and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. you should not start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if you have symptoms such as persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. since enbrel helped relieve my joint pain, it's the little things that mean the most. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. [ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biologic medicine prescribed by rheumatologists. . breaking right now on "andrea mitchell reports" the cardinals set a date. they will begin voting on a new pope next tuesday, and they'll keep voting until they agree on a successor to benedict xvi. and this just in. chuck hagel arrives in kabul for his first official trip as defense secretary. and back to work. unemployment drops to a four-year low as employers add

236,000 new jobs last month. we'll get behind the numbers with greg with "the economist" and cnbc. plus, after the president's big outreach to republicans, is it time to revisit that grand bargain? we'll talk to alan simpson. terror on trial in new york. osama bin laden's son-in-law appears in a manhattan courtroom as republicans argue he should be in gitmo instead. >> we're putting the administration on notice. we think that sneaking this guy into the country clearly going around the intent of congress when it comes to enemy combatants will be challenged. >> in venezuela, a state funeral today for hugo chavez as thousands pay tribute. ditching doma. the president who signed the gay marriage ban into law now says it should be overturned. why the change of heart? and awkward, party of two. a now "new york times" photographer steven crowley captures john mccain and rand paul only moments after mccain

slammed paul's made for television filibuster. >> good day. i'm andrea mitchell live from washington. the stock market soaring to a new record high. the jobless numbers are at a four-ee low, and the washington post chris joins us now along with greg with the economist and cnbc wr this is your specialty, so let's start with you today. let's get behind the numbers, the good, the bad, and any ugly? >> most of bad. excuse me. mostly good. >> good, good, good. >> no ugly that i can see. the number of jobs created quite a bit mo expecting. if you look over the last few months, it looks like we're sustaining job growth from the 150,000 to 200,000 area. more hours means more income, more spending power, but the main thing -- the main take-away p is what's not happening. we are not seeing the economy crumple even though it was hit with big tax increases in january and higher gasoline prices. >> the headwinds may be felt in that this might have been a

bigger move forward than otherwise, but you're inching forward along that 2%, 2.5% gdp level? >> you got these head winds from fiscal tightening, but there are tail winds as well. one of the most impressive pieces of this report is that we saw construction jobs grow by 48,000. we've known that housing is recovering. we're finally see that manifest itself as more jobs and more income. >> so what is the political impact of that? chris, we're not in an election year, so this monthly number does not have huge importance for either the white house or the hill pro or con, but does it have any -- does it give any lift to conversations that have now been engaged between the president and republicans on revisiting some sort of deficit reduction plus tax increase package? >> well, let me say two things. first, andrea, when i saw the number this morning, i was reminded of the story that barack obama was absolutely obsessed with winning re-election because he didn't want mitt romney to get credit

when what he believed would happen that the economy would get better nerl a second term. barack obama re-elected, and it looks like, to greg's point, that we're moving in the right direction in terms of the economy. in terms of the politics of this, there's an argument to be made that it can help. i think it strengthens barack obama's hand a little bit when he can say what i'm doing is working, but we can't risk it. we have to sort of make sure we take advantage of this moment. we're not facing imminent crisis to make a deal. on the other hand, i tend to feel like the way that politicians work, particularly congress works, is that think only react to crisis. does this lack of urgency that the economy does appear to be getting better, does it take the urgency out of getting a grand bargain of some sort, and are we right back where we started from? i don't know. i'm hoping it's the former for the good of the country that we can address our debt and spending issues, but if past is

prologued, the lack of urgency in these numbers may well take a little of the sort of emphasis and attention from the need for a big deal. >> now, before we get all excited and pop champagne cork bz this number, what about the lock-term unemployed because 40.2% of the unemployed have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer. that is a recurring problem, and that inched up from 4.7% to 4.8%, long-term unemployed. >> as people go back to work, as unemployment starts to edge down, most of the people who are finding more work again are people who are not unemployed for very long. six months and under. that's -- >> the longer out of work, the harder it is to get back into the job market. >> it's kind of a reminder that the economy is growing, but this is nothing like an acceleration that's needed put back all the people who lost their jobs over the last few years or who entered the work force for the first time. at best we're maintaining the pace of growth that we had for the last year. to chris's point, the very fact that this takes away some of the fear factor in washington about the sequester, it means there's

