aloha president obama. the first family headed to hawaii for christmas as we're getting another change for the health care law. the senate is back in session right now wrapping up on its last day before vacation. they approved big changes to the way the military handles sexual assaults but will not deal with several key presidential nominations like janet yellin until after the break. and conservatives come to the rescue of "duck dynasty's" star. >> phil was saying -- he was reciting a part of the gospel. the liberal left must feel that the gospel then is insulting and offensive. >> what is next for phil robertson? and can the show go on without him? good morning, i'm richard lui in for chris jansing on this friday. we are continuing to follow some breaking news this morning about senate majority leader harry reid, hospitalized. his office saying he was not feeling well and as a precaution went for tests.

he's alert and feeling better, but he's staying in the hospital for observation. here is what senator dick durbin said as the senate opened this morning. >> senator reid, the majority leader, is absent today and i will be acting in his place. senator reid called me this morning. he sounded good and we look forward to his speedy recovery. >> and it looks like the senate will be business as usual today, even though senator reid will not be there and of course we'll be following that developing story right here on msnbc. also more changes this morning to the president's health care law. if your policy was cancelled, not only can you keep your old plan, but now you will be eligible for a hardship exemption and you'll be able to buy a cheaper catastrophic plan and be exempt from the penalties if you do not buy insurance next year. this change came in response to a push from six moderate democrats worried about the impact of the cancelled plans on their constituents and their political futures.

but insurers not so pleased. quote, this latest rule change could cause significant instability in the marketplace and lead to further confusion and disruption for consumers, end quote. that's what the president and ceo of america's health insurance plans had said. on that i want to bring in our company, bengy sarlin and bob herbert. good friday to both of us. benjy, kick it off for us. we haereard from a white house adviser a little earlier. >> more choice for a narrow and shrinking universe of people who we've been trying to accommodate for the past month. this has been from the beginning about making sure that the transition that the afford care act anticipated is smooth. >> all right, benjy, we also are learning just this hour that president obama will be making comments in a news briefing at 2:00 p.m., just getting that into msnbc.

so the president will be making comments. what do you expect him to be saying about this, and is this really about making a transition? this transition as we go forward to the next year smoother. >> well, the president is making such a big deal out of relief for those people with cancelled plans because they're definitely afraid this is the next major political shoe to drop, in addition to presenting policy obstacles for the law. the nightmare scenario for the white house after they have gotten the website under control, come january 1st those people that got their plans cancelled, if just a few of them don't have insurance and one of them gets sick and racks up some bills, you will see terrible headlines. so they're doing everything they can to make options available for them. but these are relatively minor changes. i talked to the m.i.t. professor who was one of the architects of the law and he said he didn't expect a lot from it but he thought it was a political test. if you open the door to exempting some people from the mandate, then people can demand

others be exempted and that can create problems if it widens. >> bob, but some are saying this is not a small adjustment, that millions might be affected by this issue, but now the president has come out and said -- made this change, right? but why do this change now? >> well, they're doing it because you had democratic senators who are potentially in tough races in 2014 coming up and the obama administration and the democrats are worried about losing control of the senate. i mean this is almost strictly a political -- >> is it about numbers, though, too? >> a political move. >> is it about folks not signing up and not getting the right numbers that they need? >> i don't think this will have that much of an impact in terms of the right numbers they need. the real issue there are whether you can in general sign up young, healthier folks. i thought from the beginning that would be a problem and it's turning out that is a problem. and i'm not sure how the administration overcomes that. so i agree that this may not affect a great number of people but you will have those

anecdotes which will be bad coverage for the law and for the administration. but the real issue becomes whether the law is going to work, whether you're going to have enough people to sign up to make the law cost effective. >> okay. so for insurers here, benjy, they don't like this change. it opens up an exemption in the law. one originally just for people under 30, as you know, and now people who had their policies cancelled and think the obamacare plan is too expensive, they can be exempt and go for catastrophic plans as one of their options. is this creating, do you think here, a two-class system? >> well, the concern from ahip, the major insurance lobby, is that, one, it creates a general sense of confusion. people aren't quite sure which plan they fit into, what exactly they're eligible for, but also that it might skew the risk pools. put people in catastrophic coverage that was meant for people under age 30 and should be in another area, it might create problems down the line as

