thank you. happy friday. the president is laying out his proposal to reform the nsa. if nobody is satisfied, does that mean he did the job? it's friday january 17th. this is "now" live from washington, d.c. >> a landmark highly anticipat d anticipateed speech. >> the president is going to try to walk a fine line. >> nothing i have learned indicated that our intelligence agency has sought to violate the law. >> his mission here i don't think, is to change what we're doing. his mission is to make people more comfortable about what the intelligence agencies are doing. >> their rights are being protected. >> the president should not be

ashamed of anything he's done. >> i also can't help but be reminded that america must be vigilant. not long ago, president obama denounced edward snowden as a 29-year-old hacker and insisted the administration struck the balance between security and privacy. it is a speech that would have been almost unthinkable even a year ago. positioned between the intelligence community and its congressional allies on one side and civil liberties on the other, the president unsurprisingly staked out a middle ground. he began with the passionate

defense of u.s. significanurvei large. >> we cannot prevent terror attacks without some ability to penetrate electronic communications. >> the uproar has necessitated changes. >> while i was confident in the integrity of those who lead our intelligence community, it was clear to me in observing our intelligence operations on a regular basis changes in our technology were raising new concerns about the safety privacy safe guards in place. >> the proliferation of

technology demands more transparency. >> it is not enough for leaders to say, trust us, we won't abuse the power. our system is government is built on the premise our liberty cannot depend on the good intentions of those in power. it is dependent on the law to constrain those in power. >> he laid out a series of proposed reforms. he announced limits to the amount of surveillance that can be done overseas. >> i'm therefore ordering a transition that will end the section 215 meta data program as it exists.

and i have directed the attorney general to work with the foreign intelligence surveillance court so during this transition period, the database can be queried only after the fact. >> it remains to be seen how dramatically these recommendations are going to effect intelligence gathering, but hours ago the three leading proponents of reform in congress praised the president. make no mistake, this is a major milestone in our long standing efforts to reform the nsa's

security collection program. the two month process, he announced, must result in the end of government bulk collection data. end this dragnet. joining us now is glen greenwall. i'm sure there were many unanswered questions for you today. did any part of the president's proposals satisfy you? >> i thought there were some positive steps, such as putting an advocate at the fisa court ending the government's ability to hold on to meta data, some restrictions on spying on foreign leaders. t the real problem is namely that the nsa is a system of spying

that collects data on law-abiding people without any suspicion is going to continue more or less in its current form without restrictions. that's really the pressing question. why should the state have access to or be collecting data about innocent people? >> do you think the president has the political capital to be able to do something like that? i was struck in terms of the speech by outlining all the parts of our u.s. history where surveillance has served us well, to convince a skeptical public that the changes are necessary, and then issued a forceful note of support for the intelligence community. he is very much in the cross hairs. giving this speech presnowden,

would have been impossible. i wonder how much room you think he really has to do what you're saying. >> it's an important question. if you look at the most recent polling data about a week ago, it's really kind of shocking how supportive the public is for what edward snowden did. one question was do you consider him a whistle-blower than a traitor? by a 26% margin they see him as more of a whistle-blower. i think what good leaders do is they don't ask how much political capital i have to get this done. i think they ask what is the right thing to do. i think he'd be able to do a lot more reform, especially given that this doesn't break down in the normal republican or

democratic line. there's a lot of support from both parties. >> you are speaking to us from rio. brazil has had its issues with collection on its leaders. they have side throughout this entire investigation that great harm has been done to u.s. interests. some of those examples have been few and far between, but one area is our relations globally and the way america is seen on the international stage. the crescendo of the president's remarks focused on the international audiences. america must do what is fair and right and justice. we're not going to give up our national security interests, but we're going to try and change some of our monitoring of foreign leaders. do you think that was enough to sort of change the dynamic

internationally, from your advantage point? >> no, i think governments around the world and their populations that have been so angered are going to want to see serious changes, not just those kinds of nice words, which everyone knows president obama is capable of offering. a big part of the pressure is not just foreign leaders and domestic opinion, but tech giants in the united states are starting to see, this is seriously threatening our business. nobody will use facebook and yahoo and google if they think we're cooperating with the nsa. in order to have those benefits, he's going to do more than give a nice speech. he's going to have some real legislation. >> glen greenwald, thank you as always. joining us now is anthony

