this morning. he has a busy week ahead of him. let's go to nbc's kristen welker in a dark, early honolulu. we hear the beach there. good morning. >> it's there. >> it's there. i can hear it. i'm thinking about it. what was his reaction to the passing of the scaled down version of the relief bill? what are his plans to rent another voting debacle in congress? >> reporter: good morning, alex. white house officials say that the president is pleased that congress passed the first round of relief aid. having said that you are absolutely right, the bulk of it, $51 billion needs to be passed, so the president the white house, pressuring the congress to get it passed quickly on the 15th of the month. and president obama reached out to governor chris christie, governor cuomo and reiterated support for the relief package. i expect him to engage in

similar outreach and speak publicly about it. release a statement about getting it done. and so many officials there in that region have stressed this is vital to the folks who are really still suffering in the wake of hurricane sandy. you will see president obama to some extent engage in getting this passed quickly. >> he talked about his approach to reducing the deficit. let's take a look at this. >> i believe we can find more places to cut spending without short changing things like education, job training, research and technology. all of which are critical to prosperity in the 21st century economy. they must be reformed. >> what does the white house try to get what the president wants out of his next budget showdown? >> they have already put part of

their strategy into motion which is basically getting republicans to compromise on the tax issue. remembering in the budget battle, they got them to increase taxes on wealthier americans and think that has set a precedent for moving forward for including new revenues and spending cuts and see president obama hitting the road. taking his message in the weekly address out to the people. i'm told we will see him start to do that soon after the inauguration. alex. >> kristen welker, save travels when you head home. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> joining me is amy barnes and felisha sonez. >> good morning, girls. what are you hearing in d.c., and any other names being mentioned besides hackle. >> the white house as you mentioned is staying mum on this. not giving any suggestions of

whether this might come next week, but the earliest it could come would be monday or tuesday, because the president isn't coming back. and there are a couple of names being floated out there, former undersecretary for defense, and the current deputy defense secretary, the head of the navy. so you have a lot of names being thrown out there. members of both sides of the aisle. what's interesting here, have you chuck hagel, the former republican senator and the opposition is coming from his own party on capitol hill, if you thought that the fight over susan rice was over and that would be the last nomination battle you would see, it looks like another one could be ramping up in the in excouple of weeks. >> pick up on that there is opposition to chuck hagel from his own party and the other side of the aisle. what's it all about? >> there are gay rights advocates against him, pro

israel groups that have been launching ads against them. i have seen them all over washington lately. you will see a lot of that. but the president is very confident in senator haggle. they served together in the senate, saying that the president saying there is nothing that can stop him from getting the job. the white house is pretty intent on doing this. this comes right before -- they want to get this done before president karzai visits next week or in a few days, this will all happen relatively soon. >> let's switch gears, felisha, you write about the upcoming debt ceiling battle. the president says no compromise, but reports say speaker boehner told fellow republicans, he plans to use the debt ceiling as leverage for subpoenaing cuts. who has the upper hand when it comes to raising the debt kre ceiling? >> most observers would say the leverage is on republicans' side here. what is interesting about this

debt ceiling battle compared to the last one, have you high-ranking members taking positions pretty far away from the mainstream of what their party is saying. have you house minority leader come out at a news conference say the president should bypass congress entirely and invoke the 14th amendment to the constitution and raise the debt ceiling on his own and high-ranking republicans, john cornyn, also stated this week he thinks republicans should be prepared to push it to the point of a potential government shutdown in order to more spending cuts from the other side. one important thing to bear in mind, we have two months to get the deal done, the leeway is much less for them. the senate and the house will only be in session for two days until they come back on february 4th, and that's not a lot of time to sit down and get negotiating done. >> i want to pick up what

republican senators john cornyn said in the houston chronicle. the op-ed, it may be necessary to parnl partially shut down the government in order to secure the long-term fiscal well-being of our country, rather than plow along the path of greece, italy, and spain. making a comparison to the beleaguered countries in europe. do you think we could see a shutdown? >> i don't think so. republicans want spending cuts to happen, but newt gingrich said yesterday and a lot of other republicans will say this eventually. called it a dead loser. no one wants to see the country default. they might be pushing on something that isn't quite fair and you will hear other republicans quietly saying this. and the president, of course, will take this. very convinced that the popular opinion is behind him. so you will see him like kristen said earlier take this on the road. spin this to people, this is on the heels of the fiscal cliff.