going to be more fiscal tightening, and it's really healthy for an economy at this time. one last thing. we've had three years in a row where the economy started out really strong and started and then suddenly faded for reasons that are complex, and we have no guarantee that something like that could happen again. won't happen again. >> won't happen again. finally, chris, another retirement, perspective retirement from the democratic senate ranks, and this one is a big one. this is carl levin, the stallworth michigan senator, veteran, and it opens up some possibilities for republicans who have some viable options among the house republican members in michigan for statewide office. >> you know, andrea, i think the most important take-away from this is that the retirement of carl levin is the latest in a series of either death or decision where you have seen the sort of real, big figures that have dominated the senate republicans and democrats over

the last 30 or so years leaving in a remarkable number of senators. it's more than one-third elected either in 2010 or 2012. there's a newness factor there, and many of the people who built what we believe -- what we remember as modern day senate don't exist anymore. on the political question, i still think this is very much a democratic seat to lose. if republicans could convince mike rogers, congressman, head of the intelligence committee in the house to run, it would be a viable race, but i bet he stays where he is. >> well, when you talk about the names, rockefeller, harkin, lautenberg, there's an age factor, but you are talking about some major democratic names. thank you both very much. chris and greg. a manhattan courtroom today holds osama bin laden's son-in-law abu graith pleaded not guilty. a number of republican lawmakers say the decision to try him on u.s. soil is a mistake.

here's the aforementioned mike rogers. >> i think a trial on american soil could be a difficult thing for any al qaeda member that they might be considering bringing back from overseas. we have a facility. it is with the best trained guard force that not only has to protect people from the inside getting out, but from the outside getting in. which a lot of american prisons are not quite used to. and they're very well equipped to handle special needs prisoners, high threat prisoners the way that some senior al qaeda member might be, and we have a way to provide trial and counsel and all of those things. now, it's at gitmo. it's guantanamo bay. really if you think about it, that makes the most logical sense, and we've invested a lot of u.s. taxpayer dollars getting that facility right and in the right positioning to handle exactly that kind of high risk, high threat al qaeda prisoner. >> nbc justice correspondent pete williams has been tracking all this and joins me here. pete, we've had manhattan

courtrooms handle these terror suspects before. the blind sheik comes to mind. what now for abu ghaith. >> he will be back in a month when the judge will decide on a trial date, but, you know, getting to this question about whether he should have been treated as an enmachine combatant and taken to guantanamo bay or whether he should be in civilian court, what the republicans that have been critical of this have been saying is if he had been taken to gitmo, he could be exploited more for intelligence purposes. well, there was a tantalizing statement today by one of the prosecutors in court who said that after he was taken into custody, he talked extensively to the u.s., and they now have a 22-page statement of him, so that the suggestion is they've gotten a lot of out of him. i've been told that this was after he was picked up in jordan and on his way here and got to new york. he was questioned extensively. he was given his miranda warning, i'm told, and even after that he continued to talk, so this is a little pushback, i

think, from the government saying, look, even though we're putting him in this civilian court, we've still gotten a lot out of him. >> and the way he was "captured" is interesting because you had the chairman -- the house chairman of the homeland security committee yesterday praising the fbi and cia for bringing him to the states, and we know from other sources that this involved turkey, a transfer en route to kuwait, his home country, stop in amman jordan, or somewhere in jordan at a military base, and mysteriously got into american hands. you know what happened there. was probably put on a gulfstream military plane. >> extensively choreographed. the fact is, as you know, he had been at bin laden's side in the days after 9/11, and then as the sort of al qaeda deaspira -- as i use that word, probably ill advised, some al qaeda members showed nup iran. it appears they were in some

kind of custody. that's one of the things he can shed some light on here is what happened to those people in iran. >> including one of osama bin laden's sons was allegedly in iran for a number of years. >> right. but the suggestion i've been getting today is that he really has no operational knowledge about al qaeda anymore. he has been out of it for so long, but he has interesting things to say about the sort of history and what was going on during all these intervening years. >> briefly there was a tsa sting, as it were, an inspector who discovered that he could smuggle an ied in newark. >> i don't know all the details about this, but the broad brush is that tsa does these things where they basically run their own people through the screening process to see if they can smuggle things through. one inspector did get through with a fake improvised bomb consealed in his clothing. he wasn't found when he went through the magnotometer, and now they're trying to find out how that happened.

