>> thank you, s.e. good afternoon, it's tuesday april the 9th. senator mitch mcconnell can't look newtown families in the eye and tell them why he's threatened to filibuster, but he is man enough to take on ashley judd. tough guy, isn't he? we have the reporter who broke that story, just ahead. >> connecticut, this is not about me. this is not about politics. this is about doing the right thing for all the families who are here that have been torn apart by gun violence. >> i stand before you now and ask you to stand with me. with all the families. >> i'm going to take another opportunity to congratulate the louisville cardinals for an incredible championship win last night. >> and yet some folks back in washington are already floating the idea that they may use political stunts to prevent voes on any of these reforms. >> i also want to say a word about margaret thatcher.

>> they're saying your opinion doesn't matter. >> she literally turned the tide, so we mourn her passing. >> we want a vote! >> we want a vote. >> we want a vote! we want a vote! it is a beautiful spring day on the east coast. and imagine it, congress is in session and hard at work. indeed. it is a very busy day in washington. for the president, for activists, and for lawmakers. a busy day for mitch mcconnell, facing a high-stakes gamble in gun politics and a controversy over his electoral playbook. "mother jones" magazine obtained a secret tape of mcconnell's team behind the scenes revealing just how far he would go to bring down a rival. mcconnell offered his first

response just moments ago saying his office was bugged. >> as i indicated, last month they were attacking my wife's ethnicity, and apparently also unbeknownst to us at the time, they were bugging our headquarters. quite a nixonian move. this is what you get from the political left in america these days. >> and just ahead, we'll have an exclusive interview with the man who broke the story. we begin with those families most devastated by gun violence. challenging lawmakers to look them in the eye and then reject their plea to save lives. those families of newtown victims are in washington. going from senator to senator to plead their case for expanded background checks. the president escorted them personally aboard air force one last night after a speech in hartford, connecticut. where he made an impassioned commitment not to forget their heartbreak. >> and newtown, we want you to

know that we're here with you. we will not walk away from the promises we've made. we are as determined as ever to do what must be done. >> the president traded empathy with outrage. calling out senators who are threatening to filibuster any gun safety legislation. >> and yet some folks back in washington are already floating the idea that they may use political stunts to prevent votes on any of these reforms. and that's not right. that is not right. >> we want a vote! >> we need a vote. >> we want a vote! >> that's right. a growing group of senators are vowing to prevent even a debate on gun legislation. the filibuster 14 includes minority leader mitch mcconnell jumping on the caucus of cowardace that includes marco rubio, ted cruz and filibuster

fanatic rand paul. senator mcconnell took to the senate floor to explain himself just a few hours ago. >> time has come to summon the political courage to move beyond the status quo. >> now, i'm sorry, those rather sensible words were about the budget, not about the background check supported by 90% of the nation. indeed, mr. mcconnell had not one word to say about guns on the senate floor today. not one word. as the families of newtown walked the congressional corridors. instead, he used his time to glorify louisville basketball, lionize margaret thatcher, and criticize the president's budget. after having met with newtown families today, it won't surprise you that vice president joe biden did not find himself so bashful on the subject. >> it's time for every man and woman in the senate to stand up and say, aye or nay. people say, what am i going to say to the nra? i have a question for you, what

are you going to say to those parents? look them in the eye and tell them you concluded there's nothing you can do? >> on a more hopeful note, as many as ten republican senators including john mccain and lindsey graham have indicated they will not join a filibuster. majority leader harry reid tells reporters he is taking the necessary steps tonight to move forward. setting a deadline tonight for a background check compromise with the potential for a vote on thursday. for more we're swrojoined by nb kristen welker live at the white house. we saw the president absolutely indignant his republican opponents would hold up, even debate on the background checks that 90% of americans support. so what is the outlook like today, kristen? >> reporter: martin, good afternoon. at this hour, democrats on the hill do not believe that republicans have enough votes to

