he'll call for expanded mandatory background checks from private firearm sales. critics are already calling the measure an assault on the second amendment. >> the president also warrants to beef up funding for the fbi and atf to enforce existing gun laws. he'll need congress for that. he plans to sell his ideas to the american people when he joins anderson cooper fon an exclusi exclusive town hall this thursday night. michelle kosinski, tell us what they're saying. >> they're clarifying who is in the business of selling guns and who's a private seller. right now there could be a lot of people saying they're private sellers or collectors but the federal government is about to say, no, you're not. but the president is acting alone here. he can't make up new laws. he needs to act within existing laws. you see the administration trying to make changes everywhere they can but immediately, you also see the limits they're up against. they're presenting these changes

as proposals or guidance or encouragement with enforcement being a big question. >> it will potentially save lives in this country. >> reporter: president obama teeing up to announce a major overhaul on gun control this morning. giving congress a hard pass. >> these are recommendations that are well within my legal authority and the executive branch. >> reporter: the president set to lay out a series of executive orders, including clarifying that anyone in the business of selling guns must acquire a license and ensure background checks no matter the volume of guns sold or where. the white house also urging more state reporting of background check records that could disqualify buyers with mental illness or a history of domestic violence. proposing beefing up the background check system itself. hiring more staff to operate it around the clock. and the president will ask for

much more funding for mental health treatment. the democratic campaign trail buzzing with excitement. >> i am so proud of what the president announced today. the next president on the very first day could wipe it away. no. i won't wipe it away. >> reporter: oh, the next president could very well wipe it away. that's exactly what the gop 2016 hopefuls plan to do. >> don't worry, when i'm elected president on my first day behind that desk those orders are gone. >> i will veto that, unsign that so fast. so fast. >> had you house speaker put out a statement saying obama is dismissive of congress and avert i ing. >> in the next hour we'll talk

more about the plan with the senior adviser, valley jared. >> also, another special programming reminder, president obama will join anderson cooper for an exclusive live town hall event on guns in america. the president will discuss his executive action and take questions from a live studio audience which will get interesting. a town hall on guns in america with president obama moderated by anderson, this thursday at 8:00 p.m., only on cnn. a frenzy of activity in iowa and new hampshire in campaign 2016. republican candidates swarming, sharpening their messages and their attacks on front-runner donald trump. 27 days and counting until the iowa caucuses. the new hampshire primary coming just eight days after that. cnn's athena jones live in dairy, new hampshire. all of these numbers, the excitement is building. >> that's right. good morning, michaela. the gop candidates were out in force. they blasted president obama's proposed moves on gun control but they also attacked each

other. marco rubio warning against isolationism in foreign policy, a critique aimed at ted cruz. cruz meanwhile hitting rubio on immigration saying he supported a massive amnesty. and despite spending a lot of time over the past several days talking about former president bill clinton's past indiscretions, trump kept the focus on hillary clinton last night on the stump staying electing her would be like four more years of obama or worse. meanwhile, chris christie, rising in polls here in new hampshire attack, well, everybody. take a listen. >> i wonder if the people in egypt think, now that they live under martial law that their lives are better because hillary clinton called for the ouster of hosni mubarak. show time is over, everybody. we are not electing an entertainer in chief. we don't need a president who will spin around in the chair on the first day and say, gee-whiz, isn't it amazing i'm president.

>> reporter: christie argues the first-term senators aren't ready because they haven't run anything. that is a sample of what's to come. >> over on the democratic side, front-runner hillary clinton keeping up her big push in iowa and trying to tighten the gap with bernie sanders in new hampshire. former president bill clinton now hitting the campaign trail on her behalf. let's bring in senior washington correspondent jeff zeleny, live in des moines, iowa. give us all the latest. jeff? >> a one-two punch from the clintons. bill clinton campaigning in new hampshire, secretary clinton campaigning here in iowa opening up a two-day push beginning yesterday. you almost think there's not a democratic primary at all on this side. they're focusing entirely on the republican side. they're doing it in slightly different ways. listen to how president clinton talked about the republican side yesterday. >> i don't fit anymore. first of all, i'm a happy grandfather. i'm not mad at anybody.

and secondly, i thought election was supposed to be a job interview. >> thought it should be a job interview. he's trying to use the happy side of this but focusing intensely on the republicans. hillary clinton for her part did not take the bait from donald trump, neither did her husband. that's potentially what he thought they would do. she was asked by a voter in cedar rapids yesterday specifically to respond to some of the things that donald trump had been saying. let's listen to what she said about a potential new year's resolution. >> i've adopted a new year's resolution. i'm going to let him live in his alternative reality and i'm not going to respond. >> we'll see if that holds up or not for the next month or so, not responding, because that is essentially what she did throughout the day, talking about all republicans. one thing she left out was bernie sanders. she did not talk about any of her democratic rivals at all

here. she's trying to convince republicans she's the strongest nominee by showing how intensely she's going after all these republicans. chris and alisyn, slightly less than a month here to go before the iowa caucuses start 2016. >> okay, jeff, thanks so much for that. >> appreciate it very much. the one thing that distinguishes hillary clinton for sure from donald trump and bernie sanders is -- hasn't been on "new day" yet, the invitation is out there. >> i was going to go with bright pink suit or bill clinton. >> i've seen the donald work a bright pink suit. you haven't seen anything yet. what is going on this morning with this sweeping change? from president obama and the other political goings on. we have cnn political commentator and political anchor of time warner cable news mr. errol louis. and senior contributor to the daily caller and conservative commentator, mr. matt lewis. happy new year to you. errol, i start with you. i did this when i was talking about sweeping change because i don't see it. i see both sides exaggerating

the potential of these executive orders greatly, gun control advocates are saying, wow, what a historic thing. no, it isn't. it's clarifying existing law. you have other people saying it's an assault on the second amendment. how? when it's just clarifying existing law. >> exactly right. this is one of those silent covenants you have between both sides. it will be in the interest of all of the presidential republicans candidates to say, this is huge, i'm beginning to unsign it in my first day in office. it is in fact in president obama's interest to say i can't do much but i will do something informative. perhaps we get out of what has been sort of a decade-long gridlock on this issue. the polls show 40% in favor of things that the president is thinking about doing. 40% absolutely oppose. 20% sort of on the sidelines and that's where we've been for ten years now. >> hold on a second. let me challenge you on that and bring in matt.

matt, doesn't it close the so-called gun show loophole? doesn't it close the internet sales that have been largely sort of a free for all online? and to challenge your statistics, don't 89% of americans believe that we should close the gun show loophole? >> well, first of all, we don't know specifics yet, of course, but looking at the media reports, i think really what this does is clarify existing law. and by the way win think everyone is in on this. you know, it's in the best interest of both sides to pretend this is a big deal. we should probably be doing that as well. to ratchet this up as a big deal. again, we don't know the details yet. the gun show loophole, really, the big problem, if you're concerned about gun violence, i don't think this is going to solve it. the big problem would be individual sales. you know, i could sell a gun to my cousin at a gun show as an individual or just to a stranger as an individual. i'm not a dealer.

and this doesn't change that. >> matt, just so you know, we don't know what the executive orders are yet by detail. the atf put out some document which is was very helpful in my waking up process this morning, to read all these different scenarios. they have defined more tightly what catches you in the loop. however, i will tell you this, though, alisyn, one of the first examples you give is if you're selling at a gun show, you probably can only do it to those in state. the first example they give shows there's still a possibility to transfer at a gun show without requiring a background check. they go through detailed thing, if you're trying to make a profit, if you buy and sell guns, if you do it for volume, not just liquidating a personal collection. that was all in the statute pretty much anyway. >> they're clarifying it? >> yes, that really is what's going on. the transfers, the particulars of it, i agree with matt. that's what this is about, trying in some way to bring some of these personal, smaller transactions under the loop of

federal scrutiny and registration. that's the one step that the president could take that would start to change the regime of how we have 100 million guns floating around. if he went there, it would be -- that's what it would be nuclear. if president obama were to go after these individual transactions, not dealers, but individuals, that would be, i this i, crossing a rubicon. you could see a huge, huge push back. >> the examples from the atf in this document are all individuals. >> i think family-to-family transfer does not appear to be affected. that's what people often say. if your grandfather wants to give you an heirloom, that is not affected. >> the atf makes it clear that won't be captured by this executive order. in their clarification. every one of their scamps is individual. alisyn has a kid going to college. she's decided to buy guns to sell among this in overtime. that doesn't qualify and here's why. they are trying to make it about individuals. >> that will need clarification in a few hours.

let's talk about something that needed clarification over the past 12 hours and that is donald trump's newest first television ad. so errol, as you know, in his ad, he showed people running, scores of people running -- >> thousands and thousands. >> -- across the border. it said migrants at the southern border of moroccmorocco. he clarified it's not the u.s. or mexico. >> it rhymes with mexico. >> and starts with an "m." >> is it okay to have a misleading campaign? >> the ads have acknowledged it. they're not pretending this is something it's not. they are going to say this is the point and we don't want mexico and the texas border to look like morocco. >> that is what they're saying. >> there you have it. it's an emotional appeal. if you look in the context of the whole ad, we watched it yesterday, it has the ominous music, the shadowy figures, the black and white, slow motion, all of the different things, check, check, check, this is supposed to scare you. whether you're scared because this is something that was done

at the rio grande in morocco doesn't make that much difference. it's an emotional punch of an ad. it's not about getting a lot of information. frankly, the ad says i'm going to stop this. never says how. >> wait a minute. why does it not matter that much? we made such a stink about the image that was emotionally moving in the planned parenthood undercover videos that didn't belong from a planned parenthood abortion. we made a big deal that it was deceptive, false, emotional warfare. but this doesn't qualify? >> it's a pattern. donald trump's images of people protesting in the west bank on 9/11 and transposed it to jersey city. >> you're giving up, basically, errol? >> listen, there's a great deal of freedom when you're talking about political ads. nobody is holding -- nobody is pretending this is a documentary, right? it's an emotional appeal. anybody who looks at that and doesn't get that it's simply an aemotional appeal, not really tethered to specific facts is missing the point of the ad. >> that's what donald trump said

last night on fox news. listen to how donald trump explained it. stand by. >> just display of what our country will look like. we're like a third world country, a dumping ground. you can take it any way you want. >> does this pass the smell test, matt? >> the best thing with somebody on the internet took the donald trump ad and used scenes from world war z where people were trying to climb walls. i think it was in israel. here's the thing. errol is right. it works if donald trump gets away with it, then it works. i think that he does. nothing really stops him and i think that this could have been a scandal if this was another candidate. remember, as mitch mcconnell use an ad using the wrong college football team in some "b" roll in one of his ads. it became a scandal in kentucky

that lasted for weeks and weeks and weeks. donald trump now says, of course, we were using it to show what might happen. i don't know that that's clear that they made that clear from the beginning. he gets away with it. that's all that matters. it works. >> there you go. errol, matt, thank you very much. >> thank you. breaking news, another country adding to the fallout in the devolving relations between saudi arabia and iran. kuwait siding with the saudis, calling its ambassador to iran this morning. the united arab emirates, bahrain and sudan, all sunni strongholds cutting or downgrading ties with tehran. president rouhani slamming saudi arabia for severing political relations. that started after the attack here. a man is holding a woman and possibly 11 children inside a room in a domestic dispute. s.w.a.t. team is on the scene negotiating with the man.

