i want to know how you got there in terms of a watch out point of view. >> it was not -- i never said it was a threat. politico was doing the story about the column i wrote on sunday, calling out the administration, making it clear from the reporting and finally to jay carney's credit that the idea for the quester came from the white house and i mentioned they got an e-mail from somebody like lots of things in washington and the details leaked out. as david axelrod knows, gene sperling is one of the most decent hardworking people i dealt with the obama white house and axelrod a lot. it's unusual to say when there is not -- this was not a factual disagreement. this was a disagreement about i was challenging them on something and gene said we are not going to see eye to eye and you are going to regret staking out this claim. axelrod and i disagreed many times and he never said you would regret reaching a conclusion he didn't like. >> he said that to me all the time. >> he called me up. >> i'm waiting for you to regret something. >> bob, let me ask you this. given all the reaction this has gotten and given the nature of the e-mails as you read through them, do you think because you are not a young reporter they might be intimidated? you might have overstepped the way you described the scenario. >> no. the e-mails speak for themselves. people characterized them. the issue here is that this is where we get tangled up in ourselves. the automatic spending cuts andy is quester and how we got there and what it's going to mean to people. the white house is unintentionally or intentionally saying let's make the press the issue rather than what they did. to people out in the real world, the issue is these automatic spending cuts and the human toll they are going to bring to many people and many families. >> i want to talk about the news of the day that is important. the sequester. before i do that, david axelrod is a small person. he wants to get involved in the mundane. >> the minutia read all of his books. i want to ask from your perspective because you were a journalists. you know both sides. take it away. >> one of the reasons i became a journalist is because of bob wood ward. >> you will regret that. >> don't blame me. >> you have a whole generation of journalists. you talked yesterday about young journalists being intimidated. when i was 25 years old, the mayor threatened to have me ejected because she didn't like the coverage i was doing. i know what intimidation is. the headline in the "washington post," your newspaper was wood ward said he was threatened. >> i never have. you know that. >> we spoke about that, but they got the impression that you felt you were being threatened and you read to the politico, one line from the e-mail. when the full e-mails came out, they were as cordial as can be. your response was cordial. if you felt threatened, why didn't you say don't threaten me? >> i didn't feel threatened. what i said, david, come on. you are putting words in my mouth. i said i don't think this is the way to operate. you and i had many discussions. you never said you will regret doing that. am i correct? >> this was a specific discussion about a specific point you raised. it seemed like gene was in the e-mail very polite in the way he pushed. >> you should have heard -- it's your newspaper that said you were threatened. >> of course i said for sometime we just have been looking at what happened. this comes after the white house pushing back pretty hard on you for sometime. the white house started pushing back furiously and gene called you up and we love gene and it's a 30-minute call. i said to david, let's not pretend. when you say the word regret, i said it as a friend will. we always do that in washington. put your arm around somebody and say jim, we are good friends. i love you. if you put this on my bill, you will regret it. you are sending the message, watch out duck. >> exactly. this is the code. i never said this was a threat. what really happened here. we are at the pivot points about budget and fiscal issues that we are there again and we are. these automatic spending cuts which really don't deal with the problem of entitlements and that's very, very significant. the automatic spending cuts, everyone said are the worst and irrational. how do we get to the point where we have the government, our government is the biggest obstacle to continuing the economic recovery. that is the reality everyone is facing. >> can we get a shot of david's face? did you see that? i asked that question. i thought he was going to follow me. >> the president agrees with that and bob from the beginning said we need a balanced way forward that includes both cuts and that includes cuts in entitlements and revenues. that's exactly what he's wanting to do now. >> what gene was reacting to is you suggested he moved the goal post. >> he has. >> he has been in the same place since the beginning. >> they have not because in 2o 11 he made the deal, biden and senate minority leader mcconnell made the deal that we won't have to go back for more authority negotiations in the election year 2012. something very important to the president and to you and the white house staff. the agreement was they would be in the sequester no tax increases. it is a lay down change that the president changed the argument here. is that a felony or a big deal? no, but it's the reality. >> it's just not true. the fact is that the president said that the sequester was never meant to go forward. >> but it has. >> the way to solve it is a balanced approach that includes both revenues and entitlement reforms. as we discussed here, that's the only way to move forward. he still believes that. >> in 2012 and 2013, the final word. >> the goal posts got moved and they know it. that's what they are upset about. he made a deal and got an immediate