but, but, but, you protest, the sequester cuts already happened and the only thing we have to show for it are more budget crises on the horizon. calm down, let me explain. the whole concept was to create a forcing mechanism for a grand bargain. by the way, in addition to renaming the sequester we really ought to rename the grand bargain. big "f"'ing deal maybe? number one, the president invited 12 senate republicans to dinner. number two, those senate republicans accepted. >> whoa. >> number three, and this is the most shocking of all, the republicans actually said nice things about the dinner rather than bashing the president as campaigner in chief leading from behind, not serious, et cetera, et cetera. it's like a sequester miracle. look, i know, it's still early days but i think maybe, just maybe, the sequester really did set up the conditions for some sort of a big "f"'ing deal by

making both sides uncomfortable. democrats are uncomfortable with the size of the cuts overall in the sense that they are running out the clock. republicans are uncomfortable with the size of the cuts to the defense department, particularly those republicans in defense-heavy districts and are actually kind of ready to move beyond just being the party of no forcing budget crisis after crisis. maybe they're ready to become the party of no pre-k. i know it's a little early to say but it's possible washington has made a policy so dumb even they can't stand it. next thing you know, john boehner will be praising the president as a hawaii-born patriotic christian american who loves capitalism and is a partner in fiscal discipline and the president will be praising boehner as one of the greatest speakers in history, channeling

tea party nihilism into productive, i will be on "dancing with the stars." that does it for the cycle. martin, it's all yours. >> great "f"'ing work, krystal. it's thursday, march 7th, and after all that, john brennan was just confirmed as the new head of the cia. so what won? rand paul or john mccain? ♪ who are you, who, who, who >> if you're sitting in a cafe and somebody thinks you e-mailed your cousin in the middle east -- >> to say we would hit them in a cafe with a hell fire missile. president obama started this. president obama is expanding this. >> as much as i disagree with president obama, i think you have been responsible in the use of the drone program. >> no one will ever forget jane fonda. >> the use of jane fonda's name

does evoke certain memories with me. >> that's one thing if you want to try her for treason, but are you going to just drop a drone hell fire missile on jane fonda. >> to somehow allege or infer that the president of the united states is going to kill somebody like jane fonda is, frankly, ridiculous. >> there are some limits to filibustering, and i'm going to have to go take care of one of those in a few minutes here. ♪ i really want to know ♪ who are you, who, who, who ♪ who are you, who, who, who >> it is a very busy day in washington. john brennan, as i just said, has been confirmed to be the next head of the cia. the final vote was 63-34. just moments ago, this after the nomination sparked a volatile political battle. it began with senator rand paul staging an old-style filibuster, talk until you drop, delaying the brennan vote.

mr. paul ranted and railed against the use of lethal drone strikes starting late wednesday morning. >> i will speak until i can no longer speak. i will speak as long as it takes until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast. that our constitution is important. that your rights to trial by jury are precious. that no american should be killed by a drone on american soil without first being charged with a crime. >> after several hours on his own, paul and his vocal cords got some support from fellow members, but largely from his fellow tea party upstarts. >> let me begin by quoting a modern day poet. his name is wiz khalifa. he has a song called "work hard, play hard." >> everything you have heard about america not wanting to

fight is a lot of horse dung. >> that takes me back to another modern day poet by the name of jay-z. >> paul drew sustenance from candy bars and reports of a raging twitter following as he took his argument on some strange diversions. >> no one will ever forget jane fonda swiveling around in north vietnamese armored guns and it was despicable. it's one thing if you want to try her for treason, but are you just going to drop a drone hell fire missile on jane fonda. >> as paul yielded just before 1:00 a.m. suggesting he needed a bathroom break, one could note the absence of senior defense-minded senators like john mccain and lindsey graham, in the pitter patter of applause. and today we got an earful of why. >> but somehow to allege that the united states of america, our government, would drop a drone hell fire missile on jane

fonda, that is -- that brings the conversation from a serious discussion about u.s. policy to the realm of the ridiculous. >> and when john mccain wasn't placing him in the realm of the ridiculous, lindsey graham offered his fellow republicans a tour of the hinterlands of hypocrisy. >> to my republican colleagues, i don't remember any of you coming down here suggesting that president bush was going to kill anybody with a drone. so what is it? all of a sudden that this drone program has gotten every republican so spun up. what are we up to here? >> a very interesting question, senator graham. very interesting indeed. let's get right to our panel now. here with me in new york is msnbc contributor ari melber, a correspondent for "the nation." and in washington msnbc political analyst david corn of "mother jones" magazine.

