Cenk young turks, weve got a great show for you Gabby Giffords talking to the media now. Children in the classroom its time to say enough. It is time to say enough. Were going to talk to congressman steve cohen about that. Well talk to one of the kennedys. He has controversial things to say not only about gun control but how Fidell Castro is underappreciated. Weve got some great interviews for you guys. On a. I. G. , these are the guys we bailed out. I cant believe theyre doing this. Turns out theyre going to sue us for bailing them out. It makes me sick. On alex jones youve seen it by now, the crazy flip out but hes also flipped out on the young turks. Our battle with alex jones. Thats nothing but fun. Huge show ahead for you guys. Its go time. [ theme ] 34 americans are killed every day by firearms. How was newtown . Weve got to protect our children, our police, our population. My favorite gun is an a. R. 15, because you can be so accurate with it. The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. When will you find the courage to stand up to the gun lobbyists. Careers would be limited if they go against the n. R. A. Weve little to do something to keep the guns from getting into the wrong hands. What we need is action. The president is absolutely committed to keeping his promise. We have to take action. Its time to say enough. Cenk all right, well a lot of us believe that it is time to say enough, and actually work towards reasonable gun control. Now Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, mark kelly are talking about a group called americans for responsible solutions. How was newtown . Brought back a lot of memories about what that was like for us some two years ago today. You hope that this kind of thing doesnt happen again. You know what . It does happen again. Gabby and i are both gun owners. We are strong supporters of the Second Amendment but weve got to do something to keep the guns from getting into the wrong hands. When it can happen to children in a classroom its time to say. Enough. Cenk come on. Thats got to be reasonable enough. Well mayors against guns have a powerful ad out. The mother of advice tina taylor green, a 9yearold murdered in that same tucson shooting Gabrielle Giffords was involved in. 20 heart broken families lost a child in the Sandy Hook School shooting. I know how much it hurts. My 9yearold daughter was murdered in the tucson shooting. I have one question for our political leaders when will you find the courage to stand up to the gun laws . Whos child has to die next . As mothers, we have to demand a plan. Go to demand a plan. Org and add your name. Cenk lets try to answer that question and bring on congressman steve cohen to talk about this issue. Always a great pleasure to have you on, thank you for joining us. Youre welcome nice to be with you cenk. Cenk she said in that ad, when will the politicians find the courage to take on this issue. Whats your sense of the congress . Will this issue be engaged upon when we have some sort of realistic and reasonable gun regulations . As i said earlier on the show, i dont think we will. I did speak to the chair of the House Judiciary Committee about this issue on the floor last friday, and i was pleased to hear that he said we would have hearings, or some type of consideration, but he didnt give me an indication that he would be in favor or that he thought we would pass a bill that would limit access to any type of weapons including high capacity magazines or, you know, maybe Mental Health laws might come about but i dont think the high capacity and assault magazines would have much favor there. You can get a bill from the senate and ever an amendment to a bill that came from the the house and amend it to have some other subject matter, like guns, and maybe the house would have to deal with it, but we saw Speaker Boehner because of the reticenco of the tea party to tax anybody in america, couldnt get to the floor. He was finally forced to because of embarrassment. Maybe that will happen. If it happens at all it will come from the senate. The American Public will have to rise up and be be a strong, strong force. Im pleased so his gabby and mark start their group. They have got a high profile and a high level of support among the American People that they could attract a great number of people to that effort. And miss greens testimonial was great, as well. Its going to take a tremendous outpouring of support. I was listening to bob dylan sing 12 different versions of blowing in the wind and how long will it take to make people hear and how many people have to die. This is the same kind of thing blowing in the wind and its going to take a tremendous outpouring of Community Support and public support to force republicans to even consider any type of issue. I think the n. R. A. Is part of their d. N. A. Cenk congressman, youre saying you talked to republicans and theyre saying that there will be no gun control legislation, maybe theyll address the issue of Mental Health. Who said that, and are you sure that the republicans will simply not introduce the legislation . Oh, they wont introduce it. Cenk or bring it up, i should say. The impression i got from the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is that there would maybe be a hearing that they would have to have a hearing. This is i think a step, because two weeks, three weeks ago, i didnt even think theyd have a hearing, but he did say wed have a hearing. We did talk about the other issues. I didnt get any sense there