the white house thinks the leverage is on their side. >> thank you, both. what do you think should be the top priority for the 113th congress? talk to me on twitter. my handle is @alexwitt. weather officials just canceled a tsunami warning in alaska and parts of canada. following a big earthquake, the 7.7 tremor hit at midnight local time, it created a small wave, only about 6 inches tall and landed in sparsely populated port alexander. but some may see small sea level changes. the full forecast, is coming up. the new report showing rich are getting richer and judd gregg on the debt ceiling fight. does the gop have a better plan

than they did in 2011?

already incurred. if congress refuses to give the united states government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic. >> that was president obama on the next battle ahead in washington. the fiscal cliff may have been just a warmup. but february or early march, congress will have to vote on raising the debt ceiling, and the differences are not resolved, the country could see a default on the national debt

and another potential downgrade on u.s. credit rating. joining me now, judd gregg, co-chair on the campaign to fix the debt. senator greg, thank you for joining me. >> thank you for having me on. >> it's a new year, new congress, but has some old problems, the debt mainly. what will happen this time? >> well, you know, the congress and the president made two efforts here that have been fairly substantive. the 2011 effort reduced discretionary spending by $900 billion and a tax increase of $960 billion, but the big elephant has not been addressed, entitlement spending, that's driving our debt. we're running deficits of over a trillion dollars a year, even after the tax increase, so they will have to come back and address that. i hope they can do it in an orderly way, rather than what we do in recent years. the chances that seem to be

slim, the congress and president don't seem to be able to work this out in an orderly way. my sense, ground work has been laid to get something fairly significant done. the president had a fairly big give. and put on the table in the last round, adjusting the poll to have it calculated in a more accurate way. that is a big issue on entitlement reform. i'm hopeful that he and the speaker and senator mcconnell and snok reid can get together before we hit these pressure points which will be the sequester vote, and three pressure points coming up. before we have the brinksmanship, i hope we can get some agreement on entitlement spending. he also wants more revenue which i have problems with personally.

he already got 6$600 billion. they have to be done in the context of tax reform. we fundamentally reform tax reform. >> it's interesting. i like to have you listen to what congressman newt gingrich said about the debt ceiling. here he is. >> we've got to fin in the house, a totally new strategy. for example, everyone talks about the debt ceiling. that's frankly a dead loser. in the en, it's going to happen. the whole national financial system will come into washington by television, and this will be a giant heart attack. you can't be responsible. >> do you agree with him? >> yes. yes. you can use the debt ceiling, because we've spent money we don't have. that's what it's about. we are subpoenaing money we don't have.

you can raise that to raise the topic and get the discussion going. the $930 billion of discretionary cuts that occurred already, a step forward to fiscal solvency, and now defaulting on the debt is not a legitimate option, and what the speaker is saying, you don't take a hostage you can't shoot. >> in very simplistic terms, defaulting on the debt is akin to somebody running up a credit car bill and not playing it. i know that's simplistic. but basically is it like that? yes, i guess you could describe it that way, but are you putting at risk the concept of the united states of america, which is the wealthiest country in the world and the strongest economy in the world, unwilling

to defend its currency and support its debt. and undermining the concept of the full faith and credit of the united states of america and its people. which is why our debt sells around the world and why we finance our government at such a low rate right now, and the effect of the debt would be to put that all in flux, and not only throw our system into question, as to whether or not we are responsible, but the world economy. very significant, desire straits. >> i did say very sim listic terms. >> you are right. that's a pretty good description for a person on main street. >> exactly. let's move to something else here. i want to ask pu chuck hagel. is he deeply unpopular with fiscal conservatives.

how ugly might the nomination fight get? >> well, chuck is a controversial guy, and a person marches to his own drum. and is he a really aggressive guy, who is willing to make tough calls, and many unfortunately i don't agree with when he made them. but i think -- first off, the president should have who he wants in his cabinet's position, unless the people are totally irresponsible. and he has a choice like that. he's the right president to pick this cabinet. and i think chuck will bring a refreshing view to the defense department. the defense is filled with defense speak and it would be nice to have somebody who looks beyond the box and says, listen we have to think outside the box. the defense department and the whole military establishment will go through major adjustment as we try to get control over our finances as a nation, defense will be part of the issue and so you will have some

creative thinking. we have a lot of angst on iran positions, sanctions, and on israel and, the fact that he supported president obama in 2008 against senator mccain. that's the bag he carries with him. but i think he will get confirmed, the president has a right to choose defense secretary, and chuck, for all the issues he may bring, he may also bring some strengths, he thinks outside the box. >> judd gregg, thank you. we appreciate it. office politics with al roker, who talks about his first interview with president obama and fashion advice for our own joe scarborough. here on "weekends with alex witt." [ man ] visa prepaid opened a new world for me.

