chris stevens. aman in studio with us live here in new york, so, aman, an 80-plus report coming from the senate. what is new that we haven't seen before in it? >> well, perhaps the single most important thing we're hearing from this bipartisan report is there was no singular piece of intelligence to suggest an attack was imminent. there was lots of intelligence reports there was an increased deterioration of security conditions in the western part of libya, in benghazi, but there was nothing to say this was a premeditated and planned attack and it had hallmarks of an opportunistic event. as you mentioned, lots of miscommunication between the various government agencies, state department, the department of defense, the intelligence community, and perhaps one of the more important elements that the u.s. military did not have any assets nearby that it could deploy to help save american lives. >> confirms some of the statements that have been made

in the past and also makes some recommendations. >> that's absolutely correct. this story line that we've heard from the administration is there was no single intelligence piece of intelligence that was going to lead to this attack. that has been somewhat now confirmed by this report. but we're also hearing a lot of the same narrative that's come out from the administration, this was somewhat of an opportunistic attack and the post-attack narrative that came out of the administration and there was a lot of confusion and we obviously remember ambassador susan rice going on the air waves and defending, saying this was a result of protests against an antimuslim film that had been creating outrage in the moiddle east. this bipartisan report says there were no protests at the time of the attack, so that seems to undermine a little bit of what the administration has been saying all along. >> i was looking through a couple of the comments being made by the two chairs that had put out this report, and not

altogether, at least from some of the statements, seeing eye to eye on what should be the next step. when we look at dianne feinstein, she's saying let's focus on the four americans who lost their lives, look at senator chambliss not necessarily saying the same things. no doubt that will be the debate as this report gets vetted as others go through the report going forward. ayman, thank you for being here and looking through this today. more breaking news, as well, the pentagon discovering a batch of photos that reportedly show u.s. marines burning the bodies of iraqi insurgents. the images are so offensive we are not going to show them for you now. nbc's chief pentagon correspondent is here on the story for us. hey, mic. >> richard, this event apparently occurred in 2004 in fallujah and the photos show at least one marine methodically going body to body pouring some kind of flammable liquid, a fuel of some kind on to these bodies and setting them ablaze.

there's another marine in another photo but it's not clear that marine is at the same scene. the marine corps has decided to launch an investigation to figure out exactly what's happening here. it's totally unclear. it had been characterize earlier that marines were posing with the bodies, but the pictures don't prove that. this is totally unlike the incident where marines were caught on video urinating on the bodies of dead foreign fighters. nothing like that. instead, this one marine appears to be going from body to body, methodically and deliberately setting each one ablaze. now, what's interesting about it, a close view of those photos, and they are grim, shows that the bodies appear to be in an advanced stage of decomposition. now according to the marines and the geneva convention, which we ourselves read here this morning, the geneva convention does provide for the expeditious disposal of bodies when there

are potential health problems involved. again, the marines will argue that this is nothing like the scene where marines were urinating on bodies and taking some pleasure in that. this appears to be a function of war, richard. >> thank you so much, mic. >> you bet. we will cooperate with all appropriate inquiries to ensure that this breach of trust does not happen again. but i also want to assure the people of new jersey today that what has occurred does not define us or our state. >> and abnormally here low-key chris christie acknowledging problems plaguing his administration right off the bat. two minutes into his state of the state address. the other big story we're following today, upstaged. christie's team probably hoped at least some of today's talk would be about policy pitches and term two, but bridgegate is not budging here.

[ applause ] nevertheless, christie was greeted with a standing ovation last night. after discussing the scandal, he steered around the roadblock. the headlines in new jersey today didn't oblige. "what aren't you seeing," his calls for reform to crime control, taxes, and education. while a new quinnipiac poll this morning shows his approval dinged up, still above that all-important 50% mark, but down almost 20 percentage points from his all-time high, which was around this time last year. >> the blood's in the water, the knives are out, all those statements. certainly, it's tough anywhere in politics. in new jersey, i'd say, it's really tough. >> and picking up speed, the state investigation into the scandal surrounding the george washington bridge. subpoenas for the key players come as early as tomorrow. joining us now, valerie, new

