6-symptom cold & flu relief. ♪ . >> the wait for it ending the gun view cycle in america. i'm crystal ball with the great pleasure of sitting in, setting up for jeff kornacki. we have lots of stuff to get to on this stormy saturday in mid-december including yesterday's school shooting outside denver, colorado. an 18-year-old student wounded a

fellow student before killing himself. the wounded student is reported to be in correct, al condition following surgery. the school is less than ten miles from columbine high school and the attack was one day before the first anniversary of sandy hook in new town, connecticut. more of what should be done to curtail gun violence in a moment. we will try to figure out whattal the white house might be sending by hiring a heavy weight with solid credentials to help them out for the coming year. i will be trying on steve's whacky jacket. i quiz everyone's knowledge and another install. of "up against the clock. world trade center we will -- we looking at that. first today we mark a somber

anniversary, the lives of 26 children and six educators were senselessly taken in new town, connecticut. gun violence is so rampant in america we have grown accustomed to it, numb to it. what that previous summer alone gunmen opened fire in awe roar ra, colorado, killing 12 people, wounding four times as m. as we were reporting outside of denver, colorado. so close to where 13 lives were taken in 1919. this is how that attack is being reported in the denver post this morning. again. but as horrific as those attacks were as any act of mass violence is, sandy hook was perceived as something else. sandy hook was so horrifying, so socking, oh so many young lives that it woke us from our slumber and it forced us to take an even harder look in the mirror. how could this have happened?

what kind of country do we live in we allow these acts of violence to go on day after day while doing nothing. maybe most chilling, what is to stop another sandy hook from happening again. the new town community has made it clear on the day they want to reflect on peace. the few town action alliant, new town foundation sandy hook promise mark this week with acts of kindness at a candlelight vigil in washington for all victims of gun violence. we certainly have the utmost respect for privacy on this heart wrenching anniversary. so to honor their wishes, i want to spend this morning looking forward to focus on the best way we can continue to work to avert another new town. how we can best end the cycle of gun violence happening every day in towns and cities across our country. we can't help but be disappointed. despite nearly everyone wanting

it to be so. following new town, there was a support for stricter gun laws. the been like the one that expired in 2005 like the one we used to have, except with fewer loopholes. it seems like we should be able to pass background checks. if you want to pass a check you should be able to. this background bill was drafted by democrat joe manchin and pat toomey. maybe it was hope. the time, gun safety would win but while over 90% of americans support universal background checks, the national rifle association did that. in the end, a sign of how catastrophically broken our democracy is. the manchin-toomey bill. new gun restrictions did pass. in new york and maryland as well

as other blue states with democratic legislate ittures and governors passed as well. if colorado, universal gun checks were passed in the law along with other gun-related measures, a backlash in successful organizing lets the recall of two democratic state senators who backed the bill and resignation of a third. overall, 1,500 gun bills were introduced in state legislatures this year. 109 of them have become law of those 39 tightened restrictions like in maryland and colorado and 70 loonsed gun restrictions. looking back at the complete failure at the federal level and the mixed back at the state level, it would be easy to get discouraged to be convinced the pro gun movement are too powerful. giving up, however, no way, giving up is no way to honor the

lives lost to guns in this country every secretary general day. after all, movements require time. they require patience. the brady handgun prevention act passed six years after it was first introduced and a full 12 years after president reagan and press secretary james brady were shot. already, we see a small shift in guns. my home state with a strong gun culture. terry mcauliffe won as governor while boldly declaring he didn't care. all in all, we learned a lot this year about what works and what doesn't. how money should be spent, how positions and activism should be directed. those lessons give us direction and stanl, so am i disappointed? yes. but are we defeated? never. we have taken our first steps small though they b may be and honoring the lives lost in new town and aurora and every town

in america. to put it into context and figure out how to move forward, we got mark glaze, executive director of mike bloomberg's gun control group, mayors against illegal guns, jeff smith, director of police, former democratic missouri state senator. msfbc.com contributing writer noah, author of the great divergence, america growing in a quality crisis and what we can do about it. emily tish sussman, director of the action fund. thank you all for being with me. i wanted to start with you, i know you have been working with some of the families in new town. i know you attended the candlelight vigil they had at the national cathedral this week. if you could, tell us what that vigil is leak. what the sense in the community is, how they're assessing the past year in terms of policy action. >> the vigil is beautiful. it was really beautiful. it really spoke to a lot of the

senses of the families in new town of the entire community that this was an atrocity and it got a lot of national attention and it really did move the public in an emotional way. but what's important about it is not just the lives lost that day but every day to gun violence. it is on average 33 americans a day that die from gun violence. we need to connect those. >> they talked about that at the veg ill, too. right? >> it was very present. it was not just a vigil for new town, it was for victims from all over the country. they flew in families who lost their children, brothers, sisters and they spoke on par with them. this is not, you know the urban xhupts generally do not have a lot of political power. they don't get the same attention as they did at new town. the fact that the new town families are able to same. we are one, we feel the pain together. we are going to move forward together. i think it's a very beautiful thing. it was very present there. of course, you couldn't deny the

fact that they wanted to see justice for their families. it was a strong theme in the vigil. >> i am interested in your perspective. as i said the progress at the state level has mixed. thus far, we have seen basically nothing. how do you guys assess what happened this year, wins, losses, lessons to be learned in. >> we think we are more optimistic than most. we have been working on this for a while. we alluded to a congress that can't reorganize violence in less than two years. so you start with a constitution that is fundamentally broken on an issue which the nra zone owned it for a generation. i think for a long time electorally the nra was the only game in town. you have a lot of people looking ahead to the election. they know the nra will be there. so they made a political

calculation that i think was short sided and is that will become clear overtime. >> do you think that calculus will shift for lawmakers? they're going to sew they will have backup on that side? >> well, it will turn around for a couple reasons. if colorado, we passed a state of the art background check bill. in just a few months, nearly 100 prohibited purchasers from prohibited from owning a gun, felon, domestic violence offenders have been blocked. had that law not been in place, people in colorado know it only takes one. it will be clear you can look into these bills. a lot of people will be safer. >> that kind of success as politicians think they can do something that 90% of the public supports. >> jeff, part of the reason why i wanted to have you here this morning, also bus you ran for office as a democrat, you served

in office as a democrat in a red state. we've talked about sort of the politics of guns for democrats and i think that the reality was more complicated than a lot of supporters of gun control were hoping. one of the things that struck me is we tried so hard to be careful in the miamiing. we don't want to take away your guns, background checks, most people support, but any time you start talking about gun control, there is a sort of distinct up reflexive backlash in rural areas in the sort of pro gun community. there was this quote in the washington post that struck me that i want to get your thoughts on from a conceal carry instructor in ohio jennifer dewey. she said probably 75 or 80% of the people had no experience with firearms or training. i always start off my classes with tell me why you're here, a

