very excited about the president and are not terribly focused on whatever divisions there might be. nbc s kacie hunt and kelly o donnell, thanks so much for helping us understand all of those fast-moving developments, really appreciate it. i want to listen now for a moment to how the president opened this meeting we ve been talked about, take a listen. i will tell you, background checks. i ve called many senators last night. many congressmen and jeff and pam and everybody in this room, i can tell you, curtis, they re into doing background checks that they wouldn t be thinking about maybe two weeks ago. we re going to do a strong background check. we re going to work on getting the age up to 21 instead of 18. we re getting rid of the bump stocks and we re going to be focusing very strongly on mental health. for analysis, let s bring in chris brown, co-president for the brady center for gun violence. she rallied with parkland students at the florida statehouse yesterday.
to towaeachers that might have military background, not asking every teacher to be armed. he is continuing to push that idea today. there is a lot to discuss on that. i was speaking with some parents from sandy hook yesterday who said they would be incredibly concerned about that idea, the concern being that there would be some type of a shootout or that teachers would be put in a position that they re not prepared for. again, stressing the president says this would only apply to some teachers. i want to turn now to kacie hunt. you re at the conservative political action conference known as cpac. we ve heard from the vice president as well as the head of the nra. what are your big takeaways so far? i heard a lot of this sort of talking points you would expect from the nra, saying the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. i would say the nra came out swinging here. they have been silent in the wake of this past mass shooting in parkland, as of what s b
considered, our colleagues will have to introduce their own amendments rather than just talk about them. calling today s negotiationings, quote, last chance for solving the daca puzzle. nbc s kacie hunt joining me now from capitol hill. he says it s the last chance but they have a little bit of a window here, right, especially given the fact that the courts have allowed for these dreamers to stay for an extended period of time, unless anything changes here. there was a contentious moment last hour on the senate floor. tell us exactly what happened there. well, peter, the issue is senator mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, is essentially saying that senators have this week and only this week to come up with a plan. that he would allow this open-ended process. that is what has started playing out. and the tricky thing and part of the reason why there is not usually an open process on the senate floor is that it can make
senator corker has gone back and forth with the president. he s had this on again, off again feud. questions about where mitch mccanal may be in all of this. of course this all boils down to concern that blackburn may be at risk of losing a general election and, as you know, peter, with just that one seat majority in the senate, every single one of these senate races is absolutely critical. especially given what we just witnessed taking place in alabama. republicans anxious for any potential loss. kacie hunt on the hill for us, thank you very much. elsewhere on capitol hill, at that explosive hearing, the director of national intelligence, dan coates, called the national debt a dire national security threat. the failure to address the long-term fiscal situation has increased the national debt to over $20 trillion and growing. this situation is unsustainable. former chairman of the joint
voted yesterday to open the debate. this morning, the president tweeted this would be the last chance to negotiate a teal for the so-called dreamers, tweeting there would never be an opportunity after march 5th. not sure about that. nbc s kacie hunt following the developments. we understand from your producer that just now mcconnell tried to open the debate with his plan and others and then schumer j e objected, he needed everyone s assent to get the debate opened because the plan does not include so far any relief for sanctuary cities. are we back to square one? or is this just a little blip? i would characterize this as a blip in the road from what we know now, andrea. the proposal was just about sanctuary cities and democrats are essentially arguing this has nothing to do or rather doesn t include a daca proposal. so schumer, senator schumer, objected to that. as you point out, they would have needed all 100 senators to move up this timetable and get things under way here. this