exclusive interview to "time" magazine. >> there we were on a saturday morning. there was no one around except for this one rather small physically president rattling around in his huge empty palace. >> reporter: as for gayet, well, she's keeping quiet, but suing the tabloid for invasion of privacy after it made public the details of her affair with hollande. the affair has clouded his trips to the netherlands and the vatican. he travels to turkey and his first visit to the white house is just days away. >> you kind of have to have your personal life sorted out or you will run the risk of getting eaten alive by the american media. >> reporter: erin mclaughlin, cnn, london. that's it for me. thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." "crossfire" starts right now. tonight on "crossfire" --

what should the president say in tomorrow's big speech? what will republicans offer in return? and how will all of it affect her? >> whenever i hear people talk about america being in decline, you hear the same thing. it just gets my back up. >> on the left, van jones, on the right, newt gingrich. in the crossfire, senator joe manchin, a democrat from west virginia, and senator john hoeven, a democrat from north dakota, on this eve of the state of the union, is there any hope for action? tonight on "crossfire." welcome to "crossfire." i'm newt gingrich on the right. >> and i'm van jones on the left. in the crossfire tonight we've got two u.s. senators who also happen to be former governors. they know a little bit about how to get things done and so does president obama. and that's why tomorrow during the state of the union, the

president's going to make it clear to everybody, if republicans keep blocking everything that's good, the president's going to use his executive pen and help america anyway. and i say, it's about time. can you imagine having a co-worker on your job who sabotages you every single day? now, you try to scale back your own ideas, try to accommodate him and he go, well, you're feeling delete. then he torpedoes his own ideas. finally you just say forget it, i'm going to solve these problems on my own. now she says, you're a dictator. does this sound familiar? at some point, you've got a job to do, just get the job done. now i'm sure you agree with that i'm sure you two agree with me on this. >> i think your grip on reality is so good you probably think the chicago bears are going to win sunday in the super bowl. they ain't even playing in the super bowl. no, i don't agree with you. but we have in the crossfire tonight --

>> we're going to get into it tonight. >> democratic senator joe manchin and republican senator john hoeven. both of them have been governors. i'll ask a question to both of you, this is not our normal style. because you're both governors, i was really struck that the president with this whole executive pen routine is almost saying he's going to spend the last three years of his presidency not expecting to get much out of the legislative branch. you both have been governors. can you imagine saying to the legislature just before your state of the state speech, by the way, guys, i'm not going to pay much attention to you for the next three years? >> that's a hard one. but as the chief executive, there are things that a chief executive can do in running the day-to-day shop, looking how to be more effective and efficient, looking at the rules and regs they have to work within. setting changing poll sis without the legislative process is not a thing. i don't think that's what president obama intends to do. i would think and like to think that he's basically looking at what he's allowed to do, what he

should be doing in running the government nor efficiently. >> but don't you agree the president of the united states is not the prime minister. he ran in every state, every county. he's the only guy in this town that had to run everywhere. don't you think he has a right to do something as president, and is this an executive authority he can use to help this country, shouldn't he use it? >> if he wants to get something done, he has to work with congress just like governors have to work with legislatures. of course it's not easy. that's why you get involved and figure out how to compromise. >> are you working with him? >> of course we are, absolutely. but he's got to understand that you don't come and dictate an agenda. you offer compromise. that's what joe did when he was governor, what i did when i was governor. you can't say it's tough so i'll go off by myself. >> that's not what he's doing. >> he invites the democrats and the senate down to the white house, apparently had a martini with them, which i thought was sort of obama relaxing a little bit.

doesn't he in fact have a solid working majority of the senate and couldn't they start from there trying to be positive about dealing with the congress? >> the arithmetic is simple, 5 democrats, it takes 60 to get things done. there's 45 republican, it takes 15 more democrats to work with the republicans. we have to work together. joe and i understand that. maybe we should have had both democrats and republicans at the white house having a martini together. >> there are a lot of bills that senator manchin and i co-sponsor. we can start with some of those. but look, he's going to talk tomorrow night about extending unemployment benefits. we said, okay, if you pay for it and you make some reforms to job training so you actually get people back to work, we can find a way to compromise, so let's go to work. >> let's take another one that's going to be a big one. he will also talk about the need to raise the minimum wage in this country, to give america a raise. now i'm going to ask you, you talked about compromise, working together, are you going to vote

