Transcripts For CURRENT Full Court Press 20130208

You [ music ] the full court press with bill press from 6 00 to 9 00 eastern, followed by humor in politics with a westcoast edge talking liberally with Stephanie Miller. Bill press and Stephanie Miller, currents news block, starting at 6 00 a. M. Eastern. What a way to start the day. Only on the current t. V. [ music ] hey what do you say, everybody . It is friday, february 8th. Great to see you today. Thank you for joining us here on the fullcourt press on current tv, all across this great land of ours early this friday morning. We will bring you up to date on all of the news of the day on many fronts and take your calls at 86655press. This is our tollfree number. Yes, a big storm, a big snow snowstorm heading for the northeast United States this weekend. We will talk to accuwe think about that, bring you up to date. John brennan was grilled by members of the u. S. Senate yesterday about drones. Ron wyden, senator ron wyden from oregon will tell us all about that hearing. No sooner did ray lewis retire from the ravens than his sond signed up to play for the university of miami. We will talk to sports blogger cindy borin from the Washington Post. A lot to get to, as we say, and we will, but first, todays current news update from Lisa Ferguson out in los angeles. Hi, lisa. Good morning. Hey, bill. Good morning, everyone. President obama is speaking at the Armed Forces Farewell tribute today in honor of defense secretary lienon panetta. He will be at joint base Myer Henderson at 4 00 this afternoon. This is the formal goodbye for panetta stepping down from his position. Yesterday, he testified over the attacks in benghazi where he revealed there was no advanced warning for those attacks. He said that factor plus the time and distance involved prevented the u. S. Military from reaching the consulate before four americans were killed. Panetta also confirmed he personally broke the news to president obama the night of the attack but that the two did not speak the rest of the evening as the assault continued to unfold. The president had told panetta to do whatever he needed to do to protect our people out in benghazi. Today, House Democrats wrap up their annual retreat with a little comedy. Stephen colbert is speaking to the caucus thanks to an invite from nancy pelosi. After his comedy routine, pelosi will interview colbert in front of the House Democrats. A spokesman said they assume this is colberts attempt at a little bipartisan. Bill clinton will speak in front of the caucus today before they wrap up their retreat for the weekend. More bill press is coming up after the break. Stay with us. [ music ] what we need are people prepared for the careers of our new economy. By 2025 we could have 20 million jobs without enough College Graduates to fill them. Thats why at Devry University were teaming up with Companies Like cisco to help make sure everyones ready with the know how we need for a new tomorrow. [ male announcer ] make sure americas ready. Make sure youre ready. At devry. Edu. [ music ] broadcasting across the nation, on your radio, and on current tv this is the bill press show. The big blizzard, some people are calling it we are not going to use that name. Its the big blizzard headed for the northeast United States. The full court press headed for your radio or television this friday morning. It is, uhoh friday. Alleluia bill are we on the ball or not . Friday february 8th. Alleluia. Slow on the uptake. We love fridays on the bill press show. Indeed, indeed, indeed. Its great to see you today. Thank you so much for being with us. How about it . Lots to cover today on this friday february 8th yes and the northeast earnthe northeastern engineerses, from northern new jersey, on, they are girding themselves for what some people say may be the biggest blizzard ever to hit boston. I doubt that. There have been some big ones in boston. There have been some big storms in boston providence and that area. But already, the governors were out yesterday big schools to shut down today because they said its going to be bad. The storm may actually not hit in its full fury until tomorrow. But at any rate we will keep our eye on that and a whole lot of other stuff here on this beautiful friday morning. And getting you involved, giving you a chance to get involved in the conversation, we love to hear from you at 86655press. Our tollfree number. You can give us a call. You can follow us on Twitter Twitter bpshow and on facebook at facebook. Com billpressshow. If you feel strongly about these issues, join the chat room. Go to current. Com because we are still on current tv. Go to current. Com. Could follow the click on the chat room, and you are in. You are in the mix with all of your fellow fullcourt pressers across the land. We have made it through this entire week, the entire time all five days, peter ogburn and dan henning. I didnt quite make it. Bill thats right. Neither did phil. I take that back. Damn it, i have been here every day. Good morning. Yes, good morning. Happy friday. What is that hat . Oh man. Oh, i didnt realize i had it on. Bill you didnt realize you have it on . I mean i did. Its my hat. Bill its not a beret. I mean put it sideways. Just like that. Dont ever do that. Oh. You look like you look cab driver . Yeah. There it is. Bill all right. I have to stay warm in here. Bill thats the way its supposed to go. Samuel l. Jackson wears it backwards. Why cant dan . Exactly. Maybe its the same person. Turn it back around. Bill and then there is cyprian boulding. Whats he wearing today . Does he have his redskins hat on again . No. Not after the super bowl. He is going to get a little bit of a grace period, i think, in between seasons. Yeah. Maybe he will start wearing his National Gear now that we are close to baseball season. Bill so yesterday, a lot going on here in washington, d. C. The president started his day at the Prayer Breakfast, which he saluted as a grand tradition. I have some other thoughts about that. But the president saluted it as a grand tradition for politicians here in washington, d. C. Says something being it but every year in times of triumph and in tragedy n calm and in crisis we come together not as democrats or republicans but as brothers and sisters and as children of god. Bill and the president pointed out, you know that ol story about the christians who walk out of church and start stabbing each other in the back as soon as they get outside of the church. The president said unfortunately its kind of that way in washington, too. This is now our fifth Prayer Breakfast, and it is always just a wonderful event, but i do worry sometimes that as soon as we leave the Prayer Breakfast, everything we have been talking about the whole time at the Prayer Breakfast seems to be forgotten. Bill did you hear that, john boehner . They are the hypocrites who stand there and pretend to be so holy and bious. Screw the poor. What do we care about the poor . The disabled . Screw the disabilities. Let them go out and get a job and take care of themselves. We have gotten our political points out of saying we were religious. Why actually act like we are religious bill equality for all americans . Even gays and lesbian s . No. No. My bible tells me i am allowed to discriminate. Jesus was a homophobe bill we will talk storm with accuweather and find out what they are telling us people in the northeast can expect. Senator ron ridewyden grilled john brennan yesterday for his nomination as new director of the c. I. A. Senator ron wyden will tell us all about it himself. He will be here as will congressman peter welch to talk to us about the sequester and whether its going to hit and get his take on drones as well. And the republicans, the Republican Party, they have found their savior born again. We will tell who you that is. But first. This is the full court press. On this friday, other headlines making news, you just mentioned the red skin. The debate over the team name of the warrant redskins came up again in washington yesterday at a daylong simymposium on racial slurs slurs. U. S. A. Today reporting many spoke out against the n. F. L. Team name saying it needs to be changed. No one from the team was there to defend it. Someone noted and they were asked to show up, too, and no one did. Someone noted the ncaa has a partial ban on teams using indian names but the n. F. L. Still does not. Bill i cant believe that this issue just keeps every year, never goes away. Its time. Its time. Change the name of it. Bill time to change it. You remember they changed the wallet bullets the basketball team, you know, because they thought it was a crime issue. Dude, red skin is a racial slur . Chiefs isnt. Braves isnt. Redskins. Thats a racial slur. I cant believe we actually call them that name. The full court press goes on record as saying change the name. Four out of five us. We are not sure about sip ran. We will never know. He is not allowed to talk. The House Democrats continue their retreat today, and theyve got quite a lot of them. Guest speakers. Come comedy centrals Stephen Colberts will address them and be interviewed by pelosi. His sister is running for Congress Looking to replace the seat vacated by now senator tim scott and bill clinton will also address the crowd in virginia today. Bill there has to be more than one bill clinton. He is everywhere. He just shows up in too many places. Yeah. There have to be three or four on you of them. Robo bill. Teenagers are spending too much online, especially on social net worked like facebook these days. One father from boston is doing something about it. Cnn reports he offered his 14yearold daughter 200 to quit facebook for five months. A photo of an agreement letter went viral online yesterday. He is giving her 50 in april and the remaining 150 in june if she stays off of the social network until then. A new pew study shows 61 of americans have taken a break from facebook for a few weeks or more but not necessarily for money. Bill this is an issue but i dont do facebook. I will not do facebook. I think it is a colossal waste of time and so much is phony. I have adult friends who spend hours befriending people on facebook that they do not know the first frickin thing about and they get excited when somebody friends them that they never freakin heard of. Its insane. Insane. Facebook is the devil. Lets be clear. It is the devil. Meanwhile, like your Facebook Page at billpressshow bill i see it for a show you would want to be part of something. I do. I was antifacebook for a long, long time. I signed up because i had a lot of friends, farflung and we said it would be nice to join you up facebook and i keep it limited limited. Thats why i have never linkedin. Linkedin is a gate networking tool. Its the worst. Its a mess. Bill all right. For the show yes. Facebook, facebook. Com billpressshow. Thats b it makes sense. You want to keep uptodate with what we are talking about and listening to the show. Off on that tangent. Yes, indeed, you might call it how about this the second coming. I mean the attention that is being paid right now to marco rubio. Oh, my god. It just reminds me, the messiah, the kefircover of Time Magazine is out this week. Check it out. We will put it on our website if you havent seen it. A photo of marco rubio and the title is savior of the g. O. P. This isnt just a little over the top . Just like a little . Even rubio had to respond and say there is only one savior, and it aint me. The republicans in congress, they have tapped, who else . Marco rubio to give the response to president obamas state of the union. And get this he is not only going to do it in english. He is going to do it in spanish as well. Both languages. They got to get they want to get that latino vote so they are putting marco rubio up there. The republicans clearly see that they are in trouble, and this is a guy who is going to bring them out of the wilderness into the promised land. They have hitched their star to his wagon marco rubio, the young latino senator from florida. And you can see, you know, he is attractive. He is young. He is handsome. He is a latino and that