In the hospital and couldnt do absolutely anything. Shes a mess. But shes great. Over the course of a week, more than 1200 people were evacuated from the roof of the parking garage next to tulane hospital one of the largest evacuations of an American Hospital in recent memory. Six months after drew schaaf and William Wilson were flown to safety, the hospital reopened. Michael this is the war room, im michael shure. The sequester has washington on edge, as for the rest of the country, i guess whether your heart is in it or not, all depends on where you call home. [ theme music ] michael this war room is tracking all things politics. We start with what we have our mrit call eyes on today. One eye is on the sequester showdown. President obama and house respects have until late thursday to reach a deal or else 85 billion in mandatory cuts start rolling off of the chopping block. Its a an agreement the president and john boehner reached back in 2011. The think i was that democrats wont cut social programs and republicans wont cut millation spending but theyll have to save face politically. Today for their annual meeting president obama enlisted the governors help. Obama while you are in town i hope you speak with your congressional delegation and remind them exactly what is at steak, and who is at risk. These cuts do not have to happen. Congress can turn them off any time with just a little bit of compromise. Michael so some governors heeded that call but louisianas respect governor is not one of them. Outside of the white house jindal called for president obama to show leadership. I think its time to [ inaudible ] prioritized list of reductions that preserves Political Services every governor here has had to balance their budget every family has had to balance their budget the reality is it can be done. Michael so jengdel blames the president standing right in his front yard. Its time to cut tending here in washington, instead of using our military men and women, as Campaign Props the president was serious, he would sit down with harry reid to address our problems. The house has acted twice and we should havent to act a third time. Michael he says if the president was serious. So here is todays wrapup then. First president obama asked governors call congress, then the leading House Republican in the house calls on the senate to write the bill. Thankfully we have plenty of time to figure this out, at least according to washington, d. C. s clock. Oh, wait there are only four more days. Later in the program, well find out how president obamas sequester message is working. And Chris Christie has the Superstorm Sandy goodwill trickled down to the sequester . Were also keeping an eye own john kerry who is having his first foreign trip since taking over for hillary clinton. The main issues he is tackling include laying the ground work for a u. S. europe trade pack and stopping iran from getting a Nuclear Weapon. Iron with a Nuclear Weapon in that region and given all that has happened is simply unacceptable. The window for a dib low mattic solution simply cannot by definition remain open forever. Michael back in the united states, jimmy carter has a different idea on whether negotiations can stop. I dont believe either of those countries is going to be suicidal off to use Nuclear Weapons. I wonder if kerry is actually listening. Carters comments came yesterday in san francisco. Tonights last eye that we have out stands for impasse, or at least the potential for one on gun reform. Oklahoma republican senator tom coburn is making it painfully clear that background checks could stop a bill in its tracks. There will not be Record Keeping on legitimate lawabiding gun owners in this country, and if they want to eliminate the benefits of trying to prevent the sales to people who are mentally ill, all they have to do is have Record Keeping, and that will kill this bill. According to slate magazine at least 2265 american souls have been lost to gun violence, thats about 87 new townes, since newtown. A seconded a was released featuring a military veteran tying mcconnell to the nra. I would be a pretty bad hunter if i needed an Assault Rifle to shoot that buck. I support the ban to ban assault weapons, because i know these guns. I know what they can do. The nra and the gun manufacturers have given a ton of money to senator Mitch Mcconnell. Michael on wednesday the Senate Judiciary committee will hold a hearing on banning assault weapons. Now joining me on the phone is ross calls senate beat reporter Niels Lesniewski niels. Welcome inside the war room. Its good to be here. How important is senator coburn to any gun reform bill that may come out . He could be one of the key senators in getting an agreement that could actually get legislative traction particularly beyond the senate. Senator coburn is one of the most conservative members of the senate and a bill that he supports the development of and then votes for throughout the process in the senate if such a bill were to pass the senate it might put pressure on the House Republican leadership to at least take that sort of a measure up, so theres kind of an incentive here for for democrats and for advocates of gun safety or gun control measures to be able to get someone like coburn on board. Niels do you think his outrage over this data base is legit or only to strengthen his own negotiation pating with the other sen snores it may be a bit of both. What we have heard a senate aid told me after the comments that senator coburn made on fox news, that he there was some sort of question about the way the question was phrased frankly. And realistically no one is considering creating a database of gun owners. So theres a distinction here to be made between having a background check to check if you have a criminal record to check if you have any sort of documented and court adjudicated Mental Health condition versus some sort of a record check or record or database of how many firearms you may own, and thats the distinction that i i think might be getting lost in this to some