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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  April 12, 2013 10:00am-11:00am PDT

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the rhetoric that we're hearing from north korea is simply unacceptable by any standard. and i am here to make it clear today on behalf of president obama and the citizens of the united states, and our bilateral security agreement, that the united states will if needed, defend our allies and defend ourselves. >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports" -- can john kerry find a diplomatic way out of the standoff with north korea? u.s. officials say pyongyang's missiles are lock and loaded. unarmed, but for the first time, they admit capable of launching a nuclear missile. as the world watches and waits, secretary kerry reassures south korea's new president the united states has their back. and president obama warns pyongyang to end the threats. >> now is the time for north
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korea to end the kind of belligerent approach that they've been taking. and to try to lower temperatures, nobody wants to see a conflict on the korean peninsula. >> andrea mitchell joins us live in seoul, south korea with the latest. gun fight -- as the senate gets ready to vote on expanding background checks, former congresswoman gabrielle giffords says she'll lobby senators still on the fence. while her husband, mark kelly, makes new robo calls praising senators joe mansion and pat toomey for their bipartisan compromise. >> i'm mark kelly, combat veteran, astronaut and most importantly, husband to my brave wife, gabrielle giffords. i'm calling to thank your senator, pat toomey for working across party lines, to sponsor critical legislation to keep guns out of the hands of
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criminals and the mentally ill, by expanding background checks. >> good day, i'm chris cillizza in washington, secretary of state john kerry has arrived in seoul, south korea today, warning north korean leaders not to test-fire a medium-range missile. the musudan has the range of up to 2500 miles, with the potential to hit japan and guam tmt comes as pentagon intelligence estimates say for the first time, that pyongyang is capable of delivering nuclear-armed missiles, an assertion that secretary kerry has pushed back against. andrea mitchell is traveling with the secretary. andrea? >> hey, chris, that pentagon intelligence report is the first official assessment that north korea might actually have a nuclear-armed missile. but they hasten to add, it's not been fully tested and has a low probability of success. it raiseded temperature. just as john kerry was arriving at a diplomatic mission, trying
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to find a peaceful way out of this. u.s. officials say there's no sign of mobilization? no sign of massing of armed forces of the conventional forces. north of the dmz and there's no sense of alert here in south korea. at the american mens today, there was a spring festival, the uso had an event, a social event planned and it was carried out. so no sense of alarm here. but there certainly is a sense around the world. and john kerry made it very clear here in his statements, both public and private, that the united states is fully committed to completely defend south korea, japan, all of our interests, the american homeland, guam, any u.s. forces. so we are in it. if there is any provocation from it will north. his warning to kim jong un is -- don't take this risk, step back from this threat. that your language is provocative by any standard. and if you do step back, there is a diplomatic way out. they are offering peace, reconciliation, renewed talks, both with the united states and
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with south korea. but still, no sign that north korea is ready to stand down. from here of course secretary kerry goes on to beijing. and everyone agrees that china holds all the cards diplomatically. if it will step up to the plate and really pressure pyongyang. chris? >> florida senator marco rubio has been working hard to sell the bipartisan immigration reform plan emerging in the senate to conservative groups and members of his own republican conference. this weekend he's taking that message to the nation with seven -- yes, seven -- a marathon sunday show appearances for marco rubio. joining knee for our daily fix, nbc news capitol hill correspondent, kelly o'donnell. the only other person other than marco rubio who could do seven sunday shows. >> five used to be the big number, now it's seven. >> let's talk about this. rubio has been this barometer, back and forth on immigration. chuck schumer on "meet the press" a few weeks ago said the
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deal is done. marco rubio comes out with a statement and says the deal is not done. is the deal now done, now, kelly, that these appearances are a signal that that's what's happening? >> they're certainly a signal that it's happening. that republicans are ready to go. part of this has been some differing personal agenda points for democrats and republicans. some of it had to do with other things that were happening. we've been talking about guns, some of it had to do with needing to get some finer points done and some to the very basic approach of rubio needed to tell his colleagues what's in it. sometimes we forget when there's groups that are working, other senators or lawmakers are not always read in. they need to have an opportunity to sell it to the people who will have to move this forward. as well as the important interest groups. >> it's such a good point. i think we always assume, well, the gang of eight, which is what we're calling the senate group, they have a deal so everything is hunky-dory, and it's going to pass congress. the same thing with the mansion/toomey bill. so let's talk about guns, 68