jersey state assemblywoman whose district includes ft. lee, new jersey. assemblywoman, thank you for being with us. first, i want your reaction to christie's state of the state. he shook the hand of the democrat leading the inquiries, got a standing ovation from the democrat-led legislature there. was it a turning point? what's your thought of what he said? >> quite frankly, his demeanor was different from prior state of the state addresses. i think he was a bit more humble. i didn't see any anger. he certainly addressed it in the very beginning very quickly, but what i would have liked to have heard from his state of the state is port authority reform. he's still dismissing it and hoping that it will go away, but i will tell you that as a member of the new committee, which will -- is unprecedented, which will begin tomorrow, the subpoenas, as you said, will be going out as early as tomorrow and i think we need more answers and there are certainly more questions that need to be

answered. >> who do you want to hear from? >> well, we want to know who was responsible and why it was done, and especially, you know, why was it done during the week, as we all know -- >> do you want christie to be subpoenaed here? >> we want to get answers, and we want to know who was responsible, and that it would never happen again, and we want christie to take responsibility to reform the port authority. we want christie to take responsibility to change the culture of the port authority. you know, we're talking about a $7 billion agency that is not transparent, has no accountability, and i am hoping that if this is a priority and we talk about choices in this new session, that he will continue to reform and get to the bottom of this. >> you're the author of a bill on increasing transparency at the port authority, which oversees the george washington bridge. for whom and about what do you want to hear from these probes that involve the port authority? what questions are you going to ask? >> first of all, looking at massive toll hikes.

we'd like to know where the money is being spent. we would like training for the commissioners coming in. we want more public input, and we would want internal -- rather independent orders, which an audit called in the port authority last year dysfunctional and challenging. >> you've had history with christie, he called you a jerk over criticism to use state helicopters to see his son's baseball games. >> look, this is a fact finding committee. it certainly is going to be a bipartisan committee, and we need the facts. and, you know, when you don't get the answers, the suspicions and, you know, it raises the suspicion level. we're trying to get information and we're trying to correct it, quite frankly. >> thank you so much, new jersey assemblywoman valerie huttle.

christie kept returning to a theme and likely to any plans for the presidency, bipartisan. >> no state in this country has shown more bipartisan cooperation in governance over the last four years than in new jersey and our people are proud of it. >> now joining us right now, steve kornacki, host of "up with steve kornacki" here on msnbc, who has reported extensively on new jersey politics. also somebody very familiar with new jersey politics, bob engle, who authors "politics patrol" and author of "chris christie: the inside story of his rise for power." steve, we'll start with you. "the new york times" are looking at his message that he had given out, that 108-minute news conference. more than 800 times he used me, myself, i sort of references, but then last night during the state of the state address during that 45-minute speech,

about 97 times he used "we" references, then you're listening to the assemblywoman. has he changed? >> little difference between christie reading from the prepared text and talking off the cuff, two different public presenters there. i want to pick up on you asked a question about can he get a fair shake, can this republican governor get a fair shake from a democratic-led legislature, i know we look at politics in washington, that's the way we think about these things, will the democrats be going after republicans. i think the key thing to understand is that some of chris christie's biggest, most powerful protectors in new jersey politics have been the potential to continue to be democrats. he had this big pension plan, i've said all the unions a couple years ago, how did he get this through, he got this through because he has deals

with democrats. the biggest democratic boss in the state is the man, i don't want to get too granular, george norcross, controls the politics in new jersey. he's a guy the state attorney general in new jersey looked at for possibly prosecuting for corruption in 2005. chris christie declined to prosecute george norcross. he's now his tightest political allies, george norcross and his allies in the legislature. look where this is going forward, you have to ask, what are chris christie's democratic friends going to do. >> that makes a lot of sense in terms of bipartisanship in his 45-odd-minute message there. you heard the assemblywoman. she seemed like she felt he did okay. she wasn't highly critical of him, despite her history with him. do you agree with what steve is saying here? >> absolutely. steve is right on.

