america. >> he's got nothing. >> he's got nothing. >> thank you for sticking around. >> okay. >> what did you learn today? >> i learned you shouldn't yell at a neil young concert. i don't. mike doesn't. you don't. >> i learned that hillary clinton looks at the calendar, she might decide, no, i don't want to do this again, and not run for president. it's a possibility. >> it's a possibility. what did you learn? >> hardened political reporter like chuck todd, who has seen everything, still scared by devil baby. scared. >> mike barnicle, way too early. what time is it? >> normally time for chuck, and now a new one with chuck todd. >> my back. >> take it away. >> demon baby was in the green room, anyway. benghazi versus the bridge. a new report fuels critics on the right with a talking point to try to tackle hillary clinton, but the perception problem for clinton is different than what's facing chris

christie. the new poll numbers will explain. also, as president obama talks college costs with university leader, we'll hear from the education secretary himself, apartment tartie dunca they're making progress on the high price tags for college. good morning. this is "daily rundown," and oscar nominee day. it's a punny day here, with the gravity of every political situation is taken very seriously. but we begin our first read with a look at her. so let's get right to my first reads of the morning. for conservatives focused on 2016, benghazi is more than a city in libya. it's more than a reminder one of the attacks on americans abroad. for some, it's simply a rallying cry against hillary clinton. there aren't many conversations on the right, online, or on the air when a republican idea or political figure is attacked, when the response is not simply, "benghazi." it's in that vein we begin as

yet another investigation into the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi puts hillary clinton in the spotlight. the report from the senate intelligence committee finds the attack that killed four americans, including an ambassador 16 months ago was, quote, preventable, based on the known security shortfalls at the u.s. mission, and hundreds of warnings about the deteriorate situation in that city. the report says though the cia increased security at the annex, the state department did not. and though the state department, including stevens, had access to intelligence reports that warned that militias and terrorist groups had the capability and strike u.s. and western facilities and personnel in libya, they chose not to ramp up security. the report also reveals for the first time that the ambassador declined two specific officers from general carter ham, then the head of afterrycom, in the weeks before the terrorist attacks, and they say the pentagon was not prepared to

respond to the attacks and in an addendum, the republicans singled out general martin dempsey for specific, quote, failures in leadership. the report also notes in chilling detail that the fbi investigation into the attacks has been inhibited by the fact that, quote, as many as 15 individuals supporting the investigation have been killed in benghazi since the attacks. think about that. now, the senate panel finds no evidence of a cover-up, but not surprisingly, as soon as this report came out, republicans immediately pounced on hillary clinton's role, implying there was maybe more to it, doing the best to wrund mine one of the best assets, she was a wildly successful secretary of state. of course, all of that was pre-benghazi. in an addendum to the report, committee republicans did single out clinton, at the end of the day, she was responsible for ensuring the safety of all americans serving in our diplomatic facilities. her failure to do so made a

deference in the lives of four murdered americans and their families. >> she has ultimate responsibility, secretary clinton did at the time, for the security of our personnel. no one has been held accountable to date, and none of the decision makers have, and as she herself says, the buck stops at the top, and she was in charge of the state department at the time. i think anyone's record when they run for president is going to be carefully examined. in fact, if she decides to run, this is a part of her record that will have careful examination. >> what secretary clinton saw, i don't know. we pounded on the state department for documents as well as interviews with individuals, and we kind of hit a stone wall with them on that. >> somebody knew and deliberately tried to make the american people believe something else, that was the cover-up. i can't think of anyone in any of the cover-ups, and i've studied them all, in history, that's more serious than that. >> more serious than watergate? >> oh, absolutely.

