republicans are sticking to the same old story. it's monday december 30th and this is "now." i'm joey reid in for alex wagner. a new reports in "new york times" proves no evidence on an attack on a pair of u.s. compounds in benghazi. an anti-islamic video did inspire events that led to the death of four americans including ambassador chris stevens. the months long organization said no evidence of al qaeda or terrorist groups had any role in the assault. contrary to the assertions of many republican lawmakers, the attack was fueled in part by anger over an american made

video denigrating islam. david kirkpatrick spoke out on "meet the press." >> no chance this was an al qaeda attack if by al qaeda you mean the organization founded by osama bin laden. >> the "times" conclusion al qaeda was not involved was met with dismissal by republican lawmakers appearing on the sunday shows. >> there is a group that was involved that claims an affiliation with al qaeda. >> do they have differences of opinion with al qaeda core? yes. do they have affiliations with al qaeda core? definitely. >> this morning republican peter king piled on and accused the "times" of an act of politics. >> to say it was an affiliate rather than al qaeda itself means nothing. from the start the question i had was ansar al sarria involved? they were.

i think they are trying to divisive us what they believe is a republican issue in the next presidential campaign. >> democrat jack reed fired back saying the report punched gaping holes in the republican effort to tarnish the white house. >> it raises serious questions the story republicans are trying to paint. >> the white house isn't commenting on the report citing ongoing fbi investigation. they did not dispute facts. while the "times" pours water on a political cover-up, the administration misjudged the threat on the ground. >> there was a real intelligence failure. the people who attacked the compound were members the u.s. expected to help protect the same mission. >> in any case far from ending the debate, the "times" report and reaction to it seemed bound to ensure we will never stop arguing about benghazi. joining me today senior congressional reporter from talking points memo and senior writer at the "daily beast" and

professional at the city of new york, political reporter for slate, dave weigle and contributor to the grio. joining me from washington former assistant secretary of state public affairs p.j. crowley. lets start with you and ask how this "new york times" report, the reaction to it, how does that back the debate over benghazi. >> i seized upon two threads in david kirkpatrick's very carefully researched, i think carefully written analysis. the first on the security aspect is, security was not being ignored. however, you had a murky situation that at the end of the day the state department and ambassador himself in benghazi felt this was a security situation that was still manageable. the piece opens with this stern message from a local operative saying, hey, it's too dangerous for you to remain here. on the other hand we want

american development aid. send us mcdonald's and kentucky fried chicken. diplomats in these kind of situations choose to take the more optimistic thread. they weren't ignoring the security situation. by the same token, they were presented with an alternative operating scheme that the british had run where they made day trips into benghazi but consolidated their personnel in tripoli. so at the end of the day, this is more a case of differences in judgment about the security situation as opposed to some sort of a political conspiracy. certainly in terms of infamous talking points, again, this is a matter of judgment. you call them extremists, terrorists. but at the end the talking points were far more right than wrong. >> what's interesting, as you mentioned, kirkpatrick talks about the folks on the ground believing confluence, being a victim of our own enthusiasm. the other murky piece of it is

this question who is affiliated with al qaeda and who is not. the sense that these groups, the individual who kirkpatrick reports was probably involved and ansar al-islam were not on the radar of our people on the ground, including cia people. isn't that most alarming what we learned in the report? >> it's a matter of judgment. i don't think anyone ever claimed this was an attack that was the product of someone sitting in pakistan core al qaeda. by the same token, you do see the evolution of the threat from the core bin laden ran to franchises such as the one in yemen to those who are like minded who believe in the agenda but not necessarily being directed from the outside. kirkpatrick analysis was these were libyan actors, obviously with an extreme agenda but

operating based on trying to achieve power and influence inside libya as opposed to being directed from the outside. >> we do have a quote, mr. stephens, like his bosses in washington believed united states could turn critical mass of fighters, helped to oust gaddafi and friends and he died trying. the group i mentioned was ansar al sharia, i mispronounced it. going forward what does this mean for our effort in libya. not being clear, which groups are our friend and which groups can we trust? >> this is the reality of a dangerous situation, whether it's about libya or south sudan or about the congo. we have limited influence in these situations. in a sense in libya you had every political party armed to the teeth. they were united for a while around the idea of getting rid