the whole thing about bipartisanship in new jersey can't be understood unless you know christie cut deals with key democrats. in fact, when he ran against jon corzine, the democrat, when corzine was running for re-election, there was a very unusual low turnout among democrats that we hadn't seen before in new jersey. >> did he make the turn? did he make the turn, is he coming back now from what you heard last night, what the assemblywoman said? >> i think he's trying to. i think he's in shock. usually, when he makes the walk from the governor's office down to the assembly chambers to make this speech, it's usually sort of a party atmosphere and he's high fiving people and speaking to me and other folks. he was just looking straight ahead. it was a whole different atmosphere the whole day yesterday in the state house than what i've seen in years of being down there. >> i want to take us back to that news conference, a little excerpt of what chris christie had said. let's listen to this, then i

want to ask you a question here, steve. >> i have had no contact with david wildstein in a long time, a long time. well before the election. >> so wildstein, his former high school classmate, also the official who arranged the lane closures there. "the wall street journal" has unearthed some evidence that appears to contradict christie's version of evidence here. has christie given a full and complete accounting of events, do you think? >> not at all. that's the -- we could talk about, oh, did the press conference solve the problem, did the state of the state speech, what will potentially solve this for him or make this 1,000 times worse for him is what's going to be in the next round of subpoena documents. you can talk about who's going to be called to testify before these committees, i expect a lot will be taking the fifth, but if their documents are subpoenaed and now you're talking about people who are inside the

governor's office, if you're talking about bridget kelly's documents, you're going to get a batch of documents from them that at least has the potential to raise a whole bunch of other questions. no matter what chris christie said last night or last week, doesn't matter if there's a new revelation there. >> bob, put that all together for us, what's the timing, could this go on for months, through 2015? >> i think at least months. i was talking to what we call a veteran of the state house the other day, i said give me your best bet, he said at least april. if they find stuff, it may go on past that, as well. right now if you look at the polls nationally, they are not paying as much attention to it, but the more this drips out, i think the more that's going to change. >> heading to florida, will that affect him at all in terms of support? >> that's a question, he's the -- how many republican governors want to be associated with him at this point? >> steve kornacki, bob ingle.

that brings us to today's big question. governor chris christie travels to florida, do you think bridgegate will hurt his national fundraising ability? weigh in on facebook and twitter. another member of congress announcing he will not seek re-election. this time it's jim maran calling it quits. is congress getting sick of congress? and a vote expected in the house any minute on a bill that would avert another government shutdown. we'll talk about those stories and more with republican congress john yarmuth next. while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day

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developing now. in just over an hour, the house

will take up the $1.1 trillion state government funding bill that eliminates the threat of another shutdown. the deadline was tonight at midnight, but then yesterday members approved a three-day extension to work on the omni bus bill, including everything from defense programs to blocking enforcement on the new light bulb standards and everything in between. here's republican tom cole last hour. >> it's a bipartisan compromise. we work together, i expect, you know, majority of both parties to provide the votes for it today. very pleased that the president has urged support for it, as well. >> joining me now, democratic congressman john yarmuth of kentucky. always a pleasure to talk to you, congressman. before we get to those itemitem want your take on the breaking news we're following on msnbc, that senate report on the deadly benghazi attacks of 2012, saying

they could have been prevented. what do you know about it, and what's your reaction to this? you've been very clear about your view in the past. >> well, i really don't know all the details, i just caught a blurb at the beginning of the broadcast, your broadcast. it seems pretty disturbing, and, you know, you have to look at this budget in which funds for embassy and consulate security have actually been cut and question whether that's impossible at this point, but certainly, this deserves a very, very comprehensive review by both congress -- both houses of congress to see how we can correct this. clearly, if this was preventible, then this is a wake-up call for all our facilities overseas. >> as you eluded to, there's that omnibus bill, two views, one is we have a three-day delay, here we go again, nothing is going to happen, we're going to have a shutdown. the other view is because of the strength behind what happened in

december, this is just a logistical necessity. three days, you're going to get it done. are you going to get it done? >> oh, yes, absolutely. this is just a procedural mandate, actually, that makes it mandatory we extend for a few days. just for the processes primarily of the senate. once we send the budget appropriation bill over to them, but there's strong bipartisan support for this bill. it's a bill that i don't want to crow about, because nobody's happy about it. as you mentioned, conservatives think we're spending too much. a lot of democrats think we're still ignoring important investments, innovation research and funding for education and other areas, infrastructure, but on balance, this is a lot better than the levels of spending under the sequestration rules. and for very important things like head start funding and job training and the violence against women act and other very, very important priorities.