benefit. the republicans are out there saying okay, we go along with the sequester. they are to blame. everyone is to blame. the sequester is a giant nightmare. it could have a real impact on the economy and people's lives as the president said. that's what this is about. not some kind of e-mail exchange i had with somebody in the white house. >> still ahead, much more of "morning joe." the best of 2013. >> our conversation with al gore is up next. we asked what the former vice president had to say about the big drivers in global change and what he would do if in the white house. you are watching "morning joe." "stubborn love" by the lumineers did you get my email? i did. so what did you think of the house? did you see the school ratings? oh, you're right. hey babe, i got to go. bye daddy! have a good day at school, ok? ...but what about when my parents visit? ok. i just love this one... and it's next to a park. i love it. i love it too. here's our new house... daddy! you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen. >> here with us now, former vice president al gore. the author of the future. drivers of global change. you are in the news a lot with your business dealings and acquisitions and sales and you edited this book? >> i applied a chamois cloth. it was great to have john as my editor. as the vice president will tell you, there were moments where a beautiful mind seemed relevant. i have never seen or worked with anyone who was as well-organized and as tireless. it's remarkable. it's a formidable piece of work. >> let's talk about the future. you lay out a number of different factors that you think will be driving change in the future. let's talk about that. where would you like to begin? >> one place to begin is by noting that this is the first time in history we had so many revolutionary changes happening simultaneously. the digital revolution is connecting all of the 7 billion people in the world, at least five billion people connected in various ways and not only to one another, but intelligent machines and devices. the genetic engineering revolution is leading to the crossing the boundaries between species and a selection of traits including in human beings that puts us in active control of evolution. we are seeing not only the globalization of the economy, but the deep interconnection of productive activities all over the world, producing earth inc. that has a new relationship. we are seeing the rise of china and the shift of power from west to east and distributed to emerging centers of power all-around the world. we are seeing a continuing commitment to a particular curiously defined form of growth that excludes a lot of things from its calculations. we ignore pollution and resource depletion and the distribution of income and the rising inequality and hollowing out of the middle class. we are seeing the automation that is now going into a steep rise that really changes the relationship between technology and labor in ways that are fundamentally different than in the past. finally we have the climate crisis and the emergent energy revolution because of the need to stop dumping all this global warming pollution into the atmosphere. >> let's start there. the fight against climate change is often a debate. i will read from the future your words. you say this about oil and the media. virt why you willy every news and commentary show on television is sponsored by oil, coal, and gas companies. all the time. year in and year out with messages designed to soothe and reassure the audience that everything is fine. the global environment is not threatened and the carbon companies are working dill jebtly jebt -- dill gently. >> when you see the ads for oil and coal, they are not designed to get you to say i want to go to the corner and say i want to go buy some coal. they are designed to condition your political beliefs. to give you the impression that they have got our back. look, they have about $27 trillion in subprime carbon assets when you include public company, private companies and sovereign states. they depend upon the ability to continue using the earth's atmosphere as an open sewer. we put 90 million tons of global warming pollution every day and it traps enough extra energy to equal 400,000 atomic bombs going off every day. >> i have to challenge you. you just sold current tv funded by al jazeera which is funded by oil. is it okay for you personally to profit from oil? >> i see it differently. i understand the criticism of course. al jazeera has long since established itself as a really high quality news gathering network. i think the addition of al jazeera to the u.s. media landscape will be a big plus. the climate coverage is far more extensive and high quality compared to any other network in the u.s. >> isn't there a moral question that huh to contend with? that money that basically funded al jazeera is funded by oil. >> i understand what you are saying. i strongly disagree with it because they have established themselves as an award winning high quality network. qatar is the strongest ally in the area. their fleet is there and they are working with the u.s. al jazeera is part of the solution and not part of the problem. they also have a very ambitious plan to shift to renewables. there is a visionary to connect the middle east and north africa and the solar and wind resources to western europe. the world is changing. we are part of a global media landscape now. getting points of view that are not just the same is a good thing. we went through 2012 with all of the climate-related disasters they mentioned without a single question being asked by any member of the american news media to any of the presidential candidates in any of the debates about the climate crisis. that is pathetic. >> joe? >> mr. vice president, one of the changes thaw talked about is one that