every one of those patients not only survived but did well. after waiting ten months for a new heart in new orleans william finally received one a month after he arrived in houston. william is doing very well now. coincidentally, he went to another transplant center in houston, texas and was transplanted 31 days after he arrived. so his story was successful in the end. he's doing great. he's growing up and growing older i suppose. drew schaaf successfully went through several more operations, and is now a healthy, vibrant little girl. drew is a pistol. she gets into absolutely anything and everything she possibly can. i honestly think she's making up for the, the four months she was

in the hospital and couldn't do absolutely anything. she's a mess. but she's great. over the course of a week, more than 1200 people were evacuated from the roof of the parking garage next to tulane hospital one of the largest evacuations of an american hospital in recent memory. six months after drew schaaf and william wilson were flown to safety, the hospital re-opened. >> michael: this is "the war

room," i'm michael shure. the sequester has washington on edge, as for the rest of the country, i guess whether your heart is in it or not, all depends on where you call home. [♪ theme music ♪] >> michael: this war room is tracking all things politics. we start with what we have our mrit call eyes on today. one eye is on the sequester showdown. president obama and house respects have until late thursday to reach a deal or else $85 billion in mandatory cuts start rolling off of the chopping block. it's a an agreement the president and john boehner reached back in 2011. the think i was that democrats won't cut social programs and republicans won't cut millation

spending but they'll have to save face politically. today for their annual meeting president obama enlisted the governor's help. >> obama: while you are in town i hope you speak with your congressional delegation and remind them exactly what is at steak, and who is at risk. these cuts do not have to happen. congress can turn them off any time with just a little bit of compromise. >> michael: so some governors heeded that call but louisiana's respect governor is not one of them. outside of the white house jindal called for president obama to show leadership. >> i think it's time to [ inaudible ] prioritized list of reductions that preserves political services every governor here has had to balance their budget every family has had to balance their budget the

reality is it can be done. >> michael: so jengdel blames the president standing right in his front yard. >> it's time to cut tending here in washington, instead of using our military men and women, as campaign props >> the president was serious, he would sit down with harry reid to address our problems. the house has acted twice and we should haven't to act a third time. >> michael: he says if the president was serious. so here is today's wrap-up then. first president obama asked governors call congress, then the leading house republican in the house calls on the senate to write the bill. thankfully we have plenty of time to figure this out, at least according to washington,

d.c.'s clock. oh, wait there are only four more days. later in the program, we'll find out how president obama's sequester message is working. and chris christie has the superstorm sandy goodwill trickled down to the sequester? we're also keeping an eye own john kerry who is having his first foreign trip since taking over for hillary clinton. the main issues he is tackling include laying the ground work for a u.s./europe trade pack and stopping iran from getting a nuclear weapon. >> iron with a nuclear weapon in that region and given all that has happened is simply unacceptable. the window for a dib low mattic solution simply cannot by definition remain open forever.

>> michael: back in the united states, jimmy carter has a different idea on whether negotiations can stop. >> i don't believe either of those countries is going to be suicidal off to use nuclear weapons. >> i wonder if kerry is actually listening. carter's comments came yesterday in san francisco. tonight's last eye that we have out stands for impasse, or at least the potential for one on gun reform. oklahoma republican senator tom coburn is making it painfully clear that background checks could stop a bill in its tracks. >> there will not be record keeping on legitimate law-abiding gun owners in this country, and if they want to

eliminate the benefits of trying to prevent the sales to people who are mentally ill, all they have to do is have record keeping, and that will kill this bill. >> according to "slate" magazine at least 2265 american souls have been lost to gun violence, that's about 87 new townes, since newtown. a seconded a was released featuring a military veteran tying mcconnell to the nra. >> i would be a pretty bad hunter if i needed an assault rifle to shoot that buck.

