surprise, six republican senators vote yes for unemployment benefits. >> who knows, we might actually get some things done this year. >> we'll hear from speaker john boehner for the first time this hour about the future for more than 1 million unemployed americans. strange things are happening because of the extreme cold. besides hell freezing over, hell, michigan, that is, escaped prisoners are turning themselves in. and now we're hearing about the economic impact. the deep freeze hitting wallets. plus, our new york's power politicians in a battle to show the country who's more liberal. is there a feud between new york city's brand new mayor and the new york state governor? good morning, i'm chris jansing. washington and the political world are buzzing this morning about that bomb shell book from former defense secretary robert gates, who calls the current white house the most centralized and controlling since the nixon administration. in his new memoir out next week, gates takes aim at president

obama, vice president biden, and members of congress. one section talks about a situation room meeting on the afghanistan war, where he says the president expressed personal doubts about his own plans. i thought the president doesn't trust his commander, can't stand karzai, doesn't believe in his own strategy and doesn't consider the war to be his. for him, it's all about getting out. gates is even tougher on vice president biden, writing, "i think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." members of congress aren't exempt from his criticism. he called some senators obtuse and calls members of the house foreign affairs committee, rude, nasty, and stupid. i want to bring in our company. national journal national correspondent ron fournier and manu raju. you got to wonder what gates really thinks. ron, let me start with you. this is a guy who president obama gave the medal of freedom.

he worked for george w. bush before president obama. what's going to happen with this book, what's going to come out of it? >> you know, i wrote a column just now that i actually think with a full reading of it, i might come away more impressed by the president than gates through the book, believe it or not. >> in what way? >> well, it did point out some of the things we already know about the president, his lack of engagement, micromanagement, and so there's a lot of head nodding as i was reading through the excerpts, but also it showed a president who was questioning his commanders and second guessing his strategy and having doubts about his allies, all things that basically you want your president to do at a time of war. it might seem kind of counterintuitive, but that's actually the, you know, problem with president bush in iraq is he showed no skepticism, showed no doubt. he did push back on his generals and it's not unusual for a president to be worried about his strategy. roosevelt did before normandy, actually had a statement ready in case it failed.

lincoln was, you know, hammered by doubts and agonized by doubts all through the civil war, so i actually think it might show that the president was doing his job as commander in chief. >> gates also describes the administration as controlling and determined to take credit for everything, also that domestic politics factored into every major national security problem and decision, including the president's opposition to the troops surge in 2007. manu, is this going to rile a lot of people up or are they going to say maybe this is what we want or what we already expect goes on in washington? >> well, i mean, it's riled people up by joe biden, of course, it painted a very harsh light on him and his leadership and his judgment and the president of the white house did move very quickly to show their support for biden and show support for his leadership. it's sort of hard for the white house to come out and trash robert gates, and i don't think they are doing that, because he is a very respected member. both parties have respected his

service over the years. they are going to have to offer their narrative, why the president made his decisions the way he did, why he disagreed with the military commanders, you know, the president, as ron mentioned, coming into office, he said that very clearly that as commander in chief, he would sometimes disagree with those military commanders on the ground and provide his own assessment. so in some ways it's not surprising that these disagreements occurred. what is surprising is there's a former cabinet member really airing these grievances in such a negative light and something that's going to force the obama administration to grapple with in the coming weeks. >> somebody in the middle of a lot of what gates writes about was on today this morning, david axelrod and playing down all this stuff in the book. let me play that for you. >> the stories themselves are confusing, matt, because in it not only did he praise him for

the bin laden raid, but that he made the right decisions on afghanistan, that he was a clear, thoughtful, decisive decision maker, so his big complaint was he thinks he wasn't personally in his heart committed to his own strategy, and i don't think that's true. >> he does point out, ron, that gates did compliment the president, calling the raid on osama bin laden one of the most courageous decisions i had ever witnessed in the white house. what's this all about, is it about selling books? how much is this going to be viewed, do you think, as some real insight into what goes on inside the obama white house? >> yeah, i might be old fashioned, but i just have a problem, whether it's a democrat or republican office, i have a problem with his or her advisers coming out of the white house and then trashing the president, especially -- this is very rare having a sitting president having to deal with this right now. i think it might reflect more on gates, you know, he was obviously tortured, he wants to sell books and get his narrative out there, but also didn't want to go too hard on the white