fascinated me and deeply disturbed me and mainly because there doesn't seem to be any easy answer to the question. how do we deal with the change in relationship between technology and labor? how do we deal with the hollowed out middle class and the fact that as you said, technology is zooming forward more quickly than ever. if you go back to the year that you were elected vice president of the united states in 1992, if technology had stayed static from that point forward to now, there would be like 20 or 25 million more people working in america. how do politicians answer the question of how we deal with this moving forward and without hollowing out the middle class for 89 next generation? >> a great question and it's a major theme. when i was elected and into the white house there were 48, 49 sites on the entire worldwide web and now there a trillion websitesment a lot of those changes we look at as positive things. i certainly do. when it comes to the impact on employment, we always believed that new technology doesn't eliminate jobs. it changes the nature of work and ultimately creates new jobs. that has been the case for the most part since the days. an exponential curve goes flat for a while and generally upward and when you get to the steep part of the curve, the changes are different. >> about 60 years ago, the president and i began the interstate highway program that changed this country and allowed people to move to suburbs and new suburbs that existed. we don't have yet in this country an interstate highway system of the internet to connect people in oklahoma, tennessee or whatever. they are on dial up in many places. how would that change the economy of this country if we were to implement a truly assertive program to wire everyone up? >> allow me a personal note. my father as a senator was the authoror of the interstate highway act. i remember accompanying him to the hearings and i remember when they voted to make the signs green. in fact that was one of the reasons that our country under took that. it was once called the information super highway. >> i am reading from chapter 3, power in the balance. you talk about the tea party and the rise of fox news. the inability to make difficult decisions is now threatening the nation's economic future and with it the ability of the world system to find a pathway forward towards a sustainable future. the exceptionally bitter divide in the united states is nominally between two major political parties, however the nature of what democrats and republicans has evolved in ways to sharpen the differences between them. talk about the president and the democrats and republicans. how do we fix this? >> the partisan divide and you guys have talked about this on this show quite a bit. by the way, i quote your dad. he has been influential with me. i think that first of all, the scientists know that there is in human nature a divide between liberals and conservatives. it gives an advantage to have some people who are temperamentally inclined to change the future and experiment with others who are temperamentally inclined to say wait a minute. not too fast. let's not do anything rash here. this divide is found in every culture and ethnicity. it's part of our human make up. when these natural tendencies are accentuated with political ideologies or for that matter religious faction and it is other divides that are used for advantage, then it can get out of hand. our founders, james madison wrote about the dangers of faction and understood this vulnerability. these are being exploited in ways that are extremely harmful to the country. our democracy has been hacked. it is not working the way our founders intended and we need to fix it. the influence of big money and the naming of corporations as persons and the belief that mike can make right if there enough megaphones and lobbyists. that is a subversion. >> i see the big picture. is there anything tangible the president can do to name one of the three factors? anything. you can criticize the president, but you have to give him credit for trying over and over again to reach across that divide. you guys do that regularly on this show. i honestly believe that one of the healing forces for our and the shift towards the internet. i say that in spite of the fact that people associate it with all this. i think it empowers them to connect and pursue reason and logic and lift up ideas that gain support from larger dprups of people. >> former vice president al gore, thank you very much. the book is the future. six drivers of global change edited by john meachem. wool will not hold that against you. it's a fantastic book. >> the with the long hair. >> lots of hair. >> bubba joins us here. a very special team for that interview. his newly adopted son coming up next on "morning joe". blap a merry christmas? the richest one percent, that's who. republicans in congress made sure of that protecting billions in taxpayer giveaways. and for those facing tough times? republicans stripped 1.3 million americans of jobless benefits folks who want to work, but cannot find a job kicking them to the curb during christmas. so to the 1.3 million americans losing benefits merry christmas - from the gop. it's wrong to leave more than a million americans behind. tell republicans: restore unemployment benefits now. avo: thesales event "sis back. drive" which means it's never been easier to get a new 2014 jetta. it gets an impressive 34 highway mpg and comes with no charge scheduled maintenance. and right now you can drive one home for practically just your signature. sign. then drive. get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first month's payment on any new 2014 volkswagen. hurry, this offer ends january 2nd. visit vwdealer.com today it's not the "juggle a bunch of rotating categories" card. it's not the "sign up for rewards