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votes on the motion to proceed so they can begin debate. it gets 68 votes yesterday. there's still many hurdles to clear, right? >> so many, so many. >> we're looking at weeks of debate on the various amendments, tell us about what to expect next? >> the surprise of getting more republicans than expected and a bigger vote is worthy of noting, it is in fact a big deal. it shouldn't be confused with meaning that some gun restrictions or changes to gun sales is going to sail through. not at all. i describe it as many four-way stops. we'll proceed down the road a little bit and then everybody stops and it's a little bit of that lunching, move forward. >> you, me, you! right. >> what's so powerful about the toomey/mansion opportunity, they have such standing in the nra, they have standing with their colleagues, pat toomey, republican of pennsylvania has been talking to house republicans. he was a house republicans. so there's been some of that going on with the robo call you played a clip of, important
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because an interest group led by gabrielle giffords and mark kelly, both gun owners who want to see more background checks, are trying to bolster these two senators in their home states. those calls are being played in philly and in west virginia. to say -- help these guys get this. >> and i would add quickly, michael bloomberg, who spent lots of money on ads, was running ads urging pat toomey to get on board. they took the ads down once pat toomey got on board. there's a little of the carrot-and-stick going on. >> i talked to pat toomey, he is a fiscal guy, he did not want to be in the guns debate. but he said he was concerned something bad would get passed or nothing at all. he felt he could step forward and maybe help to bridge this. >> i would say in 2016 he's got to win those philly suburban voters. >> yes. >> joining me to discuss the political hurdles facing gun control and immigration legislation is utah republican
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congressman jasys chafitz. we were talking about the hurdles that still exist on guns and immigration. let's start on guns, that's the action, a lot of it on the senate side. the toomey mansion amendment on expanding background checks, though not to individual private sales, is that something that you and your republican house colleagues could be supportive of if it makes its way to the house? >> it's being offered as an amendment. as you do it as an amendment, you worry about what the end product is going to look like. so absolutely, i don't shy away from having the discussion. i think the discussion of the intersection between mental health problems and those that are able to access guns, but let's remember, that this wouldn't necessarily have solved the tragedies that we had in colorado and connecticut and others. so i'm open to the discussion. i'm all ears. but i also want to protect their second amendment rights.
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>> congressman, let me come back at you. i look at a lot of polling, one of the fascinating things i do in my job. and this is an issue, it's almost nothing else, expanding background checks is an issue that depending on the poll, somewhere between 80 to 90% of people say sure expanding background checks, is something we can get behind. explain to me why it's, why it is an issue that is not something that republicans and some democrats are willing it say yes, we're behind this, let's do it. the public wants it, it's the right thing to do. >> it's an over simplification. i'm very supportive of when you go into an ffl, a federal firearms licensee, you go in there and do a background check. i'm okay with that the amendment does some positive things, it allows you to take your concealed carry permit and use it as a background check. it shortens the time. but you wonder what is the government going to do with all of this information, there's a lot of us that are worried.
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that one of the goals of the government is to create a master database of those that are carrying or have guns and in this country, that's not part of our history. it's not where we should be going. >> congressman, do you just to take you one further step on that. is your concern with the national registry that the government is planning at some point in the future to use it to collect guns? what is the, just explain to me the concern over why having a gun registry worries folks? >> it's one of the hallmarks of this country is personal privacy. it's none of the government's business, they've demonstrated time and time again we can't trust them with this information. so there are things that we can do right now, more than half of the states don't currently pop late the list. i went back to my own state of utah, worked with the governor, governor herbert to his credit within two weeks said we don't know why we don't do that. we dumped more than 10,000 names into that list.