people try to get out of that when it expires. but in general we're probably talking about a fairly narrow group of people spread across 50 states. we're talking about, according to the white house's estimate at least, about 500,000 people or fewer who have had their plans cancelled and still haven't gotten insurance. a lot of these people have already gotten insurance either through the exchanges or renewing a plan through their individual insurer. so spread out across all the exchanges, it's hard to see that having a huge impact. >> stand by if you can, benjy and bob. we've got some more breaking news into us at msnbc from the white house. president obama ordering a one-year review of the military's handling of sexual assault to measure progress in the statement that we're getting, the white house is saying that his administration has a, quote, urgent obligation to respond. the president's remarks are the first on legislation that will crack down on sexual assault passed by the senate late thursday, and of course we'll continue following that and will go back to some of our reporters in washington, d.c., on that.

let's bring back our journalists now. bob, do you think that this is going to be one of the issues the president will bring up at 2:00, mixed in with, of course, the news of the day, and that is of the aca and the changes? >> the military -- absolutely. this is a big deal. i have thought and i've written quite a bit about this. i have thought this was one of the great untold stories in the u.s. the problem of sexual assault, rape, harassment in the military is enormous. and even though it's gotten some coverage, the coverage is not comparable to the seriousness of the problem that they face. so this one-year review i think is absolutely essential. and whatever the findings are, i hope they're taken seriously. >> talking about one-year reviews, benjy, i want to move to you. as the year does come to a close, politico putting out six really tough questions for president obama. they're asking you lost on gun control, immigration reform stalled in the house, you failed to prevent across-the-board

spending cuts from kicking in last month, the federal government closed for 17 days. where did you succeed on the domestic front in the past year and what letter grade would you give yourself? add to that here, benjy, the president's approval rating hovering around 42%. so does the president, benjy, need a couple of accomplishments here to try to turn this around, move the needle the other way? >> well, the primary goal of his second term throughout has been mostly implementing the more dramatic changes that they made in the first. that's what's going on with the health care law right now. so making sure those gains are consolidated so they can't be taken away by a future republican president or future republican congress. but it's true that legislatively things are pretty stalled out. he really does not have a lot to show for himself in 2013. the common thread with all the issues you mentioned is that house republicans or senate republicans are blocking all of them. it's been a huge problem. there's been pretty much this constant catastrophic gridlock. and the argument democrats will be making come november is that

you need to vote them out for that to change. >> so we'll have to wait until 2014 and after that in the last year or so of his administration. bob, you know, what can he do? what is he likely to do to turn the temperature around? is it immigration reform? other issues? >> well, immigration reform will be a big get for the administration if it's possible. i still think that that's very difficult in the house of representatives because the democrats want an immigration reform policy that provides a path to citizenship and the right-wingers in the house don't want that. >> what could he get? >> i think that it's going to be -- well, the democrats say they won't pass -- they won't agree to a bill that does not include a path to citizenship. >> so no piecemeal is what you're saying. >> i'd be surprised if immigration reform passed. the thing that obama has to worry about is very soon he's going to be literally a lame duck. the clock is ticking and time is running out. and there's been so much

attention paid to the affordable care act that almost nothing else gets -- >> really, have we been talking about that? >> -- the dramatic attention that the president would need to push a big piece of legislation. >> is it done after this next quarter, first quarter of 2014, we're done talking about the aca or you're talking longer than that? >> try another decade. >> another decade says benjy s sachlt -- bob herbert, excuse me. investigators are back on the scene this morning of the london theater where a ceiling collapsed, trapping some of the audience below. 75 people were hurt, seven seriously with broken legs and head wounds from falling debris. one london official saying a piece of the ceiling as large as 30 by 30 feet fell. >> i don't think it was an explosion and the ceiling came down. a lot of dust, chandelier, wood and all that sort of stuff landed on about five or six