of gadhafi. every tribe fighting for a piece of the post gadhafi pie. chose to stay and help libya move forward and certainly that was a decision with very significant far reaching consequence consequences. >> i want to bring the panel in, what struck me, very thorough research in "the new york times." went to 2014, hillary clinton, essentially an accusation "new york times" is intervening to help democrats politically. what is that about? republican not going to accept any conclusion that doesn't tar hillary clinton for 2014, i mean 2016. is this all about electoral politics and not the facts? >> a lot of it is. when we talked about scandal,

#benghazi. meaning hillary clinton sounding too callous in front of the senate panel, al qaeda connection. john mccain said it was ridiculous the idea there was spontaneous element, people would show up at a rally with bazookas. if six of them don't work, one would. if they get a reset, republicans should reset the narrative, general critique of obama administration weakness in the middle east and a critic whether this administration was too rosey and optimistic the way bush administration was about how easy to democratize middle east. like rand paul maybe won't go with that. if they want to use that, they have a lot to attack hillary with. >> what about the need to be al qaeda. the attack in itself is tragic enough. there does seem to be what republicans are pushing back on,

their insistence, whatever happened al qaeda specifically has to be the group at fault. >> discussion taking place al qaeda a coherent organization. we've been for years and years we've known al qaeda is a kind of brand name or ideology that lots and lots of people completely disassociate with, one lone person in a basement, a group with tribal interest pick up. what should scare us because of the way arab spring plays out, the ideology, people thought was on the downswing, made a resurgence. that's fright think. whether you call it al qaeda or not is completely irrelevant and that's what this report shows. talking about whether it's al qaeda or not is a semantic game that has nothing to do with what's going on on the ground in libya. >> semantic that is political. are we missing the actual security threat to solve the

problem? >> we're missing all the opportunities. for me benghazi was always about a witch hunt and connecting it to impeachment. it was all during irs scandals, nsa, euro scandals 2013. for me they never really wanted to get to the bottom of what actually happened. they always just wanted to use it as a political football. it didn't work in 2012, again in 2016 and don't care about getting to the core of the problem. >> how convenient the messenger is "the new york times." >> what "the new york times" report sheds light on, the more you look what happened, the less interesting and scandalous it is and the more inconclusive it is. there's evidence that there's an element of spontaneity, some evidence some planning may have been at play there. there's evidence there may have been have sort of link to al qaeda. there's evidence that may not have been the case. there's evidence anti-islam video had some role to play. there's evidence it might not

have. this adds up to, what i we talked about, an intelligence failure, horrible tragedy but not a lot of mischief and coverups. that's the question. in it's also important to look at this from a political lens to understand what's really happening because that's what this is about. not only satisfying the republican -- their strong belief in their gut the white house is full of liars and mischiefmakers but also hillary clinton in 2016. >> draining political capital out of killing osama bin laden, central tenet of obama foreign policy he had broken al qaeda. >> that's what republicans focused on at the end of the 2012 campaign. he was lying to us, al qaeda is as dangerous as it always was. it blew apart this consulate. they have to move on from that. that's the problem. if you want to prevent future benghazi pull resources out of the area like this or put more resources in. that's what would have prevented on the night. >> it's true that this ideology is resurgent, read through the

lens whether we should support moderate rebel factions in syria, we have no capacity to figure out who is moderate and who is not. we should be extremely humble about this. if i were barack obama reading this, i would say the lesson to me would be my caution about going in a big way in syria, the belief we can distinguish good guys from bad guys, i was wise to be cautious. >> peter you've gotten to the bigger picture question we want to get to. hold on. coming up latest violent demonstrations in egypt to power vacuum in syria, foreign policy weigh on the u.s. heading into the new year. we will discuss rising tensions with p.j. and mohyeldin. >> questions about the sochi olympics. the next from moscow.

