>> i'm mark halperin. >> and i'm john heilemann. and with all due respect to elon musk, we never have a failure to watch. hi, sports fans. obama takes names, jeb ups his game, and who is in and who is out in the hall of fame? but first, john boehner keeps his job. there was a surprisingly strong challenge to john boehner. a one-day blip or an omen of things to come?

>> as we say in pong, blip. john boehner had his challenges. people on twitter and other places have said they would like to see him go. this was not his problem. he has other problems, but this is meaningless. >> i agree. it is a problem that is not going to define his speakership or ruin him. it is as much of a problem as it was before, except before he had to rely on democratic votes. now that republicans have all of congress -- >> all that matters is the next two years. the next two years, when boehner needs help, paul ryan, jeb hensarling, other conservatives will back him up. the whole thing is not on the president, but boehner and mcconnell taking risks. the two dozen who voted against

him today will not matter. >> the responsibility will be more his watch than it was before. >> he is speaker and he recognizes that. he is not an angry guy. he is not a guy who was going to be rattled by this thing. you could imagine somebody who was speaker, had two dozen people in his conference voting against him, spending the next two months strategizing against them. he is not going to do that. he needs paul ryan and jeb hensarling and others on his side. >> boehner holding the gavel looks pretty good. >> america needs the keystone pipeline way more than a fish needs a bicycle. after hemming and hawing, josh earnest said the president would veto if it came to his desk. >> whenever i hear the word

burrito, all i can think of is mmm, burrito. i do not think there is much risk. he has been on a roll being strong, strong, strong. i think he has to go all in on that. if you capitulate to republicans on that, i do not see any benefit. >> i think he could negotiate, hold off, let's do a big energy deal. to me, here is the risk. this is one issue, this is one issue on which the press is more sympathetic to the republicans than the democrats. the press would like that pipeline to be built. >> why is that? >> i can feel it in my spidey sense. that means the president runs the risk of not being more popular with the media, which plays a big part in how washington goes.

>> i think the press likes strength. if the president vetoes this, he can come back and negotiate an energy bill that is more on his terms. but if he capitulated right now and angered his own base, it would be bad news going forward. >> the tension for me, with the veto threat now, does that make it less likely that democrats don't filibuster or can't sustain a veto? by taking this on, does the president take the pressure off democrats in the senate? >> i don't know the answer to that question. ooh. deserving of further study. i really don't know. >> republicans now are going to go full team. >> i know that. >> their hand is a lot stronger if the president vetoes the bill with substantial democratic support. i think part of what he did this today, was --

[bell rings] >> i was waiting for that bell and it finally came. jeb bush is in new york today. we have a seat waiting for him right over there. he is talking to pac's. both are called right to rise, although you probably know that already if you have seen jeb bush on facebook. >> today we are setting up the right to rise pac. who believe in conservative candidates that will allow all americans to rise up. >> there is kind of a cinema verite quality to that. >> "the blair witch project." >> he also recorded the same message in spanish. >> [speaking spanish]

>> interesting. >> someday when the history of this campaign is written, i hope we have the number of takes he did. >> i also want to know spanish for "the blair witch project." i'm sure you'll have that. this puts a lot of pressure on his major establishment rival chris christie. how much more pressure does this fundraising put on the governor of new jersey? >> christie really has to go for it now. bush is going to sew up support. he has got support. christie has fundraising and money in the bank, but jeb bush, the christie people have to look at the calendar and say, we cannot wait until the spring. we may not be able to wait until the end of winter. >> i have to say christie's biggest support is in the donor class, that group that was weakened by bridgegate. he came out christmas, people

saying march or april. i think you are right. i think he needs to decide by valentine's day. >> there are people questioning how strong jeb bush's fundraising is. a lot of his supporters are his father's supporters, they are older, they are not going to bundle him up. [bell rings] >> people on wall street seem to like jeb bush an awful lot. >> ok, we blew all of our bucks on the chris christie style sweaters. we would like to say congratulations to those who were inducted to cooperstown. but any talk of hall of fame these days brings a shout out to steroids. >> steroids, mmm. >> not making it this year -- roger clemens. john, i know you love the

giants. should they ever be elected to cooperstown? >> there are people who have the totally hard-line position who say, never, never, never. there are others who say there is the scandal, etc. if you look at barry bonds from the time that he entered the league to when he started juicing, he would be a hall of famer. some people -- a guy like mark mcgwire, juice was his whole thing. he would not be a famous player without it. >> why send the message to kids and young players that you can get into the hall of fame if you cheat when there is no constitutional right to be in the hall of fame? let them live off their memories and write some books. >> we do not know exactly this time --