rose. >> we just thought it was sound effects of the theater, and then we just looked up and the whole ceiling was like slow motion. >> investigators say it is too soon to know what caused that collapse. one of russian president vladimir putin's most vocal rivals has just landed in berlin only hours after being released from a siberian prison. that's according to the german foreign ministry. the former oil tycoon was sentenced to ten years on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement. he was one of nearly 2,000 people putin pardoned in a sweeping move yesterday. after weeks of back and forth, new jersey governor chris christie takes on a controversial stance for conservatives. he is poised to sign his state's version of the dream act. it would allow undocumented immigrants to attend in-state public colleges. they can pay discounted tuition rates. this will not include tuition grants for undocumented students. florida congressman trey

radel is out of rehab and saying he has no plans to resign. radel pleaded guilty to buying cocaine a month ago. he said his drug and alcohol problem never got in the way of his official duties and he wants drug testing for all congress members. the florida congressman is on probation for a year and is under investigation by the house ethics committee. it is one of the biggest credit card thefts ever. tens of millions of target shoppers are checking their credit and deb it statements furiously to see if they are victims. up next, two experts on what you should do. and ah, so you can see like right here i can just... you know, check my policy here, add a car, ah speak to customer service, check on a claim...you know, all with the ah, tap of my geico app. oh, that's so cool. well, i would disagree with you but, ah, that would make me a liar. no dude, you're on the jumbotron! whoa. ah...yeah, pretty much walked into that one. geico anywhere anytime. just a tap away on the geico app.

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get 3 yeaon brand nameree financingmattress sets. plus, get free delivery and sleep train's 100-day low price guarantee. sleep train's interest-free for 3 event ends sunday! ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ so we knew this was coming, but the white house just made it official for us. president obama intends to nominate senator max baucus as ambassador to china. in a statement president obama said, quote, for more than two

decades, max baucus has worked to deepen the relationship between the united states and china. the economic agreements he helped forge have created millions of american jobs and added billions of dollars to our economy and he's perfectly suited to build on that progress in his new role, end quote. so again, senator max baucus, the democrat, expected to be nominated by the president. will he be mentioned with the president at 2:00? we'll watch all that as he comes to the microphones at that hour. there is a one in seven chance thaub the victim of target's debit and credit card security breach. as many as 40 million credit card accounts were hacked between thanksgiving and december 15th. already some customers are noticing suspicious activity. >> there are about five fraudulent charges. over $60, $80, $90 each. >> i noticed, whoa, my bank account is pretty low and saw a $1273 charge to the microsoft store. >> so the cyber thieves, they stole what's called track data

from the cards. that's names, account numbers, expiration dates and security codes among some of the information there. after angry reaction from customers, target sent out an e-mail blast apologizing for that breach. they say they're working with a forensics firm and secret service to find the culprits. joining us, cnbc personal finance correspondent sharon epperson and bob sullivan. sharon, let's start with this. if i did shop at target, what should i do? >> the first thing you need to do is review your credit and debit card accounts and hopefully you have it online and you can go there immediately and see what's happened. the other thing everyone should do, even if you're not a victim of this, you haven't shopped at target in the last couple of weeks, check your credit report. everyone should get a free copy of your credit report. you can do that from annualcreditreport.com. and the other thing that you can do if you think that you have been a victim of the identity theft or think that that might happen, you can get a security freeze on that card and you can have the credit card agencies

not be able to access your information or no one can access your information from the credit agencies unless you have given them the written permission to do so. >> sharon, you're not suggesting that we cancel our credit cards. bob, you aren't either. in fact you wrote about this, despite our reaction like, oh, no. >> this is one of those incidents -- i mean it's almost like all of america has been hacked right now. whenever something like this happens, i really think it's sometimes best to let the dust settle a little bit. this is a terrible time to cancel your credit card and try to do holiday travel without access to cash perhaps, especially if it's a debit card. just wait a couple of days. look at your statements online. >> do you cancel some of them but keep one? >> if you have multiple cards, there's less of an impact for cancelling one. make sure you know which card you used as target. if you have three or four cards and used one card once, that card is now poisoned and you have to put that on a personal watch list too. but don't run around and cancel them right away. wait until we know more about what happened. >> if you are sure that you're a victim of fraud, then that might