lot led off with i'm concerned about my second amendment right and whether i want to guess grandfathered in. why are people so fearful? nobody is talking about taking their guns away. they're talking about simple steps forward. >> i think the nra has done a great job of demagoguesing the issue and clouding it. the or begins of the nra are different than people realize. in the 1920s, the nra supported gun control laws at the state level. in 1934, in 1938, the nra supported federal legislation on background checks and also on well, a couple pieces of legislation. guns are different and less tech for the logically sophisticated tan today. the nra in 1963 and 1968 supported gun control legislation at the federal level. so this is a new phenomenonch

movement conservatism appropriatated the nra. i think what is important to understand and i want to go back to you on this a little mark. while 90% of the public does support background checks, out of that 90%, maybe 10% vote on that issue. >> right. out of the 10% who don't support background checks, it seems like 90% vote on that issue. so given that disparity and intensity of public opinion, how do you overcome that? >> we will talk more about that in just a minute. tim, i wanted to get you in as well. do you think that we were too optimistic this year about what could be done in one year as i was pointing out t. brady act took six years to pass from the time it was introduced, 12 years after ronald reagan and james brady were shot. were we impatient of wanting all of the progress right at once?

do we need to make sure it will build the movement more? >> you always have to try. as mark said, this is the long haul we are talking about. i heard eleanor holmes norton on the radio the other day comparing this to the civil rights movement. the laws were not passed overnight. the gun culture president united states, people sort of don't take this into account. it's a very different gun culture from what we had 30, 40 years ago. we now have a minority of the households in the united states that have guns. it has become in moving from the mo jaert to the minority. it has become a fringe culture. we have seen fewer and fewer people own guns in the united states. yet, there are more guns in the united states. so there is an awful lot of hoarding going on which is terrifying. >> which specs to that quote of the people saying i have to get my gun now and get grandfathered in. there is this fear around it.

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. >> we are back and talking about how to address gun violence in this country. they had a couple interesting gravengs mark i wanted to get your thoughts on. in terms of the way money was spent in this fight tactically over the past year and first they took a look at the amount spent on ad buys. if you look at this graph, you can see there was a major spike in ad dollars on the gun control side right around the manchin-toomey amendment. and overall throughout the year the gun control forces outspent the gun right forces, which i suspect is pretty unusual.

then if you look at spending on lobbying, the tail is very difficult. on that side the gun side outspent the gun control side. as the director of an organization that spent a lot of money on ad buys, was that the right strategy or does there need to be a shift more to talking wage to legislators lobbying, working more wage through the legislature? >> you know, we need to do all of that. thetying behind ads is that you have a public that has not had to think about these issue force a long time and legislators have not had heat. you have to start there. the nra spent plenty of money not about advertising, it was about buying phone calls that govern this office and have nothing to do anything about anything. they traditionally have spent more on lobbying, the nra has a $250 million a year organization that gets million dollar checks from the gun manufacturers. so they have plenty of cash.

they are focused on grass roots action even when they have to buy it. >> that sound like a very depressing thing, right? they have lots of money. that's not going away. it's always going to be an uphill battle even when you have people like mayor bloomberg spending on the side of gun control. jeff, you have done research showing that more important 99 is fully direct constituent activism. >> i did the 2007 legislation of missouri ledges lap, i was able to contain records from contacts from several legislators and sort of paired them against contribution record to see how much money had been given in support of or in opposition to particular pieces of legislation and what the numbers bore out was that contributions were statistically insignificant in influenceing whether or not a bill would pass, but the number

of contacts in support of or opposed to a bill were very statistically significant, particularly on the opposition side. once there were a dozen contacts against a bill on average to each of these legislative offices, it was overwhelmingly unlikely to pass. >> really? >> so a very optimistic finding based on the fact that 90% of the country supports things like universal background checks. the question is, how do we get people in the same way pro gun people do. >> emily, you have been working wage with the families. one of the things we have more of on the side of gun rights is increased passion and outrage, frankly, on what we have seen happening in the country. what have you seen in terms of what has been effective with caps actions on gun control? >> right. an intensity on the gun issue. i think the reason that graph is

a little misleading is there is a pharaoh definition of what lobbying is. >> that is what they are counting. but the work we have been doing in partnership with mark and other organizations is actually going into the states and really organizing on the ground. we do need to do education on the issue. we do need to talk to people who care about a general agenda and make the one of the top issues. when you talk to your legislator. is this the issue that you talk about? it always needs to be in the forefront. we had spoken about this. i have spoken to a member of congress from a suburban reasonably affluent area who told me in his town hall this issue basically never came up. after new town, he said he had moms in there every single town hall. they were there for this issue in particular. whereas, he was someone who, you know, probably could have gone either way, probably would have split his vote pro and against gun ladies and gentlemen e legislation. and to your point, it really stuck with him. >> and, do you think we have

seen sort of a lasting shift in sentiment or this will spike and then go back down to levels we saw before. >> well, i think it has spiked and gone down. >> but it has not gone back down to levels. >> presandy hook, right. i think it will be a slow, gradual movement. i think the demographic trends favor pro gun control forces of time. it's a bit like what people say about, you foe the united states becoming a majority-minority nation. you have a group that's getting smaller by the day that's exerting this portion of fluvenlts eventually, they will loadsr lose. >> we nextive of our politics. >> in the way the tea partiers are all the more vehement. my sense is that the dwindling band of pro gun people were much more vehement. >> and they vote. >> so we're going to talk more about how to move forward and

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. >> that was a campaign ad from mark prior. he voted against the manchin-toomey ad. he is embracing it saying these outsiders aren't going to tell us what to do. do you think, was that attention in terms of the work mayors

against illegal guns did the 84? >> it's a funny response. if you listen to arkansas, he'd realize 85% believe people should get a background check. i think senator prior. i 4i he can help us on some things. i think he will get there. he is hearing from people back home. a lot of folks i think regret the vote they made not just because of the thing we saw in colorado keeps happening. it will keep happening until we do something difficult. also because they are hearing about this from people back home in a way that wasn't the case two or three years ago. that's because the country is in a different place. >> on the foot side of that, senator manchin, has seen his approval ratings in west virginia significantly decline. so this is still a tough issue for people in rural states. >> absolutely. and i think in braper new york times magazine piece that will be out this weekend, manchin says his mail and contacts were

overwhelmingly against his work on the manchin-toomey -- >> i give him credit. it is courageous. >> it has to be someone like him. toomey from pennsylvania's state i think james carvel famously said pittsburgh, philadelphia, alabama and everywhere in between, good that someone like toomey joined on board. but this is not going to come from chuck scheduler and diane feinstein. >> so me when i looked at the failure of the manchin-toomey amendment. the fact that 99% of americans support this thing. background checks. it's not radical. it's not crazy, yet it can't clear a senate filibuster. to me, it was a symbol of how broken our democracy is. are there sort of bigger picture government reform fixes that you think could have helped this particular amendment pass, could help other overwhelmingly popular things pass that are being sometime mid by a vocal