house. that's why you do have this on the one hand a man with high integrity who made a courageous decision, on the other hand, he ticked me off and didn't trust me and my generals. one thing i'm surprised is how defensive biden has been. they should just let this go away and let us focus on obama. instead, we're having this very public photo opportunity with biden and obama today at lunch, they put out a statement yesterday defending biden. he's just raising -- his office is just raising those excerpts up to the top of the pile. >> you wonder how much middle america is going to pay attention to it unless they make something about it. let's talk about unemployment now, because it was a surprise yesterday, they started voting while the show was on the air and didn't know if they had the votes, but they got six republican senators to vote with the democrats to move this forward, but it's not even close to a done deal, of course, the

sticking point, manu, how to pay for it. mitch mcconnell floating a one-year delay of obamacare, the keystone pipeline, so where's this going, manu? >> it's not clear it's going to pass the senate. a couple of the republicans that opened to debate have said if this is not fully offset or paid for in some way, they will not vote to end debate, and that's really the critical vote. so whether this gets out of the senate is an open question. there's a group of republicans who are trying to propose alternatives to pay for this measure. senator kelly ayotte, one of the six who voted yesterday, is coming out with a proposal today dealing with tightening restrictions on child tax credits that could go to undocumented immigrants, and that could be used as a way to pay for it, she says. i'm not convinced that will have the votes to pass the senate either, so getting out of the senate will be tough and getting out of the house will be even tougher. i think its prospects are in serious doubt. >> i thought the headline in

"the hill" was great, it read, "destructive senate gop says not us." here's what senator dan coats, one of the six gop senators voting yes said on "the daily rundown." >> he was hoping it would fail yesterday and blame republicans for being heartless and cruel. what i wanted to do, what the six of us wanted to do, get to the point where we could go down on the floor, offer our alternatives and put it before the american people. >> ron, what do you think, how complicated is this debate now? >> this is maddening. these people need help. these benefits need to be extended. it's not the fault of the unemployed they are caught up in this once in a century historic economic transition, so our leaders on both sides have to decide if they want to be adults or partisans. the white house has got to be willing to compromise. get the benefits and find a way to pay for them. can't be no strings attached. you don't get everything you want in this world and the republicans can't put poisoned pills by saying the only way

we'll find to pay for it is by reducing obamacare, cutting obamacare or the keystone pipeline. there's other things in the budget both sides could find than denying benefits to people who can't find a job and both sides have got to come together and get this done. i'm with manu, i'm guessing they don't. this has been a pretty incompetent parts on both sides of pennsylvania avenue. >> good to see both of you guys, thanks. >> thank you. checking the news feed this morning, good-bye polar vortex, although wind chills are still below zero in several states, the arctic air is supposed to be gone in the next couple of days. today, however, western and central new york are still pretty miserable. residents there are getting nailed by another 125 12 to 15 inches of lake effect snow. this record cold spell could cost the u.s. economy as much as $5 billion. americans have been staying home, unable to work, travel for vacation, or go out for a movie

or meal. the lost revenue is so high because of the sheer number of people affected by the cold. congresswoman gabrielle giffords never ceases to amaze us. to mark the day today, giffords will sky dive with navy s.e.a.l.s. of course, six people were killed in the shooting three years ago. 12 were hurt alongside the congresswoman. this afternoon, tucson's mayor will ring six bells to honor the victims. another example of why he is called the people's pope. check this out, pope francis traveling today and a priest runs up to him, so the pope says come onboard, and, of course, he does and joins him. look at the two of them. they are having a good time. took only a few seconds for that priest to get out his camera and take a selfie, of course. is the criticism of the

president by bob gates warranted, and what will happen to unemployment? we'll ask senator barbara boxer next. ♪ ♪ 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™. the same essential nutrients as fresh. 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.