be the reason to cancel that card if you have certainty about that. >> what are your rights, if you think that you've been a victim of fraud? >> you certainly want to dispute those charges with the credit bureaus and you want to understand that you probably have more protection, you definitely have more protection if you used your credit card as opposed to your debit card. so be really proactive because the amount of liability that you have in terms of your credit card, if you get to that right away, it's only going to be about $50 if you get to that in the next 60 days. for a debit card, you only have two days leeway. >> that's your bank account. >> that's your bank account, and that's most important because what people don't realize, and we had a couple people say that, they noticed their balances going town. you're starting to bounce checks for other things and that's a problem. >> what's the difference debit card versus credit card? >> this is another great time to remind people using a debit card to shop is not a great idea, although i know why people do it. if a hacker steals your debit card and purchases something with it, the money is gone.

it's up to you to go get it back. that can leave you with -- if you're shopping online, use credit cards. >> they have got our magnetic strip information. is this the beginning of them stealing our identities? could it get that deep? we don't know the answers yet. >> we don't know enough. there's not enough in the data from target for them to do a full-blown identity theft but it's a small leap and that's exactly what the criminals will try to do next. >> sharon, how do we protect ourselves. >> make sure if you're using plastic, use a credit card. if you're using a debit card hit the word credit and sign for it. >> just by hitting the credit. >> just by hitting the credit. and of course i know no one wants to carry around a bunch of cash is just use cash. you wouldn't be a victim of any of this if you just paid with cold, hard cash. >> why aren't banks and credit card companies doing something about this? >> this is just a cost of business for banks.

every single retailer would have to buy a new point of sale -- >> this is 45-year-old technology. >> we are using 1960s magnetic strips. like those cassette tapes. >> we're all younger than that. >> very behind the times. it might take ans dent like this for us to upgrade our systems. but very, very, very expensive. it's the cost of doing business. >> you're a patient man and a patient woman. thank you so much, bob and sharon. all right, the senate is in session right now probably for the last time this year. we'll run down what they finished up late last night and what they're leaving until after the new year. that's next. it's time for the "your business" entrepreneur of the week. arnie owns a massachusetts-based landscaping company which only has work nine months a year. to bridge the seasonal gap, he invested in a franchise, christmas decor. they design, install and maintain holiday displays in customers' homes. for more, watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc.

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[ inhales deeply ] before using her new bank of america credit card, which rewards her for responsibly managing her card balance. before receiving $25 toward her balance each quarter for making more than her minimum payment on time each month. tracey got the bankamericard better balance rewards credit card, which fits nicely with everything else in life she has to balance. that's the benefit of responsibility. apply online or visit a bank of america near you. we've got three pieces of breaking news from the white house. president obama will hold a news conference this afternoon, 2:00 eastern time, just hours before he's scheduled to fly to hawaii for his annual christmas vacation. second, this will come just after the president ordered a one-year review of the way the military handles military sexual

assaults. and third, we're hearing that he will have a nomination for the ambassador to china. nbc's kristen welker at the white house. so that all happened, what, kristen, in 20 minutes. what do you expect him to say? >> reporter: it's been a whirlwind the past 20 minutes. well, we expect president obama to field some tough questions. it's been a rocky year as you pointed out. he's going to announce an appointment to the ambassador of china, senator max baucus. in terms of the questions that he's going to field certainly over health care, just last night the administration announced another rule change to how it's going to implement the health care law, essentially saying that those millions of americans who received cancellation notices, some of them, those who won't receive subsidies can now apply for a hardship exemption. that comes on the heels of a number of delays as related to the health care law. the president will also have to take some tough questions about the nsa. remember, earlier this week a task force recommended 46

recommendations for how to overhaul the government's surveillance program, how to scale back the government surveillance program, the president reviewing those recommendations. we anticipate in the new year he'll announce which ones he will actually implement. and then just moments ago, as you pointed out, richard, the administration announced that president obama had ordered the pentagon to review how it hands cases of military sexual assault. now, this comes on the heels of len legislation that passed through congress as a part of the defense authorization act that would make it tougher, crack down essentially, on those who are convicted of sexual assault within the military and also make it easier for those who report cases of sexual assault in the military, those who feel as though they're victims. last year the pentagon estimates that there were as many as 26,000 troops who were the victims of sexual assault or rape. so a number of issues on the docket. i am sure there are some that i haven't mentioned, like