opposition. >> i don't know whether it would affect this particular case, certainly, we saw a big step forward a couple of weeks ago with the elimination of the filibuster for presidential nominees. >> right. >> accepting thestream supreme court nominees. we saw nine confirmations over the last three days. >> amazing. >> that is actually happening. >> these stories are all about the nat is sort of in gridlock. they're having to work 24 hour hour days. well, yeah, they're having lots of conflict. they were getting a lot of things passed. and you know the republicans are being extremely intransigent. my feeling is they should keep being intransigent. maybe they will provoke harry reid. >> that's what happened, right? quickly. the push back on that is, yeah, but just wait until democrats are in the minority. then will you hate it. personally, i believe if you win an election, you should be able

to have a chance to an accurate agenda. it doesn't scare me. >> the republicans have gotten so extreme with their use of the filibuster. if the democrats go to minority, they will do it anyway. they are saying there is a gentlemanly quality about it. i want to push back in the fact we got nothing federally done. i think the fact that this bill came up for a vote sponsored by nra a-rated senators is a big deal. >> i want to thank mark glaze, mares against illegal guns. >> thank you. shifting gears, keeping a customer base happy is important whether you are a salesman or maybe the salesman in chief. the new hire at the white house that has liberals everywhere reading the tea leaves. that's when we return. . my mother and my grandmother are very old fashioned.

i think we both are clean freaks. i used to scrub the floor on my knees. [ daughter ] i've mastered the art of foot cleaning. oh, boy. oh, boy. oh, boy. [ carmel ] that drives me nuts. it gives me anxiety just thinking about how crazy they get. [ doorbell rings ] [ daughter ] oh, wow. [ carmel ] swiffer wetjet. you guys should try this. it's so easy. oh, my. [ gasps ] i just washed this floor. if i didn't see it i wouldn't believe it. [ carmel ] it did my heart good to see you cleaning. [ regina ] yeah, your generation has all the good stuff. [ daughter ] oh, yeah. . >> remember the 19%, the rallying cry of occupy wall street? we are the 19% him well, it's been two entire years now since

occupy raised the issue of the vast disparities of wealth in this country. yet two years later, not a whole loss has changed. president obama highlighted this per sent inequality in a speech just this month. >> a family in the top 1% has a net worth 288 times higher than the typical family, which is a record for this country. so the basic bargain at the heart of our economy is frame. >> what the latest white house hire says about the struggle against enequality. that's next. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- .

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afghanistan in 2009. on the u.s.s. saratoga in 1982. [ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. . >> there was an important person fell change at the white house this week t. return of john tedesca. at the start of next year he's headed back to 1,600 pennsylvania avenue to advise barak obama. he has spent much of his time between the clinton and obama administration the interim bush years heading the center for american progress. if you don't know what the

center for american progress, no worries, a number of think tanks in washington, d.c., given his credentials, it happens to not just be a democratic one. but a liberal one. it acted as a heyday at the bush administration. the american progress sponsors research, they put out petition papers and monitor legislation all to advance an unapologetic agenda. sort of this guy i used to know. >> the same old washington textbook campaigns just won't do in this election. triangulateing and poll-driven positions because we're worried about what mit or roady might say about us just won't do.

if we are really serious about winning this election, democrats, then we can't live in fear of losing. >> then senator barak obama secured the 2008 democratic nomination and he won the white house on a message of hope and change. change you could believe in. his election was supposed to reject the safe political posturing that democrats had adopted with bill clinton in the '90. during their journey out of the political wilderness after the reagan revolution. the 2008 obama campaign was a promise to say good-bye to all that. the pledge to begin a new chapter, straight forward and unabashedly progressive leadership. that's what we thought yes, the president was able to negotiate a health care law, but a single payer bill was off the table from the start t. dodd-frank bill watered down a key report and it's been hindered by a lack of enforcement, then there is

immigration reform t. president faced criticism for not doing all he can to halt deportations of undocumented workers. sure he has been working with the congress that thwarted him at every term. his contradiction say he hasn't not back enough. he conceded at times. he played the pragmatist instead of punching back. all that is why i believe the atowns. of his role as senior adviser in the words of joe biden such a big f'ing deal. remember when president obama appointed daily. he was hired in part to apasadena the business community to make things right with the big banks who thought they were being slighted bety white house. he is a much differenter constituency and democrat. he's an ad advocate, on monday the day his appointment was

announced he had an op-ed about inequality and how it has reached levels last seen during the roaring 20s. he rejected the conventional wisdom that it hurts job creation. i seem to recall a guy with a similar way of thinking. >> we will take on growing inequality and improve upward mobility for all people, we got to move from the false notion that is is exclusively minority concern and we have to reject a politics that suggests any effort to address it in a meaningful way somehow pits a deserving middle class against those of an undeserving poor in search of handouts. >> that speech was given at the center for american progress. so is the return of the barak of 2008? is this the message president obama wants to carry into the 2014 campaign?

here to discuss this we me, we have msnbc writer who happens to be from the center of the action fund. no pressure there chris ander zorn a republican pollster and who was recently named one of "time" magazine's 30 people under 30 changing the world. we have with us as well jeff smith from the new school who remains at the table. kristen, i wanted to start with you. to me the hire is a signal about the messaging plan going into 2014 and maybe also a signal about doing more things he can with his executive power since congress is obviously not working for him. >> i think it's a lot about that second point. he has been a big advocate for having president obama take his executive power out for a spin and see what he can do. i think this is an acknowledgment the 2014 elections are not likely to yield a congress more friendly

to the president than the current congress. republicans, the political report instead the year is a wash, it's not a waive for either side, republicans are likely to pick up 12 seats in the house. there are a lot of senate seats in play. congress is more likely to be more red than it is today for the last two years of president obama's remember the. so bringing in john pedesta is to bring someone in to get around that. >> for me it kills two bird with one stone. it is a powerful message going into 2014. i think the country is in this pop louse moment deeply concerned about income and equality. we see the pope named person of the year by "time." we see growing concern and talk about increasing the minimum wage. do you think his work specifically on income and equality will affect his work in the administration? >> we can certainly hope so. i totally agree with you. this is a huge pop louse moment.

we are sort of giving up. i think there is a lot to the idea there should be more done with executive action. i think also we can run on popular and income and equality and hold to progressive values. i think the democrats are realizing the law and rung away with it didn't work. 1 run on it. make it work. from the white house on down, we should be meeting with them. >> i think we finally learned that lesson, tim. the president has reached out to republicans so many times when it is obvious they're never going to work with him. anything that has his name associated wit. forget it. it's off the table. he has been damaged i think politically from trying to work through congress so much. to me, it seems like both a political win to do more with his executive power. it seems like that strong leader that the country seems to want.