move forward with a filibuster. but, again, i underscore at this hour, because, of course, there are a lot of moving parts to this. democrats are feeling confident right now that they would have the 60 votes necessary to block a filibuster once this does come before the senate. and, of course, that is expected to happen on thursday. now, of course, all of this comes after that full-court press that the white house has been engaging in. the president in connecticut yesterday brought the families of the newtown massacre home with him here so that they could do their own lobbying on capitol hill. that is what is happening right now. vice president biden, as you mentioned, spoke today. the first lady will travel to chicago tomorrow. she will lend her voice to this debate. so the white house engaging in a strategy of really trying to harness public momentum. to put the pressure on when this does, in fact, come to a vote which, again, is expected to happen on thursday. martin? >> nbc's kristen welker, thank you. from capitol hill now, i want to bring in democratic

senator richard blumenthal of connecticut. good afternoon, sir. >> good afternoon, martin. >> you've just met with the families of newtown victims. what's their response to those of your colleagues across the aisle trying to prevent a vote, even a discussion, on these gun reforms? what's the reaction of those families? >> the reaction of the families is no different than the reactions of, my guess is, the overwhelming majority of americans that they are aghast and angry that a small group of senators would block an overwhelming majority. not only an overwhelming majority of senators who want a vote, but also americans who want common sense measures to control gun violence and stop the kind of mass killing that so deeply and horribly affected their lives. the unspeakable and unimaginable tragedy that they suffered, they

are giving voice and face to as they go around capitol hill talking to my colleagues, senators who know in their hearts what the right thing to do is. and they simply have to stand up to the special interests and the nra that have exercised the stranglehold in the past. >> well, sir, you say that they know in their hearts the right thing to do. one of the filibuster 14, senator mike lee, has issued a statement to explain his obstructionism. i'm quoting him. he says, our effort to require a 60-vote threshold is an attempt to facilitate greater debate. that sounds somewhat orwellian. what is the man talking about? it's his actions -- >> i'm not sure. >> -- that will prevent a debate. >> i'm not sure what he means, but what we mean is to have a debate and then vote on the bill which would ban illegal trafficking, strengthen school safety, require background

checks and also amendments that i will help to spearhead on the ban on major capacity or high-capacity ammunition trips and on assault weapons that will be offered by senator feinstein. so these votes are important. as the president has said, the families deserve a vote, the victims deserve a vote. not just the newtown victims, but more than 3,000 victims of gun violence since newtown. >> yes. i want to play a little more of vice president biden, if i may, sir, who talked about the question that he got from the newtown families today. i'd like you to take a listen. >> how is it they don't understand? what should i say to them? they're all going up on the hill. the question was, it was a legitimate question, like, you know, as if they're going to speak to some ancient aztecs. >> that's exactly it, isn't it? these senators are so out of

step with the public, it's like they're from another period of history. another place entirely. >> i am increasingly hopeful, i never use the word confident, about the united states senate, before the outcome, that we will have cloture, which means we will enable, not just debate, but votes on these substantive provisions that are so vital to the safety of our nation. the overwhelming majority of americans, we've heard this statistic again and again and again. 90% want common sense measures to stop gun violence. and the disconnect between washington and the rest of the country has never been so severe, and that's why we have to break the stranglehold the nra en oaand other special inte enter imposed. >> senator, if i may ask you this, you've had the painful privilege of speaking directly to these families. what do they say to you? having lost their beloved children, ages 5 and 6?

what do they say to you about what they want to see in terms of action? >> martin, they want there to be no more newtown. they left their children on that morning, december 14th, thinking about play dates and school lunches and bedtime stories that they would enjoy with their children later that day. and horribly, unspeakably, the lives of their children were taken from them by a mass killer who used an assault weapon and a high-capacity magazine that were integral to that killing. children escaped when he had to change magazines. the assault weapon enabled him to fire 154 rounds in five minutes, tearing apart the bodies of those 20 beautiful children and 6 heroic educators who perished literally trying to save the children.

so these incredibly strong and brave families, and i am just in awe of their courage and strength, are wanting to prevent more newtowns from occurring. that's their goal. >> senator richard blumenthal, sir, thank you so much for joining us today. >> thank you. next, the fbi investigates secret recordings of senator mitch mcconnell and we have the reporter who unearthed the tapes. stay with us. >> as you know, last month, my wife's ethnicity was attacked by a left-wing group in kentucky, then apparently they also bugged my headquarters. [ male announcer ] this is george.