immigration, for example. >> why not? >> reporter: we're sure that the president can answer tough questions like that as well. that's a key priority of this second term and clearly that is stalled right now in congress. >> sort of a de facto end of year news briefing would you say? >> reporter: i think that's exactly the right way to look at this. the president usually holds a news conference at the end of the year, as you know. he heads to hawaii this weekend for his annual vacation to hawaii, one of the places where he spent much of his childhood. so this is something that he typically does, but of course this year it comes on the heels of a really rocky year for him. we've seen his approval ratings drop to new lows. so the administration would like to turn a page and they'd like to start that process certainly with this press conference, richard. >> a very large page as his approval ratings are taking a hit. thanks so much, kristen welker at the white house for us. "duck dynasty" star phil

robertson has people lining up in his corner. what's his defense of his remarks. we'll play it for you coming up. ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of all day pain relief. this season, discover aleve. all day pain relief with just two pills.

and the show may not go on for "duck dynasty." it's been just a day since the patriarch, phil robertson, was suspended for inflammatory comments about gays. his family is hinting they may drop from the show as well if he is not reinstated. now a parade of all-star conservatives are marching in his defense, including louisiana governor bobby jindal and sarah palin. >> phil was saying in -- he was reciting a part of the gospel. the liberal left must feel that the gospel then is insulting and offensive. >> i think there's an ongoing assault for those right now that are speaking up for the religious beliefs. i think there's an ongoing assault from the left from anybody who dares to disagree with them, who are not so-called politically correct and don't agree with the orthodox coming out of the extreme left.

>> a & e were absolute quacks on this one. joining me is chris kofinis, and kristan hawkins. she served on the bush-cheney re-election campaign. chris, let's start with you, you heard the points that palin and jindal just made. robertson just stating his opinion as a religious conservative. how would you break this down? how do you respond? >> well, there's a big distinction here. listen, you have the right in this country to say, unfortunately, hateful and offensive things. that is constitutionally protected right. you do not have a right to a tv show and you do not have a right to be paid for those views. i think that's part of the distinction here. that being said, when you have these conservatives like sarah palin and others coming out to defend it, they're obviously playing to their far right base. i think the part that, again, they seem to misunderstand is the country has moved in a more

progressive direction on these issues, whether it's on gay marriage or choice or immigration and republicans keep fighting the last war. every time they do it, all they do is alienating the very voters they need to win. >> but not all republicans. >> i'm sorry? >> not all republicans. >> no. but clearly the sarah palins and others playing to this base, it ends up becoming emblematic. when you don't have other republicans speaking out and saying, wait a second, they have a right to say this but what they said was very offensive to millions of americans, and millions of families, that's where i think the problem is for republicans. >> all right. the "duck dynasty" family responded and put out a statement saying while some of phil's unfiltered comments to the reporter were coarse, his beliefs are grounded in the teachings of the bible. we are disappointed that phil has been placed on hiatus for expressing his faith, which is his constitutionally protected right. we have had a successful working relationship with a & e but as a family, we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch at the helm, end quote.

kristan, a & e had to say this coming but don't they have every right to say, hey, you can constitutionally say whatever the heck you want and so do we to do whatever we want if we are not in agreement here. >> look, i'm not going to defend phil, he's a big boy. i think as an employer a & e has every right to fire an employee who they disagree with just as i as a consumer have a right to boycott any network. what i think you're seeing from the conservative talking heads, the pundits, the politicians yesterday was this backlash against the pulley pulpit of the gay lobby. look what happened with chick-fil-a when the ceo said he was in favor of traditional marriage of one man and one woman and how they attacked them. that's why you're seeing these conservative pundits coming out as strictly as they are. they're upset that the gay lobby's first intention is always to dismiss -- >> at that time if you were a customer of chick-fil-a, you