is the Fastest Growing part of the american electorate which mitt romney, of course lost to president obama 71 to 27 . My question to you this morning is we all know, we have all seen marco rubio. He has gotten a lot of exposure lately. He is working hard at it. Are you afraid of marco rubio . Democrats, progressives . Is he going to wrest control back for the Republican Party . The tollfree number. And do you think that this de deification of marco rubio will work . Already, you know, there are some people who are like kicking the tires and saying, hey this may not be all we think it is here i mean, remember one of the things that catapulted marco rubio to fame, part of his personal story, right, he is the son of immigrants. He says, in fact he says this his official line in his biography that he used to win office in florida and to win the United States senate seat was he is the son of immigrants. His parents fled cuba when castro took over cuba. The typical floridian cuba family that castro forced out of cuba and ran away from cast row and came to the promise land. Bs. The Washington Post did a little digging and found out that his parents came here quite peacefully, quite legally two and a half years before the castro revolution in 1959. Oops. Bill so they are not the victims of fidel castro which he painted them to be. And then he said oops. So Little Things like that. The other thing, to me, i dont think this will work because youve got to understand that marco rubio is a republican. The Republican Party, i dont care what they say or what they are pretendtion to be today, they are not very open when it comes to racial minorities. They are not very open when it comes to immigration. The Republican Party is much more january brewer from arizona brewer from arizona. Its not going to be easy to turn that around. I hope he can. I dont think its going to be easy to turn around. The other thing is, you know on some issues already, marco rubio has stumbled a little bit. He gave an interview where he said, for example, that he was asked do you believe until evolution . How would do you think the earth is . Marco rubio says thats up to they are lodgetheolodgeans. Last person. Thats up to science bill thats up to scientists. He made it very, very clear. He said parents should be able to teach their children whatever they think about how old the earth is. So, i think the closer you look at marco rubio, the more flaws you are going to see but for now, the republican partied said marco rubio, he is our man. He is our savior. 86655press. Hallelujah. Bill do you think it is will work . Are you ready to worship . Kiss the garments of marco rubio . 866press the. This is the bill press show, live on your radio and on current of itt. I think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. You know whos coming on to me now . You know the kind of guys who do like verse mortgage commercials . Those types are coming on to me all the time now. She gets the comedians laughing. Thats hilarious . And the thinkers thinking. Okay, so theres wiggleroom in the Ten Commandments is what youre telling me. You would rather deal with ahmadinejad then me. Absolutely and so would mitt romeny. Shes joy behar. And the best part is that current will let me say anything. What the hell were they thinking . Only on current tv. [ music ] this is the bill press show bill how about that marco rubio man . One thing you have to say is he is sure a hell of a lot better than anybody they put up in 2012. When you look at the field . Right . Its a pretty low bar bill a low bar. One reason mitt romney became the no, maam bunch of clowns. Rick perry. Of course he looks good. If he is the savior. Find us on twitter bpshow. You are not saying two hail marys to our new lord and savior . Fred wilder says he may be the savior of the republicans but he is still a republican and that is a handicap that cannot be overcome these days. Kevin kane says this republican strategy is so transparent. Latinos wont fall for it. Bill i hope he is right. But, you know, it was easy for mark yes rubio to get here from cuba. He just walked. Bertha calling from charlotte, North Carolina. We had a good time in charlotte for the convention. Hi, bill. I just love your show. You make my mornings. You are terrific. I love all of you guys. The reason i am calling, i am cuban, and i think he is being picked as savior to attract the Latino Community. And thats the mentality in south florida and they think hes, you know, gods answer to everything. He is not going to appeal to the rest of the Latino Community. All you have to do is step out of south florida and see what the real Latino Community of this country is all about. If they had picked someone with mexican background that would be totally different but a cuban, realize we are so melted into the, you know, the fabf fabric of what the u. S. Is already, we dont identify so much any more as latinos. And the ones that are coming freshly out of cuba now they are liberals not republicans. Bill that is interesting. Bertha, i want you to hang on here. Dont go away. We still got bertha on the line phil . Because i love hearing from you and because we had such a good time in charlotte, we got something very, very special coming to you. Valentines day is coming up. We are going to send awe 50 girth Gift Certificate for proflowers. This will be a great gift for you to give to one of your friends and for all of the rest of you looking for flowers this valentines day, go to proflowers. Com. Click on the microphone in the upper righthand conner and type in my name press. And you will have the opportunity to take advantage of the wonderful offerings from proflower. Cant go wrong with fresh flowers. More on marco rubio the savior. This is the bill press show. This is the bill press show, chatting with you live at current. Com billpress. This is the bill press show, live on your radio and current tv intel hit itthree minutes after the hour. Republicans decided marco rubio is going to save them. Its on the cover of Time Magazine this week identified as the Republican Partys savior and they have tapped him to give the response to the president s state of the union address. The last time they tapped was bobby gentle from louisiana. He gave the response of the state of the union. We havent heard of him sense. One of the worst responses ever. Marco rubio will do better than that. Back to your calls. You are afraid of marco rubio at 86655press. This is out of jacksonville, florida. I saw a story where names and social securities names of hundreds of people were illegally photographed at, at jacksonville clinic then transmitted to another person by an employee of that clinic. That person, of course used that information to open up a Credit Credit cards and charge accounts in the names of unsuspected people. There you go. Another example of Identity Theft. You have to be protected against it. I am with the life lock ultimate. Its the most comprehensive. Covers bank accounts. Lifelock cant protect you or your bank account if you are not a member. Call now and mention press 60. Get 60 riskfry days of lifelock ultimate Identity Theft protection. Call within 30 days and they will give awe full refund. 18005967. Think progress, back to your calls and comments online think progress is out this morning with a story, eight reasons, thanks to our good friend igor vul volumeski, eight reasons why marco rubio is not the republican savior. Just quickly, he refused voted against raising the debt ceiling. He cosponsored the old balanced budget amendment, which is a total shuck and jive. He signed the Grover Norquist finds. He backed floridas voter purge back to rick so backed rick scott in trying to get all of those people, a lot of them racial minorities off of the ballot in florida. He opposed federal action to heavy prevent violence against women act, extension of it t he believes employers should be able to deny Birth Control to their employees. He made some robo calls for an antihate group opposing samesex marriage, marriage equality. And he doesnt believe in Climate Change. In fact, this week at the interview that he gave with buzzfeeds ben smith remember ben smith was in studio with us a couple of days talking about that interview, marco rubio said, on Climate Change he just thinks its too expensive. Number one, even if anything we would do on that would have a real impact on our economy, but probably if its only us doing it, a very negligible impact on the environment. If you look at the developing countries, china india and others, they are now the largest polluters in the world by far. Oh, yeah. To the extents thats what you are trying to get at the United States is a country. Its not a planet. On the other handy, if we unilaterally impose these things t would have a devastating impact okay economics, depending upon which measure we are talking about bill that is an idiotic statement. What the do you think it will have on miami when on miami when its under water . Of all states, florida should be leading the fight to do something about Climate Change. Thats going to be the first state that goes. Breaks off and drops into the ocean. The keys, gone. Miami, gone. The whole fishing industry the tourist industry, the whole thing, gone. And then he said, oh man, we cant do anything about Climate Change. It costs us too much money. Costs us too much money not to. Joey out in chicago. Hey, joey. What do you say . Good morning. Good morning, everybody. What year did the dinosaurs go extinct if the earth is 6,000 years old. A guy talks like that should be put in a straitjacket and be observed for 72 years, saying the earth is 6,000 years old. Up to the they are lodgeans. Parcho villa himself was in the g. O. P. , the spanish mexicans still wouldnt vote for him for the way they treated him. I think they are nuts thinking this guy is the savior bill the idea that all of those in the United States are going to become republican, marco rubio who lies about when his parents left cuba is their nominee . Pancho via 26. Bill joey always lines it up. We are tweeting, danny says rubio is not savior but has been sled by the Mainstream Media to run as the republican against, we hope to be hillary clinton. Good luck. Rb copeland says when the glare of lights hits rubio its going to blink. Wait for his first idiotic g. O. P. Remark about latino women, poor. It will come. Bill yeah. I think he is going to step on his u know what before long. Jawedy, what do you say from cape coral . Good morning. Bill what do you think of marco rubio . I sdmrooiltz him. I think he is like the worst senator. He didnt win the popular vote. He only one word 30 of the vote. We had Charlie Crist and meek running on the liberal side. So he had no he won because basically we are a red state. Bill yeah. Caller especially in my area. We just selected trey radell to take the place of connie mac and he is worse than him and alan west. Bill so why does rub yes, sir seemed to be so popular . He is not popular. Thats what i am trying to say. I dont know anybody who thinks he is a wide antiimmigration. He never should refer to himself from an immigration. He referred to himself as a family of exiles. Ats, always, he never said he was an immigrant. It was like he was embarrassed by the word that he was an immigrant. I also understand when he was in the house of representatives here, he had some money problems and he has had to pay back money, that he was taking things that didnt belong to him. Bill i havent heard about that. But i will tell you judy, i appreciate the call. I think more and more will come out about rubio. And i think, you know, just the statue with clay feet, the phrase they use. People in florida, no. I forgot he won in that contest because Charlie Chris was there as an independent and Kendrick Meek as well. They split the vote and marco rub yo slipped in. Jerry calling from up in liberty maine. Yeah. First of all, he is another pretty boy empty suit and the public will push for the hispanic vote. Good luck on that because they want to keep the republican platform, somebody ought to ask him. Its like people saying herman cain at the