ari, let's talk about the theatrics because rand paul spent 13 hours saying he wasn't doubting the president's motives and so on. he was simply asking the president if he would kill innocent citizens on american soil. is it really necessary for the president to answer a question like that or is the question not obvious? is that not a rhetorical question? >> it's not obvious and it's not rhetorical. in fact, this administration on the issue of drones, has not only refrained from answering that but argued as recently as eight months ago in federal court that the existence of the drone program itself is classified in the aclu freedom of information lawsuit. they've moved a long way. you don't have to like rand paul or his tactics to see we have an administration that's gone from saying of this program may not exist which is an insulting claim, but now getting into some of the details of the littletations. >> and aren't gibbs has disclosed he was unable to talk about it and he's explained that

that was a ridiculous position. the president in the state of the union address said he was going to introduce greater transparency in relation to this matter. >> and the letter today while short and in some ways perhaps poe lemcle in the way it engaged the question is actually i think a step. and it's not only rand paul. i brought ron widen's letter, being a liberal democrat who is not known for filibustering obama's agenda, but he has several outstanding questions. for two years he was asking for those legal opinions which have been selectively released. for over a year he was asking for a list of countries where the drone program does operate. has not received that. he said taken together, i'm reading from senator wyden, these failures to respond start to form a pattern in which the congressional branch is evading. that's a serious charge from a liberal democrat with impeccable civil liberties credentials from

the last administration through this one. so you can leave rand paul on the side of the road with alice in wonderland and still see there's really important oversight functions here. >> david, the administration has responded with a letter from attorney general holder to rand paul. i'm quoting, it has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question. does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an american not engaged in combat on american soil. the answer to that question is no. senator rand paul released a statement saying he's satisfied and will end his opposition to brennan. the vote has just gone through. i guess that's the end of that tap dance, isn't it? >> that was one of the shortest letters i have ever seen from an attorney general. i think it had a silent fu in it somewhere. i have to slightly disagree with my good friend ari melber because i think it's really important here to separate out what we need to care about regarding drones and what we don't need to care about. rand paul has taken a crazy

black helicopter conspiratorial view to the issue of drone policy. just a couple days ago attorney general holder said that this isn't an issue unless we're in extraordinary circumstances and he cited two examples, 9/11 and pearl harbor. the issue of the president using a drone to take out a critic like jane fonda, an american on american soil, is a nonissue. what the administration is doing in terms of its policy using drones overseas, foreign policy sense and also when they've targeted americans, is a real issue and there are memos about that that ron wiwide wyden and others have been asking for. i don't think the administration had a case to hold them back. they have allowed members of the senate intelligence committee and importantly their staff to review those things. what rand paul did yesterday was sort of to mix us up.

we have the alex jones view of the world leading the way in terms of the argument on drones. >> it was ludicrous to set up this notion of jane fonda sitting in a cafe in houston and being targeted by a missile. >> here is the problem. these memoranda and this legal process always works with hypotheticals. the administration had a long time where they could have ruled out this potential power as used against americans or noncombatants off the traditional battlefield they didn't do it. you can say rand paul sounds silly but the administration carries in this oversight interplay some of the burden and the brunt as well. and i have, again, a list of specific questions regarding the president's authority to use lethal force against americans. several questions, some of them unanswered -- not only overseas -- >> not only overseas. >> as a legal matter it goes back to the 2001 authorization of force for people who care.

the democrats at the time actually pushed against having language that would have authorized that force explicitly and expressly which is significant under the constitution here in the united states and yet administrations and presidents tend to do this regardless of their party, have tried to swell that power. just to finish the point though, many of the questions that senator wyden submitted relate to the same idea over the due process rights of americans and many people, including al awlaki were not on the afghanistan battlefield -- >> you're now in dinger of filibustering. >> that includes teenagers. these are not to me far-fetched questions. >> david, despite his 13 hours of fame, the establishment gop did its best to isolate him today. let's hear a little more of senator lindsey graham. >> he's a man to himself. you got to remember, senator paul was the one senator who voted against a resolution that said the policy of the united states will not be to contain a nuclear capable iran.