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it's been a somewhat 24

hours in the re-election efforts of senate republican leader mitch mcconnell. first he decided the president's moving speech on gun control to the sandy hook community monday was the perfect moment to announce his support for a gun control filibuster. then today moments after majority leader harry reid spoke movingly about gun control and his own father's suicide, mcconnell took to the floor to praise the louisville cardinals, margaret thatcher and left just enough time to batch the president's budget much as he would again later in the day. yet, nothing whatsoever about gun control or the newtown families in washington today. and then, of course, there's the "mother jones" report. the fbi is now investigating how the magazine obtained an audio recording of mcconnell and others in attendance at a private strategy session. on the tape, here is what the senator is heard saying of his potential opponents, including

ashley judd. >> i assume most of you have played the game whac-a-mole? this is the whac-a-mole period of the campaign. when anybody sticks their head up, do them out. >> we bring in the man responsible for sharing this tape with us, "mother jones" washington bureau chief, the great david corn. hello, david. >> hello, martin. >> i want to play for you reaction to this story from senator mcconnell. i know you're not going to disclose how you obtained the audio recording. that would come under your own journalistic confidentiality. can you assure us you did not break any laws in securing this tape? >> we've said in the story that we were provided the tape. we put out a statement earlier in the day in response to mitch mcconnell saying that we did not make the tape. we were provided the tape and that it is our understands thine tape was not part of any watergate-style bugging operation as mitch mcconnell has claimed it to be. i think trying to distract him.

we're still waiting for him to respond to the substance of the story. a day before the story was most posted we contacted his campaign office and senate office to put questions to them and get responses and we never heard a peep from either office. and he's trying to make it about watergate without talks about what actually happened. >> indeed. well, to that point, he did not respond to the actual contents of the tapes but here's what he said just a short time ago. >> as you know, last month my wife's ethnicity was attacked by a left wing group in kentucky, and then apparently they also bugged my headquarters. so i think that pretty well sums up the way the political left is operating in kentucky. >> is it fair game for you to question someone's mental health, or their religious sensibilities, in a strategy session like that? >> yeah, as i indicated, last month they were attacking my wife's ethnicity, and apparently also unbeknownst to us at the

time, they were bugging our headquarters. quite a nixonian move. this is what you get from the political left in america these days. >> i should point out that mr. mcconnell was asked exactly the same question again and again and again. and, of course, he gave the same response. i don't believe he has hearing problems, but what's your response to that charge of bugging, david, that you or someone connected to you or someone connected to progressives in kentucky broke into his offices and bugged them? >> well, as i've said, the source who provided this asked to be anonymous. so i can't really say anything much about that. we can say that the tape, as i understand it, after doing my own vetting and reporting, was not the product of a watergate-style bugging operation. so, and that's really as much as i can say now about this. if the source wants to let people know -- >> of course. >> -- then we'll find out about

that. but mitch mcconnell keeps, you know, sticking to that talking point rather than answering the question. the interesting thing is, if people tgo to the "mother joan" website or read the story, listen to it, the research people are doing what opo research people tdo. >> i can save you the trouble of promoting your magazine because i am now going to play a little bit of that tape. let's have a listen. >> she's clearly, this sounds extreme, but she's emotionally unbalanced. i mean, it's been documented. >> that is a reference to ashley judd. she respond in part by saying this -- we expected nothing less from mitch mcconnell and his camp to take a personal struggle such as depression, which many americans cope with on a daily basis, and turn it into a laughing matter." is discussion of a possible attack on mental health lines now politics as usual, david? is that the standard we would expect from a man as robust,