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we need to go state by state and encourage them to pop late those lists. if you move to one of those states and you have a mental health problem, you're not even going to show up on the current thing, so what's fix what's currently on the books and be open to some of the other things, but we're going to protect our second amendment rights. >> congressman, i don't want to let you go without talking about immigration. another huge issue we're expecting this gang of eight bipartisan group in the senate to introduce legislation on monday or tuesday of next week. is it a political imperative that your party find a way to vote for some sort of immigration reform. would you urge your colleagues that that needs to happen. to address the hispanic community going forward. >> not just because it's about the hispanic community, but because it's the right thing to do. immigration is broken. we've got to fix legal immigration. it affects every family, every
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american. it affects the economy. it's not just about mexico or hispanic vote. it's an imperative. it's broken. of course we got to fix it. i sponsored a bill last term that passed the house of representatives. it fixed the high-skill immigrants issues. it addressed family-based visas and so you know, there's a lot we can do here. i happen to believe we should take this in a piecemeal approach. one issue at a time and vote on it. we probably agree on 70% of it, i'm just guessing. i worry that a comprehensive bill will fall under its own weight and we made no progress. but i do applaud the senators willing to take this on. i think it's an issue we have to deal with. >> congressman jason chaffetz. thank for your time. maryland congressman elijah cummings joins us next on "andrea mitchell reports."
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breaking news out of california, where nbc news confirms that comedian jonathan winters has died at age 87. he may be best known for his work on the tv classic, "mork and mindy." he was a master of improv and in the mid 1950s, the "jonathan winters show" pioneered videotaped strategy for stunts. gun control law is friends and family members impacted by gun violence, consensus on the legislative steps that something needs to happen -- congressman,
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you know this as well as anyone, you've been up there for a long time. we just had republican jason chaffetz, your house colleague, he said that he is very worried that some gun bill would include a national registry for guns and that the government cannot be trusted with gun owners names. how do you address that concern? and how do you overcome that concern and get this thing passed? >> well, i think that first of all, he certainly is entitled to his own opinions. but i think that the legislation that toomey and mansion have come to an agreement on, should address most problems that folks have. you know, i think no matter what kind of legislation comes forth, somebody is going to always have a problem with elements of that, i've never seen a piece of legislation where i liked every single syllable. but the fact is, there's an overriding problem here.
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and that is, is that we just had 20 of our precious children murdered at close range with guns. we're also seeing in our cities in baltimore, we have two or three murders it appear as week where people are being murdered. so usually young people. we've got to find ways to look at our gun climate in this country and try to address it i applaud mr. mansion and senator toomey for the steps they have taken. and i have a lot of confidence that once that bill, once the bill comes out of the senate, it's going to put tremendous pressure on speaker boehner and our republicans and my good friend, mr. chaffetz to make sure we get something done. and the other thing i worry about, chris, is i don't want us to argue back and forth with each other so much that in the end we get nothing done.
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i think that that would be a shame. >> i know you lost a nephew to gun violence in 2011. a lot of focus on is this too much republicans, conservatives, nra members saying this may be too much in the expanded background checks. my question to you, is it not enough potentially for folks like you who believe in gun control and structurer gun control? is it possible that the bill doesn't do enough. and some democrats say, this is not a big-enough solution for the problem we're facing? >> think we're going to have to do what we can, agree on what we can agree on and get something done. and then, step by step, try to make sure that whatever we do, and the future addresses the problem in as a complete way as possible. it's going to be a long haul, it's not going to be done
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overnight. >> it's such a busy week on the hill. i want to get your thought on another thing, which is barack obama, the president, putting in his budget some entitlement reform. he's been criticized on it from the left. do you think he's negotiating himself too much on this budget? >> i certainly am concerned about the chained cpi the president put in the budget. >> i don't consider them entitlements, i call it social insurance. people have paid into medicare, people have paid into social security. and a lot of the people in my district all they have is social security and medicare. they're only getting maybe at best, $16,000 from social security. so i don't see how you can take from somebody who already doesn't have very much. and there are other ways to address social security and medicare to make sure that they remain solvent. >> congressman elijah cummings,