extent. The latter is not really on the ail at all. Michael thats really interesting stuff. Because thats also something we dont hear people talking about so much. Very quickly, we saw a bit of that new tv ad going after Mitch Mcconnell. Do any republicans actually need to worry about standing in the way of a gun safety bill . Is there anyone for whom this is just a political death mill . Well, there may be some. Certainly if you are a republican from a sort of suburban district of a more urban area or you are in fact yourself from a more urban area or maybe somewhere like new england, but the ad itself is probably not something that is really going to cause a problem for him, in fact given the electorate that he would see in a primary republican primary, should he see a challenge from a more conservative or tea partybacked candidate bolstering his credentials and ties with the nra may actually be a boom for him. I dont know that the groups on the left running the ad are intending. Ross calls senate beat reporter Niels Lesniewski thanks so much for coming here into the war room. Coming up, as if running a country isnt hard enough only in washington can they come up with something where the damage is self inflicted. Plus Chris Christie has a springsteen like Approval Rating in new jersey. But does that mean anything outside of the garden state. And later well continue our look at the Civil Rights Movement in america and writ stands today. Its the war room on a monday, night, stwa us. A closer shave in a single stroke for less irritation, even on sensitive skin. Gillette mach3 sensitive. Gillette. The best a man can get. When many soles pass through the most trodden areas of your home your vacuum doesnt always pick up whats left behind. Only the resolve easy clean system has foam power to stop dirt in its tracks. It penetrates deep within your carpet removing 3 times more dirt than vacuuming alone. Leaving the busiest areas of your carpets, truly fresh and clean. The resolve easy clean system. Dont just vacuum clean. Resolve clean. Fruit just got cooler. Fruit on one side, cool on the other. Ice breakers duo a fruity cool way to break the ice. The bar harbor bake is really worth trying. [ male announcer ] get more during red lobsters lobsterfest. With the years Largest Selection of mouthwatering lobster entrees. Like our delicious lobster lovers dream, featuring two kinds of succulent lobster tails. Or our savory, new grilled Maine Lobster and lobster tacos. Its back, but not for long. [ woman ] our guests go crazy for lobsterfest. My favorite entree is the lobster lovers dream. Whats yours . Come celebrate lobsterfest and sea food differently. You know who is coming on to me now . You know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials . Those types are coming on to me all the time now. vo she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. Ok, so theres wiggle room in the ten commandments, thats what youre saying. You would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. Absolutely. And so would mitt romney. vo shes joy behar. And the best part is that current will let me say anything. What the hell were they thinking . Michael as the sequester cuts loom overhead an ethic game of hot potato is raging in the capitol. The president rolled out 51 fact sheets detailing how the sequester will impact the states and the district of columbia. Obama this morning you received a report outlining exactly how these cuts will harm middle class families in your states, thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. Hundreds of thousands of americans will lose access to primary care and Preventative Care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings. Michael is communicating these specific policy consequences a smart move by the president and are the American People even listening . To answer that question, and more, im joined by democratic strategist karl frisch. Karl is coming to us from washington, d. C. Tonight. Welcome back inside the war room, karl. Thanks for having me. Michael karl what do you make of the president s plan to discuss the statespecific impacts of the sequester. It is too granular and go over peoples heads, or is this what he should be doing . Its precisely what he should be doing. The detail and aggressiveness we have seen out of the administration on this issue is admirable. And its one of the reasons why the republicans are in such a difficult position. On the other hand you have john boehner and the republicans talking about not wanting to raise taxes on the wealthy. So that sends a clear picture and doesnt give the republicans much room in terms of negotiating power. These are problems of the Republican Partys own making. Michael all right. Karl, i totally, totally get what you are saying. But isnt there a little bit of a risk of being the boy who cried wolf . Because its not like we wake up march 2nd and the airports are closed and furloughed workers everywhere it is going to take a little while for all of this to happen. Are these scare tactics maybe something that could hurt the president. I dont think they are scare tactics. I think since we pay at attention every day to what is happening, is we assume though American People are hearing the same message, and they are not. They arent reading the paper every morning, surfing the blogs, or watching cable tv to check the latest developments, so repetition is extremely important michael wait a second, they are not watching cable tv every single second . Not everybody. [ laughter ] even fox news you talking 3 Million People at any given time. So they are focused on putting food on their family to quote a former president. [ laughter ] was that hayes. Exactly. By repeating this message over and over, you increase the chances that somebody is going to kick it up when they are flipping around or catching a beer in a bar. And unfortunately this message is much louder its fortunately for the republicans its much louder much more clear, and much more relatable than we dont want to raise taxes on the