>> and that's -- we'll have a lesson in overreach here in a few minutes. last night, senator call for more hearings. >> the time has come to hold hearings and conduct its own investigation as to why it is that the state department knowing what it knew about benghazi did not provide sufficient security to keep those people alive -- >> democrats, including intelligence committee chair woman, dianne feinstein, are defending clinton. >> i do not believe it is a cover-up. i do not believe there was any political manipulation with the statements following the event. i do not believe i think there's an effort to blame secretary clinton. i think that's most unfortunate. there's no information that i've seen, no intelligence that i've seen that she knew about it or where it was advised about it. >> make no mistake, with the latest edition of "time" magazine asking, can anyone stop hillary, when republicans say

they want to get to the bottom of what happened in benghazi, the better question, they want questions about benghazi to seem unanswered so hillary clinton is damaged. they want her to suffer the political and media firestorm that chris christie is be forced to beat back now. anyone who believes the worse about hillary clinton right now, is someone that will never vote for her in the first place. the problem for chris christie, that's not the same issue. in our new nbc news/marist poll, let's break it down as the good, the bad, borderline ugly, sticking with the movie theme today. for christie, 59% say it's not changed their opinion. and more people believe he's telling the truth, 44%, than he's lying, 23%. considering this is for the americans a getting to know you period, particularly for christie, he's not leaving a great first or second impression. his personal favorable rating is

under water. first time i've seen that in the polls. and while it may seem ridiculously early for some to test this, he's lost his best asset to date, the perception of electability. big deal for activists and donors on the republican side searching for someone to beat clinton. this is it. let's forget this poll a minute. forget the mainstream media. forget democratic politicians. the problem for christie, what may be worse, is what's happening to him on late night. he's becoming a national punch line. we as a nation remain stuck in the news traffic jam that is christopher christie. >> he said he created the single biggest turnaround in the history of the state. you can't turn around!

he closed the bridge! >> ahh. so bullies, thugs, and sexists are the real victims here. >> we now have ample data suggests that shutting down lanes on the busiest bridge in the world to punish political rivals will come back to bite you in the ass. ♪ who's stuck in governor chris christie's traffic jam ♪ >> it doesn't help that most of the comedians are based in new york. that's not good politics to be a punch line. i want to quickly go to the perception game here, before we move to our next topic and the nags. and the idea of overreach. republicans, a lot of them, and the critics of hillary clinton, wanted a conspiracy to be there with benghazi, and when one wasn't proven, it's made the benghazi situation not look as bad for her. it's a case of overreach, and it could be a lesson to democrats

with chris christie, hoping to find a conspiracy, and none's there, this is why actually christie is keeping a low profile, because he's hoping democrats make the same mistake that frankly conservatives and some republicans have made with hillary clinton on benghazi. moving on, tomorrow, the president will announce new guidelines on the national security agency surveillance techniques in a speech at the justice department. bottom line, if you're looking for the president to announce major reforms, you're going to be disappointed. if there are going to be major changes, president obama is not going to make them himself. according to leaked details, the president will keep bulk data in nsa custody. no change there. rather than leaving it in the hands of private companies, privacy advocates and his own panel recommended. he'll reject calls to split nsa and cyber command. he will endorse a widely supported proposal to put a private advocate in the fisa

court, and greater privacy for non-u.s. citizens. but the more sin kwal minded might look at the president's approach as punting this back to congress, knowing full well there's not a consensus in congress to make more significant reforms. this might be a case where the white house is secretly happy that they have a congress that can't agree on much. there already is some existing legislation moving through congress, a bill sponsored by judiciary committee chairman patrick leahy, one of the senates biggest acts for reform, under patriot act 215. it would require court orders for information collected under fisa and establish process for the release of fisa opinions. that man is my next guest, senator patrick leahy of vermont. it's not every day that we have the man who's third in line to the presidency on our show. senator, good morning to you. >> all that means is that i used to pray for president obama's

safety. now i pray for joe biden and speaker boehner, too. but so do they. >> fair enough. senator, i want to start with what we're learning, and i know you've gotten some briefings from the white house. is it fair to say that the president really is basically announcing very tepid reforms? >> well, i haven't seen what he's going to announce yet. i did read the article in "the new york times" this morning on it. but we do need reforms. that's the most important thing. the reports are that he would agree with the position i've taken and several others, like congressman sensenbrenner, and others, to have a public advocate in the fisa court. >> that seems to be the only thing he seems to be endorsing. >> but it's a significant one, and i think it would improve the credibility of the court. >> right. >> and i think we should make more of the decisions public. they could be done so the intelligence people, telling me

it can be done without hampering our intelligence. we have to then ask ourselves, if we collect everything, do we have anything? we know, for example, we had plenty of information to stop 9/11. but you had different groups, the cia and the fbi, didn't talk to each other, they never connected the dots over there. we haven't had a single instance where the bulk collection has stopped an attack, even though we're constantly having attacks planned against the united states. so we ought to ask where we are. and then, we have -- the final thing that keeps striking me is that they say, well, we're very protective of all this information. baloney. they weren't protective enough they could stop a subcontractor, mr. snowden, from stealing -- >> right. >> -- millions of their biggest secrets, and to this day, they still don't know all of what he's stolen.

