inquiries to ensure that this breach of trust does not happen again. and workaround. we are moments away from the president's speech in north carolina, where president obama promises to kick off a revived push on his domestic agenda, with or without the help of congress. >> he said today in his tab net meeting i've got a pen and i've got a phone. >> and a telephone. you've got that right. the president is going to pick up the phone and he's also going to sign executive orders that he can do within his power that don't necessarily require congressional action. hi, everyone. good afternoon. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president obama is going to be speaking momentarily from north carolina about jobs and the economy. but we'll take a moment first while we wait to talk politics, jersey style.

governor chris christie tried to put the scandal behind him in his opening remarks to the general assembly, but the controversy continues. during his marathon press conference last week, for instance, the governor insisted he had limited contact with david wildstein, the former port authority official, his appointee, who had orchestrated the closure of the george washington bridge access lanes, at least korlaccording to e-mai exchanges. yet a "wall street journal" article contradicts that claim, as you can see, placing governor christie and wildstein, one of the two key players in the controversy, together on september 11th, the third day of the bridge closures. what could they have been talking about? that's wildstein, the guy in the red tie. joining me now is chris matthews, host of "hardball." so we see that "wall street journal" picture. very clear that the two of them were together. how could they on the third day of these closures not, along with bridget kelly, his deputy chief of staff, not have been discussing what was front page news for everyone in that area?

>> unless that picture betrayed the fact that the governor made a real point of rushing past him. you can see him looking away. he didn't want to talk to him, which also tells a story. a "wall street journal" reported he was also with bill beroni, who was making a quarter million dollars a year. >> a lot of e-mail exchanges. radio silence and all those other wonderful phrases. so take a step back now. we don't know how this is going to evolve. we just know a lot of things don't add up. don't make common sense. >> i hate to go back to watergate, and bridgegate, it's too easy. but i do think there's a lot here about nixon. nixon never ordered the watergate break-in by any evidence, but he did order the break-in of brookings and later ordered a break-in of the republican headquarters so it would look like the democrats had done it. all that's on tape. so his people knew what he

wanted done, or certainly would have supported. then he got caught with watergate, and he knew -- hey, i didn't order watergate but i ordered this other stuff. my god, this looks like my guys did this. the minute he heard about the bridge closing, he may well have known this is the kind of thing i wanted my people doing. i never ordered them, i'm covered, as long as i don't talk to them, i'll never be blamed for it, so i'm going to keep radio silence. >> while we await the president in north carolina state, let's listen to chris christie at his marathon press conference, what he said about when he had last contact with david wildstein. >> i have had no contact with david wildstein in a long time. a long time. well before the election. you know, i could probably count on one hand the number of conversations i've had with david since he worked at the port authority. i did not interact with david.

>> now, well before the election? okay. so "the wall street journal" was september 11th. you can define well before the election. >> did he mean election or election campaign? and by the way, he does point out -- it's all part of what i think is this very well-constructed defense. looks like a kind of solid defense. is that he only had two reports of donald mckinnon, his chief of staff and his counsel. he says to carterize himself -- >> that's the former u.s. attorney speak. >> he's saying i didn't have contact with bridget kelly. so he's systematically saying the only people i've been exposed to in conversation are these two people. at some point, they're going to be asked to testify. what's going to be his position then? i think he's very careful and knows what he's doing here. i think the dog that hasn't

barked here is why did he never answer your question again. in all of these three or four months, ever say to somebody at the water corps, what the hell is this bridge closing about? saying this closing is amazing up there. >> they were high fiving in e-mails. that's the tone of the e-mails. >> and not one bit of evidence so far did anyone in his office, any appointee of his, any christie guy or woman say this is bad. it was always somebody else like fulton who says this will not end well. and cuomo people that said this is a problem. none of his people did. and that's a bad story. the whole culture of your office. remember how he said during that press conference, i do have to ask myself, how do i send a message that these people thought this was all right? they all did. that's hiss probl problem. >> there are e-mails that indicate his press secretaries were part of the loop of the conversation, but none to the