>> david, is this a sign of old gop versus newer guard of the gop? >> no. actually it's not. there's always been a split on the conservative movement within the republican party between interventionist republicans, neocons, and those who are isolationists. whether it's patrick buchanan or rand paul and others, some of whom have raised fourth amendment issues when it comes to things domestically. and this -- we've just never had these guys get the platform the way rand paul has seized it. and i think it makes john mccain and lindsey graham quite nervous because rand paul is, indeed, appealing to some tea party types, libertarian types, noninterventionist conservatives, as well as the wacky black helicopter types who fueled the militia movement back in the '90s, and they want to try to keep him in check i think for both political reasons and for some legitimate policy reasons because they want to

keep the republican party squarely on their side when it comes to intervention and these issues that the neocons have been pressing over the last decade. it's a very interesting fight to watch. it's happened in journals and newspaper columns for years, but now we see it on the floor of the senate because kentuckians elected rand paul. >> yeah, and, look, david is right there are these issues, but having worked on many of these civil liberties issues for many years and watched the way anti-war protesters and civil libertarians were treated during the bush era, i am very uncomfortable with taking any question and treating it as a basis for marginalization. rand paul is not, to my mind, an ideal senator and i have a long record of explaining why. i don't think he's right about a lot of things but we have to be careful when someone goes up against the power of the united states government to detain and execute. one of the most fundamental powers the government exercises and someone asks the tough questions and gets hammer in the media and their own party. we have to be careful about marginalizing the premise of the

question even if rand paul is a flawed messenger. i know i don't have time -- >> i told you you don't have time three times. you're not listen to me. >> the last thing is there's an obligation on this administration to take what it said publicly and harmonize it with these lawsuits. this is not a state secret and they need to update that and they need to be accurate. >> absolutely. ari melber, david corn db. >> i can agree with that but i don't mind marginalizing rand paul. we need a serious discussion about this not what he brought us. >> you're both in trouble. thank you. next, the president pays for dinner and invites paul ryan over for lunch but will his new outreach with republicans really work? stay with us. >> there is a huge, huge disparity now, and this is a very stark contrast between the tea party, grassroots conservatives, taking it to the floor, taking it to obama, and the old guard, the mashed potatoes. do we have a mower? no. a trimmer? no.

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call it diplomacy by dining or perhaps compromise by consumption and just a short while ago the president wrapped up a diplomatic lunch with his former 2012 opponent paul ryan. this followed a more elegant meal wednesday night with 12 republican senators, many like john mccain and lindsey graham who are often critics of the president. and judging by the jovial tone of senator mccain, seemed to go quite well. >> how did the meeting go? >> terrible, terrible, a disaster. >> senator, how did the meeting go? >> just fine. fine. great, wonderful. >> yet, this is still washington politics and while a good drink can turn the night civil, particularly when the president is willing to pick up the check,

the question of whether this form of outreach works is still up for question. joining us now, karen finney, a former communications director for the dnc and jared bernstein, former economic adviser to the vice president. karen, jay carney has just said the president has engaged consistently with congress in numerous ways from telephone conversations to meetings in the oval office. so why this? because john boehner reiterated today no more talk of taxes. ja let's be honest. i'm a big supporter of president obama but one of the criticisms i think is fair is that over certainly the course of the first term, he probably could have done more. i certainly believe the republicans could have done more as well, but there needed to have been more of this kind of interaction because i think when you know where someone is coming from, it is a lot harder even if you disagree with them to go out and simply demonize them. i think it does shift the tone at least of the conversation. i think people forget how

personal these things can get. i mean, at the end of the day, a lot of the stuff that we see playing itself out in front of the cameras and on screen, various screens, is he didn't call me back, i didn't get invited to this event. there's a lot of personal stuff that goes on back here. >> absolutely. jared, an unnamed senator told my colleague chuck todd that last night was first time he'd heard that the president had proposed major cuts. and for our viewers let me show what that means. there's just over 200 pages of detail from the omb on the president's cuts for 2013. there's even a handy one sheet for anyone too busy. why is this the first time they're hearing this? and does this not suggest bill o'reilly is about as knowledgeable as some house republicans when it comes to what the president is proposing. >> that's a scary proposition. >> but it's true. >> i understand it's true. there's no good answer to how