i support the ban to ban assault weapons, because i know these guns. i know what they can do. the nra and the gun manufacturers have given a ton of money to senator mitch mcconnell. >> michael: on wednesday the senate judiciary committee will hold a hearing on banning assault weapons. now joining me on the phone is "ross call's" senate beat reporter niels lesniewski niels. welcome inside "the war room." >> it's good to be here. >> how important is senator coburn to any gun reform bill that may come out? >> he could be one of the key senators in getting an agreement that could actually get legislative traction particularly beyond the senate. senator coburn is one of the most conservative members of the

senate and a bill that he supports the development of and then votes for throughout the process in the senate if such a bill were to pass the senate it might put pressure on the house republican leadership to at least take that sort of a measure up, so there's kind of an incentive here for -- for democrats and for advocates of gun safety or gun control measures to be able to get someone like coburn on board. >> niels do you think his outrage over this data base is legit or only to strengthen his own negotiation pating with the other sen snores >> it may be a bit of both. what we have heard -- a senate aid told me after the comments

that senator coburn made on fox news, that he -- there was some sort of question about the way the question was phrased frankly. and realistically no one is considering creating a database of gun owners. so there's a distinction here to be made between having a background check to check if you have a criminal record to check if you have any sort of documented and court adjudicated mental health condition versus some sort of a record check or record or database of how many firearms you may own, and that's the distinction that i -- i think might be getting lost in this to some extent. the latter is not really on the ail at all. >> michael: that's really interesting stuff. because that's also something we don't hear people talking about so much. very quickly, we saw a bit of that new tv ad going after mitch

mcconnell. do any republicans actually need to worry about standing in the way of a gun safety bill? is there anyone for whom this is just a political death mill? >> well, there may be some. certainly if you are a republican from a sort of suburban district of a more urban area or you are in fact yourself from a more urban area or maybe somewhere like new england, but the ad itself is probably not something that is really going to cause a problem for him, in fact given the electorate that he would see in a primary -- republican primary, should he see a challenge from a more conservative or tea party-backed candidate bolstering his credentials and ties with the nra may actually be a boom for him. i don't know that the groups on

the left running the ad are intending. >> "ross call's" senate beat reporter niels lesniewski thanks so much for coming here into "the war room." coming up, as if running a country isn't hard enough only in washington can they come up with something where the damage is self inflicted. plus chris christie has a springsteen like approval rating in new jersey. but does that mean anything outside of the garden state. and later we'll continue our look at the civil rights movement in america and writ stands today. it's "the war room" on a monday, night, stwa us.

a closer shave in a single stroke for less irritation, even on sensitive skin. ♪ ♪ gillette mach3 sensitive. gillette. the best a man can get. when many soles pass through the most trodden areas of your home your vacuum doesn't always pick up what's left behind. only the resolve easy clean system

has foam power to stop dirt in its tracks. it penetrates deep within your carpet removing 3 times more dirt than vacuuming alone. leaving the busiest areas of your carpets, truly fresh and clean. the resolve easy clean system. don't just vacuum clean. resolve clean. fruit just got cooler. fruit on one side, cool on the other. ice breakers duo a fruity cool way to break the ice. the bar harbor bake is really worth trying. [ male announcer ] get more during red lobster's lobsterfest. with the year's largest selection of mouth-watering lobster entrees. like our delicious lobster lover's dream, featuring two kinds of succulent lobster tails. or our savory, new grilled maine lobster and lobster tacos. it's back, but not for long. [ woman ] our guests go crazy for lobsterfest. my favorite entree is the lobster lover's dream.