governor. let's talk about the other big story of the day, which is the president about to speak in north carolina state. we're only a week away from the state of the union. >> ah, yes. and meeting today with all the senators to talk about getting them all re-elected. and who's one of the people who should get re-elected in normal times is kay hagan of north carolina. even with the ideological shift recently of the state very much to hard right, she's only one point behind her two likely opponents. that's going to be a real high wire act to get her re-elected. it's interesting he starts this campaign down there in north carolina. >> and where is she today? >> she's in d.c., and that tells you something, too. she didn't want to be arm in arm with him. i'm not sure that's a smart move. sometimes when you scatter, it didn't help you. everybody knows she did vote for obama, supports him. but she's better off being a tar heel today rather than a washington democrat. >> it reminds me so much of in 1984 when ronald reagan running for re-election after the first

debate against walter mondale was going to north carolina, and the efforts of jim bakker and his other political advisers to try to prevent him from being seated next to or taking a picture with jesse helms, of course, representing them, the outlier. >> he pulled a big upset against jerry ford that saved his presidential prospects. who helped him then? jesse helms. a lot of history between us. >> the president's agenda, when he talks about what he can do with the pen and the phone, as he said so memorably. >> very competent. a very high level official. i think if you do follow that story that he's going to retreat to merely executive actions, it's almost like the nationalist chinese going to taiwan. a big part of the government is what you can do with congress. the budget, taxation. >> he was bringing in the democratic senators, though. >> i know. he's got to find a way to cut

some deals. he's got three more years as president. we've got to use the congress. i don't think you can work completely around them. foreign policy. it's very hard to work around congress when they're so feisty right now. >> what do you see happening on the unemployment front? >> he wins the fight. i think he wins the argument. the american people are very sympathetic, certainly sympathetic on minimum wage. there are a lot more employees in this country than employers. that's just the simple fact of the math. so when you poll people, they're going to be mostly employees. high level employees. every person who makes a lower wage says that every time minimum wage goes up, my wage goes up. so i think it's a big plus. minimum wage and unemployment comp. i think republicans are fighting it, but it's no winner. >> and finally, just to touch base with what's also happening this week, we understand that the president's big speech on friday about intelligence, the nsa, according to "the new york

times" reporting today, reporting that we've done independently, he's going to try to divide that baby, not anger the intelligence community, not bring in too much more oversight, not stop the massive collection of telephone records, destroying of those telephone records, by the government, not by the telephone companies as some reformers have suggested, but bring in a privacy advocate, something that already the fisa judges yesterday tried to preempt by pushing back and saying we can't take on a privacy advocate and all the other work that that will entail. >> well, as you know talking to people in the white house, i've talked to them, he's much more hawkish on that area than he is fighting wars on the ground. by the way, i think he did make a decision that's going to be very pro-intelligence community, which is i'm going to let the government collect this data, not let the telecommunications company hold on it to. that seems to be the big question. his verdict is the government better have this stuff at hand when we need it. >> chris matthews. we're going to take a break.

we'll be back when the president starts speaking in just a moment. a lot more coming up. stay with us. ♪ ♪ 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™.

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welcome back. we're waiting for the president to begin his speech in raleigh, north carolina, at north carolina state. and while president obama gets ready to come to the podium, chris christie and even wendy davis are big names making headlines just a few weeks into the new year, a year that promises to have a lot of political twists and turns. so we've expanded our political round table. joining us now is eugene robinson. "usa today's" bureau chief susan page, and of course, chris matthews. the president is about to come out. he's going to be speaking about the economy as he shakes hands

and gets ready to go up to the podium. quickly, susan, what we're hearing from him is what the agenda is. this is teeing up income inequality and the state of the union in two weeks. >> that's right. and a big speech for him. he needs to recapture a little momentum going into the state of the union, going into this new year. >> and here's the president. >> thank you so much. thank you. it is good to be back in north carolina. [ cheers and applause ] if you have a seat, go ahead and have a seat. if you don't have a seat, don't. it is good to be here at the home of the wolfpack. i want to thank your chancellor, randy woodson, for the introduction and the great work he's doing on behalf of students all across the system. i want to recognize my secretary

of energy who is here. give him a big round of applause. he's doing good work. your governor is here. the mayor of raleigh nancy mcfarland. [ applause ] the mayor of chapel hill. the mayor of durham, bill bell. and we've got congressman mike mcintyre doing great work. your senator kay hagan helicopter couldn't be here, but i wanted to thank her publicly for the great work that she's doing. [ applause ] and e want to thank all the students for coming out. we're doing this event nice and