♪ i have direct deposit on my visa prepaid. my paycheck is loaded right on my card. automatic. i am not going downtown standing in line to cash it. i know where my money is, because it is in my pocket. i got more time with my daughter, we got places to go. [ freeman ] go open a new world, with visa prepaid. more people go with visa. i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. wears off. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. eucerin professional repair

moisturizes while actually repairing very dry skin. the end of trial and error has arrived. try a free sample at eucerinus.com. [ male announcer ] how do you turn an entrepreneur's dream... ♪ into a scooter that talks to the cloud? ♪ or turn 30-million artifacts... ♪ into a high-tech masterpiece? ♪ whatever your business challenge, dell has the technology and services to help you solve it. at legalzoom, we've created a better place to handle your legal needs. maybe you have questions about incorporating a business you'd like to start. or questions about protecting your family with a will or living trust. and you'd like to find the right attorney to help guide you along, answer any questions and offer advice. with an "a" rating from the better business bureau legalzoom helps you get personalized and affordable legal protection. in most states, a legal plan attorney is available with

every personalized document to answer any questions. get started at legalzoom.com today. and now you're protected. because for every 2 pounds you lose through diet and exercise, alli can help you lose one more by blocking some of the fat you eat. let's fight fat with alli. ♪ if we took the already great sentra apart and completely reimagined it? ...with best-in-class combined mpg... and more interior room than corolla and civic? ...and a technology suite with bluetooth, navigation and other handy stuff? yeah, that would be cool. introducing the all-new nissan sentra. it's our most innovative sentra ever. nissan. innovation that excites.

now get a $169-per-month lease on a 2013 nissan sentra. ♪ now to the three big money headlines. slow and steady, and the rich are getting richer and blacked out. let's talk about yesterday's jobs report. it showed u.s. employers added 155,000 is new jobs, and left the unemployment rate unchanged. and the upcoming debt ceiling, deficit talks, will it affect the trend of job growth? >> i would like to say. no i would like to be hopeful and say it won't have much of an impact, given the december numbers, fiscal cliff talks in december, didn't have much of an effect on the unemployment growth. modest employment growth. i think the bigger issue is whether who replaces treasury

secretary geithner. i think that will have a big affect on stock markets and on the country's credit rating. i think it will have less of an effect on jobs initially. >> interesting. that much on tim git neareithne departure. the rich are getting richer. the richest added $241 billion to their value. where are they finding their fortunes? >> great question. three main places where we're seeing the rich getting richer. first in emerging markets. a lot of very rapid wealth creation happening. i think that's adding a lot more billionaires to these lists. the second is the fact that real estate values, especially state side, are starting toic tick up. a lot of billionaires have a lot of real estate. and all of the major stock market indexes have been up in

the past year. a trend we've been seeing and hearing about. forbes has been tracking this closely for the past year. we'll see it continue next year. we're actually getting ready to release our billionaires list in march. we'll see some newcomers this is a story that continues. >> for sure. how about the arab based al jazeera buying al gore's channel current tv. time warner dropped the channel. is it all about money? >> it is a business. al jazeera is looking to get into cable news. doing it with a reported $500 million deal with current television and looking to target 40 million american households with the deal. they have used online -- used the internet to create a base in the states. it's likely they will be cutting their online service in favor of capabl cable, time warner pulled the

plug, but other outlets are filling the gap. >> morgan brennan, thank you. we'll see you again. >> thank you. one-minute play back, joe biden in his element on capitol hill. watch him work the room as he welcomed new and old senators back to capitol hill. >> hey, mom. how are you? good to see you. i'm joe biden. guys, other than my mother this is the typest lady i've ever known. >> i've been here for 200 years. how are you, man? nice to be back. a smile that lights up the whole camera. lights up the room. [ female announcer ] over the years,

your mouth has sipped, snacked, ...yellowed... lived, loved, ...yellowed... chatted, chewed, ...yellowed. and over all those years, your teeth...have yellowed. fact is, if you're not whitening, you're yellowing. crest 3d white whitestrips remove over ten years of stains by going below the enamel surface. and, they whiten 25 times better than a leading whitening toothpaste. crest whitestrips. life opens up when you do. i'm here to unleash my inner cowboy... instead i got heartburn. [ horse neighs ] hold up partner. prilosec isn't for fast relief. try alka-seltzer. kills heartburn fast. yeehaw!