>> let me ask you about edward snowden since you brought him up. whistle-blower or not? >> i think that if he was a whistle-blower, he would could have many to authorities, or who he could have gone to. i think he first went to china and then to russia. he says he -- apparently he feels that that's a place where their court systems and their freedom of the press are places where he could talk. of course, you have a repressive press and corrupt courts. no, i think he's enjoying the limelight. >> i understand that. the reforms you're trying to get enacted, would you have any luck doing that without these leaks? >> well, i've been pushing for these reforms for years before edward snowden. and over and over, we started getting more republicans, more democrats to join me on it. this highlights the need for it. but we've been pushing for this and trying to get attention on this, and i hope we will get somewhere. now, i mean, we need good intelligence to protect the

united states, but we don't need to snoop on every single american, or intrude in every single american's -- >> let's go to the heart of the issue. bulk collection of data. it sounds like the president is going to allow this to continue. do you think your bill has a chance of getting through both houses of congress, and that the president would sign this? >> well, we'll find out. i on swr i obviously disagree if he wants to continue bulk collection. i don't see where it makes us safer, especially if we don't know what to do with the information we had. you talked about benghazi before. the cia had information. the state department might not have acted upon it. i think when you get away from all of the republicans who are running for president, who are unfairly criticizing hillary clinton on this, you're going to look at a couple of things. one, they said republicans blocked my amendment to add money for embassy security. >> right. >> but it's, again, a case where

one hand doesn't -- >> know what the other -- >> -- what the other one is doing. >> senator, before i let you go, a report in the "washington post" this morning about the new budget agreement is actually going to stop the transfer of authority of the drone campaigns, essentially the way these things -- the drone strikes right now, is essentially mostly run out of the cia. a lot of advocates, a lot of folks, including, i think, both of the previous secretaries of defense would like to see that moved to the pentagon, allowing for more congressional oversight, and yet the new budget deal will prevent that move, where this will stay inside the cia. good call or bad call? >> well, i'm somewhat reluctant to talk about that report in the "post," because it goes into the classified section of the appropriations bill, which i'm involved with. so i'm going to have to let others talk about that. >> all right, fair enough. >> i would say that i think there should be far better

control of what we do with our drones. >> well, one would argue, more oversight, i assume, is better. right? >> that's right. i agree. >> senator patrick leahy from vermont. always a pleasure to talk with request you, sir. >> thank you. coming up, the long walk to freedom. we have another name to add to the list of retiring members of congress. plus, an "american hustle" of sorts. military officers with their fingers on the nation's nuclear trigger accused of one of the biggest cheating scandals in air force history. first, a look ahead at today's politics planner. look at what's on our marquee. you're watching the "daily rundown" only on msnbc. you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that parker. well, did you know auctioneers make bad grocery store clerks? that'll be $23.50. now .75, 23.75, hold 'em. hey now do i hear 23.75? 24! hey 24 dollar, 24 and a quarter, quarter, now half, 24 and a half

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up next, trying to save your mr. bank, despite the high cost

of higher education, as the wolf of wall street is gobbling up the last chance for lower-income students to go to college, as the white house gets set for a day-long focus on expanding college opportunity. we're going to talk to the education secretary arnie duncan, former indiana governor, current purdue university president mitch daniels about the current costs. first, who's the first democrat elected to the senate from vermont? it's an interesting question. a fun, trick question for you political historians. first person to tweet the answer will get the honor shoutout. [ female announcer ] season after season, no matter the occasion... your home's the place everyone gathers. so be ready with a stouffer's lasagna. it's the mouthwatering recipe that keeps them coming back. stouffer's. made with care for your family. [ coughs ] i've got a big date, but my sinuses are acting up. it's time for advil cold and sinus. [ male announcer ] truth is that won't relieve all your symptoms.