with this president and with a whole bunch of people in america? it's very popular, by the way. not just the president by himself. 71% of americans support raising the minimum wage. only 27% oppose. are you going to support the president on that? will you vote to raise minimum wage? >> again, we'll consider working with the president on that, but he's got to come up with a plan where you actually get people back to work. because if you really want to raise income for people, you got to get a job. >> is that a yes or a no? >> well, consider it. sure, absolutely. >> if you go back to 1968 when the minimum wage was 1.60, if you just adjust it for inflation it would be a little over $10. that's where we're trying to go. that's not all at one time. everybody will agree that minimum wage has to be raised. you have states doing it without the federal government doing it. >> the governor did it himself. you did it when you were governor, now you say you'll consider it. that's a big problem for republican, you sound like you

just don't care. >> in our state to bring our minimum wage in line with the federal government, part of building that good business climate, in other words, having a legal regulatory and business climate that encourages job creation, that's the rising tide that lifts all boats. get people back to work. that's the right approach. >> governor, senator, because it does seem to have a minimum wage you have to have a job. as you pointed out, the economy, one of the thins that's happening with the democrats because of the five-year process is the latest poll we saw on this, which i think we'll also put up, when you ask who do you trust on the economy, this is a big swing. 37% now say democrats, 44% say republicans. the president really can't get away with five years into his term explaining it's all george w. bush's fault. isn't this coming into the fall campaign, isn't this a big problem for democrats if the economy stays weak and if the

country increasingly blames them for it? >> mr. speaker, when i was governor, basically you have to build confidence and you have to get your financial house in order. that's the first thing i had to do in west virginia. once you get the finances in order, you can do a lot of things, but if your finances aren't in order it really cripples you. my grandfather would say make a coward out of you the decisions you make if you have unmanaged debt. if you think about the last time we balanced the budget, last year 2001, you were involved when that began. but in 2001 when president clinton left, where we were with spending, whether we were with revenue, we're far off of ta track right now. i says, john, if we have to have a big fix, don't you think we have to have a fair revenue where people have faith and confidence that we're doing it the right way? >> when you were governor -- i remember we talked about this one night. when you were governor, you did decisive thing, a freeze on employment for a while. shouldn't the president had responsibility for showing the leadership. >> i'm hoping these next three

years the president will be serious about fixing our financial crisis. >> look, speaking of, we talk about the financial crisis, people being responsible, et cetera, et cetera, we're a couple weeks away from hitting the debt ceiling once again. and once again we've got the republicans and, oh, we're going to stick in the keystone pipeline and obama care. do you think that the republicans are once again going to stick their fork in the socket of putting full faith and credit up to the break or can we do normal business in this town? >> i'm glad you brought that up particularly keystone pipeline. there you create jobs and doesn't cost one penny to the federal government. about energy independence. it's about creating jobs right now. vital infrastructure. to answer your point we have big time debt and deficit that we have to address. you want to get the economy going -- >> you want to risk this again. >> get some reforms and savings to get that deficit and debt

under control. >> come on, now, say it with me. are you -- i'm getting nervous because you're supposed to be the sane one when the crazy one was in the house. you don't sound like you're willing to say we won't risk the full faith and credit -- can we do a clean debt ceiling deal or not? yes or no, mr. compromise? >> the people of this country want us to address the debt as any part of debt ceiling agreement. absolutely. they want us to make sure that we're finding savings and reforms. >> we have $2 trillion in cuts so far. we only had about $700 billion of revenue going from 35 to 396 on top. the revenue is where we've got to look at. we've got to have revenue. john and i maybe disagree on that because john says we'll have dynamic growth. i agree but you can't score it. if you have to have revenue on this, the only thing i'm saying is maybe we can figure out a way

that if we spend it to the point where 70% of every dollar coming in new goes to infrastructure and that would be something that republicans would accept. >> you know as a governor of your state in west virginia, revenue comes from a growing economy, not from higher taxes. you combine that and you see this economy taking off and there you get people back to work. >> that's what we need to do and we can basically cut off the loopholes and offsets. >> tax reform, yes. >> not higher taxes. >> next, i want to ask our guests about the person who wants to rebuild the democratic party. here's a hint. she doesn't drive. this is interesting. it says here that a woman's sex drive increases at the age of 80. helps reduce the risk of heart disease. it seems that 80 is the new 18. grannies, bless your heart, you are bringing sexy back!

