Transcripts For MSNBC Weekends With Alex Witt 20130203

The board cuts. Let me tell you, if sequester happens, it is going to damage the readiness of the United States of america. We have the most powerful military force right now. Its important to providing stability. If it goes into effect and we have to do the kind of cuts that will go right at readiness, right at maintenance, we are going to weaken the United States and make it more difficult to respond to the crises in the world. Joining me now, Peter Alexander. With a good sunday to you, my friend. We have the president talking about gun control proposals, what is he saying . Reporter its as much about what he is doing and what he is saying in his trip to minnesota. This is a state that has a long history of gun ownership in that community. Nearly one in ten people in the state of minnesota have licenses to hunt in that state. Minneapolis is an area that is familiar with gun violence as well. A mass shooting that took place in september. The president is going to lay out and put an emphasis on his proposals to crackdown on gun violence. Here is what he said to telemundo that will air later. It has nothing to do with taking away peoples guns. Nobody is talking about violating the Second Amendment. We are talking common sense things like i met with law enforcement, police chiefs, sheriffs Gabby Giffords today. Right. Small communities, rural communities, big cities. There are things they know will make sense. Its what we have proposed. Reporter the president is getting help today in the form of an ad put out by a group funded by michael bloomberg. This is an ad that is going to air exclusively in the washington, d. C. Mark up. It will be seen by politicians and the president who live in this community. It has a message they hope will grab the attention of the people across the country. It is narrated by children. Take a listen. The nra once supported background checks. We think its reasonable to provide mandatory instant criminal background checks for every sale at every gun show, no loopholes anywhere for anyone. America can do this. Reporter thats Wayne Lapierre in 1999. He, of course, is basically the chief voice of the nra still today. He was on fox news sunday, this morning. He was indicating his opposition to universal background checks. Obviously. Its not what he said in 1999. His fear is there would be a gun registry and the government would insert itself in what should be a private matter for individuals. That radical change of thought. You know the picture that jay carney tweeted, a lot of people were talking about it. Reporter there were a lot of people talking on it. If you go on social media, im sure you heard about the skeet shooting. We reached out to the nra after that photo was put out. One picture does not erase a lifetime of supporting every gun ban and every gun control scheme available. The white house would challenge that characterization of the president s policies on guns. He is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. Many thanks as always. New on meet the press, panetta gave his confirmation to chuck hagel. The political knives were out for chuck hagel. What disappointed me was that, you know, they talked a lot about past quotes. What about what a secretary of defense is confronting today . Joining me now is democratic senator richard bloomen that will. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Will you vote in favor of the nomination . I will vote in favor of chuck hagel. It was a tough, gruelling hearing. But, i believe that on the key question, is he qualified to be the secretary of defense, he established he is a combat veteran who gave his life. Clearly a man of statute, cares about men and women in uniform and veterans. On the important questions going forward. He said he has shown that he has the qualifications to guide the department of defense in this very challenging period when budget cutbacks and other challenges are going to be at the forefront. Yours was one of the more civil direct questionings of chuck hagel. You talked about veterans issues, prosecuting sec yule assault, classifying them have enough made of them, do the job to defend the country and the like. However, some of your colleagues seemed almost prosecuting. Why was it like that . I was disappoint eed by the lack of civility of someone who served in this country, served in the Veterans Organization and the United States senate. Most important, the lack of focus on the policy and budget issues going forward. We are now drawing down from afghanistan. I hope at an accelerated pace, more quickly. Virtually no questions about the mission in afghanistan, training the afghans and combatting al qaeda and its affiliates. Virtually, little, if any focus on the see quest ration we will face. I focused on building submarines which we must do. He committed himself unequivocally. Going forward, the Strategic Decisions of spending. I think that there should have been more focus on the forward looking aspect. I was disappointed there wasnt. So, do you think, senator, that part of the aggressive questioning was personal about hagel breaking rank with former len colleagues and i guess what comes to mind is senator mccains q a with him. Chuck hagel came out and accompanied president obama when he was a candidate and helped build his Foreign Policy and didnt hang out and support his friend and republican colleague john mccain. Was there something personal there . There is always something personal in relationships between senators and chuck hagel is a former senator. I cant speculate on motives of each of the senators. They are probably different motives, an array of intent and purpose. I think there will be a vote this week in the committee, if not this week, next week, but soon. I believe there will be republican votes for senator hagel and if not in committee, at least on the floor. I believe he will be approved. I think the personal issues, hopefully, will be put behind us. Most importantly, it will be a bipartisan vote. Whatever the motives on a personal level, i hope partisanship is not part of this process as the American People watching that hearing may have concluded it was because the weight of the republican questioning, the prosecuting or crass examination aspect was so much on the republican side. Do you agree with the old tradition that president s should be able to pick their own cabinet, choose the people with whom they want to work . You know, past quotes and votes are fair game. You said that. Exactly. I did. Senator hagel, in his Opening Statement said he should not be judged by a single quote or a single vote. Its a fair point, too. Those questions about policy, past statements and actions are fair enough for this kind of setting and the committee has a responsibility, an obligation as well as opportunity to vet the future secretary of defense. Again, the key question is, a combat veteran, the first secretary of defense who would be an enlisted man who has seen war as he put it very movingly and passionately from the bottom. I can tell you in his meetings with me privately as well as publicly, he was passionate and intense about his commitment to men and women in uniform and veterans at a time when we need to retain the leaders and war fighters of the future when we draw down and we reduce the size of our troop levels. Every war in the past has been followed by a hollowing out of military personnel strength, the greatest asset we have is our people. We need to attract and retain them. He would be a leader by virtue of his passion and caring about the enlisted man as well as officer that is would be seen in that way and could play a crucial role in the personnel decisions. I hope very much that he will be judged on his merits, his leadership for the future, not past quotes and votes alone although they are relevant and i believe strongly that he will be confirmed if that judgment is made on the forward looking questions. Senator, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you, alex. Now to texas where local and federal officials are investigating a double murder at a shooting range. One of the victims a highly decorated navy s. E. A. L. He was described as the most lethal sniper in military history. He was featured on stars and stripes. Moments ago, Police Released this booking photo. Many questions remain. We have a couple different scenes we are looking at. Thats all being processed. The crime seen itself is processed. Details about weapons and types of anything like that, that will come out later as the investigation unfolds. Joining me now from where police captured him is mark snyder from kxas. Mark . Reporter we are out the Lancaster Police department 100 miles east of the crime scene. This is the city where the suspect is from. Hes gone before a judge and been arraigned on two counts of capital murder. Hes left the Police Department and transferred back to where the crime happened. We have video of the scene where police got him here in lancaster. We checked his criminal history and found a dwi charge, conviction last year. We are trying to find out motive or relationship he has with Christopher Kyle and another victim, chad littlefield. After the shooting, he left the gun range in chris kyles ford pickup truck. He went back to his home in lancaster. Police found him, caught up with him. They had a short pursuit but put him into custody without incident. They have a long way to go on this investigation. Were in