romero. i wonder what you thought about the reform that he announced specifically. >> i think it's great. to me, it's stunning. we had the chief justice of the fisa court say we don't need an adversarially system. it was stunning to me how a judge, the head of the fisa court, could just say we just want to hear from the government. that's our legal system is built on the fact that we have two opposing sides in front of a judge. kudos to the president for advocating that. now we need to make the legislative reform to make sure it comes about. >> the terms of the reforms, one thing i was struck by was sort of the gray area in the language in and around some of these

forms. he talks about database can only be queried in a true emergency. these are open to interpretation. >> yeah. >> the obama administration may have one interpretation for this. whoever who is in the white house in 2016 may have a different one. >> that's why i paused after giving him the hug we just gave him for the fisa court. it's all in the details. we've been down this road before. there was enough wiggle room in the guantanamo orders that they were going to take their time in terms of how they were going to end it out or not. i read the speech. when it comes to the meta data, i scratch my head.

he goes on from saying we're going to get out of collecting data on law-abiding citizens, but then maybe not. i'm not entirely clear if he's really committed to the idea that government will not collect and retain data on ordinary, law-abiding americans who have done nothing wrong. i will not believe it until they shut down the warehouses. >> just in closing, a lot of this is being kicked to the department of justice, eric holder, and the u.s. congress. on one level, i don't think much of anything gets down on capitol hill, but as glen greenwald pointed out there is bipartisan consensus from both sides of the

aisle here that something needs to be done as far as surveillance programs. how optimistic are you about things being done about this? >> part of the reason the president is speaking out on these issues is the public outcry globally. you can see the president is playing to a global stage. the domestic stage has to do with the fact republicans and democrats have finally gotten together on a legislative proposal. you have the freedom act. it would revise the patriot act. to be able to codify these reforms in law so that this president and no subsequent president can exchange that. the devil is in the details.

i wish i was more convinced that this is that breakthrough moment. there's still too much ambiguity in the language. these are wonderful words to placate an outcry on the government. >> something tells me the aclu will not sit quietly on the sidelines about these issues. thanks for your time. coming up, can congress correct the wrongs of the supreme court? a new bill claims to fill the gaps many the voting rights act and stop the tide of voter

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20 subpoenas. they've now gone out over the bridgegate scandal. 17 of the subpoenas were directed at individuals, including former and current aids. among them are these men. subpoenas were also issued for three organizations, including the one that ran christie's campaign at his office. the man spearheading the

investigation says those subpoenaed will have two weeks to respond. that does not mean the saga of bridgegate is on hold. this is one of three investigations into governor christie and his staff, including another state senate investigation into bridgegate. in the meantime, governor christie is keeping his eye on the money ball. he'll travel to florida to meet with big gop donors and then next month he'll travel to texas and oklahoma. the wall street journal is reporting that it's only increased donors' enthusiasm. do lane closures -- what

practically does it mean to subpoena an organization? they're subpoenaing chris christie's campaign organization. i would assume that involves a huge amount of correspondence and e-mail communications. >> it's not clear how it will pertain to the george washington bridge clotuwsureclosures. but the office of the government itself was subpoenaed today. they've got the documents and e-mail servers and they are commanded to turn over everything related to this. if you look at the subpoena

closely, it asks for all documents, e-mails, text messages, voice mail recordings, notes, all correspondence related to this from september 1st to the present. and it specifically cites the authority in the resolution, which is they are investigating an abuse of government power or an attempt to conceal an abuse of government power. it is not just who gave the order of the shutdown orders, but also everything that happened after that. the traffic study, the senate committee said there was zero evidence to support. all the comments made by christie and his aids are the scope of this investigation. it is a really dramatic expansion of the investigation,

and it's quite aggressive. initially they were only talking about two subpoenas. then the lead prosecutor says we go broad and deep and get these 20 subpoenas. >> what happens in the next two weeks and what can we expect going forward after those weeks are over? >> a few of them have yet to be served. what we got today was confirmation of 13 subpoenas served, 12 individuals, and the governor's office. a half a dozen out there have not been served. bridget kelly wasn't on the list that was made public today. an indication they haven't found her yet.

they have to track down all the individuals who are on their subpoena list. they have until february 3rd to return them, so that gives them some time to gather them and the committee someti time to review them. this is going to drag on for some time. the resolution creating this committee extends its life until the end of the legislative session in 2016. so we could be talking about a period of not just months, but years for this investigation. >> oh, years. that is not good news for republicans who are hoping to have this well behind them. >> certainly not good news for chris christie. >> go ahead. >> which means he may have an interest himself in getting as much of the story out there as quickly. he doesn't necessarily have to

go by the legislature's pace. he may have a reason to get as much of that information, what he knows, out there in the public sphere as quickly as he can in order to get this behind him. >> something tells me that chris christie will have an aggressive response to this. thank you as always for the update. >> thank you. we are following developing news at a philadelphia high school where two 15-year-olds have been shot and taken to the hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries. the school is on lockdown. the authorities are still looking for the shooter. after the supreme court struck down a key section of the voting rights act, a group of leaders has come together to try to rebuild it. that's coming up next.