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thanks for your time. next, is bipartisanship back in vogue? and still ahead, fever pitch. john kerry says temperatures will rise if north korea decides to launch. andrea is back with us, along with former defense secretary, william cohen. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports," only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] there are only so many foods that make kids happy. and even fewer that make moms happy too. with wholesome noodles and bite sized chicken,
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without the deadline of a manufactured crisis looming. so we've got gun control and we've got immigration. this is a change in washington? have the cherry blossoms changed us all? >> well maybe it's just, you know, a sign of how low our expectations of these people are. that when the senate moves on you know, a measure expanding background checks, that's running a 90% in the polls, we think it's progress. yeah, i think it is remarkable, because there really does seem to be at least on these two issues, some bipartisan dialogue and also some involvement of some relatively junior members of congress. i do think it is progress, but the question is how far it will go, how long it will last. and whether it will also then apply to bigger questions, like potentially a grand bargain on the budget. >> and i want to focus gun control has been so much the focus this week. i want to stay on that the lobbying by the newtown families here in washington clearly had
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some level of impact. 68 votes to end debate and bring the gun legislation up in the senate. many republicans, 16 who voted for the cloture measure have said i probably won't vote until the final measure. how tough a road over the next few weeks is the nra starts lobbying, lou tough a road is it for gun legislation to wind up past? >> it is going to be very tough. you'll have intense competition from both sides, we are reporting today that gabrielle giffords, who herself was a victim of gun violence, is going to be on the hill, making a personal plea to members to act on this you have the nra, gun owners of america, you have all of these second amendment rights groups, to put massive pressure. that was the first step and it's interesting, the nra did not choose to key vote is a washington term, they aren't grading the senators who did vote for this, i kind of gave
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them a pass. but it is very unlikely that next week, as soon as tuesday, when the bipartisan background check legislation amendment comes up. that they will do the same thing then. >> i will point out, nbc news/"wall street journal" poll released showed significantly more openness among republicans to a path to citizenship and immigration than background checks and broader gun rights. if may be a rocky road. this is paul ryan, aka, the 2012 vice president of the united states, in a speech tuesday night. >> we need to articulate a vision, one that can attract a very broad coalition. to advance our pro life cause, we need to work with people who consider themselves pro choice. because our task is not to purge our ranks, it's to grow them. we don't want a country where abortion is simply outlawed.
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we want a country where it isn't even considered. >> our task isn't to purge our party, it is to grow it. fascinating from paul ryan, karen. the question is, does the base of the party agree? i feel like there's a disconnect on some of these issues between what leadership wants and what base says. >> we're hearing more and more of the party's leaders and up-and-comers, not only paul ryan, but eric cantor and bobby jindal, the governor of louisiana, sounding much the same note. which is one, we're going to have to present some fresh ideas. and two, we've got to quit you know, excluding people who don't agree with us on absolutely everything. >> and anna, do you get the sense -- you're covering all the sort of influence industry. these members of congress, particularly on the republican side, their biggest worry are primaries do they care what national polling suggests and what their national leadership suggests in terms of direction for the party?
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>> it's going to be something to watch in the house. house republicans on immigration reform, it's unclear what the path forward is there. and that has a lot to do with you know being primaried on the right. that is where their concern is and they don't necessarily have the appetite when they go back to their districts and hear on the grassroots level that you know people feel like these bills are going to be amnesty and that kind of talk is very commonplace, you talk to a lot of house republicans and they're nervous about that. >> anna palmer, and karen tumlety, thanks for bringing a smidge of optimism on this friday. next, the pentagon's new estimate for north korea's nuclear readiness, andrea is back with us from seoul. and former defense secretary william cohen is here in washington. don't forget, "up" returns like this weekend with its new host, steve kornacki, the sweatered one here on msnbc.