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another deadly bombing rocked russia this morning, the third explosion in four days. a blast from what is believed to be a suicide bomber tore apart a trolley bus in volgograd killing a dozen people and injuring dozens more. in the same city a suspected female suicide bomber attacked a train station killing people. volgograd is near where the olympics will be held. a car bomb killed three people in a car bomb east of sochi. it's unclear if that attack has any connection to the latest two bombings. joining me from moscow, jim

maceda. volgograd is a key transportation hub. with the olympics dawning six weeks away, what are the russian authorities doing to ensure transportation is safe for people visiting the olympics? >> hi, joy. first of all russian officials declared state of emergency in the volgograd area. president putin meanwhile that called for a beefing up of forces, of security forces. you know, we've been told by various experts that we've seen this before, every time there is this kind of attack going back years president putin has called for a beefing up of forces. it's really not had any real effect. putin has created a kind of ft. knox around sochi, it's like a new country in itself. 1500 square miles large. no vehicles allowed in or out. in fact, you won't be allowed in or out either, joy, unless you've got a special pass, a

kind of olympics passport during the game. so security is going to be extremely tight in sochi. as security analysts tell us a dramatic attack that paralyzes the country doesn't necessarily have to happen in sochi. it could happen in easier softer targets like moscow or volgograd which is why putin is beefing up forces. he has nothing else you can do. you can't stop a terrorist, suicide bomber male or female, who is determined to blow him or herself up. you can't stop that happening. back to you. >> sobering thoughts. nbc's jim maceda. thank you. coming up crackdown for journalists. ayman mohyeldin the latest from cairo next. it's likely your detergent. cascade platinum's triple cleaning formula delivers brilliant shine finish gel can't beat.

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nearly six months ago when millions of egyptians streamed to the streets to demandous ter of president morsi, military responded by suspending the constitution and removing the country's first democratically elected president from power. millions erupted in celebration but the victory was short-lived. the temporary government installed by the military has brought egypt further from democracy and plunged the country deeper into turmoil with strong echos of its authoritarian past. security forces launched a sustained and deadly crackdown against muslim brotherhood. other violence surged as well. yesterday a car bomb exploded outside a military intelligence building, the third such bombing in less than a week. the military designated muslim brotherhood until july was governing party as a terrorist party giving them the right to arrest. al jazeera accused journalists

of false news that damaged security. among those arrested was an australian correspondent, egyptian canadian producer, egyptian cameraman and egyptian producer. for the past six months the egyptian military has insisted its transitioning the country to democracy. so far there's been little evidence of that. joining us from cairo is nbc news foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin. ayman, that's for being here. do you have an update on the status of those four journalists detained by egyptian government? >> reporter: as of now they remain in custody at a police station in cairo. we understand lawyers have been allowed to visit the police station, although it's not clear if they have actually been allowed to speak to the journalists. they are trying the best to secure the release with the help of agencies you mentioned, two foreigners, canadian and australian embassy. oss of yet there's no indication

egyptian government they will be release. the minister of interior announced these four individuals working for al jazeera, a respected international news organization are essentially the way they described them was a terrorist muslim brotherhood cell operating in one of the hotels here. they are accusing they were inciting violence and now meeting with members of the muslim brotherhood, which since it was declared a terrorist organization is illegal under egyptian law. >> extraordinary when you think muslim brotherhood was the governing party in egypt in july. they have a long history of existing underground or existing as an illegal organization. what do you think this does to the muslim brotherhood's ability to organize? does it strengthen their ability to organize under ground, do they have support in the country? >> the muslim brotherhood has a long history of being pushed underground by egyptian regimes. by most accounts this is the