police say he does have a knife at least. we'll keep you updated as more information becomes available. the sheriff of harney county, oregon, offering strong words. he says go home. the activists refusing to budge. they say they are looking at other cases where the federal government is stepping on the rights of ranchers. meanwhile, ranchers dwight and steven hammond whose cause sparked this whole protest surrendered to authorities on monday. three nfl teams, the chargers, raiders and rams all officially filing papers for relocation to l.a. next season. league owners are expected to decide which teams, if any, get to move at a meeting next week. the nfl says it does want one new stadium in the l.a. market and it could be able to house two teams. all right. the new york giants are in the market for a new head coach after tom coughlin resigned monday. coughlin led the big blue to two super bowl titles in 12 seasons. >> lots of changes in the nfl.

>> yes. this was a little bit, they say, of a dignity move. resign, they were going to move on him, three straight losing seasons. he certainly did great, great things with the second best team in new york. >> nice little football roundup for us there. bill clinton is hitting the campaign trail, trying to sell voters on his wife's softer side. there's a topic, though, that the former president is not touching. you can probably guess what it is. that's next on "new day." ♪ under starry skies above. of miles, ♪ ♪ don't fence me in. ♪ let me fly any time, ♪ any airline that i love, ♪ don't fence me in. ♪ give me a mile and a half ♪ for every buck i spend. ♪ double my miles when the first year ends. ♪ ♪ no annual fees, ♪ no blackouts, ♪ let the fun begin.

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just by switching to progressive. so you'll be bringing home the bacon in no time. sorry. get a free quote at progressive.com. all right. a couple things hatched on the democratic side yesterday. hillary clinton brushing off donald trump while bill clinton made his first appearance selling hillary clinton's softer side to voters. let's talk about all of this with errol louis. we want to bring him back as well as jeff zeleny of cnn. let's talk about about this, errol. i'll start with you. how did his first campaign appearance go. >> a little subdued. he's a grandfather now. he's getting older. i think he's being careful not to outshine hillary clinton. if he gave the full bill clinton, you might think maybe this should be the candidate, not hillary.

he sidestepped some of the trump stuff. it's not in his interest to go anywhere near that. it can only cause problems, become a distraction and take them off their game. bill clinton following orders, sticking to his talking points. probably a little reluctantly. he likes to campaign more vigorously. i think that's what we're going to see, at least in the short term. >> what do we think the strategy is? you're out there with him, jeff. what are you being told about what president clinton should mean in this campaign? what are we being given? >> well, chris, it's really two for the price of one at least in terms of campaigning. not necessarily any more than that. not necessarily from the governing aspect here. look, frankly, the two of them out on the road, out meeting voters can do twice as much work as one of them. bill clinton has been waiting in the wings. it doesn't look like he's been involved in the campaign much in 2015. that is wrong. behind the scenes he has been intimately involved with so much of this. he has been chomping at the bit

to get out there. he is going to be campaigning a little bit more but not so aggressively as errol said. he can't overshadow her or outshine her. what voters love when they see bill clinton is they remember sort of the strong economic time of the '90s. they remember sort of his policy positions. but it does open the democrats and the clintons specifically up to the criticism of their going backwards, not forward. everyone at least in these democratic audiences loves to see bill clinton because they remember how good things were under him. overall it's a plus, plus. unless he gets drawn into the criticisms out there. he was very careful to not do that. >> he did call the current election, quote, scary or kind of scary. let's listen to bill clinton in nashua, new hampshire yesterday. >> every presidential election

people run and, believe it or not, it's kind of scary this year, but believe it or not, most everybody actually tries to do what they say they're beginning to do when they're running. they're telling you what they believe. and -- so you've got to take them seriously. but you all have to take seriously whether they have a chance of doing what they say they're going to do or any record of doing it. >> first he was sort of being flippant. saying it's kind of scary but you have to take it seriously. >> this is classic clinton politics. you define them months in advance, get the phrases, images, the issues, sort of embedded in people's minds. by the time the candidate actually steps out and you're ready for the main event, people say i don't like that guy. they don't even know why. he's trying to do that with the whole republican party. he's looking at the whole field

and saying they're scary. they done the have experience. they're going to change their life. right behind that you can almost hear them waiting to talk about supreme court court appointments and so forth. he wants to get that locked in now, well before you get something like super tuesday, let alone the november contest. >> the game changed my friend. donald trump has changed the tactical premise of how politics is fought right now in terms of defining people. >> the messaging. >> he's just really, really good at it. that doesn't mean -- whether you like what he says or not, he's good at it. let me ask you this, though, jeff. is perhaps the best defense to what donald trump seemed to try to introduce as a new salvo about bill clinton and character and past what hillary clinton said about her new year's resolution? have we played it enough or do you want to hear it again? >> let's hear it. >> all right. ddopted a new yea resolution. i'm going to let him live in his

alternative reality and i'm not going to respond. >> now, jeff, when not getting attacked by republicans, often democrats will come up to me and hit me offer the head with the why do you give so much attention to trump and no, she shouldn't engage. stop asking her on your show if you just want to talk about trump. is this her best way of dealing with what happened yesterday? >> look, i think in this moment she was asked by a voter specifically. and, look, i think we're going to see her responding to donald trump a lot. that is the basis for her sort of argument right now in the final stretches. i am the only democrat who can stop a republican like donald trump or anyone else from winning the white house. i do think she's not going to get sort of in the back and forth. it's an open question if any of these attacks from the other side are working and if they should respond to them. we've seen a litany, a string of republicans who have sort of not

figured out how to deal with mr. trump in this election cycle. they've been falling by the way side. we'll see if the clinton approach here of not responding to him directly is the right one. i think it's a bad idea at this point for the clintons to sort of follow him down this path here. but we'll see the thing i'm watching for in the coming weeks and days is, is bill clinton going to be tempted to take the bait at some point. because we know he really wants to respond to his old friend, donald trump. that's what we'll be watching for in the next month. >> jeff, errol, we'll be watching for that as well. thanks so much, guys. michaela? tension is building between saudi arabia and iran this morning, triggering global fears of a regional war. how can that crisis be diffused? we'll take a closer look ahead, right here on "new day."

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critics are already slamming president obama's executive actions on gun control hours before the plan is even revealed. later this morning, the president will call for expanded background checks on many firearm sales as well as beefed up funding to enforce the nation's gun laws and for mental health programs. donald trump was on "new day" yesterday telling us, quote, pretty soon you won't be able to get guns. breaking news, the dispute between saudi arabia and iran is not easing up. kuwait is joining other saudi allies and taking action recalling its ambassador to iran as iran's president speaks out. cnn's international diplomatic editor, nic robertson live for us now in riyadh, saudi arabia.

what do we know from there? >> reporter: yes, chris,e escalation of the tensions starting to go up. they say religious pilgrims can go to saudi arabia to go to mecca, tens of thousands come every month from iran to saudi arabia. we're hearing that sudan, the united arab emirates, kuwait the latest, bahrain as well, all of those countries cutting their diplomatic ties with iran. it is a time, the saudis believe, for their friends in the region to stand up and support them. saudis here, i've been talking to officials today. it comes as no surprise they executed this shia cleric, al nimr. the saudis see him as someone fermenting terrorism in this country. he was executed, along with 47 other terrorists over the weekend. they're taking a very hard line position here.

it's really an indication of the tensions with iran at the moment. the saudis feel they've got iran on their southern border in yemen, they have iran on their northern border with iraq and syria beyond that. they feel penned in by iranian influence. the saudis are saying they can bring down the diplomatic tension but only if the iranians get out of meddling inside saudi internal affairs. speaking with government officials today, this is something they feel really deeply here. >> we can imagine, nic. volkswagen feeling heat over the emissions scandal. the justice department filing a civil suit in detroit aviewsing vw of implanting software in more than 500,000 cars enabling them to pass u.s. emissions tests. vw admits placing devices in 11 million vehicles worldwide last year. the automaker could pay $18 billion in fines if the government gets its way. viewers of that netflix

docu-series making a murderer, they want to see the show's real-life protagonist freed. they've racked up nearly 200,000 signatures. one was sent to the white house, the other posted on change.org. avery served 18 years for a crime he did not commit. after suing for a wrongful conviction he was arrested of a different crime and found guilty of murder. petitioners believe avery was treated unconstitutionally. it's interesting. >> are you guys watching? >> i haven't but i want to. >> it's terrible when the kid dies at the end of it. there's nothing like that. i love doing that to them, boy, because they take the serial watching way too seriously. the interesting thing about it is, it's very complex. you keep thinking you'll feel a certain way around it. oh, i get it, i get it. >> it's not black and white, is it? >> no. very gray area.