for their annual football trip. that's double miles you can actually use. tragically, their buddy got sacked by blackouts. but it's our tradition! that's roughing the card holder. but with the capital one venture card you get double miles you can actually use. [ cheering ] any flight, anytime. the scoreboard doesn't lie. what's in your wallet? hut! i have me on my fantasy team.

♪ a calm times square on this saturday morning. welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." time for a look at the day's other headlines on the fast five headlines. a gun show in stamford, connecticut, will go on as planned. and near palm coast, florida, authorities are trying to figure out what caused a small plane to crash into a home. that plane was trying to make an emergency landing yesterday when it went down. all three people on board were killed, the homeowner escaped unharmed. a pilot for american eagle was arrested for allegedly being drunk in the cockpit. officers and tsa agents noticed the smell of alcohol. he was arrested conducting preflight checks. a convict has been

recaptured. they used bed sheets as a rope to escape. the other escapee was captured two days after fleeing. and lance armstrong is thinking about publicly admitting to doping. he would do so to allow them to compete in triathlons again. those are your fast five headlines. a new read on what americans think of the fiscal cliff deal hammered out earlier this week. 43% of americans approve of the deal. 43% disapprove. among self-described conservatives, 28% approve. 62% adisapprove. liberals, the numbers flip. now in terms of how the president handled the talks, 46% approve. 48% disapprove. and 48there is a potentially

bigger test over the debt ceiling. it could get ugly. president obama has vowed not to debate the debt ceiling, and boehner says he won't negotiate one-on-one with the president again. that doesn't sound promising. joining us is john yarmouth of kentucky. nice to see you again. >> good to see you, alex. >> is the nation looking at yet another 11th hour and 59 minute nightmare coming at the end of february for raising the debt ceiling? >> well, i suspect we are. and it's very unfortunate. one of the things that is mind boggling to me, many of the republicans who are talking about this debt ceiling and not raising the debt ceiling are so disingenuous, because last year, they all voted with the exception of ten republicans in the house, voted for the paul ryan budget which raises the national debt by 3 trillion over the next ten years, you can't be for a budget that raises the

debt by 3 trillion and then say you don't want to raise the debt ceiling. you can't make those match. >> what's going on? you make a very good point. what's the ideology behind those folks? >> well, it is ideology, but also just -- essentially extortion. what they are trying to do, and been trying to do this, use the debt ceiling or basically black mail leverage they have to strip the social safety net in the country, to privatize social security, privatize medicaid, medica medicare. ith not about fiscal sanity. we can reach fiscal sanity. we have been working very well toward that. but this is all about ideology and philosophy. >> you called speaker boehner courageous for sending the fiscal cliff bill to the floor. you know speaker boehner saw

republican defections in the speaker vote this week, he has favored heavy criticism from tea partiers and others. do you suspect similar courage from boehner in the weeks ahead? >> i think he wants to be krajuous. it's really horrible when an example of bipartisanship causes such consternation in one party. boehner was able to take on the most conservative elements to reach a deal best for the country. the polling showed nobody was totally ecstatic about the deal. that's the essence of compromise, when nobody is totally happy. mitch mcconnell and i voted the same way. that doesn't happen very often. >> on wednesday's "morning joe," p pat tume left little doubt where he thinks it's headed.

