offering a replacement camel one that an anonymous official skroibd as, quote, a bigger and better camel, shipped directly to france, to a zoo in france. zoo. not stew. now you know. one to grow on. it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. have a great night. today, the united states senate heeded the call of the lobbyists. from newtown, connecticut. the answer can't be as it has been for 20 years we do nothing. >> developing news out of capitol hill. >> the first vote on gun safety comes next hour. >> today let us decide there will be no more newtown. >> the senate voted 68-31. >> the procedural vote in the senate. >> to begin debating senator harry reid's gun safety reform bill. >> hard work starts now. >> we've got to reach 60 votes. >> the bill has gotten past that 60-vote hurdle. >> 60 votes, not bad. >> there is still work to be

done. >> we've got to reach 06 votes. actually, several times. >> we don't know what the end result will be. >> in order for this to go all the way. >> white house is pulling out all the stops. >> the public is so far ahead. >> here's the thing, a wide divide. >> a new nbc "wall street journal" poll. i love this thing. >> 82% of democrats favor stricter gun laws. >> only 27% of republicans. >> just 27% of republicans. >> >> reporter: what happens next? >> what is the goal? >> it needs to be bipartisan. >> republicans and democrats are working together. >> congressman mike thompson and peter king. >> i don't know what they're afraid. >> pat toomey and joe manchin. >> this does nothing to infringe the rights of law abiding citizens. >> the answer can't be we're going to do nothing. >> the debate begins. with the families of the victims of the sandy hook

massacre watching from the senate gallery today, the senate voted to move forward on massacre volume legislation. the measure passed with 68 votes. 16 republicans joined 52 democrats to overwhelm the republican filibuster threat led by rand paul and ted cruz. julian soto who lost her sister in the newtown massacre, said this. >> we had a good start. this is one thing we needed done, and we're not going anywhere. at least i'm not. >> president obama called the sandy hook family members who have been lobbying congress all week. white house secretary jay carney described the call this way. >> the president congratulated the families, noting the bipartisan progress would not have been possible without their efforts. he reiterated that much work remains and pledged to continue fighting for the votes they deserve. >> every word of every republican argument against gun safety legislation pretends that the united states supreme court

has not already defined the limits of the second amendment. republicans pretend their favorite supreme court justice, antonin scalia has not said public that it of course allows restrictions to be placed. they pretend the court did not make that clear in the heller case. they pretend the only words ever written about the second amendment are in the second amendment. >> the government should not punish or harass law-abiding citizens in the exercise of their second amendment rights. >> anyone who is true conservative, whether you're -- senate, house, wherever, watching the show, stand by the second amendment. >> the supreme court has spoken. but in washington, it seems only the democrats know that. >> you're allowed to ten certain people under the constitution access. you're allowed to deny certain weapons. you're allowed to deny certain bullets. you're allowed to do that. that's constitutional. we can argue whether we should. but this argument there's any

constitutional violation is absolutely not there. >> not everyone on fox news is falling for the republican constitutional lie. >> doesn't it make sense to have firearm registration, just like you register your car? doesn't that make sense? so then if somebody doesn't register, you can slap them with a ten-year mandatory? >> the worst, most vicious lie being told by republicans is this one. >> none of what's been proposed would have stopped it, by the way. >> nothing that's proposed would prevent another newtown. another aurora, colorado. >> you look at aurora and you look at newtown, there's nothing that's been proposed here. not a single thing that would have prevented the tragedy. >> if the shooter in tucson, arizona had been limited to a magazine with ten bullets, christina taylor green would be alive today.