didn't agree and they can walk the other way. which is what you're saying folks can do with a & e. >> what at what they said yesterday in "time" magazine. why is the gay lobby's first reaction is dismiss, don't engage. we don't want to talk about it, we just want to shut you up. we call you a bigot for disagreeing with us but we're never able to fully understand someone else's point of view and have a civil discussion about that. >> this is not about having -- i have to say this is where i think the line gets really blurred. this is not about having a civil discussion about differences and what people may see marriage. this is hateful speech. >> it was not hateful. it was crass, but it wasn't hateful speech. >> no, it wasn't crass, it was more than crass. >> he didn't say anything hateful towards someone, towards one of my friends who has same-sex attractions. it wasn't hateful, it was rude and inappropriate but it wasn't hateful. >> kristan, what do you think of the responses that were made by jindal and palin, do you agree with their reactions? >> i think what they're doing is they're standing up to the gay lobby and i think with what they're seeing is something

that's very scary for many christians in the country. >> so you don't agree. >> when you stand up and say that acting on your same-sex attraction is a sin, people call you a bigot. but the bible says that's a sin just as lying, cheating, stealing is a sin. what was left out of the interview was the most important part of the gospel where it says that we're all sinners and that we've all fallen short of god's glory and we've been forgiven and we can be redeemed because of god's grace and the resurrection of his son. >> chris, very quickly. >> i mean i think it's really simple. unfortunately these kind of divisions are going to continue because there are certain segments of the country that are never going to change their views on these issues. they're never going to move in a more progressive direction and they can sit there and pretend like this is the gay lobby or somebody else that's at fault. this is the fault that at the end of the day that they have not come to terms with the fact that the country has changed. it is moving in a different direction. it is making people feel bad about who they are is not a good way to do business or to live in this country.

>> thank you very much. wish we had a couple more minutes. have a good weekend. checking the news feed, a sweeping defense bill is awaiting the president's signature. the $633 billion spending bill has changes with the way the military deals with sexual assault cases. it will restrict commanders from having the authority to overrule court-martial decisions. new mexico is the 17th state in the nation along with washington, d.c., to legalize same-sex marriage. the state supreme court issued its ruling yesterday saying to deny a marriage license to same-sex couples would violate new mexico's constitution. lk figure skating gold medalist brian boitano is out. the 1988 medalist was just selected to the u.s. delegation for the 2014 sochi olympics. boitano said being gay is just one part of who i am. up until now boitano has designed to discuss his sexuality. outside philadelphia a crash involving several tractor-trailers has shut down traffic on part of the pennsylvania turnpike. major delays made a mess of the morning commute. there was no immediate word on

injuries. we're heading into the holiday home stretch, the final shopping weekend before christmas. cnbc's mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. mandy, this could be the busiest weekend of the holiday shopping season. i guess are you done? are you heading out too? >> i am so not done. i have a list as long as my arm and the weather woes have stopped a lot of people, like myself, from getting out there and doing the shopping. so the retailers are really hoping for a lot of in-store traffic this weekend, because a lot of people might also be worried about not making those shipping deadlines. after all, it hasn't been that great of a shopping season for retailers so far so they're really counting on this. "consumer reports" is predicting upwards of 90% of us will shop this weekend or right up to next wednesday. and there are also some retailers who are offering free shipping still in time for christmas. we'll show some of them to you on a screen there. and also remember you might be able to order what you want online and then have it for in-store pickup if you're worried about it not making the

dead loin aline and it's reallyt for all the last-minute shoppers out there. >> bill gates was out shopping. >> let me read to you this wonderful letter. to rachel, my secret santa present to you is a cow. which w don't worry, this cow will be given to a family in need through heifer international and various other things were on the letter. but here's the story. a reader named rachel got a huge surprise. she discovered the identity of her secret santa was none other than the microsoft founder, billionaire bill gates. he was assigned to her in the annual secret santa gift exchange and rachel had only known him as bill. so he made this $500 donation to heifer international. he sent her a box with a little stuffed cow. he sent a photo of himself holding the cow. there was a national geographic travel book as well. she apologizes to gates for including an ipad from apple on