lancaster, mark schneider, back to you. Thank you so much. Lester holt has a conversation with him about his four tours in iraq. I searched on top of the roof. The Movement Made me zoom my scope in on him, figure out what hefgs doing. I saw he has an rpg. About the time i saw he was getting into attack position, i decided it was time to take the shot. We are going to have more of the interview at 1 30. An overwhelming response this weekend to gun buyback programs across the u. S. Early reports show a wide variety of weapons from handguns and sawed off shotguns to high powered assault rifles. In miami, people handed over 75 guns in exchange for gift cards or miami heat tickets. In seattle 160 guns turned in before police ran out of money. Now to super bowl xlvii a battle of west coast versus the east coast. Most people are there to have fun. Im confident you are working in fun with the work in new orleans. First question, are people still looking for tickets, can they get nem them . Reporter the tickets are the name of the game. When i was walking over here, people said got tickets, do you want to buy a ticket . If you go on stub hub, there are tickets available. At last count, 450. The lowest was priced at 1200. Its probably a nosebleed seat for that price. If you want to go, its possible. All the celebrities around town probably have their tickets already. They were out in force last night at the partys here in new orleans. A couple of them making the rounds were anna ferris, Neal Patrick Harris is here and rooney from rascal flatts. Celebrities were performing as well. Justin timberlake and jayz had a concert that was invitation only. They probably have good seats. The gates open in a couple hours. Already, there are hundreds of people outside the gates lining up, waiting to get in. Buying tshirts. Its super bowl day with glorious weather, already in full swing. Okay. Sounds like a great report. Im going to work in fun. Of course you are. Thank you very much. West coast headlines are next with a page on why farmland is disappearing. President obama should be like ike in his second term. Why . That writer joins me next. Ike for president ike for pth you like ike, i like ike well take ike to washington we dont want tom or hair yacht yes she is. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] couldve had a v8. 100 vegetable juice, with three of your daily vegetable servings in every little bottle. I honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didnt think i would ever quit. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. It reduces the urge to smoke. It put me at ease that you could smoke on the first week. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. If you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. Tell your doctor about any history of depression or other Mental Health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. Dont take chantix if youve had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. If you develop these stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be lifethreatening. If you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms. Get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack. Use caution when driving or operating machinery. Common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. With chantix and with the support system it worked. It worked for me. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. This reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work . You just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. Step 1. Eat the soup. All those veggies and beans, thats what may help lower your cholesterol and well thats easy [ male announcer ] progresso. You gotta taste this soup. Some headlines making news on the west coast. The front page of the San Francisco chronicle. Most of the space is devoted to the 49ers. Its no surprise, they are playing in the super bowl. A piece on senator Dianne Feinsteins proposed gun bill. On the front page of the press enterprise in inland, california, a growing concern of solar farms where you see solar panels. Developers are buying up so much farmland some officials worry too much farmland will disappear. We have heard the second term curse. In the new issue of washington magazine, president obama should learn from president dwight eisenhower. The way to avoid the curse is be like ike. Joining me is evan thomas. He wrote ikes bluff. Welcome, so glad you are here. Hi, alex. What is so great about ike . He was enormously confident but the confidence to be humble. This is kind of a useful lesson for all of us, but particularly second term president s. It goes well if you are humble. He learned it growing up and as commander in world war ii. He showed as president , he has a nice modesty and humility to get things done. How does that reconcile with a guy who ranks being a fivestar general, you have to have an ego to do that. Sure. He learned how to control it. He used to work for general mcarthur. He was glorious and that. Eisenhower learned not to be that way. He said he got ahead by concealing his ambition. He did. It worked for him. If these great virtues include patient, confidence but not selfimportant, how does our current president stack up . I think hes a good man, but he can be cocky. Hes put upon. Hes doing everybody a favor by being president. It works against him. It alienates voters and other lawmakers. It would be useful for him to take his confidence and be more humble. You bring up a couple interesting points. Lets talk timing. They didnt have 24 7 cable news and twitter to deal with. You talk about political divisiveness. Everyone says Todays Congress is most partisan ever. Look at president eisenhowers tenure. It doesnt get much worse than that. How did he deal with that . Well, mccarthy was out of control. Eisenhower worried about his own right. He was low key. He thought mccar think would hang himself and he did. Not showing his hand, a hidden hand presidency. They brought mccarthy down. Eisenhower was very patient, a quality i wish i had more of. He worked behind the scenes to get things done. He reached out across the aisle. He was happy to work with democrats, particularly southern democrats. Yes, it was a different age. No cable tv and twitter. Some of the same human rules app apply. If you reach out to people, if you give credit to others, it goes better for you. I love that you talk about the patience he had. I thought it was funny that part you wrote about his having a temper and how he would be out playing golf and he took a golf and swung it at his doctor. He did. He had a big temper. He threw his golf club at his own doctor. Not so great. Yeah, not so great. But he hid his temper from the public and other senators and politicians. His aids said he was like peering into a furnace. He had tremendous selfcontrol. Its useful to have selfcontrol. Useful to be sneaky. You talk about how he could be that way with the fellow members. He played dumb pretty well. He did. He did. Once before a press conference, mr. President be careful. Eisenhower said dont worry. Ill just confuse them and he did. Sometimes he had intentionally bad sin tax. He was deflecting attention. He wasnt shy. He met with the press every other week. Its more than any other president. He was out there. He was careful not to overstate things. Careful not to show off too much. I want to ask you and this is the last thing, was he a little bit vain because of the eisenhower jacket. He took pains to show off his physiq physique. He did. I asked his family about it. He was a buff guy and he looked good in the eisenhower jacket, which he designed. He was vain, arent we all . He was careful not to show off. Well, ill glad you showed off with this book. Its a good one. Ikes bluff. Thanks for joining us. Thanks. The best Super Bowl Ad ever. First, lets get to number five. Pictures of Kate Middleton showing for the first time. Evidence of her pregnancy. She did not step out for weeks. She was hospitalized for mourning sickness. She appears in fine form now. We are wishing her well. , we replaced people with a machine. What . Customers didnt like it. So why do banks do it . Hello . Hello . if your bank doesnt let you talk to a real person 24 7, you need an ally. Hello . Ally bank. Your money needs an ally. What do we do when something really wants to be painted . We break out new behr ultra with stainblocker from the home depot. The best selling paint and primer in one that now eliminates stains. So it paints over stained surfaces, scuffed surfaces, just about any surface. What do you say we go where no paint has gone before, and end up some place beautiful. More saving. More doing. Thats the power of the home depot. Behr ultra. Now with advanced stain blocking, only at the home depot, and only 31. 98 a gallon. You name it. Ive hooked it. But theres one. One thats always eluded me. Thought i had it in the blizzard of 93. Ha never even came close. Sometimes, i actually think its mocking me. [ engine revs ] what . quattro get ready for a lot more of that newplane smell. Were building the youngest, most modern fleet among the largest us airlines to ensure that you are more comfortable and connected than ever. We are becoming a new american. Lets go to the weather now. Snow showers are moving through part ofs this country today. What about the game day forecast in the big easy . Dylan dreier is here with that. The forecast in the dome is going to be okay. Its from the bars over to the stadium, im sure people will enjoy some of the sunshine. 