arodite, as the great mitch mcconnell? >> the interesting thing is if you listen to the whole tape, you see mitch mcconnell doesn't participate that much. he's there listening. but at no time does he say, i don't want to do this, i don't want to go there, i don't want to go into her mental health history, i don't want to go into her religious views. there was plenty of material about policy matters, climate change, coal, supporting obama, supporting obama care that would have given him enough material for a senate race in kentucky. that i think is all fair game. and yet here is the guy who is the leading republican, really the number one elected republican, you know, in the country after john boehner, and he's showing no real moral leadership is how i would put it in saying, listen, i'm glad you guys looked at this, let's just move on. let's put it aside. i know you're paid to do this, let's move on. he doesn't do that. >> this is a young actress, david, who, herself, has described herself as being a

victim of rape, who's very sympathetically described her own struggles with psychiatric illness in the form of depression. and mitch mcconnell cannot find it in himself to interrupt the conversation and say, gentlemen, ladies, this isn't really what we should be doing. >> yes, this isn't who i am, this isn't who we are. and the thing is this wasn't great opposition research in the sense it took a lot of digging. all they had to do was read her book. >> as i've done. >> i've heard -- you know, i've heard of that. at one point they go, jesse, maybe his campaign manager, jesse benton, has been through her book. good work there, jesse. it's out there, it's public. if people want to read profiles of her, voters want to find out the stuff, they can. he, you know, again, in this meeting never said let's just leave that stuff alone. it's out there for people to consider on their own. we don't have to go that way. >> chris cillizza who writes for the "washington post" and comments on msnbc from time to time says this tape is, i'm quoting him, "much adieu about

not much." what's your response to that, david? >> well, you know, in one way chris is right in that this is standard operating procedure. opo research for a campaign happens all the time. i think what's fascinating is, like with the 47% tape, in a way, this is not the type of politics that we americans generally get to see. and if you were to ask mitch mcconnell, do you have a secret strategy meetings where you talk about criticizing the mental health history of your opponents? i'm sure he would not give you a straight answer on that. so while it's not a shock in that this happens, i think it still remains revealing to see it, or hear it live, so to speak, and to see how mitch mcconnell reacted or actually didn't react to the key parts of this conversation. >> remarkably, david, he objects to his wife being impugned on the basis of her race, and yet he allows his friends in that meeting to impugn someone else's psychiatric illness.

well done, mitch mcconnell. david corn of "mother jones" magazine. another scoop. congratulations, sir. >> thank you, martin. coming up, the lionization of an american baroness. wait, sorry, she was english. stay with us. [ coughs ] [ angry gibberish ]

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we need a vote. >> we want a vote! >> this is not about me. this is not about politics. >> it was a truly exciting game. >> they don't even want to let us vote on this. >> we really love a story about somebody getting knocked down. >> wayne reminds me of the clowns at the circus. >> i don't understand it. what are we afraid of? >> i took the liberty of opening you a twitter account. >> rock on. >> pres billy jeff was available. >> 140 characters or less. >> just spent amazing time with colbert. question, is he sane? >> darwin's groundbreaking evolution of gay marriage acceptance chart. that's illegal, god hates you, god hates you, but will and grace is entertaining. how about a civil union? congratulations mr. and mrs. smith. >> if you're african-american and conservative in this country right now you're vilified. >> what have you been called since then? >> some of the words cannot be used. there's less respect.

young men are not aren't respecting young ladies. they're going around impregna impregnatiimpregnat impregnating them. >> people can be brilliant and still be dumb. >> there's a famous quote where she told president bush 41 not to go wobbly. >> that's not true. >> one of the top ten people of all time. >> sometimes i think of her when i think of the task that is going to be ahead of us after obama leaves office. let's get right to our panel. joining us is ryan grim, washington bureau chief. thank you for paying attention, from the "huffington post" and dane ma milbank, political columnist from the "washington post," always on order and on point. dana, we just heard the great dick cheney saying what he thinks of margaret thatcher whenever he thinks what the united states is going to be like when this current president leaves office. his analogy appears to be problematic because wasn't it dick cheney and george w. bush who handed this president a