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♪ [ dad ] jan? [ cellphones beeping ] ♪ [ cellphone rings ] hello? [ male announcer ] over 12,000 financial advisors. good, good. good. over $700 billion dollars in assets under care. let me just put this away. [ male announcer ] how did edward jones get so big? could you teach our kids that trick? [ male announcer ] by not acting that way. ok, last quarter... [ male announcer ] it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪ this morning at the white house, the president will take part in a day-long event about bringing down the costs of higher education, even if your loans are paid off, economists say the cost of college could pose a threat to the entire nation's economy. tuition went up almost 2.9% just this career.

that follows last year's tuition hike of 4.5%, and nearly 9% increase a year before that. now, it costs about $18,300 for a couple of semesters at a public four-year college! out-of-state tuition, room, and board, averages $31,000 per year. as states struggle to make ends meet, some are using tuition to make up the difference. martin o'malley called for a 3% hike as part of the new budget plan. he's not hiking taxes or fees. tuition is what he's hiking. ironically, it's the fees and administrative costs that seem to be turbocharging the costs. in 2011, the university of connecticut was charging $49,739 per student per year. 17% of that was administrative costs. university of alabama, $65,000 for one year. administrative spending costs each student more than $6,400. how can an average family afford

college? what needs to change? i'm joined by the secretary of education, arnie duncan. secretary duncan, good morning to you, sir. >> good morning, chuck. thank you so much for having me. >> we've talked about this issue a lot. my fundamental view has always been easy access to credit for college, for college students, has actually had a perverse effect on the cost of college, because it makes universities feel comfortable raising tuition, because they know, you know what, it's easy for young college kids to get loans for education. we make it too easy. has this had a perverse effect like that? >> well, i think the cost of college is something that the president and i worry about tremendously, and i have to tell you, every airplane i'm on, whether i go to the grocery store, the dry-cleaners, i can't tell you how many parents come up to me, hard-working, middle-class families who say the cost of college and debt is killing them. >> yesterday, you got pounded on twitter. you did a twitter event, and

literally every single response was on this issue. >> something we're very concerned about. and there's never once, easy answer. it's about shared responsibility. we've tried to lead by example. one of most things i'm most proud from the first term we increased pell grants to $40 billion, with a b, going to 9.6 million recipients, without going to taxpayers for a nickel. we stopped subsidizing banks. states have to reinvest, but higher education in particular. universities have to do a better job of containing costs and using things like technology both to drive down costs and to increase success and completion rates. and so, all of us have to work together. it's not about pointing fingers but the cost is simply too high. and we have to make sure that hard-working american families think that college is for them and not just for wealthy folks, rich folks. we're in a very bad spot. >> let me ask you this, and i

know there's been some talk of this, but can you incentivize the pell grant program, for instance, to essentially make pell grants only eligible for students who go to universities that are basically have some serious cost controls, that aren't doing what we're watching here, which is using the -- using tuition as essentially a work-around to do just build new buildings? >> well, it's a really interesting thought. i'm a big believer in carrots rather than sticks, and incentives, so thinking through, again, how we incentivize states in how we reinvest, and how we incentivize universities to build access and completion. the goal isn't to go to college, but to get the degree at the back end. we think we should be more creative, and we're asking for the best thinking from educational leaders from across the country to help us think about the best way to try and accomplish the shared goals. >> obviously, you're a big proponent of online -- of the expansion that's going on with online higher education,

discounts for that? should that be priced in in a way that truly, and again, maybe reward pell grants for universities that do that? >> so again, we're going to look at all of the options, and the goal, i repeat, not just have young people have access, but to be successful, be passing their classes, getting the support they need, and getting the diploma at the back end. we have to educate our way to a better economy. and if we're serious about increasing social mobility and decreasing income inequality, the only way to do that is making sure young people have access to a world-class education. >> we do have the have and have not situation developing on the university level. secretary duncan, we appreciate your time. i'm going to turn to former governor of indiana, mitch daniels, governor daniels, which title should i call you? >> yeah, my name is will done, chuck, thanks. >> you and i have discussed this issue, you have been somebody