christina taylor green's life ended that day at age 9 when she was shot after the 12th bullet had been fired from a magazine holding 33 bullets. that shooter was stopped only when he had to change magazines. you can blame the shooter for the first ten bullets. you have the law and lawmakers to blame for every bullet fired after that. magazines larger than ten rounds used to be illegal in this country. christina taylor green was safe then. she is dead now. because of cowardly lawmakers' indifference to her right to life. the mass murders in newtown, connecticut and tucson, arizona were made much more murder rouse thanks to the members of congress and lawmakers around the country who have done everything they can to make sure huh when our mass murderers enter a movie theater or shopping mall or elementary school, they will be able to go in there with high-capacity

magazines. joining me now, connecticut democratic senator richard blumenthal, and joy reid. senator blumenthal, you know what happened in sandy hook was a result of those high-capacity magazines. >> absolutely right, lawrence. and by the way, the killer at home had both low-capacity magazines and high-capacity magazines. he took with him the 30-round magazines. because he wanted to kill -- more people. >> who could you ask for about what high-capacity magazines mean to mass murderers. >> there is even more proof which is that when he had to change magazines, children actually escaped from the classroom. 6 to 11 children really escaped because he had -- or chose to change magazines. so there is no question that as you put it so well, these magazines make these mass killings more murderous. they don't necessarily cause them or compel them. they make them more lethal.

and the same is true of assault weapons. he had both shotguns and assault weapons. he chose the assault weapon, because he knew he could fire and kill more people, more rapidly, more lethally. and that's why we are supporting a bill and i'm going to be very proud to spearhead the amendment that deals with high-capacity magazines and bans any that have more than ten rounds. not because they will necessarily end all of the killings in this country. 3,300 people have died since newtown. but at least they will save some lives. and if we save lives, we have accomplished something. >> and joy, we all know we can't end this phenomenon, but this limit on magazines, to limit what's going to happen when these kinds of crazy people go on their rampages. >> absolutely. we can't obviously stop all car accidents. but that doesn't mean we don't regulate automobiles, we don't put restrictions on their use.

it is such a shame in their hour of grief these newtown parents have had to trek to washington with pictures of their children, just to get the most basic common sense reforms done that the senator was talking about. it is common sense the only way to stop a mass murderer is to make him pause. if that's all we're asking for, we can save 10 out of 20 kids or 15. isn't that worth trying? it's an unbelievable to me that anyone would be opposed. >> senator, that vote today, overwhelmed that -- those opponents who said we won't even let you debate this. what would that vote have been today if the newtown families didn't spend the week in washington? >> i don't know exactly what it would have been. but there's no question that they helped determine the tie. remember back four months ago, gun violence control was deemed to be untouchable politically. four days ago, we didn't know whether we could reach this 60-vote threshold. many regard it as unwinnable and unreachable. and they came to washington, and

they met face-to-face. their voices and their faces were really so powerful and so eloquent. colleagues of mine came to me on the floor of the senate today and they said i met with your constituents. those families. wow. they are unbelievable. their strength and courage, i think, was the decisive factor. and you know, they -- as i said on the floor of the senate, they spoke truth to power. and i think they really did a remarkable job. >> joy, i really don't think we've seen anything like it. there was that thing that was going around in the pundit class. the week after this shooting in connecticut saying, well, how long will the effect last? how long will the effect last? and if we were to calculate, how long can dick blumenthal keep this in the air? how long can the congressional delegation from connecticut keep this alive? it would have been not as strong

a calculation but seeing what those families can to is something we haven't seen in our politics before. >> absolutely. some of the most remarkable video is the family sitting with joe manchin, the nnraa-rated senator and he was almost brought to tears. and we don't do it often but you have to give some nods for political courage to people who face tough re-election like mary landrieu, pat toomey, who took a tough vote. the nra is scoring just allowing this bill to proceed. this won't the vote on the bill. this was just to allow the senator and others to debate the bill. so those senators who took that courageous step should be commended for listening to those families. >> joy reid and senator richard blumenthal, thank you both. >> thank you. coming up in a "last word" exclusive, one of the teachers who saved a live inside sandy hook elementary. and in the rewrite, part two of what francis perkins, the woman who created social security, would think of the