ruined economy, much like the one that mrs. thatcher inherited, what, back in 1979? >> you know, this is striking, mart martin, because usually when dick cheney opens his mouth only very sensible thoughts come out. this is really quite out of character for him. but, look, he would like, very much like his own legacy as virtually all republicans, conservatives would, to be identified with that of margaret thatcher or the idealized version of margaret thatcher. >> you mean the version. >> well, of course. look, in similar ways to the way ronald reagan was mythologized in this country. they would all like to be identified with that. obviously they've fallen short on the whole mythology index. >> indeed they have. ryan, we're all gluttons for punishment. let's hear more of dead eye dick's reflections on mrs. thatcher. take a listen. >> she conveyed this aura of knowing what needed to be done

and being willing to do it no matter what the political cost. >> it's clear vice president cheney holds mrs. thatcher in very high regard, but he describes her almost as a male version of himself, doesn't he? >> yes. i think he's stopped thinking of thatcher and was thinking of dick cheney. you know, basically as soon as he started that sentence. you know, one of the other things -- one of the things that thatcher said about her own legacy when she was asked about it, she said, you know, one of the greatest things that i've left behind was tony blair. you know, you can never imagine a republican in the united states saying something like that. you know, and i think -- i think what she meant by that is, you know, she was able to break kind of the far left of the labor party and allow this neoliberal labor party to emerge. you'd never see dick cheney say the greatest legacy of the bush administration is barack obama. and barack obama certainly is a legacy of the bush administration. you know, the backlash in 2008 against dick cheney and george bush was fierce.

>> absolutely. dana, all we hear in this country from conservatives is now wonderful margaret thatcher was, but her passing actually provoked some celebrations in the united kingdom and northern island. take, for example, a report in the "guardian" newspaper, follows a group of former coal miners beaten by police under mrs. thatcher's rule. she herself referred to the miners, i'm quoting her, "the enemy within." they're not mourning her passing in quite the same way many republicans in america appear to do so. >> this is fairly common, martin, and it happens with david cameron as well who's idiolized by american conservatives. over there he ais quite unpopulr in the opinion polls. thatcher is more popular than not popular in britain as well. she's among the most popular -- the most popular prime minister of the last 50 years. but harold wilson and tony blair

are right up there with her. >> absolutely. >> sorry, i'm getting something strange in the ear here. >> it's certainly not me, dana. >> what she was was a polarizing figure. 50% of the people there have a good impression of her. this is done after her death. 34% have a bad impression. there's nobody in between. that's the legacy over there. not that she's disliked widely, but she's polarizing. >> margaret thatcher's body was removed this morning from the ritz hotel in london. this is one of the most expensive hotels in the world. a small room there runs $800 a night. so, but it's kind of a tragic end to this woman's life, not surrounded by any family, but simply a carer who was looking after her in a room next door. >> no, you know, it's fitting because it is a symbol of inequality, and, you know, her greatest legacy is probably, you know, breaking the working class and breaking the labor movement

in britain and being able to, you know, break the welfare state which has allowed all of the austerity, you know, to come into play since then. you know, poverty and inequality have risen since that. which shouldn't be surprising when you take power away from the working class, it's going to -- it's going to flow upwards. and it's going to flow to the types of people who stay at the ritz. >> right. dana, one thing i've noticed about the reaction to mrs. thatcher's death is the outpouring of racist invective on twitter directed to me personally. one person sent out a tweet saying i should be burned at the stake, i guess like hugh latimer and william tindale who translated the new testament believing it to be the word of god the truth. they have a preference to attack someone who's trying to give a balanced approach to her life as opposed to mythologizing. >> i put you more in the category of joan of arch. maybe that's not altogether a bad thing, but this is the time

when people are -- >> but is there not some serious requirement that when a major historic figure passes, we ought to make an assessment on their life that isn't just simply eulogizing and praising every single one of the positive things we can choose to find and ignoring what was a very divisive premier in the united kingd kingdom? >> that's how history will view her. that has been a lot of how people are assessing this. certainly, there's a bit of gee wr geography going on now. people are addressing it in a candid way and there are those who will come up with the types of things you just cited. >> martin, notice a lot of the same people who are saying, hey, let's not speak ill of the dead, think of her family, are the exact same people who didn't have those same considerations when hugo chavez died. >> yes. indeed, that's true. thank you, ryan grim and dana milbank. gentlemen, thanks. >> thanks, martin. coming up, rand paul takes