each quarter" card. it's the no-games, no-messing-'round, no-earning-limit-having, do-i-look-like-i'm-joking, turbo-boosting, heavyweight-champion- of-the-world cash back card. this is the quicksilver cash back card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere, every single day. now tell me, what's in your wallet? >> welcome back to "morning joe." tees off next week. the defender of the green jacket. bubba watson. you look nice, bubba. >> everything he wears is green now. >> for the past year. lifetime. >> i asked if there was any pressure. i got the green jacket. >> i'm in the masters for life and i have a champions locker. life is easy right now. >> me how your life has changed. >> really, really great changes. >> we adopted our son before the masters. when you look at life, winning the masters is pretty overwhelming, but adopting a child before the masters makes it tougher. it has been a blast. the family life and hanging with my child and watching him grow. he's close to walking and we try to defend the masters. it has been a blast. i wouldn't change it for the world. >> if i'm you, i would adopt another child before the masters this year. it seems like the thing to do. looking forward to getting back out there. >> in his caddy outfit and as a family, you are going to get the ride of being masters champion and try to defend it. if i win, great. if i don't, i'm still in the masters the following year. >> does it give the will golfer a different feel in approaching this. if so, why? >> it gives you a drvet approach because it's the biggest golf tournament in the world. just playing is an honor and a privilege. we get goose bumps and get nervous. you get one week a year to try to do it. it's part of history. i have to ask this question. the hover craft golf cart. now that sounds like the fictional thing like the idea of mike doing exercise or something. is this a real thing? >> we created it. we went through the greens and the water and golf carts can't do that. is it practical? probably not. cost-efficient, no. to put their roof in there to hold the golf clubs and a cooler. the flat screen and satellite and stuff like that. if it gets you playing golf, you can borrow mine. >> coming down in the 17th fairway and augusta. that will be easier. >> i love your strategy on beating tiger woods. i hope he's sick. >> maybe dinner will give him food poisoning. he's the best ever and he's on top of his game. he's healthy and he's got a new love and doing everything in the right direction. the guy to meet at the masters. i'm sure he's fine. you got the green jacket. >> so does caleb. >> makes golfers likeable. absolutely. >> i'm acting good. >> great attitude towards life. bubba watson. >> great to see you again. >> good luck with your family. we'll be right back. one of the reasons to do this film was to explain in context to your son why he is going into 7-11 and being followed. he doesn't understand his son goes to a hoity toyota school and doesn't understand that. >> they don't know. they didn't understand why. >> thank you. >> that of course is a great oprah rin free who joins us to discuss her new movie, the butler. she joined us with lee daniels. it features a star-studded cast. willie sat down with those two to talk about their roles in this new acclaimed film that comes out today. >> i'm carter wilson. head butler. james hal way is the second. >> it's a win-win. >> why don't you shake the man's hand. >> i want to know where the man is coming from. >> the dodgers. >> i might need to answer that question if they are running their nasty mouth. >> people who had the pleasure of seeing this. people who didn't stop. what is so moving about the story. they resonate so much with people in terms of not just the historical faxes of dealing with the 1i68 rights movement and the atrocities of the kids on the bus had to endure and black and white. it's a touching story of family. between a father and his son as they grow older. there is a truth there and lee daniels is the type of filmmaker that he strives for truth in his work. brutal at times and think the movie is really connecting with people in that way. >> how do you put yourself back in that place and time in the era of segregation? you play one of the early butlers in a time before the civil rights movement had exploded. how did you get into that character? >> i was fortunate enough to have parents that were involved in that and friends of my parents. i grew up in that environment. my parents got together in 1963. interracial couple. they dealt with it. the same, but a whole other set of obstacles as well. my grandfather always educated me when i was young about the foundation that was laid. that's the beautiful thing about this movie. people, kids, whatever age you might be that really don't know how we got from a to b get to see how that foundation was laid and the type of sacrifice people had to make. >> as somebody who comes from an interracial family born of the 1960s, there was a lot of talk when president obama was elected in 2008 that you were now a post racial united states of america. a magic wand had been waved. what's your view? >> it just isn't so. a lot of people wanted it to be so. at the time i was touring in europe. that was the question i got every day. america was not racist anymore. when you have progress like this. you have people who were not down with that progress and they want to hold on to old ways of thinking and they were not taught by traditions and they want the world to remain a certain way. they begin to pull back. you have this tug of war. we have a great amount of racial unrest in this country. we all know that. with each generation, we get better. this movie is coming out at an interracial couple. this is going on with the trayvon martin case. >> do you feel that the case brought out the worst of this