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time is up. that's the message from an oregon sheriff to the armed activist occupying a federal wildlife refuge in his state. let's go to paul vercammen in burns, oregon. >> here in this remote outpost of the malheur refuge, we were able to take a brief tour. demonstrators showed us they had no weapons, they had peaceful intentions. the towns people are starting to

get frustrated. schools have been closed because of this incident and yesterday, the sheriff sounded off. >> you said you were here to help the citizens of harney county. that help ended when a peaceful protest became an armed occupati occupation. the hammonds have turned themselves in. it's time for you to leave our community. >> the sheriff was alluding to the hammonds, the farther and son ranchers who began serving out the rest of an arson sentence. now the leader of the group here, that is ammon bundy said the protest will end when the hammonds are freed and the federal government gives up control of the malheur national forest. in town, as we said, there are frustrations, one man calling the standoff -- that's not really a standoff because there are no law enforcement officers here -- he said this is just

plain weird. chris? >> paul, good way to put it. joining us now, juliette kiam. let's pick up with what paul was saying here. it is weird. there is no armed standoff. the cops were nowhere to be found. they worked at homeland security. why such a lax response to armed people overtaking federal property? >> the long-term strategy is to avoid death or violence or any sort of violent standoff between law enforcement and these men who have barricaded themselves. what you'll see over the course of time is the slow ratcheting up to raise the temperature against them but to make sure nothing is done that would trigger a reaction by them. this is actually the right strategy. time is on law enforcement's side. these guys are isolated. they're going to run out of food. they're tweeting to get some snacks. these guys did not have a long-term plan and law

enforcement has a lot of time. >> all right. now, i know that they're in a remote area. i know they're not threatening the general populous, not destroying buildings or looting or anything like that. you know where i'm headed with this. there is criticism if this was a bunch of brown skinned people with guns that had taken over a piece of property there would have been a very response from authorities. is that fair? >> i think it's a fair criticism at least in terms of perception. i want to be clear here, even though i'm recommending patience, time, don't bring this to a conflict, i do view these men as domestic terrorists. they satisfy almost -- they satisfy the legal definition. they are using a force or the threat of force. they are depriving others of the benefit of a federal right, that is visiting the site, closing down school districts. i think they are, you know, a threat.

because they are isolated, because this is a rural area and because there appears to be no imminent threat or bodily harm to civilians or children, compare this to waco, patience is essentially what we need right now. >> what happens next? >> i think you're just going to see a continuing talk by law enforcement, sort of ratcheting up. i think a divide and conquer strategy is very smart, in other words, there are presumably a couple dozen men in there, start to offer plea arrangements to some of them that won't face felony convictions, get them out of there, try to lower the size of the men in there. but, look, these standoffs can last weeks sometimes. but all we need to do is realize that they have isolated themselves, as long as they do not pose a threat, wait it out. you do not want to term them into martyrs by going in too strong. >> what about the flip side, by

not going in quickly, which is obviously been the mmplgs o. here, which you explained to us, you encourage others to do this when they're upset about something in armed fashion. >> that is a short-term challenge for the federal government. it needs to win this battle because what these men are doing is absolutely outrageous. i do not understand people, you know, trying to defend what they're doing or saying they're in an isolated area, they're not a harm to anyone. this is serious. they have taken over a federal building. slice and dice it any way you want. but if it ends in violence or they become martyrs, you are much more likely to trigger future sort of radical domestic terrorists. we saw this with waco. remember, the tim mcvey and his gang became radicalized after the siege ended so badly in waco and started planning their attacks against the oklahoma

bombing in oklahoma city. >> not as extreme but just as relevant. we dealt with the bundy situation before. they weren't as hospitable that time. juliette kayyem, thank you. the stock market dove into the new year. what's behind all of this? what does it mean for you and your money? we'll take a look. i drive a golf ball. i drive to the hoop. i drive a racecar. i have a driver. his name is carl. but that's not what we all have in common. we talked to our doctors about treatment with xarelto®. xarelto® is proven to treat and help reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots. xarelto® is also proven to reduce the risk of stroke in people with afib, not caused by a heart valve problem. for people with afib currently well managed on warfarin, there is limited information on how xarelto® and warfarin compare in reducing the risk of stroke. you know, taking warfarin, i had to deal with that blood testing routine. i couldn't have a healthy salad whenever i wanted. i found another way.

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right now u.s. stocks are pointing down after a volatile day on wall street. on monday, the dow briefly went below the 17,000 level for the first time since october. eventually falling some 276 points. concerns about china's economy sparking global jitters. here to answer all of our questions, christine romans who you've said when china sneezes, america gets a cold. why does china pose such a huge threat to u.s. stocks? >> it is the second largest economy in the world. it's not necessarily it's a threat. it's a fact of life that these two economies, the united states and china are closely tied. china's growth has been slowing and how quickly and dangerously it's slowing is something the markets have been trying to get ahold of. we had a big sell-off? august, remember, the market recovered. now it feels like those bad old days of august are back. >> what does it mean for our

401(k)s. >> i always tell people when you have a move in the market, it's not the i time to be adjusting your 401(k). in general, find your login, rebalance your money for your age. if you're close to retirement, you should not be 100% in stocks. if you're young, you should be almost all in stocks. diversify your investment. wherever your 401(k), whatever company it's through, it will have a lot of resources. don't close your eyes, take a couple of times every year, once every quarter at best to take a look at what you have. >> for today, should we open our eyes? >> open your eyes. i don't see a rebound right now. >> long term? >> long term, stocks generally rise. right now we have a couple things to get through. one of those is the fed raising interest rates, one of those is slowing growth in china and real concerns about growth in general around the rest of the world. you'll hear probably strong auto sales, maybe a strong jobs report. the u.s. okay, the rest of the world people still concerned about. >> i was panicking a little bit.

>> don't panic. if you sell stocks after a big sell-off, you usually use. >> good point. thank you. >> you're welcome. president obama set to spell out details of his executive action on guns. the move generating lot of debate. we'll hear from both sides, next. caring for someone with alzheimer's means i am a lot of things. i am his sunshine. i am his advocate. so i asked about adding once-daily namenda xr to his current treatment for moderate to severe alzheimer's. it works differently. when added to another alzheimer's treatment, it may improve overall function and cognition. and may slow the worsening of symptoms for a while. vo: namenda xr doesn't change how the disease progresses. it shouldn't be taken by anyone allergic to memantine, or who's had a bad reaction

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this morning, president obama will lay out a series of exclusive actions aimed at curbing gun violence in the u.s. with americans divided on the issue of gun control, the plan already being met with split opinions. joining us now to debate it is the president of the brady campaign to end gun violence, dan gross and the executive director of gun owners of america, larry pratt. gentlemen, thanks to both of you for being here. dan, let me start with you.

how big of a deal is what president obama is doing today because we've heard from other analysts who say he's really just clarifying existing policy. >> yes, isn't it interesting that all he's doing is clarifying existing policy yet it is a huge deal. it's historic. it's the biggest thing that's happened on a national level on this issue since the brady law was passed in 1994. passed in '93, implemented in 1994 because it expanding those life-saving background checks to people who are doing business in this country every day as gun retailers but just aren't subject to the same requirements where they need to do background checks. >> larry, it is expanding the so-called restrictions on the gun show loophole and internet sales. there are polls that suggest that 89% of americans believe, support closing those loopholes. what's your issue with this?

>> well, there's hardly any of the guns that end up in crime that are traced back to gun shows. that's the federal government's own data. so we're addressing something that doesn't really go after the problem. if the government and if the folks that are clamoring for change in this area really wanted to make a change, rather than going after a loophole that's not really there, they might take a look at where most of the tragedies have occurred with public shootings and mass murders. they've been in gun-free zones. all but two of these horrible episodes have occurred in these gun-free zones since 1950. congress needs to get busy and get rid of those. >> okay, dan, you want to tackle that? gun-free zones don't appear to be working. >> no, that's not what we're here to talk about. the reality is that gun-free zones has nothing to do with the problem we have in our country with gun violence.

the problem is too many guns wind up in the hands of people who intend on doing harm. people who we all agree shouldn't have guns, convicted felons, domestic abusers, the dangerously mentally ill. there are things, effective things we can do to keep guns out of those hands. the most effective thing is brady background checks. brady background checks have blocked 2.4 million sales to those people, domestic abusers, dangerously mentally ill. every day in our country there are thousands of gun sales that aren't subject to brady background checks. people who are in the business of selling guns, not doing brady background checks has an interest other than the best interest of the safety of the american people. of course they want to talk about everything other than background checks because background checks work. these people who aren't representing the safety of the american people, it's interesting that mr. pratt

represents an organization called gun owners of america. more than 80% of gun owners support expanding brady background checks to all gun owners. we're talking about expanding these life-saving effective brady background checks. >> let's stick with background checks right now, since that is what the president is tackling. what about that impressive figure, that 2.2 million prohibited buyers have been blocked from being able to buy firearms because of background checks. who could disagree with that? >> in the last year of record we had some million plus background checks done and for that trouble, there were 14 prosecutions. this is not a crime-fighting tool. criminals don't get their guns through lawful means. so the idea that somehow this device is keeping guns out of

criminals' hands is to whistle past the graveyard. we need to get rid of the places where these tragedies occur. you can't just dispense with the subject, we're not talking about that now. if we're not, we better be talking about what really is the problem. otherwise we're specializing in nothing. >> dan, do i want you to address that. this is the argument that we always hear. criminals don't at bide by any of these laws. it doesn't matter if you clarify existing laws or make new laws, criminals don't abide by them. >> you're never going to keep every gun out of the hand of every criminal, you're not going to prevent every tragedy. you can prevent a lot of them by keeping the guns out of the hands of people we all agree shouldn't have them. look at the fact that 2.4 million sales have been blocked you have to dig really deep to try and come up with some misleading statistic to try and show background checks don't work because they do. every day, hundreds of sales, whether they're prosecuted or not, hundreds of sales are

blocked. guns that do not wind up in the hands of people we all agree shouldn't have them. anybody who argues against background checks really does not have the interest of the american public at heart, does not have our safety at heart, our will at heart. 93% of the american public supports expanding brady background checks. more than 80% of gun owners, more than 70% of nra members. this is not a debate among the american public. we know what's right here. mr. pratt really is not representing the interest of the american public with his arguments. >> gentlemen, we have to leave it there. we thank you both for the debate. it will be interesting to see what the president says today. president obama will join anderson cooper for an exclusive live town hall event on gun ms. amerims. s in america, airing on cnn thursday at 8:00 p.m. we do know that this will

involve at least some expansion of background checks. >> entirely consistent with the second amendment. >> on my first day behind that desk, those orders are gone. >> i will unsign that so fast. we don't need four more years of obama. that's what you're getting with hillary. i believe it might be even worse. >> i'm going to let him live in his alternative reality and i'm not going to respond. >> showmanship is fun but it's not the kind of leadership that will truly change america. even the best of friends don't always agree on everything. >> iran is promising vengeance after the saudi government beheaded this cleric. >> whether we like it or not, the events in middle east are going to be spilling over. this is "new day" with chris cuomo, alisyn camerota and michaela pereira. >> there you go. good morning, welcome back to your "new day." in a matter of hours, president obama unveils his plan to combat gun violence. he's bypassing congress, taking executive action to call for

expanded background checks on many firearm sales. he will need lawmakers to approve funding for new mental health programs and beefed up enfor thement. >> critics are calling the measures an assault on the second amendment. the president planning to explain his plan in detail when he joins anderson cooper for a live town hall on cnn this thursday night. let's get some more on the president's executive actions. cnn white house correspondent michelle kosinski. what are the headlines? >> the president can act alone. we've all seen him do that before. he has to act within existing laws. as much as you see the administration now trying to make changes wherever they can, you also immediately see the limits that they're up against. these changes are presented as proposals, guidance, encouragement. even the whole background check issue is basically just a clarification of who can still be considered a private seller and who is in the business, technically, of selling guns.

