mitchell reports" -- getting personal. newtown families are on capitol hill after flying from connecticut on air force one with president obama last night. a last-ditch appeal today to congress for new gun laws. >> help this be the moment when real change begins. help this be the beginning of turning tragedy into transformation, for us all. >> some folks back in washington are already floating the idea that they may use political stunts to prevent votes on any of these reforms. they're saying your opinion doesn't matter. and that's not right. that is not right. we need a vote. [ chanting we want a vote ] >> we need a vote. >> and speaking of political stunts in a departure from usual

senate prar senate practice, mitch mcconnell has signed on to a filibuster to even bring the bill to the floor for a vote. ready to launch, north korea warns foreign workers and tourist os to evacuate south korea, saying the two countries are on the verge of nuclear war. the top u.s. commander in the pacific tells a senate committee that there is a real threat. >> i don't know of a time of greater tension since the end of the korean war. that kpoegi iexists between nor, south korea and us. would you agree with that? >> in my recollection, i don't know a greater time. >> do you believe that we have the ability to intercept a missile at if the north koreans launch? >> i believe we have the credible ability to defend the homeland, defend hawaii, defend guam, defend our forward-deployed forces and defend our allies. >> senator kelly ayotte joins us

from that armed services hearing. and welcome to the twitterverse, former president, bill clinton has never said anything in 140 characters or less. but stephen colbert shows him how to do it. >> i took the liberty of opening you a twitter account. now president clinton was taken, william jefferson clinton was taken. but presidentbillyjeff was available. 140 characters or less. >> just spent -- amazing time with colbert. >> sound good? >> is he sane? >> is he sane? >> he is cool! >> prezbillyjeff.

i am andrea mitchell, live in washington, that' that's @mitchellreports. the debate on gun laws is being fought on capitol hill, where families of newtown victims are meeting with lawmakers. new series of ads from mayor mike bloomberg's lobbying group. joining me for our daily fix, chris cillizza, managing editor of post headline politics.com and nbc news capitol hill correspondent, kelly o'donnell. you just came from meeting with the newtown families after they had been talking to members of the senate. so tell me, what are they saying and what kind of feedback are they getting and what about this filibuster? >> so far, the families have decided no the to speak to reporters just yet. they are here, they're beginning their series of meetings which will happen over three days, to try to personally lobby, if i can use that word, senators to persuade them to act on some kind of gun legislation. so although their advocacy has become more public and they have emerged from the rawest moments of their grief to speak

publicly, so far they are not doing that yet. we're told they'll speak as they get more comfortable here on capitol hill. that's understandable. there is is a great deal of concern about the filibuster threat. and senator blumenthal of connecticut said the families told him they are aghast at the possibility that there could be a small group of senators blocking action on this. they are saying they are going to fight hard and have warned the families this could take time. that this couple of days of visits may not be enough. and they all said they were committed to being here for the long haul. there are 11 family members, representing eight victims' families here today. they have a busy schedule. they're learning the ways of washington and that is often a frustrating thing. trying to put a personal face on the tragedy that they have suffered and to try to understand ways they might be able to shape how lawmakers may think or act or respond as they're looking at a series of

elements to this. not just background checks, it is an assault weapons ban, which would be considered, it is the high-capacity magazines. trafficking. there are a number of elements that fall under the over-arching gun bill. much of the focus has been on background checks, though. >> speaking of the filibuster, this is harry reid, chris cillizza, this morning talking about the gop filibuster threat and about the comments on msnbc. >> a former republican congressman from florida is now a talk show host and he's very popular, he has a program called "morning joe." here is what "morning joe" is reported as having said. scarborough tears into gop filibuster on gun bill and says and i quote, is anybody awake in my party? end of quote. >> so chris cillizza, the filibuster threat, we now know that mitch mcconnell has said

he'll sign onto it, as lawrence o'donnell was pointing out last night, leaders do not join filibusters, that's not what they do. so this is very unusual. >> you know, andrea, i think that by making the filibuster so front and center, i think republicans millically at least can really lose on this issue. and i know a lot of people don't see it in the political context, i'll say this -- look, it is very unlikely if up or down votes are given to things like the assault weapons ban, ban on high-capacity magazines. those things are very unlikely to pass. maybe if pat toomey and joe mansion can come to an agreement on expanded background checks, maybe the broader bill passes. in my opinion, the best thing for the republican party to do is say look bring it to the floor, we'll vote on it. because i think it's unlikely that those things particularly assault weapons ban passes. why blockade it with president obama called it a political