>> if that means we have to undress even more in the future, look at what happened just because of the shoe bomber. >> i think it won't. >> thank you very much. >> okay. >> for all things related to the terror suspect. the papal conclave, for something completely different, or the election to elect a new pope, will now begin next tuesday. nbc's ann thompson is in rome at her post at the vatican, and we now know the date. tell us a little bit about what happened because my understanding is that they do take votes, take informal polling every day, and until they reach the certain number, they keep going until we then see the white smoke come out. >> right. well, andrea, if we were to put this had in purely political terms, we would now call this the race for 77 because the next pope has to get 77 votes. that is two-thirds plus one, and that is what the constitution says. that is what's required for a man to be elected pope.

the voting will actually start tuesday afternoon. first the cardinals will hold a mass here at st. peters to pray for the election of the new pope. then they will process into the sistine chapel, and they will take a vote. just one vote on tuesday afternoon, but after that it's two votes in the morning, two votes in the afternoon until they get to that magic -- somebody gets to that magic 77 number. if by the end of friday night nobody has gotten 77 votes, there's a day off. they take a day for prayer and reflection, and then they start all over again on sunday, andrea. >> ann, speaking of taking a day off, those of us who are fans of you on "nightly news" saw that you took at least a little time to try out the tizzy. we wanted to show a little bit of that. let's watch this. >> reporter: there's no room for my purse, and barely room for me in the seat behind mateo. >> oh, my gosh.

oh, my gosh. okay. did it. amazing. >> reporter: but the real fun comes when behind the wheel of this zero emissions vehicle. >> sorry. not making friends. >> reporter: if you know where you are going. >> best part is i have no clue where i am. >> i knew were gutsy, but to go in rome traffic in what looks like a glorfied skateboard, ann, you know, props to you. i can't believe you did that. what did it feel like? how does it drive? >> you know, it was actually a surprisingly really good ride. i thought it would feel like a go-cart or a motor scooter, but it was pretty stable. it actually has airbags. no windows, but it's got airbags, andrea. >> well, glad that you were safe, and glad that you are safe and sound. thanks so much, ann. thanks for that. >> thanks. >> and up next here, the one, the only alan simpson is a grand bargain still possible? and what does he make of rand paul? and still ahead, bill clinton's

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>> did that menu at the president's lurchl and his dinner for republicans include a grand bargain? could one recipe be simpson bowles 2.0. a revised version was announced of their fiscal reform plan, and joining me now is former senator alan simpson, co-chair of the campaign to fick the debt and the moment of truth project. moment of truth. sounds like heavy stuff, heavy going. let's talk about that, though. >> i watched them struggle, and they didn't want to go off the cliff. they were talking about

constructive things about revenue. you can't tax your way out of this. you can't cut spending your way out. you can't -- you got to have a plan. we just thought, well, we would be clever and piece together what they talked about in december and threw it out here a couple three weeks ago. they all have gone back to their rigid holes and idealogical stance and back into their comfort zone, but it wasn't a lot of creative stuff. it was what they talked about in december. it's tough to watch. i was just thinking maybe the lunch consisted of watery gruel. >> let's talk about that. >> no, i think it was good. >> shouldn't he have been doing this sooner, many might ask? >> isn't it crazy to think this is important, and yet it is. i worked for four presidents -- carter, reagan, bush, and

clinton -- and we were always at the white house. there was always some social event, some kind of offer, some coffee, whatever. these are minor things, but they're very big. it was so sad, and now to have this, this is good. all of this is small, but it's -- it brings back civility and a sense of coordination and collaboration and that's what will help get there. >> at the same time you have got some new republicans, ted cruz and not so new rand paul who are showing their stuff, showing that they have a different way of doing things. rand paul's filibuster, praised by many, because of the issue he took on. more transparency on targeted killings. also, though, criticized for some said distorting an issue that really wasn't an issue, and

john mccain and lindsey graham were among those that took him to task on the floor. really sort of teaching the new kid some lessons, some would say. >> that's what you do. you try to say, you know, i wish -- they always say how do you break up a filibuster? i said bring a cot. nobody would help him, and you do irritate your colleagues when you do that. you keep them up late at night, you know, and then you need some colleagues to come, and they won't come. anyway, there are fewer of those people percentage-wise in the senate than there are in the house where you have 80 people that didn't come there to limit government. they came there to stop it, and that's what they have to deal with over there, and i think he has them corralled in pretty well now. he is saying, you know, no spending cuts, but you can't tax your way out of this baby. you can't cut spending your way out of this baby. you can't grow your way out. you have to have a blend, and i think that's what they're working on, and i see that.