plus there are big questions about how all of this can be enforced. >> it will potentially save lives in this country. >> president obama teeing up to announce a major overhaul on gun control this morning. giving congress a hard pass. >> these are recommendations that are well within my legal authority and the executive branch. >> the president set to lay out a series of executive orders including clarifying that anyone in the business of selling guns must acquire a license and ensure background checks no matter the volume of guns sold or where. the white house also urging more state reporting of background check records that could disqualify buyers with mental illness or a history of domestic violence. proposing beefing up the background check system itself. hiring more staff to operate it around the clock. and the president will ask for much more funding for mental health treatment.

the democratic campaign trail buzzing with excitement. >> i am so proud of what the president announced today. the next president on the very first day could wipe it away. no. i won't wipe it away. >> reporter: oh, the next president could very well wipe it away. that's exactly what the gop 2016 hopefuls plan to do. >> don't worry, when i'm elected president on my first day behind that desk those orders are gone. >> i will veto that, unsign that so fast. so fast. >> new house speaker paul ryan put out a statement calling the president dismissive of the second amendment, saying he's subverting congress and no problem should be able to reverse what congress has already rejected, even incrementally. michaela? >> michelle, thank you so much for that. we'll be watching today. hillary clinton aggressively campaigning in iowa and trying to close in on bernie sanders in

new hampshire. clinton's also tapping her husband, former president bill clinton to hit the campaign trail on her behalf. the iowa caucuses just 27 days away. meanwhile, the new hampshire primary just days after that. let's turn to washington senior washington correspondent jeff zeleny. i downgraded you a little bit. he's live in des moines, iowa, this morning for us. hey, jeff. >> hey, michaela, good morning. you can call it the full clinton, bill clinton in new hampshire, hillary clinton here in iowa. both talking to democratic voters trying to impress the urgency of this presidential campaign. they're also not taking the bait from donald trump. that's an intentional strategy to not respond to the critiques he's laid out. that is not to say either one of these two are not paying attention to what is happening on the republican side of this campaign. listen to what bill clinton said yesterday in new hampshire. >> it's kind of scary this year.

believe it or not, most everybody actually tries to say what they're going to do when they're running. they're telling you what they believe. and you have to take them seriously. >> bill clinton is telling voters they should pay attention to what all of these republican candidates are saying out there on the campaign trail. here in iowa, hillary clinton is -- she has somewhat of a serious challenge from bernie sanders. yes, she is leading nationally in huge ways but in iowa and new hampshire, the states that start this process off, bernie sanders is on her heels. and she did not talk about him at all yesterday and was asked about donald trump by one voter. let's listen to what she had to say. >> i've adopted a new year's resolution. i'm going to let him live in his alternative reality and i'm not going to respond.

>> we'll see if she keeps that new year's resolution as she continues the campaigning. the reality is she gets a lot of energy and fires up a lot of crowds she speaks to simply by talking about the republicans. she says she's the last line of defense from keeping a republican out of the white house. of course, as i said, she has that democratic primary to worry about as well. she'll be campaigning throughout the day here in iowa. guys? >> thanks so much for that, jeff. republican candidates also hitting the trail hard in iowa and new hampshire. the gop rivals take aim at each other. cnn's athena jones live in new hampshire with more. tell us what's going on on the trail, athena. >> the republican candidates are out in force making their case to voters and also attacking each other. marco rubio warning against isolationism in foreign policy here yesterday. that's a critique aimed at ted cruz. cruz, meanwhile, hitting rubio on immigration in iowa

yesterday, saying that rubio supported a massive amnesty. despite spending a lot of time over the past several days talking about former president clinton's past indiscretions. meanwhile, chris christie who has been rising in polls here in new hampshire hit clinton, trump and some of his other rivals. take a listen. >> i wonder if the people in egypt think, now that they live under martial law, that their lives are better because hillary clinton called for the ouster of hosni mubarak. show time is over, everybody. we're not electing an entertainer in chief. we don't need a president that will sit behind that desk on the first day, spin around in the chair and say, gee-whiz, isn't it amazing i'm president. >> and that gee-whiz line was aimed at the first-term senators running for the white house. chris christie argues they're

just not ready because they haven't run anything. we can expect more sharper attacks in the coming days as the candidates try to twish themselves with voters. chris? >> thank you very much. let's bring in team trump, michael cohen, executive vice president for the trump organization and special council to donald trump. counselor, happy new year to you. >> you as well. >> good to see you on the show. let's start with the headline here, what's going on with donald trump and the clintons. what's the strategy here? >> i'm not so sure there's a strategy at all. as we know, if you attack donald trump, he's going to come back at you. that's exactly what's going on here. hillary clinton throughout her campaign has called him things like a sexist. he doesn't care for women, he's a -- hillary talks about new year's resolution.

i always remember you don't talk about your new year's resolution, right? if i say i'm in the going to talk about donald trump, why would you tell everybody? she knows that she thinks she's going to get an increase in her numbers based upon talking about him. the truth of the matter is, he's not sexist. he's not a masagonist. he treats everyone exactly the same. >> people would argue that's what trump is doing, using bill to try and expand his tent, reminding people about bill clinton's weaker moments. >> does anybody have to remind the country? maybe some of the millennials don't recall. i recall him standing up and basically lying under oath. that's the bottom line. i think we all remember. look -- >> no need to re-introduce it then. >> this is not about bill clinton. this is about hillary clinton. in law we'd call her an

accessory after the fact. she was involved in basically keeping many of these women silent after the fact. >> she would be an accessory after the fact if there had been a case and these charges were made which never happened. >> let's also not forget he lost his law license. let's also forget there were, i believe, fines that were -- >> i thought it was about hillary clinton, not bill clinton. >> that's true. the point is we're talking about accessory after the fact. >> my point is this, let's say everything you say about bill clinton is true. everything donald trump says. let's give you that assumption. how does that change what donald trump has said about women and what he has done? >> i don't think donald trump has said anything negative about women, that he wouldn't say if it was a male. >> the allegations against him -- >> he's equal. >> the allegations against him have nothing to do with the clintons. he on his own with what he said said a lot of things that made women and other people upset. what he said about carly fiorina's face, what he said about women being fat. >> he would have said this about

males. >> different sensitivities. >> he's equal opportunity when it comes to hitting back. if you were in the trench, who would you rather be next to, the guy who's a natural dealmaker? he's the greatest dealmaker in the history of this country. he's a natural dealmaker. you want to be shoulder to shoulder with a guy that will get you out of the trenches, not part of the establishment that's gotten us into the trenches. we are really in a bad place nationally, internationally, our finances are out of control. 18, $19 trillion deficit. we can talk about all of this. the only person on the stage, whether it's republican or democrat that's actually accomplished anything ever is donald trump. >> that's a broad statement. >> it's a true statement. >> what you're saying is he's an aggressive guy, an attacker. >> he's a guy that builds, he's a guy that does things. if he says he's going to do it, he's going to do it. he changed the skyline across

this country. he's involved nationally, internationally with everybody. >> different tactics are required. different tactics are required mpl we're in different times right now. >> you're a guy, you stick to your guns. i've known you a long time. >> do i. are we now going to be talking about the second amendment? >> no. maybe i should. what i was going to say, him saying when he was friends with the clintons and it was okay, monica lewinsky is not an issue, don't talk about his sex life. the impeachment is silly. as much as six months ago he said he was the best recent president. now that he's running against hillary, he's taking shots at bill. >> i don't think it has anything to do with morality. it's not an issue of morality. if you did something wrong and you were my friend, i'd turn around and try to defend my friend. that's what donald trump does. he's a loyal guy.

>> now? >> he's running for the presidency of the united states of america. >> we're not friends anymore. >> not when you turn around and call him a masagonist. >> you don't have to be better than somebody who insults you? >> don't throw the punch unless you're prepared to get hit back. >> guns. donald trump has said in the past, i know you're a gun owner and democrat, odd combination, but donald trump's past is you should have -- >> i'm sorry. are you calling me odd? >> yes, i am. there are a lot of reasons for that. we'll talk about it on commercial. >> after the camera. >> the idea of 72-hour background checks, he's talked about it before. why is he so put off by the idea of extending that idea of a check everywhere, every time you buy a gun, you get a check. >> i think the issue, it goes again going back to donald trump

being a dealmaker, he's a guy who would sit down with others at the table, inclusive of the nra representatives and others and have a conversation about what it is that would best be for america and for gun control rules. this president doesn't do that. he's above that. he's not getting what he wants, so he's going to do what? something he's done fight a bit, invoke an order. >> what if you feel in full conviction i'm not dealing with you fairly and you fundamentally want to disagree with me? >> it's because for seven years he sat in his office with the door closed. he's never reached out to the other side of the aisle. something donald trump would do day one. that goes back to your earlier question. i was friends with the clintons. he's friends with everybody. everybody gets along with trump. >> until he isn't. >> until they do something wrong to him. >> last thing. mistaken hindsight to put video

of morocco depicting mexico in terms of mass migration across the border, the one we have on the screen right now. it's morocco, not mexico. >> okay. i don't know who did it. >> you did it. >> i didn't do it. >> the team that did it. >> i'm not on the campaign. >> you're team trump, special council, own it. shouldn't they have said this is morocco? you'd crush somebody if they did that. >> lack, again, i think the point is well taken that we have 2,000 miles of open border. >> yes. >> the southern border. >> show that. >> well, whoever the person is, i'm sure i'll be sending them a letter very soon on behalf of mr. trump. the bottom line is, it's the same thing. it's morocco, mexico, the people are pouring into this country. we don't know who they are. donald trump is about national security, about protecting you and me and everybody else out there. that's why he's resonating with the people. >> i'm just saying if -- what's this thing, i'm real, i don't fake what's going on. that was a little departure.