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tomorrow, john kerry arrives in beijing with hopes that north korea's closest ally, the chinese, can resolve the standoff over pyongyang's nuclear ambitions. in seemingly imminent missile launch. >> i think it's clear to everybody in the world that no country in the world has as close a relationship or as significant an impact on the dprk than china. china has an enormous ability to help make a difference here. >> nbc's ian williams is in beijing. ian, the question i have for you, john kerry going to arrive there tomorrow. is there any reasonable expectation he can move the needle with the chinese? >> well you know, chris, in a few short hours tomorrow, john kerry will meet the foreign
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mingster, wang lee, prime minister lee and the president. it shows the importance that china attaches to this. now the question of course is what china will do about it. there's absolutely no doubt there is enormous and growing frustration here, if not anger at pyongyang. which is consistently ignored china, has consistently rebuffed chinese efforts to tone down, to prevent the missile tests and previously nuclear tests. but what will china do? now clearly, john kerry believes china has enormous leverage. and will be pushing them for a start to live up to the sanctions which china itself signed up to recently. one of the key things will be to control the flow of illicit funds, of banking funds across the chinese border. which are processed in china. and also, kerry will be pushing china to send a very firm message to pyongyang that this
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behavior won't be tolerated. now, we'll see what china does. there's no doubt, as i say, they are enormously frustrated by this. but in the past, they've been very reluctant to put too much pressure on north korea for fear of destabilizing the regime and possibly of the place simply collapsing, chris. >> ian williams, live in beijing, thank you. and joining me now, andrea mitchell who is now live in seoul and former defense secretary during the clinton administration, william cohen. andrea, let's talk first about john kerry, pretty harsh words for north korea about what comes next if they do fire this missile. tell us more. >> well, what he said today was that kim jong un knows he can't win this. and it's true, he's outmatched. he's got 800,000 troops, but we have a lot more firepower, if not manpower on our side of the dmz. that said, the first 24 hours
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would be brutal. that's the conventional wisdom. that the north korean army would march across the dmz and into the south and seoul right here where we are, 35 miles away from the dmz, and the economic heartland of this country is vulnerable. he's got tactical weapons, he's threatened to use them. most people believe, as does kerry, i think, that this is bluster. but he's basically saying today, that your rhetoric has gotten too hot. take a way out, find a glide path out of this. a face-saving way out of this they're offering negotiations, direct with the u.s. or south korea or back to those six-party talks which frankly have not gone anywhere. chris? >> and secretary cohen. i want to get your perspective on this. the defense intelligence agency has an assessment and says for the first time north korea is capable of delivering nuclear weapons in a missile. how concerning should this be in the broader context of what we're seeing going on there now? >> well i think it's the shape
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of things to come. because the north koreans have been able to continue to violate their, the sanctions imposed by the united nations. there are other countries haven't been willing to impose enough hardship on the north koreans to get their attention to say there's a better way for your people going forward. as a result of that you're going to continue to see an evolution of capability, which will result in a missile being matched up with a nuclear warhead, that may take some more time it could take years or less. but nonetheless, that's the inevitable result if the program continues. it's also a signal about what we're looking at in iran. because iran is seeking to do the same thing -- to build a long-range missile and have a nuclear warhead capability. i think this is something that needs to be addressed very firmly. i think secretary kerry is sending the right message. and i hope that the chinese can do whatever they can to influence the north korean leader. >> and andrea, i want to bring
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you back in from the ground -- >> chris, can i pick up on the question of china, bill cohen knows more about china than almost anybody and i'm interested in what you were discussing with ian williams. will the chinese, this is a new leadership. will the chinese step up to the plate? they are believed to have the most leverage. but at the same time u.s. officials here tell us that china does want to keep that buffer between american forces and china. which is north korea. a friendly ally. >> one of the challenges they face, andrea, is that they're worried about destabilizing the north korean regime. but they have to also worry that the north korean regime is going to destabilize the entire region. that's not in their self-interests in going forward. so they have a choice of such. they've got to try to defuse the situation and they can do that. it seems to me by exercising more pressure on the economic relief that they provide the