>> the president has made it very clear. he doesn't want to have a discussion about it. he knows this is where we have leverage. we republicans need to tolerate a temporary partial government shutdown which is what that could mean, and insist we get off the road to greece. >> okay two points here. do you think republicans have some sort of leverage? do you think that the possibility of a temporary government shutdown is likely? >> i really don't think it's likely. i do think they have more leverage than they did before this deal. and there is leverage on the other side. the sequester has not gone away those across the board cuts have been delayed for two months, so if we don't act, across the board cuts go into effect and they are equally split between defense and domestic spending, the conservatives who think they have leverage, the last thing they want is a cut in defense spending that he is veer. so there is a little lev rage on both sides and that's a good

thing. >> can you even foresee there not being a link between raising the debt ceiling and spending cuts? >> well, no. i think there has to be a link -- i think they both need to be done. raise the debt ceiling and actually plan some cuts, but i don't think we should do the kind of cutting that's anticipated in the sequester or mandated in the sequester. we have a fragile economy, it's recovering, putting 100 billion or $200 billion cut into effect right now, taking that money out of economy, would not be a good thing. i think we can back load some cuts to the later part of the budget window and have an affect. i want to say one thing. all of this talk about greece. i think anybody who brings up greece, comparing it to the united states economy, has no business talking about the economy. they don't know what they are talking about. comparing greece's economy to the united states, their army to

ours. there is no comparison. we're a sovereign, currency nation. we can control so many things that the greek government can't. so we just ought to forget that kind of talk. and we're the strongest economy in the world and we have many more options than other nations in the country. >> glad to hear you say it. we look forward to hearing you from again. nancy pelosi is defending the use of photo shop magic on all of the women in the house democratic caucus. four congresswomen didn't show up. the picture was taken without them like so. but on pelosi's facebook and flicker pages, you see this photo of the same event which includes the four absent women, there at the top. ms. pelosi says it's an accurate historical record and the group couldn't wait for the others, because it was so cold and they didn't have time to wait for them. in this week's office politics, we talk with nbc's al

roker, weather man extraordinaire. but he has more going on than his "today" show gig. he was the first to give newly re-elected president obama giving a shutout. and you can see him hosting his own show on the weather channel before he does the weather in studio 1-a. >> i think it just is -- it's -- it shows the systemic paralysis that's infected washington. i mean, the idea you can't pass a bill for superstorm sandy or you finally -- you only pass an extension of the farm bill. these are things that are not partisan. or should not be. you still look back to the gold old days of the '80s, when you had a ronald reagan, tip o'neil,

and people who could -- even though they had philosophically different, could find a lot of common ground. >> let's talk about this president. because aren't you the guy who got the very first interview with the president in the inaugural parade? you take off your hat. hey, come over here. >> i don't know that it was an interview as much as it's cold. you know, the president giving a two or three-word forecast don't know that qualifies as an interview, but comment. that was kind of neat. >> people remember that. what in the world possessed you to do that? >> it was either that or drop my pants. and i don't think -- and the secret service swarm you and -- that's not good. not good. >> you already start very early in the morning, and back in '09, you decided to add an extra hour of air time to "wake up with al" on the weather channel. >> now 90 minutes. we start at 5:30. you know, when n bnch krnbc ent

partnership to run with the weather channel, it was a natural fit. and i didn't want to extend my day on the other end, so i thought, well, you know. >> what's a few hours less sleep? >> the fact is, i was already up, i just now am actually up and wearing pants. so it's -- you know, what is good, in a way it jump starts my morning. by the time i hit the "today" show at 7:00, i have been doing 90 minutes of weather. i know my weather back and forth. and stephanie abrams is terrific. >> she is so fun. i'm proud of being the news element of that three days a week. people see me on the weekends on msnbc. and they said, wait a minute, we

see you at the weather channel on some crazy hour and they ask me what it's like. i love waking up with al. it's fun. >> it's a fun show. we have a good time. when the weather is serious, we're serious, but not always doom and gloom, so you kind of enjoy yourself. and we kind of thing think ourselves of the weather version of "today" show or "way too early" or "morning joe," difference of "morning joe," we're wearing clothing. what's with joe scarborough and the fleeces. why not wear a leisure suit? i have a big head. i mean, joe scarborough, it's almost like he is a brainiac, the superman character with the big head. like mega mind. >> oh, wow. >> huge melon. put a little hat on top. >> joe will tell you he's full of brains. >> full of something. >> we love you, joe. no worries. more of our conversation at

12:00 noon when al talks about the valuable advice he got from willard scott before he took over broadcasting the weather for today, and he gives us his perspective on global warming. president obama making full use of social media especially twitter, the white house has sent more than 3,000 tweets last year, and that's first among world leaders in the twitter universe. the latest tweets, the year in photos. the president and first lady embracing after news of his re-election. and this, president's remarks to the nation and this photo of president obama, elbow bumping a couple of government workers after speaking about the fiscal cliff negotiations. plenty more photos from 2012. that's for sure. [ female announcer ] with swiffer dusters, a great clean doesn't have to take longer. i'm done.

i'm gonna read one of these. i'm gonna read one of these! [ female announcer ] unlike sprays and dust rags, swiffer 360 duster's extender gets into hard-to-reach places without the hassle. so you can get unbelievable dust pickup in less time without missing a thing. i love that book. can you believe the twin did it? ♪ swiffer. great clean in less time. or your money back.

but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. with snapshot, i knew what i could save before i switched to progressive. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. you're not filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today.