most severe crackdown on the organization. for the first time it's declared as a terrorist organization. in the past it's been banned but tolerated unofficially. some allowed to run as independents in parliament. this time government and security forces really going after them in a very disruptive way. so the organization itself has been somewhat disrupted. that has people here saying that could lead to the radicalization of the organization. for the first time since these protests began in july since you mentioned, muslim brotherhood has been undeterred by that labeling as a terrorist organization. they still call on their supporters to take to the streets, although they reject violence. they say they will not partake in any violence against the state. they insist their protest will remain peaceful. there's no doubt there is a growing concern among parts of society that the younger elements of the muslim brotherhood, those that have not yet been rounded up like leadership could turn to an armed struggle of sorts and create the kind of havoc we're seeing other militant organizations in egypt do.

>> ayman, i want to switch gears just a moment. you were recently in beruit where former minister had been killed in a car bomb last friday. he was an outspoken critic of hezbollah and bash ash ar al as. do we have any idea who killed him? >> no doubt in the eyes of his supporters and the coalition of members of various politicians in lebanon that reject president assad's rule in syria, very critical of hezbollah, the lebanese shia militia and political party that dominates lebanon, they are critical of them saying they are interfering in syria and interfering in lebanon's politics. they point the finger that side of the divide, pro syrian divide, iran, hezbollah and that certainly includes president assad. in terms of concrete evidence presented, there has been no

evidence so far. the way things in lebanon, so sectarian, so divided, just by the sheer virtue of him being on one side of that political debate, most of the accusations leveled on the other side. >> i want to bring p.j. crowley back in here. looking at the chaos across the playing field, what position does this leave bashar al assad. they are looking to repeat, you don't know what will happen if the dictator goes away, what position does it leave bashar al assad in? >> it leaves him in a fairly strong position. he feels he's winning the conflict inside of syria. he dodged a bullet literally back in september with the agreement on chemical weapons but leaves a formidable conventional arsenal with which to continue the civil war in syria. we'll see what happens early in 2014 with the geneva 2

conference. i think that dialogue will be useful. i don't think we'll necessary see any political breakthrough any time soon because the combatants on the ground inside syria, the regime, the opposition, moderate opposition and more extreme factions believe they can win this conflict militarily. >> i want to bring you back in, you mentioned syria, reticent, two schools of thought to deal with assad, one is crocker, try to engage assad. on the other side you have the international institute of strategic studies who did a "new york times" piece that said do not talk to assad. the third piece u.s. has tried to talk to rebels on the other side. what position does that leave the u.s. in in terms of how to deal with syria? >> i think path through agreement in syria runs through tehran. if what is sustaining civil war

is cold war, to some degree saudi arabia on one side and iran and russia on the other side. if the united states and iran have a different kind of relationship as a result of having a nuclear deal, then you can imagine iran putting pressure on bashar al assad to gradually step aside and united states and saudi arabia being able to put pressure on rebels. it might be a soft partition of the country. as long as the u.s. and iran are involved in this militant cold war with saudi arabia against iran it's going to be hard to find peace. >> how possible is that? you have israelis nervous about any sort of deal with iran. even in the united states there's political factions of opposing the idea of doing this six months with iran. >> that's right. i think obama administration sees this as signature second term policy achievement and i think israeli and american domestic critics are not powerful enough to stop them if barack obama backed up by his base, because the vast majority of people in the democratic party out there really do want this deal, i think he can hold

them off and regional implications of a deal would be terrific for the people of syria. >> just going back really quick to ayman and egypt, what do you suspect are the prospects for promised elections? interim president mansour said egypt could hold presidential election before bringing parliament on board, allow leaders to control the country a bit more. what do you think the prospects are for an election under the circumstances we see in egypt. >> egyptian military installed government says it is determined to go ahead with elections. that is the million dollar question exactly for the reason you mentioned. if, in fact, egypt decides to hold presidential elections first, a lot of critics say that is going to undermine democracy because they are also waiting to find if general assisi, minister of defense effectively behind the ouster, many say fait

