John tower, why are people awake today . We backing you up team sprinkles. I may live in boston, but im in south jersey, they are sprinkles. The interesting part is when i go to cape cod, i do call them jimmys because i dont want anyone to know that im a new yorker. I wear my yankee hat, i may get thrown out. Great show, everyone. Morning joe coming up right now. Good morning. It is thursday, february 14th. Willie, happy president s day. Happy president s day. A long weekend. Is it president s day . Valentines day. Oh, is it really . All right. Well, with us on set to celebrate this blessed occasion, msnbc contributor and central parks stalker, on valentines day or any day, mike barnicle. Its getting warm enough. It is getting warm up. The problem is hes got the reflector shades on, and they steam up. When its this cold outside, they steam up and he cant. Its hard. When its cold, its easier because i can wear the scarf across the lower. Thats just gross. Ski mask. Ski mask. Whoo you see his picture in a lot of 7elev 7elevens. Also, Steve Rattner. In washington, director, president and ceo of the Woodrow WilsonInternational Center for scholars, jane harman. Jane, thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you, joe. Greatly appreciate it. Happy valentines day. Happy valentines day. Willie, im so glad janes here by the way, mikas in the south of france. Were going to be talking about obviously leon panetta. Boy, a blistering attack against congress. Cant wait to talk to jane about that. Also, john mccains changing his tune. We praised him yesterday. So he had to reverse course, i guess. So now hes talking about possibly delaying chuck hagels nomination. And also Wayne Lapierre. This is very important. Because if you look at the profiles of all the people that committed these mass murders in newtown and aurora and across virginia tech, they are all hispanic drug gang leaders. And thats exactly what Wayne Lapierre said in an oped that americans need to buy guns because those Latin Americans are coming to america, and theyre going to kill you people. This is who a lot of republicans in congress are thinking about falling off dont do it. Dont hurt our party anymore. Let Wayne Lapierre go wherever he wants to go. Hes going to destroy the party. Were going to talk about the crazy oped has horrible for our partys image, horrible for the conservative movements image, goes against everything Ronald Reagan stood for. Well talk about that in a minute. First, breaking news. This is bizarre. The feelgood story of the Olympic Games involved in possibly murder. This was a total jawdropper this morning. Oscar pistorius, for those people who dont know, is a South African runner, a double amputee who became the first person with double amputation to ever qualify for the olympics. He ran without legs in the 2012 london games. And now according to the Associated Press and some other sources has been charged with the murder of his 30yearold girlfriend. Shes a model. She was found shot to death at the South African home of Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee olympic sprinter whos known as the blade runner. The name of the suspected shooter has not been revealed, but a 26yearold man, a man the same age as pistorius, has been taken into custody. A Court Hearing is set for later today. So were still getting information about what happened. Yeah. Some people are suggesting he mistook her for an intruder. Others are saying that may just be what he told the police when they walked in and found the scene. You cant overstate how shocking this is. Hes not just your average runner. Hes an international icon, an inspiration to a lot of people. Yeah. He came out. He had won gold in a lot of paralip pipar paralymp paralympics. He was already a hero for that. Then to qualify for the olympics in loss done was historic. He ran in the 4x400. You were in london. This was the story. Perhaps the biggest story of the 2012 london Olympic Games. And this catapulted him into international superstardom. And this morning he has been charged with murder. We will be following it. And im sure well get more information over the next couple of hours. Lets talk about the president s new push for Gun Legislation. The Republican Opposition its running into. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is accusing the president of, quote, cheerleadering for new restrictions while overlooking big gaps in the way current laws are being enforced. My democratic colleagues want to expand the background check law to make us all feel that were safer. My retort to my democratic friends is that you cant really feel safe by expanding a broken law. We talk a lot about new laws. We talk about the emotional aspects of gun violence. We dont seem to be doing very much in the real world to make it to deter people. Well, i mean, if the law is broken, lindsey, then fix it. Its very easy. The law is broken, so you do nothing to it . Again, there are no good arguments against universal background checks to keep guns out of the hands of felons. Does Lindsey Graham want felons to have guns . Does Lindsey Graham want people who are mentally incapable of possessing and owning guns to have guns . If not, then why doesnt he support a universal background check . He says the systems broken. Well, fix it, senator graham. Lets make sure that people in South Carolina know, lets make sure people in