this is a great improvement over last year's spending. >> i want to move to congressman jim moran, a friend of yours, announcing his retirement. he is the third democrat in three days to do so, "the washington post" has called congratulations on your budget, congress, america still hates you. that's what it says. are your colleagues starting to feel the same way about their own chamber and tell me about any conversation you may have had with congressman moran recently. >> i haven't talked to jim about his decision. i have talked to some of the oh other members and i think there's an attitude among some they've accomplished all they can accomplish, they are still healthy, there's other things e they want to get to. george miller been in the house for 48 years, that's a long time to make that commute from the west coast, so i understand those decisions. i think you'll see more and more of those, but the bottom line is, if you asked members of congress what we thought of the

way congress is functioning, i don't think it would even get to the 10% approval rating that the public gives us, so there are people that are very frustrated here, think they could be spending their time elsewhere, and i think what's really important is that for all of us to recognize the recent polling showing that the american public say the most important problem that faces the country right now is the functioning of its government or nonfunctioning, so we have to look in the mirror and see if we can deal with things like the way we operate, like campaign finance and other measures. >> congressman, you staying? >> i'm staying, yes. >> thank you so much. >> if my constituents will have me, i'm staying. >> thank you so much, congressman john yarmuth of kentucky. a school still a crime scene after a 12-year-old opened fire inside. >> i just seen him run in there and shoot and then the guy was on the ground and covering his face crying. >> what more have police

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developing news at the supreme court, where for the last hour, justices have been hearing arguments about a case that will decide of buffer zones to keep protesters at bay around abortion clinics violate the constitution. listening to all of that at the courthouse steps for us now, nbc justice correspondent pete williams. he's got the latest. hey, pete. >> reporter: richard, this law comes from massachusetts. the state has a 35-foot buffer zone around entrances to abortion clinics that says an old law where they tried to have a moving buffer zone just didn't work. but it did appear that a majority of the supreme court thinks that the new massachusetts law is probably unconstitutional. for several reasons. first, some justices were concerned that it doesn't meet the constitutional test of being viewpoint neutral, that is to say anyone who objects to abortion, who wants to talk to people as they enter the clinic can't get into that zone, but clinic workers can and they can say this is a safe clinic. second problem is the size of

the zone. some justices, elena kagan among them thought it was too big, restricts too much speech. and finally, the idea you're restricting speech on a public sidewalk is something that many supreme court justices are reluctant to do. so based on the comments made today, richard, i'd say the massachusetts law may be struck down. >> busy week at the supreme court. nbc's pete williams following that for us. thank you so much, pete. >> you bet. back to business, after chris christie's state of the state address, how does he focus on governing in the wake of the scandal? that's today's topic for our agenda panel. cory dade, susie kim is a reporter for msnbc.com, david corn, the washington bureau chief for mother jones, and msnbc political analyst. all three, thanks for joining. david, starting with you, my friend, did christie address the scandal enough in his speech? he did it right off the top. what else actually stuck out to you when you were listening to

it and were looking at how he dealt with this? >> you know, i think he did what we expected him to do, acknowledge it and then move on to the business of the state. there's really not much more to say, unless he's going to come out and confess something he hasn't already confessed. but he did say he would cooperate with all appropriate investigations, and that's the bottom line here. there's a state assembly legislative investigation going on, the u.s. attorneys getting involved with the fbi, and once people start pulling string in these sort of circumstances, you never know where it's going to lead, so while chris christie, after his last election, was turning more to the national stage, taking over the republican governor's association and maybe putting together the foundation for a 2016 run, he's now going to get stuck back in all this mud in new jersey as these investigations proceed and at some point have more information or less information, or no new information, but what happened