time. Right . He was gob to the the savior too, because he was an africanamerican and he was going to get the african vote away from barack obama. Same thing. By the way, bill, i dont think it matters the hillary is going to run. I am sure of that. I think she will be our first woman president. She will pink his hispanic butt bill if she runs, she wins, no doubt about it. Jerry, i agree with you. I think she will will. Good to here maine headed your way and headed to injure new jersey this weekend ann in irvington, new jersey. Good morning caller good morning, bill. How are you . Bill good. Thanks. Whats up . Caller Marco Rubio Might be the darling of the tea party and the republicans but he is not going to be the savior. They picked the wrong guy. He is just as bad as all of the other ones that got voted out of office in the last election. Bill i wonder if anybody can be the savior of the g. O. P. These days. Maybe Chris Christie but he is a moderate. So i dont think they will want him. Bill it would be hard for him to win the republican primary. Wouldnt it . Caller exactly. Bill can i ask are you a democrat, ann . Caller definitely bill but you like Chris Christie . Caller some of the thinks in jersey, okay. I am not going to vote for him because hillary is going to be the one. Hillary 2016. Hillary in 20 is 16. Coming out. Bill i love it. I got to tell you. If the republicans have their savior, it looks like weve got our savior too. And theyve got rubio. We have hillary. See, god is a woman after all. Savior is a woman after all. Watch this. I think its not long before we start to see the flaws in marco rubio and republicans say, oops. Maybe we better look for somebody else. Maybe we better look for somebody who is old enough to be president. I mean he is only 12. Isnt he . He looks like it. This is the bill press show, vo from the underworld, to the world of privilege. Everyone in Michael Jacksons life was out to use him. vo no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current. vo this afternoon, current tv is the place for compelling true stories. Jack, how old are you . Nine. This is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. vo with Award Winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way inside. vo from the underworld, to the world of privilege. Everyone in Michael Jacksons life was out to use him. vo no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current. When shes sad she writes about goblins. [ balloon pops goblin growling ] she wrote a lot about goblins after getting burned in the market. But she found someone to talk to and gained the confidence to start investing again. And thats what you call a storybook ending. Its not rocket science. Its just common sense. From td ameritrade. I think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. The bill press show on progressive radio and current tv. Bill thirteen minutes before the top of the hour. You know what they say, everybody talks about the weather. But you can do nothing about it. But its worth talking about, particularly this weekend. Reports that a potentially historic blizzard headed for the northeastern United States, watch out t we wanted to check in with our senior meteorologist from accuweather, paul passolov joining us. Thank you for having me bill bill so when does theis the storm going to hit . And how bad do you think its going to be . There is no turning back now because its already begun. Snow and sleet has arrived in new york city. Bill whoa. The worst conditions is not coming until very late today and tonight in that area. But its already begun. One thicken i am seeming right now is that the pressure near Virginia Beach where the lowpressure area is going to form has been rapidly falling since last night. The winds are gust to go 45 Miles Per Hour down there. Bill what i didnt understand i saw that the storm pressure seems to be like around Virginia Beach but the snow and everything, from what i have seen, doesnt start until Like Northern new jersey. How did it skip us . Here is the thing. It hasnt all come together yet. You have two systems, a clipper system coming in from the west and a lot of the cold is behind that system. There is also some cold out in front across new england but it hasnt been southward by the storm because it hasnt fully developed by the east coast. When this comes together there will be rapid development. That will pull everything together, everything will turn quickly on us as we get into the evening hours and overnight bill the snow like is like again, north earn new jersey north and west, i guess . Hum . I think you are going to see a snow line thats even today some snow and sleet, southern connecticut coast down towards philadelphia, but as we get into the latter part of the day and into the evening hours and the western system comes into play as well. That will all change and that will start to shift. Forther south and east, toward the coastal areas. Bill are peek exaggerating when they say this could be i heard someone say this could be the biggest blizzard in the history of boston. I have been stuck in blizzards in boston. They have had some big stumbles. Right . Well, you know, i was in connecticut in the 1978 blizzard, but i was 8 years old so my memory is not as great as others. But i lived through that. I remember walking with my dad through winds that were incredible coming back from the storm the snow drifts went over the garage. I had to go outside of my bedroom window to get down toward the garage. It was stuck. We are looking at something similar. We are looking at phenomenal snow amounts from boston towards southwest connecticut. Bill and west to like to the frontier area, buffalo and niagra falls and that area . Yeah they will have their own kind of system here its starting to begin now it will snow there. The difference between buffalo snow and the snow in the east is that over buffalo, its just going to snow for a Long Duration of time and it just accumulates. Accumulates. Its going to come down, two, three inches per hour, snowfall across new england. Thats a lot of snow. Thats, yeah. The prezipsip models the nam higher resolution model is showing over thirty inches of snow. What does it matter . Only 24 inches. Okay. Two feet of snow or two and a half feet of snow, you know yeah, right. Tell me who is going to get an accurate predix when the winds are gusting 50 to 55 miles an hour . These drifts will be way up there. I think over history they have been prepared for blizzards. I think they will continue to go through their normal steps for blizzards. You cant control, you know, whether you get two feet, three feature or four feet of snow. You just do the standard stuff. I think they have already taken precautions with the airport cancellations. Stressing people to stay off of the roads so the plows can get in there when the storm starts to wind down. There is nothing else you can do in that respect. The coastal flood, what can you do . The high tides are late this evening and tomorrow morning in the boston area. Okay . They have walls there. I think they will not penetrate over those walls that floods out houses but the winds are going to be high. There is going to be all of those things that happen with a typical blizzard and i think that they have really done very well as far as the media, and even accuweather. Com has done as much as we can over the past couple of days to make sure people are aware of this. You have been putting the word out, and again, appreciate you joining us this morning for more of the same. Hey, paul, always good to talk to you. Thanks so. Great. Your snow swivel back to work here. Paul pastelock with accuweather. They do a great job of updating people on storm systems and weather all across the country. Accuweather. Com. Radio meets television, the bill press show, now on current tv. She gets the comedians laughing. Thats hilarious . And the thinkers thinking. Okay, so theres wiggleroom in the Ten Commandments is what youre telling me. Shes joy behar. And current will let me say anything. Only on current tv. [ music ] taking your emails on any topic at any time, this is the bill press show, live on your radio and current tv. Bill hey, on this friday morning, a lineup of guests coming up here on the full court press, starting with senator ron wyden from oregon on yesterdays confirmation hearing fojohn brennan, peter welch of the solo congressman from vermont will be along to tough talk of budget did he haveset and sequester and drones and melody sloan, the executive director for citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington or crue plus cindy borin, a big lineup of guests here peter . Whats hearing from the tomtoms this morning . On any topic at any time at billpressshow. Com. If you want to send us an email. Gary says about the interview we were doing on the blizzard hitting the northeast. Will the same republicans who denied there was a hundred up there in the northeast also deny that we have aeblizzard today and tomorrow . On mark rubio, another while rightwing, zel ant from the corporations that fund him. Send us an email at billpressshow. Com. Find us on twitter bpshow. A lot of our listeners and viewers have marco rubios number. What a silly thing to do, to put him on the cover of Time Magazine university and say, the savior of the Republican Party. This is the bill press show. [ music ] my fellow americans good morning. How about it . Friday february 8th, great to see you today. This is the full court press. Welcome to the program here on current tv coming to you to every knowledge nook and cranny of this great United States of america this friday morning with all of the news of the day, and weve got lots and lots of things to talk about. John brennan was grilled by members of the senate i will intelligence committee. Nobody asked him tougher questions than senator ron wyden. Ray lewis no sooner retired from the ravens than his son signed up to play for the university of miami. Sports blogger cindy boren will tell us about that. And how much trouble is bob men endez in . Melon e slow from crue will be here to talk about it. A lot going on. Lets get to the latest todds current news update now from Lisa Ferguson at our studios in los angeles. Hi, lisa. Good morning. Hey, bill. Good morning, everybody. Vice President Joe Biden says its time to wait and see what Immigration Reform will do for samesex couples. President obamas latest proposal calls for equal treatment, meaning gays and lesbian s would be entitled to the same rights at heterosexuals if one partner is living outside the United States. The senator did not include that prove provision in its version of the plan, which will be irs if up for a vote in congress. Eight senators from both sides of the aisle put that together. As of now, it is bipartisan. But that might not be the case for long if democrats insist on adopting the samesex provision. Marco rubio and john mccain say any efforts to do so will complicate turning that proposal into actual legislation. Emotions are high on both sides of the issue. Harry reid said gay immigrants with children should be protected just like anyone else. The u. S. Conference of catholic bishops is rejecting the latest compromise on Birth Control coverage as part of health insurance. The Affordable Care act required all employers to cover the cost of contraception but just this week, obama agreed places of worship can opt out. The bishops say that does not go far enough since the compromise does not include religious hospitals, charities, colleges or nonprofits. We are back with more bill after the break. Stay with us. Interesting across the nation this is the bill press show bill john brennan gets grilled by senators over drones. Still looks like he is going to be confirmed. What do you say . Good morning, everybody, it is friday, friday february 8th a lot to talk about here with the full court press, live from our nations capitol washington, d. C. Your studio down the street from the capitol building, great to see you today. Thank you so much for joining us. And we will love to get you involved in the conversation. Give you that opportunity. Tell