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north korean, not to the point where the country collapses, but the signal is you've been enjoying a guns and butter policy. you enjoy the guns that, and we've been providing the butter, that's got to stop. if you want to destabilize the entire region, which is not in anyone's interest, especially the chinese and the north koreans. >> i want to get both your perspective on this. as the layman i'm fascinated. ian williams said a minute ago, andrea and secretary cohen, that secretary kerry's meeting with the a-list of chinese leaders, is there anything we should draw from that. secretary cohen, why don't i start with you and we'll go to andrea. >> i just returned a few weeks ago from china meeting with some of the top leaders as well. what the chinese want is a very strong relationship with the united states. it's very important to them, it's very important to us. this particular policy that's being pursued right now by the north koreans of climbing up rhetorical ladder and sawing off the branches so you can't climb
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down is very troubling to the chinese. and it has a potential to cause a destabilization of the region. so they want a good relationship with the united states. that's the reason that secretary kerry is going to meet with their top leadership and it's really important that he have this opportunity to convey our sentiments and hopefully secure some, at least agreement that more has to be done. it will be more subtle. it may take some time. but i do think the chinese have a capacity to help influence, if not dictate the outcome. i don't think they have that much influence, they can dictate it. >> and andrea, has there been expectations setting on the part of secretary kerry or the state department more generally about what to expect when he hits the ground in beijing, and to secretary cohen's point, what influence can he have, either in the near-term or the long-term with china? >> you know there's a lot of groundwork that goes into a meeting like this. but this is one case where i think bill cohen would agree
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with me, they really cannot predict how this new leader is going to respond and whether they're going to get what they want. they've seen some rhetorical movement on the chinese side, but not enough and certainly not the economic pressure that secretary kerry was talking about. and china was not happy with the rhetoric coming out of the white house about we're going to pivot toward asia in the second term. more military muscle here, there are a lot of issues, territorial issues in the south china sea and we were siding with our allies, they didn't like a lot of the prepositioning they saw. here we are being given a perfect excuse for this military muscle in the region which they consider their back yard, which it is. because of what north korea is doing. so north korea has stepped out of bounds in another way. they've given us an excuse to move in with the b-2 flyovers and the f-22s, not something that china wants to see long-term. >> and secretary cohen. i want to end on you, which is the question andrea and i have been talking about all week and that everyone has been talking about all week, is this time
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with north korea different? do we have any way of knowing that? >> i think it's different, in the sense that you have a young and i would say rather immature young leader who really doesn't have much worldly experience. and again escalating the rhetoric to the point of threatening a nuclear attack upon the united states or our allies. when you engage in that kind of rhetoric, it becomes much more difficult to find a way down from the heights of that. and so i think that it makes it different now that we see that they are becoming much more aggressive. at least rhetorically. they are developing more in terms of the testing of the third test of a nuclear weapon. they are going to be testing a longer-range missile capability. so it's different because you've got a young leader who doesn't, i think have the mature to really understand how he is putting himself in the corner, making it very difficult to find a sensible and responsible way out. >> andrea, last word?
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>> i agree entirely and that is exactly what officials here are saying. i think bill cohen's experience does bear out that we don't know what to expect from this guy. and he's young, he's erratic, he's inexperienced. and that is a very dangerous combination for a miscalculation. >> andrea mitchell, bill cohen, thank you both for your expertise. up next, the next generation of leaders making a difference and what does our new nbc news poll say about hillary, that's hillary clinton, in 2016? this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ur guy around 2% to manage your money. that's not much, you think. except it's 2% every year. go to e-trade and find out how much our advice and guidance costs. spoiler alert: it's low. it's guidance on your terms, not ours. e-trade. less for us. more for you.