no? >> why? >> that's not mexico. >> so what. what's the difference? in all reality, right? the point is they're coming through. yes, i'm going to have a conversation with whoever made the mistake, no doubt about that. the truth is people are pouring through our borders which are open. donald trump's the guy who brought that to the forefront. now everybody is talking about it. do you remember from the first debate how they attacked him, they continued to attack him. you can't do that. it's not american. no, no, it is american. that's our laws. we are a land of laws. >> it made the debate in the forefront of this election, no question about that. the question is what will we do about it? michael cohen, thank you very much. happy new year to you. >> same to you. later this hour we'll talk more about the president's plan with his senior adviser, valerie jarrett. and guns is a big issue. we know it as part of our culture and crime problem. thursday at 8:00 p.m., president obama will join our anderson

cooper for an exclusive live town hall event on guns in america. the president is going to make the case to you, why did he have to take this executive action? why will it make it better? he'll take your questions from a live studio audience, a town hall on gun ms. america. t hall on guns in america. kuwait now siding with the saudis and recalling its ambassador to iran as iran's president slams saudi arabia's decision to cut ties. cnn's international diplomacy nic robertson live in riyadh, saudi arabia for us this morning -- or today. nic? >> reporter: yes, good morning, michaela. this latest statement from kuwait upping the diplomatic standoff here in the region. two of the most powerful countries in the region, iran and saudi arabia and the saudis are upping it as well, they've cut flights to iran. they are cutting economic ties to iran, saying that iranian

religious pilgrims can continue to come in their tens of thousands. but what we are seeing is the king of saudi arabia playing tough. he's done something over the weekend, executing the shia cleric, the saudi authorities say is instigating terrorism in this country, executing him, mowing this would up tensions with iran. he's looking around at the region to see which allies will stand up and back him. so far we have sudan, united arab emirates, kuwait coming on board as well, bahrain, all pulling their ambassadors out of iran, downscaling diplomatic relations with the iranians. the saudis right now feeling as if, i've spoken to government officials this morning, they feel as if iran is meddling in internal affairs. perhaps the last king wouldn't have done this sort of thing a year or so ago. this is what's happening now. it's an indication that the tensions in the region of syria,

yemen, all these big issues here behind the scenes fermenting this current rise and escalation, alisyn. >> we'll be talking to mike rodgers about the u.s. role, what it should be shortly. thank you for that. meanwhile, police arresting one man following a deadly bus fire in northern china that killed 17 and injured 32 others early this morning. the bus erupting into flames near a shopping mall. authorities are not releasing a possible motive for why someone would start that fire. tanya couch, the so-called affluenza teen's mom has a date in a los angeles courtroom today. officials want to extradite her to her home state of texas.cusen flee to mexico after missing a meeting with a probation officer. he's currently being held in a mexican prison. some scary moments to show you during a running of the bulls at a festival in peru.

we want to caution you it's hard to watch. at least eight people were injured, some of them tossed into the air like rag dolls. a bull was released into an open field. people running for cover as the bull charged them. this event is all part of a four-day religious festival. >> religious festival because people are saying, oh, god, oh, god, when that bull is chasing them around. >> second most dangerous to human beings. the first, the panda. >> polar bear. >> eat your face. >> won't happen. moving on to one of our top stories, tension between saudi arabia and iran spreading across the middle east. can the u.s. do anything to keep this from escalating? we take a look at that, next. we got this. vo: which is why being put first takes some getting used to. ♪ nationwide is on your side

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we're urging all sides to show some restraint and not further inflame tensions that are on display in the region. >> that was the latest message from white house urging iran and saudi arabia to show rerestaurant, this as more

countries side with saudi arabia in its spat with iran. kuwait recalling its ambassador from iran. this stems from an attack on saudi arabia's embassy in tehran in retaliation for saudi arabia's execution of a shiite cleric. joining us now is cnn national security commentator and foreman chairman of the house intelligence committee, mike rodgers. great to see you. >> alisyn. >> in your assessment, how bad is this escalation of tension in saudi arabia and iran? >> it's bad and has the potential to get a lot worse. what you're seeing, kuwait, sudan, others, these are primary sunni countries. you're starting to see the fuel being poured on this sunni shia problem that's developing across the middle east. that's why this is so dangerous and why i think the united states needs to play a critical role in trying to calm things down and at least get back to some regular order between the iranian and saudi arabian relationships. >> let's talk about that. what can the u.s. role be? >> it has to do a couple things. let's back up real quickly. a lot of the talk was they

purposely killed this cleric, saudi arabia, to inflame iran. i disagree with that. they killed this -- executed this cleric, sentenced in 2014 with a whole bunch of al qaeda fighters. and this was a domestic political issue for them. they had this problem, they just went through elections. that upset the salafice. that's how we got to where we are. what's happening is, iran, now that they have new cash from the iranian deal is engaged in proxy wars, they've upped their game in yemen and upped their game in syria and they've upped their game in iraq. that is this increased tension with saudi arabia. what the united states needs to do is be very aggressive at pushing back on iran and their actions in the region. they can do that two ways. one, continue with sanctions on the missiles that they've tested, long-range missiles in violation of u.n. sanctions, happened within the last month.

the administration has pulled back, that gives an uneasy feeling to our arab league partners. they need to re-engage sanctions on that missile program. i'd do it as soon as they can. they need to live up to their commitment on conventional weapon sales, which is not the best place to do it but the administration wedged us in on a bad solution. that's one solution that can start to tamp down the tensions. >> in your estimation, the cash that iran now has access to is being used solely or primarily for war? >> well, we knew, as a matter of fact, the president even admitted that some of the cash that would be freed up would go to supporting qods force. even the president admitted that. the exponential factor is now markets are being opened. it's not all the cash they have

access to but it's new cash coming in from contracts, things they couldn't have access to under the old sanctions regime. that cash isn't accounted for. they have a little bit better economy and they have that cash, whatever percentage we could agree on is going to operations in yemen against sunni, operations in iraq against sunnis. it's going to operations in syria. that's why you have this increased military tension between saudi arabia, these other arab league partners and iran. >> as you know, secretary of state john kerry had invested a lot of time and energy trying to get all of these different middle east countries to the table to figure out how to solve the problem and the crisis in syria. the u.s. is very interested in that because it is a base for isis. so what does -- what's going on this week do for the fight against isis? >> it makes it incredibly difficult to come with a coalition, a meaningful coalition against isis in eastern syria and western iraq. it just makes a very hard and

difficult issue even harder and more difficult. because you're going to have these proxy fights going on all at the same time, which is at each other's throats. iran is going to continue this proxy fight in syria with the support of russia. every time the united states talks about cuddling up to russia in the fight in syria, now we have an arab league partner problem in the region, including saudi arabia. who is not very trustful of russia. you have all of these dynamics all at the same time. now you have this increased tension. it's going to make a meaningful coalition to put that together just nearly impossible. >> mike rogers, thanks so much for helping us understand what's going on over there. nice to see you. to michaela. the president is about to take the lead. what is he expected to say about gun violence? we'll ask valley jarrett about the president's executive action, ahead.

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people on both sides of the gun control issue say today is a big day.

president obama's expected to announce executive action on gun control. the president has expressed frustration many, many times over the course of his presidency about the inability of congress to pass comprehensive gun legislation. does this get it done? and if not, what needs to happen? here to discuss is senior adviser to president obama, valerie jarrett. miss jarrett, happy new year to you. i want to remind people of one of the moments that really encapsulates the president's frustration and desire to do more about this. it happened after the sandy hook massacre. let's remember where we all were at that time as felt through the president. >> the majority of those who died today were children. beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old.

>> the pain real for the president, real for those families, real for the entire country as we all looked on. the question is, will what is happening today stop the next sandy hook? it seems to be that the answer is no. but what is the case for these executive orders? >> good morning, chris. yes, you took us back to the most painful day in the president's term in office. and what we're trying to do today is to take very important steps that will keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them. background checks, simple background checks, making sure that it doesn't matter where you sell the gun, what happens if you're in the business of selling the gun, you should register and ensure people have background checks. we want to keep our communities safe. what can we do to improve our system of data collection, of investigations, of enforcing the laws, what can we do to invest in mental health? the president's proposing $500 million to help with mental health services and ensuring that the social security

administration is providing data to the folks who do the background checks for people who have mental illnesses and are a threat to themselves and others. what can we do to make our guns smarter? we have smartphones. you can touch with a fingerprint to make sure they're in the right hands. we know that so many people are killed each year, 30,000 people are killed each year, two-thirds by suicide. let's make sure our guns are smart and only the people who are supposed to have them, have them. so many children have access to guns and are accidentally shooting others. let's invest in new technology and ensure that our guns are smart, too. there's a whole host of steps the president is going to take today. but ultimately, the best solution would be for congress to act. he called on congress to act after the sandy hook massacre. there has been a lot of pressure that's been put on them by 90% of the american people who support sensible steps to be taken. the president is determined that he's going to do whatever is within his power to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