us what these issues mean to you and your family. We have various ways to do it. Join the conversation by giving us a call at 86655press. Express your comments on the air, or if you prefer online on social media, on Twitter Twitter bpshow. Thats our handle. On and on facebook facebook. Com bill press show. Lots coming up this morning. So weve got the entire team here in place. Peter ogburn and dan henning. Happy friday. Bill on the job with phil back of thetert on the phones and cyprian boulding. Last week was the super bowl. This week, not quite as exciting, but still pretty exciting. We have the grammy awards. How about it . Almost as exciting. Bill all right. . I am excited. I am a music guy. I am a music guy, too. But what they put on at the grammies isnt exactly music bill for best song among those nominated, Bruce Springsteen is back. Bill we can take care of our own. That came outright after Hurricane Sandy and Bruce Springsteen from new jersey particularly directed to the residents of new jersey. He did a lot to help them with a big concert. On the other hand, you have probably the most annoying song of all time thats nominated for best song of the year. Hey, i just met you. Its crazy. But here is my number. So call me maybe. Goofy song but it swept this country. Bigtime. Viral videos. This is where i have a problem, with the children of today. And i feel like such an old man. I can appreciate what this song is. Its syrupy saccharine. But lets not say its the song of the year, the best song of the year. Bill no. It does not deserve an award for artistic what its done. Bill i went to my nephews wedding, thomas mccoskar. It was a wonderful wedding and at the reception, you know, people were some people were like dancing and some people were, most people were like sitting and enjoying their dinner and everything and they put this song on and the entire room got up. Everybody, young and old, was not only dance to go it. They were singing it, the songs and going, call me maybe, you know. I thought, oh, my god. When you say everyone, diagnose that include you . I said everyone. Didnt i . Step up now i just met you. Maybe. Peeler welch coming up the congressman from ver montgomery. He is down at the democratic retreat and going to join us from there. Senator ron wyden from oregon the one who was really grilling john brennan yesterday. He will tell us all about reed epstein from politico in studio to tube about the latest from the senate and the house here on the hill, but first. This is the full court press. Other headlines making news on this friday bill oreilly has egg on his face. The fox news host on wednesday night, for some reason questioned why nbc was not talking about the big drone story when, in fact, it was nbc who actually broke the story. Broke the story. Yeah. Media icon reports he was expected to apology for his mistake on his show last night, but he didnt. He accused the far left of going on a Smear Campaign against him. He mentioned, yes, he failed to mention the fact that nbc broke the story but he went on tocam compare it to the waterboarding study and wondered why that network would not talk more about that in the same fashion as they did about drones. A colossal jerk bill oreilly. He really is. I havent seen the show but i watched it a couple of weeks. I couldnt believe how bad it still is and how arrogant he is. I would say there have been times when he owned up and said i was wrong. This is one of the times he should have owned up and said i was wrong. Vice president joe briden met with bradley cooper, star of Silver Linings playbook. They spoke about Mental Illness while that is what will, of course, the movie centers around. Director David Russell was in the meeting as well. At the talked about the importance of access for those with Mental Illness bill this is part of the campaign to get Silver Lining the oscar. Harvey weinstein movie, they have done a clever job of salesmanship for the oscar. Whether they will get it or not, i dont know. Who knows bill a clever campaign. A tweet got Raoul Labrador let his chief spokesman go after he tweeted about a commercial during the super bowl for the cbs comedy two broke girls. So dumb. He used the congressmans official twitter account by mistake. The tweet said me likey two broke girls. It was deleted after 14 seconds. He realized that he was tweeting on the wrong act. That was long enough for it to be retweeted and seen online forever. Thats a little excessive, firing him for that . Hes gone. You tweet stuff like that me likey broke girls . Bill no. Now Roland Martin on the other hand, president obama yesterday going down to leesberg village to join the House Democrats on their issues retreat. A lot to talk to them about there, sequester, the president talking about the republican budget and other issues. Joining us from leesberg virginia, from vermont, congressman peter welch. Good morning, congressman. Good morning bill always good to have you with us. Thank you. So how was the president received yesterday . You know, he was extremely well, short answer. You know, since the inauguration, hes just had a lot of confidence and fully em embraced the victory that he won in this election and the agenda. The middle class economy, building from the middle, middle out and the bottom up and his speech was very good. He talked a bit about sequester and, you know, really was saying that if the republicans want to have a debate about their alternative, which is essentially to substitute the sequester cuts with medicare and Social Security cuts, he is prepared to have that debate. So people feel pretty good about how the president is acting. We have a little clip from the president yesterday where he was talking about the other republican plans on the budget. We expect him to come back with those draconian cuts to Social Security and medicare. Lets listen in. They sec rise the sequester is a bad idea but what they have suggested is the only way to replace it is for us to cut Social Security, cut medicare and not close a single loophole. Bill so even speaker obtain this week was quoted as saying no. I dont like the sequester. We shouldnt have the sequester. In the end, do you think they are going to cave in, congressman . I do actually because whats happening with the republicans since the election is number 1 they have come to see that their confrontational approach, sending us over the into default or shutting the lights off in government did not work for them. So obtain knows that tactic doesnt work even if a lot of his members still want to hang on to that nonothing approach. Secondly, there is a lot of Division Within the republicans about the sequester. They are concerned primarily with the military cuts. They dont want to do the sequester. Third, they are demanding that the president given alternative cuts and they wont get any. I do think that in the end i think in the end they will cave on the sequester. You know, when you see the full impact of it, and i thought secretary of defense leon panetta did an excellent job this weekend his speech at georgetown, just pointing out, i mean, that this is these are real cuts in realtime, you know to some really important programs. And i saw last night on the news that there is that one an aircraftcarrier or one big ship that was going to the middle east is not going now . They are already cutting back in terms of our readiness. Thats right. The big problem is here is not so much the cuts because, in fact, i think we have to cut the pentagon. Yeah. If we can. But not to take an ax to it. The way we are approaching it, that means readiness gets cut where you want to maintain you always want to maintain readiness. Thats what the real problem is. The sequester was designed by the republicans really as an alternative and they designed it in a way it was going to be so bad that we would never do it. Now since they cant come up with anything else, even though they are they have the majority, some of them are talking that the sequester makes sense. You have to be specific and purposeful when you are designing a budget. We are talking to congressman peter welch, democrat from vermont here on the friday morning edition of the fullcourt press. Has there been any Panel Discussion . I believe i read about Immigration Reform there, and what is the feeling that, you know, it looks like something is going to get through the clearance. Any hope of getting anything comprehensive through the house. There has been a lot of discussing of i willgration reform. The whole discussion is different than it was two years ago. This is a hot button device, political issue for the republicans. Again, the election, they got hammered. They know it. With the hispanic vote. So they are getting religion. In fact, now its allowing us to have a discussion where there is an acknowledgement of how much has gone into boarder security. That will be a continuing efforts, but there is a huge political, again, economic add vantsage to us if we have a sensible immigration policy with the path to citizenship. The folks who are here many of them have been working. We can get them to be out in the open rather than in the shadows and and they are taxpayers and many of them are very talented. Its going to allow families to be together and probably so i think there is a lot of interest here on the democratic side in a growing awareness on the republican side somehow same way we have to address this in a substantial way. Wait one other issue congressman. The new york sometimes is reporting that you have introduced legislation dealing with a special benefit sort of that was given one california Pharmaceutical Company understand obamacare that you are trying to get rid of . Slipped in, in the fiscal cliff negotiations at the 11th hour. Over on the senate side according to the times, it was probably rehatching bachus. They put a paragraph in that exempted a particular drug for dialysis from medicare price restraints. And the effect of this will be 500 million for amgen. This comes two weeks after amgen had to pay the largest pharmaceutical fine in our history, 762 million, criminal and civil penalty. So they pay that fine, that penalty, two weeks later, the taxpayers pick up twothirds of us. Its an innocent looking paragraph. When you read it, you cant understand what its referring to. It looks benign. The effect of it is they get essentially up to 500 million, and i have been talking to some of my republican colleagues who are extremely conservative but they share the outrage a lot of us do that this is not an on the level process. Trying to make you claim this is good for patients. If they want to make that claim, lets do it. Do it in the open. Let the members of congress decide yes or no in the light of day. This is their way of getting special advantage for a for profit company. Its unacceptable. If anyone wants to join us we have a petition out there. Go to welch for congress. Com for my website peter we will type of in congress and you will be able to find that petition bill we will do that. Congressman, i know you are winding up down there. You may be planning to going home this weekend. We talked to people from accuweather. I am not sure you are going to be able to make it or you better get there fast. Yeah, i am about to get in a cab. I am saying my prayers. We hope you make it hope and get ready to do some snow shoveling this weekend. Yes. Thanks, bill. Congressman peter welch, good to talk to you. This is the bill press show. This is the bill press show. Bill twentyfive minutes after the hour, the full court press on friday. 