now, that's progressive. right now, hillary clinton's getting ready to take the stage in new orleans as an old attack on her husband resurfaces. is she still the inevitable nominee in 2016? what was the motive behind the mall shooting in maryland as police are trying to find out what happened, a brand new analysis shows one child or teenager is shot every single hour. what is going on with guns in america? and this afternoon, a joint committee in new jersey gets to work. we'll talk to the chair as the legislative investigation kicks off. good morning, i'm chris jansing. president obama won't let congress stand in the way anymore. his advisers are suggesting a change in strategy and tone as he gears up for tomorrow's state of the union. you're going to hear a lot more of this. >> i've got a pen and i've got a phone. i can use that pen to sign

executive orders, and i've got a phone that allows me to convene americans from every walk of life. >> and "the washington post" reports an internal white house memo shows the president should distance himself from congress. she should govern more like a president and not a prime minister and be more focused and disciplined, putting a political filter on everything. almost immediately, the pushback from republicans. >> it sounds vaguely like a threat, and i think it also has a certain amount of arrogance in the sense that one of the fundamental principles of our country were the checks and balances, it won't supposed to be easy to pass legislation. you had to debate and convince people. >> i want to bring in our company, jonathan alter, msnbc political analyst, heather mcghee is taking over as president of dmos in march, congratulations to you. seems everybody in the administration admits 2013 was hardly the best of years for

president obama. and a lot of the story was the president versus congress. jonathan, do you think it's a smart move to say, look, maybe the measure of success is going to be something other than legislation? >> well, presidents are successful or less successful on a lot of different grounds. part is how many points you put on the board, part is whether you set a path for your successors. you get the country on a road where maybe you don't get to the destination in your term in office, but you set it up. so i think the president is not necessarily looking to his legacy, but he's looking to set some things in motion that can bear fruit over the next few years, play a longer game, and worry less about trying to get legislation through in this year, which is going to be tough, except perhaps on immigration. >> having said that, i don't think anybody is suggesting that barack obama is saying, well, this is it, i'm not going to accomplish anything, i'm going to write off the next couple years, but you do have 2013, where he was so focused on

things like gun control and immigration, minimum wage, universal pre-k, look at those approval ratings. we didn't see any great strides in any of those signature things that he was working on, so where does he get the muscle to move minds? >> fortunately, the president has a big opportunity tomorrow. i think it's all eyes on him at the state of the union, both to frame the argument, to answer the question that so many people have in this country is why is the middle class shrinking? is the answer because there's not enough tax cuts for the rich, which is the republican answer, is it because too much regulation or the answer because actually the pie has been growing, but the slice that it is being earned and shared with the people who actually go to work every day has been diminishing? and what's so great about what he can do tomorrow is that he can issue an executive order to make all of the low-wage workers who are working on federal contracts, where he's basically the boss, he's paying employers to pay people still in our military uniforms and serving our military and serving people

in union station and say you know what, let's raise that floor, make that a $10.10 an hour or $12 an hour. he can do that. >> even though the state of the union isn't watched by as many people as it used to be, this is still a bully pulpit, this is a president who knows how to make a speech and there was a point it isn't so much the president hasn't accomplished things, he's moving things, just hasn't crossed the goal line yet. let me play that for you. >> it's unrealistic to rubber stamp the agenda and unrealistic for congress to expect that the president will sign their agenda, but let's find areas where we can work together. this is supposed to be a year of action so he is going to look in every way he can with his pen and phone to try to move the ball forward. >> could this be a year, jonathan, where he moves forward on the things that he laid the groundwork for, that when we look at his second term in retrospect, 2013 was when he really set the stage for getting

things done. >> i think it is possible, because there are a lot of tools that the president has through executive orders that he hasn't been very creative in the last few years in using. i'm not saying he's been uncreati uncreative, but he could have done more and i think now he's understanding they needed to really get some creative policy making going. so another example of something they can do without congress is to get major corporations to pledge that they will not discriminate against the long-term unemployed. and get as many of them as possible to sign this pledge. a number already have. so you might expect him to talk about that tomorrow night, and a whole series of other things he can do on job training by executive order on higher ed by executive order to rearrange funds so that they serve people better. and lay down the gauntlet, frame the issue, as we've heard, for the fall, does america deserve a raise? that's the basic question that lies behind the minimum wage debate.