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you need an ally. ally bank. your money needs an ally. senator rand paul is on his 2016 i'm not officially running for anything yet national tour. tomorrow, that takes him to howard university, one of the oldest and most respected historically black colleges in the united states. and to preview that speech i'm delighted to be joined by joy reid, managing editor of the grio.com. what do you expect from this speech? is it going to be somewhat confrontational in the way that magnificent performance by mitt romney was when he went before the naacp? what does rand paul want out of this? >> yeah, i suspect rand paul will not take the confrontational approach. if you remember at the time, mitt romney's goal in doing the speech to the naacp was he was trying to show the right he could punch back at african-americans and say the

word obama care in their face. like that was kind of the idea. but that's not really what rand paul is trying to do. it's interesting because libertarians tend to have a better audience among younger people. on the one hand he's doing the typical i'm going to a college to talk about libertarian ideas to college students which usually kind of works more with the general audience, not a black audience. but from what i understand he's going to do the usual. school choice. he's going to talk about school choice. that's always the one they bring out. he's going to talk about some of the things younger people tend to be for like legalizing marijuana. those kind of things he thinks will get him an audience with those folks. >> do you worry given the high academic standards at howard, some of the students may have looked at his father's pamphlets that i looked at earlier today, december '89, racial violence will fill our cities. 1990, black welfare recipients feel justified in stealing from mostly white. will there be some problems there? because his father's never

conceded he wrote those pamph t pamphlets. >> that's correct. >> they were issued on his behalf. >> rand paul one like a little kid when they came out either. rand paul was old enough to have comment or thoughts in them. i wonder if they may google things rand paul, himself, have said about the civil rights act of 1965. libertarians tend not to believe government should force you to do anything including integrate your lunch counter. when confronted as to whether or not people who were seeking to eat in white establishments were right, he'll say, the government shouldn't tell them what to do in free association, on and on. >> i'd like to play something candidate rand paul said back in 2010. take a listen, joy. >> i like the civil rights act in the sense that it ended discrimination in all public domains and i'm all in favor of that. >> but? >> you had to ask me the but. i done li't like the idea of teg private businessowners, it's a

bad business decision to exclude anybody from your restaurant, but at the same time i believe in private ownership. >> can you please translate what he meant there? i'm not sure i understand it. >> he said, i wouldn't eat there. he was basically saying, yeah, according to libertarian strict principles, businesses should have the right to discriminate and say, we don't serve black people here. because he's a good person, he, himself, wouldn't eat there. i hear that argument by libertarians a lot. they'll say things like we have to get rid of social security, but i'm a generous person, i'll give to the poor. you hear that a lot in the libertarian argument. that's going to be the problem for rand paul. he can't really talk his way out of that history. you're either for the government going in and desegregating schools and lunch counters, the little rock, arkansas, high school, or you're against it. he's going to have a tough time parsing that for these students. >> will you be attending. >> i hope so. the grio will have a report tomorrow. >> that's great for our viewers to watch out for that. joy reid. thank you, joy. much more ahead.

first, the cnbc market wrap. good afternoon, bertha. >> good afternoon, martin. the dow finishing once again at a record high up nearly 60 points on the day. s&p gaining 5. nasdaq closed up 15 points. jcpenn jcpenney, closing at a 12-year low after the retailer fired ceo ron johnson after only 17 months on the job. he tried to remake the store as a high-end store but alienated original customers. kpng resigning as auditor from skechers own herbalife, an executive accused of insider trading. that's it from cnbc. martin will be back in just a moment. [ male announcer ] at his current pace, bob will retire when he's 153, which would be fine if bob were a vampire. but he's not. ♪ he's an architect with two kids and a mortgage. luckily, he found someone