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what's your real name, baby? >> francis. after the first woman in the cabinet. >> i did not know that my pal, jennifer grey, said that in that movie until one of our viewers tweeted it to us last night. more on francis perkins and social security later tonight. but there will be no dancing. ♪

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president obama sparked another round of republicans versus republicans in the house of representatives. first, john boehner said this about the president's proposal to reduce the annual increase in social security benefits. >> he does deserve some credit for some incremental entitlement reforms. that he has outlined in his budget. >> then came republican congressman greg walden. >> his budget really lays out kind of a shocking attack on seniors, if you will. i think he's going to have a lot of pushback from some of the major senior organizations on this, and republicans, as well. >> yes. that guy is a republican. and john boehner didn't like that one bit. >> i made it clear that i disagree with what chairman walden said. he and i have had a conversation about it. >> the man who used to lead the budget thinking in the house of

representatives first said this. >> so change cpi. the president put this proposal in there, in his budget. first time he has done something like that. and so we interpret this as more or less an olive branch, meaning a good thing. >> and then he said this. >> we've never proposed it before. we've never proposed this. this is not our idea. >> that's how good a thing it is. grover norquist had this to say about the president's budget today. >> if the president actually wanted to pass anything in his budget, he would have lined up the democrat votes in the senate first. it's just for show. he didn't actually write a budget he plans to work with. >> howard fineman, this is a very interesting point that grover nor quest just brought up. rachel raised this last night. is he serious about this budget? is this some kind of political pot-stirring and not really

attempting to legislate? >> i think he's serious enough about it as a way to drive the republicans crazy. >> it's working! >> which is working. because the republicans like to talk about how they want to, you know, really approach this big behemoth of entitlement reform. but they don't really -- they can't decide whether they really want to do it or don't want to do it. don't forget, ronald reagan back in the day exempted social security and medicare. george w. bush expanded medicare. the republicans prospered in 2010, not just because of the tea party, but because they ran on the notion that barack obama wanted to cut medicare. then paul ryan put his cuts in his campaign document and mitt romney took those cuts out. so they can't decide -- and whenever they get up close to it, they then kind of scurry away in the other direction. and i think the president is sort of calling them on it. and good for him for trying to do that. so i'm not entirely sure that he's serious. and even though the

progressives, in his own party have gone crazy about this, i don't think they quite appreciate what he's up to here. he's trying to call the republicans on something that he needed to be called on. >> but to go into the democratic party dynamics on this, what the progressives are saying about this is also very helpful to the -- to the president. if he ever is in a negotiation with republicans, which is highly doubtful. he has to be able to show them, look, this is how hard this kind of movement is on my side. and oh, by the way, he might not be able to do it, even if he says he wants to do it, because you have to have the votes. >> yeah. you have to have the votes. and i think that the larger point here from the progressive side, and i think they're right about this. there are lots and lots of ways to deal with a budget deficit, if you're serious about it. chipping away at cost of living adjustments for seniors is really not the way to do it. especially in social security. because social security really isn't part of the actual

equation. social security is off on its side, should be left on its side. and they have a very valid point about that. and it's actually won that i think greg walden, who by the way, is also head of the republican congressional campaign committee. >> which has a lot to do with this. >> of course it has a lot to do with it. his people are going to have to go out there suspect run -- >> the guys in the swing districts, this could be a problem, even as republicans. >> absolutely. >> howard fineman, thank you very much for joining me tonight. >> thank you, lawrence. coming up, last night members of congress watched aa documentary about the young men and women whose entire lives depend on their vote on the drooem act. one of those dreamers will join me next. ♪

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>> in the spotlight tonight, the dream is now. after that demonstration on the west lawn of the capitol yesterday, in favor of immigration reform, senators and congressmen gathered to do something i have never heard of them doing. they sat down together to watch a movie as a way of helping them decide how they will vote on legislation. now, i've seen senators and congressmen go to movie premiers in washington off-campus. i've seen the senate recently have a screening of "lincoln" in the big new screening room they have on the grounds of the capitol. but senators and congressmen sitting down to watch a film about legislation they will be voting on? i've never seen them do that.