accompli, next president of egypt and restrict political dissent that could come by way of ballot box. >> what do you see prospects of stability more hopeful in egypt or potential iran deal is the way to achieve some measure of the beginnings of the stability. >> i think i agree that the obama administration legacy will be written in the middle east. what happens in syria will be very significant. what happens in egypt will point to the question of what the -- how the administration, what it achieved in the aftermath of the opening of the arab spring. general assisi will be a poster child here. if he does decide to run, he will be popular in egypt. it may bring stability and will take egypt farther away from democracy. >> nbc's ayman mohyeldin thank you and stay safe and thank you to former secretary of state public affairs p.j. crowley. >> after the break, as the white house prepares to turn the page on 2013 positive signs on the

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and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. on the domestic front, the white house wrapped up the year with some good news. two days before health care coverage under the affordable care act kicks in, the administration announced more than a million people signed up for health insurance on the federal exchange, a number that rises to almost 2 million when state-run exchanges included and millions more when factoring those that sign up for medicaid in the states accepting 100 match for expansion. the 3.3 million goal, dramatic surge in enrollment a welcome sign for the white house. now heading to the new year on offense. reports white house democratic lawmakers and advocacy organizations will launch a campaign to highlight

experiences under affordable care act. so asking to the panel now, is it possible at the end of the day democrats will actually message positively on the affordable care act? >> yes. 3 million anecdotes to pull from, people who couldn't go to the doctor before now can go to the doctor that's life changing. they can go on offense easily. there's just not going to be as many anecdotes like there had been with the canceled plans. if you like your plan, can you keep your plan. less of those folks and more of the folks their lives are changed because of the affordable care act. >> there will be more of those stories. bias of news apart from maybe upworthy, bias towards negative story, losing coverage is bigger story than somebody that got to medicaid and can afford and not getting wiped out. not getting wiped out is not as big a story as lose even a small plan. looking at senate races, democrats have problems. west virginia or kentucky are states where a lot of poor

whites on medicaid, they are not going to turn around and vote for democrats. north carolina and louisiana, two more states that are republican-run stem to stern have democrats running for election, medicaid isn't expanded, who do voters blame for health care not fix. they need more explaining. this seems the easy way, the president needs to explain it more. concise and effective explanation how the health care rollout is working. there will be more anecdotal problems. it's almost like 50-1, 1,000-1 how much coverage a problem gets versus the reason you're not getting covered or solution. >> such a smart point. at the end of the day stories in kentucky people signing up for this and see how much better than obama care not understanding it's the affordable care act. >> what's going to happen in the future, republicans accepted the

law is here to stay. it will stay. it's not repealed. millions benefiting, two days more millions more benefiting. you can't take that away from them. the question is whether obama care survives minor tweaks or surgery. the success or lack thereof will determine that. i think in determining how obama care goes forward, the exchanges have to have a balance of healthy people to account for older and sick people. insurance companies can adjust if there are fewer people overall, they can't adjust to the fact there are sick people, it will go up and up and up. republicans moved away from the full repeal, toning down their expectations. >> then there's that other big issue, peter, democrats are counting on to help them in 2014, something you've written a lot about, equality issue. >> younger voters, moved people to the left, de blasio elected in new york as mayor?

>> i'm not sure inequality per se but the question of economic mobility is more potent and focus as "new york times" reported on minimum wage. that's a very popular issue. democrats have a problem, their base, younger voters, minority voters don't turn out in midterm elections. the question is can they use this to try to rally people. minimum wage is a good issue. inequality debate will be fascinating one. we don't know what the republican response will be. i think what we'll see is new republican focus on single parents, general conservative response. not a problem of inequality, people with one parent do not have a chan of getting ahead. in a way we have interesting return back to debates in 1980s, all of this stuff, about when i think it's going to be a really interesting discussion in 2014. >> can i just add as far as inequality debate, what's really fascinating, interesting here, the conversation finally shifted to a point we're talking about

inequality. this has not been on the national radar for 30 years and it's grown to a point by some metrics it's at its highest point since the great depression. to porte's appoint earlier, we kind of know one way republicans are dealing with this, they are saying government is worsening inequality. that's the argument they are making. we'll see where that goes. i don't know how convincing that will be to the voters. >> talk about negative news stories, stories about not getting unemployment benefits are playing rough for republicans in their districts on local news coverage. i'm wondering if republicans aware of the optic, general optics democrats are pinning on them, cruel aspect, not care about inequality and poor. >> that seems rote to them. they think that's what democrats do when they are out of power. in some cases they have government way and won the next victory. the 2012 recall victory, that's their modal example how to run a state and win an election.