early so it doesn't run up against the weight gain. i've learned a few things as president. one of them is not to compete with college basketball down here on tobacco row. you don't do that. this is actually my second stop in raleigh-durham. i just took a tour of a company called viacomm, where workers design everything from elevators to the giant fans that help cool buildings like this one, although i think we're kind of saving money, the smart thing to do. so this company is making these engines and these systems more efficient, saving businesses big bucks on energy costs, improving the environment. those savings get passed on to customers. puts money in people's pockets. and growing companies that need the products that viacom makes,

they're benefiting enormously. so it's a good news story, but if a growing economy, that company, just like every company in america, has to keep invent and innovating in order to stay on the cutting edge. and that's where all of you come in. here at nc state, you know something about innovation. you've got one of the largest undergraduate engineering programs in the country. that's worth cheering for. [ applause ] i'm a lawyer by training, and that's nice. but we need more engineers. so companies like cisco and ibm, they come to this school when they're looking to hire. because of the quality of the engineering program. and over at centennial campus, some very smart people experiment in state of the art facilities to figure out everything from how to design

better fireproof fabrics to how to better protect our computer systems. so the reason i came here today is because we've got to do more to connect universities like north carolina state with companies like viacom to make america the number one place in the world to open new businesses and create new jobs. we want to do that here in north carolina, and we want to do this all across america. [ applause ] it's been more than five years since a devastating recession cost this country millions of jobs, and it hurt north carolina pretty tough. but everyone here knows that even before the recession hit, the middle class had been getting hit on the chin for years before that. here in north carolina, factories were shutting their doors.

jobs were getting shipped overseas. wages and income were flat lining, so etch if you had a job, you didn't see your standard of living going up very much. meanwhile the cost of everything from college tuition to groceries did go up. so when i took office, we decided to focus on the hard work of rebuilding our economy of a new foundation, for growth and prosperity and to make sure that everybody had a chance to get ahead. and thanks to the hard work and sacrifice of the american people, the good news is the economy is going strong. [ applause ] our businesses have now created more than eight million new jobs since we hit bottom. because of all of the above strategy for american energy, for the first time in nearly two decades, we produce more oil in the united states than we buy from the rest of the world. that hasn't happened in a very long time. [ applause ] we now generate more renewable

energy than ever before. more natural gas than anybody on the planet. we're lowering energy costs, reducing pollution, health care costs are growing at their slowest rate in 50 years. for the first time since 1990s, health care costs eat up a smaller chunk of our economy, and part of that has to do with the affordable care act. [ cheers and applause ] and so over time, that means bigger paychecks for middle class families, bigger savings for companies that are looking to hire. and along with all this, since i took office, we've covered deficits by more than half. so we've made progress. and that's what i mean when i say this can be a breakthrough year for america. the pieces are all there, to start bringing back more of the jobs that we've lost over the past decade. a lot of companies around the

world are starting to talk about bringing jobs back to the united states, bringing jobs back to places like north carolina. partly because we got cheap energy costs, we've got the best workers in the world, we've got the best university systems in the world, and we've got the largest market in the world. so the pieces are there to restore some of the ground that the middle class has lost in recent decades. start raising wages for american families. but it requires us to take action. this has to be a year of action. and here in north carolina, you're doing your part to create good jobs that pay good wages. congress has to do its part, too. because restoring the american dream of opportunity for everyone who's willing to work for it is something that should unite the country. that shouldn't divide the country. that's what we should be aspiring to. that everybody has a shot if they're willing to work hard and take responsibility. so in the short term, one thing congress could do is listen to

the majority of the american people and restore the unemployment insurance for americans who need it. [ applause ] and let me just make an aside here. north carolina still has a higher than average unemployment rate. so this is important to this state. folks aren't looking for a handout. they're not looking for special treatment. there are a lot of people who are sending out resumes every single day, but the market, the job market is still tough in pockets around the country. and people need support, a little help so they can look after their families while they're looking for a new job. so congress should do the right thing and extend this vital lifeline for millions of americans. of course, that's just short term. long-term, the challenge of making sure everybody who works hard can get ahead in today's economy is so important that we can't wait for congress to solve it. where i can act on my own without congress, i'm going to

do so. and today i'm here to act, to help make raleigh-durham and america a magnet for the good high-tech manufacturing jobs that a growing middle class requires and that is going to continue to keep this country on the cutting edge. [ applause ] so we've already got some success to build on. manufacturing is a bright spot in this economy. for decades, we've been losing manufacturing jobs. but now manufacturing has been added over the last four years more than 550,000 new jobs, including almost 80,000 manufacturing jobs in the last five months alone. so we want to keep that trend going. we want to build on the kind of work that's being done in places like nc state to develop technology that leads to new jobs and entire new industries.