>> i want to bring in senator angus king, senator from maine, senator, good morning. >> nice to see you this morning. >> before i get to the specifics, let me talk about the strategy we've heard, which is the pen and the phone and some republicans like rand paul have already called this vaguely threatening, to go around you and the rest of congress is the way they are framing it. how do you see it? >> well, you're not going to hear me agree with rand paul all that often, but i share some unease. it's all well and good to say, well, we agree with what the president is trying to do, therefore, the ends justify the means. the problem is, once power e cretes to the president, it rarely, if ever goes away. and we may say well we like this president, but they may not like the next president who's doing things by executive order that they don't agree with, so i would much prefer working with congress and understanding of the math of this place. you've got a republican house, a

democratic senate with the republicans having a lot of power because of the rules. the democratic president, by definition you can't do anything unless it has bipartisan support. >> how do you move that forward? we keep hearing that, senator, and the president out of frustration has said on things like gun control, look, if 90% of the american people want something and congress isn't going to give it to them, i'm going to do what i can within my constitutional powers. >> well, that last phrase you used is important, within my constitutional powers. but there are things, we just got a budget, bipartisan budget for the first time in four years. took a lot of give on both sides. immigration reform did get through to the senate, and there's some discussion that it's going to get a little bit of mobility in the house, so there are these areas that we can work on. and i'm not saying, you know, we shouldn't use the executive order of power, of course he should, but let's be careful here that we don't create a situation and a momentum where,

you know, congress is sort of an afterthought. but there's plenty of areas i think we can work together and a little more outreach from the white house, i think, would be good, but the congress and particularly the republicans of the house have to understand that there are things the country wants us to do. this whole thing of let's give america a raise, i completely agree with. the problem with the economy right now is the middle class doesn't have enough money to spend. and the benefits of the economy over the last four or five years have almost all gone to the top. 400 people in america have as much wealth as the bottom half of the entire population. >> well, to that end, let me ask, the president is supposed to lay out some priorities in the state of the union, and i'd like you to go through them for me, kind of rapid fire, what are the chances that something gets done on this, and i think number one would be hiking the minimum wage. >> i think there might be some movement on that. i think the public pressure is building up on that. all the polls show both the

majority of republicans and democrats think that ought to happen and all we're talking about is returning it to the purchasing power when it was enacted years ago, so i think there may be something happening. >> what about the immigration and possibility of immigration reform? >> well, we've got the senate bill out there. the house is talking seriously about it, speaker boehner has been making positive noises. i think there's a reasonable shot that might happen. >> the final one, the farm bill. >> the farm bill, last i heard, we should see this week, so i was talking to people over the weekend almost all of the issues, those are the pregnant words, almost all the issues, have been resolved, but i heard we're going to see it in the next few days. >> is there a most likely in your mind of those three? >> well, i think the most likely is the farm bill, and i think next most likely is some form of immigration reform. the hard nut on that is going to be a path to citizenship. i think the house will agree to some kind of legal status.

i'm certainly strong for a path to citizenship. i think it's reasonable and ought to happen, and then sthird is the minimum wage. i think all three could happen given the right circumstances and given the fact everybody understands around here that nobody can do it by themselves. >> senator angus king, always good to see you, sir, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> there's a lot from that interview to chew on. heather, let me start with the basic premise, could the president be overreaching here? >> i think that's actually really an alarm bell that doesn't need to be rung right now. the basic idea, the government by spending billions of dollars hiring people to do work should be paying those americans real american wages is completely within the realm of precedent, we have executive orders just in terms of contracting on antidiscrimination. this is a really important tool that the president has just as basically sort of the big boss of all of these workers. >> and for all the talk about the president, you know, going around congress, he brought back

some people to help with congress, not the least of whom is john podesta, who now advising him. is this really still about figuring out the relationship of congress? >> you know, to score this at home with the right kind of score card, there's a guy named phil schiliro at the beginning of the obama administration who has now been brought back, and he's very good at figuring out what's possible on the hill, and john fodesto is good at figuring out orders in a constitutional way. it's important to understand if it was unconstitutional, the courts would slap the president down, so he's not really making a power grab here, he's just trying to use the powers that president already has and john will be very helpful in that, and in the convening power, that's the phone part of the pen and the phone, the president has enormous convening power to bring people together to reach some kind of a consensus outside