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the secretary general of the united nations is warning the crisis on the korean peninsula could become uncontrollable. his comments come after north korea warned foreign nationals

currently in south korea to evacuate in preparation for war. a statement attributed to pyongyang's so-called asia-pacific peace committee says "the situation on the korean peninsula is heading for a thermo-nuclear war. in the event of war, we don't want foreigners living in south korea to get hurt." secretary of state john kerry is still expected to land in seoul on friday. with the united states already directing warships to the region, and establishing an anti-missile defense shield in guam. joining us now is representative charles rangel, democrat of new york. you are actually one of the last remaining korean war veterans in the congress, i believe one of just four who are left. what goes through your mind when you see this area in which you fought literally drifting back into this kind of chaos? >> martin, if i recall correctly, in 1950, north korea was threatening to do the same thing and we laughed it off.

they were surprised that we entered the war the day after they made the invasion. and, of course, we had almost won that war before the people's republic of china came in and it was a devastating engagement which america did not come out the winner. you know, it just makes sense that if someone says they're going to kill you that you just don't dismiss it. and the fact that he's allegedly psychotic, all the more reason why we should pay attention. >> indeed. let's take a listen to the president's spokesman earlier this afternoon. here's what he said. >> the north korean leadership would be wiser to focus on developing its economy and assisting the north korean people who suffer under this kind of leadership that chooses development of missile programs and nuclear weapons rather than the feeding of its own people.

>> congressman, that's all well and good, but in the past, as you well know, north korea has used this kind of threat to leverage some kind of economic benefit in the form of reduced sanctions, improved input from other foreign countries. do you think that's the strategy here? >> i don't want to take a gamble on what their strategy is going to be. we all know that if china was to cut the umbilical cord from north korea, there would be no threats. china ought to have a more responsible position, to bring some stability region. if it so happens this 29-year-old kid starts a war he cannot stop, there will be north koreans invading, running off to china. you know, this is nothing to be laughing about saying here they go again. the fact is that he does have the necessary weapons to bring destruction to a lot of south koreans.

and people in the area. i don't think we should laugh about it and say there he goes again. >> indeed. very briefly, sir, if i can, the south of korea has a new president, president park. are you worried at all that she may be provoked into some kind of action as a consequence of this kind of ridiculous rhetoric? >> well, i don't know whether she would be provoked. she may have to defend south korea. you know, what does it take for america to be provoked if someone sends missiles over, then that's a provocation that she would have a responsibility to defend the country. we have military commitments to them. we have commitments to japan. and so we ought to be bringing all of these people together and to kill this whole idea before it even gets started. you know, you don't call somebody's bluff if you're talking about life and death and talking about war.

>> absolutely right. spoken as a veteran. congressman charles rangel, as ever, sir, thank you. >> thank you, martin. >> we'll be right back. [ kitt ] you know what's impressive?

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courage to speak for himself but asked his spokesman to issue the statement "senator mcconnell will oppose cloture on proceeding that bill." he joins the group of 13 senators who do not believe the murder of 20 elementary schoolchildren is worth even a discussion of gun legislation on the floor of the senate. leading the charge for this dismal caucus of cowards are senators rand paul and ted cruz. and bringing up the rear of this band of brothers are mike lee, marco rubio, jerry moran, jim inhofe, richard burr, ron johnson, mike enzi, jim risch, mike crapo, dan coats and pat roberts. and these are men who do not believe that the massacre of american children should cause us to pause and even discuss new forms of gun safety legislation on the floor of the senate. their refusal is partly based

upon the fact that they cannot be shamed by the victims of that tragedy because their voices are now silent. so here's a reminder of those beautiful children whom the president believes deserve nothing more, nothing less, than a vote. charlotte bacon. daniel bardon. olivia. josephine gay. ana marquez-greene. dylan hockley. madeleine sue. catherine hubbard. chase kowalski. jesse lewis. james mattioli. grace mcdonnell. emilie parker. jack pinto. noah pozner. caroline providi. jessica. aviel richmond. ben wheeler. and allison wyatt. if only for pity's sake, give these children a vote.