so a little over a year ago, we launched america's first manufacturing institute in youngstown, ohio. what it was is a partnership. it includes companies and colleges. they came up with a joint plan. they were focusing on developing 3-d printing technology and training workers with the skills required to master that technology. now, that was a great start. we got one going. some of the folks from youngstown are here today and we congratulate them on the great work they're doing. but here's the problem. we created one. in germany, they've already got about 60 of these manufacturing hubs. so we've got some catching up to do. i don't want the next big job creating discovery, the research and technology, to be in germany or china or japan. i want it to be right here in the united states of america. i want it to be right here in north carolina.

[ applause ] so what i said in my state of the union address last year, i said to congress let's set up at least 15 of these manufacturing hubs all across america, focusing on different opportunity where is we can get manufacturing innovation going, create jobs, make sure that the research is tied to businesses that are actually hiring. and those synergies are going to grow the economy regionally and ultimately across the whole country. and last summer as part of our push to create middle class jobs, i said you know what? let's not settle on 15, let's go ahead and do 45. republicans and democrats in the house and senate introduced bills that would get this going, that's good, but they haven't passed the bills yet. so i want to encourage them to con to pa continue to pass the bills that would pass 45 of these manufacturing hubs. in the meantime, i'm directing my administration to move forward where we can on our own.

so after a year, i'm pleased to introduce america's newest manufacturing hub, which is going to focus on the next generation of power electronics, it's going to be based right here in raleigh, north carolina. [ cheers and applause ] that's good news. that's good news. that's good news. it's great. [ applause ] so just like the hub in youngstown, what we're calling the next generation of power electronics innovation institute is bringing together leading

companies, universities, and federal research all together under one roof. folks in this hub are going to develop what are called wide band gap semiconductors. now, i was just schooled on all of this. i'm not sure that i'm fully qualified describe the technical elements of this. raise your hand if you know what it is. see, we've got some. for all you non-engineers out there, here's what it means in the simplest terms. semiconductors obviously are at the heart of every piece of electronics that we use every day. smart phone, television set these days, everything. public research helped develop them decades ago, and then that research allowed commercialization, new products, new services, and obviously not only improved the economy, but greatly enhanced our lives.

so we want companies to run with the ball also, but first we've got to make sure that we're also doing the research and linking it up to those companies. wide band gap semiconductors, they're special because they lose up to 90% less power. they can operate at higher temperatures than the normal semiconductors. so that means they can make everything from cell phones to industry motors to electric cars smaller, faster, cheaper. they're going to be still applications for the traditional semiconductors, but these can be focused on certain areas that will vastly improve energy efficiency, vastly improve the quality of our lives. and the country that figures out how to do this first and the companies that figure out how to do this best, they're the ones that are going to attract the jobs that come with it. so this manufacturing hub right here, focused in north

carolina -- go pack. [ applause ] this hub is going to make it easier for these wide band gap semiconductors to go from the drawing board to the factory floor to the store shelves. not necessarily store shelves, because what i just saw, for example, were these really big pieces of quim thequipment that attached to utility companies or help windmills translate the power they're generating get transmitted to where they're finally going to be used. it's going to bring together chip designers. that stand to benefit with these new technologies. it's also going to help small companies. but a they're going to be able to use equipment they otherwise wouldn't be aabble to afford to test and prototype new products. of course, american workers will be able to come right here to north carolina to learn the

skills that companies are looking for. the next generation of manufacturing will be an american revolution. so in the coming weeks, we're going to be launching two more of these innovation hubs. we've already got them already planned out. one's going to focus on digital design and manufacturing. another is going to be developing lightweight metals that could transfer everything from wind turbines to military vehicles. together they're going to help build new partnerships in areas that show potential. they'll help to lift up our communities. they'll help spark the new industries, the good jobs required for folks to punch their ticket in the middle class. and that's what america's all about. we've always been about research, innovation, and