>> what do you think of at least rand paul was an old-fashioned real fist filibuster, real talk on the senate floor. what did you think of the way they blocked by phil buster, in effect chuck hagel? >> those are the threats. you knew they weren't going to do it, and even john mccain voted to, you know, to -- in the final package voted yes, but voted to let it go to the floor, and knowing he needed the 60 votes to break the fill bester, so people don't know about filibuster. they think it's insane. ates fannie kicking machine. it will help your party one time. it won't change, and they did the right thing by stopping any reform of it, which would have destroyed it. the old guard is leaving.

senators among the democrats and republicans. >> don't forget when we came, all of us, there were 20 of us. there were 11 republicans and nine democrats, and we were very close. bill bradley, nancy castlebom. thad cochran. >> was that the class of 1978? >> 1978. there were 20 -- i think byrd said -- senator byrd said it was the largest class, i believe, ever in the freshman class. now there's two left. thad cochran and max baucus. carl levin, wonderful guy. great to work with. obviously tired of it all. but not nasty or. >> get used and stay engaged. >> thank you. >> it's nice to see you again. even when you came to -- >> many years ago. layer my, wyoming. >> a long time ago on a cold

bitter night. it's a pleasure. >> thank you. coming up next, bill clinton's evolution on gay marriage. what if women ruled the world? that's what we were asking on this international women's day. this is andrea mitchell reports only on msnbc. [ whistle blows ] hi victor! mom? i know you got to go in a minute but this is a real quick meal, that's perfect for two! campbell's chunky beef with country vegetables, poured over rice! [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. it fills you up right.

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yes it is. welcome to tyco integrated security. with world-class monitoring centers and thousands of qualified technicians. we've got a personal passion to help your business run safer, smarter, and sharper. we are tyco integrated security. and we are sharper. >> 17 years after signing the defense of marriage act former president bill clinton is now declaring his change of heart and urging the supreme court to do the same importantly. joining me now is jonathan caphart, msnbc contributor and opinion writer for the washington post. let's go back in history now and talk about how bill clinton and why bill clinton signed the defense of marriage act. we looked for a picture of that. couldn't find one. >> yeah, couldn't find one. >> and why? >> why? because it was signed after midnight when it was done. it was done under the cover of darkness. it was something that clearly he

wasn't proud to do, but politically speaking it was something he needed -- he felt he needed -- >> it was something -- running for re-election. republicans were trying to get at their conservative base. at the same time you had a lot of -- a lot of people out there saying if the federal government doesn't do something to stop this pernicious march of same-sex marriage that was coming out of hawaii, maybe it's time to do a u.s. constitutional amendment to cut it off completely sxwshgs so the political thinking at the time was it was really between a rock and a hard place. let this constitution -- u.s. constitutional movement happen, or put in a defense of marriage act and forestall it and stop that from happening, and as we've seen, there's been no u.s. constitutional amendment drive. however, you have 38 states -- i'm sorry, 31 states that have state constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage, and if you had a u.s. constitutional amendment, you only need 38

states to make that the law of the land. >> at the same time it was a political bonus. this was at the time when he was doing welfare reform, which some in his cabinet did not want him to do. moving to the center and trying to protect his -- i think you were just telling me that while saying he had a signing statement saying he didn't agree with the discrimination as penkts of it, but they used it in certain parts of the country in the south on christian radio stations in advertisements. >> right. they ran radio ads on christian radio after sign it in the middle of the night and wanting to draw no attention to it and doing the signing statement saying we don't condone discrimination. running these radio ads on christian radio in the south saying, hey, this is what we did on gay marriage, but also on abortion, but also part of those ads, and i think when people here read president clinton