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so we know there was step one on unemployment benefits, six republican votes, now the hard part begins, and case in point, moments ago we heard from speaker boehner, his first comments on unemployment. >> so we're all concerned about those who have had a difficult time trying to find a job. that's why we've passed dozens of bills to try to help improve the economy so those jobs will be created. we're going to continue to do our work, but the senate ought to be looking at ways to really solve this problem, and that's to help the american people get the jobs they want. >> i'm joined now by senator barbara boxer, democrat from california.

senator, good morning. >> good morning to you. >> so, it sounds like john boehner is telling you folks in the senate it's time for democrats to get busy. what do you say? >> well, that's kind of a joke coming from a speaker who has the worst record of achievement of any speaker in history, so let's just talk about what's at hand. 1.3 million americans, who have had the safety net cut out from under them, 222,000 in my home state, and they are writing me and they are desperate. let us do what we have done about 28 times in our history, mostly under republican presidents, which is pass an extension of unemployment compensation and, of course, we need to work on job creation. the president has all kinds of plans that the republicans have walked away from. infrastructure banks, all kinds of ideas, but let's take care of the burning house right now. >> well, chuck schumer was among those who said he's concerned, even though we got passage

yesterday, he says, what are the republicans willing to do, is there compromise out there. let me play that for you. >> sure. >> okay, what he said was, because we don't have that sound byte, finding a reasonable pay for that can work on both sides of the aisle, i would caution that's easier said than done. i'm worried that we may be being somewhat waped into a cul-de-sac by our colleagues who don't have any intention of doing that. are you equally concerned? >> well, i talked to chuck about this. there's no question we're concerned that the republicans can say, oh, we're all for this, but let's pay for it by cutting education, let's pay for it by cutting food stamps, you know, and the bottom line is, what you do in that case is, you help the 1.3 million, but then you hurt other people and they are out of work. so we should do what we've done two-thirds of the times that we've extended unemployment insurance, again, mostly under republican presidents, and take care of these folks. we are working on deficit

reduction. chris, when obama took over, there was a $1.4 trillion deficit. it is now headed into the $500 billion range, so we have cut this deficit by more than half. we can take care of that. let us take care of the people now. now, if there's a pay for, that's not controversial, and i have one, which is collecting unpaid taxes, that would pay for this extension for a year. that's one thing. but then to come up with these ideas to cut help to children, child care credit, which apparently senator ayotte has come up with, that's just a nonstarter. let's take care of these folks. they need the help. >> another story making headlines today, senator, the controversial new memoir by former defense secretary robert gates, sharply critical of the president saying that the president was skeptical, if not outright convinced his strategy in afghanistan would fail. you're a senior member of the senate foreign relations committee. what do you make of this

criticism? >> well, look, everybody has the right to write a memoir, and everybody has a right to criticize others. i could be criticized by my staff. i could criticize them. you could be criticized by the audience and the president is always, you know, no matter who it is, is going to get criticized. to me, what's important is the president promised to get us out of two wars, and he did. what happened behind closed doors, the arguments, the questioning, it sounds to me this is one tough president who, yes, was tough on folks, but he did the right thing and gates said he made all the right decisions and even compared his decision making to that of lincoln. so, i think this book is a mixed bag. >> well, there's also a lot about the politics, about how these decisions were so premised on sort of the mood of the country, what was going to help domestically, politically, that actual national security decisions were made based on political concerns. >> well, i certainly don't

believe it. at the end of the day, any decision was made based on politics. the president made a real promise to the american people that he'd get us out of two wars, that he would get us out of iraq, that he would escalate, take it to bin laden, obviously, did do that. that's sort of not mentioned in your interview here. he succeeded in that, and he's gotten us out of two wars. at the end of the day, he kept his promises, and, you know, to say there's ever a time when you don't consider the promises that you made to the people in a discussion about any issue, that's just not realistic. this president made a commitment and he kept it. was it pretty getting there? probably not, but at the end of the day, gates said he made the right decisions and that his style was somewhat like lincoln, and i think that's a compliment. >> senator barbara boxer, good to have you on the program. thank you. >> thank you. wall street is getting involved, yes, in the pot

business. find out how this could mean big business for investors, as well as tourists. [ coughs, sneezes ]