>> still living in 2010. >> wisconsin's employment hasn't risen the way other states have. if you talk to republicans they compare wisconsin and illinois. they say one straight trying to lessen equality, not workinging, scott walker is working. that is how they define themselves. >> 2010, the year that won't end. sublime to ridiculous, we'll look back at key players in the oddest spectacular sport just ahead. [ male announcer ] legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses. if you have a business idea, we have a personalized legal solution that's right for you. with easy step-by-step guidance, we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. start your business today with legalzoom. we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. it treats me with respect.tage. it may seem strange, but people really can love their laxative. especially when it's miralax.

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the 2013 political service had a big tent. a look at a ridiculous year in politics. >> see this, this trend here means bad news. >> put five red next on a mower, it's going to be epic. >> yes i have smoked crack cocaine probably in one of my drinking stupors. >> just when you thought american politics couldn't get any more clownish, it did. >> 1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms. >> a year when sanity and credentials checked at the door. >> such a stark contrast between ken cuccinelli and his opponent terry -- how do you say it? >> just say his opponent. >> i'll try again. >> the unqualified offered their unqualified support. mcauliff. terry -- >> mcauliff. >> mcauliff. his opponent. >> the wildly unqualified

offered wildly misguided support. >> he's my friend for life. i don't k what you guys think about him. >> dennis rodman tried his hand at diplomacy by defending a dictator. >> love him. love him. i love him. the guy is awesome. >> but his grasp of foreign policy wasn't all that much weaker than that of certain elected representatives. >> i will stand strong in support of continuing miller support for -- united states support financially. >> which brings us to our first 2013 all-star. michele bachmann. in cairo, bachmann confused muslim brotherhood with al qaeda. >> we've seen the threats muslim brotherhood has posed around the world. we stand against this great evil. we are not for them. we remember to caused 911 in

america. >> thankfully she had already announced her exit strategy from the u.s. congress. >> i have decided next year i will not seek a fifth congressional term. rest assured, this decision was not impacted in any way into the recent inquiries of the activities of my former presidential campaign or my former presidential staff. >> but bachmann's words and her fear mongering are certain to live on in infamy. >> that's why we're here because we're saying lets repeal this failure before it literally kills women, kills children, kills senior citizens. >> indeed, confusion continued to reign supreme in the republican house especially around health care. >> president obama often attempts to paint republicans as being out of order, down right crazy in their criticism of the

health care law. were you born in kansas, made in kansas? >> i was not. i was born in cincinnati, ohio. >> i was in the third grade there and i thought i saw you on a tricycle there one time. >> but nothing was more confusing than the marathon nonfilibuster filibuster by our second 2013 all-star, ted cruz. >> some time ago i tweeted a speech that ashton kutcher gave. a terrific speech. >> cruz stood and spoke for 21 hours on the legislative floor. legislatively the speech had no purpose. >> first of all, this is not a filibuster. this is an agreement he and i made that he could talk. >> so what then did senator ted cruz believe the american people so desperately needed to hear for 21 hours? >> i like those little burners. >> mostly a whole lot about senator ted cruz. >> i confess, i don't go to a

whole lot of cocktail parties in town. i credit my father he invented, it wasn't for the restaurant but invented green eggs and ham. most of us in bad shoots with haircuts. who cares. most things can be fixed with duct tape, extension cord and that's actually very true. >> all due respect, i'm not sure we earned anything new but it's been interesting to watch. >> as one texan clawed his way into the spotlight, another seemed to fade into the background. >> i said i'm thinking about painting. she said what's your objective? there's a rembrandt in this body, it's your job to find it. >> no, not that texas governor, this one. >> the time has come to pass on the mantle of leadership. >> at least he tried to camouflage himself as dressing up as a smart person. >> good morning, governor.