8, on this friday, as every friday, we will take a look back at some of our favorite sound bytes, favorite clips of the week. We start at the bottom and work our way to the top and bring you our five favorites. Last sunday, the final call for the super bowl from the ravens home station, wbal. Number 5. Blocked again. Three seconds left, two, into the 40. Time has expired. Tackled. The hey is in the barn. Baltimore ravens are super bowl champions. The hey is in the barn. The hey is in the barn. Im sorry thats the last time we will be able to pay that clip. Bust out the crap cakes. Oh, boy. What a party. John kerry, we have a new secretary of state. He took over from hillary clinton, he said i know the question that is on everybodys mind. Number 4. Here is the big question before the country and the world an the state department after the last eight years. Can a man actually run the state department of . If you look back another four years, colin powell as secretary of state, the question could have been can a white man run the state department . Chris christie colorful Chris Christie on David Letterman this week. David letterman has to ask him about his health. Number 3. My cholesterol is normal believe or not. Thats pretty good. What about your blood sugar . Blood sugar also normal . Also normal. I am basically the healthiest fat guy youve ever seen in your life. The former white house doctor came up and said she was afraid he was going to die if he didnt lose weight. John kerry back to the state department, a couple of days later, he was sworn in which he found a great relief. Number 2. I want to share with you as a recovering politician i have grown used to being sworn at. Its not to be sworn in. At the super bowl the commercials, everybody kind of agreed the number one was the dodgeram. Paul harvey talked about what it was like to be a farmer. And on the 8th day, god looked down on his planned paradise and said, i need a caretaker. So god made a farmer. God said, i need somebody willing to get up before dawn milk cows work in the fields milk cows and stay past midnight at the school board. God made a farmer. So good. What a message. What a great voice. Never be anybody like paul harvey. No. No way. When we come back, the rest of the story. This is the bill press show. Chatting with you live at current. Com billpress. This is the bill press show. Live on your radio, and current tv. Its three three minutes after the hour now. Here we go with the fullcourt press this friday morning, february 8th, great to see you today. Thanks for being with us. The big news in washington yesterday, the biggestent, the confirmation hearing with john brennan, the president s nominee to be the new director of the cia in front of the senate en til intelligence committee, interrupted five times from code think. They finally, got around to it. Afterwards, the white house unofficially said it wasnt as tough on john brennan as they thought it might be. They are more and more convinced he will be confirmed. Take a look at whats happening at the hearing the rest of the day, the week on capital hill and at the Whitehouse Reed Epstein is a political reporter, senior political reporter for politico, anail neighbor of ours on capitol hill joining us in studio again. Good to see you. Has the blizzard hit yet . Blizzard in washington is like a half inch of snow and they cancelled snow. They will Cancel School at the thought of snow. We are getting raid here john brennan, did he survive . Certainly. I dont think there is any question i willhe will be confirmed. The frustration snares have had over not having c. I. A. Documents and information for the past. Since 2001 almost. They felt like they have been stonewalling. One scene i thought was memorable, when Dianne Feinstein took after him for not allowing senate staff access to a lot of this information really was a window on how washington works that, you know, people think that senators sort of pore over a lot of these and study them. Their staffs brief them and tell them whats going on. The suggestion staff cant have access is debilitating as we saw yesterday. It was interesting that brennan said that he, when waterboarding came on, when he was at the cia that he was not in a position to try to stop it, but that he had expressed his reservations about it, his opposition to it and that he would never happen under his watch under director of cia. Did that come across as auth authentic . A little bit different from waterboarding. Something president obama ostensibly put a stop to said we dont water board. We dont torture. So the belief is i guess, it goes on some of these cia black sites that may or may not exist officially. So on the drones, i mean when the flap started at the beginning of the week with the new york time story about this. The Justice Department, there is a lot of speculation the question about drones would really derail john brennan. The white house diffused that by agree to go release, i guess, the secret memo on armoire malaki. They introduced to the senators. The drone policy. We have seen from Lindsey Graham and the likes of eric okieson cheerleading the president on the drone policy. He cant kill enough people for them. The democrats, you know, ron wyden has sort of talked a big game on this. I dont think you are likely to see too many of the democrats vote against an obama nominee for the cabinet for anything. After brennan i agree with you that brennan will be confirmed. My fear my column out today on this whole drone policy letting obama off the hook on drones where they did not want to let george bush off of the hook on torture and rendition and other things that he was citing the authority of the authorization to use force of authority for. Thats my column at any rate. My fear is what i want to ask you is once brennan is confirmed, the whole issue of drones is going to go away . Thats one of the favorite games is what if george bush had done it. If george bush had a secret drone program. I would be raising hell and a lot of other people would. It would be, you know it would probably be a much more significant issue, given sort of the narrative of what the rest of his Foreign Policy was like. Sure. There would be hearings in the senate and in the house and it may be not in the house. Under boehner but certainly there would be hearings and demands for full disclosure. There would be more foreign anger about it. It sort of goes to show, you know, how much president obama sort of changed the idea of, you know, of what he is about allows him perhaps more freedom to do some of these things than bush might have had given sort of how he is the beginnings of his Foreign Policy. The whole question of drones in the obama administration, are we letting him get away with stuff that we would never let george bush get away with . The question reed, somebody one to think about. 86655press. You know the tollfree number. The president is pursuing this double agenda right now, the sequester still loom can. I want to get to that in just a moment. But right now, he will give a speech on guns and a speech on Immigration Reform. He is pushing both. How do you assess the chances of both . I think there is a good chance. He has been writing about this. There is a chance something happens. Immigration, there is but the question is how much, you know, on guns, he has this broad sort of sweeping agenda of what he wants to do on guns. But in reality, whatsling to happen is far narrower. Background checks is really about all he is going to get in the senate is the sense i am getting from talking to people on the hill, from talking to people on the white house, from talking to some of the advocates like Mike Bloombergs people, et cetera. If they got universal background checks they would be over the moon. If you would have told them the day before newtown they could have gotten universal background checks they would have done back flips all week long, but from what we saw the president introduced, it was, you know, the universal background checks was one of four things that he wanted congress to pass along with confirming the atf director along with the executive orders. How about the ban on magazines . Its just not its hard to see. There is not a lot of bipartisan cooperation on anything beyond background checks at the moment. There is a trafficking bill that jill brand and mark hill brand of illinois have put forward, senators put forth by joe mancien and tom colburn working on a background check proposal, a framework much like the immigration framework we saw a couple of weeks ago from rubio and schumer. And, you know, if the only the only things that are going to pass are going to be the things with bipartisan support because you dont have enough democrats to pass anything on their own. Right. So limited, limited but some progress on gun control and on Immigration Reform, maybe a biggerbrity a. M. . . I think immigration has a biggerbrity a. M. Because republicans have a much stronger insentencetive to do something, you know. Congressman Henry Cuellar was on the show yesterday and said we will get something done this year because democrats want it and republicans need it. Republicans wants it to go away they know that as long its an issue that democrats can beat them up over, thats going to be trouble. They can see whats happening in the country. So they want it to be an issue that is done as far as a political issue and somebody everyone can claim credit for. The question is can they pass something that will not inflame their base enough that they will lose in the primaries in 2014. Yeah. Right. Thats sort of the 64,000 dollar question at the moment. And as long as whatever passes has the blessing of rubio and mccain, that will give, among others, that will give the rest of them cover to support it. The question is can rubio support something and still run for president as it would appear that he is interested in doing. It would appear. Yeah. It would appear he is interested and it would a lot a lot of other people are interested in having him do it need to take a break here, reid, but when we come back, i want to ask you about this little boomlet now sudden, mark row rubio including the cover of Time Magazine. Read reed epstein Senior Reporter for politico. Your comments and questions about anything happening here in our nations capitol at 86655press. Heard around the country, and seen on current tv, this is the bill press show. [ music ] this is the full court press, the big press show live on your radio and on current tv. Here we go 13 minutes now before the top of the hour, it is a full court press this friday morning february 8th, great to see today. Thank you for joining us reid epstein covers the white house and the hill for politico. He is in studio with us. Before we get to our calls here, reid, i do want to ask you so marco rubio is the flavor of the month certainly. Its on the cover of timeTime Magazine touted as the savior of the Republican Party. Rubio quick to point out there is only one savior and it aint him. Then, he has been tapped to give the response like bobby gentle was to the president s state of the union. He will give the response in spanish and english. You have seen rubio up close. Is he the guy . Rubio is really good. And i saw him a couple of times. There are a couple of events on the campaign trail where he and either obama or biden would be speaking at the same type of event, you know, speaking the same city hours apart, and he has sort of the same thing that obama has, where the first time you see them, you think that they are speaking directly to you and you show it sort of goes beyond doesnt feel like a partisan speech, feels like an uplifting sort of america coming together. Speech. You know, hes obviously much more conservative than the president or most any democrats but his presentation is very good. He is extremely polished speecher. He did an event with buzzfeed. He is fluent in the, you know, in sort of the details of the east coast west coast rap wars. He is very versetal. He is not somebody like talking about john kerry earlier who sort of feels like he is from another planet sometimes and rubio is very good at talking to almost whatever audience he is in front of. You were the second person this morning who has come paired rubio in terms of obama if he runs, it wont be in the senate very long. He is young. He is attractive. He is artic look at boom. Propelled into con tender for president of the United States. Lets say hello to elaine calling from right here in washington d. C. Hello. Good morning, bill. How are you this morning . Good. Whats your question . Caller bill i dont think the liberals progressives would have you giving