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[ inhales deeply ] oh. what a relief it is. sales have been surging in colorado. ""the huffington post" s ""the huffington post" is quoting $5 million in sales. washington state, meantime, is getting inundated with nearly 7,000 applications for pot dispensaries to start sales later this year. all that sparking a lot of interest for other states looking for new sources of tax revenue, and wall street is getting onboard, too, the high times growth fund has been launched to invest in can bus-related businesses. i'm joined by dennis, a reporter with "the denver business journal," who's been closely following these developments. good morning, thanks for joining

us. >> good morning, chris. >> $5 million in sales, is that in line with what state officials were projecting? >> state officials can't project on the tax revenues yet, but that seems like a pretty good estimate. i talked to one dispensary owner that sold 15 pounds of marijuana on his first day. if you go at $45 an eighth of an ounce, that's about $85,000, multiply that out 35 stores opened, and it's easily between $1 million and $2 million sales in that first day alone. i don't think the sales will continue at that pace, but that's a pretty accurate estimate. >> the city council in denver is calling on federal bank regulators to help banks worried about dealing with pot shops. what's the concern there? >> well, the concern is, obviously, that it's still an illegal drug under federal law, so the fdic has very strict regulations about banks not engaging with businesses that deal in that kind of stuff, but

there's so much cash involved with this business, that there's got to be a solution somewhere, and so that's why denver is really feeling the urgency of help us out with this and act more like normal businesses, as denver has been treating them. >> we're just starting to get a sense of the broader implications of this. there was one dispensary owner who said denver will become the napa valley of pot, and i think some hotels are looking into cash in on tourism for pot. take a look. >> publicly, just saying, hey, this is what we do, and advertising it now may start to change because the laws are changing. it's a new dawn right now for all of this. >> so, i guess hotels that wouldn't allow cigarette smoking are encouraging people to come and smoke pot there. i mean, what are you seeing in terms of the breadth of businesses trying to cash in on this? >> well, it runs the gamut, if

you think about it. i did interview a manitou springs who's launching a tour business, including hotels and businesses that may be near retail shops. think about the lighting people that sell the grow lights, think about the construction people that have to build these grow rooms. think about building owners, we have investors now that are buying buildings expressly to rent them out as growing operations, industrial buildings, so the real estate is impacted greatly. so, the impact to other businesses is pretty vast. >> which is one of the reasons that other states are looking at it, not just tax revenues, but the other ways in which it could spark the economy, a legal economy, so i guess the question is, is there a sense of what will determine whether or not this experiment, which is, i guess, you know, this is what colorado is doing first, if this

experiment is a success, when might we know that, and how might that be judged? >> well, i think everybody was waiting to see, number one, how the first day was going to go. that seems to have gone okay. first week seems to have gone okay. i think they are going to measure it as a month goes by, two months goes by and the business impact will be easier to gauge than a societal impact about whether more people will be using, more people will be coming to colorado just for to buy marijuana, and so there's a lot of questions that still need to be answered, but the business impact is going to be a lot easier to judge, because we can look at sales tax revenue and how many stores are opening and how much sales they are having, so basically, it's kind of just a wait and see. and the only thing, i think, will make it fail is if there is a huge, i don't know, outbreak in crime around these stores, which hasn't happened at the dispensaries, or if one of them gets robbed, god forbid, in a high profile or somebody gets

hurt like that, so until like a big news-catching incident like that happens, i think that it's just plodding along slow and steady and seems to be going very well, according to government officials and industry officials. >> dennis, thanks so much. >> you're welcome, chris, thanks for having me. and if you read only one thing this morning, you've probably heard the saying, only in new york, kids, only in new york. well, my must read is about a woman whose life was saved by, yes, a pile of garbage apparently left uncollected because of the cold weather. the story is up on our facebook page. you guys are already talking about it. here's what you're saying. an incredible story. garbage saves the day. i guess it served a purpose. let us know what you think. thank you. thank you. i got this. no, i'll get it! no, let me get this. seriously. hey, let me get it. ah, uh. i don't want you to pay for this. it's not happening, honey. let her get it. she got her safe driving bonus check from allstate last week. and it's her treat. what about a tip? oh, here's one... get an allstate agent. nice!

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did you run into traffic? no, just had to stop by the house to grab a few things. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go-- yea, sure ya did. [ male announcer ] introducing at&t digital life. personalized home security and automation. get professionally monitored security for just $29.99 a month. with limited availability in select markets. ♪ newly released e-mails have linked the office of new jersey governor chris christie to a controversial lane closure at the george washington bridge. democrats accuse the potential