stunt. why do that when it's unlikely these things that you don't want passed are going to pass, anyway. >> mike bloomberg's group, the mayors against guns had this new advertisement. which is targeting pat toomey of pennsylvania. watch -- >> on gun safety, pennsylvania has a strong background check system. but guns don't respect state borders. now the u.s. senate can pass comprehensive background check legislation that will stop criminals and the dangerously mentally ill from using loopholes to get guns. senator toomey understands how important that change is. >> i'm in favor of making changes to a background system. >> in pennsylvania, almost 90% of us support comprehensive background checks. call senator toomey, tell him it's time to take pennsylvania solutions to washington. >> kelly, how does that work? does that back-fire? >> certainly someone like pat toomey who has become more actively involved in these conversations. you also have a republican like mark kirk of illinois,

pennsylvania, illinois, blue states, they are very aware of what their home constituents are thinking on these issues. some of those who have joined on to the filibuster are from the reddest of states, where taking a strong stand, they say, for the second amendment, they're not saying it's against some of these other things that many people are focused on, isn't so bad for them politically at home. there is a lot of focus on who can be found. and someone like susan collins, who is of maine and her state tends to be a little bit broader in looking at some of these issues. they're trying to find some republicans they can bridge the difference with. and i was told today to get anything through on the house side, you need a sweeping vote in the u.s. senate. on something. so the filibuster may be used to try to change or even water down what they're trying to do in order to get something through eventually. >> kelly o'donnell, chris cillizza, thank you both very much for starting us off and joining me now to talk about the white house strategy as we approach the end game on guns,

white house communications director, jennifer palmeri from the front lawn. the president was emotional and passionate last night. he brought the newtown families back with him. the vice president at 2:00 will be having his gun event with eric holder. what is the end game strategy now to try to get these votes and try to break a filibuster? >> this is why we started the week in connecticut. because the president wanted to remind the american people and certainly the members of the senate that what this debate is all about. and what he sees it as is living up to the obligations that we have to the victims of gun violence. particularly our children, particularly the children of newtown. and you know i think that he spoke very movingly yesterday about this and as you noted, brought some of the family members back from newtown with us. and the president is moved by the kralk that you see of those family. and pushing for the senate to act on this.

we are very focused on that we've been talking with offices on both sides of the aisle about making sure that we get past this notion of a filibuster. we find it disturbing and somewhat surprising that there's even talk of doing that. and of not allowing a vote to come on background checks. but we feel pretty good about our chances of getting there. >> now, i know the president is focused on the budget in his meetings tomorrow night. he's hosting a dinner with republican senators. is there a scenario where he would pick up the phone, call mitch mcconnell, say can we get around this filibuster. can we get something to the floor? i mean is there a personal, personal diplomacy, if you will, involved here, possibly? >> sure, yes, absolutely. and the dinner that you mentioned that the president is doing tomorrow night are sort of co-host of the dinner, is republican senator and johnny isaacson from georgia and he's the person that the president

asked to bring republican senators down here to have dinner and talk the purpose of the dinner originally was about the budget. but senator isaacson came out today and said he thought, that he didn't think we should be filibustering the background checks gun bills, we think that's encouraging, i think the president will absolutely use the dinner tomorrow night as an opportunity to speak with more republican senators about this i'm going to let the private conversations of the president with members of the senate remain private. this is something that he's very much personally engaged in and speaking with. with them on. we were were encouraged by what senator isaacson said. and ha senator mccain said. that he couldn't understand why anyone would want to filibuster the bill. we heard senator graham make a similar comment today. we're starting to see republicans come out in support of at least allowing a vote on