her wish list. ow! >> well, bill did invest in apple. he did loan them $150 million. so he's -- i. >> so it's all wuater under the bridge. >> a lot of water. mandy drury, thank you so much. just four days to christmas, and chances are you've been humming a few holiday tunes so which ones are the most popular to be hummed? here's what sound exchange has found. starting with number five, the instrumental christmas canon by the big hair, big production, transsiberian orchestra. then jingle bell rock. you know that one. the eagles are at number three with please come home for christmas. mariah carey, she used to be number one with all i want for christmas is you. knocked to number two this year. so who's number one? ♪ it's becoming to look a lot like christmas". >> decades-old version of" it's beginning to look like christmas." enjoy it. ♪ listening once again

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there's a new report that shows deportations are now down 10% from last year. the government deported nearly 369,000 people. that is the first drop in deportations after four consecutive years of increases. in a new pew poll, it reveals a majority of latino and asian americans think it's more important for undocumented immigrants to work and live in the u.s. legally without the threat of deportation than a pathway to citizenship. pew also reporting asians surpassed hispanics as the largest group of new immigrants to the u.s. in an article on msnbc.com, i was writing about these very two groups and why asian americans want immigration reform as well. joining us now, democratic congresswoman judy chu of california and immigration rights activist and grad student, ju hong. ju, starting with you. you're an undocumented immigrant. you are well-known as some folks are watching for being the

heckler at president obama's briefing during his immigration speech in san francisco last month. in fact i'll play a part of that for folks who didn't see it. >> i need your help. >> that's -- that's exactly what we're talking about here. >> every single day. so, president, please use your executive order -- >> now, ju, as we watched that, why did you do it? >> well, first of all, i was formally invited by the white house staff to hear what president obama have to say and it was not planned. i was really wanting to hear what president obama have to say in terms of the lives of 11.5 million undocumented immigrant people who are living in this country, including my family. while he supported comprehensive immigration reform, he did not address about how he deported 1.8 million undocumented immigrant family members across the country, which he deported more people than any other president in u.s. history, and he did not address how he

address addressed he deported people every day and how he's going to end anti-deportation programs. >> why are you talking about this? >> over 1.3 million undocumented people who are living in this country are coming from asia and one out of seven current immigrants are undocumented. so this is not about only latino issue, it is also affecting asian american issue. in fact this is a human rights issue. and i'm directly affected by obama initiation of deportation policy and that's why i was compelled to speak out the truth. >> representative chu, good to see you again. you're also the chairwoman of the congressional asian pacific american caucus and you say that asians are heavily disadvantaged by the per country quota system that treats a country like belgium the same way it would with people from china. congresswoman, when we think

immigration reform, why hasn't the latino american and asian american, similar situations, which ju hong was talking about, resonated with lawmakers and voters over the last year or so? >> well, i actually think that we are on the precipice of doing something about immigration reform. we've finally done a budget deal, and now is the time to turn towards immigration reform. we put our hr-15, which is our comprehensive immigration bill in the house and we already have 194 sponsors, three of them are republicans. and we also know that 26 republicans have already stated that they support comprehensive immigration reform. so we believe that it can be done if a bill is put on the floor. >> as head of the caucus, do you see those who are watching this topic, though, congresswoman chu, as equating latino and asian americans together in this subject? >> no. i believe that the asian american story has not been

told. and yet asian americans are very much affected by immigration issues. for instance, even though we are 6% of the population, we are 40% of those in the 4.3 million immigration family visa backlog, and we are 80% of those in the employment visa backlog. we are 45% of those who are dream act students in the university of california system. >> why hasn't it resonated? why has it not resonated? >> i believe that we have to get our story out and tell it to so many people. we need to make sure that the public really knows that immigration affects everybody in this country. >> you know, ju, i was watching the video that we just played at the top of the segment. i watched a bunch of immigration events in the past and i can't remember seeing a face of asian descent up there at an immigration briefing or forum where a person sprung out and yelped out what you did. what was the reaction to what