columbia know, lets make sure people in greenville know that felons arent going to be able to get guns illegally. I dont know why hes doing this. Maybe hes listening to nra ceo Wayne Lapierre whos expanding his argument now not only against the sensible guncontrol legislation he supported not so long ago, the universal background checks that now lindsey says hes against, but now hes against any reasonable gun safety legislation. This is what he writes in his oped in the daily caller. Stand and fight. After hurricane sandy, we saw the hellish world that the gun prohibitionists i never liked prohibition the prohibitionists see as their utopia. Looters ran wild in South Brooklyn. Really . Whats he suggesting there . There was no food, water or electricity. And if you wanted to walk several miles to get supplies, you better get back before dark, or you might not get home at all. Mean while, president obama is leading the country to financial ruin, borrowing over a trillion dollars, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And then, of course, he talks about the phony stimulus spending and other payoffs for his political cronies. Nobody knows if or when the fiscal collapse will come. But if the country is broke, there likely wont be enough money to pay for Police Protection. And the American People know it. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Riots. Terrorists. Gangs. Lone criminals. These are the perils we are sure to face not just maybe. Its not paranoia to buy a gun. Its survival. Its responsible behavior. Its time we encourage lawabiding americans to do just that. Mike barnicle, i dont know where to start. Yeah, its responsible to own a gun. Its responsible to protect your family. Its responsible to have a handgun this your house. Its responsible to have a shotgun. Its responsible to have a hunting rifle. But Wayne Lapierre is suggesting if you are against americans being able to own assault weapons with 30round highcapacity magazines, that somehow youre going to and he said hispanic drug gangs are coming to america, and those terrible people in brooklyn, dont go out after dark. I mean, this is so laced with racial overtones. Oh, absolutely. That the Republican Party, if they were smart, their leaders today would condemn it, but theyre not smart. Theyre scared. And you know, they keep running squared, theyre going to lose more votes. Theyre going to get hammered in future elections if they allow this clown to continue to lead them around by their nose. Theyre shameful. They need to be leaders. Key word is clown. You could take this excerpt from his editorial, whatever it is that he wrote, bring it a few floors up from here and put it on saturday night live this weekend, and it would get great laughs if performed as well as you just perform it had. Wayne lapierre performs from a platform of fear. Thats what hes peddling, fear. And hes peddling it on behalf of gun manufacturers, not gun owners. No. He doesnt care about gun owners. Gun manufacturers. Its about money. Yeah. Thats what its about. Selling weapons. Its not about the Second Amendment rights. And willie, when he goes through that laundry list and he says that he is confident, just like glenn beck with his survival seeds, he is confident that america is going to collapse. I want to say that again. Wayne lapierre, unlike Ronald Reagan, who believed americas greatest days were ahead of us, and if reagan were alive today, reagan would still believe that americas greatest days are ahead of us. You know why . Because americas greatest days are ahead of us. But Wayne Lapierres vision, willie, is this postapocalyptic america. Again, straight out of the book of eli where americans are going to have to buy bushmasters. Great movie. It was an amazing movie. Because theres not were not going to have Police Officers. Were not going to Wayne Lapierre is arguing, were not going to be able to afford Police Officers. So wed better get those guns now. And he goes, americans know it. Americans know it. Were collapsing. Why does Wayne Lapierre not believe in americas greatness . Hes also using the rare exception of a store being looted in brooklyn during a once in a generation, once in a century storm as an argument why we should have guns all the time. You know what i mean . You take the one exception to make your rule. I dont know who it is in the Republican Party. Maybe you have a better idea than i do, joe. Who could step in and go to him who has the respect of Wayne Lapierre and say, listen, im in the nra. I respect what you do, but youre hurting our party. Youre hurting our brand. This undermines confirming all the suspicions that people have about us. Everything that republicans are now trying to do to make up for their 27 showing in the election with hispanics, Wayne Lapierre is undercut with this letter by talking about latin American Drug gangs. And talking about South Brooklyn. And, again, a racially tinged very suggestive oped by Wayne Lapierre who republicans are blindly following around. Right. But this editorial and a lot of what hes been saying, his whole appearance and the way he kind of foams at the mouth when hes on one of these sunday shows, hes making a caricature of himself. Hes marginalizing himself. And thats the problem, though. Jane harman, the problem is, hes marginalized i dont know what your rating was in congress. I was an a rated guy with the nra. I believe