would be a vote. You have a hearing and a mark up if you have a bill. Theres a big difference. A lot of bills or issues can have hearings, but getting a mark up is something else. It depends on the hearing who gets to testify, and the Majority Party which in the house is republicans would pick three of the speaker and the democrats would get to pick one. We might have somebody like a mayor bloomberg or somebody involved with the mayors who are concerned. Cenk or gabby gifford. Goby would be wonderful. I think it would be mark, i dont think gabby is making too much in the way of public statements, but maybe shed come. Cenk if you go through the hearing, they still might bring you the up for mark up. The senate would have to act. Lets say the senate did act. Would the house then be forced to act on it or could they say sad day we dont care at all were simply not going to vote on the senate bill . Which way do you think they are going to go on it . I dont think it would come up. Theres just too many people that would be against it from the republican side for Speaker Boehner to schedule it. You heard senator mcconnell say were going to be dealing with the budget and with spending cuts and our deficit and we dont have time to deal with gun control. I think thats absurd that you cant deal with many issues taillight. You have all kind of different committees and different expertise and different issues come up, but Mitch Mcconnell made that clear. I think thats going to be the republican mantra, no new revenue, no consideration of gun laws its all about cuts, were holding up the government on the debt ceiling for the continuing resolution. I think were going to have an even more difficult 113th 113th congress than the donothing 112th congress at that the 112th congress was the nader of congresses. Not ralph. Eric cant tore wanting to step up its a shakespeareen type thing. Cenk congress has a 9 Approval Rating. Head lice and cockroaches are more popular than congress. Do you have a sense from your colleagues obviously youre a democratic you want to discuss gun control. Twenty murdered kids, apparently as far as theyre telling you didnt do it, theyre not going to bring it up. A congresswoman getting shot in the head didnt do it. Massacre after massacre didnt do it. Is there any amount of murder and mayhem in this country that would actually push the republicans to schedule a vote on this in the house . I dont see it, because i really think the Republican House membership and the caucus is so far out of touch its not anything like republicans used to be that were an alternative party and had a moderating influence. The moderates are gone. You saw steve latarette reach the apex of his exposure at the end of congress as a reasonable republican. He didnt run for reelection, because there arent Reasonable Republicans left. I saw chris sheas get beat by a good democratic. He was a moderate congress person. Those people dont exist anymore. The caucus would vote and theyre on the edge of revolt now. It wouldnt take a lot to have these people put boehner out and cantor in. Its difficult for him to go anywhere because hes kind of a hostage of the tea party. Even though theyre not at popular as some years ago and not as popular as they were when i said something about the tea party on this show that got me into a little stew, but it was the truth and i was the first person to say it, that they still have a tremendous influence on the Republican House caucus. Its on the fringe of american politics, but theyre in the majority in the house and theyre going to hold the American People hostage and not let gun issues that can save peoples lives come up. Cenk unfortunately depressing news out of the house of representatives here. Its unbelievable that these republicans will not bring up any Gun Legislation after all of these massacres and all those kids killed in newtown. Its stunning to see. Thank you for joining us on the young turks and shedding light on this situation. We appreciate it. Thank you cenk. I hope you wont hold it against me. Its like jack nicholson. You cant face the truth. Cenk and the truth is ugly. I know you know that truth and youre opposed to it. Thank you. Thank you happy new year. Cenk you too. When we come back, wither going to keep talking about gun control. Once we get on the issue of the cuban embargo wait until you hear kennedys answer on what he thinks george bush would have done during the cuban missile crisis. President kennedy died at 1 00 p. M. Central standard time, 2 00 eastern standard time. Very, very excited about that and very proud of that. Beltway politics from inside the loop. We tackle the big issues here in our nations capital, around the country and around the globe. Dc columnist and four time emmy winner bill press opens currents morning news block. Well do our best to carry the flag from 6 to 9 every morning. Liberal and proud of it. 