that, i believe, second year in a row, you're actually freezing tuition rates. you're freezing it, trying to make it more affordable. you have been looking at this. but you saw those statistics. you're sitting sheer, and this idea that some states are essentially passing on this cost, you know, if the high cost of education issues and helping state universities, by raising tuition rates, and that, of course, then just increases this debt issue. and it's a vicious cycle. >> yeah, and i think you analyzed it exactly correct, chuck. here at purdue, we have announced a two-year freeze, and i announced yesterday there will be a third year, if the trustees will approve it, and i no he they will. we'll go as far as we can with that. we said we're going to change the typical approach in higher ed. it's been far too easy to dial up tuitions, and generate whatever amount of money that college wanted to spend. here at purdue, we said we're

going to solve the equation the other way around. we're going to adjust our spending to the budgets of our students' families, and not require them to adjust their budgets to our preferred level of spending. >> what the white house is doing, and you've heard this, and you've been very -- you have liked the focus that they've been trying to put on, which is to start ranking colleges by their cost effectiveness, not necessarily just looking at one standard the way "u.s. news" does, which makes it so that the perception is the more expensive the university, the better the education. that's obviously a mindset we have to fix if we're going to get at the root of this problem. >> i like the emphasis, and if it was arnie duncan running it forever, i might be more comfortable than i am with the idea of washington establishing rankings. i think they're on the right theme and thank goodness that they are highlighting this problem. i think there are probably better ways for colleges to compete. here at purdue, for instance, we

announced with the gallup organization, the world's leading such research organization, a new index for measuring the success of college graduates. >> right. >> and soon, we'll know more than we ever have before about which kinds of colleges, which kinds of backgrounds, which kinds of college experiences, and for those colleges with gumption to do it, we can test their own graduates, we at purdue will, see how they compare with american higher ed at large. >> one of the thicks will be a focus is the move toward online education. it is for a lot of people the more affordable way to go. and obviously, online means there's some infrastructure, you don't have to pay for with tuition. what are the pros and cons of this? to be an unintended consequence, one part of the college experience is the socialization, is the networking. and then, online community, it goes away. >> it really has its place. i was deeply involved with the spread of online education

through what is known as wgu, and we brought it to indiana, and for certain populations, it really is the best option. the average student at wgu indiana is 36 years old, working with a family. for people like that, who cannot come to a residential college, at that stage of life, clearly the new technologies can be a godsend, and they're getting better all the time. now, there are -- we are finding that there are disciplines and there are populations for whom it probably doesn't work as well. we're one of the premier producers of engineers, for instance, in the world here at purdue. >> right. >> and you're not going to become a great engineer simply online. >> no, that's team. >> we're also seeing that most of the online users who stick with it, chuck, are not the people we're most concerned about. they are higher income, already better educated. >> let me ask you about this idea of using the pell grant, obviously the federal government is one of the -- one of the best

benefits for helping people get into higher education, is getting into higher education -- higher ed universities is using the pell grant as almost as an incentive, where maybe some universities couldn't accept students with pell grants if they basically have -- are not good with their own costs, if they've been irresponsible with their tuition hikes. >> first, let me say that you are absolutely on the bull's-eye in saying that the federal government's flooding the market with easy credit and scholarship dollars with few, if any, conditions on them. >> right. >> it has definitely propelled the higher cost of college. the universities have pocketed that money and postponed or evaded doing things they should do about their administrative costs, about their own productivity. yes, i think within limits. i would also add to your list, however, some greater demand --

>> mitch daniels, president of purdue university. we've had these discussions a lot, and yet i feel like we can't have them enough. thank you, sir. pleasure to talk with you. >> yes, sir. up next, sanctions split. is the debate frozen when it comes to iran? we're taking a deep dive in the gravity of the rift between the white house and senate democrats over iran. [ female announcer ] aaah, the amazing, delicious cinnamon and sugar taste of cinnamon toast crunch and cold milk. ♪ cinnamon toast crunch. crave those crazy squares. her long day of pick ups and drop offs begins with arthritis pain... and a choice. take up to 6 tylenol in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief. all aboard. ♪