what's yours? come celebrate lobsterfest and sea food differently. you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> michael: as the sequester cuts loom overhead an ethic game of hot potato is raging in the capitol. the president rolled out 51 fact sheets detailing how the sequester will impact the states

and the district of columbia. >> obama: this morning you received a report outlining exactly how these cuts will harm middle class families in your states, thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. hundreds of thousands of americans will lose access to primary care and preventative care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings. >> michael: is communicating these specific policy consequences a smart move by the president and are the american people even listening? to answer that question, and more, i'm joined by democratic strategist karl frisch. karl is coming to us from washington, d.c. tonight. welcome back inside "the war room," karl. >> thanks for having me. >> michael: karl what do you make of the president's plan to discuss the state-specific impacts of the sequester. it is too granular and go over

people's heads, or is this what he should be doing? >> it's precisely what he should be doing. the detail and aggressiveness we have seen out of the administration on this issue is admirable. and it's one of the reasons why the republicans are in such a difficult position. on the other hand you have john boehner and the republicans talking about not wanting to raise taxes on the wealthy. so that sends a clear picture and doesn't give the republicans much room in terms of negotiating power. these are problems of the republican party's own making. >> michael: all right. karl, i totally, totally get

what you are saying. but isn't there a little bit of a risk of being the boy who cried wolf? because it's not like we wake up march 2nd and the airports are closed and furloughed workers everywhere -- it is going to take a little while for all of this to happen. are these scare tactics maybe something that could hurt the president. >> i don't think they are scare tactics. i think since we pay at attention every day to what is happening, is we assume though american people are hearing the same message, and they are not. they aren't reading the paper every morning, surfing the blogs, or watching cable tv to check the latest developments, so repetition is extremely important -- >> michael: wait a second, they are not watching cable tv every

single second? >> not everybody. [ laughter ] >> even fox news you talking 3 million people at any given time. so they are focused on putting food on their family to quote a former president. [ laughter ] >> was that hayes. >> exactly. by repeating this message over and over, you increase the chances that somebody is going to kick it up when they are flipping around or catching a beer in a bar. and unfortunately this message is much louder -- it's fortunately for the republicans -- it's much louder much more clear, and much more relatable than we don't want to raise taxes on the wealthy. >> i get what the message is saying to america outside of the beltway, what is obama doing at

selling this correctly inside the beltway. >> that's a different story entirely. john boehner said the president was using troops as pawns. but, you know, if you look at woodward for example, bob woodward's column, there is this beltway fever in washington that everybody in order to be taken seriously has to support cuts-to-medicare and social security even though that is widely unpopular with the american people. so what you end up with in washington is what is typically he said/she said journalism. the president has put out detailed plans on what he would like to do. he has offered opportunity to negotiate, and john boehner as speaker with the emperor with no

clothes. there is nothing speculated that if he compromises he'll lose his speakership. >> michael: right. and on the other side people saying if he doesn't compromise he is going to lose his speakership as well. >> right. >> michael: along those lines, then, karl -- yeah what were you going to say? >> no, go ahead. >> michael: along those lines i want you to put on your gop dunce cap, how could the republican party win over public opinion on the sequester? >> it is unfortunately something they don't want to do. and they are in a position of hurt now or hurt later, so they can compromise and hold firm on a few of their sticking points and this is what the president has done compromised and given up on some ground we feel is

important on the left. so i boehner can compromise and maybe come to a deal at the table, but that means increased revenue. that would show that the republican is willing to govern. but mitch mcconnell and john boehner it is not likely to happen. in order for the republican party to survive the long term they need to look like they are interested in governing in washington. that's the only way that they will sway independents or a swear people of color or young people if that they look they are interested in governing. and mitch mcconnell on the senate speaker boehner they

have to stop this tea party movement. thank you a for being on the shown. could ainging christie run for president in after the break we'll find out if his fans have a reason to believe. you're in the -- klee documentaries... on current tv.