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welcome back. in the crossfire tonight, senators joe manchin and john hoeven. president obama delivers his state of the union speech tomorrow night. today, however, he was upstaged by a speech from his would-be successor who made a confession. >> last time i actually drove a car myself was 1996, and i remember it very well. and unfortunately, so does the secret service, which is why i haven't driven since then. >> now, here raps a woman whose effort to get back in touch with us doesn't involve driving across america or even driving to the grocery store. it's being chauffeured to the national auto dealers association convention to tell them, quote, i wish i could drive one of your cars? we should feel good. she did at least admit she's in touch with the feeling of foreigners. >> i was very pleased that we got a budget agreement, for example. i'm hoping that we get past this

next debt limit, you know, challenge, because i know how the rest of the world watches us. >> now, senator manchin, i know that you are very articulate, very popular person back home in west virginia. so i'm just curious, how are you going to walk into some store in a small town in west virginia and explain a nominee who hasn't driven in 18 years but who' really glad that foreigners approve of how we're doing things? >> i think that could be twisted just a little bit, but the bottom line is that maybe that's why it's more appealing for that she should be president because then we'll still have someone that basically can drive the -- >> so we can say keep hillary off the road, vote hillary for president? that's the most unusual slogan. >> i think we know that basically with her job and her profession and where she's been, her schedule and things of that sort, that happens. it happens to many people. >> do you want her to run?

>> i do. >> okay, good. >> first of all -- >> i want to see where you go with this. >> i think that talking about the first lady, former first lady, she does need to be protected. we would probably think if she's wandering out there by herself without secret service protection, it would be a bad thing. i want to come back to not the speech from today from the former first lady, former secretary of state, state of the union tomorrow. you said something bob that was terrible. you said that this keystone pipeline is some massive job creating machine when it actually turns out that this pipeline is not coming to america, it's going through america, most of that oil will go to china and only create temporary jobs, 35 permanent jobs. why would you risk, why would you risk the debt ceiling over a boondoggle like this? and you still never answered my question, clean debt ceiling, yes or no? >> for debt ceiling agreement i think we have to have savings and reforms. i think the american people

strongly feel that way, too. as tore keystone, you want to create vital infrastructure in this country, there's a great example. here it is held up for five years. you have an energy renaissance in this country led by states like mine and we can't get the basic infrasfrur to get it to market? 35 jobs. the state department says more than 40,000 jobs. creates hundreds of millions in revenue and you can tell the middle east to take a hike, we've got our own energy right here. >> i'm all for american energy, i'm all for solar, wind, i'm all for us figuring out cleaner burning ways to dond a this president supports -- >> let's do it all. let's not hold a project like keystone, five years? >> it's the biggest boone dogle. you think a company called trans-canada is going to make -- >> administration has tied it up in regulatory burden. >> i better jump in here. let me tell you why it was

bipartisan. first of all, my little state of west virginia, we think we ought to buy from our friends instead of our enemies. >> nothing wrong with that. >> that's why canada is the best trading partner, our best ally. that oil will go somewhere -- >> according to transcanada that's somewhere in china. >> it's going to go to china if they build it -- >> the department of energy report. >> we're secure. >> and the more access we have to energy, the more secure we are. >> okay, well -- >> let's argue about something we might be able to get somewhere like immigration. >> i have to ask one more question of senator manchin. he's ably represented west virginia. would you agree that this president is pro coal? my good friend here was -- >> about clean coal in the state, let's back it up. >> there's money in it, they just haven't spent it.

the difference is i'm having a problem, as you know, with the fossil -- coal is the only affordable, reliable energy we've made in this country. part of the energy package. even the department of energy says it will be needed from 2020 to 2030. i would like a partnership and i haven't gotten that as much as i would like to see it. i'm fighting that every day. >> let's go one more place. we don't have unlimited time. we can come back and argue about coal -- that 5 billion dollar for clean coal i think is important. but how about immigration. this is an issue that most americans have come to understand is a critical issue for american values, american families yet your party can't seem to do the right thing. i want to read you a quote from one of your colleagues, mr. sessions. now we'll take an issue that divides republicans -- we're talking about immigration -- that is not good for working americans and alter the

definition of this election to a controversial issue like immigration. now, you have a party that is seen as being exclusive, that doesn't seem to be opening, doesn't seem to be welcoming. this has become a signature issue. don't hurt working america, doesn't that hurt your party? >> immigration reform has to be done the right way. that means, first, secure the border, and to get the public support, to get the american people on board you've got to secure the border first. then you've got to enforce workplace law. you have to make sure that you have entry and exit systems at all international airports and seaports, and then, and only then, are you going to get the public's support to get immigration reform. >> everybody agrees with you on that. >> the step-by-step approach the house is working to take. >> you are part of a sensible plan like that in the senate. this does not sound like somebody who wants to move in a sensible direction. this sounds like somebody who is saying the issue itself should not be addressed. >> back to what we talked about at the outset. the president needs to engage.