60 degrees by game time later tonight. It is looking fantastic down there. Next year, the super bowl in new york city, the average temperature 32 degrees. I think it will be a different story next year once we get around this time. We are looking at cold temperatures across the northern plains. You can see where nine degrees in minneapolis. Windchills in minneapolis, two below. That is where the coldest of the air is. Its from that area where these storms are dipping in from canada and we are going to see the clipper type systems that come in. They dump about two to four inches of snow, then move on quickly. You can see where todays snow is located. Western pennsylvania, West Virginia moving into western virginia and Western North carolina. We will see perhaps a couple inches of snow. Thats about it. Across the northeast, a flurry or two. Temperatures chilly with highs in the mid30s. Thank you. Now to todays short list of number ones, new orleans is hosting the tenth super bowl today. That ties miami for hosting the most super bowl games. The 49ers are favored to win. That would tie the current leader, the pittsburgh steelers. You wont find a talking baby, but mean joe green and his memorable encounter with a kid. See you around. Its the way it should be i like to see hey kid . Catch. Wow thanks mean joe. Marie calendars puts everything you love into pot pies. Vegetables and a crust made from scratch. Ive been coloring lizs hair for years. But lately shes been coming in with less gray than usual. Whats she up to . The new root touchup by nicen easy has the most shade choices, designed to match even salon color in just 10 minutes. With the new root touchup, all they see is you. Sven gets great rewards for his Small Business how does this thing work . Oh, i like it [ garth ] svens Small Business earns 2 cash back on every purchase, every day woohoo so thats ten security gators, right . Put them on my spark card why settle for less . Testing hot tar. Great businesses deserve great rewards [ male announcer ] the spark Business Card from capital one. Choose unlimited rewards with 2 cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day whats in your wallet . Heres your invoice. Welcome back to weekends with alex witt. In turkey, police are questioning nearly a dozen people in connection with the murder of an american tourist. They found her body in istanbul last night. She vanished nearly two weeks. Theres questions on who is responsible for her death. Richard engel is in iz stan bull with more. Reporter theres mystery surrounding the case. The 33yearold mother of two came to this country last month for a twoweek holiday. This was her first time outside the United States. She was planning on taking this vacation to pursue her hobby of photography with one of her girlfriends. The girlfriend backed out at the last minute and she decided to go ahead with the trip. Everything was going normally. She was in contact with her family. No indication anything was going wrong. On january 21st, the day she was supposed to go home, she never got on the flight. Her relatives, obviously, became very concerned for the next two weeks, no word. She was missing. The police in this country set up an entire unit to try to find her. The disappearance and murder, ultimately is very rare. No one had any idea what happened to her until last night they found her body. Police discovered that she was left, apparently dumped by the palace in the old city wedged up against the ramparts of the old city. The police chief today said she was killed by some sort of blunt trauma to the head. Still, no definitive answers as to where she was during this twoweek period and who took her. Alex. Terrible story. Thank you very much. In his weekly address, president obama gave an upbeat outlook for the economy this year. We are poised to grow in 2013. The real signs of progress, home prices are starting to climb again. Sales are at a fiveyear high. Manufacturing is roaring back. Businesses created 2. 2 million jobs last year. We just learned our economy created more jobs over the past few months than originally thought. Joining me is elijah cummings. Sir, nice to see you. Thanks for joining me. It was a mixed bag for the economy. The gdp detracted but there were good numbers in the report. Listening to the president , he sounded optimistic. How do you see the economy . I see the economy as being fragile. But definitely moving in the right direction. Alex, its why we have to be so careful with regard to what we do in congress. A lot of the problems that could come about with regard to gdp is a result of the public and business feeling a certain level of uncertainty. We have to make we have to do what we are supposed to do in congress, come to reasonable decisions. We have to have some cuts. Those cuts have to be reasonable and careful and we have to make sure that we do nothing to stop this fragile economy from growing. We have already seen the effect on the gdp from the last quarter. We cant have that happening again. We have to move forward. The president in this address mentioned home prices started to climb again. I know you have done a lot of work on the housing crisis. Is it improving and what can the government do to help . There are pockets in baltimore and cleveland and detroit and a number of our cities where foreclosure is at an alltime high. People have lost just about everything they have with regard to their houses. I hope the president and the congress concentrate more on foreclosure. I dont want us to get so happy about home prices going up that we forget there are millions upon millions of americans under water with regard to their houses, lost their houses and three, the situation now where Interest Rates are down. We have to find ways to allow them to refinance their houses to those lower Interest Rates. Hopefully, in a second term, the president will be aggressive with regard to that. Im going to be pushing for that. Not surprisingly. Se quest ration. Will it happen and if it does, will it send the economy back into recession . Alex, i am praying that it doesnt happen. But, i see the way this Tea Party Group has been operating in the congress. They have had we have heard all kind of threats. In talking to a number of them, they basically said, you know, if it comes to it, its going to happen. Im hopeful that we will folks will back up a little bit just like with this recent debt ceiling vote. I think, basically, business is going to have to come forward like with regard to the debt ceiling and say look, you cant do this. You are going to wreck the economy of the United States and wreck the economy of the world. Im hoping that we wont get there. But, alex, i have to tell you, it would not shock me if we do. Okay. Lets switch gears. On the heels of the Senate Confirmation hearing for chuck hagel, has the Political Climate changed with the new members of congress on board . Well, you know, with regard first of all, with regard to chuck hagel, the media basically reported that he got beaten up pretty bad. I didnt see it that way. I thought he held his own. I anticipate that we will have a lot of motion, commotion and emotion but chuck hagel will be confirmed. Hell do a great job. After all, the president should have the persons he wants to carry out his policy. I think that will be the case. With regard to the new congress, we have to have a wait and see situation. The number of tea partiers lost their seats. Theyre still a strong force in the house. Basically, those folks are determined to control Speaker Boehner. I just hope that we dont have the kind of gridlock that we have had in the past. I dont think its good for anybody. Not for the economy and certainly not for my constituents. Okay, we are going to have a little fun. What are the ravens chances . I think they will win by seven points. We have been the underdogs over and over again. Just on your show, i heard them say that its over. You know what . They said it was over with denver. They said it was over with new england and we kicked butt. I expect us to kick more butt today. I expect for ray lewis to hold up the trophy at the end of the day. Of course everyone is watching ray. However, any chance you and minority leader pelosi have a wager going . Do you have to send her blue crabbed if the 49ers win . I just did not want her to have shes got so many burdens. I knew the ravens would win. I didnt want her to have to send me anything from San Francisco. Im still going to send her roses when we win. You are a thoughtful guy. I was reminded, shes from baltimore originally. Split loyalties for her today. She has a street named after her. There you go. I think you should get a street named after you if one is not there already, sir. Congressman elijah cummings, thank you. Next, the best of office politics. What happens in the white house stays in the white house. Not exactly but we get a unique inside look for you. And reimagined nearly everything in it . Gave it greater horsepower and classleading 38 mpg highway. Advanced headlights. And zero gravity seats . Yeah, that would be cool. Introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. Its our most innovative altima ever. Nissan. Innovation that excites. Now get a 199permonth lease on the 2013 nissan altima. By the armful . By the barrelful . The carful . How about. By the bowlful . Campbells soups give you nutrition, energy, and can help you keep a healthy weight. Campbells. Its amazing what