commercializing that research and innovation so that everybody can benefit, and then we start selling our stuff all around the world, we start exporting, and we create good jobs and middle class families that are able to buy the products that result from this innovation. and you get a virtuous cycle where everybody's doing better and nobody's left behind. and that's what we can do the way they've pulled together as part of this bid. we're not going to turn things around overnight. a lot of jobs were lost in the textile industry and furniture making. but the great news is that ultimately, because our people are good and smart and hard working and willing to take risks, we are going to be able

to start bringing those jobs back to america. and that's what we do. when times get tough, we don't give up. we get up, we innovate, we adapt, we keep going, we look to the future. [ applause ] and i want all of you to know, north carolina, that as long as we keep working together and fighting together and doing what it takes to widen the circle of opportunity for more americans, so nobody's left behind. if you work hard, if you are responsible, then you can go out there, get a skill, train yourself, find a job, support a family. if we work together and that's our focus, there's nothing we can't achieve. there's no limit to how far we can go. so congratulations, north carolina state. congratulations, raleigh. let's get to work. god bless you. god bless america. [ cheers and applause ]

>> president obama and nc state wisely giving a speech. susan paige and gene robinson both with me now. what is the president trying to accomplish here? >> i'm still not sure exactly what wide band semiconductors are. it's an industrial policy basically for the united states to leap ahead. he's been thinking for a long time about broadway. where does he go and where do the jobs come from? i think this is the reflection of thought. >> it is the kind of big thinking that bill clinton was able to work to his advantage

when mired in a lot of disputes with congress and other scandals in washington. to take that leap and look at that next big thing. >> and like bill clinton, he indicated he's going to turn to a lot of executive actions. he said i'm not going to wait for congress, which is a good thing because congress probably isn't going to pass the big measures. so in that way, very much like the clinton era, etch to the personnel, even to john podesta going back to the white house to help out there. >> one of the things he is able to do now because of this option is get some people confirmed whom he couldn't before. but it was very clear also from the oral arguments at the supreme court that the so called recess appointment that has been extensively abused, lawyers on the other side would argue, by both parties over these last years, is in jeopardy because of the way that argument was received by the justices, justices from all sides of it. >> it does.

as if the practice is in jeopardy. i doubt the supreme court would completely get away with it, do away with it, ralter. but let's face it. the meaning of recess appointment has been stretched by this president and by president bush, by almost every president in the last little while. >> we're also looking at the upcoming decisions on the nsa and other foreign policy challenges. the senate looking at sanctions. there's a bipartisan majority certainly. they've got maybe 59 votes now to reimpose sanctions on iran. this is something the state department and the white house are pushing back hard against. and in the midst of all this, you have the bipartisan intelligence committee report on benghazi. susan, this is again going to fire up both sides of the base. >> yes, because it says that this was an attack that could have been prevented. that there were intelligence reports that should have been recognized to prevent these four americans from dying. on the other hand, it also says not some big conspiracy to lie to the american people.

incorrect reports came from the intelligence agencies, not from the political appointees who were trying to explain them to the american people. >> it was from bad analysis of eyewitnesss poorly reported from the ground that day, but then again, this duplicates two witness reports. one came very early on from the homeland security committee. also, it was a flashing a red lying, was the title of it. they also reported that there were plenty of warnings. and also from the independent review board, that the state department commission, it wasn't their choice. and that report from mike mullens and tom pickering, former ambassador, said that there were plenty of warnings. the brits had pulled out because of all of the terror incidents that had taken place. this report does fault the intelligence committee and the pentagon for not knowing about the cia facility.

and also faults the late ambassador, the beloved ambassador stephens for being there and not having adequate security. >> it was his decision, actually. i think all of this detail is really useful and may, going forward, save lives in future situations that could be dangerous. step back from it, though, all these reports confirm what was kind of obvious at the beginning that there had been a miscalculation as to how dangerous benghazi was, for a variety of reasons. and that that inadequate security had been provided. >> and senator feinstein chairing the intelligence committee has just spoken about the report. let's watch. >> the finding was that if you had adequate security, it could have been prevented. and if you recognize the intelligence which pointed out a number of attacks that went on in the six months prior, including two small ones at the