♪ yay, a look at the tree. not going to be around much longer. time for your saturday forecast. here is a live look at new york's times square. some parts of country will see snow. others mate see rain. dylan dreyer is here with more. good morning, dylan. >> good morning. finally not talking about a whole lot of weather across the country. now that the holiday travel season is over, we can actually handle it a little more. but really going to be just quiet weather, quiet temperatures really nothing too hot or too cold across the country. 14 in minneapolis, a little bit of a chilly start. precipitation, mostly in the form of rain and it's down in the gulf coast states, an area that really has been dealing with a few storms down that way. louisiana and arkansas, the area that will pick up most of the rain, you can see the darker shades of green, indicating pockets of downpours, up through

shreveport. really the southeast today and tomorrow that will be dealing with most of the rain, less than average in those areas across louisiana. moving to mississippi and alabama. arkansas will see a little bit of rain, but it should be much less than average. unless are you stuck in heavier pockets of rain. rainshowers move onshore from seattle to san francisco. not a huge storm out that way. chicago, less than an inch expected. the rest of the country, minus florida, fairly try on sunday. down in orlando, we will see scattered showers and storms. temperatures look good. highs topping out around 80. alex. >> thank you so much, dylan dreyer. chelsea clinton described as a potential political powerhouse. not holding any office yet. but will she? you're watching "weekends with alex witt." ke aleve,

the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news. if we took the already great sentra apart and completely reimagined it? ...with best-in-class combined mpg... and more interior room than corolla and civic? ...and a technology suite with bluetooth, navigation and other handy stuff? yeah, that would be cool. introducing the all-new nissan sentra. it's our most innovative sentra ever. nissan. innovation that excites. now get a $169-per-month lease on a 2013 nissan sentra. ♪ >> announcer: did you know there are secret black market websites around the world that sell stolen identities? >> 30-year-old american man, excellent credit rating. >> announcer: lifelock monitors thousands of these sites 24 hours a day. and if we discover any of our members' data for sale, lifelock is there with the most comprehensive identity theft protection available. [♪...]

[squealing, crash] call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today. [ male announcer ] what are happy kids made of? bikes and balloons, wholesome noodles on spoons. a kite, a breeze, a dunk of grilled cheese. catches and throws, and spaghettio's. that's what happy kids are made of. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

right now, secretary of

state hillary clinton is prepare fog return to work next week, following her health scare, but in the coming weeks she will exit the political stage at least for a while. the move would leave the country without a clinton in office for the first time in more than two decades. politico is saying not so fast. here with the story on chelsea clinton's next act. here's james helms. good morning. >> glad to be with you. >> hilly, laryhillary, in term family, we saw chelsea speaking for the family. she may plays a surrogate in the race, what future do you see for chelsea? >> she's going to be the key clinton who's out there in 2013. hillary is not only getting over this health scare, but she deserves some rest. she's been doing this for a long time. she's planning on probably writing a book.

and she's going to have a much lower profile so there will be more onus on chelsea to be out there dealing with key constituencies that would support a clinton candidacy in 2016. and all of us will be paying a lot more attention to chelsea in 2014 to get a sense of where the family is likely towards a presidential run in 2016. >> we're watching chelsea. she's a cool cucumber, she'll give nothing away. anyway, former ohio governor ted strickland was quoted as saying, i think she could be a powerhouse. she has just in my judgment grown up into a person of considerable skill and competence. do you see that in washington, or do you see that as the little girl who grew up in the white house? i mean, she is 32 years old now. >> she's 32, she's so much more

self-assured than she was during the 2008 campaign. and in washington, there are a lot of clinton people. people who were never really closely identified with obama. a lot of democrats who don't necessarily love president obama and now see him in the early stages as being the lame duck. and they still love the clintons. and they have every desire for clintons to be around as long as possible. >> yeah. i have to say, i had the privilege of servie ine ing wit chelsea on an m.i.t. event in the fall. we co-chaired an event together. wow, so supersmart. she's benefited from that education. helping to pass marriage quality. helping in the sandy aid. do you think she's prepare for her own candidacy in the future? >> i don't think she wants to run at this point.