soup can do. In this weeks office politics, the best ofs in our series. Youll hear from Peter Alexander. I began by asking Chris Matthews to explain the two parts of politics. Theres two parts of politics. One is the predickment. Thats what i write rules about. There seems to be politicians get in trouble for the same thing, forgetting the people at home, getting to washington. They get in trouble. The left and the right fights are predictable. Incumbency is a tricky thing. Then theres the phenomena. Black president. Because this one guy could do it. I dont think many other people could have done it. We in the political commentary didnt think up barack obama, he came to us. I remember thinking this is our first black president right there. As long as the english language is spoken in the corner of the globe, people will write about barack obama because of the historic achievement in a country as we have talked about. Ridden with racism. You know, for a man named Barack Hussein obama to have become president at what is it, 46 at the time . Remarkable. Remarkable. It was just a thrill to literally watch history unfold and be a part of that. The biggest challenge was that it was exhausting. There was a physical toll, which i wasnt prepared for. What was it like on election day . Election day was one of the most exciting and challenging days of my life. One of the Biggest Challenges is when we do a special report, you standup. Here is all the correspondents from the networks, okay, standing side by side by side speaking at the same time when they give you the twominute warning. Theres me, ed henry from fox. You are side by side the entire press core is staring at you, the president is about to walk through the door and you are all trying to communicate three feet away from each other. And you are hearing them, you are hearing what they are saying and voices in your head as well. Its terrible. I think having reported in awful places, this is the hardest thing i have done. You know behind that door the president and his staff are listening to what you are saying. They are watching you. They asked me about things i have said shortly there after, so i know they are. He walks in the door. It is the biggest challenge of what we do. There are a million breaking news developments throughout the day when you are covering the white house. If you think about it, everything leads back to the white house. What about a favorite moment, did you have one . Watching the first family. I loved it. I watched maybe an hour of watching them in the reviewing. I kept thinking, my god, these are attractive, a better off elite in the sense people and yet, like any family, at a wedding, a funeral, any kind of event, they are antsy and moving around. The girls are cute. We are going watch the first daughters as they grow up. Our guests next week will be colonel jack jacobs. Strategy talk is next. Gourmet cat food. Mornings are delicious protein rich entrees with garden veggies and egg. Fancy feast mornings. The best ingredient is love. Five days later, i had a massive heart attack. Bayer aspirin was the first thing the emts gave me. Now, im on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [ woman ] learn from my story. In todays strategy talk, the picture heard round the world in a new interview today. National rifle asogs yags leader Wayne Lapierre asks if this means i will not take away your rifle shotgun handgun. They have fliers like this, obama is not going to take your gun. He will protect gun rights. Now hes trying to take away all three. I dont think you can trust i mean, my gosh, Dianne Feinstein said shes going to go doortodoor to pick them up. Congressman from virginia, tom davis. Good to see you both. Thanks for joining me. You are a communications expert. Does lapierre have a point in so much this picture was about as obvious a pr move as it gets . I would not have expected anything less than the answer we got from Wayne Lapierre. Stop there and consider the course. There was a bit of controversy that erupted this week in terms of whether or not it was true, does he skeet shoot, does he know how to hold a gun and all that. Those things should be ignored. From timetotime, there is a feeling that you know what, show the picture. Lets try to move past it and show people who are going to suggest that the president doesnt know how to hold a gun or never held a gun. Thats flat out wrong. I think thats important because in the context of this conversation, it is also absolutely incorrect to say that anybody is trying to take anyones guns away. The only people talking about that are the republicans. In fact, to you now tom, congressman lapierre or rather lapierres argument is false. The president is not trying to take away rifles, shotguns and handguns. Why not argue the actual current facts, not the hypotheticals that insight fear or is fear the point . I think he did talk about his objections, you know, to the background checks and i think they went through that in some detail as well. The fact of the matter is the president does wasnt to prohibit the people from buying certain types of guns. The president said he wants to ensure people who should not legally have them. If you have a mental problem, if you are a criminal those people dont have guns. Hes not saying and hes been clear, if you are a lawabiding citizen, of course you have your constitutional Second Amendment right. Hes talking people who legally should not have guns, lets make sure they dont get guns. Let me make clear, you have a lot of laws that are not being enforced. Mr. Lapierres point is enforce the laws before you try to do new ones. I dont know if its a winning argument. From some of the democrats they have been very silent on this issue in terms of where they are going. Harry reid, look at the number of democrats up for reelection. The president has to get his own partys house in order before they can proceed to get a political victory. Interesting. Speaking of harry reid, i want to play a clip from him. Hes asked if he would vote for Dianne Feinsteins plan. I didnt vote for assault weapons last time because it didnt make sense. Ill take a look at it. Restrictions on high capacity magazines . I think its something we have to look at. Take a look or vote for . Lets see what it is. I have been supported by the nra on occasion. I know Wayne Lapierre. Hes been extremely pleasant with me. We have a good relationship. I am not here to demean the organization. If the Democratic Senate majority cannot give a full support, how will it pass in. A couple things. Harry reid along with a number of democrats and republicans, and there are plenty of republican that is have been quiet on this as well. Politically speaking, they are taking a step back, waiting to let it fight itself out and see what the final legislation is. I would rather see, personally, a stronger amount of support for some of these measures, particularly background checks and high capacity magazines. They are things the majority of americans support. But, you know, this is politics. The politicings of it are, for some time, you are going to have some people out front pushing. Others are going have to hang back. At the end of the day, what will matter is what the final legislation will look like and what the final vote tally looks like. The politics of this are not what the majority wants or doesnt want. Everybody concedes the majority want background checks. It is an intensity issue. The people that vote on this issue tend to be with the gun owners at this point. They are the one that is basically will punish people on election day. Republicans who vote for the assault weapons van will get no reward from democrats crossing over but plenty of punishment in their own party. The same with rural democrats. Thats why this stuff is going nowhere. Its part of what remains to be seen. Certainly for the first time and i remember, i worked in the Clinton Administration the last time we attempted this. I have not seen this growing like mothers groups and other grass roots organizations. If we need to increase our intensity and show how serious we are, we are going to do it. I think that changes the nature of this dynamic. I agree with the congressman, this is about intensity at the end of the day. Its going to be a tricky vote for a lot of people on both sides of the aisle. Congressman, you represent virginia, a gun state, how much power is the control we have over our lawmakers . I voted for background checks. I supported closing the gun show loophole. Nra was headquartered in my district. We had a great working relationship. We didnt agree on everything. I think its more the lobby than the gun owners. They think it is a slippery slope once you start passing these rules and regulations. The president out there with his photoop skeet shooting, we dont know if he hit anything. It could be like his bowling. They dont have the credibility to make the sale. It has to come from others. Well see where it goes. You may be able to take it to it. What i have a problem with is we are willing to pass all kind of regulations when it comes to the constitutional right to vote, but a simple background check, no, no, no, we cant do anything that would limit the Second Amendment right. All rights come with responsibility. They are not enforcing the laws they have is one of the problems. Thats what the president ial measures were meant to do. All right. Thanks. Thank you very much. Good to see you both. Super bowl ads crossing the line. It will make you shake your head. Hmm. Using robotics and mobile technology, verizon innovators have made it possible for teachers to teach, and for a kid. Nathan. Tadpole. To feel like a kid again. Because the worlds Biggest Challenges deserve even bigger solutions. Powerful answers. Verizon. [ woman ] too weak. Wears off. Been there. Tried that. Ladybug body milk . No thanks. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. Eucerin professional repair moisturizes while actually repairing very dry skin. Its so powerful you can skip a day. But light enough you wont want to. Dermatologist recommended eucerin. The end of trial and error has arrived. Try a free sample at eucerinus. Com. Good day to all of you. Welcome to weekends with alex witt. Its past 1 00 here in the east, 10 00 a. M. In the west. Harry reid drawing a line in the sand with republicans on the battle of the approaching see quest ration line. 1. 2 trillion are set to take effect. Lets go to the white house and Peter Alexander. Good sunday to you. What is senator reid saying . Reporter as we have seen, theres be compromise on issues like immigration between republicans and democrats. It doesnt appear this is going to be the case on budget dealings. Harry reid was on abc news this morning and he said, specifically, that as it comes to the deal between republicans and democrats without any question, revenue would have to be on the table. That would mean more taxes or some other form of new income for the government. Lets listen to harry reid himself. Are you saying for to lift the sequester, its going to have to include some new revenue . Without any question. And there are some efforts being made to only get rid of it as it relates to the fence. Your position on lifting the sequester, avoiding the shutdown. Any one of those deals include revenues. The answer is yes. I have a good fan base for that, the American People. Reporter obvious that that puts reid and the democrats at odds with the republicans. Senator Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell said a couple weeks ago when it comes to this issue, the tax issue is finished. The republicans are not willing to give up more money in terms of getting away or avoiding the looming sequester or the looming debt crisis that is fast looming as well. A name we havent heard often, mitt romney, the 2012 president ial candidate said it could include oil and gas subsidies that reid called lowhangi ining fruit. Okay, Peter Alexander from the white house. Thank you. New today, leon panetta is sharing his take on the confirmation hearings for the man nominated to proceed him, chuck hagel. Its obvious the political knights were out for chuck hagel. Thats what you think it was . What disappointed me was that, you know, they talked a lot about past quotes. What about what the press secretary is facing today. What about the war in afghanistan, the war on terrorism . The impact its going to have. What about middle east turmoil. The issues. Those were we just had not seen enough time spent on discussing those issues. In the end, thats what counts. Dana millbank and anna palmer are joining me now. Thanks for having us. Dana, your latest piece, you pointed out jim inhofe called chuck hagel a friend. With friends like these, voting against his confirmation as secretary of defense, before listening to his testimony, talk about the calculation here . Yes, he was one of only three in the senate to vote against his good friend john kerry as well. Right. I think what you have here is an attempt to overturn the results of the election through the confirmation process. Basically, hes the Top Republican on armed services, which is taking up the hague l nomination. Hes saying i disagree with all of hagels views. They are in line with president obamas but i disagree and im voting against him. The way it worked before, the president gets to pick his nominees and its not an acceptable reason to vote against him because he agrees with the guy who nominated him. How much of the hearing was politics . How much policy . How much personal . Break it down. Its a side show. This is senate. Its the opposite party. When they are nominating, democrats do it, republicans do it. Its also personal. With chuck hagel, he served with them. He was a di visive figure. You are not going to see a lot of republicans doing it. Its part policy, its part political politics and gets personal. You know, the personal part of it, it seemed to take it to a completely different level this week. I mean am i completely wrong . It did. I dont think hagel helped himself by his performance calling the legitimate state of iran, having to go back and pausing and assaulting, you know, kind of performance. Certainly very different than what you saw the performance that senator kerry gave and the reception by his colleagues. Anna, your article, is it possible the nra is using this as a pr move for background checks . I think this is something that any lobby group when looking at the battle that is going to have many different legs to it, they are going to say we dont want to give up anything. If we do, the whole cards could tumble with it. You saw Wayne Lapierre, the head of the nra staying firm on that saying this program hasnt worked. You know, the Mental Health lobby has lobbied heavily not to have Mental Health records instituted in them. Why have more of a system that is already flawed. Dana, what about your reaction to the picture of the president skeet shooting this weekend. What do you make of it . I dont know. Dont you think it was photo shopped . I want to see more of these. I want to see ballistics testing. I want to see if he had explosives residue on his fingers. The con spear si theory. The skeeters. I dont see why the white house had to engage in this game. I suppose theres no great harm in issuing the photograph. Its not going to quiet down. Theres a certain segment who is going to have doubts if the president said he ate cheerios for breakfast, they will want to see evidence of that. You have to decide whether you want to play the game or not. I want to ask you about whats going on in massachusetts. Boston herald says they are pushing for mitt romneys wife ann or tag to take a run for the Massachusetts Senate for the seat vacated by john kerry. Do you see that happening . Remember how well mitt romney did in massachusetts in the last election. I cant see ann romney getting into politics. Certainly his sons seem to be politically ambitious if a bit hot headed. Maybe a few years down the road. What about you, anna . I think theres raw feelings with the romney family. But if you look at what it takes to be a candidate, they can raise money and tag had a very visible role in his fathers president ial campaign. Theres a lot of name recognition that you could see in maybe two, four years coming to fruition. Dana, before i let you go, i want to ask you about se quest ration set for march 1st. Elijah cummings says he hopes it doesnt happen. What do you see for reality on march 1st . Its a headache. We have to wait until we get almost to that point and go through the entire misery at the end of last month. Each time they seem to hammer it up by punting it. I dont expect the word is going to end. Okay. Many thanks to you both. Thanks. Here is a programming note. You can watch meet the press including chuck todds interview with leon panetta here at the top of the hour. Right now, more than 100 million americans are counting down to super bowl kick off. The game begins in hours. Jay gray is live for us outside the superdome. Whats going on there . Getting excited . Reporter i think so, alex. A lot of energy and excitement. This is new orleans. The party has been going on for days. I think there are fans that have been here and not to bed getting ready to get inside the superdome for the game. Game day in new orleans. The gates are in place, banners uncurled, security in the air and on the ground is set. Go ravens reporter the big party in the big easy is about to hit its peak. Its great being with friends. Awesome party place. Reporter a bicycle brigade honors the saints. Tonight it will be the niners and ravens taking home the trophy. Theres a clear winner here. Its fantastic. You could not ask for a better town or better people. Its been amazing. Reporter this week, the image of new orleans seems to have been transformed. No talk of katrina or the oil spill. Evidence of the resurgence of this city. Its about resilience. Its about determination to say we are not going to give up. Reporter thousands of fans. Many here for the first time leave little question. New orleans is not only back, but better than ever. Theres nothing that beats this town, nothing. Crazy. Theres so many places, its endless. You could spend weeks here. Reporter locals will tell you its not a bad idea. Mar mardi gras ramps up after the game. A pr boost and this is going to be great for the local economy. At least 430 million pushed into this economy because of the super bowl. Now, i know you grew up on the west coast. Does that mean you have the 49ers tonight . Yeah. Im a california girl. Im from l. A. If we had a team, fine. Im saying im rooting for the 49ers. Can i ask you something, jay . Reporter yeah. What was that cool transformer thing . Reporter how cool is that . We were talking about that. What was that . Reporter a guy with a suit on his back and he transforms into a car and rolls around on bourbon street. I have seen a lot of things there but thats a first. Thanks for bringing it to us, we appreciate it. Have fun. Vice President Biden says something we thought was impossible to do with iran is possible but theres a catch. I tried weight loss plans. But their shakes arent always made for people with diabetes. Thats why theres glucerna hunger smart shakes. They have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. And they have six grams of sugars. With fifteen grams of protein to help manage hunger. Look whos getting smart about her weight. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. A smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. When you lost the thing you cant believe you lost. When what you just bought, just broke. Or when you have a little trouble a long way from home. As an American Express cardmember you can expect some help. But what you might not expect, is you can get all this with a prepaid card. Spends like cash. Feels like membership. He opened up jakes very private world. At first, jakes family thought they saved ziggy, but his connection with jake has been a lifesaver. For a love this strong, his family only feeds him iams. Compared to other leading brands, it has 50 more animal protein. To help keep ziggys body as strong as a love that reaches further than anyones words. Iams. Keep love strong. That reaches further than anyones words. What do we do when something really wants to be painted . We break out new behr ultra with stainblocker from the home depot. The best selling paint and primer in one that now eliminates stains. So it paints over stained surfaces, scuffed surfaces, just about any surface. What do you say we go where no paint has gone before, and end up some place beautiful. More saving. More doing. Thats the power of the home depot. Behr ultra. Now with advanced stain blocking, only at the home depot, and only 31. 98 a gallon. Vice President Joe Biden says the u. S. Is prepared to hold direct talks with iran over the program. The Vice President is in the middle of a trip to europe during International Conference appearance in germany this weekend. Theres still time. Theres still space for diplomacy. The ball is in the government of irans court. Its past time for iran to look serious, good faith approach to negotiations with the p5 plus one. Joining me is former democratic congressman of pennsylvania and joe sus tack. Good to be with you. What institutes it . They have to come to the table and understand our red line cannot have the capability for the weapon. They have to be able to negotiate on that area. They are willing to take the nuclear reactor, capability and be sure it remains civilian. The enrichment has to be done out of the country and that that will come back can be used as medicinal reactor. They have to have that. Why would they do that . I think they are thinking very seriously of why to do that because the economic sanction that is are multilateral and are working. They are not perfect. I cant tell you they will bring them about to the final resolution of stopping the Nuclear Weapons program. Their currency along with their employment is out of sight. So many are unemployed in the middle class. I think that you are going to see, as this continues where they cant sell the oil around the world because no ship of their own maritime industry can get insurance from lloyds of london to pull into a port around the world and nobody is letting them in. At the end of their own president ial elections in june where they have their own internal strife like our president ial elections where things dont happen until after the election, you will see them with more, i think more effort coming to negotiations with the United States. I cant tell you we are going to be successful. Tell me what you think is more likely, holding direct talks with iran or a direct military strike on irans new class . You are kind of asking me sort of like when i proposed to my wife. I thought she was going to say yes, but she said no. I kept at it. Okay. We persisted. Something came about. I think its more likely it will be successful. I can tell you with assurance this, alex. Militaries can stop the problem. We cant fix them. The best military assessment, if we were to strike iran and we should never take the military option off the table if we consider the benefits are worth the cost, we could, at best, slow the program for four years. It would take hundreds upon hundreds of aircraft to beat down their service to air missiles to get to the deeply buried targets. We cannot destroy them completely, but we can stymie it. They can lay thousands of remains to where the Energy Center of the worldcoms from. Thats why anybody who thinks we should not try to bring about a more peaceful resolution to this with economic sanctions that hurt. So, lets get to the chuck hagel factor here. He was against the tough sanctions on iran. Are you concerned about his approach to iran . Well, he does have a point in the sense that rarely can sanctions by the United States alone work. Its like south africa. When we got multilateral sanctions were we successful on the country with the devastating system. Sanctions are hard to work if you dont get other countries there. I am in support of them. Hsbc, one of the largest multinational banks in the world got fined 2 billion in the 38 billion of profit it made last year because it knew it was funneling against our sanctions and others desires money from the Iranian Revolutionary guard. Hundreds of millions of dollars. They finally got called with the multilateral sanctions and we fined them a little bit. There should have been criminal sanctions. Its the only way they will be successful. Its the point they were making. Interesting there. Look, you know chuck hagel. He endorsed you. You traveled with him to iraq in 2007. Given his performance, he seemed unprepared at times or can you say thats the way he communicates or do you think he was unprepared . His presentation wasnt spot on. Alex, you have interviewed me and mine isnt always spot on. I butchered your name on the intro. The point is, who is this man . Have they taken correct stock on him . You know all of that. The most important points is he will defend israel without question. He will never take that military option off the table with regard to iran and he will transform our military. He is the kind of individual who will be at the right hand of the president saying here is my best advice. They need a Knowledge Based military, not just counting how many ships, but can the ships find with sensors the add vi sar. He is the man that is best needed to take Defense Security forward, remembering the military has to be strong. But it should be used only when the costs are worth it. That benefits far outweigh the cost. Thats what we need. Listen, we always have you back. You are always a great interview, no matter what you were saying. Congressman, thank you. Thanks for having me. Super bowl. Whose side is god on . The public spoke on that. The buzz of the Super Bowl Ads. How far is too far . Weve decided to put aside our rivalry. cause all our states are great. And now is when the gulf gets even better. The beaches and waters couldnt be more beautiful. Take a boat ride or just lay in the sun. Enjoy the wildlife and natural beauty. And dont forget our amazing seafood. So come to the gulf, youll have a great time. Especially in alabama. You mean mississippi. Thats florida. Say louisiana or theres no dessert. Brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. When the doctor told me that i could smoke for the first week. Im like. Yeah, ok. Little did i know that one week later i wasnt smoking. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. It reduces the urge to smoke. Some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. If you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. Tell your doctor about any history of depression or other Mental Health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. Dont take chantix if youve had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. If you develop these stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be lifethreatening. If you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms. Get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack. Use caution when driving or operating machinery. Common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. It helps to have people around you. They say, youre much bigger than this. And you are. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. Your soups are so awesomely delicious my husband and i cant stop eating em whats. That. On your head . Can curlers tomato basil, potato with bacon. Weve got a lot of empty cans. [ male announcer ] progresso. You gotta taste this soup. Im up next, but now im singing the heartburn blues. Hold on, prilosec isnt for fast relief. Cue up alkaseltzer. It stops heartburn fast. Oh what a relief it is hey, son. Have fun tonight. You know what this room needs . A smile. Who wants to come with i . Coming along with a song that were singing you are three minutes late. Some of the multimillion dollar adses you are going to see. 30 of people say the commercials are their favorite part of the game. They are creating controversy before airing. James cooper is here executive editor. We love these segments. Good. Lets talk about godaddy. Com. Here, take a look. Together, they are perfect. Oh. Okay. In this environment of hypersocial media, is this all that breaks through here or this is a great example of a gonzo bizarre stunts. They can breakthrough. This has a bit of antic factor it to. Sex is what marketers pull to get people invested in the ads. Yeah. Okay. Speaking of sex or sexy, look at the one kate upton has for mercedesbenz. The teasers were longer than the actual ads. Why release the teasers several days or weeks before the broadcast . This is the age of youtube. These ads can be seen by millions of people literally before the game. I think the mercedes ad is going to go north of 6 Million People before the game airs. If you want to tease and get them out there, you can get a big audience. If the ad is good, people are anticipating it during the game. If its not good, theres fatigue factor and you lose the bet. The ads during controversy from volkswagen. Take a peek at this one. I hate mondays. They are the worst. No worries, man, everything will be all right. Yeah, man. Dont fret, sticky bun come soon. Okay. Some people found this ad controversial. Does a controversial ad help a big company . I think like this ad i dont think is very controversial. There are claims it was racist because they use a jamaican accent. I think the controversy of this ad blew over. It would be interesting to see the go daddy ad. There will be controversy over that. Its raw. Yeah. If it helps go daddy or hurts it, its hard to say. People will talk about it. Maybe thats the ultimate goal. Why do you think it is, 39 of the folks want to watch the commercials . Why are these ads such an american phenomena . Football is a huge fa nom that in this country. Its the biggest day for sports and marketings biggest day. People invest themselves emotionally. They want to interact with the brands. Im thinking world series of nba playoffs. Is that because its not a one night big event . Is that the only thing that differentiates our love for football . Theres a lot of money invested in this. The build up is massive. The audience is 111 Million People. Yeah. Its going to be the biggest thing on television. Theres a lot of emotion invested in this thing. You are going to be busy. Thanks for coming in. We appreciate your time. The San Francisco 49ers are 3 1 2 point favorites to beat. 27 say god plays a role in the outcome of sporting events. 53 say god rewards those with faith, health and success. Of a bb cream equal . Introducing the newest beauty trend. Total effects cc cream c for color. C for correction. [ female announcer ] fight 7 signs of aging flawlessly. Cc whats possible. Sxz 34 minutes past the hour. We have details on a double murder of a highly deck raids marine and another man. The most lethal sniper. He was featured on stars and stripes and authored american spirit. Police captured the shooter. Ed di ray routh of texas. Last year, lester holt spoke with the victim about taking down the sniper in iraq. I saw him on top of the roof. The movement had me zoom my scope in on him, see what he was doing. He has an rpg. He was trying to hide. When i saw he was getting into attack position, i decided it was time to take the shot. He hit his mark from 2100 yards or 1. 2 miles away. An unheard of distance that stunned even him. 2,100 yards. Lucky shot . Extremely lucky. Most of those he killed never saw him. Going to war, they never see you. Everyone i culled was trying to harm americans or civilians. He leaves behind a wife and two children. In alabama, we heard from police on day six of the hostage stand off. Officers will deliver more toys, food and medicine to the 5yearold boy being held inside the bunker. Lets go to alabama. Gabe has been there for a few days now. What is the latest there . Reporter police are tightlipped about the situation, not answering any questions. Here is what the local sheriff had to say. Today is going to be a tough day for our family. Please give them the peace to be able to do what they need to do in their time of mourning. I appreciate your cooperation and patience with us. You know, just assume as we have more information to give, you will be the first to know. Reporter he is referring to the family of charles poland jr. , the murdered bs driver. His funeral is scheduled for later this afternoon. The suspect jimmy lee dykes boarded the stopped school bus and demanded two children. When the bus driver refused. Dykes shot and killed him and made off with a boy named ethan with a form of autism. Hes been in this underground bunker for 150 hours now. Police are not releasing much information. We know police say the child is physically unharmed as of now. They were able to get him medicine and coloring books to keep him occupied. Yesterday, the sheriff thanked the suspect for taking care of that child. Back to you. Gabe, thank you so much. Controversial new comments about gun control from National Rifle Association Wayne lapie e lapierre. He claims an assault weapons ban is a ploy to take all guns away from lawabiding citizens. Fliers like this, obama is not going to take your gun, obama will protect gun rights. Now hes trying to take away all three. Hes not taking away shotguns. Have you looked at the feinstein bill hes supporting . Thats exactly what it does. I think what they will do is turn this universal check of law abiding to a registry of lawabiding people. They dont want that. Theres nothing anyone in the administration said that theres going to be a registry. Lapierre says he used to support universal background checks but changed his mind. The right to own guns and use them in selfdefense is argued in the fight. An article in slate, they are taking a progun advocate to task for her view that is easier access to firearms makes women safer. She joins me in studio. Thanks for being here. The independent forum told the senate here on gun control women need access to assault weapons. Here is her explanation as you laugh, lets listen. Research shows that in jurisdictions with concealed carry laws, women are less likely to be raped or murdered than they are in states with more restrictions on gun ownership. If we ban these types of assault weapons, you are putting women at a great disadvantage, more so than men because they do not have the same type of physical strength and opportunity to defend themselves in a handtohand struggle. Okay. Characterize her comments and tell me how they stack up to reality. Well, Gayle Trotter was telling the story of violence against women that implied intruders breaking into your house and fighting them off with a gun. The bigger the gun the better. Its an act by people they know, men they know. Domestic violence. Yeah. A lot of it. A woman is six times more likely to be killed by a husband, a boyfriend or expartner than she is by an intruder. Okay. Is there anything that she gave in her testimony that you do agree with . Not particularly. I mean, she may have she was using a narrow statistic about conceal carry. That doesnt really relate to how many guns there are out there. Most gun owners dont have conceal carry licenses. States that have more gun ownership have more higher homicide rates. To contradict what she was saying, your article says more guns put women in danger. Explain what you mean by that. Think of it clearly. I think trotter was talking having a gun in the home. For women in a Domestic Violence situation, theres nothing more dangerous than having a gun in the home. The guy usually has the gun . The person who is willing to be vital is more likely to grab the gun. Meaning, less likelihood of a woman being able to wrestle the gun away. You have laughing because you dont think its likely . Its not likely. As gayle said, men are bigger and stronger, on average. Also, if your husband or boyfriend is veesive toward you, its easy for him to emotionally dominate you and control you. Its difficult to bring yourself in a fight over a gun and go off in the struggle. The Washington Post agrees with your opinion as we bring up something to read here. The quote is the latest weapon in the war against restrictions on access to gun is the straw. Dont fall for her. Clam mor for gun control methods for expanded background checks. You know, we heard Wayne Lapierre say this is just being used as a way for the president to take away gun rights. As a woman, where do you stand on this . Background checks are incredibly important when talking Domestic Violence because men who have been convicted of Domestic Violence are not allowed to own or buy guns. Because of the gun show loophole, they can go to a gun show and buy one a lot of the time. Amanda, a great discussion. Thank you for the article. Appreciate it. Say it aint so. Cuts are fast approaching. What will lawmakers do to sop them . The big three is next. Im serious, we compare our direct rates side by side to find you a great deal, even if its not with us. [ ding ] oh, thats helpful well, our company does that, too. Actually, we invented that. Its like a sauna in here. Helping you save, even if its not with us now, thats progressive call or click today. No mas pantalones executor of efficiency. You can spot an amateur from a mile away. While going shoeless and metalfree in seconds. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. You can even take a fullsize or above, and still pay the midsize price. Now this. Will work. [ male announcer ] just like you, business pro. Just like you. Go national. Go like a pro. Your doctor will say get smart about your weight. I tried weight loss plans. But their shakes arent always made for people with diabetes. Thats why theres glucerna hunger smart shakes. They have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. And they have six grams of sugars. With fifteen grams of protein to help manage hunger. Look whos getting smart about her weight. