guy on the zigzag packet. >> first, let's see the zigzag packet of which mr. kimmel speaks. all right. there might be a slight resemblance. the zigzag guy might look a little younger. it's hard to tell. i was talking to jimmy kimmel about this at a white house correspondence dinner and i asked him about his story about my "ridiculist" outburst. >> the man legalizing marijuana, you're accusing me of being high? >> i'm not accusing. i'm just trying to explain that fit. i mean, maybe you're secretly anderson snooper or something, anderson coop dog. i'd love to believe that you're high right now. i really would. >> did you smoke before you went on the stage? >> not before. >> not before. well, they say the white house correspondence dinner is a nerve

prom. is there a stoner prom? until then, we'll always have the "ridiculist". that does it for us tonight. erin burnett "outfront" starts now. speaker boehner kept his job. not everyone is happy. and a columnist suggests that president obama is a disappointment. and when police would be able to confiscate your guns. let's go "outfront." >> good evening, everyone.

i'm erin burnett. the last time the first round of voting was too close was 1983. he got only six more than the bare minimum to keep his job. as for the tears they did come from none other than john bainer in -- boehner to his party members after the narrow victory. >> if you come here humbled by the opportunity to serve, if you've come here to be the determined voice of the people, if you've come here to carry the standard of leadership, demanded not by our constituents, but by

the times, then you've come to the right place. >> outfront tonight, one republican who did not support john boehner today was not moved by those tears. freshman congressman, ted yoho of florida. today was your first day in congress and you came out with a strong statement. let me just play for you how your vote for speaker went down. here it is. >> you voted for majority leader eric cantor, not john boehner. that took some guts on your first day. how come? >> erin, what we did is we are challenging leadership to let him know we're going to hold him accountable, just like i get held accountable in my district by our constituents. we want to let him know we're watching. we're willing to work with leadership and i look forward to doing that. that's why i stuck with the republican party with mr. cantor.

>> you were quoted in the national journal as saying, "career politicians created this mess, or at least they didn't do anything to prevent it." >> right. >> so you term limited yourself, you said, to eight years. so should everyone face that limit, even those already in office? >> well, i think people ought to limit themselves. you know, i set that limit of eight years, because i figured that was good enough for george washington, it's good enough for me. you know, the founders didn't intend for us to make a living out of this or that long of a career. that's for each person to decide. me, personally, i decided for eight years. it goes back to what i said there. you know, our message that got us here was that the career politicians did get us here. and they either led us to where we were at or they failed to prevent it. neither is acceptable. this is a time we need to put america first, not so much a political party, the parties are important, but it's more important to put our country first. and i look forward to doing that and i let leadership know that i'm willing to work for them, work with them, but yet, i'm also willing to stand up against them. >> and, let me ask you, though, in terms of john boehner.

you know, now he's won, you didn't vote for him, but he's going to be leading your party, he's the speaker of the house. so the bill that he allowed to come to the floor, the fiscal cliff bill that is now law, that the president has signed, would you have supported the speaker and voted for that, or would you, like eric cantor, have gone against the speaker? >> i would have gone against that. you know, with what i've read. >> and then how can you then vote for john boehner -- i know you voted for eric cantor, but how can you say you're going to work with john boehner and go along with him when you totally disagreed with what he did? >> well, what we have to do is be able to stand up and willing to challenge them on the tough decisions and hopefully be a part of that decision making, to where you can say, i don't think that's the right direction or maybe the right messaging that we need to get out. and being willing to stand up and do that, i think, is more important that they know where you come from, from the very beginning, but yet, let them know that you're going to work with leadership, because he is our leader. and i'm 100% behind him, just like mr. obama, president obama is our president. and, you know, they are the people in charge right now. and so we've got to do the best we can. and again, this goes back to do the best we can for the country.