country in terms of race that they went to their battle stations that we as a country wanted to have. there was a good moment and let's have a conversation about race. >> they went out with a lot of americans. a lot of people were surprised because they didn't see it turning out that way. they didn't follow that case. they assumed that they would find him guilty and move on. there is a definite disconnect with the youth in that what we had, lee daniels and i were in this white disk jockey was who a fan of the rapper and sit ins and didn't understand what that meant until he saw the butler and didn't understand kids couldn't go into the front of a restaurant and eat or a diner and sit at a lunch counter that was whites only until he saw this movie. >> was it painful for either of you to revisit this time in history? i know i shutter when i see food dumped on someone's head in a lunch counter and fire hoses and dogs turned on children in birmingham. was it hard to go back and live through that even if through a movie? >> it's difficult to watch, but good to remember. >> how do you describe the lee daniels experience some. >> fasten your eat belt. the brother's nuts. >> he's crazy. >> he's funny. >> out of control. it's not chaos. he knows where he has been going. >> it's controlled, but controlled in a sense. it's controlled and the whole thing when you watch the film. you see the vision. you see it. it's pretty amazing. if you are there to see how it happened. >> that's right. don't forget you say it's controlled. he doesn't like too much control. >> it's good because he finds the truth. >> coming up, he received a golden globe for his silent role for a sailor facing a and death scenario. it's amazing. incredible. a conversation with robert redford next on "morning joe." it's donut friday at the office. and i'm low man on the totem pole. so every friday morning they send me out to get the goods. but what they don't know is that i'm using my citi thankyou card at the coffee shop, so i get 2 times the points. and those points add up fast. so, sure, make me the grunt. 'cause i'll be using those points to help me get to a beach in miami. and allllllll the big shots will be stuck here at the cube farm. the citi thankyou preferred card. now earn 2x the points on dining out and entertainment, with no annual fee.to apply, go to citi.com/thankyoucards >> this is the virginia jane. sos call. over. >> that was part of the trailer from the upcoming film all is lot of. the film star, academy award winning founder of the undance institute, robert redford joins us. i don't know how 20 put it into words, but al scotts studied the face of robert redford and a hem hemingwayesque man against nature and a haunting allegory. would you say as many are saying this is the performance of your life? >> no. >> that's very robert redford to say that. >> no. that's for other people. >> how about the challenge of it? >> the challenge was one of the reasons i did it. you wouldn't know it from the clip. there was no dialogue. >> that was one of the pages. there was no dialogue and a pure challenge and the kind i was hoping to find. the challenges were rich because not only was it physical, could you do that, but also could you occupy the space of one person in a boat for that long and you would have to be absorbed in the character to make that work. that was what i liked. >> without giving away the ending, what's the message for us. what's the net take away? >> for me i don't know what it is for others. i can calm a lot of others. for me it was the parallel back to 1970. that was a man alone on land against obstacles. what the parallel was at what point do you mace insurmountable odds. others just keep moving and why? there is no other reason than just to continue. that's all there is to do. that's what the two films are. >> we have another scene where your character is trying to find something to eat. take a look. >> is it hard to sit back because you are a prolific director and take direction? >> i love that i can do that. i love that i just directed a film and i could give myself over to a director and have trust be the issue and not think about directing. that film would be great. i could do that because his vision was so strong and he had a grip on his idea. when i met him, it was a fast meeting. my gut said just do this. it's bold enough and different enough. unless the guy is crazy. we met and he wasn't. i said okay, let's do it. before you can come to a conclusion. i love the idea of turning myself over as an actor. the irony is that all the people i supported over the years, no one. >> you talk about this with very little dialogue. we don't even know his name. having to fill the screen for two hours, just you, do you give yourself a back story? is there in your mind that this character has a life? >> is it you? >> what was that? >> there is nobody else. i tell you what i like about it. this was a guy who said i think you know i tried. he did make an effort that fail and make the mark. maybe this journey has to do with him completing something he was never able to complete. >> thanks for joiningo ining uss holiday edition of "morning joe." i'm tired looking at it all. it makes me tired. >> don't make me feel bad. would you like me to lean against. see you again. stay tuned with all your life. here on msnbc. a new video of warren winestein, the 72-year-old american kidnapped in pakistan two years ago looking sullen. pleading to the obama administration for help. unemployment benefits and saturday for more than a million americans. senate democrats said they will take up the issue when they return in the new year. what happens to the people between now and then? we were waiting and i kept talking and they still were not here. >> one called it the worst christmas er

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