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. A smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. Just begin with americas favorite soups. Bring out chicken broccoli alfredo. Or bestever meatloaf. Go to campbellskitchen. Com for recipes, plus a valuable coupon. Campbells. Its amazing what soup can do. All stations come over to mithis is for real this time. Step seven point two one two. Verify and lock. Command is locked. Five seconds. Three, two, one. Standing by for capture. The most Innovative Software on the planet. Dragon is captured. Is connecting todays leading companies to places beyond it. Siemens. Answers. Wears off. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. Eucerin professional repair moisturizes while actually repairing very dry skin. The end of trial and error has arrived. Try a free sample at eucerinus. Com. Kids make stains i use tide boost to super charge our detergent. Boom. Clothes look amazing, and daddys a hero. Daddy, can we play ponies . Right after we do foldies. Tide boost is my tide. Whats yours . Its time for the big three topi topics. Burning questions and the must read. Lets bring in the panel. Former bushcheney adviser. Doug hataway and staff writer for salon. Com. Thank you for being here. Robert, ill begin with you. Here is what Senate Majority leader said about reaching a deal with republicans to avoid the upcoming march 1st sequestration deadline. Here it is. Are you saying to lift the sequester, first of all, its going to have to include some new revenue, whatever you agree to . Without question. There are some efforts being made to only get rid of the sequester as it relates to if fence. Your position on lifting the sequester on avoiding the shut down beyond august any one of those deals must include new revenues. The answer is definitely yes. And i have a good fan base for that, the American People. Robert, does the gop give in on revenue . This is the same conversation we keep having. The democrats say new revenue. The republicans say cut taxes. The question becomes what is the middle ground here . What we have seen from Speaker Boehner over the last couple months, look, if there is a significant government cuts here, if theres significant entitlement reform and if people making a lot of money pay a little bit more okay, lets have this conversation. Robert, is it fair to say the gop seems like they want no revenue, new revenue, what so ever . Let me be clear, i dont think its realistic. You have to have a compromise in the middle. What im saying is what i think is happening is republicans are shifting a bit. The question is whether or not the democrats will shift and meet in the middle. How about this, doug . Partisan politics might sink the economy . It could in three ways. If theres no action it could shake Business Confidence putting a pressure on hiring, shake confidence. I think the biggest threat is continuing the status quo. Right now, the system is totally out of whack in favor of the super well think who dont news their tax breaks to create jobs. They have to get that balance right. I think thats the bigger threat to the economy over the long term. What do you see happening . Will an agreement be reached to avoid the sequestration . I like the metaphor Claire Mccaskill had when they raised the debt ceiling for three months. They are like Death Penalty appeals. Every minute, every time they have a short term fix, people are brought to the brink again. The American People are brought to the brink again. I thought it was heartening to hear from harry reid he was interested in its not just defense talks we are talking ant. Theres 500 billion in domestic cuts. Once people realize republicans want to hold the economy hostage over tax cuts for the rich and even the tiny amount of concession made before was not enough for them. They start to see the impact of the cuts. I think they may have to come to the table. Really quick in terms of march 1st, are we going to punt and have this conversation in the summer or get something done and have this fixed once and for all . Robert . It seems like based on history we are going to punt on this again. As i said before, republicans have done a good job of keeping the democrats and the white house in defense. If history is our guide, im not surprised if we kick the can down the curb. Doug, punt or fix . I agree with robert. They are going to keep kicking the can. Aaron. I would love to be the different one, but dont bet on the people in congress. Okay. Lets move on to the burning questions today. I begin with you robert. Left leaning poll Shows Hillary clinton winning in a hypothetical 2016 match up in texas against former governor marco rup owe, chris christie. When you consider the latino population, could it turn texas blue in 2016 if she runs . Im skeptical about this. It is a leftleaning poll, but what president obama did in 2008 and 2012 amaomoly and im not sure a traditional candidate could do Something Like that. Not that its not possible, but a very uphill battle. I suspect that 2016 will look a lot like 2000, 2004, in terms of traditional states being blue and red. That will go back to the rhythm. Doug, a senior adviser, would you not commit last week, im told, because i was off and i was like told all about this. Does this poll make you want to jump in . I think its too early for anybody to jump in. But i think i think this is the new normal. Barack obama was a historical transformational candidate. Created a lot of excitement, and brought a lot of people to the polls, but with demographic and political changes happening. It is unheard things like texas being a more puff pell or blue state is a definite possibility. I want to quickly ask you about jay carney who tweeted a picture of the president doing target shooting, skeet last august. Why tweet now . We have reached such a low level of trust among certain conservative members of the media, the population, they dont believe when the president makes an offhand comment about the comment he likes to skeet shoot at camp david, they want to see the birth certificate. Unfortunately, this surreal thing happened where jay carney has to tweet the photo, and there are already conspiracy theories how thats not him, not his jeans, not how he holds it, its the wrong side and it shows there is a very low level of trust with certain people and our president. Would you have released it if you were in the white house, doug . Yeah. I dont see why not. Just shows what he was talking about. I agree with whats going on here, this sort of lack of trust and conspiratorial theories, i would have done it too. Sit tight. Up next, the big threes must reads. Hey, its sara. Im going pro. Ive been using crest prohealth for a week. My dentist said it was gonna help transform my mouth. [ male announcer ] go pro. For a clean thats up to four times better, try these crest prohealth products together. [ sara ] ive been using crest prohealth. So far. It feels different. [ male announcer ] crest prohealth protects not just some, but all these areas dentists check most. My mouth feels healthier. It feels cleaner. I think my dentist is gonna see the difference. [ male announcer ] go pro with crest prohealth. I dont think ill ever go back to another product. See. We are back with the big three for the mustreads. Robert train um, doug hataway, and erin. What is your must read . There has been a lot of missed opportunities at the statewide level for republicans to take back the senate. Christine odonnell in delaware and so forth. An interesting story in todays the new york times, a group of wealthy individuals, saying never again. Well influence the process, and although we wont influence it from a literal sense, well steer money to people that actually can win. U. S. A wise mo its a wise move. Whats your read . Ron brown, an article in the national journal. An insightful and indepth look at the new normal. Winning coalition in national politics, which says that you have to get the votes of africanamericans and latinos and young people and liberal whites and conservative white men, not as important as they used to be. A new formula for winning and an interesting article about that. A good one, ill pick it up as well. Erin, yours . This is a story about how personal life which often gets a lot of scrutiny, has an impact on policy, and thats an obituary for ed koch that is tough but fair, and it talks about as a result of him being so afraid of people thinking he was gay, he dropped the ball on policy in a way that affected many peoples lives. A sat food note to his legacy. Another good one. You all brought it. Robert, doug, erin, thank you. Thats a wrap of weekends with alex witt. Up next meet the press with david gregory. Im alex witt. Have a great day. See you next weekend. 38 mpg highway. Advanced headlights. And zero gravity seats . Yeah, that would be cool. Introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. Its our most innovative altima ever. Nissan. Innovation that excites. Now get a 199permonth lease on the 2013 nissan altima. Gives you 1 cash back on all purchases, plus a 50 annual bonus. And everyone but her likes 50 more cash, but i have an idea. Do you want a princess dress . Yes. Cupcakes . Yes. Do you want an etchasketch . Yes do you want 50 more cash . No. You got talent. [ male annou ] the capital one cash rewards card