it's also a legislative win. you get more accomplished. >> i think that's right. i wrote a piece several months ago saying the politically shrewd thing for obama to do even if he wants to be a cent terrori centrist, it will be more right. >> jeff, how does a sort of pop louse message about income and equality, ragz the minimum wage. how does that play in a place like missouri. >> there are not a lot of place pumped up about the bailout. there are not a lot of place excited about increasing sort of economic, persistent stagnation in the heartland. despite that, the fact that wall street and the dow are hitting all time highs, there aren't a lot of people who are pumped about that. >> right. >> i think that message works not just with progressives but

the alienated middle that oftentimes, most political scientists attribute the 2010 rally to the republican sway of those independents. >> kristen, what do you make of that? do the republicans have a plan or policies they can use themselves to talk about inequality or sort of playing the pop louse mantle of the moment? >> so i think what republicans should be doing is focused on mobility. rather than saying we need to focus on the difference between the poorest and rich et, we need to be focused on making sure that someone who starts off as the poorest can become the very richest. we start to see republicans weaveing into their speeches. it's time for real policies to be put out there to say this is what we want to do to help make people when they start off in the beginning. >> what do some of those policies look leak? that's been the slate. >> we are talking of raising the minimum wage. problem was the last person president. >> you think the republicans

should get behind that. >> i don't think for instance when we talk about these things like $15 an hour. i don't think republicans will get near there. there are only countries where they've indexed the minimum wage to inflation instead of allowing politicians decide what they want the minimum wage to be, you got a more technocratic approach. it would be at least a start. putting something on the table where they can say, we do care. we are not focused on the 1%. i don't think republicans are focused on the 1%. i think by focusing on things, how do we give people the skills when they work in a low skill job they have the opportunity to move up. >> that's a real way to have policy and a message that gets around this idea. >> they desperately need that. to your point about indexing inflation, that solves a political problem for republicans then you wouldn't

have this thing democrats can beat them up over time and time again every time we need to lift the minimum wage. i will pick up on that point right after this. ♪ ready or not. [ female announcer ] ...so you can be up there. here i come! [ female announcer ] ...down there, around there... and under there for him. tylenol® provides strong pain relief and won't irritate your stomach the way aleve® or even advil® can. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol®. for all those who sleep too hot or too cool, for all those who sleep now there's a solution. sleep number dual temp, the revolutionary temperature-balancing layer with active air technology that works on any mattress brand, including yours. it's only at a sleep number store, where this holiday season, the hottest sleep innovations make the coolest gifts - including sleep number dual temp. discover dual temp at one of our 425 sleep number stores nationwide.

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. >> consen straight wealth at the top is less likely to result in broadly based consumer spending and together with lax regulation may contribute to risky speculative bubbles. >> we are back talking about the president's agenda. that was president obama this month talking about income and equality. tim, i wanted for the ask you about something you have been writing about which is a sort of populist win. tell us about what it means, why it's important. help us understand what's going on. >> well, it's a great step forward for bringing more stability to wall street. it's income and equality because this, there has been a drive to an ever greater risk. it's been very, very lucrative

to people on wall street and this will reduce that risk taken by investment banks and that's quite helpful i think. people don't really pay much attention to regulation. it's boring. they want to see scalps nailed to the wall, they want to see prosecutions. i think prosecution is a very effective tool for dealing with wrong doers. but i don't think it really changes the culture of wall street very much. regulation really will. i think it's quite a sophisticate achievement. >> emily, what other things do you think he is passionate about? you speak for all of cap. the definitive last word in terms of what cap things. >> sure. >> what other things do you think we can see him focusing on in. >> i think we should look at the issues cap was built on, inequality number one. john has been a champion for climate. >> that seems likely he will be

working on that and health care as well. a lot of ro bust health care department at cap. putting out a lot of work. i think the way that john has built cap i think says a lot to his way of thinking and the way moving forward, what are you bringing to the white house? the fact that we're looking at forward thinking ideas. big picture ideas. the things that could not today that could implement in the future. also having that piece of helping with the issues today. >> well, jeff, one of the things the president was criticized for in the election was that it was all small potatoes ideas, right, the big vision of 2008, seemed to have shrunk to little more sort of specific, small issues, things he can tackle in a second term. do you think hess rethinking that in wanting to sort of return to the 2008 big picture changing america, really tackling income and equality head on? >> i can see your point in the second game change, double down.

he even said to his consultants, hey this agenda is all small ball. we need something bigger. those are his own words you are quoting. he is thinking about his legacy. for a while a grand bargain is going to be his legacy. i think he is thinking about these legacy issues. let me take issue with one thing i think may happen ha. i think he is known xxl. the pipeline made the green light. >> why do you think that? >> i know he's been a huge opponent right when he was appointed, one of the first things the administration did was he will not have discussions on that. >> i read that differently. i read that as we are leaning towards not doing it. we don't want to look like he is involved given he sits on the board of a couple of companies that could potentially benefit from it not going through. >> they may be the case, right when they announced the delay a

couple years back, i thought this may be a clever way to harness the energy and resources throughout the campaign. his own words in the new yorker, he said it was overwhelmingly likely to happen until the republicans made it an issue and that's why he made it. i think in part could be a pro fi prophylactic. if they can stumble with climate change and it was a problem in 2010. if we can message that better coming up. i want to thank emily and jeff submit. thank you. we will see you later in the next hour as a contestant on 80 up against the clock." we are excited about that.

this has been your life long dream before there was an "up against the clock." so i know you are excited, too. first, another full hour of news and why nancy pelosi told house democrats to embrace the suck this week and what it means for millions of americans. >> that is coming up next. ♪ through 12 blizzards blowing ♪ 6 snowballs flying ♪ 5 packages addressed by toddlers ♪ .