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message to congress that now's not the time to impose new sanctions. now's the time for us to allow the diplomats and technical experts to do their work. >> the president has repeated that call a lot, and he did last night when he met with senate democrats at the white house. he's trying to stop momentum behind a bill that's been introduced by the foreign relations committee chairman, bob menendez, back in december. in would implement new sanctions against iran if tehran breaks the interim agreement and it would set new parameters on what the final deal should look like. he's got 58 co-sponsors already, 43 are republicans, 15 are democrats. 16, if you count menendez. not all of the democrats are inclined to put the bill to a vote right away. majority leader harry reid said there are powerful democrats opposed to this bill, as well. >> i think at this stage, i think we're where we should be. there's ten senators who -- chairmen of committees here who said they didn't want anything

done. we'll wait and see how this plays out. >> that's good news for the white house. harry reid has been the pocket veto for the president. there are 59 supporters of the bill, one short of the 60 typically needed, and eight short of a veto-proof majority. another issue is on the horizon that could push skeptical senators off the fence. russia is reportedly negotiating an oil for goods swap for iran. it's expected to be a topic of today's meeting between russiand and iranian foreign ministers. it could undermine the sanctions. russian sources told a local paper it can make a deal because it never agreed to western sanctions. the white house said it would have serious repercussions, since they're part of the -- >> it could potentially, if true as reported, trigger u.s. sanctions, because it would not be consistent with the agreement negotiated between the p-5 plus

one and iran. >> to clarify, when he said the sanctions would be levelled in dealing with iran, he means russia would not -- he would not respond to questions whether the oil for food deal represents a split in the coalition, which includes russia and the united states. for more perspective on this entire debate, let's bring in "time's" editor arnie goesh. jane, let me start with you. where would you -- if were you in congress right now, would you be inclined to send this sanctions bill now to the president's desk even if -- the way it stands now, the president doesn't want it, doesn't want this, where would you be on this issue? >> i might co-sponsor it as an insurance policy, which is what bob menendez, the chief sponsor, says it is. but i would definitely not want it to move, and i would make that clear carl levin is not on

the bill. tim kane is not on the bill. dianne feinstein is opposed to moving it. so reid has plenty of support from democrats to do what he's doing. it's the smart thing to do. the interim deal gets filed on monday. six months ain't a long time, even on a political clock. this year. >> right. >> and if we've spent ten years imposing sanctions to get to the point where we can talk to iran, so let's talk to iran. >> you know, bobby, it's interesting, you and i were talking about, you were even saying if they wanted to wait two months, you could see them fashioning a way of just sort f of, we know you want to trust, but verify option, but there is a way to do this, even if you just give it some time. >> the six-month deal goes into effect this weekend, january 20th, is when it starts. this new sanctions that have been proposed are -- will only be imposed if the deal breaks

through -- breaks down, i beg your pardon. why not give the deal two months out of six. let's see after two months if u.n. inspectors are being allowed to go to the sites. let's see after two months iran is verifiable way scaling back. >> i actually. i think that's dangerous, chuck. i think that would be a really dangerous move. because as you said, the p-5 plus-1 coalition, the international sanctions, very fragile. check the box about russia. >> right. >> and that would give people an excuse. this is a hard deal to conclude. iran is going to have to reduce the number of centrifuges it has, not just freeze them. it will have to degrade a huge amount of enriched uranium, and dismantle the iraq reactor and address some of the delivery capability. so getting to, yes, on this deal, even though iran seems

quite willing at this point, is going to be hard. i would not like to cut into the six months. i think they're going to need every single minute of the six months to get the deal. >> and we should clarify, bobby, you're not saying don't do this, but why not -- >> my first reference is, just like jane, wait for the six months. i'm saying i don't understand this unseemly rush to do it. >> yeah. >> the timing of it, just as the deal is about to start taking effect for congress -- for the senators to press this -- >> bobby, you spent a lot of time in this region, a lot of time covering the story. do you think the iranians are going to abide by this deal? >> it looks like. we've just had robin wright go in to iran, and come back with a terrific story in the magazine this week. and this is somebody who's covered iran for 40 years. >> very impressed with the plug there. >> nobody goes around -- >> she's a scholar at the wilson center, by the way. >> two plugs. anyway, go ahead. sorry, bobby. >> she said for the first time in four decades, she's felt a