the house is saying that they will work on immigration reform, but it needs to be a step-by-step approach. administration engage. let's go to work. >> let me ask you a question, totally different, because i watched you, and we've had many friendly conversations. remind me a little bit of former senator zell miller who finally said to me one day the democrat caucus had convinced him that his party had left him. don't you feel at times enormous stress between all of the core values you represent in west virginia and the debate in the caucus? >> there's a lot of things as -- on the washington level that's different than the west virginia level, and i think even my republican friends will say the same when they come from their state. with that being said, i still have -- i still root for the underdog. i want to help -- give a helping hand to anybody an everybody that i can, but i expect them to do something. i come from a family that we had rules and regulations. we had to work. we had to contribute. we had to give back, and all

these things, and i really think the democratic party has the core values of a west virginia democrat. i feel good about that, but sometimes the national party goes a different direction. >> zell gave a speech at the 2004 republican convention, shouldn't expect you to show up at our convention in 2016. >> i don't think so. >> joe works on a lot of issues though that americans want. >> it's common sense. >> and he works on it in a way that we can find common ground, no question about it. >> can i say one thing? >> we'll come back. you can say it then. next i want to make sure we get the final question in for our guest when we get back. i also want you at home to weigh in on today's fire back question. should president obama bypass congress to enact his agenda through some executive action? tweet yes or no usi using #crossfire. we'll give you the results when we get back from this break.

we are back with senators joe manchin and john hoeven. now it's time for the final question. first to you. senator, you got a number of responses coming tomorrow from the republicans. you've got congresswoman kathy mcmorse rogers giving the official republican response and senator mike lee. he's giving the tea party response and senator rand paul giving the rand paul response. which one of them speaks for you? >> we're a big-tent party. we need a president that's going to commit to work with congress, face the challenges and meet the challenges that this country needs dealt with, not go off on his own. so we'll look for him to work with us to get the job done.

>> but isn't this a mess, come on? isn't this a mess? three responses from your party. >> we are allowed the diversity of opinion. >> that's a shopping mall. >> debate gets us to good results. >> you guys used to like the big tent idea. put you on the spot for a second, representing one of the great coal states. if we end up with republicans gaining as many seats as they might, we could end up basically in a tie. if in a tie your vote was the one vote that mattered between harry reid of nevada and a coal senator, is it automatic, or do you start thinking? >> you mean a coal senator from the standpoint of what, being leader? >> from the standpoint of kentucky. >> oh. >> what if reid and mcconnell were exactly even and you were the deciding vote? >> that would give me a little more flexibility, if you would, don't you? i think i'd have a bit more to say. >> i'd like to be a fly on the wall. >> guarantee you one thing, west virginia will be well represented then. >> and i believe that is

absolutely the case because you've had the experience and the toughness to do it. >> let me just say this. the president is the president. democrat or republican, man or woman, and you want that president to do well. we've got to be americans and come together. john and i have been able to do it as governors. >> that's right. >> we know how to come together, not embarrass each other, not to send each other home saying i'll go home and beat you. we'll go and start working together starting tomorrow night. >> thanks to senators hoeven and manchin for what's began a great session. let's go to facebook or twitter to weigh in on our fire back question. should president obama bypass congress to enact his agenda through executive action? right now 48% say yes and 52% say no. the debate continues online. go to facebook.com/crossfire which check out the discussion van and i shared with thousands of you earlier today. >> from the left i'm van jones. >> and from the right i'm newt gingrich. join us tomorrow for another edition of "crossfire."

erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. thank you. next, new details about the gunman who terrorized a maryland mall this weekend. what he wrote in his journal and what a friend says he planned to do today. plus, hillary clinton reveals her biggest regret as secretary of state and starts to distance herself from president obama. and why are some people calling the grammys racist? let's go "outfront." good evening, everyone. thanks so much for joining us. i'm don lemon in for erin burnett. tonight, what made a maryland teenager open fire at a mall this weekend terrorizing employees and customers? we're learning more tonight about 19-year-old darren aguilar