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visit gorving.com. educator and vital voices board member jill ischell is here with us, sharing stories from her new book, "hearts on fire." it profiles men and women here in the united states and as far away as afghanistan, who have overcome huge hurdles of
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education and safety for girls. jill, good to see you, thanks for taking the time. i want to talk to you about why you wrote this book. what inspired the book and you spending so much of your time with it? >> well first of all, chris, thank you so much for this extraordinary opportunity for me to share "hearts on fire." and to spread its message of optimism and hope. i wrote this book because i, i -- it's a, i wrote this book as a call to action. and to inspire others to join what i believe is a global movement. to change the world. it's being led by, by visionary leaders like the ones in the book. who are turning their idealism into action every day. and chris, they're doing it to solve really difficult prbs that people are facing. and also because they have a deep respect and reference for
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the dignity of every life on this planet and know that everyone should have an equal shot at leading a decent and fulfilling life. >> i want to tell, because you tell a lot of these stories in the book, one of the stories, she's been on the program and daisha fareed, tell us about her story and maybe some of the other folks we meet. >> well she's this remarkable woman who was born under the most miserable circumstances in iranian refugee camp. and she had an opportunity to learn how to read and write in another refugee camp. she was witness to her brother being shot by iranian border guards. at that moment when she saw her brother shot to death, she said to me, she said jill, at that moment my heart was covered with ashes, but now it's on fire. and the reason it's on fire is because andisha is now the founder and director of 11 orphanages throughout afghanistan, serving 600
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children. >> and i want to get, because i think these stories are compelling, fascinating and interesting to our viewers, tell us about vivienne nixon. >> i'm glad you asked me about vivienne. because vivienne is right here in our back yard in new york. she grew up on long oh land and she went to college and she came from a family of very modest means. after college she spiralled down, got involved with drugs, even after she was cleaned up. she was arrested for something she had done when she was on drugs and sent to jail. while in jail, she said, my god, how lucky at i. look at women who never learned how to read and write. never had an education. she taught them how to read, she got out of jail and she is currently the executive director of a program in the bronx that helps formerly incarcerated women get college agrees and jobs. >> fascinating stuff. >> the forward of this book was
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written by bill clinton, the former president of the united states. you've been deeply involved on hillary clinton's senate and presidential campaigns, i can't let you go without asking you a little bit of politics, where do you think hillary clinton is leaning as it relates to relates to running again in 2016? >> i think it is 50/50. >> what makes her mind up? >> what makes her mind up? >> yes. >> i would imagine this is a combination of many, many factors. it is going to be a balance between whether she can do more in private life like her husband is doing with the clinton foundation or whether as president of the united states, she can accomplish all that she would like to accomplish on behalf of others. >> thank you for your time and the book is "hearts on fire. "thanks. >> we'll be right back. through. one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. it has 7 antioxidants to support cell health.
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so which political story will make headlines in the next
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24 hours? to tell us, jonathan capehart, my colleague at the "washington post." during this show, news has been made. president obama has released the 2012 federal income tax returns. what do they tell us? >> one, that he paid an effective federal tax rate of 18.4% on income of $608,000. they donated more than 150,000 to charities and they paid a total of $112,214 in taxes. the bidens, however, made $300 combined, $385,000. paid $87,851 in taxes and donated $7191 to charity. >> i want to ask you about marco rubio. he is doing seven sunday shows, including univision. he is spanish language, all the typical sunday shows. what does that tell us about where this immigration bill
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stands, the fact that he is going on seven sunday shows, one, he is getting behind this immigration bill. remember, even last week people were wondering whether he was going to bail on the gang of eight and the immigration effort. how closely he wanted to be associated with it. by doing seven sunday shows this weekend, he is not running away from it at all. he is going to shepherd it. >> and i want to add one quick thing. we just heard from the white house that one of the mothers of a sandy hook victim will be delivering the president's saturday weekly address. we've heard a lot of their voices this week and we'll hear one tomorrow. we'll keep hearing from them. jonathan capehart, thank you very much. >> thanks, chris. >> that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." we will have andrea's interview with secretary of state john kerry on monday. remember to follow the show online and on twitt twittetwitter twitter @mitchellreports.
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tamron hall. >> have a great weekend. a big development at the white house just announce ad newtown mother will deliver the president's saturday weekly address. the white house was asked if this is the first time someone other than president obama has delivered that address. we'll have the answer. we'll take a look at the significance, the importance of this latest move from the white house. plus, secretary of state john kerry in south korea issuing a strong warning to the north, saying a missile launch would be, quote, a huge mistake. plus, the white house is trying to tamp down concern over a new report showing that north korea could arm a missile with a live nuclear head. and tornadoes confirmed in several states after it was confirmed that a tornado touched down in georgia last night. all coming up next.  [ female announcer ] you walk into your laundry room and it just hits you!
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