she seems very happy being the kind of family surrogate, being really out there, being up front. everything she's done have been her deliberate and strategic. issues that everyone should be able to get around. not superpartisan. the gay marriage issue might be the exception. in past interviews she's not been shermanesque in rule ought a candidacy. with the clintons, you always have to say never say never. >> about 18 months ago, private chelsea made this choice it was an interview with "o" magazine in which she said, historically, i deliberately try to lead a public life in the public eye. i am now trying to lead a purposefully public life. so what are the kinds of changes we see that is making her doing that? >> i think that now she's in her 30s. she's married she has her hands in a lot of different things. and you've seen some steps that she's taken.

she's been pretty active with sandy relief aid. she's been photographed delivering relief packages to different areas that have been hit hard. she's been stepping up her profile on social media. she'd never been on facebook or twitter. and now, she's actually tweeting quite regularly. it's worth following her had #chelseaclinton. and tweets pictures of her mom. and with that, it is fitting with that purposefully fitting decision. she's sharing more. even though clinton haters give the clintons a lot of credit for shelter egg her and protecting her when she was in the white house. >> yeah. >> remember, when her mom ran in 2000, she was still a teenager. >> they did a good job of sheltering her. james, fun chatting with you. that's a wrap-up of "weekends with alex witt." straight ahead, more smart political walk with "up with

chris hayes" and melissa harris perry to come here. crest whitestrips remove over 10 years of stains, just in time for a white holiday. crest 3d white whitestrips. ♪ i have direct deposit on my visa prepaid. my paycheck is loaded right on my card. automatic. i am not going downtown standing in line to cash it. i know where my money is, because it is in my pocket. i got more time with my daughter, we got places to go. [ freeman ] go open a new world, with visa prepaid. more people go with visa.

i wish my patients could see what i see. ♪ that over time, having high cholesterol and any of these risk factors can put them at increased risk for plaque buildup in their arteries. so it's even more important to lower their cholesterol, and that's why, when diet and exercise alone aren't enough, i prescribe crestor. in a clinical trial versus lipitor, crestor got more high-risk patients' bad cholesterol to a goal of under 100. [ female announcer ] crestor is not right for everyone. like people with liver disease or women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. tell your doctor about other medicines you're taking. call your doctor right away if you have muscle pain or weakness, feel unusually tired, have loss of appetite, upper belly pain, dark urine or yellowing of skin or eyes.

these could be signs of rare but serious side effects. ♪ is your cholesterol at goal? talk to your doctor about crestor. [ female announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. [ female announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, ♪ ♪ we're lucky, it's not every day you find a companion as loyal as a subaru. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. i've always kept my eye on her... but with so much health care noise, i didn't always watch out for myself. with unitedhealthcare, i get personalized information and rewards for addressing my health risks. but she's still going to give me a heart attack. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

♪ good morning from new york. i'm chris hayes. venezuela's vice president says hugo chavez will be able to begin his next temple as president on thursday even if he's too ill to attend the swearing-in ceremonies. and centers for disease control says the flu outbreak in the united states has started early. it's widespread reaching 41 states and causing the deaths of 18 children. lessons from the cliff. this week, the president signed the american tax relief act which restores clinton era rates, extends unemployment insurance for a year and postpones massive budget cuts for two months setting up yet another countdown for yet another induced crisis.

here i think are the big lessons from the latest budgetary standoff between the white house and congressional republicans. lesson number one, the so-called fiscal cliff was not a cliff. we intentionally avoided the phrase here fiscal cliff on "up with chris hayes" because it gave the definition for what it meant for a policy. you can't be a little off a cliff or kind of off. you're definitely off. the idea embedded in the metaphor if the president and congress didn't come to an agreement between midnight december 31st, they would fall off the cliff and or they would stay suspended wylie coyote-like. in other words, the deadline wasn't a real deadline and blowing through it didn't matter. since that was the case it was incredibly unbelievable why it had to be passed through the 112th congress rather th