saying i want doma to be declared unconstitutional, a lot of the anger that i'm getting back on my facebook page to what i have written about this is that but he still signed it. he still ran radio ads -- radio ads touting that he had done this, so this is something that a lot of people in the gay community aren't exactly going to get over very quickly. tloo this is what he wrote today. you just mentioned in the washington post, among other things, he said we are still a young country, and many of our landmark civil rights decisions are fresh enough that the voices of their champions still echo, even as the world that preceded them becomes less and less familiar. we have yet to celebrate the centennial of the 19th amendment, but as a society that denied women the vote, would seem to us now not unusual or old-fashioned, but alien. i believe that 2013 doma and opposition to marriage equality are vest edges of such an unfamiliar society. alan simpson, republican from wyoming, just told me during the break that he voted for it. he said they all voted for it. not i think realizing the implications or they weren't

where they are now, and he just yesterday signed on -- he, simpson did, signed on to the brief. >> on propositional. >> for the challenge to prop 8. >> that goes to show how times have changed since 1996. we now have a sitting president, sitting vice president most of the cabinet. two of the leading contenders for the 2016 nomination on the democratic side, governors andrew cuomo of new york, martin o'malley of maryland who are for marriage equality. you have more than 100 republicans signed on to this brief saying proposition eight should be overturned. the country is changed. president clinton as op ed piece is part of this change. >> there are two words that aren't there that i wish were there, and those are i'm sorry. >> tough votes for republicans,

some of whom were punished for that, the state senators who were punished for that vote, but they did do marriage equality in new york state. jonathan, great to see you. >> thanks. great to see you too, in person for once. >> much better. >> up next venezuela announces that former president hugo chavez will be embalmed and put on permanent display just like lennon for public view. women rule. a new documentary looks at what makes women leaders different. don't forget to spring forward. daylight-saving begins this sunday. set those clocks ahead one hour. cold feels nice on sore muscles, huh?

you know you could just use bengay zero degrees. medicated pain relief you store in the freezer. brrr...see ya boys. [ male announcer ] bengay zero degrees. freeze and move on. in the headlines today north korea is aiming new threats at the u.s. and at south korea after the u.n. unanimously adopted new sanctions. the isolated regime announced it had nuclear tipped ballistic missiles ready to blast off. backing up its war-like rhetoric, north korea also announced an end to its hotline

and nonaggression pact with south korea. u.s. experts doubt. in venezuela hundreds of thousands of people are crowding the streets of car auk yeahs for hugo chavez' state funeral still going on at this hour. iran's president mau humid ahmadinejad arrived today, and the reverend jesse jackson delivered racks during the funeral. actor sean penn is there with a front row seat. joining me now jose diaz bolart. it's difficult to get a grip around what chavez means to his own people and around the word as well as, of course, the very difficult relationship with u.s.

presidents. >> andrea, it is really difficult to explain what is going on in venezuela. what we're seeing right now is part state funeral, part political rally. part creation of a myth. hugo chavez died last tuesday, but since then. >> maybe what we saw in late 1950s in argentina when the death of eva perrone, the famous musical evita don't cry for me argentina. all we're seeing is now cry for

me. cry for hugo chavez that was described just minutes ago by the vice president as christ-like. >> thank you very much. will chavez's successor change course? diana from the brookings institute, thank you very much. you study all of this, and let's talk about his movement and what it represents and whether maduro, if he is the successor, as he has been des egg natured, rather than the opposition leader who failed in the october elections, but if he is the successor, will he continue with the same philosophy and the same policies? >> chavez is a clear ideology. there is direct democracy which means every man and woman

citizen votes directly for leaders. the leader is glorified, and the leader exercises a power because only he understands the needs of his people. is he supported by a militia, which report directly to him, not to the congress, and communication is blast out in support of the leader. now that, works when you have a very charismatic leader, such as hugo chavez. nicolas moduro is a hard line socialist, but he has no charisma, so the question now is can modero hold on to this ideology? >> what about the economic impact? we now have a $50 billion trade relationship with venezuela. they are among our biggest oil exporters. they are the largest in the hemisphere. the oil industry has really suffered since chavez took over.