2016 republican nominee of closing the lanes as pay back against the mayor of fort lee, new jersey. nbc news political editor mark murray joins me now. mark, put this in context for us, what's going on, why is this a big deal? >> chris, if this wasn't a smoking gun regarding the fact politics played a role at the highest level of the christie administration regarding these lane closures, it's pretty close to a smoking gun. now, we've reached out to the christie administration for comment, we have yet to hear back from them, but this goes to the heart of the matter and some of the allegations that these lane closures occurred kind of payback for last year's gubernatorial election, the mayor of fort lee, new jersey, did not endorse chris christie and what's been uncovered is the port authority saying a month before these lane closures, it's time to cause some traffic

problems in fort lee and the port authority aid working for christie says, got it. there are other text messages that also show christie aides taking delight in the fact of the lane closures occurring and one exchange, one of the text messages saying, these are the children of buono's voters, and, of course, 2016 politics plays very highly in this. a thought chris christie might run for the presidency in 2016. it is a very interesting development in this story, chris. >> and it is part of sort of a larger narrative that's been out there that he's done this, he's taken some sort of political retribution, that he's thin skinned, the kind of questions that's been raised as he's been considered the front-runner on the republican side for 2016. >> in politics, political payback is nothing new. this has gone on since this country's history.

i think what is pretty striking, one, this is all laid out in e-mails and text messages that a state lawmakers in new jersey are currently investigating, we end up getting these e-mails and text messages due to this investigation, and the other thing that's interesting, chris christie himself has denied politics played any type of role here in these e-mails and text messages seem to counter that narrative and, again, we're waiting for word and comment from christie and his staff, but right now, this is a very interesting story. >> it is. nbc's mark murray, thanks for the latest on that. >> thank you. meantime, on the other side of the 2016 race, potentially, call it the clinton cash machine. the ready for hillary super pac says it raised more than $4 million last year in what organizers call an unprecedented movement. these new figures come out at the same time as that bomb shell book from former defense secretary bill gates that takes the obama administration to task and specifically hillary clinton. he writes, "hillary told the

president that her opposition to the 2007 surge in iraq had been political, because she was facing him in the iowa primary." let's bring in former hillary clinton adviser and democratic strategist kiki mcclain and republican strategist, john brabender. good to see both of you. >> good morning. >> kiki, i have to start with you. >> we know what the record is, what the president's position is and she served as secretary of state to a president who opposed the war in iraq. at the end of the day, the president's position was clear. we know a national security team, including the president, secretary clinton, and secretary gates resulted in a safer united states, and that's what really matters here. i think that going forward what you recognize is that there are people who want to assign different thoughts, ideas, to other people in political situations and it's not just there, but what i do know about hillary clinton is she doesn't

make important decisions based on politics, but on the substance of the matter. >> as she said, gates did have praise for clinton, smart, idealistic, pragmatic, tough minded, indefatigable, funny, very valuable colleague, and a superb representative of the united states all over the world. is that going to have any impact here? >> well, let's first say this, that anybody who underestimates the ability of hillary clinton is crazy, and republicans are going to have to understand she'll be a tough opponent. with that said, she's taken a lot of steps recently that make it very clear she's planning to run for president and she will be under a new scrutiny she has not been under for awhile, be it benghazi, be it some of these political decisions, votes she had taken, be it her own health care plan that failed in the 1990s, so i do think she deserves a lot of the scrutiny from this book and i think it's a fair question when she says

herself that she made these decisions for political reasons and no other reason, that should scare a lot of people. >> well, rnc chairman reince priebus was asked to comment on gates's claim, so let's play what he said. >> political person who makes decisions based on how the wind blows and this is just the tip of the iceberg. >> do you think she's going to be the democratic presidential nominee who will face a republican? >> you know, i'm not sure, but with all of the scandal around her, i'm not sure it would be all that bad for the republican party, to tell you the truth. >> he brought up things like benghazi, what about that? >> you know what, i will put up hillary clinton's record of public service to priebus any day. here's the other thing, we're 300 days away from an election in 2014, 700 days away from an election in 2016, and this is the best he's got. you never hear them talk about the potential of their own leaders in their own party, and what's more is, i just see it's

a big indicator that the republicans are going to give the american people what they gave them on a government shutdown, which is not a lot of problem solving. at the end of the day, i'll put her record of public service and interest of americans she's given over his any day of the week. >> john, i want to ask you about the ready for hillary super pac. last election was a billion dollar election, a lot of people think it could be double that come 2016. still, three years out, because it started last january, this super pac without a real candidate raised $4 million last year. is one of the key problems for any republican who may run against hillary, her formidable fundraising? >> well, it will be in a sense that she probably will not have a crowded primary and there will be a crowded republican primary, which means they are going to have to spend a lot in the primary, she may well not. what is interesting to me is they raised their money by renting hillary clinton's own list from 2008, so there's certainly a lot of coordination