and that's what i'm up here for. >> let me ask you, some people might listen to you right now and say, all right, you're going to be one of those people who's never going to vote for taxes to go up. you're going to be on the more right wing of your party. you know, a lot of others like you have been causing problems for john boehner. but yet, those people might be surprised that you said you will not sign grover norquist's pledge on taxes. so, it sounds like you're saying, look, i'm willing for taxes to go up in the right situation. >> well, again, you know, if you look over the course of the past 30 to 40 years, the republicans have been in charge and the democrats have been in charge. and our country is falling -- it's going in the wrong direction. and this is a time, again, not to put a party first, but put the country first. and if we put the country first, we take the focus off of ourselves in a party, and we put the focus on what's best for this country. and that's what we have to do. and it's going to take a give and take from both sides. >> do you think that republican lawmakers, who supported the fiscal cliff deal, the bill you

said you would have voted against, should face primary challenges in 2014? and obviously, that doesn't just include people like john boehner, it includes people like paul ryan. >> well, i think that most of them are going to face challenges, just the way that our electoral process works. but should they? because they voted that way? that's for their constituents to decide, not me. and their constituents will let them know. >> all right, well, congressman yoho, nice to meet you, although virtually, thanks. >> erin, appreciate it. same here. >> we'll see you again soon. now let's bring in john avalon, cnn contributor of "newsweek" and the daily beast. what do you make of that? come in on day one and make a stand against boehner? but you're not signing the grover norquist tax pledge. it's hard to read that. >> a bold move on day one to go against speaker boehner. he clearly did it from a position of principle. he took on a republican

congressman, ran a great ad, depicting politicians as pigs at the trough. he's got a very anti-establishment message. and to his credit, he says, look, we need to find a way to work against party lines and he's not signing any pledges. that's a hopeful pledge. but i was really struck, not just by his vote, but the dozen or so folks that voted against boehner and how close this came. >> six votes? >> yeah. >> that's pretty incredible. >> erin, we discussed, sources on the hill have been saying for weeks, boehner's safe, boehner's safe, this turned out to be a real nail biter. it does show that boehner's got a real problem holding together his conference. the lessons he takes from it will be fascinating. but the vote revealed the fault lines beneath the republican party. i mean, when you see, paul brewnan and louie gohmert voting for alan west, that's one segment of the republican party. and it really does show that john boehner -- >> there were some interesting write-ins there. >> i personally kind of dug the colin powell write-in, but it is a significant thing, because boehner's a deal maker. and to some extent, he's being punished for it by the far right of his own party.

and that's one possible outcome. around 50 votes, he can't count on if he does anything with democrats. that's the reality of divided country. >> right, when he put forth the so-called plan "b," it got shot down, because there were some republicans that wouldn't allow taxes to go up on anybody. >> and they ended up getting a worse deal. if those 50 or so folks saying we're fiscal conservative absolutists had backed boehner, they probably would have got a better deal on taxes and maybe even a grand bargain that dealt with entitlement reform as well. of course, the bill that passed didn't have anything of it. >> people like congressman yoho will be some very interesting ones to watch. by the way, fascinating man. large animal veterinarian. >> large animal vet. we need more of those in congress. >> and there's a reindeer farmer, also. >> yes, there is. >> in congress. this will be fun. "outfront" next, a prominent newspaper columnist slams president obama. it caught our eye. that's next. and an update on hillary clinton and her condition, and what she says she's going to do about that benghazi testimony we've all been waiting for.