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 . From dallas texas the flash apparently official, president kennedy died at 1 00 p. M. Central standard time, 2 00 eastern standard time, some 38 minutes ago. Cenk well, we all remember that historic day when Walter Cronkite announced that j. F. K. Had been killed. There was gun violence in the past, were still halted by similar gun violence today. I talked you to christopher lovered kennedy, the nephew of j. F. K. And Bobby Kennedy the author of the book recover to live, kick any habit manage any addiction. I talked to him about gun control and Mental Health. I think there are too many guns in this country. The proliferation of firearms leads to increased murder rates. Theres no questioout iries limit guns, they are successful in bringing down gun violence. That is a fact. I mean, the n. R. A. Can talk their stuff all day long, theyre lies. Ok . The f. B. I. Statistics, statistics from around the world are evidence enough that there are too many guns in this country. We dont need assault weapons in this country. These people constantly, you know, they talk about the Second Amendment. Mow of them dont really know the history of the Second Amendment. Thomas jefferson the principle author of the Second Amendment believed that we should relook at the bill of rights every 20 years and see whether they needed to be tweaked. Certainly in my estimation, this amendment needs to be tweaked. Nobody intended, the framers never intended, this was about arming a militia against foreign invasion. It was not about our own government coming to get us, which a lot of these folks are talking about or just the right to bear any kind of arms and as many arms as you want. Its ridiculous. Cenk absolutely. The second component is Mental Health. A lot of republicans saying dont such guns, because the real problem is people who have Mental Illness so lets create a National Database of those people and keep an eye on them. What do you think about that . I dont think thats a good idea. I mean, look, if were going to do it for Mental Health, lets do it for physical health, to. We ought to provide health care for our citizens. I consider health care a social justice issue and i believe that this country has the obligation of providing health care, whether its physical or Mental Health for all its citizens. The truth is that those who suffer from Mental Health disorders, 50 to 70 of those folks are Walking Around with an addictive disease always. Fifty to 70 of the people who present with an addiction also are suffering from a co occurring Mental Illness. You know, i grew up in a family where i lost two very important members of my family to gun violence. I was 12 years old when my uncle bobby was assassinated in los angeles, california. That i have the genetic front loading for alcoholism. We know today from the science that a kid who has the genetic front loading for addiction and suffers trauma in their add less dense is 50 more likely to develop adickive disease later in life and co occurring Mental Illness. This i wasnt responsible for that, ok . We need to get serious about both gun control and treating Mental Illness in this country. Cenk republicans dont want to treat Mental Illness. They just want to register people so they can put them on a list somewhere. Thats crazy. Thats crazy. Cenk you know, then that leads to the question based on what youre saying if Mental Health is connected oh addiction, do they want a list for addicts, as well and what are they going to do with that list . I dont know, but the truth is this is insanity. I mean, we are the richest country on the planet. We, you know, we have an obligation to begin, you know, for every dollar that goes to the National Institute of health only 10 cents negotiation to the National Institute of Mental Health. We are now beginning to really understand Mental Illness and the brain. The pharmacological advances and advances in Brain Science are a brand new era into understanding these things and developing treatment and prevention for them. The answer is not to put people on lists. The answer is not to allow more guns. The answer is to restrict, you know, assault weapons and ammunition and the answer is to begin, you know, reducing stigma and shame for these diseases, these Mental Health illnesses and addiction and treating them. I wrote recover to live because i believe that, you know, everybody has a right to find out good information about what theyre suffering from and if they want the to make changes in their life to have a blueprint for that change and my book does that. You talk about addiction in the book obviously. What degree of moral capability is there. If youre predisposed youre predisposed. If i have a beer, you have a beer, im not going to get addicted and youre more likely to get addicted. Maybe i shouldnt have had as many beers. My attitude is the 12yearold kid who experiments in adolescence and develops an addictive disease because he has absent parents isnt culpable for having it. Once you know you have it, youre responsible for treating it. Cenk he wasnt done yet. We talked to him about a movie hes hoping to make about a cuban missile crisis, but from the perspective of the cubans. How he knows the perspective from our side, because it was his uncle who was the president at this time, but he had some very strong words to say about that and our embargo against cuba. President kennedy resisted the advice of his advisers, otherwise we would have attacked. If george bush had been president , we would have attacked, there would have been a nuclear war no question about it. Nuclear warheads would have landed on the continental United States. Weve had an embargo against that island since 1962 and that embargo. Cenk youve got to admit that the embargoes almost worked. If we give it another 40 or 50 years, i think weve got it. Well, it has worked in strangling the cuban population. The american embargo has inflicted unbelievable damage on the population of cuba. It hasnt worked very well at all in terms of the political culture there, which it was intended to do, but it has infected the pop