wealthy. I get what the message is saying to america outside of the beltway, what is obama doing at selling this correctly inside the beltway. Thats a different story entirely. John boehner said the president was using troops as pawns. But, you know, if you look at woodward for example, Bob Woodwards column, there is this beltway fever in washington that everybody in order to be taken seriously has to support cutstomedicare and Social Security even though that is widely unpopular with the American People. So what you end up with in washington is what is typically he said she said journalism. The president has put out detailed plans on what he would like to do. He has offered opportunity to negotiate, and john boehner as speaker with the emperor with no clothes. There is nothing speculated that if he compromises hell lose his speakership. Michael right. And on the other side people saying if he doesnt compromise he is going to lose his speakership as well. Right. Michael along those lines, then, karl yeah what were you going to say . No, go ahead. Michael along those lines i want you to put on your gop dunce cap, how could the Republican Party win over Public Opinion on the sequester . It is unfortunately something they dont want to do. And they are in a position of hurt now or hurt later, so they can compromise and hold firm on a few of their sticking points and this is what the president has done compromised and given up on some ground we feel is important on the left. So i boehner can compromise and maybe come to a deal at the table, but that means increased revenue. That would show that the republican is willing to govern. But Mitch Mcconnell and john boehner it is not likely to happen. In order for the Republican Party to survive the long term they need to look like they are interested in governing in washington. Thats the only way that they will sway independents or a swear people of color or young people if that they look they are interested in governing. And Mitch Mcconnell on the Senate Speaker boehner they have to stop this tea party movement. Thank you a for being on the shown. Could ainging christie run for president in after the break well find out if his fans have a reason to believe. Youre in the klee documentaries. On current tv. Michael as we mentioned at the top of the show, the president hopes that governors will rescue him from his congressional battle over the sequester. He told them today if a deal isnt reached, the 85 billion in automatic budget cuts would cripple their states economies. Obama rest assured the uncertainty is already haven an effect. Companies are preparing layoff notices. Families are preparing to cut back on expenses and the longer these cuts are in place, the bigger the impact will become. Michael threatening state budgets is a sure way to get governors to act, but governor who probably doesnt much to worry about is new jerseys Chris Christie a new poll has him with a 74 Approval Rating. It is the highest Approval Rating of any new jersey governor, ever. Even democrats like him. And he has another fan in the president , who has been tight with christie since the two paired up in the aftermath of hurricane sandy. Last night the president game him the best seat in the house at the governors ball. Christie sat right next to First Lady Michelle Obama just before she made her surprise oscar appearance. While he might get vip access with the democratic republican the Republican Party doesnt seem to hah happy with him. All of the big names were on the list, but notably missing from the list Chris Christie. So what does that protend for his future and the future of the Republican Party joining me to talk about that is the man who has literally written the book on Chris Christie, author bob ingle, he is the coauthor of the new biography. Bob, welcome inside the war room. Thank you, sir. Michael bob, Chris Christie wasnt invited to the cpac conference, what does that mean. And does being embraced by the president hurt him so much that he is left off of a list like this. Well, he was invited in june, so there has been a change and a good guess would be he hugged the president. They seem to be unforgiving if a guy hugs the president even if he has come to your state after a devastating storm. Michael some people even blame him for actually costing mitt romney the election. Is Chris Christie now the face of the nontea party Republican Party . And does such a group even exist . I dont know if a group exists but i think hes in that position right now, and he hes concentrating of course on getting reelected, but down the road, you know, four years is a long, long time in politics, thats like 20 or 30 in other life, and i think they are banking on people coming around saying, well do you want to lose another election or do you want to go with someone who could actually win. The quinnipiac poll that you talked about had a head to head matchup with hillary clinton. If which she would get 49 of the vote christie would get 45. Michael that doesnt get lost on our viewers that he does come from a democratic state. But lets talk about that. You know the guy pretty well. Is the someone the democrats would like if they knew him . Or does he just look good compared to some other members of his party. He is a very likable person and i think thats part of his popularity here, and he has been willing to work with democrats on some things obviously not as much as they would like, and he hasnt been as cooperative as they would like. But it hasnt been you go to your coner and ill go to mine and well see what happens. Michael on those notes, there could be some challenges for christie in appealing to a National Audience and you know them well. Emilys list has called christie antiwoman. And they said new jerseyians dont care big money groups do to support their biggovernment agendas. That same poll found his Approval Rating was a full 15 points higher with men. He certainly has never had the support among women that he has among men. Even before the the hole thing with sandy and hugging