can republican policymakers be so uninformed? that the president has not only consistently talked about the cuts he's offered, but he's even said, look, i'm willing to go outside of democrats' comfort zones, and he said this many times. so, look, people hear what they want to hear. i have often been discouraged when you poll the public on what they know about this sort of thing, but frankly the public is really busy kind of trying to get by. when you're a policymaker who is paid a lot of money to know even the most basic facts, it's really political malpractice and it helps explain why we're so stuck. >> you know, martin, if anything, i think it actually speaks to the level of partisanship we've seen in this town. if you go into a meeting with your caucus and you are told the president is coming up here to talk about the affordable care act, we are against it no matter what he says, no matter what you see, no matter what you hear, well, of course you're not going to read the actual document, right? of course you're going to go

with the talking points that you're given and not necessarily say, wait a second, why don't i read this for myself and see -- >> i'll tell you something else, i'll bet you a lot of people who are saying, gee, i don't know that, actually did know that but it was inconvenient for them to admit it at the time. once they've sat down in front of the camera and had the president say here are my cuts. they cant they can't really maintain that anymore. >> what happens next week when paul ryan says here is my third budget balanced on the backs of the poor. what then? >> that's really the problem. in other words, and i think you said this in your introduction, there's no sign that either side is budging in terms of the democrats and the white house insisting on balanced deal going forward. republicans, of course, only spending cuts. the ryan budget, we haven't seen it yet but he expect it to be a

whole lot like his last one and just as you said, the majority of the cuts come from low income programs. there are no revenue increases, of course, and, in fact, and this is probably underappreciated. i think what we're going to see is not that the sequestration will be canceled, but that any of the defense cuts in the sequestration will be canceled and they'll all be loaded on the nondefense discretionary. meaning the things that affect people who really need government support right now. >> welcome to paul ryan's world. jared bernstein and karen finney, thank you so much. coming up, hillary can, at least according to some new polling. stay with us. we've all had those moments. when you lost the thing you can't believe you lost. when what you just bought, just broke. or when you have a little trouble a long way from home... as an american express cardmember you can expect some help. but what you might not expect,

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but phillips' caplets don't. they have magnesium. for effective relief of occasional constipation. thanks. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. for weeks now the most talked about woman in arizona has not been governor jan brewer but a woman by the name of jodi arias. standing trial for allegedly murdering her boyfriend. you'd be forgiven if you've been tempted to switch over and watch

the nonstop coverage with its potent mix of sex and violence too lurid for children but apparently perfect for some consenting adults. now, having covered several scandalous trials and interviewed several criminal minds myself, let me say this. the trial of jodi arias certainly has all the elements for a compelling courtroom drama. a boyfriend found stabbed, slashed, shot, and then stuffed into a shower. a murder suspect with the look of a librarian but the alleged behavior of a nymphomaniac. with that brief synonym sis and with closing arguments nearby, let's go to our correspondent katie tur. i know the judge completed asking questions of miss arias as provided by the jury. what can you tell us about today's proceedings? >> reporter: today was much like yesterday. she's been on the stand for 17 days and the past two days she's faced questions from the jury. over 150 questions. they were submitted in writing to the judge and the judge asked them of mrs. arias herself.

a wide range of topics, everything from her more monism. she converted for mr. alexander. also her memory loss. also bruises she claimed she was abused by alexander. yet she never took any photos or has any evidence of the bruises on her body, yet she took photos of pretty much everything else in her life. today there was a really interesting question from one of the jurors. he asked why she would -- why should they believe her when she's lied so many times in the past. she says she was ashamed initially and she wanted to protect travis alexander's reputation. >> what a relief to have a question about something other than her sexual activities. do you have any idea of when we should expect the jury to begin deliberations on a verdict? >> reporter: there's a long way to go. there's still a lot of testimony left. the defense has to call all of their expert witnesses. she's been on the stand for 17 days. the defense hasn't rested.

the prosecution still has their closing argument. the betting on the street here is that it could go well through april. >> nbc's katy tur. thank you very much. stay with us. the day's "top lines" are coming up. [ male announcer ] this is kevin. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i've got to take more pills. ♪ yup. another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. ♪ [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap.