>> good morning, todd. >> thanks for coming on. >> thank you, todd. so goes the cycle politics. you serve and retire. or you serve, resign in disgrace and keep trying to run again. >> i hope i get a second chance to work for you. >> which brings us to 2013 all-star anthony weiner who thought this was his year to make a comeback. >> good morning, exposed again. weiner, who reportedly used the name carlos danger. >> he admitted his sexting continued after he resigned from congress. >> it's not dozens and dozens, it's six to ten, i suppose. i can't tell you absolutely what someone else is going to consider inappropriate or not. >> aggressive, invasive, creepy and running for mayor. it quickly became clear as long as weiner was running, carlos danger would not exit the race.

[ speaking spanish ] >> carlos danger did not always play nice. >> you know nothing. your ignorance is being shown to the entire world. >> what about what's going on in your personal life? how do you deal with that when you've been so exposed? how do you carry on? is it ambition? a hunger for the big job, the power? >> trying to take you seriously. anything else for itv? you want to do the weather or something. >> by the end of the summer, the weiner/danger campaign had crumbled. >> anthony weiner. >> let me leave you something to read at the door. >> who could fill the void left by carlos danger? who could possibly match the arrogance, ignorance and stunning incompetence? >> holy -- >> one man, rob ford, the clown

of 2013. rob ford seemed to be a one-man mission to test the theory that elected officials are supposed to display some shred of responsibility and/or self-awareness. >> yes, i have smoked crack cocaine. have i tried it? probably in one of my drunken stupors approximately a year ago. [ bleep ] [ bleep ]. >> obviously i was extremely, extremely inebriated. >> i shouldn't have gotten hammered. st. patrick's day, another incident. it got a little out of control. >> to the city of toronto, good luck. and to rob ford, our american politicians thank you for doing the impossible and making them look really, really, really good.

>> that was alex wagner taking us through the past crazy year in politics. thank you so much, that is all for now. i'll see you back thursday at noon eastern. in the meantime, have a very happy new year's. "andrea mitchell reports" with the great kristen welker in for andrea is next. and it'll rain lollypops all over the place. [ female announcer ] remember when you thought anything was possible? ♪ it still is. introducing weight watchers new simple start, our simplest plan ever. a 2-week plan to start losing weight right away. get motivation at meetings or do it entirely online. join for free. weight watchers. your new beginning starts here.

join for free. "stubborn love" by the lumineers did you i did. email? so what did you think of the house? did you see the school ratings? oh, you're right. hey babe, i got to go. bye daddy! have a good day at school, ok? ...but what about when my parents visit?

ok. i just love this one... and it's next to a park. i love it. i love it too. here's our new house... daddy! you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," terror alert, dozens are dead in russia after a string of attacks raising concerns ahead of the winter olympics. >> i think anyone going to russia has to be mindful, but i think the security around sochi is particularly intense. >> front package news, "new york times" raises questions on the 2012 attacks in benghazi, lib libya, that left four americans dead but some lawmakers aren't ready to endorse the findings.

>> what did they get wrong? >> al qaeda not involved in this. some level of preplanning, aspiration to conduct an attack by their affiliates in libya, we know that. >> numbers game. the president's health care law hits a milestone with over 1 million americans signed up through the federal exchange. no time to celebrate for a white house facing an uphill kplim to reach their enroll men goal. xxxx >> very good monday kristen welker in for andrea mitchell in new york. we begin with developing news out of russia where a second deadly explosion rocked the city of volgograd in less than 24 hours. today's attack a rush hour trolley bus bombing killed at least 14 people and wounded 28 hours.