this background checks bill. and as you've all been saying, not just in your show, but throughout the day. this is something that 90% of americans support. it's the most common sense of common sense gun safety improvements that we could do. we believe that the senate should do it. >> quickly on immigration, i know there are a lot of things that can come up at dinner. "meet the press" with lindsay graham, he said he thought what the president had been proposing is proposing in his budget is a step forward on entitlements, that he is now open, depending on what they get on the entitlement side to revenues and actually raising money through revenues. there's some movement there as well. what about immigration. there's talk today of a hang-up with marco rubio on the h 1 b visas? can you break that logjam? the original thought is by friday there might be a deal. >> our hope, i would say generally speaking we've been really encouraged by the progress of the gang of eight,

has made on immigration. it's a there's a lot of issues involved here, a lot of them are tricky, technical. you know we know that it takes a little bit of time to work these things. we remain optimistic, hopeful that they get to an agreement by friday. we want to make sure that we start, start real work in earnest on that legislation, so we hope that they do meet their friday deadline or certainly by the beginning of next week. we understand it's difficult, but we know they're focused and they continue to make progress. >> jennifer palmeri, thank you so much from the white house. coming up, the march towards immigration reform. will we see a deal before the end of the week? hoo-hoo hoo.

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this breaking news now out of houston, a sheriff's deputies confirm one suspect is in custody in connection with a stabbing at lone star community college campus. the school is sending alerts that another suspect is currently at large. our nbc station kprc is reporting five people at the college in north harris county have been stabbed. paramedics at the scene say one of the victims has been moved via helicopter to a hospital. we'll bring you any new developments as they come to us from texas. in washington, the bipartisan group of senators gosh yating for compromise over immigration laws are at odds over futures for visas of high-skilled workers. proponents of immigration reform say it isn't only a moral imperative, it's critical to the economic lifeblood of our nation, the president and ceo of voto latino point out the

economic contributions of those who continue to live in the shadows. >> most folks don't realize that these individuals pay billions of dollars already in our economic, whether in social security or taxes. >> there are a couple of hang-ups, guest workers, he we thought it was a deal, between the chamber of commerce, the afl-cio, there's some last-minute hang-ups. what are you hearing? settle they're closer to a deal, but unfortunately, they still have a lot of the folks on in the south, the agricultural industry on the south of the united states, having a difficult time compromising and saying we don't want a cap on unskilled workers, farm workers, but we want to cap on the wages, you can imagine that's always difficult because the farm workers want the opposite. right now the farm workers are doing a great job organizing, talking to members of congress on the republican side and the senate side to help move this forward. >> the problem is that the chamber of commence doesn't

fully represent all of the different industries and their differing needs. h 1 b visas, something that we've been talking about for a long time. the economic value of retaining these ph.d.s from all over the world, we educate them, we force them to go back to their countries where they compete with the united states. what is it that they hope to accomplish here and what's the hang-up? >> the biggest hang-up right now is how can we make sure that the h 1 b visa, doesn't stay with the employer, but the person can move from one job to the next. >> otherwise they're captive. >> and you hear stories of individuals that are basically high-tech labor that should be receiving fair wage, but they're not receiving fair wages because they're being held captive by an employer. it's a worker against the corporation. and who is going to win that fight? interestingly enough. a lot of the folks from silicon valley are rallying around the worker, hoping to make sure they have fair labor wages. >> lindsay graham was a guest of

david gregory on "meet the press." everyone has been talking about where is marco rubio on this. i asked him where is marco rubio. and he said rubio will be with us when we get to it. is rubio the hang-up or is he trying to negotiate a better deal or placate his right flank? >> i think he's got to placate. he has to demonstrate he's holding tough. not caving easily. whatever we get out of the senate needs to be the best bill possible. he has to basically respond to those individuals in the house who are on the extreme right who don't want an immigration bill to be passed at all. >> maria theresa kumar you know this whole thing in and out better than anyone, thank you for being with us. new warnings out of north korea, this time for tourists in south korea. a former top white house official has a reality check coming up here on "andrea mitchell reports." max and penny kept our bookstore