president obama a pass on the drone policy as commander in chief. I respect his decision to not want to put more lives in harms way. You know, if you visit vietnam memorial, you see how many lives we have left. Look how many lives we have lost in an unness war. His whole idea behind the drone policy is that he does not want to risk more american lives. I can really really respect that. You know, i want to say this one quick thing. When it came to this memo and everything that came out, the way the press was putting it out without us first hearing it, i was thinking they were talking about the drones were killing americans here in the United States. You know, like this whole spin they put on it then, you know, when i went out found out the real truth behind it, you know, well, you know, we dont want to lies any american lives, i can respects that also you know. We have to go against our enemies. Its funny that they called him weak. When did they think he was a weak president now . We got your point. I want to put you on hold. Dont run away. I have Something Special for you. Valentines day is coming up. I want you to enjoy sharis berries. We are sending you a 50 gift card for sharis berries that you can use for someone you love on valentines day. All of the rest of you i encourage you to take a look at sharis berries. Go to berries. Com, this great big juicy strawberries covered with chocolate and type in press and have your chance to send sharis berries to someone you love. All of our listeners and viewers have called to say, you know, we may not be totally comfortable with drones but its better than putting boots on the ground. That may be true but, you know, what happens when other countries have drones . You know it seems yeah. Technology technology is always going down. This is something that is sort of justified like the caller suggested, but its not going to be you know we have seen stories about people having personal drones. There was a story a couple of months ago about, you know, a millionaire in california who bought his personal drone to follow his kid walking to school so he could see him, you know, between his house and school. So its not from that points, its not all that much longer before, you know, the bad guys out there have access toss that kind of technology and then the shoe is on the other foot so to speak and you would suspect folks wouldnt be so thrilled about the idea that its you can do this without having people involved. Good points to which i would add, when we send boots on the ground, right, the American People know where they are going, why they are going, and when they are coming home. At least thats what we demand. Right . These drones are sent out by the c. I. A. Or the Defense Department or whatever, on a daily basis, we have no idea. You can run them by and the good and bad thing about them is you can run them by Remote Control room from Central Command in tampa or the situation room or wherever. Yeah. We have no idea who they are targeting and what evidence they have behind these attacks. Pretty scary stuff. I hope the issue does not go away. Thats what keeps people like you and me busy all the time, reid epstein. I cant believe we are already out of time. Follow read on twitter at reid, reidepstein reidepstein. Follow him and politico at politico. Com. We will come back and tell you what the president is up to today. This is the bill press show live on your radio and current tv. [ music ] this is the bill press show. In the next hour senator ron wyden from oregon a man who grilled john brennan yesterday will be along to tell us why and what he learned, cindy boren, sports blogger for the Washington Post joins us as well. Melanie sloan executive director of crue in washington. The president today, fairly easy day. He and the Vice President will at within 00 oclock, the president and Vice President meet for their weekly lunch in the private dining room alongside of the oval. This afternoon at 3 55, the president will be speaking at the tribute, the Armed Services tribute for defense secretary leon panetta. I believe its over at the pentagon and of course chuck hagel taking his place pretty soon. This is the bill press show. [ music ] good morning, everybody. Great to see you today on a friday, friday february 8th. Thanks so much for joining us here on the fullcourt press, coming to you life on current tv, all across this great land of ours. What we are going to do is bring you up to date on the big stories of the day here from our nations capitol. Thats where you will find us, right on capitol hill, or around the country, around the globe, wherever its happening, whatever is meaningful, whatever is news of the day. We will tell you all about and take your calls at 86655press of the a few of the things well cover, john brennan grilled by members of the Committee Ron Wyden will be here to tell us about it. Not sooner had ray lewis resigned than his son signed up. We will talk to cindy boren from the Washington Post and how much trouble is bob men endez in . Mellony sloan for citizens for responsibilities and ethics in washington will tell us. First, we get the latest. Todays current news update Lisa Fergusons got it out in los angeles. Hi, lisa. Good morning. Hey, bill. Good morning, everyone. More news on guns in schools this morning. Philadelphia police say a sevenyearold boy found a loaded gun in his backpack. The boy found the gun when he was putting a folder in his backg yesterday afternoon. He meal alerted the teacher who then called police. It was a. 38 caliber handgun loaded with five rounds of ammunition. Officers are now interviewing the family and watching Surveillance Video trying to figure out how gun got there. The boy says he had the backpack with him the entire day. Yesterday, House Democrats unveiled a comprehensive set of recommendations on reducing gun violence. The plan nixed the white house agenda calling for an assault weapons ban and high capacity clips and addressing Mental Health and strengthening background checks. It is uncertain if that has enough support to make its way through congress. Lawmakers admit they have an uphill battle ahead and a more piecemeal approach might be the only way of getting anything done. The new poll out today shows chris kristis Approval Ratings are as high as ever. According to eagleton 73 look favorabley on theny governor. His ratings were 86 late last year after his handling of the recovery after Hurricane Sandy. More bill press is coming up after the break. Stay with us. What we need are people prepared for the careers of our new economy. By 2025 we could have 20 million jobs without enough College Graduates to fill them. Thats why at Devry University were teaming up with Companies Like cisco to help make sure everyones ready with the know how we need for a new tomorrow. [ male announcer ] make sure americas ready. Make sure youre ready. At devry. Edu. [ music ] broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv this is the bill press show. Bill john brennan says under my watch waterboarding will never take place. And he says he tried to stop it when he was at the cia. Good morning, everyone everybody. Here we go on a good friday morning. Friday, february 8th. Great to see you today. So good to have you with us as we boom out to you live across this great land of ours, all the way from san diego to boston where they are expecting the record storm that may be the biggest blizzard in the history of boston. Accuweather telling United States early this morning, earlier on the show that it could be anywhere from 24 to thirty inches of snow in boston starting late tonight. Love your comments anytime at 86655press. I knowvite you to join us on what we are talking about at bp show. Bill press show. You know there is a lot of people can get in a lot of trouble in washington, d. C. , but we got somebody on our side looking out for them calling them to task. Thats citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington, otherwise known as crue, executive director Melanie Sloan, welcome back. Always nights to be with you. Yeah. I think this is your first visit of the new year. Yes. Good to see you. Thank you. To join the team here, peter ogburn and dan henning. Phil back we can has phone. Cyprian boulding our videographer extraordinaire, as always. I mentioned the johnbrenan hearing yesterday. Leave it up to a republican to make a joke about waterboarding. Right . Richard burr from North Carolina as he starts his questions for john brennan. Thank you chairman. Um going to try to be brief because i have noticed you are on your fourth glass of water and i dont want to be accused of waterboarding you. Dud. Some people, you know, there are standup comics. They do their jobs. Unless you are al franken. Yes. Melanie will be with us and senator ron wyden joining us as well as a sports blogger from the Washington Post, cindy boren, so weve got a lot to cover here how much trouble is senator bob men endez in . Here the full court press. Other headlines as we enter into the weekend. Music lone star biggest night, including the black ts Kelly Clarkson fun taylor swift and song of the year nominees include Carly Rae Jepson for call me maybe and Kelly Clarkson and fun and Michelle Obama and bill clinton are nominated in the spoken word category category though neither are expected to attend the senator. Bill clinton will be there. He is everywhere. . He is everywhere. I sid this. I cant wait to tell my grandchildren that i was slay to see Carly Rae Jepson, the hottest sensation. That song for call me maybe. The House Democrats continue their retreat and they have a lineup of guest speakers, comedy centrals Stephen Colbert will address representatives and be interviewed by the leader nancy pelosi, interesting to note his sister is running for congress in South Carolina looking to replace the seat vacated by tim scott. Bill clinton addressing the crowd in village today. Whoa. Who. Who. Al republican or democrat. Democrat. That has to be a referenceal because col better has intrudes nancy pelosi. That will be fun to see. Should be. Closed to press. We will only hear about it. The debate over the team natureme of the Washington Redskins came up, a daylong symposium on slurs at the smithsonian american indian. Many spoke out against the team name saying it needs to be changed. No one from the team was in attendance to defend it. Someone noted the ncaa has a partial ban on College Teams using indian names and image rebut the n. F. L. Still does not. Myer position they will never change it. They should but they will never change it. Its time to do it. People know the name. The bullets on the other hand changed their name to the wizards. It did happen. High profile but they seem to be stuck on it. Eleven minutes after the hour. So crue melanie, i know because i have been invited and i have r rsvped i have been there. You are having your 10th Anniversary Celebration Party next week. Congratulations . Thank you so much. You were there from the beginning . I started crue back in february of 2003. So 10 years that we have been going now. Yeah. You know, for any organization to make that long is pretty good of all of the scandals that you have been involved with, right, over the 10 years, which is the biggest . Do you think . Well, i think for me the biggest was tom delay. Tom delay, former House Majority leader, who we filed the ethics complaint against with working with chris bell of texas and that was huge, and that broke a 10year long truce with the House Ethics Committee that nobody had been filing any complaints. Ultimately he resigned from congress. That was, i would say my best moment. The one that probably got the most Media Attention was the mark foley scandal in 2006. That was pretty huge. Crue had received emails much like we are going to talk about today. We had received emails that indicated mark foley, crestman had had inappropriate with teenage pages. We forwarded them to the f. B. I. For investigation because you didnt want to just Say Something like that, release that publicly. We couldnt verify the accuracy of these emails. So we sent it to the f. B. I. The