between hillary and the super pac, particularly if you see the people running it, so this is really hillary clinton's campaign for all practical purposes and you can see they are ramping up and going to raise any penny they can. >> john brabender, kiki maclean, thank you. >> thanks. checking the news feed this morning, investigators looking into the helicopter crash that killed four u.s. air force personnel off the coast of england. the public is being told to stay away because of scattered live ammunition. the chopper was on a training mission and was flying low at the time of the crash. new york police busted more than 100 people connected to a disabilities scam. investigators say the suspects falsely claimed ptsd, many of them said it was related to 9/11, and they got a collective $400 million in benefits. some claim they were too sick to leave their homes, but court documents show one man was a martial arts instructor, another they caught going fishing,

another is shown jet skiing. investigators say four ring leaders included a former fbi agent and 89-year-old penchant adviser. president obama takes on the nsa's controversial spying program today when he meets with members of the intelligence community. also with a privacy and civil liberties oversight board at the white house. he has been reviewing the report, recommending changes to the nsa and we'll discuss those changes later this month. there seems to be an important conversation missing from most doctors visits, drinking habits. only one in six adults has ever talked to their doctor about drinking, but heavy drinking contributed to 88,000 deaths a year and costs the economy about $224 billion. the big question today, is it a cheesy p.r. stunt, or is there a real shortage of velveeta? what's moving your money and my

goodness, we're coming up on super bowl season, tell me it isn't so. >> i know, panic time. no double dipping here, chris. kraft has put out a warning about that velveeta shortage that could leave some supermarkets shelves bare of the product. why, kraft says it's partly due to high demand, another unspecified reasons but hopefully it's only short term. it does come on the heels of a string of college bowl games and clearly a lot of cheese dip eating. i don't know, is hoarding allowed these days? if you can find it, hoard it, is what i'm going to say. >> i can't imagine the shelf life of it, but i think you're safe. new service to block what we all hate, robo calls and it's been a big success. >> yeah, it's a free service. >> what's it called? >> no mo robo. it's a free service that spots those robo calls. it blocks them and then automatically hangs up. it launched about three months

ago by a software developer and the technology worked for people who have internet-based phone service or anyone with a phone service from comcast, the owner of nbc universal, our parent company. you can now use no mo robo, as well. the service is blocking at least 48,000 robo calls a week and when it decides that a call coming into your phone is a robo call, apparently hangs up right after the first ring so you're not left with ring after ring after ring before it kicks in. i should say, though, apparently the system is not perfect. the robo calls can still sometimes slip through, but you know what, if you don't like those annoying prerecorded messages, it's a good start. >> mandy, great to see you, thank you. if you're looking for a career change this year, "forbes" has the list of the least stressful jobs. so, number five, seamstresses

and tailors, university professors are fourth, although "forbes" admits there's a difference if you have tenures or not. three, jewelers, number two, hairstylis hairstylists, and least stressful job, audiologist. [ children yelling ]

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progressive? the leftward swing may be pitting the state's governor against new york city's mayor. governor andrew cuomo will deliver his state of the state address just hours from now, but conspicuously absent from his plans, universal pre-k. there was a report earlier this week he might include paying for pre-k in the state budget, but if he did that, it would trample on the new york city mayor bill de blasio's plan to pay for pre-k by taxing the rich. >> we're asking the wealthy to do a little more. we know they can handle it. he has a vision for state taxes, and i respect that vision. we're talking about the ability of the people of new york city to tax ourselves, this is about city taxes, not state taxes. >> i'm joined now by chris smith, contributing editor with "new york magazine," who's written about the political dust up, shall we call it. good to see you, good morning. >> hey, thanks for having me. >> let's set this up first with exactly what happened. there was a story the governor

was going to co-op the governor's pre-k push, then he didn't. what happened? >> well, there was a story sunday what looked very much like a trial balloon from the cuomo camp, floating the notion that the governor in his state of the state speech today would be proposing statewide universal pre-k, but paid for out of state budget funds, which essentially preempt or co-oped what's been a signature issue both in the mayor's race in new york city and now that bill de blasio won, a core part of his push as the new mayor, which is to impose a new slightly higher tax on people making over a half million dollars in the city to pay for universal pre-k and an expansion of after school programs in middle school. then, the governor seemed to have backed off, i mean, his