♪ >> michael: as we mentioned at the top of the show, the president hopes that governors will rescue him from his congressional battle over the sequester. he told them today if a deal isn't reached, the $85 billion in automatic budget cuts would cripple their state's economies. >> obama: rest assured the uncertainty is already haven an effect. companies are preparing layoff notices. families are preparing to cut back on expenses and the longer these cuts are in place, the bigger the impact will become. >> michael: threatening state budgets is a sure way to get governors to act, but governor who probably doesn't much to worry about is new jersey's chris christie a new poll has him with a 74% approval rating.

it is the highest approval rating of any new jersey governor, ever. even democrats like him. and he has another fan in the president, who has been tight with christie since the two paired up in the aftermath of hurricane sandy. last night the president game him the best seat in the house at the governor's ball. christie sat right next to first lady michelle obama just before she made her surprise oscar appearance. while he might get vip access with the democratic republican the republican party doesn't seem to hah -- happy with him. all of the big names were on the list, but notably missing

from the list chris christie. so what does that protend for his future and the future of the republican party joining me to talk about that is the man who has literally written the book on chris christie, author bob ingle, he is the co-author of the new biography. bob, welcome inside "the war room." >> thank you, sir. >> michael: bob, chris christie wasn't invited to the cpac conference, what does that mean. and does being embraced by the president hurt him so much that he is left off of a list like this. >> well, he was invited in june, so there has been a change and a good guess would be he hugged the president. they seem to be unforgiving if a guy hugs the president even if he has come to your state after

a devastating storm. >> michael: some people even blame him for actually costing mitt romney the election. is chris christie now the face of the non-tea party republican party? and does such a group even exist? >> i don't know if a group exists but i think he's in that position right now, and he -- he's concentrating of course on getting reelected, but down the road, you know, four years is a long, long time in politics, that's like 20 or 30 in other life, and i think they are banking on people coming around saying, well do you want to lose another election or do you want to go with someone who could actually win. the quinnipiac poll that you talked about had a head to head matchup with hillary clinton. if which she would get 49% of

the vote christie would get 45. >> michael: that doesn't get lost on our viewers that he does come from a democratic state. but let's talk about that. you know the guy pretty well. is the someone the democrats would like if they knew him? or does he just look good compared to some other members of his party. >> he is a very likable person and i think that's part of his popularity here, and he has been willing to work with democrats on some things obviously not as much as they would like, and he hasn't been as cooperative as they would like. but it hasn't been you go to your coner and i'll go to mine and we'll see what happens. >> michael: on those notes, there could be some challenges for christie in appealing to a

national audience and you know them well. emily's list has called christie anti-woman. and they said new jerseyians don't care big money groups do to support their big-government agendas. that same poll found his approval rating was a full 15 points higher with men. >> he certainly has never had the support among women that he has among men. even before the -- the hole thing with sandy and hugging the president, it actually went up among women after that happened. but there is something that is

appealing the way he does thing among men. >> michael: bob he is anti-choice, he supports the ryan budget, there are a ton of reasons that democrats would actually, once they dig a little deeper probably would have a hard time with him. scott walker said the next republican president should absolutely be a governor. mitt romney was a governor george w. bush was a governor, you would think they might want turn to the senate but is chris christie a likely candidate? >> i think governors actually sun governors. the guys in the senate at least lately, they seem to yell at each other and yell at the white house a lot. four years is a long time.

i think he has a game plan of overwhelmingly being reelected governor again in a democratic state. i think he is going to show that he has raise a ton of money, and that will be part of the appeal when they decide who is going to be running for president in 2016. and maybe by then some of the people who are really unhappy with him about being nice to obama, maybe that will be old hat by then and maybe the tea party won't even exist in four years, who knows. >> michael: i doubt that can going to happen. bob, we are did a whole interview, i can't ask you one question about his weight. thanks for being honest. up next, the difficulties faced by silicon valley companies who

say they can't get enough vie saas, tonight we'll hear the flip side of that right here in "the war room." honest. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us.