in an organized way. and i don't think they ever have before last night. a group of senators led by chuck schumer and dick durbin watched the 30-minute film, "the dream is now" about young immigrants whose dreams can be answered only if the d.r.e.a.m. act becomes law. nancy pelosi led a separate group who gathered together to watch the same film. here is part of what they saw. >> ula and her mother went to a routine meeting at immigration headquarters. >> it was a hot, big, crowded room. dead-silent. >> a supervisor led ola into a separate interrogation room. >> you're going to be deported. it's going to be soon. i was taken to the basement,

handcuffed to a chair in the hallway. six hours. i believed in this idea that if i had worked hard enough, i would earn my place here. >> joining me now is ola caso who came to this country from albania at the age of 5, and davis guggenheim, the producer of "the dream is now." oila, what was it like to be at that screening room last night, that very big screening room? >> it was incredible. it reenlightened a sense of hope and a sense of just -- i can't even explain it to you. just to know that they were listening. our voices were being heard. and that change is right around the corner. it was incredible. >> davis, you know when an audience is connecting to a movie and what they're getting out of it. what was your accepts of what happened last night? >> it was a powerful day. and to see ola, leader pelosi,

your vote is my future. and the whole room started to cry. what you don't see in the film is that ola is a spectacular student who we may ship away. she wants to work in cancer research. she wants to help underprivileged women to -- help them with -- medically. and she has done everything right. that's what we learn about these dreamers. they work hard, they do everything right. >> how -- look. american high school kids have enough struggle trying to do everything right. when they know that their future is pretty much guaranteed to them, if they do do everything right, how did you continue to apply yourself, knowing that there's brick -- a brick wall at the end of this line that you're going down? >> it's very difficult to juggle the stress, in addition to studying for finals, studying for exams, athletics and student government and national honor society. but at the same time, it gives you something to work even harder towards.

you think that i just need to work harder. i need to prove myself. i need to earn my place here. and if i do that, i can guarantee a future for myself. i can build a future for myself that doesn't exist right now. >> but there you are working on earning your place here and you've come close to being deported. >> yes. and that's -- it's really discouraging. and it -- really breaks you down and makes you lose hope. and it makes you question all of the values that you've been taught here and everything that you thought that the country stood for. >> and davis, the provisions in the d.r.e.a.m. act pretty much guarantee you getting the kinds of new americans that you want to have in this country. >> that's exactly right. do we want to give ola away -- >> we don't. >> i want to keep her. don't you? >> talk about brain drain, if we lose these people. >> and the idea that if people spend the time, 30 minutes to watch this movie, it will open their minds and their hearts to what's really at stake here. there are millions of people

like ola who make our country great. and it's not just moral, it's right thing to do, but it's practical. it will bring more money to our economy. american center for progress has $329 billion in added revenue and spending. if we fix this thing. it's a no-brainer. and yet, you know, we're close, but will we get over the edge. and that's the hope with this movie. >> what is your expectation of what you think congress will end up doing, giving away the immigration reform story has been unfolding so far this year? >> well, i can only give my personal experience and from what i saw yesterday, congressmen went into the room with a certain energy, and they walked out of the room wanting to change something. they walked out of the room with a sense of i need to do something about this. it's not one of those movies that you can just watch and just forget about. it's something that you're going to be thinking about for days and weeks after you watch it. >> it's been a week of amazing

personal advocacy in washington with the newtown, connecticut families and now the dreamers being down there. ola kaso and davis hugo guggenheim, thank you for joining us tonight. the movie this sunday night at 4:00 p.m. eastern. and coming up, one of the teachers who saved a life at sandy hook elementary school is here in our "last word" exclusive. flying is old hat for business travelers. the act of soaring across an ocean in a three-hundred-ton rocket doesn't raise as much as an eyebrow for these veterans of the sky. however, seeing this little beauty over international waters is enough to bring a traveler to tears.