>> you could argue that taking these executive steps is going to make anything done with congress more difficult, though, couldn't you, miss jarrett, because executive orders frustrate the republicans, feeds this narrative that the president goes alone, because he doesn't like to work with others. an then you get to the practical reality of, you don't stop these mass shootings by dealing with gun shows. we never traced back any of these weapons to that. yes, the mental health is a component. most of the problem is inner city crime, illegal handguns in the wrong hands. how do you balance these two? how to get it done politically with what the real problem is to begin with? >> first of all, we do know a lot of deaths from gun violence have to do with the guns being in the wrong hands. look at the state of connecticut. they passed important background checks and also required training. their gun deaths went down by 40%. compare that to missouri, that got rid of their background checks and loosened up regulations and their gun deaths

went up by 50% behavior the national average. those are two good examples of where background checks make a very big difference and save lives. >> the question becomes how do you get it done? and as you acknowledge just from point of law, is that an executive order can only go with an existing legislation. you need to have more legislation or at least better executive -- not executive but enforcement capabilities with these. you need congress. why can't the president get congress and work with them on something that everybody seems to agree needs to be done? >> well, obviously the president made a very strong effort to work with congress and 90% of the american people supported what he was doing. 90% of the democrats in congress supported it. we just had a hard time getting the republicans to take what everybody believes are sensible steps. the fact of the matter is, the president has said, the american people are going to -- are getting energized about this issue. it's becoming more passionate. we're seeing a lot of activity in cities and states across the country who are taking steps and

ultimately that will put congress under pressure to do the right thing. >> why not go at it again? if it matters that much to the president, why not make it an open process, approach them, have the meeting. play the game as it's always been played in points of compromise. why not re-impose instead of circumventing. >> he's doing what's clearly in his authority to do. what he's doing is well within the existing statute. he's trying to make sure he does everything in his power to keep guns out of the wrong hands. congress has the responsibility for acting. we welcome the opportunity to work with them to pass legislation. they made it clear they don't intend to action. in their absence of action we're going to do what we can do. be clear, chris, the door is always open for us to engage with them and work on what we can do to make america safer. >> they say, obviously you can't generalize, we have many sores on the other side of the aisle

who say that's not true. he want tos front load all this stuff with provisions that won't do anything, like magazine size. they want to start with basic provisions about where checks are, money for enforcement, money for mental health, record sharing. that goes to the mass shooting. to deal with money to enable harsher sentences for those who use beguns in commissions of a crime. as you know, many states say we don't have the money to keep people with these long sentences. why not get that part done? >> for example, what the president is proposing today and what will be in his budget that he'll be proposing to congress is we do need to have additional resources for atf to go after those who are selling guns who shouldn't be selling them without a license. and so we have in the budget additional 200 atf agents so we can beef up our enforcement. the president is increasing the number of people who are working in the background check area. we're improving the technology

there. we're improving the data collection, the attorney general is calling on governors to make sure we're getting the data from the states we need to ensure that the background check information is as sufficient as it could be. there's a lot we could do within the executive branch that we are doing. we welcome the opportunity to work with congress on a whole host of issues. they've made mental health a big issue. that's why the president is proposing $500 million to improve mental health services. there's lots of rooms for working with congress. they are important to the successful implementation of what the president is proposing today. >> we look forward to seeing how the president does make this approach of introducing these orders today. valerie jarrett, thank you very much for coming on to argue the president's case. >> thank you, chris. what do you think? you heard the basic line of why the president is doing this versus going the congressional

route. what do you think? tweet us at "new day" or post your comment on facebook.com/newday. and, again, it is worth reminding you, this issue matters that the why cnn is taking it very seriously. the president has responded to an invitation from anderson cooper to do an exclusive live town hall event on guns in america. the president will make the case to you as to why executive action and specifically these are what he needed to do right now. he will take live questions from the studio audience and from around the country. remember, town hall on guns, moderated by our man, anderson cooper, this thursday night, 8:00 p.m., only on cnn, of course. all right. chris, former president bill clinton back on the campaign trail to support his wife. hillary calls him her not so secret weapon. could his help actually backfire or will it help? we'll take a look. i'd like to make a dep-- vo: it happens so often, you almost get used to it. we got this. vo: which is why being put first

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you experience tv. bill clinton is making his first solo appearances on the trail this week, stumping for hillary clinton. the question is will he help, will he hurt hillary? john avalon is cnn political analyst and editor in chief at the daily beast. good to have you here. >> good morning. >> let's talk bill clinton. overall, there is no overall, he's good, bad, a bit of both, a mixed bag. >> good, bad and the ugly is what you get. bubba is back on the trail. the important thing to remember, there is no political talent fight like ben carson. >> that's a good way of saying that. let's take a look back in terms of some of the weaknesses. we go back to 1998 before he was

impeached. >> i did have a relationship with miss lewinsky that was not appropriate. in fact, it was wrong. >> it seems tough to start there. he was dogged about this scandal during his presidency, accused for sexual harass milliment ove years. how badly does that affect the woman who would be the first president of the united states if her dreams come true. >> it is significant baggage. it's a stain on the history of his presidency, being the second president impeached. it makes it difficult for hillary to be the full feminist icon that she hopes to surf that wave of emotion of support into the presidency. that's baggage that exists. the question is how much is that baked in the cake already? how much do people know it and how much does bringing it up make the republicans look small and petty obsessed with the past as 'posed to the future. >> after frustrating finishes he started going negative on then senator barack obama. >> in 2004 there was no difference between you and george bush on the war.

you took that speech, you're now running on off your website. give me a break. this whole thing is the biggest fairy tale i've ever seen. >> he also said obama's campaign came after hillary with the race card. that that impulsiveness pose any risk? >> part of being the high wire act that is bill clinton on the trail, sometimes you cross over that line. he's fighting for his wife's campaign in a tough-fought campaign. that left divisive marks inside the democratic party at that particular point. >> him describing mitt romney, may 2012. >> he had a good business career. there's no question in terms of getting up, goin' to the office, you know, basically performing the essential functions of the office, a man who's been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold but they have dramatically different proposals. >> was that necessarily a bad thing? >> this went exactly what the dnc was pushing against mitt romney at the time, that bane

was vulture capitalism. here's bill clinton committing a washington gaffe, telling the truth. mitt romney is qualified to be president and had a successful record in business. that caused agitation inside the dnc during the 2012 election. >> you cannot deny that the man is a terrific political speaker. here he is at the democratic national convention in 2012. >> president barack obama took office, the economy was in free fall. it had just shrunk 9 full percent of gdp. we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. are we doing better than that today? the answer is yes. >> and then on the heels of that, here's president obama himself speaking about him. >> e-mailed me after his speech saying you need to appoint him secretary of explaining stuff. >> will that serve them on the trail? the secretary of explaining -- >> secretary of explaining

stuff. >> out there on the stump, that could be great. >> it is. it's an important part. bill clinton can talk about data, that resonates with the populous. the original by the way the original e-mail didn't say explaining "stuff ". and the popularity number. >> let's talk about this right here. >> yeah. wow. when the fact is the man who used to be president is getting better favorability numbers, just wow. >> the entire thing, we never had a first president running or the first laddie. this is a guy who left office with 60% approval rating after being impreached. and politically he's been able

to maintain that. and that is not always a given. it shows he remains deeply popular with american people. >> thank you. alisyn over to you. >> as though you haven't given us enough entertainment, we have more. which late night host had the best jabs?

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it's a fact. kind of like reunions equal blatant lying. the company is actually doing really well on, on social media. oh that's interesting. i - i started social media. oh! it was my...baby. time for cnn money now. how's a it looking. >> a china scare ricochetting around the world. and the fear still alive this morning. markets are down. asia finish eed mixed. plenty of people are nervously whispering this morning, wall

street as goes january, so goes the year. so watch this space. the epa and the justice department are suing volkswagen. seeking fines for each of the 500 thousand diesel cars on the road that were cheating and violating environmental guidelines. it's never been more expensive in manhattan. the median sale price hit a record 1.15 million last year. that shatters the record in 2008 right before lehman brothers collapsed. people apparently have money to spend in manhattan. i am not one of them. >> thank you for that. >> just saying. >> all right. let's get something funny. late night hosts playing the

trump card again. some of the laughs were yuj. if you didn't stay up check it out right now. >> at a recent campaign stop, hillary clinton vowed if elected she will investigate ufos and alien abductions and donald trump promised to deport them back to mexico. >> donald trump promised if elected he would probably not talk as much. that's right, even he will be speechless. >> his first tv ad. airing during prime time, cable channels during the day, and on univision, when hell freezes over apparently. >> donald trump was the candidate americans would least want to have as their neighbor. it makes sense. because he'd build a massive wall between your yards and make you pay for it.

you have trees growing -- >> any press is good press so the fact that they are just talking about him, that's a good thing? >> yeah. that is what -- >> yep. >> the only thing that changes the dynamic is the votes. once you start having the primaries as we're building up to iowa and new hampshire. the narrative changes. >> what will the late night comedians do without him? he's the favorite? obviously the others give him material but he does awe peer to be their favorite. >> plenty of news for you. but what do you say? let's get to it. in a matter of hours president obama unveils his plan to combat gun violence.

>> lawless in his use of executive orders. executive orders. >> -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com is it tuesday already? >> it is, all day long. >> says no one ever. >> good morning and welcome the your "new day." it is january 5th, 8 o'clock in the's. and now kuwait siding with the saudis. recalling its ambassador from iran just this morning. the united arab emirate, bahrain, sudan also. done grading ties with teheran.

>> iran's president rouhani slamming saudi arabia accusing it of using the rift to cover up the execution of that prominent shooit cleriiite cleric. what is the latest from riyadh? >> reporter: it keeps ramping rhetoric. iranian president said it was a crime he was executed. sudan, united arab emirates. kuwait as well. today the saudis cutting all flights and economic ties as well. they are saying the religious pilgrims that come to perform the haj here in saudi arabia,

tens of thousands every month or so to saudi arabia, they can still come. the reality on the ground here and as i've been speaking with government officials in riyadh today, they all believe iran is trying to interfere inside saudi arabia. they believe that the shiite cleric who was executed for the saudis fermenting ter rosm was in fact being egged on by iran. they believe that until iran decides to stop interfering as they say inside saudi arabia then they will continue this diplomatic spat, the country feels under pressure from iran to the south and yemen north. they feel syria as well. iran is maintaining a strong hand there. saudi's interests are diminishing in that country. this is the context to this diplomatic spat. and at the moment today we're not seeing any downturn.