the president , it actually went up among women after that happened. But there is something that is appealing the way he does thing among men. Michael bob he is antichoice, he supports the ryan budget, there are a ton of reasons that democrats would actually, once they dig a little deeper probably would have a hard time with him. Scott walker said the next republican president should absolutely be a governor. Mitt romney was a governor george w. Bush was a governor, you would think they might want turn to the senate but is Chris Christie a likely candidate . I think governors actually sun governors. The guys in the senate at least lately, they seem to yell at each other and yell at the white house a lot. Four years is a long time. I think he has a game plan of overwhelmingly being reelected governor again in a democratic state. I think he is going to show that he has raise a ton of money, and that will be part of the appeal when they decide who is going to be running for president in 2016. And maybe by then some of the people who are really unhappy with him about being nice to obama, maybe that will be old hat by then and maybe the tea party wont even exist in four years, who knows. Michael i doubt that can going to happen. Bob, we are did a whole interview, i cant ask you one question about his weight. Thanks for being honest. Up next, the difficulties faced by Silicon Valley companies who say they cant get enough vie saas, tonight well hear the flip side of that right here in the war room. 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. Michael the fight over Immigration Reform isnt just about securing the border with mexico. Its also about opening our borders to highly skilled workers from around the world. Right now the government grants 65,000 special visas, called an h1b to foreign work worse highly specialized knowledge. A bipartisan bill in the senate would make it passable for nearly five times more foreign applicants to get those vie saas. The smartest hardest working, most talented people on this planet, we should want them to be here. I have no firth count industry going to be overrun by nuclear fizzists and entrepreneurs. Today, he launched a virtual march on washington. But with over 12 million Americans Still out of work there are some who think opening up more spots to Foreign Workers will hurt more americans. The president heard about a woman whos husband is a engineer who has been out of work for three years. Why does the government continue to issue and extent h1b vie saas when there are tons of americans just like my husband with no job . Obama jennifer i dont know your husbands specialty, but i can tell you there is a huge demand around the country for engineers. If you would send me your husbands resume would be interested in finding out exactly what is happening right there, because the word were getting is somebody in that kind of hightech field should be able to find something right away, and the h1b should be reserved only for those xoens who say they cannot find somebody in that particular field. Michael according to mother jones magazine more than two months later, her husband was still looking for a job. And for more on that im joined by mother jones reporter Josh Harkinson harkinson, who has done some great reporting on this issue. Welcome back inside the war room. Are there qualified americans that could be filling these positions . I think there are. There was a report that came out n 2007 that showed there are more than enough of what they call the stem professionals to fill these jobs and why do these Companies Feel like they need the vie saas. And do they put these jobs out to Americans First . Is there a requirement that they can to make sure there is not a american that can fill this job . No, they dont. President obama was kind of misleading in that clip because there is no requirement for that. Michael and so knowing that, then, does this impact wages does how much of this has to do with the america they pay workers . Yeah, well so these workers these h1b workers, about 80 of them earn less than their american citizen counterparts for these jobs. These Companies Really want these h1bs because they want to pay less to their workers. Its sort of like outsourcing but in an insourcing sort of way . Yeah. Well, i mean, another interesting stat here is that nearly half of these visas actually go to outsourcing companies, so the way it works is they bring their workers over here, and they train them for the job often in some cases like with pfizer a few years ago, the people train them those who train them are actually the American Workers who are getting fired after they train them to do the job. Michael so most of these people dont stay . Right. There is a goofy group that represents engineers, and they say why dont we go with green cards instead, so they are not shackled to this one employer. Michael thats so interesting. Yeah, because the h1b people cant leave their jobs or they get deported if they do. Michael we had ash rust in here last week, he has a totally different take on on this whole issue. Lets take a listen. 40 of fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. Our current policy is starving this country of the risk takers that made america the Worlds Largest country. That actually includes cofounders. Er was contacted by somebody about this point. If you include cofounders of companies, 95 of companies were founded by american citizens. Michael okay. Lets look at the other side though, is there an economic consideration to closing our borders to talented workers . I dont think we want to do that. The h1b program is a good idea but its a question of how it is being used. Michael is this bias to tech jobs. We were talking about the stem jobs, but what if im an amazing chef, and i am coming to you from holland shouldnt i get the came consideration as somebody who can transform a chip. You probably should. And maybe it speaks to the political clout of the tech sector. Michael do you think this is going to pass . I dont know. But i think