f. B. I. Didnt investigate. It became a whole it blew up hugely when those emails. Because he was a member of congress . Pretty much because he was a member of congress. He was even a member of the exploited childrens caucus and that then it turned out there were members of congress inclusion Dennis Hassert who knew about foleys problems and helped contribute to the republicans losing control of the house in 2006. That was a very big deal. He resigned from congress as well. Tom delay, jack abe ram hov went to prison. Tom delay was found guilty. Found guilty on a money laund laundering case in texas going on forever. Then he appealed it . Yeah. He appealed it and he is out on appeal and dancing with stars a couple of years ago. Found a way to be found guilty and yet escape the punishment . So far. So far. Okay. Now, do you its my understanding with senator bob men endez from new jersey the information came to you first. Correct. Thats right. Again in emails, and so whats he suspected of . Hes not been charged with anything. This started in april of 2012 when crue got emails from an anonymous tipster who used the anonymous name of Pete Williams. This is interesting. Its also the name of a senator who was indicted in abscam from new jersey. In the last hour with reed epstein here we were trying to remember the name of the senator of new jersey. Pete williams. There you go. Google that. He sent emails and says he has lots and lots of evidence about improper contact by senator men endez and a florida opt mol gist named dr. Salmon mel ga. In the first emails he doesnt adel senator men endez had solicited prostitutes underage. He just said he solicited prostitutes that would be unseemly, its legal in the dimincalory publicly and its not married. That would have been bad but not the same level as when he later suggested that the prostitutes were underage. Where they came from, this email from this socalled Pete Williamson . Thats where it came from. N his emails, we core respond toed with him for several months. He included details with lots and lots of information about dr. Mel gan and the senators contact including the names of young women with whom they had been involved and dates. So, it seems like it certainly had enough information around it that it could have been credible. By the same token, we were somewhat suspicious of it. The timing seemed odd. This source said he had known about some of mr. Men deniess conduct since as early as 2008. He only comes forward in the spring of 2012 when senator men endez is up for reelection and the fact that that time the senate was considered a tossup who was going to be in control. I thought the timing was suspicious. In addition to that, he refused to ever speak to us by telephone. We wanted to talk to him and we wanted to talk to some of his witnesses, all of the people whom he said he could produce. But he never did. He could have been a she. He could have been a series of people. He could have be anybody. You knew, in this day and and age its hard to know if it could be a scan allah bright bart but if he was engaged in the kind of conduct they were suggesting, that would be illegal. There is al crime called sex tour isms. Americans cannot travel to very long sex with minors. We didnt make it public because you dont want to suggest Something Like that. That can be career ending. Just the allegation. So we did what we thought was best. We sent it to the fbi and we sent it to the fbi we had a little less faith in the fwi after our experience with mark foley and to abc news. Brian ross, our reporter there, very aggressive. Best Investigative Reporter out there . And Rhonda Schwartz started looking into it as well. We asked if if we could send the information to them and he agreed to email with them. He never would agree to speak with them by phone. Abc news had a lot more resources. We figured they could go to the Dominican Republic and they have former fbi agents who work on staff. I thought they would be able to handle this investigation as well. Never spoke to them, as it turns out, either. The story breaks in the daily caller which isnt exactly a rep tut putable news source. Where did they get the story. Thats a good question. Probably Pete Williams. Involved with prostitutes but the story falls flat largely because Hurricane Sandy had happened and. So thats sort of the end of it a couple of week ago, all of Pete Williams emails to crue all of his correspondents with us and the f. B. I. Appear on a mysterious website and the daily caller at the same time as this website appears has a new story with the underage allegations as well. They are reporting the f. B. I. Is investigating this matter which means its a story the National Media will pick it up. While you wouldnt. Arent there also questions about use of the doctors private plane and stays at this that the senate did not pay for our report . Because of this investigation, a lot more comes out. It turns out that within a couple of days after that dr. Melgins West Palm Beach is raided. It turns out senator mennendez had flown to the dominican today in this swanky area where houses are 20 million apiece. Oscar de la renta lives there. He could have flown too those planes because he is a personal friend had he asked for permission and shown it as a gift. Instead of doing that, now, he suddenly repays 58,000. Senator men endez is not a rich guy. 58,000, you have to wonder where he comes up with 58,000 in cash. He is one of the senates poorest members. Do we know . What is the f. B. I. Investigating . Do we know . We dont know. What we do know is the fbi is investigating dr. Mel begin as the f. B. I. Raid you are looking for medicaid fraud because there have been a bunch of other issues about that. Senator men endez relationship with his doctor that have come to the forefront. Suddenly, it seems he was intervening with the office of medicare nnhs on dr. Melgins behalf when there was an earlier investigation, it turns out dr. Melgin wanted some port execute deal and senator menendez was calling the state department and others to try to make that happen. All of that is very suspicious. Dr. Melgin contributed 700,000 to a majority pack, spentmuch spent on senator menendezs relex. You keep peeling the onion here it gets worse and worse. Melanie sloan, we will continue on bob menendez. Right back on the fullcourt press. Senator orfrom oregon on the next hour. Found talking with melon e sloan, doing a great job. Its citizens for ethics. Org is where you can follow their good work. Should there be a Senate Ethics investigation . There should be the Senate Ethics committee, its up to them. Some new jersey republicans have filed a complaint against menendez regarding the failure to disclose the flights on the private plane and senator Isaac Isaacson said they are aware of the whole matter. It looks like they are looking at that. It will be interesting to see if they look at any other elements of this interfering on melgins behalf on the port deal or on the medicare issue. The postutionition senator david vidder making calls from the senate floor allegedly at least. And he was reelected. He is talking about running for governor. I think thats one of the reasons you are not seeing any republican senators jumping on menendez. The rightwing blogosphere is all agoing about it you dont see conservative politicians saying anything with david vitter there and remain there and talking about running for governor and they are going to support him. What are they going to say about menendez. They know that stuff comes close to home. How many senators are making calls on behalf of major supporters to help them addvance their own interests . I think thats risk. How many senators are there . Exactly. If you think menendes is the the only one. I cant tell you how much we value and admire your good work there at citizens for sittingty and ethics in washington. I am glad you are there, crue Melanie Sloan started it. Congratulations, and heres to another 10 years of good work. Thank you. See you. This is the bill press show. [ music ] [ music ] chatting with you live at current. Com billpress, this is the bill press show live on your radio and current tv. Bill here we go 33 minutes after the hour. It is the full court press on this friday morning, february 8th. Good to see you. We will be talking to senator ron wyden from oregon in the next segment of the show. He was one grilling john brennan at the Senate Intelligence committee yesterday. But, you know, we are americans, redblooded americans. We cant with go into the weekend without talking sports. When we talk sports, we love to call on the early League Sports blogger, cindy boren on our news line. Welcome back. Good morning. Thanks. Bill it was just about a week ago that we talked to you. Uhhuh. And you. You bowledly predicted the 49ers were going to crush the ravens. She didnt say crush. She did pick the 49ers. Bill we have the tape, cindy. I thought it was going to be close, you will recall. I did say i liked a lot of the things the ravens did and i think, you know, the ravens were just the interesting thing about the ravens to me is the way they have managed to morph into an offensive team from a defensive team. I was really impressed with the wide receivers. They had, you know, had a great game. I thought it was also interesting to see the difference in the two coaches, the two brothers because, you know, one who is so emotional and you have the other who is just joe cool, you know. Get the job done. Yeah. I think thats what you really want in a coach. It irritates me when i see a football coach particularly on the sideline jumping up and down and screaming and yelling and doing all of this. Its like dude, you need to be thinking three or four months ahead, not freaking out here and being all emotional. Be cool and think ahead. And i think that was, you know, that was a huge part of the difference, too, i believe. Bill right. So you mentioned joe flacco. He seems to be on top of the world right now. Right . Because not only did he have such a phenomenal gam and most valuable player but his contract is up. He can name his price. Cant he . Talk about a guy who wagerred everything. He did. He put it all on himself. He is going to come up with a really huge payday. Bill can the reins afford him . They have to. They have to. They have to. I mean thats where you start. And then, you know, they have a number. They are actually in a difficult spot here because they have a number of people that they have to try to keep you know. They have ed reed. Do you keep ed reed . Do you let ed reed go . They wanted the super bowl. They are not going to get a great draft pick. In 2001, after they won last time, they let everyone go and ozzie newson said that wouldnt be the case. There is so much they can do. You know, this is where it will be interesting to see how it works out and whether the reins can pull off what the patriots did, which was, you will remember the jam they got into. Tom brady kept restructuring his contract and kept deferring money farther down the line and farther down the line and trying to help them out. I am not making it out to be Mother Teresa here or anything, but, you know, he did make that move because, you know, he did agree to that. Uhhuh. I think, you know, the reins are go to have to look at Something Like that as well. It starts with flacco. You have to have joe flacco back. I think you are right. They have to start there and figure out where they would go. But i thought one of the more interesting sort of story lines leading up to the super bowl was the chris culver comments about how he would not play with a gay man on his team compared to how and he played for the 49ers. Yeah. Youve got the ravens and abidasio. This week. After the super bowl said we are at a moment where we need a jackie robinson. Figure for the gay movement. He has been eloquent about that even back during the election season in november when he was making videos about that and insupport of samesex marriage, equal marriage rights. It was interesting to see he is, now, i think, headed to some sort of training program. He is going to have to sit