and that will really determine his future. >> you know, part of that, susie, is as he does leave the state, you know, presidents leave states during difficult times, they'll leave the country. in this case we've got a governor, he's going to florida. what is this saying about his national support overall? what can we expect from that? >> well, obviously, rick scott doesn't think that he's a liability. he's going down there to help him at a bunch of fundraisers, and so i think it sort of remains to be seen how national republicans will react to this, you know, a lot of them are seeming to give a shrug of the shoulders, we'll wait and see, and back home in new jersey, i'm not sure this will really affect his ability -- his relationship with the assembly. already, you're having folks, you know, his democratic supporters in the assembly saying that, listen, we'll see what happens with these investigations, but we're going to continue to work with this guy. i don't think this is going to really affect our working

relationship, and that is something that christie really has prided himself on and he's hoping to build his national ambitions on. >> he's getting national attention and as we go and continue to talk about the subject, we'll see things like this. bruce springsteen, jimmy fallon spoofing the governor, for instance. this is what they did last night. take a listen to this. ♪ you're killing the working man ♪ ♪ who is stuck in the governor of chris christie for the new jersey traffic jam ♪ >> a spoof on the traffic jam there. there's also a new quinnipiac poll that shows among new jersey voters there in the state, he's seen more of a leader rather than a bully. and with all of this media attention that he's getting and the scandal, could this actually work out better for him, really? that's what we have to ask when we look at this here. tell me what you think, cory. >> i think with voters in new jersey and nationally, it's a wait and see approach. you know, the more these

subpoenas start to unfurl more information about what about done and who knew what when, i think that will start to shift the polls. i think what's interesting is christie has to basically not be christie now. he cannot be as bombastic and outspoken as he was, both as governor, as he tries to govern, but also as he starts to raise his national profile with the republican governor's association. i think what's interesting here is if these investigations look to be this democratic witch hunt in new jersey, that actually potentially helps him with conservatives outside of new jersey. >> david, i want to move to another subject while i've got you, that's that new report in "the new york times" on the nsa and a procedure they are using. "the new york times" reporting that the nsa, among a couple things, using radio frequencies to implant software into computers around the world to help conduct surveillance, and

it could allow it to launch cyber attacks, according to the report. how dangerous is this from what you've read or know about it? >> well, this is really james bond stuff, you know, they can get into computers that are not connected into the internet by getting some physical access to them, but perhaps that was a few years ago, they may not even need the physical access and have a sort of radio relay station to send the information off to the nsa. to me, the real interesting thing in this story was that the nsa actually went to great lengths to say, listen, whatever we do, we're not stealing commercial secrets from other countries and we're only doing this for national intelligence purposes overseas. this is what we're going to see with the president's response to some of the nsa issues with his speech tomorrow. the government is trying to convince us that this is only being done for intelligence purposes, while others are worried it can go to all sorts of other places and we don't have the answers because it is secret. >> on that note here, susie,

david was saying other countries, new ability. the question is and the report says there's no evidence it's happening in the united states, but we, being in the united states, can't help but ask, is it happening here? >> of course, and this is the real question of all these nsa revelations, it's how much don't we know, how much isn't revealed, and how much is the administration not willing to disclose? and i think that's really why obama's remarks and the actual reforms that he is going to be willing to adopt, that's really going to be important as to how the public sees these surveillance operations and how they are going to feel about them. a national report suggests he is not going to adopt these far reaching recommendations of the independent review panel that they recommended but he's going to adopt some of them. the question is, how will voters, ordinary americans, sort of feel how far he's going to go to reform the nsa. >> cory, quickly, does this add fuel to the fire here. >> i think it does.

i think it puts that much more of an onus on obama's decision about what recommendations he makes. i think what many people will be looking for, especially on the civil liberties, from the civil liberties community, is whether or not he can take that line from national security and personal liberties and move it back towards the center, perhaps, in this post-9/11 era. >> the roots corey dade, msnbc.com susie kim, and david corn from mother jones. thank you all three today. >> sure thing, richard. we asked and you answered, governor chris christie travels to florida, will it hurt fundraising. the effective way he addressed issue will garner vote. his pressers are viewed by positive by those who elect presidents, the common, everyday worker. all the coverage could make christie look like a victim of the mainstream media and bring