the critics are starting to get louder. Stephanie all right. Josh, thanks so much. The years of the Civil Rights Movements were filled with tragedies and triumphs, but how are those events viewed today . Michael platinum selling rapper, lil wayne unleashed a storm of controversy this week where the compared rough sex act to the murder of emmett till. Emmett till was tortured and killed because he reportedly whistled at a white woman in mississippi. After his death, his mother insisted on an open pub coffin so the country should see what the killers had done to her son. Michael will waynes record label has pulled the lyric from the official release of the song, but the rapper has so far not issued an apology. With me is Keli Goff Kelly is a Political Correspondent for the root. Welcome back to the war room, keli. Always great to come back. Michael was this controversy suggest a disconnect between the young people of today and the Civil Rights Movement at all . Well look let me start by saying that expecting intellectual heft and decency from lil wayne is like expecting class from a kardashian. So i wasnt exactly shocked because nothing lil wayne does is particularly shocking fwhachl might be shocking is if he actually did something extremely classy and impressive like went to college or encouraged kids to go to college. So i dont think he is representative of his generation. Michael that makes total sense. I think also when you have lil before your name exactly. Lil kim, or lil abner, the intellect, goodbye. Exactly. Someone drew my attention to one of his previous tweets or something where he described himself as phenomenon with phenomenal spelled with an f. So this is who were dealing with, so say he is representative of an entire generation or race lets not go there. But there was a study which found that an overwhelming majority of states received an f from the southern poverty loss center rewarding their ability in teaching civil rights history to the schools. This is where they are coming from in tomorrows of states really teaching this important history, but i do want to say for the word, i wrote my first book about this generation. Things like the genof six tragedigy where we saw young black teenagers in louisiana who were facing an unfair sentencing where a group of black students who brought with a white student, and the black students were facing injustices and it was Young Africanamericans who pushed this story into the main stream. These Young African american writers conducted what they called a blog in using social media to advance civil rights. They decided to blog about it on the same day, and thats what pushed the story. So that story and the tragedy around the Trayvon Martin killing, and the million hoodie march and even a lot of the professional athletes, lebron james who is lil waynes nemesis even pushed the hoodie rally. Michael the idea that this social media is kind of the modern day Civil Rights Movement in a way, and when you cited that million hoodie march, remember we were talking about that at at length here on this network and everywhere, but but what is there a connection that these people have to their forefathers and mothers if you will. Do they know who emmett till is . The study that was conducted they gave letter grades to the different states for how well they teach civil rights history, and as i said 35 states received an f. They also found that only 12 of High School Seniors in this country are proficient in any form of history. It was one of the most embarrassing areas of study that our country is simply lacking behind on, and when you take it to civil rights that number drops to 2 . So we are not doing a good job in keeping our kids informed. But i will say there is a lot of respect and appreciation for how far we have come, and how much further we have to go and the fact that we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. Michael yes, and do they understand that. Look, the good news is it seems like pretty much every student and person in america knows who Martin Luther king is. And the people that High School Students can identify its george washington, and Martin Luther king. And julian bond who is one of my heros, he said it best when he was Teaching College he found all of the students knew who mar to inluther king was, but they saw him as sort of a fable, but he didnt know the other not quite so wellknown people. Im surprised that lil wayne even knew who emmett till was or how to spell his name. Its people kids are googling emmett till who may not have known who he was, so that i will give lil wayne credit for. Michael thats true, and the outrage of these kids once they realize the real story of lil wayne of emmett till may be directed towards lil wayne, and we have Julian Vaughn joining us on wednesday. Oh, great. Michael thank you so much for coming. Brett ehrlich didnt get to see the full presentation of the oscars last night, but good news is he is a twitter guy so he has the gist of the whole thing. He joins us next. Well be right back. The bar harbor bake is really worth trying. [ male announcer ] get more during red lobsters lobsterfest. With the years Largest Selection of mouthwatering lobster entrees. Like our delicious lobster lovers dream, featuring two kinds of succulent lobster tails. Or our savory, new grilled Maine Lobster and lobster tacos. Its back, but not for long. [ woman ] our guests go crazy for lobsterfest. My favorite entree is the lobster lovers dream. Whats yours . Come celebrate lobsterfest and sea food differently. [clucking]. Everyone wants to be the cadbury bunny. Cause only he brings delicious cadbury creme eggs, while others may keep trying. Nobunny knows easter better than cadbury michael last night the first lady appeared to present the oscar for best picture. Right now Brett Ehrlich will appear to give indepth commentary about it. Everyone just calm down brett is talking now. Why did you sleep so well last night . Its because you watched the oscars and you were out cold by best animated short. Reviews on the