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houston, our nbc station, kprc is reporting 14 people have now been hurt. some stabbed a a lone star community college campus in northwest harris county. one suspect is in custody and the campus continues to remain in lockdown. we'll have more on this as we get information. meanwhile, north korea's threats continue today. now warning tourists to leave south korea because of potential nuclear war. it does sound out of line. but analysts say it is more bluster. but they do warn this is an extremely dangerous calculation for both sides and there is always the possibility of a mistake. joining me now is our expert, professor victor cha with georgetown university, the director of asian affairs at the national security council at the white house and a widely read author on this subject. victor, let's get real -- threats of nuclear war, evacuate south korea? they've closed down the economic-shared factory area to the north. how do we assess what kim jong

un is really doing and who is rupping the show? is it the military? is it the young leader? who's in charge? >> well on the second question, the bottom line we don't know. he certainly is up front in all the pictures and he's been in power for about a year now. the balance between him and the military, we don't know. if anything, whoever it is, the hardliners are winning in north korea. with regard to the first point, there is bluster. but as you know well, andrea, this is way off the scale. way off the scale compared to what we've seen in the past. i think that's why everyone is worried. and the shutting down the shared factory area, they need hard currency test practice thely. much more so than the south which is a vibrant economy, one of the world's leading economies. for them to shut that down, they're giving up the wage, the hard currency of all of those workers, 53,000-plus workers. >> that's probably one of the more worrying actions that they've taken. yes they've moved missiles to the east coast. this is real money for them and it's been a very important symbol of inter-korean reconciliation and they've done

lots of things in the past, but they've never shut this down. the problem is if they open it up again, how many south korean businesses are going to want to go in there in future if the north is going to continue to shut it down whenever they feel like doing that. >> one of the things that people don't understand until you've been up there as you have, as i have, is that they're eyeball to eyeball, frankly at pyongyang, they're feet away from each other this is an armistice, a truce, not the end of the korean war all of those decades ago. you've got soldiers looking at each other from the two countries. and according to the armistice terms, if you raise your arm, we were briefed back in the reagan years, i went there with bill clinton, madeline albright, if you raise your arm or point, you can be legally shot. because you are doing something that they interpret as being hostile. here we're talking about an 800,000-person man army with tactical nuclear weapons, arrayed only miles from our

forces. >> that's exactly right. and that's why the point you made about a mistake is the thing that i think most analysts are worried about. they're not worried that north korea is going to start firing missiles at los angeles. but they could do something in this area that could trigger or spark a larger conflict. and it's that inadvertent escalation. >> like the sinking of the ship three years ago. very quickly, you know the new south korean president. we say this not in a sexist term, but politically she's the first woman president of south korea. she's a conservative leader. with a large liberal minority. she's under a lot of pressure if there's a hostile act she's going to have to retaliate. rather than take a step back as we've been urging her to do. >> she's under a great deal of pressure. at the same time she wants to engage north korea, but the north koreans are not giving her much of an opportunity. >> victor cha, thank you so much. next, the state of blah america, a report card on the pace of progress 50 years after dr. king's speech. >> and the story of the young foreign service officer who died

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in a solemn ceremony in delaware, the remains of the 25-year-old foreign service officer killed saturday in afghanistan along with four other americans were returned to u.s. soil. in her home town of river forest, illinois, near chicago, flags dotted the lawn of her family's neighborhood. she was the first u.s. diplomat killed since september in benghazi, her aunt spoke about her. >> she was so -- very excited to be in a place where she felt she and our country could make a positive difference. >> nbc's atia aboyi and the deputy director of women in foreign policy and contributing

editor for "newsweek" and "daily beast" and have written extensively about afghanistan and atiya i know you lived in kabul and i know that secretary kerry was so impressed with her when we were in kabul two weeks ago and have since learned it's been brought to my attention through the reporting, that she was really responsible for that wonderful afghan youth symphony trip here, the story we did for "the today show" a month or so ago. this is all really devastating, she was so engaged in connecting with the people of afghanistan. outside the confines of the embassy compound. atiya? >> she was, andrea, i have to tell you, i met her just a few weeks after she arrived for the first time. in fact another embassy friend, it's a small community in kabul as gayle knows as well. she came over, she was excited. she was a little bit nervous at the start. she was asking us questions about the security around afghanistan. but at the same time, she was excited to get out there and

