dodged he messed up on the vaccine thing. And then hes yet to reply to the New York Times story and he also had no message. To me the worst thing about the trip in some ways was, do a trip like, that you have to have some Foreign Policy message or why are you there . If you assume that it was at least not a great trip, do you think they know that . Do you think they recognize that that thing failed and are doing some soul searching . I think they recognized that it wasnt all they had hoped for. The National Press corps was following him. Some British Press with him. I think they were hoping for a big splash. We were set up outside, staking out his meet with david cameron. The azummings was that there was going to be some kind of splash news out of that. But that didnt happen. I dont think theyd go so far to say it failed, but its not what they wanted. If you think about these two big stories that you mentioned, the vaccine story and the New York Times story, which of those do you think has more legs . I dont mean just which is more significant, but it points to something either in and of itself or a tendency in christie that were going to see come up time and time again . I think the vaccine story took off because a lot of the other 2016 contenders were also weighing in on this. It was one of those moments where it was a collective moment for the whole field. The lavish spending, i mean, there is a bit of a history there, going back to his u. S. Attorney days. So in some ways im not surprised that thats getting pick over now. He is a top tier contender. Its fair game at this point. You know him and youve watched him. When he eventually does take questions and hes obviously going to be asked both about substance, how do you think hell reply to Something Like that . When will he take questions . I dont i think thats a question. After this trip hes going on a pretty Aggressive National event. Hell be in iowa on monday. A number of lincoln day dinners. Some day hell answer. Yeah. Hell say, thats the way i roll, i get all of the juice out of the orange, or do you think hell say, it wasnt so bad . Do you think hell be defensive about it apologetic . He has many moods. I cant predict him exactly. Im stunned. I said this on the show before. The biggest thing to me is how many people i talked to in National Republican politics who say he has zero chance of being the nominee. I think he has a pretty good chance still, despite all the problems he has. What do you think people are keying off of to say that . Do the christie people have an awareness of that . There i think his supporters are still with him. I think his supporters are still with him. I know some donors who arent jumping ship. They had a donor call yesterday who was positive about getting bundlers together. He hasnt declared anything yet. But you talk to folks around the country, like you do, iowa theres some skepticism about him. I think people thought he did better during the Freedom Summit the other weekend than they thought he would. The obama hug still comes up. I think the question now is what is his pathway forward. You mentioned the iowa thing. Our poll from iowa earlier this week his negatives were off the charts in iowa. And theres been other polling, other places, that shows his negatives are off the chart. Is that all still just a holder from bridgegate . What do you think it is that makes voters who dont really know him that well, what is it that makes 55 or 60 of Iowa Republicans not like him . I really dont think they care about bridgegate at all. I talked to some iowa folks today and they dont care what makes them not like him . I think theres still some suspicion, some skepticism. They worry hes not conservative enough. But i will say, when you put him in front of a crowd, people like him. So i think part of the strategy for his supporters is to get him in front of enough of these republican die hard crowds to hear his message and sell himself. Thats their hope. Christie be christie. Yep. If you think do you think they have any concerns about any lingering i mean, this sounds silly, but the orange sweater thing and the jerry jones thing was a Huge National thing. Do you think that his people in his world think that that has any Lasting Impact on him beyond just being a talk radio blip for a week . I think there will be concerns any time hes at a sporting event again. He was at this Arsenal Premier League soccer match. All of us of course were asking, who paid for the tickets . I think stubhub. You watch him as closely as anybody and you know his body language. Disease he think hes going to be the president of the does he think hes going to be the president of the United States . I think theyre very confident. That hes going to win . Yeah. I think they really think general hasnt had a target on his back jeb hasnt had a target on his back like governor christie has to some degree. Hes come out very early, hes going to get beat up. And they see it as a twoperson race . Jeb is the establishment focus right now. Scott walker is now zooming up in polls so i dont know. Maybe theyll start to refocus on walker, who has been a friend of christies. They think hes formidable. But the money war is really happening right now, the invisible primary. Got to see how they come out of that. Youre great to come in. Thank you very much. When we come back, a very special week in review here on with all due reflect. Time sure flies when youre having fun. Theres that time we pumped in the crowds. And the time we tried to make orange juice as an omage to chris christie. Thats going to be a huge we need some paper towels. That time reggie love was johns man. One of the most corrupt organizations known to man i refer to the Federal Reserve he was a lunatic. One of those crazy libertarian nuts. Reggie love. I cannot believe unbelievable. That time i almost killed john on set hold still, you big baby. That time we read americas children a book about the death of a loveble little grandma, but this tale had one more hitchcockian turn. His wife, it was she who would pay. She would pay with her life. The time we did a week in review. That time we pulled polled republicans in iowa. Chris christie didnt do too well. Chris christie comes not first, not second, not fourth, not even fifth, but in sixth place. That time we put Mitch Daniels through the toughest interview of his entire life. Just tell us something you think about jeb bush. Anything. Do you like the color of his hair . Anything. Anything about jeb bush. That time we unleashed the iteam. Does eric schock watch Downton Abbey . Haters are going to hate. What a week. We are only on the tube a half an hour a day, but were live 24 7 online. Read a great piece on whether jennifer can keep Hillary Clinton on message mark. We have a big weekend coming up with the grammy awards. Im going to watch that. What else are you doing this weekend for fun . Sunday morning, get up, eightmile run, a little bit of church and then you and i will appear on the this week program. You and me . Together . Two of us on the round table. We have a big new poll coming out. Bloomberg politics, some college poll, a president al race in new hampshire. Up next here taketake taking the employment figures were greeted with enthusiasm. Employers are hiring. Job seekers are coming back. Looking for work. And the economy continues to have a winded effect. I think this is a terrific report and it suggests that last months dip in wages was an anomly. Emergency talks held today in moscow with german chancellor merkel and