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the company responsible for leaving 300,000 west virginians without clean tap water for nearly a week and for leaving parts of ohio reeking of toxic chemicals has now filed for bankruptcy. in the last hour, freedom industries filed forms for chapter 11 bankruptcy. in the filing, the company claimed 1 to $10 million in liabilities. this comes just one week after the some 7500 gallons of a toxic chemical spilled from a freedom industry's plant into the elk river in west virginia leaving

300,000 people without clean water. investigators still don't know exactly what caused the leak, but given the fact the plant has not been inspected by any government agency since 1991 and it was run by a company with very little money, it is entirely possible that lax regulation had something to do with this. this week's spill is not exactly an anomaly in west virginia. it is the third major chemical accidents in five years in a region whose nickname is "chemical valley." it is little wonder that they were throwing the towel in. while freedom industries may be able to wash its own hands of the disaster, some west virginians do not have that luxury. the documentary about the

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good beginning. >> the legislation comes in response to the supreme court's shelby versus holder decision of last june. the conservative majority rejected 50 years of precedent and struck down section 4 of the voting rights act. it determined which states with a history of voter discrimination were retired to clear changes to their voting laws with the federal government. the new effort out of congress is not perfect. in order to earn the support of republicans, the bill turns a blind eye to the department of justice objections to the voter suppression laws. the fix would exempt many of the states with a history of discrimination, including arizona. a state that passed a law proof

of citizenship in order to vote. it was rejected by the supreme court in june. despite that ruling, the state has kept in place voter restrictions for state and local elections endangering the right to vote for 1400 arizonians. it will give a pass to north carolina. one that includes a strict voter id requirement, one that eliminates same day voter registration, and one that slashes early voting from a week and seven days to ten days. unlike previous laws which had a rear view on our history of segregation, this bill takes into account all of the exotic abuses of power that could lead to new voter suppression efforts in the future. it looks at the states based on a rolling 15-year calendar,

which has the important and useful effect of creating a deterrent against future voting rights allegations. so for a congress that has trouble keeping the government open, even modest progress on voting rights is pretty extraordinary. now they just have to pass it. joining me now is contributing writer for the nation, ari. talk to me about your feelings on this bill. does it go far enough and how much of a deterrent do you think this 15-year cycle will be? >> thanks for having me. i feel like exotic abuses of power is a good description of

my beat for the last few years. it is a good start. it's not a perfect bill. all the people that signed on the legislation say that there are some very good parts of the bill. it gets some new states under section 4. it is easier to bail in states under sections of the voting rights act. the bad parts of the bill is number one, it exempts a lot of states earlier, north carolina is exempted, florida, alabama, and doj objections to voter id laws don't count. it is a mixed bag. the status quo favors the republicans because section 4 is dead. to get something through a gop house and a divided senate, there has to be some enticement to get some people to sign on.

that's why there was compromises made. >> and in and of itself is fairly remarkable. how optimistic are you this is going to get past the house gop? >> i think it is going to be difficult. the congress can barely do anything but name a post office and then you look at the issue of voting rights. so many members of the republican party are set on making it difficult to vote. so there has to be some pressure put on these republicans and say to them, do you want it to make it harder or easier on people to vote? it lays the groundwork in future

congress congresss to try to get something done. >> i'm reminded of what's happening in the immigration reform. do you think the same is true on voting rights? do you think it holds as much weight inside the gop caucus as something like immigration? the gop knows they need to move on this issue. whether they actually do is one thing, but at least they are putting up the signs they are open to change. >> i think there are more powerful interests pushing for reform on the republican side of the aisle than voting rights. i'm writing a new book about the history of voting rights. i've seen every single time there's been a reauthorization

of the voting act. there's a lot of history they can draw on for support. they were for it as recently as 2006. i think it is going to take a lot of pressure. it's going to take some remembrance of what they once did, but i think they can get there. it's going to have to be the fact that there's a consequence at the polls for not supporting this stuff. the fact they're not supporting voting rights and immigration rights, that puts them on wrong side of a rising demographic group in america. >> eric cander, talk to me about him. has he been an engine in all of this in getting a coalition together to put this legislation on the table?