meet with the afghan people. and as the weeks went by, the nerves just faded away. i saw her engaging with the afghans. she went out of her way to try to make it fun for the afghan journalists when they went out. she put on a good face for america. a face that any american would have been proud of. and one thing that really stood out about her, was her smile. it was genuine. afghanistan is a country where you don't see that many smiles and if you do, there's a lot of hurt and pain behind them. and anne's smile was something that just resonated with whoever she was around and it put you in a good mood. and she really did care about the afghan people. as western journalists we worked with anne and her team. we socialized with anne and her team. i also saw how the afghanistan journalists reacted to anne's death. as well as afghans who weren't in the journalistic community and afghans actually critical of america posting messages on social media about how they knew or how they liked her, how they

respected her and how sad they were about the death as she was delivering school books to afghanistan children. >> as secretary kerry pointed out in their language, gayle aman, you lived there, you wrote about it, what is the impact of this? not only on american foreign policy, but just on the community there and the ability of our diplomats to engage in afghanistan as we keep saying, you know, it's safer we're able to withdraw, the afghan army is replacing american troops, what's the reality? >> it is a huge loss. friends of hers call her a bright light who really never stopped working and people just had so much love and really genuine affection, as atia said. and secretary kerry, when he was talking about her death, called it the fight in afghanistan, a confrontation with modernity and with possibilities and that said, that is what her death really espoused. and i think that's what's

happening now. there is a race on to define the afghanistan narrative. on one hand you have what atia was mentioning, the facebook generation that is pushing country to connect to the rest of the world. on the other hand, you have this future where fighting might come back. you have a question about whether is it civil war that's going to spread next? or wireless? and i don't think anybody knows the answer to that. and her death really strikes a blow, i think against all of those. who are fighting for the modernity part. i've spent a lot of time with young afghans who have tech companies, who right, 400,000 facebook users in afghanistan. people don't often think of that. and she really was part of that push from the young generation. when 60% of the country is under 25, to join the rest of the world. and i think that's how secretary kerry and others are talking about her. >> well, it is such a terrible loss. i know that we met just two weeks ago with these women entrepreneurs, i met with the students from this first co-ed university. the american university in cairo.

sponsored partly with state department money that laura bush helped push along. we're talking about decades of american investment and work. and one death seems to symbolize a huge setback, as well as the personal tragedy. atia and gail, thank you so much. and this summer, marks the 50th anniversary of dr. king's march, the march on washington, hundreds of thousands gathered at the foost of the lincoln memorial stretching out over the mall to hear dr. martin luther king jr.'s "i have a dream speech" how much progress have americans made over the last five decades, especially when it comes to the economy, joining me is dr. mark moral, director of the national urban league. this is one of those days once a year, i love being with you, because it's a chance to take stock and where are we and how far have we not come? >> thank you for having me, andrea. we appreciate all your good

work. we know that the economy and the recovery is fragile. we're on the road back, but it's a very difficult road back this year we took a 50-year retrospective. going all the way back to 1963 and said, where are we as a nation in 2013. and here's what we found, it's a t two-sided coin. on the one hand, for african-americans the graduation rate has gone from 25% to 81%. the number of african-americans with college degrees has increased five-fold. the poverty ratd for african-americans has been cut in half and for african-american children has been cut in half. but on the other hand, the unemployment rate was actually lower for african-americans in 1963 than it is -- >> it was a war-time driven economy. >> it was a booming economy and people were working, it was an important time. i think it's important to say yes, we've made progress, but there is so much work to do. so we came armed this year. with an action plan. and for us, that action plan is

called jobs rebuild america. we're launching an effort to touch 30 cities to train people, to help entrepreneurs, to help young people through after school programs to get a leg up in this economy. it's important that in this discussion in washington around the fiscal plight of this nation around budget cuts, that we don't cut education and workforce development and believe that the country is going to be better off. we could in fact balance the budget and damage the economy, it's a difficult balance and i think the president's message about a balanced fair plan is right on point. we're concerned that the most vulnerable americans are not forced to pay the greatest cost for balancing the nation's budget. >> in facts, our team checked with the bureau of labor statistics today to try to compare the 13.3% black unemployment rate now, this month, with back when dr. king

gave his speech and you know what we discovered? they did not track african-american unemployment until 1972. which tells you volumes about the focus of attention in this country. also was listening to a lecture at the kennedy center by yo-yo ma about arts and education and he reported if you are a black teenager, a high school kid in parts of chicago, only two and a half kids out of 100 are likely to graduate. so our graduation rates are still appalling in some of our cities. >> it is abominable, it's a national crisis, it's as important as any challenge we face, afghanistan, north korea, i think american competitiveness is at stake, if we don't recognize we've got to invest in our young people and try to build an economy that creates jobs for all. so we're armed with numbers, but we're also armed with a plan and we want to say to this nation, that this nation has come a great distance, but we should