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our second story "outfront," slamming the president. "washington post" reporter and

columnist david ignatius, who has covered six american presidents, suggests president obama is a disappointment. here's ignatius. "rather than come to the table with a grand vision of his own, a real strategy for cutting the deficit and the entitlement programs that drive it, obama played a poker game of incremental bargaining with house speaker john boehner. unfortunately, obama has been playing a waiting game on fiscal issues ever since he became president." "outfront" tonight, former white house deputy press secretary, bill burton. great to see both of you. bill, there were some pretty harsh words here, tough words. obviously, david ignatius saying, here's how the president could turn it around, but pretty frustrated with his leadership on fiscal issues. and of course, we just had a deal that ended up boosting spending and slashing revenue, which is not sort of the whole goal, right? so what do you think about david ignatius' point? the president needs to be bigger and come up with a plan? >> well, it's hard for me to see

how somebody on the left, anybody who supports the president, could be disappointed with the deal that the president just got. think of what just happened. he got republicans to vote for a tax increase for the first time since 1990. he saved unemployment insurance, extended it, without having pay-fors in it. extended the earned income tax credit, extended the wind energy tax credit. and even got the rates back to where he wanted to get the rates. now, we're in a divided government. you're not going to get every single thing that you want, but the president got some really big things, made some real progress. and if you look at the base line that everybody compares, you know, where the budget is to everything else, actually, this does cut the deficit by $737 billion. so i think the president made big progress here and we're going to have to see going forward how we're going to be able to deal with the looming crisis that we face in the next couple of months. >> bill burton has just shown why he was the deputy press secretary. and i mean that, bill, as a compliment. but, in all seriousness, he's giving the spin on that. so what do you say? >> well, i think that when you

look at president obama's priorities, it's important to keep in mind that deficit reduction isn't necessarily his biggest priority right now, for the simple reason that there's a lot of anxiety among folks in the white house that if you have too fast of fiscal contraction, it can be really bad for the economy. so i think from his perspective, he's not necessarily prioritizing reforming medicare and what have you over the long-term. he wants to be sure to have a successful presidency and to protect his legacy. and the core of his legacy is actually his health care reform. so if he has that in place, i think he believes -- >> so he doesn't care about this stuff, is what you're saying? >> i'm not going to say that he doesn't care, but i think what he would like is a deal in which he gets some credit for a very modest tweak to social security and get republican buy-in in on that. that way he feels like a bipartisan leader. but fundamentally, i don't think he really cares about near-term deficits all that much. >> bill, is that fair, or should the president be stepping up and saying, look, here is my vision on reforming entitlements. we can't afford the promises that we've made. i am now done after this term,

so i'll give you the tough love and put that plan forward and give you a major legacy? >> i don't think that necessarily stands up to where you've seen the president. the president, first of all, in health care reform, there is some medicare reform. secondly, what he was attacked for, relentlessly for republicans all through this last cycle. second of all, the president has said repeatedly in his public remarks that he is very committed to medicare reform. the problem is you've got mitch mcconnell out there saying that he doesn't have a dance partner on the dance floor, but the president doesn't have somebody he can work with in the house. when john boehner comes to the table and he can't even bring his deputy or his third in command to vote for the deal that he is agreeing to, i think you've got a real crisis of leadership in the house. and so the president showed that even in that case, he can get a deal that moves the ball forward for the country, but going forward, you just wonder, how much control does boehner have over the folks in the house and what kind of deals are we going to be able to get? >> reihan, just to the point, he could say, i am going to set a

vision for what america must be. that's what david ignatius is saying he's not doing. is that charge fair? >> i think that's absolutely fair, but the mistake is this, president obama doesn't really care about this kind of grand bargain approach. he wants to be sure that his expansion of the welfare state and health reform is there, is durable, that it lasts beyond his presidency. and i think that's why it's really a waiting game, rather than about getting a big deficit bargain. >> well, he got a few taxes. a lot of little sneaky medicare taxes. >> a lot more tax on the health reform. >> david ignatius goes on, though, to talk about the president's strategy in terms of filling his cabinet. also critical on that. he says, he floated the names of susan rice and chuck hagel out there for secretary of defense and secretary of state. ignatius then says, "obama has been backing into the second term in his cabinet choices, too. these are unnecessary, self-inflicted wounds for the administration." also criticizing how he handles that.