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>> nancy pelosi is a lady who gets things done, in the interest of getting democrats to swallow a very bitter pill this week the message she employed was and i quote embase the suck. that was the language the house minority leader used thursday when she told her caucus to call if line and cast a vote for the two-year budget deal hammered out by congressman paul ryan and democratic senator patty murray. many democrats were not happy the deal didn't include jobless benefits. she pushed for including those benefits. she was ready to move on to

pressure republicans to extend unemployment insurance. another bill. so she used that vivid turn of phrase, embrace the suck to get frustrated democrats to support the agreement people close to her saying she told house democrats, we need to get this off the table so we can go forward. with fancy pelosi, go forward it did. 163 democrats voted for the measure, joining another 169 republicans to pass the budget through the house, 332-94. and so the message to the 1.3 million americans still out of work, no matter how hard they have been searching for jobs that do not exist may never exist. the message to them is they will lose any help from the government three days of christmas. so embrace the suck and have a happy new year and avoid paying the mortgage or keeping the electricity on the help will vanish two weeks from today

unless congress acts. >> three days after christmas jobless benefits will stop for thousands in a state still hit very hard by unemployment. for this mother of four, much of her morning ritual remains the same, getting her kids up and ready for school. but these days she is supporting her family with her unemployment insurance. >> and at 357 a week, it's really tough. it is really, really tough. >> reporter: despite living in chicago, he keeps the heat low to save money. >> i don't know when the end game is, when it will happen. it's just that, it's hope. if you don't have the hope, then it's truly over. >> i'm not beyond working in a retail store. i'm not beyond working at mcdonald's, whatever it taxi so that my kids are not homeless. >> in normal times, unemployment insurance is supposed to tide over for a short period of time while you look for a new job. up until mid-2008, if you lost your job, you got up to six months of unemployment from state fund employers pay into.

in the wake of the worst recession since the great depression, congress enacted emergency compensation, something that could kick in after six months for the millions of americans who still have not found new jobs. i think the word emergency is an apt one. if you want to know what emergency looks like, take a look at this graph. you can see long-term unemployment has skyrocketed in the last four years to a level not seen in this country for more than the last half century. this is a problem we have not seen if a long, long time. there are three people leaning up for every one job opening that exists. the longer you are out of a job, the harder it becomes to get one. employers tend to prefer workers who still have a job or started looking. you start to get some stink of joblessness, having done something wrong when obviously you haven't. while short term unemployment is back down to prerecession levels, it is long term unemployment that continues to dog the nation.

27 weeks is just the start of how we measure how long long term really s. the long term unemployed tend to be older, have more education and include people of color. vera volk had 20 years if biotech research. she has a degree in microbiology and masters in immunology. she is now barely getting by on emergency compensation set to run out in two weeks. vera testified before congress this month and will share her story here with us today. at the table is timothy noah. author of america's crisis and what we can do about it and contributing writer for msnbc.com. along with vera volk who has been looking for wok since she lost her job in may. a republican polk foirm i firm and simone campbell, director of national catholic social justice organization. thank you all for being here to

joan this conversation. and vera, i wanted to start with your take and i'm so grateful to you for being here. i think a lot of people would be spreezed to hear about your education background. they pay have stereotypes in their mind who the long-term unemployed are and what they look leak. tell us a little bit about how you lost your job and what the process has been like trying to find work in this economy. >> i lost my job because of lack of funding with the, in the biotech industry. that was probably due to sequestration. >> oh, real ply. >> effects taking place in that people weren't investing into technologies as much. i was developing a diagnostic tool that would help diagnose cancer patients much earlier and get better hope than health to those people. it's been frustrating looking for a job because as you said

for every position there is at least three if not more people looking. they're asking more for younger, from less experienced employees than and if i, because i don't have some specific talent or title i'm being passed over, even though i performed all of these functions in every position i've had in the biotechnology community, it doesn't count for anything like. and so does that, what i said about the fact that employers basically discriminate against folks who have been out of work for a certain period of time, does that ring true to you in your experience? >> to some degree it does because they're looking more for the younger person whose recent graduates. i'm having to do more with technical skills. it's not necessarily knowledge.

it's not necessarily skills per se, because i can be taught anything and it's very easy to do biotechnology. it could be very difficult. it's the fact that they're looking for very specific requirements and skill sets that no one could truly fill, even the best of people out there. >> when you have three people looking for every one job, employers can decide, well, you know, we're not going to take a chance on that person because we're not 100% sure. it was so important to me to have your voice here today because i wanted you to reflect a little bit on what it says about a country when in this last budget deal we prioritize restoring some of the fund to the military over providing help for 1.3 million americans who have been unploild, who are unemployed, looking for jobs.

it means that little lifeline to help them get through the holiday season. what does that say about our tapabilities here? >> well, i have a hunch. it says the dorpgss have stronger advocates than we were in congress at this point, there is more diplomacy on the industrial complex than on the people complex of who we the people actually are. the calgary is in our nation is to look at the reality of this recession, the benefits of the so-called recovery. 95% of the benefits have gone to the top 1% when we have folks like vera who continue to struggle. it's the rest of us who are struggling really hard to deal with the impact of the recession, which was a constriction of jobs. there has been no real job creation. especially in the industry as vera pointed out. the importance of we the people have to do is lift up the fact that it's about us. we the people need to be the ones our government is responding to and that requires the extension of long-term

unemployment and a few other things i could add to the list. >> i bet you could. sister. what do you say to people i heard on the right folks made the argument well, this is really the work of the church and of community groups to support folks once they have been out of work this long this isn't really the job of the government at all. what is your response to that? we got a great e-mail from an 84-year-old she woke up in the middle of the night worried about folks she met unemployed. she realized in her church she do you know do new. she knew by paying taxes it was like asking the government to do a piece she couldn't do. the needs are so large we cannot individually meet these needs so what we the people do is we find a way to organize to respond to need. then what people miss is that churches utilize leverage government fund often to make a difference. so it's a partnership between

the government and private char the i to really make an impact. and it's that government private partnership that we the people is all about. >> tim, i think we also often forget, excuse me. we think of the government as like this other thing over here. when the government is us. right? that's the way it works in this country. it's the things that we choose to do together. i think if you ask americans, they understand the realities of this economy. they understand that folks like vera, they're not like hanging out on the -- they're doing their best to do the job. it's just not there for them. >> when you hate the government, you hate yourself because you are the government. >> right. >> and the economy right now is in a very peculiar state. we are seeing record corporate profits at the same time we are seeing paltry gdp growth. it's very odd and you know as a result, we're not seeing much in the way of a reduction in

unemployment. it's baffling economists as to what the actual cause is. companies do not want to hire, even these wildly profitable ones. one of the more shocking statistics i heard recently was i think it was about a third of all bank tellers in this country are on food stampt. >> wow. >> so even if you can get a job in the most successful sector in the entire economy, you might still end up on quote/unquote welfare. >> right. yeah. and we seem to have no thought of the way we're subsidizeing corporations who don't provide a living wage. back to this question specifically kristen of the politics of it and the idea that we need to extend for the unemployment benefits. democrats said they're committed to it. they put forward a couple ideas of how they could attach it to the farm bill potentially. on the republican side, how do you impose a number of senators if the idea of extending