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developing now, you're looking at live pictures from raleigh. president obama is set to give a speech at 1:05 eastern time at north carolina state university, focusing on the economy and manufacturing. live coverage of that ahead on msnbc. stick around. ground zero for marriage equality is moving to republican-controlled states. in oklahoma, for instance, a federal judge declared the state's ban on same-sex marriage a fundamental violation of equal rights. the u.s. senior district judge said gay couples are excluded from marriage, "without a legally sufficient justification." he also called oklahoma's ban, "an arbitrary, irrational exclusion of just one class of oklahoma citizens from a governmental benefit." but the decision will not let same-sex couples get married in oklahoma, not just yet.

the judge also stayed his own ruling until a similar challenge to utah's ban is resolved. joining me now, two of the plaintiffs suing to overturn oklahoma's ban, sharon baldwin and mary bishop. thank you both for joining us today on this wednesday. now, you exchanged vows in florida in 2000, you were denied an oklahoma marriage license in 2009. how did this hearing, this ruling, how did you become aware and what was your reaction? >> well, we were at work. we had just walked into work, because we work roughly 4:00 to midnight shift, and we work in a newsroom, and so shortly after we got there, people in the newsroom became aware that the decision had been filed. and we ran over to the federal court reporter's desk and started looking over his shoulder at his computer to see what it said. >> now, here's what your governor, republican mary fallon said in response to that

announcement. "i support the right of oklahoma's voters to govern themselves on this and other policy matters. i am disappointed in the judge's ruling and troubled that the will of the people has once again been ignored by the federal government." now she adds that 75% of oklahoma voters passed that ban, but that was nine years ago. who should decide, what's your opinion, the state's voters, the judge, or the federal government here? >> philosophically, we have never supported putting a group of people's rights up to a vote of the public. that's not what our constitution is about. however, i'm glad you pointed out that the governor is using nine-year-old data. i believe if that vote were held today, you would see dramatically different rouesult. >> the judge rejected the ban, including responsible procreation, optimal child rearing, and undercutting traditional marriage. what's your thought here on

these perceived threats that were articulated? >> we're surprised that the state couldn't -- well, not really surprised. the state couldn't even come up with an argument to satisfy the minimum level of scrutiny for the court. if that doesn't tell you you're on the wrong side of history, i don't know what else you need. >> what's your thought, mary? >> there are no logical reasons to withhold marriage from us and other couples like us. there's no state interest that served in preventing us from getting married, and the state has talked about how marriage is important to family stability, and we are a family. >> absolutely. >> we would like to have that benefit, as well. >> you're both journalists. both give me a headline on this story. you first, sharon. >> ecstasy. >> ecstasy, okay, mary? >> what have i been saying?

>> you've been saying we're elated. >> i've been saying we're elated. we really are elated. >> that's great. thank you both so much. appreciate your time, sharon baldwin, mary bishop. appreciate you talking about what's happening in your state there. >> thank you so much. we're also watching this hour, in michigan, crews are putting out the hot spots of a warehouse fire near detroit. police say the building stores paint. it has paint in it, which is fuelling the flames, and the smoke that was visible for miles. no injuries have been reported. investigators in new mexico are looking for a motive behind a shooting at a middle school. yesterday a seventh grader armed with a sawed-off shotgun opened fire inside a gym there. two students were wounded. the suspect in a psychiatric hospital. today marks the fifth anniversary of the so-called miracle on the hudson. captain sully landed u.s.