>> i wouldn't describe him as an engine. he's a mercurial behind the scenes player on all of this. cantor has signed on yet, but the legislation was drafted with him in mind. he's open to doing this. he wants to represent potentially a different face of the gop than just the party of no, that introduces no voting restrictions and makes it harder for people to vote. >> ari berman, thank you for your time, sir. coming up, another member of congress announces his retirement citing gridlock and partisan politics. we'll look at what this means for the future of getting anything down on capitol hill.

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the republican party has maintained a deep bench of anti-science crusaders. >> carbon dioxide, a threat to our country. tell that to a plant. >> the fact that all this is happening due to manmade gases is the greatest hoax perpetrated to the american people. >> one climate change denier is heading up to the environment subcommittee. here's a look at how stocks stand going into the weekend. the dow getting 39 points. the s&p 500 down 7 and the nasdaq losing 21. a mixed day for wall street. next week all eyes on corporate

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the gop has a new climate change guy, except he doesn't believe in climate change. that group has jurisdiction over all matter relating to environmental research and environmental protection agency research and development and environmental standards. the big problem here is he thinks the idea of manmade global warming is, quote, folklore.

he said understanding what part of climate change is a natural cycle and a human component is the first step. they should react to facts like the 2006 study that found the carbon accumulating in the atmosphere is same carbon from fossil fuels. it is extremely climate change is manmade. he doesn't try to deny all manmade climate change. for that, you have to turn to mr. lamar smith, the republican chair of the entire science committee. >> they regularly use the imp t impacts from hurricanes and floods to justify the costs for

climate change regulations. the administration should try to protect the lives and property from our nation's extreme weather by better weather forecasting. >> not smaller carbon footprints, better weather forecasting. he doesn't complete deny that climate change is happening. for that, you have to turn to ranking member of the senate committee on the environment and public works and the most powerful republican in the country when it comes to climate change, senator james inhoff. >> the evidence out there is almost laughable. in three years, egypt has

been in a revolution. the film that profiles people living through an era of chaos and turmoil. that's coming up. ♪ cinnamon toast crunch. crave those crazy squares.

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one a day men's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for men's health concerns as we age. with 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day men's 50+. violent crackdowns plagued the streets of egypt once again today as they awaited the results of a constitutional referendum. egypt state media is reporting passage of the referendum, but since they began voting on tuesday, the military government has stepped up its strikes on decemb dissenters. this is the latest chapter of

unrest since the uprisings brought down president mubarak years ago. the first egypt film to ever be nominated, the film maker tells the stories of individuals who lived behind the headlines. for two years, she followed a group of egyptian activists throughout the country's turbulence. in the intervening years, that hope has given away to disillusionment and disappointment. the military began its brutal crackdown. [ speaking in a foreign language ]

>> joining me now is the director of the documentary "the square" which was just nominated for an academy award. it is available on netflix. congratulations on not only the academy award, but making this documentary. i want to ask you first as an egyptian american, you began filming this amid optimism and hope, but egypt has descended into a much darker place. >> you have to watch the film. it is on netflix now and opening in theaters in certain cities. it's a very personal story. in order to people to connect to a film like this, they have to connect to the people. it is about the hopes and dreams and aspirations of three guys

who spend the last three years in the square, using the square as a political tool for change. an activist and an actor, who was the lead in the "kite runner." and there is a young revolutionary who has had ever odd job representative of a lot of young people. he leads us through the story. he's a street poet. and then a member of the muslim brotherhood and how that changes throughout. >> how optimistic are you about

democratic future for egypt? what lies ahead in the next year or next two years? >> there's absolutely no denying there have been horrible, brutal crackdowns and abuses of human rights. a couple of my friends have been jailed. people are still on the ground fighting every day, though. they're not giving up. this is why it is so important to release a film like this now when it actually had the opportunity to change the conversation, to look back over the last three years, and to also look at two people, somebody like ahmad and the two others who despite being driven apart by politics, they have a deep love and caring for one another. they're human beings in the end.

the film reminds people of that and what this struggle was all about. we're going through a dark time in egypt right now. in this country, it took 16 years between the revolution and constitution. in france, it took 100 years. it'll be a long process. >> the movie is "the square." it is available starting today on netflix. thank you. thank you very much. that is all for now. "the ed show" is up next. good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show" live from new york. let's get to work. >> progressives, we need to pay attention to this because this is the next big battle on the horizon. you need to be on alert