unemployment insurance benefits had even come up at all? one of them senator bob corker said in terms of whether there had been a discussion. he said none. there has been no discussion. it has never come up. so how would you characterize republican opposition to extension of unemployment benefits? is it like they're totally philosophically opposed? is it something that they're sort of indifferent about or is there may be some interest on that side of the aisle in moving forward in. >> so i think there are two piece, first the fiscal side. it's always sort of a question when you talk about why do republicans oppose something, be you the other piece to it is the extension of unemployment benefits up to 19 weeks, this much longer thing. if it was a temporary measure put in place because the recession was so bad. because there was this temporary emergency need. now it's been so long, i think the question is, it appears this isn't temporary. this is sort of a permanent problem in the way our labor markets are working in this

country. to continue to send checks, are we doing what we need to help folks get jobs? and that is there something that we could be doing? for instance, there are economists at aei, who have advocated instead of sending folks checks, you can offer to subsidize the wages of folks who have been long term unemployed who take a job. you could actually do direct government hiring. they note, they say this is kind of odd for somebody from the right to be suggesting. instead of mailing folks checks and saying we wish you the best of luck in getting a job, what if the government was helping to find those people positions so they have something more recent the put on their resume to help them be more attracted to an employer. >> those are great ideas. i want to push forward in terms of what could help folks find jobs. i would argue that since congress isn't doing anything, the least we koeld do that we owe these folks is to give them the little life lean they have right now. until we could get some policies in plates to actually make the economy better.

we will talk more about that right after this. . [ laughter ]

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. >> we are here talking about long term unemployment extending benefits to help folks looking for work and have been unable to find it in this economy. vera, i wanted to turn to you and your experience. you mentioned that your job may have gone away because of the sequesters impact. for you, what could congress potentially do that might help you in locating another job? >> i mean, ending sequester cuts seemed like a good start.

>> that will improve my compensation by $150. that was well below what i was earning from the state of massachusetts. they to create jobs, invest more money into the technology sectors, the higher end sectors, where people can have a good living wage. i'm taking on seventeenal work. i'm taking on part time work. my husband has been looking for the same amount of time make it easier for us to get on food stamps and assistance with heating and to find the housing assistance that we need. i got paperwork upon paperwork-to-fill out every day just to get these basic effects and i am up against the clock as i borrow your phrase in gathering my stuff. i'm sleepless at night.

finding, giving us the medical assistance we need. there is so much they can do. >> it's interesting they would supply jobs. it's got to be not at all levels of the economy from the lower basic construction type of thing, fast food workers, retail, all the way up to. >> all the way up. >> if it's hurting me, i can just imagine how it's hurting someone in a lower income bracket than i am. >> government hire programs are dissparrageingly on the right in particular. is that what's called for in this crisis at this point though? you have people out of work for this time. they're trying to find jobs, employers aren't hiring them, because they're unemployed, employers are less likely to hire them.

is that what's called for in this situation? >> it's not the only solution. if republicans are ready to bring back the wpas, sign me up. >> that's for all republicans. >> for all republicans, it's problems. >> seriously, i am promoting a federal jobs program for a number of years now and it's way outside the discussion. i'd love to see it get into the discussion. >> well, this is a part of our whole conversation we need to have as a society. the benefits go to the top .1% in the recession recovery. what has happened is we have come to this agreement as a society kind of tacitly that we want to pay the lowest possible price, lowest possible wages and push people down. >> that is wrong for the long-term benefit of our economy. we need to redo that agreement where it will work as you are

saying, vera. work needs to allow familys to sustain themself, fast food workers use $6 being of safety net programs in 2012. that's the wrong equation. republicans must be up in arms about. that couldn't we pay 50 cents more? >> i haven't heard republicans up in arms about that. >> i would think they are. working families need to eat. people leak vera with a lot of talent, folks can't contribute their talent. we lose this conversation. >> vera is not working, using her skills. >> the calgary when you tack about these folks working at mcdonald's making minimum wage the first problem is if you do say a federal minimum wage increase to $15, at what point does mcdonald's say we could have computers and people guy want my number one where a dr. pepper. >> we will talk more about minimum wage tomorrow. we got a lot planned on that.

it's an issue we are passionate about. in terms of if you look at evidence, we have a natural experiment in this country. a lot of different states paying different minimum wages and there has been very little evidence that it has much if any impact on employment. if you take it to an absurd place, it has an impact. at the levels we are talking about i don't think it will. kristen, you were bringing up some potentially republican ideas on helping the job list and if i can put on the screen, you were references the american enterprise institute has been writing about this they put forward some ideas, some seem more right leaning, some left leaning. i was wondering if you talk about if you think things like expanding insurance programs. i think the long-term unemployed can go to hotter jobs and bonus

payments to those who do find jobs. is there any possibility for support for programs leak these in congress? >> i think right now republicans are trying to figure out what is our agenda? they have been branded as the party opposed to everything. you have a lot of voices saying, okay, we have bid against things. we got to present what our solution is. so if we think paying more money that's a band aid for a problem, not the solution, what do we think is the solution? i'm encouraged to hear them, some will be non-starters, not for no reason. take for instance relocation subsidies. i was talking this is tim's area of expertise, i'll let him run with this one, you have texas economic miracle and jobs are growing there. i know, if somebody is in detroit, a city that has gone bankrupt, could have that cost

to move to a place where they're looking to hire. in places like north dakota, you get a job at a wal-mart it's $17 an hour because the economy is booming so much and the balance of power is in the employees' favor. >> let me -- sorry. let me make sure i understand, they're paying $17 and they haven't going to robots yet. >> because they don't have to. the job market there because there is so much money because of the energy boom, that's what it's worth in the short term to make it work. >> additionally, i think a republican model might be also to with the big tax breaks corporations get to incentivize job creation. if we actually shifted some of that profit to job creation, then i think we could grow this economy and solve some of the problems. >> we have an economy, sometimes i think the prize goes to the

guy who makes the greatest amount of money while sharing it with a few number of people. creating the fewest number of jobs. that's got to change. speaking of this, you know, relocation idea, i do think this is an underappreciated fact that americans are migrateing to jobs considerably less than they used to. this has been going on for decades now. >> yeah. >> people don't move to opportunity. to the extent they move. >> they are tied partly to their house. they are unable to move. quickly, we node to go to break. are you hopeful? >> i am hopeful. because as i guess it's from my parental bringing up and my religious beliefs that there is something out there for me to do. what that is, i'm not sure anymore. i thought it was to help cure cancer when i was ten-years-old. >> well, it makes no -- well, i want to thank sister simone dam bell for joining us, msnbc.com's

tim noah and vera volk. thank you for sharing your story w. hope you find that dream job to dur cancer for all of us. thank you. >> thank you. >> now the cliche tells us all that you learn something new every day. this week for me, those lessons came from, wait for it, senator rand paul. i will explain tongue firmly in cheek on the other side of this break. we eased your back pain... ♪ ready or not. [ female announcer ] ...so you can be up there. here i come! [ female announcer ] ...down there, around there... and under there for him. tylenol® provides strong pain relief and won't irritate your stomach the way aleve® or even advil® can. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol®. but for everything we do, new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple

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. >> we were just talking about the plight of the long term unemployed of folks out of work for much longer than anyone expected and who are still struggling to get a job. it seems logical to me given we are still recovering from a massive recession, there is an estimated three people for every one available job right now. because of that. it seems we should provide these folks down on their luck with a life lean to give them unemployment benefits. it seems to me like the moral

thing to do. so when rand paul said in this week, well, it just really stayed with me. maybe my logic on unemployment benefits has been all wrong? >> i do support unemployment benefits for the 26 weeks that they're paid for. if you extend it beyond that, you do a disservice to these workers. >> wow, a disservice to the workers? rand paul is theying i'm actually hurting the very people i want to help and he's a doctor, too, so he ought to know. so that got me thinking. what other hardships are we burdening people with by trying to alleviate their hartships, well, food stamps seem to be an obvious candidate. bad if you have we give them to adults. just think of the children. think about it. food stamps could to be doing a disservice to today's service whose foraging skills i would say inspire at best. to dig deep into the grittier dumpsters, they will never learn

how to dig down for the good stuff. plus, nothing hones math skills sense counting the days sense your last meal. the new york post editorial board gets it. they can be counted on unfettered compassion. this week in response to new york time's expose on homeless families, they pointed out public shelters do a disservice to the homeless. sure the large family with young children so movingly profiled lives in a shelter with rodents, namely mice and sexual assaults and other crimes. according to post, if the city is at fault here, it might well be for having been too generous. it makes sense, think of all the help send relevant la got from that animal king domg. maybe that's the wrong approach. maybe we should be using the rodents to drive them out of assisted housing. perhaps the rodents are simply not beg enough? now, you pop one of those puppies into their 5 hichl square foot palace. we'll see how bad they find a

job. the way we coddle seniors these days with their social security checks month after month after month, that is definitely doing them a disservice. they will never learn the value of a hard day's work or wait maybe how to stop using those walkers? hmm. it's a tough one, actually. you know, i think we can still get them off. stick them in with a rat. you will see how fast grandma stand up and get a job again. do not get me started on the epa. if we just stay the course on the carbon emissions we are spewing into the environment, we can take the ozone layer out of the equation entirely. let the free market have ocean to land. we can teach everybody to swim. besides, chosen has polluted this and they're kicking our ass. rand's philosophy also seems to apply beautifully to emergency services, they create diplomacy on big government, folks. 911, my house is burning.

help me, big government. please, by providing you with government sponsored emergency services, we create an entire nation of whiners waiting to throw up their hand at the first raging fire they see. what about self releans and exercise? we are doing folks a big disservice. form a bucket brigade. show community spirit. show patience and wait and see how this wageing house fire develops t. more i think about it. there is simply no end to the disservices our government has been doing to us, even before the twin nanny state social security and medicare. to what am i referring, you may ask? i will tell you. i think we all know when barak obama crashes the economy, we won't have the slightest clue how to live off the grid, will we? you won't be bragging about your fancy rural electrification then, will you? come to think of it, rand paul's philosophy, it's so simple.

so elegant, so all inclusive that it even applies to rand paul, himself. after all, he and his delightful nuggets of wisdom do a disservice to all of us. why don't we just try to do without those two? all right. we'll be right back. yep. got all the cozies. [ grandma ] with new fedex one rate, i could fill a box and ship it for one flat rate. .

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. >> the legendary game show host bob barker turned 90 this week. his old colleagues on "the prees is right" celebrated the oeducation with this very, very impressive cake. in the middle of the tv party during one of the commercial breaks, there was even more bob barker. >> folks, when you get to be as young as i am, you call it like you see it. that's why i'm supporting david jolly for congress. >> now, bob barker usually this offers as a reminder to get your pets spayed or newtered. he was asking voters to come on

down and support david jolly in florida's upcoming special election. politics and game shows have a habit of collideing like that on this show every week up against the clock. so in honor of bob, why don't you come on down right after this break to see who has what it takes to when the coveted golden cup. . [ laughter ]

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♪ 2 angry geese ♪ and a giant blow-up snowman ♪ that kind of freaks me out [ beep ] [ female announcer ] no one delivers the holidays like the u.s. postal service. priority mail flat rate is more reliable than ever. and with improved tracking up to 11 scans, you can even watch us get it there. and look for our limited edition holiday stamps. . >> live from studio 3a in rockefeller center usa, it's time for up against the clock. original from the greatest city, st. louis, missouri, ask him what high school he went to, it's jeff smith. from sunny orlando, florida, visited by more than 55 million people a year, say hello to our own visitor chris anderson and our returning champion from seattle, washington and roosevelt high school, total

winnings of $11 in cash and regifted fruit cake. welcome msnbc's ari melbar. the guest host of "up against the clock," crystal ball. >> thank you, bill wolf. thank you studio audience. thank you at home for do you knowing in. you might have noticed, i am not steve kornacki. he has graciously let me take the reigns, microphone included. i want to welcome our three contestants. i am glad to have almost all of you here. thanks to see you as well. it doesn't mean the rules have changed just because i'm here today. there are still three round of play, wrong answers will cost you. plus there are a few instant bonuses scattered in each round. most importantly, studio audience, i beg you, pleads, no outbursts, these contestants deserve and demand absolute concentration when they are up against the clock. with that, i will ask you, contestants, are you ready to play?

>> yes, i'm ready. >>, lent. i feel the enthusiasm. >> i brought a pastry. >> you are excited. >> hand on buzzers, please, we will put 100 second on the clock. we will begin with this, newly declassified documents from the cia this week revealed that former director leon panetta inadvertently revealed information for film makers for this 2012 film about the osama bin laden. >> "zero dark 30." >> that is right. next up for 100 points, this pastor turned governor turned teleinvestigation host. >> mike huckabee. >> jeff smith. got it there. mike huckabee 100 points, next up, new obama administration hire was president clinton's last white house chief of staff, for 100 points, name any other clinton white house chief of staff. ari. >> ur16 bowles.