people say that this was never going to be in the speech. we'll wait and see in a couple hours to see exactly what he does say about education, but apparently, he's not going to propose that statewide universal pre-k program today. >> look, these guys didn't get elected without being good politicians. i think the way you put it when you wrote about this, savvy strategists, good at looking several chess moves ahead. what's going to happen next? is this sort of a battle in some ways that focuses on economic policy, but really is about where the progressive movement is right now? >> sure. now, look, you know, bill de blasio is always going to be to the left of governor cuomo. there's no issue there. i'd be surprised maybe governor cuomo mentions income inequality in his speech today. if he does anything more than that, it would be really surprising. income inequality was the fundamental blank in de blasio's run for mayor and now in his

agenda as mayor, but the governor, you know, very astute reader of the political winds. he's teeing up the reelection campaign today with his state of the state speech, and there are a lot of votes in new york city, and that is a very left of center democratic electorate, you know, he's got to appeal to those folks at the same time he's appealing to suburban and truly upstate new york voters who are very much in the middle or even conservative. so, he's going to be proposing things like cuts in business taxes that are, you know, underscoring his consistency as a fiscal moderate, and -- >> yeah, it is going to be interesting to see what happens. i sat through so many when i was working up in albany of his dad's state of the state messages, but this one is going to be very closely watched. "new york magazine's" chris smith, thank you. >> thanks. today's tweet of the day m

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to politics now where dennis rodman's controversial basketball diplomacy finally hit the court. rodman and other former nba players dribbled and dunked in north korea for kim jong-un. rodman also serenaded the leader for his birthday. looks like eric cantor is getting a tea party challenger. an economics professor named eric brat wants to meet eric cant cantor's term limit. congressman trey radel is back on the hill and back to work, pledging to restore honor to his office. he's meeting with speaker boehner and asking colleagues for support and "the tampa bay times" reports he's going to get his first challenger, who lost to radel back in 2012.

when you tune into figure skating or downhill skiing at the olympics, you could catch an add for obamacare. hhs told politico they bought ad time during the games in houston, dallas, tampa, and miami. the commercials, aimed at young people. and michelle obama is apparently getting some of oprah's hawaiian neighbors a little hot under the collar. tmz reporting the first lady is crashing at oprah's hawaiian compound and so security has been a bit of a nightmare, closing roads and even some local hiking trails. that's going to wrap up this hour of "jansing and co.," i'm chris jansing. thomas roberts is up next. welcome back, thomas. >> thanks so much. the agenda next hour, former secretary of defense robert gates sends political shock waves with a new tell-all memoir that unloads on the president, vice president biden, also dishing on hillary clinton. will it help or haunt her come 2016? we're going to talk with general wesley clark and roman farrell

will be here, as well. is this the smoking gun people have been looking for? new e-mails linking governor chris christie's office to the george washington bridge lane closures that many considered a political payback. we're going to get reaction from msnbc's steve kornacki, plus, the sister of the korean-american being held by north korea is blasting dennis rodman's basketball diplomacy. stick around. too big.

too small. too soft. too tasty. [ both laugh ] [ male announcer ] introducing progresso's new creamy alfredo soup. inspired by perfection. morning, everybody, i'm thomas roberts. topping our agenda today, it's the tell all sending shock waves through washington. if there's anywhere to be a fly on the wall today, it's inside the white house. here's why this new memoir from former defense secretary and cia chief robert gates, it's called "duty." now, we rarely see this kind of criticism of a sitting president from a former member of his cabinet. gates, a republican held over by president obama for the start of his first term rips into the

president over afghanistan, saying the president, "doesn't believe his own strategy and doesn't consider this war his. for him, it's all about getting out." words of gates's hash harsh words rocketed around the white house. >> his big complaint is that he thinks that he wasn't sufficiently personally in his heart committed enough to his own strategy, and i don't think that's true. >> in the year i spent with the president, i saw the exact opposite, to be very frank with you. i saw a president who was very committed, obviously, to support the troops, to support the policy to try to decimate al qaeda. >> so it is not just the president who's smarting this morning, but also his right-hand man. gates disseminated joe biden