of congress, and he needs to do more of that. >> well, he's got a new task force to deal with violence against women. heather, he's got together university presidents, he's talking to them about diversity, and after the state of the union he's going to go on the road, four different states to talk about the long-term unemployed, but it was interesting to hear senator king say if he's going to prioritize these three things, least likely to get done is a raise in the minimum wage, and we just saw today, by the way, for the first time we've seen a shift in the people getting the minimum wage, many of them being with some college education. >> there was a great study about this and that's why it's so important for the president to be able to say, these are the reasons why we are seeing this decline in the middle class. it's not because of what workers aren't doing. it's not that americans aren't getting more education, when over half of low-wage workers have some college, that's something where we have to look at employers and the amount of profits that just aren't being

shared to pay workers what they deserve, and also our college education system, which is letting people graduate with debt and no diploma and deal with student debt on a minimum wage job, it's really something the president can address and make those links. >> heather mcghee, jonathan alter, thank you very much. checking the news feed, after pleading guilty to cocaine possession, trey radel will resign this morning. when the news first broke, many republicans, governor rick scott asked him to step down, but he vowed to stay. this was radel's first term in office. january is shaping up to be the coldest month this century, and another blast of arctic air is descending on the lower 48. in chicago, public schools are closed because it's so cold. 40 below with the wind chill. in the southeast, a major winter storm is taking shape from texas to the carolinas. they expect about a half an inch of ice and then more than a foot

of snow on top of that. there are now almost 600 passengers and 47 crew members sick with flu-like symptoms onboard royal caribbean's explorer of the seas. the cdc investigated and suspect a norovirus, which can be transmitted easily from person-to-person. that ship headed back to the u.s. two days early. details how the cruise line will compensate passengers hasn't been announced yet. the actor who portrayed the marlboro man in the late 1970s has died from a smoking-related disease. eric lawson had been smoking since age 14. he became an antismoking advocate in later years, even as he continued to smoke. lawson was just 72 years old. is anything off the table when it comes to politics? >> someone who takes advantage of a young girl in their office, i mean, really, and then they have the gal to stand up and say

republicans are having a war on women, so, yes, i think it's a factor, it's not hillary's fault. >> will this be a factor in 2016 and does it have anything to do with the war on women? ♪epic classical music stops ♪music resumes music stops ♪music resumes [announcer] if your dog can dream it. purina pro plan can help him achieve it. nutrition that performs. i can't believe your mom has a mom cave! today i have new campbell's chunky spicy chicken quesadilla soup. she gives me chunky before every game. i'm very souperstitious. haha, that's a good one! haha! [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. it fills you up right. you really love, what would you do?" ♪

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maryland police are searching for the motive in a deadly shooting at a mall on saturday. investigators say 19-year-old darion aguilar, a dunkin' donuts manager, opened fire at a clothing store and killed two employees before taking his own life. police found a legally purchased shotgun and homemade explosives nearby. if there's a connection between ag aguilar and the victims, investigators haven't found it. detectives say a journal he kept

suggested a general unhappiness with his life, but his mother says she never saw it coming. >> he's never had a gun before, never been interested in guns, never been interested in anything like that. i don't know what happened. >> the shooting just the latest in what has already been a violent start to 2014, including seven school shootings just in the first three weeks of the year. look at that. i'm joined now by shannon watts, the founder of moms demand action for gun sense in america. good morning. >> good morning. >> there were 28 school shootings in all of 2013, this month already there's been seven school shootings, now we've had this mall shooting in maryland. what's going on here? >> well, it appears that our schools when they close for the weekend, the shootings move to the malls of america. it's just unfortunate what's happening. we've had a shooting every other school day so far this year. we are on par to have over 80 school shootings in american

schools in 2014. it's unacceptable. american mothers should not live in fear that our children are in jeopardy of being faced by gun violence in places where they work, where they study, where they play, and we expect congress to step up and do something to stop these horrendous shootings that are happening so frequently. >> but i wonder if exactly what we're talking about, the frequency of these, shannon, in some ways works against people like you who are trying to get new laws on the books. let me play for you what new jersey congressman frank pallone said. >> my concern is that this becomes such a norm that people, you know, think, well, that's the way it is and nothing can be done. i want people to understand that congress can take action on gun safety and it will make a difference. >> is the public getting desensitized, do you think, to the need for gun reform? >> absolutely we're desensitized as a country. every day we see gun violence in this country. 1 out of every 3 americans knows

someone who's been shot. we are desensitized and that's why american mothers' voices are so important. we will not tolerate an america where our children are constantly in jeopardy of being shot. we will not have it. so just like in so many issues in this country where moms have gotten involved and that's when we've seen real change, whether it's drunk driving or wars or other issues where mothers' voices are so important. we are going to use our voices and our votes, especially in the midterms, you know, if you talk about the gun lobby, they've had a hold on this country for a long time. but moms are going to go toe-to-toe with them, and at the end of the day, our children are the most important thing to us and that's why we'll win this fight. >> there's one other voice in this debate, it's been the president's. of course, tomorrow he's going to deliver the state of the union. you'll remember that a year ago he used the speech to make a major push for gun control legislation after newtown, of course. he spent five minutes and 42 seconds speaking about guns and gun control. let me play that for you.