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♪ and if you got the wrong home insurance coverage, my medical bills could get expensive. so get allstate. [ dennis ] good hands. good home. make sure you have the right home protection. talk to an allstate agent. in tonight's "rewrite," chapter 2 of a love letter. last night i introduced you to my beloved francis perkins, the

first woman cabinet member, the woman who really did create social security as franklin roosevelt's secretary of labor and then, of course, sat back and applauded president roosevelt as he got all the public credit for creating social security. what roosevelt really deserves credit for, huge credit, is having the vision and courage to choose francis perkins as his secretary of labor. no president has made a better or more important cabinet choice since. and no cabinet member in history has had such a lasting and important effect on the way we live in this country. i promised last night that i would try to do the impossible tonight, and imagine what francis perkins would say about today's debate on social security. specifically the president's proposal to reduce the cost of living increase in social security benefits. now, i'm fairly certain what franklin roosevelt would say. that's the easy part. but let's listen to more of what roosevelt and francis perkins themselves had to say about social security to try to figure

out what they would say about it now. here is fdr at the signing ceremony of the social security act with francis perkins standing behind him. >> this social security measure gives at least some protection to 50 millions of our citizens who will reap direct benefits through unemployment compensation, old-age pensions and through increased services for the protection of children and the prevention protection of their health. we can never insure 100% of the population against 100% of the hazards of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and his

family, against loss of his job and poverty-stricken old age. >> notice the mod yes, sirty. it was never his intention to deliver a comfortable living to retired people. he speaks of some protection. he says we can never insure 100% of the population against 100% of the hazards and advicis attitudes of life. he was just trying to give people some measure, as he called it, some measure of protection through unemployment insurance that was originated in the social security act, and some measure of protection against, quote, poverty-stricken old age. something better than poverty. that's what franklin roosevelt was aiming for. there were no cost of living increases included in the original social security act, franklin roosevelt and francis perkins never tried to insert cost of living increases into social security. when the law was passed, the highest concentration of poverty in america was among the

elderly. and as an anti poverty program, social security has worked. the good news is, people over 65 are now the age group least likely to be poverty-stricken and the very bad news is children are now the most likely to be poverty-stricken. president roosevelt and francis perkins knew social security would change over time, and they knew it would have to be changed. at first, all government workers were not included in the social security system. they didn't pay social security taxes, they didn't collect social security benefits. in fact, only 56% of the work force was covered by the original social security act. self-employed workers did not begin to be included until the 1950s. increases in benefits by the congress were made occasionally, but no automatic cost of living increases were in the law until 1972. and in a speech in 1962, francis

perkins looked back on how social security evolved in the real world. >> thousands and thousands of problems arose in the administration, which had not been foreseen by those who did the planning and the legal drafting and, of course, the bill had to be oh amended and has been amended and amended and amended until it's now grown into a large and important project. for which i think the people of the united states are deeply thankful. >> obviously, there would be absolutely nothing surprising to francis perkins or franklin roosevelt about a president thinking about changing the benefits calculation formula. something that has been changed many, many times over the years. there were two principles that were of the utmost importance to both franklin roosevelt and francis perkins in the design of social security and in the contemplation of any changes to

social security. the first was that social security must be self-financing. that the social security tax on your paycheck go directly and exclusively to paying social security benefits. the second is that the benefit paid to a worker is based on what the worker has paid into the system. franklin roosevelt said in a private meeting, we put those payroll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. with those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program. franklin roosevelt thought that the only thing that gave you a right, a political right, as well as a moral right, to collect social security payments was paying into social security. he didn't want it to be a welfare program. he did not want workers getting

something for nothing under social security. it's not that franklin roosevelt was completely opposed to welfare. in fact, he, which is to say francis perkins, created welfare within the social security act. but the welfare provision was to be used exclusively by women, mothers of dependent children. franklin roosevelt hated the idea of men collecting welfare, of being on the dole, as they would call it in those days. francis perkins knew that poverty was blind to gender, and may herself have been inclined to be more generous with welfare payments, but she knew she needed to design a social security system that was a true insurance system that participants got what they paid for, and no one got something for nothing. no one could call social security being on the dole. >> franklin roosevelt was greatly -- very much opposed to the dole.