>> go look at the videotape. >> you can tell some of them but you can't tell all of them. frankly, i think steroids should completely legalized. [bell ringing] let juice loose throughout the nba and the mlb. >> move on. >> i'm a libertarian. i got to say it. bill and hillary clinton kristin gillibrand were there, but not one of those persons spoke, which left the duty of the eulogy to mario cuomo's son andrew. he spoke eloquently about their relationship, which many have perceived as close, but contentious. >> my dad was my hero. he was my best friend. he was my confidant. and he was my mentor. his wisdom grew as i grew older. why didn't he run for president, people ask.

because he didn't want to. that's all. but that's everything to mario cuomo. he was where he thought god wanted him to be. he had a natural connection with the outside looking in, the underdog, the minority, the disenfranchised, the poor. my father and pope francis would agree that jesus himself was probably from an outer borough. >> setting aside that andrew gave the speech with eloquence -- >> when andrew cuomo rises to the occasion, he is great. thoughtful, emotional, perfect pitch. just great speech. >> i think you have to recognize that mario cuomo was a guy with the courage of his convictions. he was the real thing. >> when we come back -- earnest? earnest?

earnest? and the triple! >> oh! ♪

>> and now, a man who has achieved something great. he has appeared on this show more than anyone ever. we have the pregame of president obama's state of the union address, a mere 14 shopping days away. josh earnest, thanks for coming on once again. >> good evening, gentlemen. >> josh, the president is doing something unusual, previewing the state of union, touring the country. what is the strategy? >> i think it is good for the president to do some things in the speech.

we wanted to capitalize on momentum that we had at the end of last year, the president acting to add some accountability to our immigration system, changing our policy toward cuba. we got a big victory by getting the omnibus through the congress with bipartisan support. the president had momentum and we wanted to keep it going. part of our success relied on the president being forward leaning and trying to be provocative, laying out policies and demonstrating some forward movement. we wanted to pick that up by laying out some new policy ideas, and these will be echoed as part of his broader strategy in the state of the union address. >> josh, the big news out of your building today -- you guys pretty much laid down the law on keystone and said the president would veto the bill. i think a lot of people in the republican party certainly and others will think that is provocative.

is that just a negotiating posture? >> i would not put that in the category of provocative, just because that was the same position we took two years ago when members of congress, mostly republicans, were considering a very similar piece of legislation. this is a position we have been pretty consistent about. there is a long track record of infrastructure projects like the keystone pipeline not being evaluated by the state department on the merits to determine whether it is in the national interest of the united states. congress is interfering and attempting to circumvent that process for different reasons. the fact is, the president says this is a project that should be evaluated on the merits. and that has questions like how many jobs will be created, what impact does this have on energy prices, and what impact does this have on climate change? if it contributes significantly to the already significant

carbon problem we have on the planet. the project has not been finalized -- that's the plan for the project has not been finalized because there is an ongoing court case in nebraska about the route of the pipeline through that state. once that legal proceeding has been completed, the state department and relevant agencies will complete their review of the project, and we can determine whether it is a national interest to build it. >> josh, most of white house spokespeople when they are asked about something on capitol hill involving a leadership election or the other party, they will say, hey, that is for them to decide. as much as i like what you were wearing, i am surprised you are not wearing a t-shirt that says "david duke without the baggage." why are you so eager to talk about scalise the republican whip? >> i do not know that i am eager to talk about it -- >> i could tell from the gleam

in your eyes you were not shying away from the topic. >> ultimately, it is the responsibility of the republicans in the house of representatives to decide who they want to serve in their leadership. that is true. with mr. scalise, that does raise questions. that is true of whoever they would choose. they have to tell the american public what their priorities are, what they stand for, and what it is they represent. it does say something about the house republicans that they have elected somebody who reportedly described himself -- >> you know what they are saying about you around washington? >> i can only imagine. >> you are tommy peter without the baggage. >> [laughter] >> you're being very garrulous about the house leadership election. there was some controversy about john boehner.