in americas right to keep and bear arms. I believe the Second Amendment means what it says. I believe that americans have a right to carry. I think americans should be im upset that in new york, i cant carry a handgun if i want to carry a handgun. Thats where i come from. But the extremism of Wayne Lapierre is so frightening that i dont know why actually, im talking about republicans. Here youve got democrats as well that are following Wayne Lapierre. You bet. But let me add something here. The one bipartisan moment in the state of the Union Message the other day was when the president called for immigration reform. And everybody stood up. And i think theres a real chance finally that we will have some form of comprehensive immigration reform. Well, that gets undercut by these racist comments by Wayne Lapierre. I think, as you said, joe, there are Many Democrats who support gun rights. Im not against the Second Amendment, and im not against responsible gun ownership either. But this is way extreme. And Wayne Lapierre is the gift that keeps on giving. And i predict that youre right and that Reasonable Republicans will soon move this guy out of the mainstream of the party, or should. You know, they really should. I guess i do, steve, i need to clarify also, there are, of course, Democratic Senators that are going to be running for reelection in south dakota, in louisiana, and a lot of southern states, a lot of very red states in 2014 that havent distanced themselves yet from Wayne Lapierre. They need to do that. There are 40 to 45 democrats in the house of representatives that havent distanced themselves from Wayne Lapierre. They need to do that as well. He is a caricature. And the question is, when are they going to get the message . Well, we dont know, but look. Every day, every time he writes one of these things, this one, i thought, was the most over the top yet of anything hes written or said. I think we are going to get to that point. But as you say, there are, i think, seven Democratic Senators from states that obama did not carry in the last election or up for reelection, and theyre having to walk a fine balance. Wayne lapierre does not work for the Republican Party. They do have to walk away from him, but they cant shut him down. And the best way to shut him down is speaking out against him, walking away from him, sending a message to the nra, we are with you, like me, 95 of the time. But this extremism has to stop. I want to get to leon panettas farewell as secretary of defense and ask jane what she thinks about it because, boy, he had some tough words in his final press briefing on the job. With the threat of the march 1st sequester looming, panetta lashed out at congress for failing to halt the 85 billion in automatic cuts in the sequester. Take a listen. Oftentimes i feel like i dont have a full partnership with my former colleagues on the hill in trying to do whats right for this country. We need to find solutions. We cant just sit here and [ bleep ]. We cant just sit here and complain. We cant just sit here and blame others. We cant just sit here and point fingers at each other. We have got to solve real problems facing this country. This country is facing some real threats in the world. We cant do this alone. We have got to do this with a full partnership of the congress and both houses of the congress. Jane, do you agree with leon panetta that the sequester is going to be terrible for the Defense Industry . Its already terrible its not just the Defense Industry, its the u. S. Economy which has contracted because of the anticipated loss of defense in aerospace jobs. Leon panetta was confirmed 1000. Let me repeat that. 1000. And he actually has a copy of the congressional record signed by 100 senators. I told him he ought to sell it on ebay and get rich. This hasnt happened in years, and it sure isnt going to happen with chuck hagel whom we can discuss. But the whole idea that in this reckless fashion, congress is not stopping this move to sequester of the defense or the nonDefense Budget just boggles my mind. I havent been there in two years, but the people who are there are shaking their heads. Let me say this. I was in munich recently for the security conference, my 11th time with john mccain, Lindsey Graham and a on the of others. The europeans who have economic structural problems are trying to increase their defense capability and shaking their heads at us and looking at the fact that we dont have serious problems, but were manufacturing these economic problems and may be slashing the heck out of our Defense Budget for this crazy political circus that sadly is congress now. Mike barnicle. Jane, lets stick with security. I mean, you were in the House Intelligence Committee when you were in congress, and now theres a lot of talk about the proposal to have a special court for drone strikes. And yet drone strikes are quite often, almost always, quite immediate. How would it work first of all, what do you think of a special court, that concept . And secondly, how do you think it would work mean the immediacy for some drone strikes . I think we need to put a Legal Framework around drone strikes and cyber attacks, too. And i think that the framework that congress enacted 35 years ago in the foreign Intelligence Surveillance act, fisa, which was amended in 2008 and has been renewed twice, fits this. Heres why, mike. Sure, there are emergen