only getting tighter spot and these are the two most powerful countries in this region alisyn. >> thanks for laying out all of the complexities for us. joining us now to talk about them is state department spokesperson john kirby. before we get to what the sus trying to do to lessen tensions. can you clarify for us, did the u.s. warn saudi arabia beforehand that it should not execute this shiite cleric? >> we've been mindful of the legal process in saudi arabia now for a long time and have expressed our concerns privately and publicly for some time about that. obviously we were aware of most of these cases that ended up being finally carried through over the weekend here and we've suppress expressed concerns about those writ large over the last several months or so so i don't want to

go into individual cases too much. but we did make our concerns known writ large and we certainly have made our concerns known about the legal process in saudi arabia and the need for human rights. >> the fakd that our ally saudi arabia ignored the u.s. warning, what does that tell you? >>ct that our ally saudi arabia ignored the u.s. warning, what does that tell you? >> saudi is a key partner, a key friend in the region. a member of the coalition going after isil. they played a key role in getting opposition groups together and unifying principles. we want their leadership. and as i said yesterday we want local leaders in the region to work through this diplomatic row and get past it. there are a lot of pressing issues in the region that local leaders need to focus on. iraq, syria, yemen elsewhere. there are lots of things going on and what we want them to do is work through this bilaterally and get past it. >> is the feeling what saudi

arabia did with this execution an intentional provocation of iran? >> i think i'd let saudi fini finish finishes speak for that are process. a process they have had ongoing a process we've suppressed concerns about before like id say. so i don't want to get into motivations that, you know, might have driven one or other of the executions. they will tell you it is a legal process. we've expressed concerns about that process. look, it is done and i think it is important now that leaders from saudi and leaders from iran try to work it and out get past this as much as they can. we believe that diplomatic engagement and conversation and dialogue are really important. these are all sovereign decisions these nations need to make. i get that. but we really think that engagement in conversation is the best anecdote to working through this. >> what is the state department

doing in terms of bringing down tensions? >> one thing is we're working hard to communicate with leaders throughout the region very directly privately our concerns where this is going and the need to turn it around and the need to focus on key strategic issues in the region like iraq, syria, isil, yemen. theres a lot of things on the agenda we want people to stay focused on. what we're not trying to do is get in the middle of this particular issue between saudi arabia and iran. we believe it is west best for them to work it out plalt. >> if saudi arabia didn't pay much heed to the u.s. warning not to do this now what weight does the u.s. carry telling them to use diplomacy to work with iran. >> this is about them working it

out together through dialogue a everybody knows the united states' leadership t sincerity of what we're trying to do in the middle east is not questioned by anybody. this isn't a time for threats and clouds and trying to use leverage. this is a time for these two leaders to get together and work this out locally, regionally. >> if they are not what does this mean for the u.s. and particularly the u.s. threat against isis. >> we're mindful that a row like this could have implications elsewhere which is why we're trying to get this resolved. we don't want this the to impact operations through isil and so far it has not and we don't want this to effect other things. we're mindful of the potentially effects here and that is why we're working this so hard.

>> john, you think that as of today saudi arabia and iron both show up for the so called peace process to figure out how to resolve what is going on in syr syria. sadly we have john -- can you hear me? we lost his audio. we apologize for that. we can see president obama is just hours from his big announcement on gun -- all right. apparently john is back. alisyn. >> all right. let me remember where i was. john, what i was saying is what is your level of confidence that these parties given that this tinderbox now will show up for peace process? >> we certainly hope and expect that will be the case alisyn. obviously it is important to have these two countries continue to be at the table as we work through the political

solution in syria. they have been important players in the past. we want that to continue in the future. these are decisions they have to make of course but we're not aware of anything right now as you and i speak that are going to throw that off track for hopefully later this month. >> we know your hope of everything will be resolved. is this getting worse what appears to be the taking sides of all the countries in the middle east? >> i'm reticent to give it a letter grade here but obviously we are concerned. we remain concerned about the diplomatic row and the other things chiming in. these are sovereign decisions they have to make. what we would say is let's not throw diplomatic engagement completely away especially at the time of tension. let's look for ways to take the tension down a notch.

let's look for ways to continue a dialogue and move past this. we know saudi arabia and iran have communicated their concerns to the u.n. that is not unproductive. that is a useful step. we want to see that kind of engagement continue. >> john kirby, thank you so much. now let's go to michaela. the president has several pressing issues right now. he's just hours from his big announcement on gun control. he's going to be calling for expansion on background checks on many firearm sales. we'll get the latest from michel michelle. >> reporter: look at what the administration is trying to do here and all the ways they are trying to make changes but he has to also make within the limits. so these changes are made as

proposals, guidance, encounter for states. even the background check issue is basically just a clarification of who can be considered a private seller versus someone in business selling guns. so clearly what they want to do is establish more and better enforcement. but there are plenty of questions how this is going to work. president obama teaming up to announce a major over haul on gun control this morning. giving congress a hard pass. >> these are recommendations that are well within my legal authority and the executive branch. >> reporter: the president set to lay out a series of executive orders, including clarifying that anyone in the business of selling guns must acquire a license and ensure background checks no matter the volume of guns sold or where. the white house also urging more state reporting of background

check records. proposing beefing up the background check system itself, hiring more staff to operate it around the clock and the president will ask for much more funding for mental health treatment. the democratic campaign trail buzzing with excitement. >> i am so proud of what the president announced today. the next president on the very first day could wipe it away. you know i won't wipe it away. >> reporter: but the next could. and that is what the gop hopefuls plan to do. >> i will veto that. >> i will unsign so that so fast. so fast. >> reporter: puts out guidance on what it means exactly to be in the business of selling guns it.

means you are spending time on it. you are making a profit. and this is repetitive. that means as the white house puts it. if you are selling two guns a year or at a gun show or even on the dark web you need to register and make sure background checks are going on. if you don't there are harsh penalties. questions of course, how is the federal government going to make sure you do that? and how are they going to know if you don't. >> a special programming reminder. this thursday at 8:00 p.m. president obama will join anderson cooper for an exclusive live town hall event in america. and he'll take questions from a live studio audience. a town hall on guns in america with president obama this thursday night 8:00 p.m. >> viewing party at my house? >> sure. >> alisyn watches the kids? >>. [ laughter ] >> no? that wasn't even close.

to be sure, the election has changed. republican presidential candidates are basically moving to iowa and new hampshire. they know it will be the first three. and then everyone else once the votes in those starts. so what are the new angles of attack. cnn's athena jones is live in new hampshire. what can you tell us? >> reporter: these republican candidates are making multiple stops trying to win over voters, hoping to make the case for themselves and against their rivals. so, for instance, marco rubio is warning against some foreign policies cruz hit immigration, and despite spending a lot of time talking about former president bill clinton's past indiscreti

indiscretions, trump kept the focus on hillary saying it would mean four more years of obama or worse. >> i wonder if the people in egypt think now that they live under martial law that their lives are better? showtime is over. we are not electing a entertai n entertainer in chief. >> reporter: chris christie has been arguing they are not just ready to be commander in chief because they haven't run anything. so we can expect to hear this kind of sharper criticism and sharpening even more in the coming weeks and days alisyn. >> let's look now at the democrat, hillary clinton keeping up her push in iowa

trying to catch bernie sanders there. what's the latest jeff. >> reporter: bill clinton campaigning in new hampshire. hillary clinton campaigning here in iowa. there is a similarity between both styles. neither one of them are taking the bait from donald trump by design here. they are spending so much time talking about the republican side of this campaign. i was struck by what bill clinton said yesterday. let's take a listen. >> i don't fit anymore. first of all i'm a happy grandfather. item not mad at anybody. and secondly, i thought an election was supposed to be a job interview. >> so bill clinton in his own way sort of slowing down the conversation here, trying to urge voters to pay attention to

what the republican candidates are actually saying. now the ind peependent voters a not taking the debate. hillary clinton has engaged with donald trump frequently but she's decided in 2016 at least for now to not follow him. let's listen. >> i've adopted a new year's resolution. i'm gonna let him live in his alternative reality and i'm not gonna respond. >> so we'll see if she keeps that up if she campaigns today in iowa. she'll be campaigning at three different stops today. she doesn't mention bernie sanders at all. that is the person who their campaign is watching for. keep in mind they are so mindful of eight years ago when she was surprised here in iowa and new hampshire by barack obama. so she doesn't want bernie

sanders to creep up behind her. but she's spending more of her time talking about republicans. more news this morning and it is good news. police say they have rescued 11 women who were being held hostage overnight. the man holding them apparently stabbed himself in the neck and was taken to the o hospital in critical condition. it is unclear what their relationship to the man is at this time. former south carolina police officer released from jail after posting bond. charged with murder after shoot ing a man in the back. he'll be under house arrest and has been ordered not to have any contact with members of scott's family. the former officer's trial not

expected to begin for several months. an atlanta educator is getting props not just for what he does in the classroom but for what he does on the dance floor. check out clark's moves. >> i like that. >> wait for it. >> come on now. >> these are his talent students. >> oh hi gosh he is good. he's a middle school teacher. they are dancing to d-lo's bet you can't do it like me challenge. throwing down their best nae nae and little rock. >> he said he wanted to create a school where kids could feel the spirit and kids would say i love coming here. that is fantastic. >> he can nae nae with the best of them. >> when we go to break i will show you a video of my mother who was watching my mother

dance. like that ain't dancing and then showed her a little and she became obsessed andly show you the video. if i show it to you my mother will immediately come here and give me a beat down. all right. president obama announcing new executive actions to fight gun violence. how will they be received on the campaign trail? price match guarantee. and this? yep! so no monkey business, no tomfoolery? oh, we do have tom foolery, tom. staples has a price match guarantee. make low prices happen. staples make more happen.

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welcome back to "new day." president obama's gun control policy will be a hot topic today on the campaign trail where republican candidates have already come out against it. let's discuss. cnn senior political analyst and the editorial director of the national journal. and the senior politics editor at the daily beast. lady, gentlemen, happy new year to you both.

haven't seen you yet. so mr. brown stein. when you look at this you have those against any more gun control saying this is the worst and those who are in favor saying this is the best since brady. do you believe either of those is coming to fruition? >> it is a modest move within the limits of his power that nonetheless is deeply inflammatory. i think it really does, chris, signify an important change in the debate as we've talked about before. after the loss in 2004 most concluded gun control was a key reason why he lost in '08 and '12 obama did not emphasize it greatly himself. what's changed is they have lost many of the voters they feared by losing gun control and they have replaced them with a new

coalition that is much more recepti receptive. so what is different now is you have both sides on the field. and the result i think in 2016 a more direct engagement and confrontation over gun control than any campaign since 2000. >> this is going to tackle the gun show loophole so it will try to expand background checks for private sellers online through the internet as well as gun shows. this is something that 89% of americans according to the latest quinnipiac poll say they want. so why is this a winning strategy to go against background checks for the gop candidates? >> what you hear is this is a slippery slope. one step closer to something you hear a lot when you hear republicans try to gin up voters on this issue. they talk about the gun registry. they talk about obama is going to go too far. this is just one step. i so think that is where they go. it is not necessarily this. it is also the fact that he's bypassing congress and we know

congress isn't going to do anything on this but still it is out of the legislative system and it is also a step towards, you know, a more gun control when you are a republican candidate. >> and -- >> alisyn? >> go ahead ron. >> public opinion about gun control and i've written about 20 years is contradictory and conflicted. most individual proposals have support, on the other hand if you ask the philosophical question is it more important to control gun ownership or protect rights you get a 50/50 splits and if you go further and ask whether gun control are l reduce violence, usually you get a majority saying no. look at the groups in the democratic coalition by and large think gun control will work and you see blue states moving forward and in the