it's down 30%. he has brought up the corporate payrolls with 90,000 extra workers, many of them unnecessary and not experienced, so they're really degrading the technical skill of the oil industry there. >> the energy sector is in shambles in venezuela. when chavez came to power in 1998, they produced 3.4 million barrels a day. today it's 1 million barrels less each day, and, yet, they got to pay their debts. they have to do international purchases. they have to buy from us light quality oil for use in their economies. meantime, equipment, parts are all in short supply.

so the progrenostics for the future are grim. >> which is the main support of the system. can they continue to subsidyize cuba, for instance. that cuban relationship between the castros and chavez was so close, but it was also built on the fact of charity that cuba was completely reliant on free oil and free energy from venezuela. >> i anticipated continuing. the relationship between moduro and the cuban leadership is tight, and, remember, it isn't all generosity. there are exchanges. there are cuban doctors in remote areas, poor areas of cities in venezuela. there are teachers. there are intelligence workers. so there is a symbiotic relationship between cuba and venezuela. moduro will seek to maintain that. >> do you see finally and briefly any opening on the horizon with a new secretary of state, any opening between the

u.s. and cuba if only it to take cuba off of the terror list, which many believe is a completely antiquated symptom of the politics rather than the policy? >> you are right. if the united states could show some flexibility towards cuba, it would enabling both cuba and venezuela to be less ob stin ant in our relationship with where yous, moduro was the man seeking to re-established diplomatic relations. let us give a little bit via our relations with cuba by taking cuba off the terrorist list. >> diana, thank you very much. thanks for your expertise. good to see you. >> and what would a world ruled by women look like? we'll find out next. and on this international women's day, first lady michelle obama and secretary of state john kerry are going to be honoring this year's recipients of the international women of courage award, but in an

embarrassing admission, the state department had to eliminate one winner, an egyptian tyist from its honores today, while they investigate charges that the anti-mubarak tweeted anti-semitic messages. another recipient, an activist that won't be there because she has been denied a passport by the chinese government, and post musly today honoring the 23-year-old new delhi student who has become a source of inspiration across the world after being fatally gang-raped on a bus last december. omotions. there's nothing like our grilled lobster and lobster tacos. 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 lobster tails. or our savory, new grilled maine lobster and lobster tacos. my favorite entree is the lobster lover's dream. what's yours? come celebrate lobsterfest and sea food differently. [ male announcer ] visit redlobster.com now for an exclusive $10 coupon on two lobsterfest entrees.

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secretaries of state, the issue of women's empowerment wasn't a secondary issue, it wasn't derivative of something else. it was a core issue for the state department and for american foreign policy. >> dede myers is the first woman to be white house press secretary and joins me now here. >> happy international women's day. >> i was at a conference last night moderating a panel on women violence focussing on women in new delhi, and with really smart people from new delhi and uganda, a woman lawyer from there, and it was just heart breaking to hear how much women are still victimized. we know it. we know it in conflict zones. it's also done in the shadows, in the dark. >> right. >> not only street violence, but violence within the families. >> right. domestic violence as we know is a problem all over the world, including here, which is why it was great through this week, the congress finally passed the violence against women act, but around the world violence is certainly one of many obstacles to women, but what's interesting

is when you increase women's -- when you empower women, not only does that make them more likely to stand up for themselves, but when they have more economic value and people, particularly men, recognize that, domestic violence decreases. there were so many secondary benefits. it increases economic growth generally. it increases the likelihood that peace agreements will take root. it reduces violence not only within homes and within societies, but between countries. as we just saw secretary rice say, because we've not -- not just because we've had women secretaries of state, but that's helped, but because the benefits are so tangible that empowering women has become strategic objective, which is a big sea change from to 20 years ago. >> i remember being in beijing with hillary clinton in 1995 when she declared human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights. as first lady. it was considered a disgrace. not only with the chinese government offended, but diplomatic and foreign policy experts around the world said, you know, we should not have first ladies talking about policy, and it was really quite

radical. >> it was radical. >> since then we've had madeleine albright and condi rice and hillary clinton as secretaries of state, and i just came back from john kerry's first trip, and in watching his last stop in doha, qatar, the other day, he was saying when women are empowered, we have less conflict. when women are empowered and educated and have equal status, we have, you know, fewer wars. hearing that from a male secretary of state after we've heard this from hillary clinton at every stop on her million mile journey for four years is really very interesting. >> so it's really been an exciting sea change, right, that 15, 17 years since hillary clinton made that radical declaration to see that the people that were once appalled by it now understand the economic value. i mean, women were responsible for some $20 trillion in spending around the world last year and the next two years will be more like dollaring $28 trillion. not only are diplomats seeing it as a strategic objective and