not be prepared to celebrate and say the fight is over. there's so much more work left to be done. >> you're a former mayor of a great city. you know that the problem firsthand. where does the urban league stand on the gun battle? >> we are fully behind the effort to create more sensible gun safety. you know, andrea, as a mayor, i fought that battle 15 years ago. and we were not successful in making change. this is a time when our legislators in congress have to have the courage to do something and not allow the politics of washington to get in the way. so we're for universal background checks, we're for cutting down on the size of ammunition clips, we're for eliminating assault weapons. we think that a lot of these measures ought to be voted up or down, and if they're voted up or down and people listen to the voice of the american people, listen to the families, whose children have been victims of gun violence, will pass sensible gun safety legislation. it's time for courage.

>> mark morial, thank you so much. always good to see you. the top u.s. commander in the pacific testifying today that north korea is for real. is the u.s. ready? senator kelly ayotte straight from the armed services hearing next, right here on "andrea mitchell reports."

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and i have a massive heart attack right in my driveway. the doctor put me on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. go talk to your doctor. you're not indestructible anymore. couldn't china play a key role in getting north korea to stop their actions? >> i would think that china could play a key role in influencing the bellicose rhetoric and restoring some more sense of calm to the peninsula. >> that was u.s. pacific command admiral am yule locklear, calling kim jong un impet yus at services committee hearing. warning that north korea's provocations are causing problems throughout the region. kelly ayotte joins me from the hill. what did you hear today that.

>> was at all reassuring about the state of play is? what do you think the state of play is? >> i think andrea, the issue is this, certainly we were used to dealing with kim jong un's father in terms of these bellicose rants that would happen periodically. but this is taking it to a new level with the son right now. as the admiral described him as impetuous, it's very unpredictable situation. the reason i raise china in the hearing is because a big part of the north korean economy, what economy they do have, is reliant on china, including as their biggest trading partner for food, for fuel, so i think china could end this right away. if they would come down harder on north korea. and so that's why i focused on that area of questioning before the hearing today. >> we did hear a warning a little bit oblique, but certainly pointed, at north korea. from the new chinese president,

president xi, this past weekend, saying no one should make such threats against their own neighborhood. now i'm going to be traveling to korea with along with secretary kerry for meetings there. and then to beijing this weekend. what do you want to hear the secretary of state say to the chinese leaders? >> i certainly want secretary kerry to say very clearly to the chinese leaders, that it is, it can't be oblique statements any more. they have a direct line into north korea and north korea is very dependant on china. so i think that china now has to be very direct, stop this, because the reality is, it's no the in china's interests if there's a conflict started in the area. let's not forget we have a new leader in south korea and she has said that she is not going to accept, if there's any kind of attack on her people, that they feel they will have to respond. so it's a dangerous situation. and i understand why she would want to respond on behalf of her

people. >> there's some concern that a window of vulnerability is opening because april 10th is the anniversary of the grandfather of kim jong un. do we have real concerns about the next 24 hours, a possible missile launch? >> they have taken actions in the past on these types of anniversaries. so i know that we're particularly vigilant right now. and that's why north korea has to understand our resolve. i certainly appreciate what the administration has done in moving two destroyers in the area, the missile defense system in guam, enhanced radar for japan and flying the b-2 and b-52 bombers in the area so that north korea understands our resolve. because they have a history of doing things on anniversaries. >> was it a mistake for secretary hagel to cancel the minuteman 3 test that had been scheduled to avoid any sense of being provocative? or do you think that was a wise decision. >> andrea, i have some concerns about that decision. because this was something we already had planned in terms of our own missile testing.