down and get a little bit of counsel ling about this. It was also really interesting to me to see that come up at the super bowl, you know, the big story lines of the super bowl were safety issues and that frankly. That was something people were talking about. I think its great that they can come out and talk about it like that, but i also think that the sport has or lebron james or, you know, some big name players who actually have something to lose by speaking out on it you know. I mean. There were quite a bit players. I think it was about a year and a half ago maybe when new york had a proposition about the equal rights, you know, equal marriage rights. There were a lot of hockey players that made videos about it. It kind of gathered steam there. I think, you know, as you see more and more younger people, you know, coming in, you know, its a natural turnover in sports. I think its just going to become less and less of a big deal, you know. I mean i know younger people now who dont even think about things like that you know. Its just not a big deal to them to say a teammate or a a coworker who is gay. I think thats going to change radically like in the next two or three years. I really do. It is a generational thing. Look at the support for samesex marriage. For them, its just a given. They cant believe its not something anyone thinks about bill that anyone would question that. I do want to ask you too, so Lindsey Vaughn had this horrific accident this week. We are one year away from wentinter olympics in russia if they ever get any snow. Is she going to be there . If i had to bet and given my record, i probably shouldnt put any money on it. I would say no. I love the fact that, you know, every time a surgeon does an operation on one of these athletes and he puts the mcl the acl and everything back together the way, you know, the way it should be, its going to be fantastic. He or she will be back. Everything is going to be perfect. They always have a great outcome, and i just think its a little trickier than that. I think shes got a year. She could be the olympics is set up a little bit differently on skiing. I believe she could you know, they dont really have a trial the way other sports do. So she could be she could compete in some events, you know, late in the year some of the ski season late in the year. Possibly still, um make the team. I guess there is also a discretionary spot they could give her . I hope she makes it. Surgery for the second one to add because they didnt get it right the first time. Right . Yeah. We hear, we do hear a lot about that. Sand at this i know here we are expecting the biggest blizzard maybe in history this weekend up in the northeast. Uhhuh. About you i this is february. We are not that far from the start of major league baseball. Are we . The nas report next week. Next week. There is an enormous cloud hanging over baseball the biogenisis, including geo gonzalez. I think there is a great deal going to come out about that. Pitchers and catchers is great. Green grass. Redskins, we are ready for them to come back. You have had a difficult time . We have. It was exciting. Good for the gnats this year . Everyone is picking them to be unbeatable to go 162 and 0. I am a little learby that having lived in new york where i have seen, you know, year in and year out the yankees come in with these starstudded teams and do absolutely nothing. Stuff has a way of happening during the season even if you have a loaded team. Its loaded bill keep hope alive. Cindy boren thank you for joining us . Thank you. Bill you can follow her at washingtonpost. Com, early League Sports besider. Senator ron besidestanding by. Up next. Radio meets television, the bill press show, now on current tv. Stephanie miller rounds out currents morning news block. Youre welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. Just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. The sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. vo only on current tv. Iq will go way up. vo current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. Im a slutty bob hope. You are. The troops love me. vo tv and radio talk show host Stephanie Miller rounds out currents morning news block. Youre welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. Just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. The sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. vo only on current tv. I think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. [ music ] this is the bill press show live on your radio and on current tv. Bill here we go 14 minutes before the top of the hour friday february 8th, the full court press. Well be talking with senator ron wyden in just a minute here first, lets start something new. Thats a shoutout every day to listeners who have taken my advice and started their own workfromhome business with income incomeat home. Com. Todays listener shoutout goes to melissa. Melissa felt she was working far too many hours, spending much too much time from her family. So she heard hear about incomeathome. Com. The only workfrom hymn home that we endorse on this show. Parttime, melissa doubled what she earned in her old job. She loves it sets her own hours, always home for her kids and loves earning extra money from her kitchentable. Mellis a, i am looking for my next shoutout. If you are tired of living paycheck to paycheck, sweating job security and working long hours at a job you dont like join melissa. Check out incomeathome. Com. Incomeathome. Com. John brennan, president obamas designee to be the next director of the c. I. A. And many of the questions were about drones and the obama administrations policy. Nobody tougher on john brennan, asking better questions yesterday than our guest, Senate Ron Wyden from oregon. Good morning, senator. Good to see you again. Great to be on your show. As a basketball player i love the full court press. Indeed. Senator, you had written this letter. I saw you earlier this week. You told me you were sending this letter with 11 other senators to the white house saying we want you to release all of the memos related to drone policy. They did respond at least in kind. Are you satisfied with what you received so far . Bill, when the president called, it was clear that the president wanted to change course, and i give him credit for what is clearly an encouraging first step. Thats right. He called you in response to that letter. Didnt he . He did. And he also is offering up another very constructive idea. Thats trying to start in the weeks ahead a dialogue with the public with respect to these issues. Applying our checks and balances to modern wav warfare. On the intelligence committee, you know there are very real threats to america at this particular time. What weve got to do is figure out how the congress and the president can Work Together recognizing checks and balance to see protect people and their value. Making the decisions in terms of using drones where we are saying we are going to bypass due process, are you saying there are tight guidelines governing that policy . John brennan began to lay out those guidelines yesterday. I comment the president for wanting to take the American People to these issues to try to lay out. For purposes of trying to deal with modern warfare what the guidelines are. What are the standards of evidence, for example, that are there . What are the geographic, you know limits, the congress could do business oversight, our legal responsibility. Thats something we are charged with by law, fifteen minutes on the intelligence committee, that is our obligation. We cant do our legally constituted assignments unless we have access to any and all opinions relating to the legal analysis. Bill otherwise, it is the executive branch only operating as judge jury and executioner, as others have said. I want to add one more question senator, to your list, which are all of the right ones to ask and that is the memo from the Justice Department said that the decision must be made by quote, an informed, highlevel official of the u. S. Government. Who are we talking about making these decisions so far as you knew, senator . Is it the director of the c. I. A. . I mean, who is it . By law, bill, i cant get into the specifics of what i read, for example, in the anteroom in the intelligence committee. What i can tell you is i think there are Unanswered Questions with respect to what you asked about the guidelines for this program. We are also going to have another classified session with mr. Brennan next week. That would give me an opportunity to raise additional questions in this area. Right now, i can tell you, i think his biggest challenge in the committee it is a bipartisan one, is making sure that our committee request get access to the document that we need to conduct oversight. Bill you may not be able to answer this question but i want to try it maybe a little differently. For a decision you are a good journalist. Bill or just a pain in the ass. I dont know. But for a decision to target and kill around american citizens overseas because we believe he has been a member of a terrorist organization is that correct decision made by the president of the United States himself . Again you cant get in to any of these operational, you know, details with respect an issue like that. Here is how i come to it. Bill okay. I believe strongly, bill, that every american has a right to know when their government believes its shroud to kill them. Thats where i start this discussion. Then we have to go through this question of figuring out our unique system of checks and balance and relate that question to what i think americans have a right to know, to modern warfare. Bill i think thats a place to start. I salute you for it. Let me ask you, finally, senator, from what you heard yesterday, have you made up your mind yet whether you will vote to confirm john brennan . Yes or no . What i have said, bill, is we need the access to the documents that a Bipartisan Group of senators asked for on targeted killings before the vote. Thats my statement. John brennan said he would take that request back to the white house. Senator, i am so glad you are on top of this issue. You are doing a great job for the American People there on this and many other issues. We thank you for your time this morning. Have a good weekend, senator. See you soon. You are very kind. Thanks so much. All right. Senator ron wyden from oregon. I am not sure yet he is going to vote for john brennan. This is the bill press show. [ music ] you cant do that. Ignore that guy. Give it wifi. Yes vo current tv gets the converstion started next. Im a slutty bob hope. You are. The troops love me. The sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. vo only on current tv. Stop looking at car interiors. Get inspired by other stuff. Yep. Yep. Ok. Sure. Why not . Woah. Touchscreens. Put that in your dash. Now, luxury stuff. Make your seats like that. That thing has wifi, why doesnt your car . You cant do that. Ignore that guy. Give it wifi. Yes make it fit 5 people. No, 5 actual sized people. Give them leg room, good. Destroy boring car interiors forever. And thats how you do it. Easy. Running out of aerosols can get pretty frustrating. Try the air wick freshmatic. It automatically fills the air with its captivating scent. Just one freshmatic refill lasts as long as 55 aerosol cans. And with so many rich, indulgent fragrances to choose from, you can get lost in celebration. Something in the air wick. [ music ] the parting shot with bill press, this is the bill press show. Bill my parting shot for today, we all know that neither snow nor sleet nor gloom of night can interfere with the post office delivering our mail. But now, it seems neither can saturday morning. Announced yesterday the u. S. Postal service will cease saturday mail delivery except for packages beginning in august. He says it will save 2,000,000,000 a year. You cant blame the Postal Service for trying to cut costs. Their problem is not a lack of customers. Their problem is the congress which has put all kind of impossible burdens on them, including the need to fund future health benefits