>> kristen is going to get on the board, i feel it. stepping down as the ceo of wall street's largest lobbying firm thursday this former new hampshire senator immediately tamped down speculation that it is because he would run for senate again. jeff. >> john sununu. >> encorrect. anyone else, 5, 4, 3, 2 -- >> can i protest this, crystal, you said this former new hampshire senator. he was a former massachusetts senator. >> who? >> scott brown. >> judd grey. >> oh, my good, i should get another 100 points taken away. >> don't fact dplek you don't know the facts. >> the senator with cuban ties walked out in the middle. >> i don't know who got it first. >> it was jeff. >> ted cruz. >> that is right. and last on the 100 point round,

speaking actress shirley macclan honors president obama became the first senate to honor this installation famous for its extraterrestrial. >>ary 51. >> crystal, correct for 100 points. round two, stakes up to 200 points, katherine clark won a special election tuesday held by this 30-plus year house veteran. jeff. >> ed marky? >> that is correct. 200 points. one of the wealthiest members of congress, this florida democrat revealed this week he lost. >> alan greyson. >> that is correct. the senate voted 57-41 on tuesday to confirm this north carolina congressman jeff. >> mel lott. >> correct enstant bonus question. senate democrats cleared the way by changing the rules about what senate procedure that had been blocking. >> this is number you don't get the answer, just for jeff, that

had been blocking his nomination. >> the filibuster. >> that is text for the instant bonus. an actress who appeared in minor roles on several recent tv shows pled guilty in texas this week for sending president obama letters laced with what? >> 3, 2, 1. ricin was the correct answer. >> i should know. the department of health and human services on wednesday shows this new england state leads the nation in seen-ups for insurance. kristen. >> vermont. >> that is correct. vermont for 200 points. retired major general michael leonard wrote in an op-ed for the detroit free press thursday that this controversial facility that was under his command never should have been opened. kristen. >> guantonomo bay. >> that is correct. 200 point, kristen, making a strong comeback. starting a media frenzy, president obama was appearing in a selfie with david cameron and

prime minister of what european country, kristen. >> denmark. >> that is correct. 200 points. >> on a roll. >> all right. and we are at jeff with 700 kristen with 700 ari with 400. round 3, 300 points, anyone's game this week, this south american nation became the first country in the world to legalize marijuana trade. ari. >> it was uruguay. >> this is correct. 300 points. this republican congressman from wisconsin told a local gop event that the united states should not have lowered flags for nelson mandela. 3, 2, 1. the answer is jim sensenbrenner. way to go, buddy. a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit wednesday that had been seeking to overturn the 2010 house sensor of this new york congressman for financial --

jeff. >> charlie rangel. >> that is correct. former daughter on the show "west wing," this actress was nominated for a golden globe. kristen. >> elizabeth moss. >> correct. 300 points. >> golden globes now? >> it's all tied up between jeff and kristen. this red state democratic senator up for re-election released a tv ad this week hitting back at obama care and vowing to fight the obama administration to let people keep their old -- jeff. >> mary landrieu. >> correct. 300 points, former committee chairman said he is considering challenging which democratic senate. >> mark warner. >> correct. oh, jeff smith. oregon governor john kitsaver, already the longest in history announced his bid in portland this week, if successful, how many terms, jeff. >> four. >> that is correct. four. >> all right. it was announced this week that

former alaska governor sarah palen will host a new show in 2014 on this obscure channel featuring outdoor lifestyle programming. anyone? i'm going to be kind of proud of you. >> i will lose points if i get it wrong. >> i think i have it on the hand here. >> the sportsman channel. correct. anyway, that's what i say. >> all right. let's see the final tally. >> that means that jeff with 1,900 points. >> pretty strong. >> you are the up against the clock champion and you are our new all time high scoring champion, way to go. kristen, you are also up there. all right. bill wolf, tell him what he's won. >> as our champion, you will have your name printed in exquisite sharpee on the coveted "up against the clock" gold cup. you get to take it home and show it off to friends, family and school children for one week. you will receive an appearance this coming week on msnbc's "the

cycle" airing weekdays. you will play in our bonus round for today's grand prize, a cert. serving up the best franks in the greater meadowlands area. back to you, steve. >> congratulations, jeff. you look good with that "up" cup. we have some unfinished business here. i have in my hand the instant bonus question for that jackpot to the famous ruts hut. one question, do or die, here it is. this texas congressman known for his colorful twitter feed announced this week he will challenge senator john kcornyn for his senate seat. you don't have to buzz it. >> steve stockman. >> that is correct. you don't have to buzz. steve stockman. and with that, you win this giant check to ruts hut. >> impressive. >> congratulations, jeff. ? thank you. >> i knew you could do it. i believed in you from the

start. and you'll all get the home edition, fun for the whole family, one way you can bring all the excitement of "up against the clock" to your very own living room. steve will be back next week for another battle of the ages on "up against the clock." after the break, back to the real show. what do we know now that we did not know last week. our answer is after this. a can of del monte green beans? ♪ ♪ if i was a flower growing wild and free ♪ ♪ all i'd want is you to be my sweet honeybee ♪ ♪ and if was a tree growing tall and green ♪ ♪ all i'd want is you to shade me and be my leaves ♪ grown in america. picked & packed at the peak of ripeness. the same essential nutrients as fresh. del monte. bursting with life™. i need you.

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before we turn to what our guests know now that they did not know when the week began, how the president and first lady marked the first anniversary of the shootings at sandy hook elementary school. just minutes ago they lit candles, 26 of them, one for each of the victims in silence. beautiful scene in the map room of the white house there. so i guess that is what i know this morning that i did not know previously. so let's turn to our guests. krist kristen, what do you know now?

>> what i know now is china is now reporting that they have landed a probe on the moon. there's sort of this interesting space race that china has been waging, you know, sounds almost cold war-esque, and just this morning their state media is reporting they have successfully landed something on the moon. >> hmm. very interesting. jeff, how about you? >> what i know now is advances in medical technology have made possible the human spinal transplants which you could see this week if you watch john boehner getting a spine and actually finally stand up to the extreme elements of his party in working with paul ryan to get 169 republicans in his caucus to support this budget compromise. >> yeah. and i also know that not to go head to head with you in a trivia game. very impressive performance. what do you know now? >> i think i know a similar fact, which is that you can defy these pressure groups heritage action and the rest of them and sun still rises the next day and republicans can still run their

caucus the next day. and we've sort of lived in that shadow and john boehner's been worried about it. it turns out you can just do it and get up the next morning. >> life goes on. >> yeah. >> the other thing we know about that is it helps when you have someone like a paul ryan who has conservative cred to back you up. >> yeah. >> i think that was a key part of john boehner finding his spine implant this week. all right. my thanks to all of our guests today. my co-host on some other program you might have heard about, ari. "the cycle," 3:00 p.m. eastern. thanks for coming in on a weekend and playing along. thanks for joining us today for "up." join us tomorrow where we'll look at women in the workforce because america's auto company has put a woman in charge doesn't mean the discussion of inequality is closed. coming up next is melissa harris-perry and on today's mhp budget deals in congress, angst

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this morning, my question -- should we be celebrating or mourning the budget deal in washington? plus the michigan law requiring what some people are calling rape insurance. and queen bee looks back at it. but first we knew we would be talking about a school shooting today. we just didn't know it would be breaking news. good morning. i'm melissa harris-perry. listen, we knew we were going to be talking about a school shooting this morning. we just thought we would be talking about a memorial for events that occurred one