you had so much to say about the other matter. while you let us know what you think about what went on today whether it strengthens or weakens the speaker's hand going forward. >> in the same way there is a question about what message mr. scalise in the leadership sends the public, speaker boehner in the minds of some republicans has been insufficiently confrontational with the president. i can tell you believe that he has been plenty confrontational. it is our hope now that he has been elected to a third term as speaker of the house we will be able to focus more on finding common ground. that does not mean we will not be able to agree on everything with speaker boehner. i think we will disagree on a lot of things. not least of these, the keystone pipeline question. but we hope that these differences will not interfere with our ability to find common

ground moving the country forward, and that is something the president will work on with him when he invites him and other leaders in congress to come down to the white house for a meeting next week. >> we know that you would prefer to do business with daniel webster rather than john boehner. >> don't you think that it is likely that daniel webster got a bunch of votes to be speaker of the house only because his name is daniel webster? >> more likely than not. when we come back, josh earnest will take your questions. remember to use the toll-free number. we will be right back. ♪

>> if you are just joining the program we are talking to white house press secretary josh earnest. we have had our go at him. now it is time for the call-in portion of the show. as usual the phones are ringing off the hook. let's get the first viewer now.

>> hi, josh. this is dee dee from hollywood. i wonder if those rumors are true that you are using your job to get a job in the entertainment business? >> well, dee dee from hollywood would certainly know about how to get that done successfully. the third week of december when i was answering questions about the hacking of the sony e-mails, i felt a little bit like a had a job in hollywood. certainly, dee dee has shown that it can lead to interesting jobs down the road. >> let's go back to the phone. >> hi, josh, this is joe from d.c. have you ever worked so hard and overslept and missed air force one? and if you had one day, would the president hold it for you?

>> two good questions. >> i suspect that joe from d.c. has a very interesting story about oversleeping and possibly missing a flight. i will let him tell that particularly on television. i do feel pretty confident that if i missed the motorcade they would without hesitation leave without me. >> we have another caller on the line. caller number three? >> hey, this is george from new york city. thanks for taking the question. i have noticed you have done some good sparring matches with john over at abc. who do you learn the most from in the briefing room every day? >> that question, not so dissimilar from what i asked you once before. >> i would say that my relationship with john carl has not been the same since i came on your program a few months ago and told you and your viewers that he was my favorite. >> who have you learned the most from?

>> that's an interesting question. they have a habit of asking questions that are a little bit different than anybody else in the briefing room. that usually means they are better questions. >> it means they are overfunded. >> that must be it. that must be up. back to the phones. go ahead, next caller. >> josh, this is ari from new york. i have heard that there are four tv's in the office of the secretary and i think that they all used to be set on fox news. i am wondering what station are they set on now? >> right now, bloomberg, i am sure. i will tell you, since ari's time in the fancy office, we have taken those and used all of that technology to put it all on one screen. so there is a little desk space.

>> you can add more knickknacks. we have one more caller for josh. >> hey, josh, jake from new york city. i understand you are married to a woman who is not only smart and beautiful, but some say that she is more qualified than you are to be the white house press secretary. what is the best he's a professional advice your wife has given you? >> good question. >> this is a trick question. like jake from new york, i married up. a little known fact -- my wife used to have the job that i most wanted at the end of the 2000 campaign, which is the chief assistant secretary for public affairs of the public health department. i think the best piece of professional advice she gave me was every time before i actually

come on camera that i blow my nose. i follow it every time. >> just, a quick quiz for you before we end this segment. of the five callers, there was only one to live in a group house -- >> a group house? i do not know who that is. >> that would be jake from new york, jake from 1%ville, new york. you should try it. it might improve your press secretarial skills. thanks for playing along. thanks to our callers. we will be right back. ♪

>> look what lindsey graham gave joni ernst. a device for castrating hogs. >> we are on 24/7 on bloomberg.com. up next, “taking stock." ♪

>> hello, i'm pimm fox and this is what i am "taking stock" on this tuesday, january 6, 2015. the s&p 500 fell for the fifth straight trading session and marks its longest losing streak in over a year. crude oil prices also fell sliding over 4% to just over $40 a barrel. lower gasoline prices are helping the automobile industry. vehicles, particularly driverless cars, are featured at this year's consumer-electronics show in las vegas. they are being described as a rolling luxu