so making small decisions, not big ones. >> well, i'm sort of surprised to see that from david ignatius, frankly. because this isn't the first time he's seen a nomination process where names leak out, people rise to the top, fall to the bottom. >> yeah. >> for starters, susan rice is one of the most talented people in this administration and would have been an awesome secretary of state. but she pulled out because it was her decision to stop all the distractions that she was causing. so to criticize the president for the noise that republicans make or the noise that anybody else is making from the outside on people who haven't even been chosen for cabinet posts is silly on its face. it's washington and that's the washington game that people play. >> bill has a fair point. something leaks out, it gets tested and then the president doesn't have to waste his political capital on defend being susan rice. >> well, there are folks who are defenders of susan rice and chuck hagel would put it somewhat differently. their view is, they don't have the white house's opposition team. they don't have formidable folks like bill burton who are arguing on their behalf.

their names were floated, put out there pretty much on their own. and then allowed the slings and arrows to come their way. if you have the formal backing of the white house, then you can make it more of a fight. my own view is that both of those names that were floated were not necessarily the best choices for the country. but regardless, if you actually are going to back them, you ought to back them 100%. >> all right. well, thanks very much to both of you. we appreciate it, both very formidable. >> chris lawrence is "outfront" on the story. still to come, new

>> reporter: the options are on the table. at the low end, a little more than 6,000 troops, mostly special operations forces hunting terrorists, with a small amount of training for afghan forces. the 10,000 option would still focus on al qaeda, but would add conventional troops to expand afghan training. a 15,000 option would include even more conventional troops to go on limited patrols and give the afghans even more support. some experts say forget that last option, 15,000. >> it's not politically tenable within congress. it's not doable from a budget execution perspective. >> reporter: analyst stephanie sanok worked in baghdad and developed options for the iraq drawdown. she says between war fatigue and spending cuts, even the middle option may be a reach. >> my guess is you will end up closer to the 6,000 person option than the 10,000 person option. >> reporter: analyst jeff dressler argues the u.s. will still have to keep helicopter crews, medical teams, and other backup for whatever troops are left.

>> just keeping 6,000 probably isn't that much cheaper than just keeping 15,000, because there's basic things that you need to have there just for the 6. >> reporter: dressler says lowball options are minimizing the danger any remaining troops could face. >> i would argue that even with 20,000 troops, you're still assuming quite a bit of risk. it's by no means a low-risk option. >> general john alan presented these options in one of his last acts as commander. but general joseph dunfer, the man taking alan's place next month, admits he wasn't included in the talks over options. that could signal some tense fights with members of congress, who are skeptical of the drawdown plan. >> senator, i have not been included in those conversations. >> boy, that's interesting to me. a guy that's going to take over the command has not even been included in those conversations. >> reporter: so what's the big-picture goal? in an interview with cnn's erin burnett in afghanistan, a defense secretary said the terrorists just have to be defeated, not decimated. >> i think that you can reach a point where you so significantly weaken al qaeda that, you know, although there may still be a few people around, they won't be able to conduct the operations

that they've conducted in the past. >> all right, chris lawrence is with me now. chris, what i'm curious about, leon panetta in november said to reporters, we'll have a troop count number in a couple weeks from the president. a couple weeks went by, he said, i'll have a troop count number in a couple of weeks. and when i saw him mid-december, he said, some time soon. then we get this range of 6,000 to 15,000.

why is it taking so long and why don't we have a real number? if. visit usps.com pay, print, and have it picked up for free. any time of year. ♪ nice sweater. thank you.