oh, we don't want the dole. not the dole. i had a great time to get him quieted down and stop talking about the dole. thinking -- to try to think about the realities. >> the perkins-roosevelt principles on social security have never been violated by any of the changes made to social security so far. you heard francis perkins say that the social security act would have to be amended and amended and amended and amended over time, because she knew that the social security tax was going to have to go up if social security benefits were going to be self-funded. if we were going to use other tax revenue to pay for social security, then we wouldn't have had to increase the social security taxes. but using other tax revenue, to pay for social security, would violate the perkins/roosevelt principle on funding social security. it would break that direct relationship between what workers pay into social security directly and what they get back directly from social security. now, i'm sure francis perkins

and probably franklin roosevelt would have approved of the 1972 amendments that established automatic cost of living increases for social security benefits. and i am sure they also would have approved of the social security amendments just five years later that cut those increases in social security benefits. that's right. in 1977, a democrat house of representatives and a democratic senate and a democratic president all supported cutting social security benefits after they discovered that the first formula they used for automatic cost of living increases was increasing social security benefits at a much faster rate than the system was able to pay. and so let me say this again. a democratic president, jimmy carter, and a democratic house of representatives and a democratic senate voted to cut

the annual increase in social security benefits because they believed it was a necessary and prudent thing to do for the continued solvency of social security. there is nothing new in that idea. and when you hear people saying that no democratic president has ever contemplated such a thing before, you are not hearing the truth. and in 1983, a democratic house of representatives led by tip o'nei o'neill, a protector of social security, voted to raise the retirement age for social security for full retirement benefits under social security. a republican-controlled senate also voted to raise the retirement age with a majority of the democrats in the senate voting to raise that retirement age. what is now the great taboo in the democratic party, raising

the retirement age, is something the democratic party has already done. they did raise the retirement age. and they didn't do it to be mean. they did it to preserve the long-term solvency of social security as a self-financing system. according to those perkins/roosevelt principles. now i was there on the senate floor the night the democrats and democrats alone passed bill clinton's idea of increasing taxation on the social security benefits of people whose incomes were greater than $34,000. that was a social security benefit cut for people making more than $34,000. congress and the president did that for the same reason that all of these changes have been made. now, i have absolutely no doubt tonight that franklin roosevelt would support president obama's proposed reduction of .3 of a

percent in the annual increase in social security retirement benefits, if it was part of an overall package, agreeable to democrats, including taxation and the other elements that the presidentinis president insists on. roosevelt would think it perfectly reasonable to slightly reduce the annual increase in order to extend the solvency of the program. he would also absolutely be opposed to simply removing the limit on social security taxation. so that the rich would pour much more money into funding social security, because then workers, especially the highest-earning workers, would not be getting a payment based on what they paid in, and the top-earning workers would actually get back much, much less than they paid in. as some of the top-earning workers already do in this country. it's one of the great secrets of social security.

but at the top end of the contributors to social security, many of them are now getting back less than what they actually paid into the system. that would shock franklin roosevelt. it would violent roosevelt's notion of the legal, moral and political right to collect pensions based on what you pay into the pension fund. now i think francis perkins would take a broader view of this whole subject and while looking at social security retirement benefits, she would notice today that we have many other ways, the federal government, subsidizes retirement in this country that did not used to exist, including very big tax breaks that the rich get and others get for self-funding their own personal retirement funds. i.r.a.s, keo plans, all these sorts of things. and i think what francis perkins could have to say about the current debate is more complex and more comprehensive than what

anyone else is currently saying about social security. and to lay that out, i think it's going to take a lot more time than what i have here tonight. and so i will do that. in our next chapter of francis perkins, the american hero. ♪ [ male announcer ] purpose elevates what we do. raises it to a more meaningful place. makes us live what we do, love what we do and fills our work with rewarding possibility. aarp connects you to a community of experienced workers and has tools to help you find what you're good at. an ally for real possibilities. aarp. go to aarp.org/possibilities. i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn't think i would ever quit.