♪ >> michael: the fight over immigration reform isn't just about securing the border with mexico. it's also about opening our borders to highly skilled workers from around the world. right now the government grants 65,000 special visas, called an h1-b to foreign work worse highly specialized knowledge. a bipartisan bill in the senate would make it passable for nearly five times more foreign

applicants to get those vie saas. >> the smartest hardest working, most talented people on this planet, we should want them to be here. i have no firth count industry going to be overrun by nuclear fizzists and entrepreneurs. >> today, he launched a virtual march on washington. but with over 12 million americans still out of work there are some who think opening up more spots to foreign workers will hurt more americans. the president heard about a woman who's husband is a engineer who has been out of work for three years. >> why does the government continue to issue and extent h1-b vie saas when there are tons of americans just like my

husband with no job? >> obama: jennifer i don't know your husband's specialty, but i can tell you there is a huge demand around the country for engineers. if you would send me your husband's resume would be interested in finding out exactly what is happening right there, because the word we're getting is somebody in that kind of high-tech field should be able to find something right away, and the h1-b should be reserved only for those xoens who say they cannot find somebody in that particular field. >> michael: according to "mother jones" magazine more than two months later, her husband was still looking for a job. and for more on that i'm joined by "mother jones" reporter josh harkinson harkinson, who has done some great reporting on this issue. welcome back inside "the war room." are there qualified americans that could be filling these

positions? >> i think there are. there was a report that came out n 2007 that showed there are more than enough of what they call the stem professionals to fill these jobs and why do these companies feel like they need the vie saas. >> and do they put these jobs out to americans first? is there a requirement that they can to make sure there is not a american that can fill this job? >> no, they don't. president obama was kind of misleading in that clip because there is no requirement for that. >> michael: and -- so knowing that, then, does this impact wages -- does -- how much of this has to do with the america they pay workers? >> yeah, well so these workers -- these h1-b workers, about 80% of them earn less than their american citizen

counterparts for these jobs. these companies really want these h1-bs because they want to pay less to their workers. >> it's sort of like outsourcing but in an in-sourcing sort of way? >> yeah. well, i mean, another interesting stat here is that nearly half of these visas actually go to outsourcing companies, so the way it works is they bring their workers over here, and they train them for the job often in some cases like with pfizer a few years ago, the people train them -- those who train them are actually the american workers who are getting fired after they train them to do the job. >> michael: so most of these people don't stay? >> right. there is a goofy group that

represents engineers, and they say why don't we go with green cards instead, so they are not shackled to this one employer. >> michael: that's so interesting. >> yeah, because the h1-b people can't leave their jobs or they get deported if they do. >> michael: we had ash rust in here last week, he has a totally different take on -- on this whole issue. let's take a listen. >> 40% of fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. our current policy is starving this country of the risk takers that made america the world's largest country. >> that actually includes cofounders. er was contacted by somebody about this point. if you include co-founders of

companies, 95% of companies were founded by american citizens. >> michael: okay. let's look at the other side though, is there an economic consideration to closing our borders to talented workers? >> i don't think we want to do that. the h1-b program is a good idea but it's a question of how it is being used. >> michael: is this bias to tech jobs. we were talking about the stem jobs, but what if i'm an amazing chef, and i am coming to you from holland shouldn't i get the came consideration as somebody who can transform a chip. >> you probably should. and maybe it speaks to the political clout of the tech

sector. >> michael: do you think this is going to pass? >> i don't know. but i think the critics are starting to get louder. >> stephanie: all right. josh, thanks so much. the years of the civil rights movements were filled with tragedies and triumphs, but how are those events viewed today?

♪ >> michael: platinum selling rapper, lil' wayne unleashed a storm of controversy this week where the compared rough sex act to the murder of emmett till. emmett till was tortured and killed because he reportedly whistled at a white woman in mississippi. after his death, his mother

insisted on an open pub coffin so the country should see what the killers had done to her son. >> michael: will wayne's record label has pulled the lyric from the official release of the song, but the rapper has so far not issued an apology. with me is keli goff kelly is a political correspondent for the root. welcome back to "the war room," keli. >> always great to come back. >> michael: was this controversy suggest a disconnect between the young people of today and the civil rights movement at all? >> well look let me start by saying that expecting intellectual heft and decency from lil' wayne is like