♪ "outfront" next, sweeping changes to america's gun laws proposed. police could be allowed to confiscate all of your firearms. and a very rare look at iran's spy network. it is a whole lot bigger than anyone in the pentagon thought.

hillary clinton will be back to work next week.

she said clinton is committed to testifying on the benghazi attacks. it's been 518 days since the united states lost its top credit rating. what are we doing to get it back? well, today there was some good news on jobs. apparently we had 215,000 jobs added in december, more than economists were looking for. of course, the formal jobs number comes out tomorrow. and now our fourth story "outfront." a potentially major change to gun laws in the united states. a maryland task force on guns and the mentally ill, here it

is, it's a pretty interesting report, recommends that police should have the right to con phys case firearms from anyone who is deemed to be, quote, a threat to self or others. tonight, charles sophie and paul callan, who also represents psychiatrists in medical malpractice cases. so reading through this task force series of recommendations, they say, look, the biggest indicator that someone could be a problem to public safety or a threat would be if they make a threat. what this law would do is, it would put in law enforcement's hands the idea of deciding whether you're mentally ill or not. and then making a determination as to wether or not your weapons would be seized. under current law, if you are a threat to me, i can have you arrested now. you don't need a new law to do that.

as a matter of fact, the law requires a psychiatrist to turn you in. as i'm sure dr. sophie will agree with me. >> all right, so dr. sophie, let me ask you, maryland already does have a law saying that people with mental illness who have been hospitalized for more than 30 days for mental illness oer a history of mental illness, they're already not allowed to own firearms. so this extra step that paul's

talking about, where you would take guns away from people who make threats against other people, is that necessary? >> yes, i definitely think that at some point, in certain people, they should have that extra step. because let me tell you, there are people out there who don't verbalize a lot of the things that they're thinking and will act. so we're really talking about a competency issue, not necessarily somebody with just a mental illness. and those it may seem discriminatory, it really is about the safety of that person as well as society. >> well, unless psychiatrists have developed some sort of a brain scan that could determine what people who are mentally disturbed are thinking, there's no way to enforce this law. millions of people in this country are on psychotropic medications right now, probably half the population of

manhattan. are we going to look in all of their homes to see if they have guns because they're suffering from mental illness? it's just an unenforceable law. >> dr. sophy, what's your response to that? you think about depression, people are hospitalized for that, that's a mental illness, a lot of people have dealt with that, are people who have had depression should be allowed to have guns? >> absolutely not. i know there needs to be a

discussion, we'll start a discussion about the ability to keep people safer in all areas. but at that table has to be the law people, the medical people, children's and patients' rights people. all of the kinds of hipaa stuff that has to go into it. that has to go into it. because anybody on a

psychotropic medication should not be deemed incompetent not and able to have a gun, it is a process. chuck todd is "outfront." >> iran's intelligence service is one of the largest and most aggressive spy organizations in the world. the report says iran's ministry of intelligence and security has

30,000 people working for it. that's compared to just over $100,000 in the 17 u.s. intelligence agencies and offices. >> from the standpoint of u.s. nash, western national security, what's the dangerous thing that pan will have his terrorism. so they them sent don't necessarily have to do something. they can contract it out, engage in tour rich against the united states and our allies. >> a former cia officer says the iranian ministry of intelligence and stewart used to conduct most iranian assassinations over. >> he says that kill char i

didn't have. what's the ministry of intelligent's biggest job set? >> they're primarily used in instant regression. >> set pratt from the report, congressman peter king has said that iran runs, ties out of its mission to the u.n. king made those comments after it was clear it was made to senate the burst. he said he'd work with iranian hilt people. in the walk of that, king called dip plets.

>> iranian officials decide any role in trying to assassinate the bodyguardy ambassador in washington. we called and e-mailed her position on u.n. we got no response. brian todd, cnn, washington. still to come, shocking ol gagss of rabe in ohio. the video posted on the alleged. there's less to returns pup won't believe what we saw today. @ excuse me, sir i'm gonna have to ask you to power down your little word game.

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this goes in the general fund. >> all the properties, many in

foreclosure. >> this story is really only a little bit about law. it's mostly about values and culture and parenting. because the rapists, if they are rapists, can be prosecuted and obviously the best thing would be if there were photographs, some sort of recordings like that. but the larger community that protects people who rape, that gives kids alcohol, most of that is beyond the reach of the law. the kids who are laughing, the kids who are saying stupid things. >> not in california. >> well, giving the alcohol, >> they raped her.