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pine, and corn. from dinner at the jefferson at o'reilly unhinged again to standing with rand. here are today's "top lines." bathroom break. >> congress, where you rarely see so many things going nowhere so noisily outside of a nascar race. >> the president asked i get together a group i was honored. >> at least give president obama at least a little bit of credit. >> he takes that olive branch and beats them over the head with it. >> i'm shocked you're doubling down. >> you're 100% wrong. >> you are 100% wrong. >> i'm 23409 going to minutes words. i hope that hugo chavez is

rotting in hell. >> today the snowquester. tomorrow drone-sicle. >> that's pretty darn cool. >> another modern day poet by the name of jay-z. >> you're jay-z. >> can the president use a drone to take out an american citizen on u.s. soil? >> i would not think that in that situation the use of a drone or lethal force would be appropriate. >> you'd think. no way. >> but they shouldn't just drop a hell fire missile on your cafe experience. >> flash flood al awlaki is sitting in a washington restaurant and he turns up inform disguise, i want my president to have the ability to do that. >> you're going to drop a hellfire missile on jane fan da? >> that brings the conversation to the realm of the ridiculous.

>> president bush started this. president obama is expanding this. >> to my republican colleagues, i don't remember any of you coming down here suggesting that president bush was going to kill anybody with a drone. >> i have discovered there are some limits to filibustering, and i'm going to have to go take care of one of those in a few minutes here. >> let's get right to our panel. joining us is political strategist angela rye, principal of impact strategies and msnbc contributor joy reid managing editor of thegrio.com. the search is on for the republican party's next top model and we have a new poll out today giving us an early look at the party's 2016 favorites and with hypothetical match-ups against hillary clinton. so we have chris christie who loses by the smallest margin, 45% to 37%. mrs. clinton's lead grows larger up against the great paul ryan who would lose 50% to 38% and marco rubio would fall short by a margin of 50% to 34%. so i guess the moral of the r

lesson is the more popular you are at cpac the less popular you are. >> saying a lot of hip-hop artist names, not the best strategy. >> what do you think is behind that? >> i think he's trying to be cool. and before -- >> it's like watching your granddad at a disco. >> exactly. before he kept dating himself by only mentioning hip-hop artists from the '90s. at least he's mentioning modern day artists but it's annoying. >> i agree with that. angela, we mentioned the big gathering at cpac next week. one of the speakers going in there is senator rand paul of kentucky. perhaps that's why chris cillizza writes in "the washington post" today that, quote, no one should understatement rand paul's ability to have a major impact on the 2016 race. do you think that's still true, angela, after the tongue lashing he just received from john mccain and lindsey graham? >> it was quite a lashing,

martin. i don't think that it's true of that he has the wind at his sails. i do think he's very desperate for attention. we saw a little bit of this when senator -- rather secretary clinton at the time was testifying before the senate hearing and rand paul told her that he had been the president of the united states, he would have fired her. and now his latest grandstanding is this filibuster stunned last night where, you know, i said repeatedly even on twitter, martin, listen, you know, john brennan is still going to be confirmed as the cia director and so what is the point of this really? >> angela, rand paul said john brennan was going to be confirmed. >> he sure did. he sure did. >> that's true. joy, the poll that's out today doesn't include a theoretical match-up between mrs. clinton and jeb bush but there's an earlier poll that does. it shows mrs. clinton would beat the former florida governor but only by 49% to 43%. but after mr. bush's performance

on immigration this week, that may, of course, widen. but also isn't the biggest problem here four letter letter b-u-s-h. >> i think jeb bush has always wanted to run. and he's been waiting for the sting of the bush name to wear off. rand paul representing the anti-bush wing of the republican party. the party that's weary of war, wary of this idea of interventionism. and he represents the wick of the party that was willing to cut defense if it meant cutting spending because that is the most important thing. in a lot of ways rand paul represents the sort of renegade piece of the party that is growing and that is still strong whereas the jeb bush wing of the party is more establishment and is having a hard time controlling the rand paul people. i would love to see a primary between these guys. i think rand paul and jeb bush,