expecting class from a kardashian. so i wasn't exactly shocked because nothing lil' wayne does is particularly shocking fwhachl might be shocking is if he actually did something extremely classy and impressive like went to college or encouraged kids to go to college. so i don't think he is representative of his generation. >> michael: that makes total sense. i think also when you have lil' before your name -- >> exactly. >> lil' kim, or lil' abner, the intellect, good-bye. >> exactly. someone drew my attention to one of his previous tweets or something where he described himself as phenomenon with phenomenal spelled with an f. so this is who we're dealing

with, so say he is representative of an entire generation or race let's not go there. but there was a study which found that an overwhelming majority of states received an f from the southern poverty loss center rewarding their ability in teaching civil right's history to the schools. this is where they are coming from in tomorrows of states really teaching this important history, but i do want to say for the word, i wrote my first book about this generation. things like the gen-of six tragedigy where we saw young black teenagers in louisiana who were facing an unfair sentencing where a group of black students who brought with a white student, and the black students were facing injustices and it

was young african-americans who pushed this story into the main stream. these young african american writers conducted what they called a blog in using social media to advance civil rights. they decided to blog about it on the same day, and that's what pushed the story. so that story and the tragedy around the trayvon martin killing, and the million hoodie march and even a lot of the professional athletes, lebron james who is lil' wayne's nemesis even pushed the hoodie rally. >> michael: the idea that this social media is kind of the

modern day civil right's movement in a way, and when you cited that million hoodie march, remember we were talking about that at -- at length here on this network and everywhere, but -- but what -- is there a connection that these people have to their forefathers and mothers if you will. do they know who emmett till is? >> the study that was conducted they gave letter grades to the different states for how well they teach civil rights history, and as i said 35 states received an f. they also found that only 12% of high school seniors in this country are proficient in any form of history. it was one of the most embarrassing areas of study that our country is simply lacking behind on, and when you take it

to civil rights that number drops to 2%. so we are not doing a good job in keeping our kids informed. but i will say there is a lot of respect and appreciation for how far we have come, and how much further we have to go and the fact that we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. >> michael: yes, and do they understand that. >> look, the good news is it seems like pretty much every student and person in america knows who martin luther king is. and the people that high school students can identify it's george washington, and martin luther king. and julian bond who is one of my heros, he said it best when he was teaching college he found

all of the students knew who mar to inluther king was, but they saw him as sort of a fable, but he didn't know the other not quite so well-known people. i'm surprised that lil' wayne even knew who emmett till was or how to spell his name. it's people -- kids are googling emmett till who may not have known who he was, so that i will give lil' wayne credit for. >> michael: that's true, and the outrage of these kids once they realize the real story of lil' wayne -- of emmett till may be directed towards lil' wayne, and we have julian vaughn joining us

on wednesday. >> oh, great. >> michael: thank you so much for coming. brett ehrlich didn't get to see the full presentation of the oscars last night, but good news is he is a twitter guy so he has the gist of the whole thing. he joins us next. we'll be right back. ♪ the bar harbor bake is really worth trying. [ male announcer ] get more during red lobster's lobsterfest.

with the year's largest selection of mouth-watering lobster entrees. like our delicious lobster lover's dream, featuring two kinds of succulent lobster tails. or our savory, new grilled maine lobster and lobster tacos. it's back, but not for long. [ woman ] our guests go crazy for lobsterfest. my favorite entree is the lobster lover's dream. what's yours? come celebrate lobsterfest and sea food differently. [clucking]. everyone wants to be the cadbury bunny. cause only he brings delicious cadbury crème eggs, while others may keep trying.

nobunny knows easter better than cadbury!

♪ >> michael: last night the first lady appeared to present the oscar for best picture. right now brett ehrlich will appear to give in-depth commentary about it. everyone just calm down brett is talking now. >> why did you sleep so well last night? it's because you watched the oscars and you were out cold by best animated short. reviews on the