mission itself. there was no demonstration. conspirators had not been arrested up to this point. so there still is a lot left to do. i can't say that it was all preventable. and i don't want to say that. what i can say is that the security was inadequate and should have been beefed up. >> so dianne feinstein. this was bipartisan. saxby chambliss on the other side. susan page, she's taking ownership of this. it's unlikely this will persuade the others who have been shouting conspiracy. but it does indicate that there was no big cover-up, the talking points are not as controversial as the fact that they did not have adequate intelligence analysis and security going in. >> we do have a series of rather consistent reports, looking at this from various angles. on the other hand, all you have to do is go on twitter to know

that benghazi is not a story that's going away, or that people that believe in the conspiracy theories about it are going to be persuaded by yet another report by government officials. >> this is going to continue as long as and until hillary clinton declares or doesn't declare. >> if husband she does declare, keep continuing. it's going to be there. the question is how much traction it has, especially as time goes on. it's something that people still care deeply about. >> gene robinson, susan page, thank you both so very much. meanwhile, our coverage released on the newly released shriver report. a woman's nation pushes back from the brink. maria shriver met with president obama yesterday about the report, which does ground breaking work on economic and cultural disadvantages still confronting women in the workplace. today maria spoke at the shriver report forum about her meeting with president obama. >> i'm looking at this picture of me with president obama up there. that was really exciting. and as he said yesterday, i'm sympathetic to these issues.

i have lived these issues. i understand these issues. i want to make a difference on these issues, and together we will. >> the senator will be speaking at the event this afternoon, but joins me first from the capital. thank you very much, senator, for being with us. some of these conclusions are things we've known about, but there's so much rich data here. tell me about your recommendations going forward and the excitement that i know maria shriver and everyone connected to this big enterprise feels about the president, the state of the union address, and most importantly the summit that he's talking about, the women's summit this spring. >> well, what the report tells us is that too many women across america are on the brink of poverty or in poverty. and that, in fact, 2/3 of all minimum wage earnings are women, and even it's women with children. so what we have to do is we have to modernize the rules of the workplace that frankly haven't kept up with the face of the work force. almost half of our workers are

women. but today, we are the only industrialized country, wealthy country that doesn't have paid family medical leave. overwhelmingly, women with children say that's the number one thing that would have the difference for them is to have that flexible when they have an infant or they're caring for an aging parent or dying family member. >> now, women in the workplace still face such enormous challenges. 77 cents on the dollar. the fact that women are not paid as much, maria's report last night on nightly news had this woman in california who was being paid less than an entry level employee even though she had two masters degrees and had worked for four years at this company. how do you feel that you can either compete or progress in an environment like that? >> that's exactly right, andrea. we don't have equal pay for equal work in this country. women are still earning 77 cents on every dollar that a man earns for the exact same work. if you're a woman of color, you

earn even less. for most american families, about half families are dual income families, you're shortchanging those families. for a number of families, you have a single mom, the only breadwinner, the primary breadwinner bringing home money for her kids. so the era of when the husband went to work and the wife stayed at home is long since passed. today it's just a couple of families in that situation. we have to make sure it accommodates families with things like equal pay for equal work, a higher minimum wage, affordable daycare, universal pre-k and paid family medical leave. >> i wanted to ask you about the military sexual assault issue. we know in the defense bill, you didn't win. you had 53 votes. making a lot of progress. but it's still a very hard climb and you're up against claire mccaskill and the military establishment, and this division among senators has been pretty bitter. you need 60 votes. >> well, we have more than half of the senate already supporting this reform.

and it's the number one reform that victims and survivors have actually asked for. they said the reason why they don't report these cases, nine out of ten go unreported because they don't believe their commanders will do anything or they fear retaliation. so if you're listening to the victims and survivors about how to make the system work better, how to create that transparency and accountability, they suggest taking this one decision point out of the chain of command and giving it to trained prosecutors. we are building momentum. we are building support. we have more than 53 votes now. we're trying to get to 60. but this is the kind of reform that would make the difference. because no man or woman who's serving in our military should be brutally assaulted and raped by someone in their own ranks. we're not talking about some enemy far, far away and abroad. we're talking about someone they serve with. they deserve a place that they could be protected and they certainly deserve that justice should be done when a crime is committed, and that's not what we have today, unfortunately. >> a couple of big decisions coming up. the president is going to give a speech. we understand he's not going to

go as far on national security agency reform as some would want, that he is going to keep the massive collection of telephone records within the government, not the telephone companies. he is going to put a privacy advocate. where do you c down on this? >> well, we have a very tough balance to reach. and that's making sure we protect all our civil liberties, but also making sure we have the tools to stop terrorists in their tracks. as senator from new york, we are the number one terror target in the country, so i want to make sure our law enforcement have all the tools they need. but american citizens have a right to know,nd this discussion about what the proper balance of our civil liberties i think is essential. >> thank you, so much, senator. we all look forward to your appearance at the shriver forum today, and your work on this going forward. >> thank you. take care. and the water ban has now been lifted for half of the 300,000 west virginians that had been threatened by the chemical spill.