sense -- she feels the iranians know there's a moment here. it's not just an emotional thing. it's not just about sanctions. they feel for the first time that their interests in the region overlap with america's interest. they feel threatened by what they see as an encirclement, by terrorist elements, who happen to be enemies of the u.s. they see a strategic interest in trying to align with the u.s. now. they don't want -- whether or not they want the u.s. to be their best friends, they certainly don't want the u.s. to be their enemies. so there's a strategic reason for iran to follow through on this deal, not simply an emotional or political one. >> jane, i want to go to the russia issue a minute, and what is the united states to do -- russia, it's almost as if they try to find ways to test the resolve of the united states in this relationship. >> oh. >> what would -- what would your advice be to the president if russia goes ahead and goes through with the side deal with the iranians? >> well, i think that does really threaten the p-5 plus-1

agreement. i don't know about a technical violation, but if jay carney said so, i assume we think there is one. meanwhile, i think john kerry should be on the phone with his favorite sergey lavrov quietly, trying to back them away from this. i mean, it just seems like if vladimir putin can put his thumb in our eye every single day, he tries to do it. and this is a really bad more for russia, my view. having this outcome in iran -- >> robin wright, you share the great robin wright. how about that? >> the robin wright fan club. >> just on this show, talking this a couple of days ago. anyway, i'm sure her ears are burning. thank you both. coming up, january, mercer county style. call it the trend buyer's club. the new jersey special committee

investigating the george washington bridge scandal gets down to business today as chris christie makes a play he'll avoid becoming "despicable me," too. 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. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone.

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counted. you have to wonder when you get 90% of anything in a so-called democracy, you wonder if the numbers are too good to be true. next number, 34, number of air force officers stripped of their certifications and security clearances after a che scandal. they were offered to a nuclear base in, they're accused to texting each other the answers to a proficiency exam. apparently vin vaughn was in charge? thinking "old school." the seven-year deal between the damagers and their 25-year-old ace clayton koufax kershaw -- that is not his middle name, but there are many of us who would like to refer to him. the highest ample salary in baseball history. this is a case where he's actually worth of money. senator leahy was first elected to congress in '74, the

first and only democrat ever elected to the senate from the state of vermont. so congratulations, alexpalombo. for years vermont was a very republican state, believer it or not. send your trivia suggestions to msnbc.com. we'll be right back. [ coughs ] i've got a big date, but my sinuses are acting up. it's time for advil cold and sinus. [ male announcer ] truth is that won't relieve all your symptoms. hmm? [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer plus-d relieves more symptoms than any other behind the counter liquid gel. thanks for the tip. [ male announcer ] no problem. oh...and hair products. aisle 9. [ inhales deeply ] oh what a relief it is. ♪ yep...doh. [ boy ] slurpably fun and a good source of calcium. dads who get it, get go-gurt.

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we will end the show where we began, on 2016. the third takeaway, chris kris dwri's greatest strength has the elebltable. he no longer looks like the candidate to beat hillary clinton. now he looks lie any other potential republican. now he's also a polarizing figure as he begins to test the 2016 waters. governor chris christie -- sorry about that.

you know, we have the margin in error, but polarization to start your presidential cane is never good. essentially all candidates will become polarizing, but you don't want to start out that way. mitt romney started his campaign on a 1:1 ratio, started it that way, of course he ended up more negative as he went along. he was sitting with the 1:1 rating already, as if he never got the benefit of the doubt from the sort of average non-paying and he never recovered. romney say a positive rating only one time in all of our polling, in december that year. so today chris christie now is going to try to redirect some attention away from the scandal when he heads to the jersey shores. he'll be meeting with homeowners impacted by superstorm sandy. the new jersey legislature named a special counsel who will

investigate. the former assistant attorney reed char, who prosecuted rob blagojevich on those corruption charges, and subpoenas could be announced earlier, the governor announced the legal team to assist in the internal review. coming up next, chris jansing. i'll see you tomorrow. how did edward jones get so big? let me just put this away. ♪ could you teach our kids that trick? [ male announcer ] by not acting that way. it's how edward jones makes sense of investing.

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senate democrats to the white house last night. we'll talk with one of them about how things went. plus a major cheating scandal hits the air force. 34 nuclear officers are involved, stripped of their authority to launch nukes. and a clue about what's happening to the only service member held captive by the enemy. is a new video proof. right now chris christie is already hitting the comback trail. >> now a polarizing -- >> particular eye rollings for governor christy, where is where, of course, most of these national races are fought out. >> how do you overcome the skepticism? be the winner. if you're no longer the winner, say why should we compromise for a guy that's losing?