republican coalition it's become one of those issues that widens the chasm. >> this one is targets fairly narrowly that is going to deal with the gun show loophole. one of the only things he can do and it is something the public says they want. >> 89%. it does expand the definition and refine the definition of who is in the business of selling. here is what it doesn't do ron bro brownstein. it will not stop sandy hook. it will not stop what is going on in chicago right now. because people who use guns to commit crimes usually get them illegally. so you are only finding ways to burden people like me who want to buy them legally. fair criticism. >> that is the argument. millions have been denied guns

under the background check system going back to 1993 suggests that at least some people who shouldn't have guns are being stopped through the use of the background check and expanding it to more people would make sense on that front. whether it makes a big difference is that is why i say the public opinion is complex here. where people believe this is a step they would support. they question how much impact it would ultimately have. and this has become a culturally issue somewhat divorced from the practical implications from many of the voters most energized about this. it is simply question of kind of big city liberals imposing their values on our way of life. and of course the issue that jackie noted as well that for republicans this is also about a pattern of obama stretching the issue on authority and issues like climate and gay rights everywhere he can so there are a lot of factors here that converge to make this especially

volatile. >> democratic voters they agree with background checks, they support it but they don't tend to vote on it. on the other side republican voters tend to get out and vote on the gun issue. so until democrats can really energize voters and make them go to the polls based on this issue they are going to lose. >> i don't completely agree. i think that what's happened is gun control has become part of a complex of issues that really define the cultural values of eechb side. not that people vote anymore on guns -- >> i don't know. -- >> -- becomes part of the overall picture of whether the party shares my values or not and reinforces the kind of cultural separation we see in politics right now where you have basically white collar social -- i think that's what happened is the idea that guns only benefit

republicans is obsolete. one of the issues that knit together a democratic coalition now held more by cultural values than economic interests. >> we're out of time, jackie we're going to owe you one. thanks so much. the clock ticking on activists on a federal wildlife refuge in oregon. the local sheriff offering two words of advice. go home. will they? it's a fact. kind of like ordering wine equals pretending to know wine. pinot noir, which means peanut of the night. ♪ (trap door opening)

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well it very well may be a question of who blinks first in eastern oregon. armed protesters on their fourth day now on a local wildlife refuge. the local sheriff has a message "it's time to go." what to we know? >> reporter: it is early here. sub freezing. we have not seen the protesters brandish any guns by the way. nor have we seen any law enforcement. and the sheriff in the town here, closest town is burns.

basically telling these protesters just to go home and get out. >> you said you were hear to help the citizens of the county. that ended when a peaceful protest became an armed occupation. the hammonds have turnds themselves in. it is time for you to leave our community. >> thammonds are the father and son who turned themselves in yesterday to serve out the rest of an arson sentence. the protest will end when the hammonds are freed and the federal government gives you will control of the wildlife refuge behind me.

as they say it takes two to tango and right now the demonstrators don't have a dance partner. back to you. >> joining us now is the center for the director of study of hate at cal state. you just heard our correspondent as standoffs go, this one is pretty mild. >> it is. and here is the problem. and thank you so much for having me. and let me also thank your wonderful staff. this is not going to be if handled correctly a incendiary event. we want the spokesperson for law enforcement in fact be the county sheriff from oregon and not the feds and just wait it

out. that is the way to do it. >> that does seem to be the answer and quite frankly what the feds seem to be doing because it is cold there. these folks are not locals. how long can they last? they might just decide on their own that the point that they are making is over. the feds may not ever have to do anything here. >> that is right. you know, with law enforcement, as with much of life, sometimes silence and patience is a friend that never betrays you. and i think what we've seen particularly 20 years ago when i was on this network talking about the freeman standoff in montana. one of the things that the fbi did following waco where there was a disastrous fire set by the branch dwidians and ruby ridge where a woman was killed by cradling a baby is to let's deescalate. and the thing is all of whether they were other types of

extremists or their race, let's keep things deescalating. and what we need is some kind of perimeter. it doesn't have to be visible to the folks there. and have the county sheriff be the spokesperson. this is important because the county sheriff in the antigovernment movement is someone who they can use as an intermediary. it is the federal government that is viewed as illegitimate. not so much the county leaders. indeed the posse cometatus as par of this umbrella of movement recognizes the government as the high authority. so it is smart the way the authorities are handle this and keep and low burn perimeter. monitor. and at some point you can latch things up. shutting off the roads and power and things like that. but it is not necessary now. in the winter out west it gets

cold. >> that is already starting to happen. and further more, the two men at the heart of this dispute t hammonds, the four and son. they have surrendered. they are about to serve their prison term for the arson. so are you clear on what the activists still want? >> these extremists have been looking for a catalytic event to confront the federal government. there were other instances after the 2014 standoff at the bundy ranch in nevada that they were looking to make a stand. here is the thing. this is not about the hammonds. this is about folks who want to expose their antigovernment extremism to the rest of the country and to a certain extent it has some appeal.

but let me say this is not about people -- as i wrote in the cnn op yet -- this is not about people who want to elect a blunt-talking president. this is about people who are opting out of the political process and believe our government is very dangerous. and when they get a platform repeatedly. the other thing i would say is they are em boldeneded by the fact that cliven bundy did not have to pay the $1.2 million fine that a court has ordered including republican appointed federal judges and said we definitely won. we can't have people taking aggressive action and getting

away with it consistently because what this will do in time is lead to others which are not quite as sanguine as this one. all right. another real battle between good and evil. "star wars: the force awakens," officially a force to be reckoned with at the box office. the record it is about to break, ahead.

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time for the five things you need the know for your "new day." president obama unveiling his plan for combatting gun violence this morning using executive action for some background checks in private sales. and gop candidain new hampshire. and hillary clinton trying to tighten the gap with bernie sanders in new hampshire. bernie sanders are talk wall street reform in new york today. saudi arabia and --. tonya couch.

the mother of the so called affluenza teen will appear in court today. she will face up to 10 years if convicted. and if you would like more on the five things visit "new day" cnn.com. >> "star wars: the force awakens" dominating the multiplex. the movie is about to covet the financial powers of the force, next.

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"star wars: the force awakens" is truly out of this world. experts are predicting by the time the box office closes today the film will become the top domestic grossing of all time, surpassing avatar's record $760 million. joining me now brian stelter. you are sort of amazing with all of this data. if you look at the top grossing films, it has already almost surpassed avatar. 740.3 million in 19 days. and we haven't even opened in china yet. >> the force is strong. >> other films, avengers, jurassic world, titanic.

these are the current record holders, the amount they made in their entire lifetime. it's taken "star wars" just 19 days. that is remarkable. and it says a lot about our box office world and media world. >> -- franchise though. >> more than anything else it is about that. if you adjust for inflation the original "star wars" is still doing better but if you look at the modern era numbers -- we know how much tickets cost now. this is a very rare movie that felt like a communal event. so today is probably the day it will break the record and it will continue after that but it is the biggest u.s. record you can break. >> doesn't it make you wonder what took them so long? all they did was play the hits. >> right. >> they recapped the best of the original "star wars." they brought back the great

characters who are now detected older. >> maybe the timing was just right. maybe it was too soon to do it before now. >> that's possible. >> remember the three films george lucas worked on years ago his follow-up were not well received at all. >> and partly because they didn't try to reinvent the we'll. they recapped the bar scene and the original good and evil struggle. >> don't stare at any of it. and it is also a good time for that good and evil struggle. >> that is what i'm wondering. >> people can relate to what they are seeing in this film. there is a lot of textual analysis even you can do. george lucas sold for $4 billion. he's had some regrets, some controversies. he said some things about what

it's like to see his baby being seen by someone else. but maybe that is what it took. >> and risky. this could have gone a couple of ways. if they hadn't nailed all of those scenes. we also know that the technology could either impede it or make it a great success, which it seems to have done. >> they stayed old school with it, which was nice from that perspective. >> when you see the numbers it does mask the fact this was a big risk. there were lots of questions whether they could actually pull it off. the fact it's dominated for three weekend asks is going to continue for some time -- >> -- going to be? >> there is one this year the spinoff, at the end of this year. then at least two more. like trilogy.

and then -- >> set to open in china and that means it is likely to break global box office records. >> china is the second biggest movie market in the world now behind the united states. the challenge for disney in this is that "star wars" isn't as well known in china. so they have been doing a lot of marketing a lot of promotion throughout the country. it opens saturday. it if it does well it will help break the avatar record globally which is over $2 billion. that is going to take more time. "star wars" is at 1.5 billion but already that is an amazing number and important for disney. the business story is disney needs this story to do very well. >> just to get into the water cooler controversy about this movie, some people don't like seeing the characters aging like carrie fisher.

>> she has done a whole reaction that is very strong. i admire her for that. >> and other trolls don't like that passed and she's aged since that. but that was the right decision clearly from the numbers. >> and people have bigger problems. >> -- african american character one of in i stars of the film. >> he is great by the way. he reminded me of the same feel that billy dee williams -- let me ask you something. who would we be in the movie? >> they just gave me the rap sign. >> we have to rap. i know. nice try. we have the good stuff coming up. >> chewbacca. >> you like the big hairy guy don't you? >> that's my "star wars" boyfriend. >> chewbacca?

>> yes. >> all right. a man walks into a church with a gun? it turns into the good stuff, coming up. no corn, wheat or soy. support your active dog's whole body health with purina one.

all right. some teams the good stuff starts out of a bad situation. this is one of those but what an amazing story. new year's eve, pastor larry

wright is giving the sermon. a man walks in with a gun. >> he said i came here with some terrible things on my mind. i was gonna do some bad things. >> we know how this goes all too often but not this time. take a listen. >> when i told the congregation, it is okay. he wants prayer. and i began to pray for him. and he fell to his knees and he began to cry and weep and. >> he got the man to hand the gun over. and exchanged hugs. he stayed for the rest of the sermon. can you imagine? >> all the more powerful even after what happened in charleston. >> yes. the pastor says the man was disturbed. authorities got involved to take him afterwards. but that pastor, he stepped up

for the people in that church. and it worked. >> thank god it worked this time. a special programming reminder. this thursday at 8:00 p.m., president obama for an exclusive live town hall event on gun control. he's take questions from the audience. fascinating. thursday 8:00 p.m. here on cnn. happy new year to all of you. as you know guns are going to be a big sub of debate. newsroom starts right now. happening now in the newsroom, president obama going it alone on gun control. >> these are recommendations that are well within my legal authority and the executive branch. >> rolling out executive actions that include expanding background