but now threat has been moved down water to cincinnati. officials have closed water intakes overnight. the chemical has been more diluted as it has moved downstream, according to officials, but there's still a lot of public anxiety about water safety, as you might imagine. jim shanley grow fruits and vegetables on their california farm, but getting name brand recognition was tough. they broke through when they put everything under the shanley farms brand. if i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner.

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is something i shall never forget. >> a time capsule of comfort and pain, 22,000 letters so moving and personal, they were set aside to be answered individually. the carpenter in patterson, new jersey, who made a bust of jfk for his garden. miss prince's french class in rhode island. 10-year-old bridget from lake charles, louisiana. she wrote mrs. kennedy, "i would love for you and your children to come over to our house when you're not busy." and in a kenyan village, the toddler named kennedy after the president. jfk had just sent his namesake a signed picture from the white house. it arrived two days after he was killed. but most poignant of all, the letter from maxine mcnair, mother of denise mcnair, one of the young girls killed five months earlier in the bombing of the 16th street baptist church in birmingham, alabama. dear mrs. kennedy, when the tragic news came across the airwaves, again, my heart said it isn't true, it didn't happen. >> isn't it strange how people

with so much to give to the world are taken. >> mrs. mcnair today on why she was moved to write. >> i was hoping it would give her some comfort. lot of comfort from the letters that people wrote me. >> two women a world apart brought together by the shock and pain of violent sudden loss president. >> may i thank you again on behalf of my children and of the president's family for the comfort that your letters have brought to us all. >> an archive now preserved for all time. and i want to thank maxine mcnair for welcoming us into her home and for talking to me yesterday. two students, a boy and girl from new mexico middle school, remain hospitalized, one in critical condition after yesterday's shooting alleged by a 12-year-old fellow student who opened fire with a sawed off shotgun. police and parents praise a courageous teacher who convinced the shooter to put down his

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>> which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? susan page is back with us. a lot of chris christie because tomorrow is the joint committee and they have subpoena power and they will decide who they're going to subpoena and how high up they're going to go with these subpoenas. >> tomorrow's story is the same as yesterday. chris christie and the gift to journalists. >> a poll is coming out tonight. chuck todd will have that. so far he's done okay in polls

since this all happened. he's at 55%. that's down almost 20 points from his highs. >> down from his post-sandy but most politicians in america would love to have a 55% approval rating. that's pretty good for a governor. remember a republican governor in a democratic leaning state. not where he was but does not indicate it undermine his position so far. we need to see what happens with these investigations that continue. >> susan page, thank you so much for today. great having you here. that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." and tomorrow on the show, new hampshire senator jeanne shaneen. a lot going on in the next hour. president obama on his way back to washington for a strategy session with senate democrats. just one day after talks to restore jobless benefits broke down, we'll have the latest.

meantime, north carolina senator kay hagan skipped the president's speech in her hometown today highlighting perhaps the challenges some vulnerable democrats do face. the latest on this strategy and get reaction and unusual freedom of speech debate involving rappers posting youtube music videos bragging about alleged crimes. the question should detectives be able to use these videos and why some privacy advocates are standing with the rappers. plus, actor cuba gooding, jr., joins us on how he changed his life and others with the game of chess. that's all next. is this the bacon and cheese diet?

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i'm tamron hall. "news nation" following developing news. president obama on his way back to washington for a strategy meeting with democratic senators to layout what politico describes as a "plan to save the senate." the president will reportedly brief senators on details of his state of the union address, which by the way is in 13 days. it's a move considered unusual this far before the speech and ensure senators he has plan for democrats to keep control of the senate in 2014 including fixing issues with the health care law and raising money for democratic party committees and comes on a defeat of a bill to extend unemployment benefits to more than 1 million americans. the electoral map favors the gop which needs six seats to take back the majority.