>> he raped her harder than marcelous raised that cop in pulp fiction. >> they raped her quicker than mike tyson raped that girl. >> susan candiotti is out tonight. that are is horrific to lear. what is the defense saying? is there any evidence that might be involved? you know all the players? >> in terms of the defense, i had an opportunity to speak at great length for the defend ahoes. he raiseth the question that if prosecutors say that a rape da occur, that he said if there is possible evidence of that, that he plans to counterargue that if there was any evidence, he will challenge whether it is in fact

con sensual. he denies anything that happens happened. >> so obviously what anybody knows about about b this, a high appropriation file group. >> this exploded on social media and authorities have to sift through all of this. anonymous saw what was happening and decided to post a lot of these things online, hack into some people's eemails, and put t out there so much the authorities are aware with it. there will be another protest on the courthouse steps about this

this weekend. also raising the question of if the victim doesn't come forward, it is honorary or is. ual violence at new england law school. wendy, thanks for coming on. if it were not for social media, as susan's talking about, how this became exploded in the nation's consciousness. would this call is ever gone on, in a why you jarrod. but the fact is rape is not only underreported. it is growthly that officials and they disproportionately do

not bring charges women as equal citizens in this country were not -- is it possible it could be a viable defense. >> well, if she was 16 at the time, then it was a viable matter of law. would it prevail? not that she's in the condition that everyone is saying she was in, which is completely unconscious. i dafr defense attorney to argue to a jury that a woman who is completely passed out was consenting to a jury that a guy who passed out was consent use et use one more thing, erain, about celebration.

this is a new era where democracy and action and people going to the internet are now able to share information in a quaye that we'll hold prosecutors and law enforcement officials every time. when they don't think of the case hannellyly, lf. >> caller: only 2% of rapests spend can i bin hao and i'm very happy to say that. >> wendy, let me ask you. obviously we just played that clip. i don't want to replay it again because it was awful to see.

you hear that the teen-age boys joking, going through things like dozen pb? will there be any reper discussions for that doing all that you story. it's a good connection. i can't think of a crime they can be charged with. i sigh it's possible they can be sued or intentional disslyke when erp getting in this yard kol gist money. we'll be right back. >> you bets will.

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taxes. we all despise paying them. but no matter what happens here, we're not going to have it as bad as they might in france, despite that they ruled that the tax plan is illegal and unfair, the french president is still trying to find way to raise the taxes on the wealthiest in his country from 40% to 75%. they are not very happy about this and some like actor gerard

depardieu say they will abandon france, give up their citizenship. but where with would depardieu go? russian president vladimir putin said artists are easily offended. why is putin really helping depardieu? is he a big fan of his movies or is he just trying to get attention for himself? you know, everything putin does, usually shirtless, by the way, seems to promote vladimir putin and one industry has bought into the putin phenomenon, the toy industry. look at this ultra realistic

vladimir putin doll. it comes dressed in a suit and tie, includes a wrist watch, a podium, bound copy of the russian constitution and even a second set of hands. of course, the big question is who would you buy this vladimir putin doll for? me. he can dance, he can do the moon walk. we can guarantee you he's going to take his shirt off. maybe he will just wear his extra tie. "piers morgan tonight" is next. based right here in america. we've repaid every dollar america lent us. everything, plus a profit of more than $22 billion. for the american people. thank you, america. helping people recover and rebuild -- that's what we do. now let's bring on tomorrow.

to divvy up this shared data plan...fairly. so, um, whoever's fathered the most children, gets the most data. let's just do it by hair. body hair? most dental work. what? [ phones buzzing and beeping ] stop downloading, and stop liking everything. it should be by who has the least amount of cartilage in their left knee. [ mom ] i just want to take a bath. [ male announcer ] say no to sharing. say yes to sprint. with truly unlimited data, text and calling.