imperative, but corporations are seeing it. that by investing in women and educating women, you can create educated consumers and improve the supply chain and create stability in countries so you can do business. i think hillary clinton did such a phenomenal job raise this profile of this issue more broadly and bringing not just diplomats, but business people to the table, and she created a special bureau inside the state department, and i know secretary kerry will continue to make sure that that is a priority. >> in fact, i think one of the last things that clinton did was to make sure that the president signed a directorate that it is not up to the discretion of any particular secretary. among those you interviewed are christine lagarde, arguably one of the most powerful women in the world, head of the imf, and she talked about that balance we discussed with sheryl sandberg's question of leaning in and all this. this is what she had to say when you interviewed her. >> when i was a senior associate of becker mckenzie and then a

partner my two sons were born, and i made a point as a young partner of taking my wednesday afternoon off to go with them to the swimming pool or to whatever activities they had on wednesdays afternoons. it was looked at with a bit of cynicism and skepticism by my male partners, but i thought it was important for me. it was important for my sons. it was even more important for the other female lawyers in the firm who knew that it was okay because if a female partner was doing it, then they could also consider daring the difference. >> daring the difference. >> the fact that she -- i mean, this was an american law firm based in chicago, and she subsequently, of course, became finance minister in france and then lobbied very actively and successfully, obviously, for imf chief. >> one of her catch phrases, if you call it that, is dare the difference. that she encourages women to

dare the difference, and she says in the documentary and all over the world that she discourages women from trying to imitate men. men. women are different and bring a different perspective and different way of seeing the world because they live live a little bit differently and she said taking wednesdays off when the boys were little to spend time with them and creating an environment where other women could do that. that's a difference and brings her perspective on other elements of life to the table inside the law firm or inside the ministry in france that changes the dialogue and broadens the dialogue and create better solutions and so i think that's a good message for women. not to try to be like men but bring what women bring in order to strengthen the conversation and benefit everybody. >> may i just ask a personal question? >> yeah. >> for you, was it very difficult being the only senior woman among the boys' club at the white house? >> it was definitely challenging and it was not only challenging internally at times.

it was challenging as you remember walking in to the briefing room where most of the reporters at this time were men, most of them were older than i was. and so establishing authority for me was difficult and didn't confer with the job as it had for somebody of my male predecessors and i had to earn that over and over and over. so yeah. it was definitely challenging and thrilled to see how much things have changed in the last two decades. right? the briefing room is now full of women. the current press secretary is a man but i don't think anyone would be the least bit surprised to see a woman walk up to the podium and we have seen others. and so, i think that we have seen a big change there and really, really interesting. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> great to see you. >> thank you for having me on. >> congratulations on the documentary. >> airing this world on bbc world news. six years since robert levinson went missing in iran. agents across the country and the world will observe a moment of silence in honoring their

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and chris cillizza is back. looking ahead, we just found out that the white house is confirmed that actually the clintons had din we are the obamas. a rare occurrence. after the former secretary of state left office march 1st apparently and that bill clinton not surprisingly had some advice for the current president on how to handle the second term. >> yeah. andrea, i would have given a lot of money to be a fly on the wall in that conversation. just one note an i know you have talked about it. international women's day today. hillary clinton, i have written about this, if hillary clinton doesn't run for president in 2016, andrea, there's not a lot of women to be considered. a remarkable thing to consider

on a day like today. >> latest quinnipiac shows she would many of the other candidates. thank you, chris. follow me on twitter. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next on "news nation." hi. >> hi. great to see you. have a great weekend. coming up, unemployment at the lowest rate in four years. the labor department says the u.s. added 236,000 jobs last month and better than expected. could those gains be wiped away when the spending gains start to sink in? taking a look at the industries seeing job improvement. plus, the battle over minimum wage. the president want it is raise it to $9 saying people deserve a living wage. but businesses are divided. the head of costco now, though, backing the idea. we'll tell you who's against it. an elderly woman with dementia, get this, she's charged with voter fraud after she accidentally voted twice. she's got dementia. she is in her 80s.

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