you did? >> there was many different reaction, but overall i had a very positive, overwhelming reaction. at the same time, people think that i was disrespectful to president obama, but i think it is more disrespectful for president obama to deport thousands of undocumented immigrant family members across the country. people need to understand -- >> what did they say to you? >> they're saying it was disrespectful and they shouldn't have done that. they should have just focused on congress. the truth of the matter is the obama administration is the one who's deporting thousands of undocumented immigrant people, not the congress. i'm not saying that we should not -- >> ju, you know that the president responded by saying congress has to help out with this. the numbers are also down. representative chu, not everybody was happy in the asian american community about what ju had said, but did it work out for the president, for the asian american community and for immigration reform supporters in the end, because it really got attention to each one of their

objectives. >> well, ju put a human face on this issue, and he spoke out and there are many, many asian americans across this country that do want to speak out. in fact there was a huge fasting movement on the washington mall and there were asian americans that participated in that and fasted almost to the point of injuring their lives. so, yes, people want to speak out about these huge problems that are breaking apart families and disadvantaging so many. >> all right, congresswoman judy chu, thank you for your time. ju hong, i know you're in the middle of finals there in your grad program. good luck on those as well. you guys have a good weekend. >> thank you. >> thank you. moving to today's tweet of the day, it's coming from the daily show and starts with a quote from vladimir putin's news conference yesterday. what he said, quote, i envy obama and then adds but i envy michelle more. have you seen her arms? that was jon stewart, by the way.

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to "politics now" former massachusetts senator scott brown saying don't read anything into his move to new hampshire. the move raised speculation he could be considering a senate run in the granite state, but in a statement brown said the move is, quote, strictly personal. the capitol dome will soon be shrouded in scaffolding as a two-year, $60 million repair project gets under way. water leaks threaten to damage paintings around the steel rotunda. this is the first major renovation to the dome for a half century. the white house saying nothing about a new tell-all win by president obama's half-brother. he shares a father -- they share a father who president obama met once, but in the book due out in february, he describes the extent of his father's abuse and alcoholism. in an interview he said president obama does not accept or understand how bad things were, saying, quote, i love my brother. he's a great president. sometimes he's a lousy brother,

end quote. when you're commander in chief, speaking of which, few people can tell you honestly how you look. so for president obama, thank goodness there's sasha, malia and michelle. in a new "people" interview the president said i've got three opinionated, strong, tall women. if they get together, they can have fun about my ears or being too loud or how i dress, end quote. according to that article, the girls also weigh in on what their mom wears. wonder what they say. that wraps up this hour of "jansing & co." on a friday. richard lui in for chris jansing. thomas roberts is up next. stick around. [ male announcer ] campbell's homestyle. mmm! this is delicious katie. it's not bad for canned soup, right? pfft! [ laughs ] you nearly had us there. canned soup. [ male announcer ] they just might think it's homemade. try campbell's homestyle soup.

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hi, everybody, good morning. i'm thomas roberts. topping our agenda today, wrapping up loose ends in washington, d.c. the president just announcing an end-of-year news conference just hours from now and just hours before he leaves for vacation in hawaii. it's on the heels of a last-minute move to get health care back on track. new numbers show fewer americans are losing insurance and more are signing up each day. >> 13,000 people on monday, 19,000 people on tuesday. over 20,000 people on wednesday. thr 3,000 per day in kentucky, 2,000

per day in connecticut. in a huge, huge uptick in the federal marketplace. people have options and they're taking advantage of them. >> seems like a full-court press. joining me is sarah cliff of the "washington post." if we look at monday being the deadline to enroll for coverage by january the 1st, the insurance industry's main trade group said this latest rule change could cause significant instability in the marketplace and lead to further confusion and disruption for consumers. and then senator marco rubio is saying a fire sale of cheap insurance is not a responsible fix for a broken program, calling it a slap in the face to thousands of americans who have already purchased expensive insurance through the obamacare exchanges. then, according to our first read team, this is at least the fifth adjustment to the law, hhs officials calling it a common sense clarification. so break it down for us, which is it? >> so it depends on your politics. i can tell you what the policy is, at least. what the administration announced last night is