epic primary battle and i'm looking forward to it. >> let's switch to the ghost of elections future to the ghosts of elections past. we have had more news of mitt romney this week. it seems his commitment to public service is so impressive he's going back to private sector and taking a job at his son's private equity firm. can you explain that? i thought he loved the country and wanted to serve. >> maybe he got a little frustrated with his inability now to be in a position to fire big bird so he's back to just firing the rest of the 47%, martin. >> this is a guy who already has assets, angela, of over $300 million. he doesn't even need to go back and work. why doesn't he do something substantive in the form of service? >> because this is what he knows best. mitt romney has demonstrated that he knows the private sector. he's well-liked by the private sector and again even when you look at this quinnipiac poll results that we just talked about, the democrats are overwhelmingly beating all of the republican candidates, folks that are in the vein of mitt rom

and otherwise. he's going to do what he knows best true to form. >> joy, don't you think mitt romney's performance post-election has exposed him for who he is? you'll remember that towards the end he accused the president of selling jeep to china and then ten minutes later he buys an audi made in slovakia owned by a german company. then he says he loves the country, he wants to serve. it kills him he can't serve the nation but now he's going back to private he can quequity. he's a con man. >> and he's just odd. the fact he's coming out when the republicans are say, no, please, never talk again. and then going to work for your son. how odd is it to give your dad a job? i find the whole thing very odd, and i don't really know what he's getting out of it. what mitt romney wants. does he want a public role of some kind? i'm not sure. going back and working for private equity, which is not the most popular form of business doesn't seem to be the way to

get a future role for yourself. i don't get it. i don't get the whole romney family. >> maybe he's giving new meaning to the phrase, you did build that. >> indeed. >> angela rye and joy reid, thank you so much. coming up, a little more than two months since sandy hook, and the nra could be winning the day. stay with us. >> you will remember i told this story about how she had marched in the inauguration parade and just a few weeks later had been gunned down about a mile away from my house. so i urge the senate to give that bill a vote. i urge the house to follow suit, and i urge congress to move on other areas that have support of the american people. [ coughs ] [ angry gibberish ] [ justin ] mulligan sir. mulligan. take a mulligan. i took something for my sinuses, but i still have this cough. [ male announcer ] truth is, a lot of sinus products don't treat cough. they don't? [ male announcer ] nope, but alka seltzer plus severe sinus does it treats your worst sinus symptoms, plus that annoying cough.

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white house. it comes on the heels of a dinner posted by the president at the jefferson hotel in washington where another group of congressional politicians were able to chew the cud with the president. something the house speaker has welcomed. >> after being in office now for four years, he's actually going to sit down and talk to members. i think it's a sign, a hopeful sign, and i'm hopeful that something will come out of it. >> nbc news white house correspondent kristin welker joins us live from the white house. before we get into the details, is there any word yet on how the lunch went? because the president and congressman ryan were at daggers drawn for most of last year during the presidential campaign. i'd love to hear how they got along this time. >> reporter: i wasn't at the lunch but according to my sources it was a bit more cordial than the campaign trail, but both sides are saying that this was a constructive lunch that they had. but remember, this is really the first time that the president has reached out to rank and file

members of congress in this way on this level. there has been a thaw, specifically between the president and paul ryan, of course, who was the vp nominee for the republican side. so it is going to take a while for these relationships to thaw. having said that, there seems to be a willingness on all sides, martin, to really talk about deficit reduction. as you know, paul ryan is going to put out his budget next week. the president and paul ryan have been miles apart when it comes to their budget proposals. but this is really a chance for the president to say, look, here is what i'm offering when it comes to deficit reduction. there's a lot of skepticism about whether the lunch today, of course president obama had a dinner last night with republican senators. a lot of skepticism about whether these lunches and dinners are actually going to yield results. one interesting thing that came out of the dinner last night, one lawmaker said he actually wasn't aware of all of the cuts that president obama was willing to put on the table. so administration officials

believed this is a chance for president obama to clear up some of the confusion, a chance for lawmakers as well to offer what they are willing to put on the table, and in recent days senator lindsey graham, who was at that dinner last night, did express a willingness to possibly come closer on the issue of raising taxes. so there does seem to be a willingness to talk about these very difficult issues, martin, in terms of actual results. that is still a long ways off. >> kristin, one question about the bill signing. the president signing the violence against women act into law and offering a hearty thank you to his vice president joe biden who, of course, had originally drafted that very bill. >> reporter: yeah, martin, i think that that was -- there were some emotional moments certainly during that bill signing ceremony. vice president biden introduced the original bill back in 1994, and then it had some trouble

passing. republicans weren't willing to pass it. finally it did pass, and the president today sort of celebrating the bill, talking about the fact that it represents an expansion of preventing violence against women but also same-sex couples, also for those who live on tribal lands. so this really represents an expansion of the violence against women act so the president celebrating that today. martin? >> kristin welker live for us at the white house. >> reporter: thanks, martin. >> much more ahead. first, sue herera has the cnbc market wrap. >> good afternoon. good to see you. another positive day on wall street today. which means, of course, that the d dow settled at another record high. the dow is up 33 points. the s&p up 2.8 and the nasdaq with a gain of just under 10 points. that's it for cnbc, first in business worldwide. martin is back after a quick break. [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work.