and so if we start changing our testing based on what north korea does, i am a little concerned that that could send the wrong message to the new young leader there, that what he is doing is actually going to get us to take actions that he would appreciate. but i also want to say that i appreciate the administration has put assets in place in the area. and so i'm hopeful that the new leader in north korea will understand we're very serious and we have the resolve to make sure that we're going to protect our people, our allies in south korea and japan. >> and senator what do you say to your republican colleagues on a different subject, domestically, on guns? should there be a filibuster? or should the republicans let the legislation come to the floor for a vote? >> andrea, i don't support a filibuster for this. i believe that there should be provided that there are amendments, and that we can have a full and robust debate and i think that's the way to go forward on an important issue. particularly obviously the

second amendment is very important to the constitution. and also, making sure that people that shouldn't have guns, don't have them. >> thank you very much, kelly ayotte, thank you, senator. and last night a very special night at the kennedy center, i was among a large audience inspired by a very special performance. yo-yo ma, the world-renowned cellist leading a group of wounded warriors from walter reed national army center. you are a national treasure. [ female announcer ] new york strips. sudden trips. mr. wiggles and curling irons. for the little mishaps you feel, use neosporin to help you heal. it kills germs

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julieiard. which political stories will make headlines in the next 24 hours? we want to bring people into this flap over what mitch mcconnell did or did not do at a strategy session when he and his staff thought ashley judd might have been challenging him. she decided not to run. but this race is getting nasty. there's an audio tape and they were going after her vaguely on personal stuff. >> fascinating. >> mcconnell has asked the fbi to find out, how did that audio tape get into play? he is not questioning the veracity of it. >> no issue of whether this is mitch mcconnell and his campaign staff talking about ashley judd who has decided not to run. this is a tape from early february she got out of the race later that month. talking about some of his other opponents, too. what's fascinating about this is the audio and transcript reported on mother jones this morning. this is the same place that got the 47% video of mitt romney and

other video of romney making comments in a private fund-raiser. the mcconnell team and senate republicans believe very strongly, though as you say, we have no evidence of how this audio was obtained. the mcconnell folks are asking the fbi to look into it. there is a statement from jerry moran, the campaign arm, calling this watergate style tactics. the question is how did they get the tape? this is clear lay private meeting with mitch mcconnell and his staff. mother jones has essentially said, look, someone gave this to us. they wanted to remain a none must. this is not the last we have heard of this story. that's the one thing i can tell you for sure. >> and ashley judd's spokesperson has issued a statement saying this is yet another example of the politics of personal destruction that embody mitch mcconnell and are pervasive in washington, d.c. we expected nothing less than mitch mcconnell and his camp than to take a personal struggle such as depression which many

americans cope with on a daily basis and turn it into a laughing matter. every day it become clear how much we need change in washington from this kind of rhetoric and actions. so they are going after her on personal stuff and she is acknowledging that and firing back at him. and you're right. this is not going away. meanwhile, the gun debate will continue. 2:00, the vice president, the attorney general, and they will of course, the vice president will be talking to joe scarborough tomorrow for "morning joe" on thursday at a town hall meeting on guns. this is the key week. guns, immigration, now i'm hearing maybe monday is the day for immigration. that they need a couple more days to pull this all together. >> a huge week and i would say guns at the forefront of it. if joe manchin and pat toomey cannot come to a deal on expand background checks, and apply guess is they have until the end of today, if they cannot come to a deal, we're filibuster, what

does it mean as we go forward on actual amendments to the bill. this is going to be a fascinating period politically. >> thank you so much, chris cillizza. i know you'll be holding down the fort. the whole team here. that does it for "andrea mitchell reports." i'll be heading to korea, china and japan with secretary kerry in the next couple days. follow the show online and on twitter. coming up, several breaking stories. first, senator mitch mcconnell has asked the fbi to investigate what his team is calling watergate style tactics after audio surfaces from a campaign meeting where he was gathering opposition research on actress ashley judd. we have a new statement from mother jones, the website that played the audio. as well as that infamous remark by mitt romney, the 47% comment. plus, the gun battle over the score card. the nra, no longer the only organization issuing grades on

gun votes. michael bloomberg's organization says those groups will keep score. will it make a difference? it is all coming up next on "news nation." it's delicious. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. i never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. i love to golf. ♪ [ grunts ] yowza! that's why i eat belvita at breakfast. it's made with delicious ingredients and carefully baked to release steady energy that lasts... we are golfing now, buddy! [ grunts ] ...all morning long. i got it!

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