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for over three months now, teens in newtown have been writing and calling our legislators and demanding they vote on banning high-capacity magazines and assault weapons, among other things. but nothing is happening. so we need your help. >> it's time to make a change, and this change starts now with you and your friends. >> so go.

>> get a pen. >> start writing now. >> demand a vote. >> demand a vote. >> demand a vote. >> help us transform our tragedy into meaningful action. >> that was a new ad from junior newtown action alliance, an advocacy group created after the shooting massacre in newtown, connecticut. joining me for their first television elementary, second grade sandy hook elementary teacher inside the school the day of the shooting, abby clements and her daughter, sarah clements, who we just saw with the action alliance. thank you both for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >> abbey, you gave an interview to npr on the day of the shooting. i would like to listen to that for a moment. >> my heart breaks for my little students who had to listen to those gunshots.

and i -- so they're going to have to work out their own trauma. little -- some are 6 years old, 6 and 7-year-olds. i couldn't muffle the -- you know, i didn't know what to do to -- i couldn't stop those sounds. >> abbey, you maybe couldn't stop the sounds, but you did help save children in that school that day. how have they been getting along since that day? how have they been progressing? >> it's been a challenge. the school, the teachers, the students, the administrators. we take it day by day, and student by student. issues that come up. and just do the best we can. we're in it together. and we're trying to move on together. it's difficult. >> and abbey, you're still

teaching the same class of students, aren't you, at a different school building. >> yes. >> and sara, the day this happened -- you're in high school and now the day this happened, what was your first knowledge that your mother might be in danger? >> i luckily had my phone with me in lockdown and my dad actually texted me the information. so that's the -- when i heard about it first and then also the first time i knew my mom was okay. but lockdown was for about two hours. so i had to sit there in lockdown for about two hours before i could actually speak to her which was really hard. >> okay. and sara, you're about a year away from being old enough to vote. but already politically active. i imagine kids going to high school around newtown, connecticut are getting politically active sooner than they probably expected to.

>> yeah. one of the reasons that i formed the junior newtown action alliance was to really allow students to have an outlet for what they're feeling and if they were angry about what happened, it was a good way to, like i said in my psa, turn what happened on to a 14 -- turn that tragedy into meaningful action. and i believe that students should have a huge say in the debate. so that's really why i formed the junior section. >> abbey, how aware are the students from sandy hook elementary who survived the shooting? how aware are they of what's going on in washington this week, and what has happened in our politics since that horrible day? >> well, they're little kids. but they'll come and sending sing a little something.

and i was excited to see the president along with many of my colleagues. so i did share that with them. i do speak with the parents often. i'm sorry. i do speak with the parents of my students often. and i think together we're growing more politically active in this. through social media, through conversation. and the sandy hook parents who are in washington right now. the change that occurred today, i think was very much due to their courageous efforts. and relentless efforts in not letting this issue just disappear. and it's a huge inspiration for me. i know they are for my family and for the sandy hook teachers. and for this community. >> abbey, when you see them as we all have in some of the video walking through the halls of

congress, meeting with senators, i would think as a teacher who wants the support of parents and everything that you do that you couldn't ask for more support than that. people who are trying to make your school building even safer. >> absolutely. i mean -- and to -- to watch them with grace and endearing but relentless dedication to making 12/14 something bigger than just a massacre. something more than just a massacre. for change to grow out of that. and to keep their children and their loved ones' memories alive. through these causes. >> sara clements and abbey clements, thank you very much for joining us tonight. really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thank you.