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it's almost three months since the slaughter at sandy hook elementary and lawmakers in the united states senate have now approved the first piece of gun reform legislation. the judiciary committee under the leadership of patrick leahy voted 11-7 today to approve a bill that would combat gun trafficking and impose stiff penalties on straw purchases. in fact, the vote today is perhaps more newsworthy for what it did not include. like an expansion of background checks on gun sales and a ban on assault weapons. what will happen to those essential proposals? we'll have to wait and see. we're joined by mark glaze, director of mayors against illegal guns. good afternoon, mark. it's nice change of pace to see the senate doing something, but i want to ask you about the

bipartisan consensus that was fraught to be forming around the idea of expanding background checks. it's a position that 88% of the public support and we've been hearing about a possible bipartisan deal worked out between chuck schumer and tom coburn. tom coburn has an "a" rating from the nra. but now those talks have fallen apart. mark, can you explain why elected politicians are finding it so hard to do something that nine out of ten americans want? >> no, not really. but that's because -- >> is it a dereliction of duty on their part? >> well, i don't want to go that far because, frankly, i think they're going to get there. i think it's hard for congress to ignore not just 90% of the public but 75% to 85% of nra members who also think they take background checks, they know it takes a couple minutes out of your life and it saves a lot of lives. so i think ultimately we're going to get there. >> there has been some progress, as i say. we want to recognize and hail, for example, the president and

vice president attended the signing of the violence against women act today. let's take a listen now to the vice president because it's pertinent to this issue. >> i want to point something out to you. from 2009 to 2012 40% of the mass shootings in america other than the celebrated ones you have seen, 40% where four or more people have been shot, the target has been a former intimate partner or a close family member. >> so there you have it, mark. 40% of the recent mass shootings happened at least in part because of domestic violence. but if we really want to protect everyone in this country, there's an awful lot more work the congress has to do, isn't there? >> you know, there is. and we know what the solutions are. we know in states, and there are 14 or 16 of them, depending how you count, that have closed the private sale loophole and require people to get a background check if they buy from an unlicensed seller,

somewhere other than a licensed dealer. we know in those states 38% fewer women are murdered with guns by their intimate partners than in states that have not closed that loophole. we know how to fix this problem. >> let's hear something from senator coburn who appeared earlier today on "morning joe" and talked about the issue. take a listen. >> if we're going to get a deal, that's where it's going to have to be otherwise you're not going to have a deal. my deal is let's do the right thing and enhance this, and i think we can. i think we'll ultimately get there even though, you know, the outside groups aren't comfortable with it yet. >> so there he is again, mark, sounding reasonable. he even makes it sound like the nra could come around to background checks. but that's what he was doing before he pulled out of talks with senator chuck schumer. are we fooling ourselves by thinking he'll ever be a real partner in some kind of reform of legislation in relation to guns? >> no. everybody that i talk to, and

i'm not in that room not having been elected to the united states senate, but i'm told he is absolutely serious and in earnest and wants to reach a deal. and i think we will. but if we can get senator coburn, and i very much hope we can, it will only be because of one very small issue that in our view is a nonissue. that's the question of whether we should continue doing what we've been doing for 40 years, which is when you go to a licensed dealer, you pass your background check. the dealer keeps a record of that purchase for 20 years so that if that gun ever ends up at a crime scene, law enforcement can trace it back to the point where it entered criminal hands. he doesn't want to extend that record keeping obligation. if you extend the background check requirement to adithsal sales. we just don't think it makes any sense and law enforcement really feels that they need those records to stop criminals and find criminals who have used guns in their crimes. >> they do, indeed. mark glaze, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> and we'll be right back. and you want to buy one like mine because it's so safe, right? yeah... yeah... i know what you've heard --

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