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right now, democrats are demanding a congressional hearing for target to explain how hackers here stole information from more than 100 million shoppers. members of the house financial services committee want to investigate the breach that took place over the holidays. senate holidays made a similar move on friday. back in december, target admitting it was a victim of one of the biggest credit card breaches on record. hackers stole credit and debit card information from 40 million shoppers and then 70 million other shoppers lost their personal information, like phone numbers and even home addresses. this week, target's ceo promised changes. >> as time goes on, we are going to get to the bottom of this. we are not going to rest until

we understand what happened and how that happened. clearly we're accountable and we're responsible. >> joining me now, a retail economy analyst and the author of the book "black market billions." what can congress do that will actually help us consumers? >> i know this is not what anyone really wants to hear, but really not much. they're having this hearing. if they find that target is in breach of not protecting adequately the consumer, then they can impose fines, they can really slap target on the wrist. but pretty much nothing. >> fines for what, though? >> fines for -- so there are a lot of laws in place that target has to adhere to and retailers in general have to adhere to when it comes to protecting the consumer and protecting that data. if congress finds out that target didn't take those necessary steps in order to protect the consumers, then fines will be in place. in fact, the ftc has an act that says that these retailers have to adhere to it.

in addition to this panel that's about to be launched the end of january, the ftc and the s.e.c., they haven't confirmed or denied that there's an investigation going on on target, but that if they do find that they were in violation of this, it's another set of fines that target may have to pay. >> should they be discussing how banks work in this system? it's really the banks that say hey, you, target and other retailers, you need to use my equipment and my processes in order for you to be my customer so i process your credit card transactions. >> exactly. it's called the point of sale. part of the reason why these systems are getting hacked is because these hackers know how to go in there. the buzz word here is called "ram scraping." that's not a procedure. >> i know what you're talking about. it's random access memory scraping. these hackers go in there and go into the point of sale

devices -- >> the cash registers. >> where you swipe your card. and they get access to that information. so retailers and banks change the way that they deal with that. they change those systems twice a year. they need to do it almost 30 times a year. had a meeting with an online retailer. they basically said they changed their system and log-ins almost 30 times a year. in this instance, online might even be safer than offline. >> might they have different rules that congress will be looking at then? >> you would think that that should be the case, but unfortunately, federal rules apply when it comes to retail, it's sort of an umbrella blanket set of rules. if they were smart, they would separate this out, but they're not going to do this as of now. >> neiman marcus could be involved in a similar problem. >> right. what's interesting there is that we think that neiman marcus probably had this problem during the holidays, but they decided to announce it after. it's not going to be the only

retailer announcing these problems. i expect another couple retailers, if not six to ten retailers starting to announce this problem. >> we covered a lot of ground there in about three minutes. appreciate it. thank you so much. that wraps up things for me. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern. among those joining us will be senator jon tester of montana. my colleague and buddy craig melvin here with more. what you got, craig? >> richard, thank you so much, sir. when we come back on the other side of this break, as new jersey democrats decide whether and which subpoenas to issue, more of governor chris christie's aides. we're going to talk with his former challenger about the latest revelations in the investigation. also, is the traffic scandal hurting christie in early primary states? we're on the ground with reaction from outside the garden state. and on the road with president obama in north carolina. we're going to get a preview of his speech on the economy. just about an hour from now. all that and lots more. there's a live look at north carolina state university where that speech is going to happen. we've got a lot coming up in

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join today. hello, i'm craig melvin. here's what's happening right now. the president has arrived in north carolina. this is president obama's first trip outside the beltway this election year to hammer home his economic message. we'll have a live preview from raleigh. also, can governor chris christie stop the bleeding and get back to governing? >> without a doubt, we will cooperate with all appropriate inquiries to ensure that this breach of trust does not happen again. >> christie uses his state of the state address to try and move beyond the bridge scandal, but there are still lots of questions. perhaps we should leave those christie questions to the boss and jimmy. ♪ governor chris christie's

fault new jersey traffic jam ♪ >> mistakes were made. chris christie insists. and now the special probes start a day after chris christie used that state of the state address to revisit that bridge scandal, now swallowing his second term and possibly presidential hopes. democrats in the state legislature are putting the final touches on two investigative panels that could issue subpoenas for christie aides as early as tomorrow. for his part, the new jersey governor used his speech to once again apologize for the scandal. >> i'm the governor, and i'm ultimately responsible for all that happens on my watch, both good and bad. now, without a doubt, we will cooperate with all appropriate inquiries to ensure that this breach of trust does not happen again. >> but this is chris christie, and not far from any speech is mentioned of a key theme to