>> if we don't come together to protect our most precious resource, our children, it has been two months since newtown. i know this is not the first time -- >> he has been on your side, but, of course, no legislation has passed. is there more, you think, that the president can do to help? >> well, i hope that he'll say during his address that gun violence prevention remains a top priority for this country. it's never been more clear than right now that we need congress to act, we need our president to act, we need our state legislators to act, and congress locked the door when they voted against background checks in april, so moms are going through the window and we are going to fight at the state level for new and stronger laws and new members of congress who will vote for laws that protect our children, full stop, and we hope this continues to be a priority, but at the end of the day, we're going to keep fighting until these changes occur. >> shannon watts for moms demand

action for gun sense in america. thanks for coming on. >> thank you. heightened olympic concern force security changes after the torch relay made its most dangerous stop in the russian republic of dagestan. details coming up. it's time for the "your business" entrepreneur of the week. kelly khalil started her company loverly in 2012 with one mission, to make wedding planning easier through her bridal search engine. with retail partners approaching daily and content increasing, she hit a nerve and companies growing. for more watch "your business" sunday mornings on msnbc. brought to you by american express open. visit openforum.com for ideas to help you grow your business. 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. there's not one way to do something.

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and if you read only one thing this morning, if you know a kid in high school, you know the competition to get into top colleges. if you know a gifted high school athlete, the pressure from recruiters, but recruiting has reached a whole new level. they are approaching talented athletes while they are in middle school. is it too much, too soon? the story from "the new york times" is up on our facebook page. comments pretty much in agreement. way too much emphasis on sports. let them learn first, then play. let us know what you think, ade e . and being there. yeah! nailed it! unlike the bargain brand, depend gives you new fit-flex®, our best protection.

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picture from new orleans, where hillary clinton is expected to address the national auto dealers association any minute now. meantime, a lot going on with her. the super pac ready for hillary is laying the groundwork for a possible clinton presidential campaign in iowa. and on sunday, a bit of controversy. senator rand paul suggesting bill clinton's scandal with monica lewinsky could be fodder for the campaign. >> one of the workplace laws and rules that i think are good is that bosses shouldn't prey on young interns in their office, and i think really the media seems to have given president clinton a pass on this. he took advantage of a girl that was 20 years old and an intern in his office. there is no excuse for that, and that is predatory behavior. >> joining me now, matt bennett, senior vice president and cofounder of third way and republican strategist noel noelle nikpour.

he said it's hard to separate one from the other, meaning the clintons. is this something that she's just going to have to deal with if she decides to run? >> well, i suppose she's going to have to deal with this kind of thing from people like rand paul, but let's face it, that is just a ridiculous thing that rand paul said. both the idea that the media gave president clinton a pass, if anyone who was alive in the '90s remembers, he didn't get a pass. it was a really rough go for president clinton during the impeachment crisis, and second, this has nothing to do with hillary. she, after all, would be the candidate in 2016, so the whole thing is idiotic. >> let me play what senator dick durbin had to say in response. >> the issues that were raised by my colleague senator paul have been litigated in the public square for over a decade. for goodness sakes, let's judge hillary clinton based on her talents and her vision of america, should she choose to run for president.

>> noelle, is he right? >> i've got to tell you, i've got to lay it on the line here, as a republican consultant, i think what rand paul did was wrong, and the only thing that i do like is the fact that he is not scared, and a lot of republican candidates are going to be a little scared to take on someone like the clintons or someone like hillary clinton. but remember, it's hillary clinton that is going to be running, and it is hillary clinton that needs to be addressed, and there are other issues you can hit hillary clinton with other than her husband. and she doesn't like it anyway. you remember the time that she was being addressed when she was in another country and somebody said what do you think, i'm channelling bill clinton, her husband, so she doesn't like it when she is, you know, brought up in her husband's past affairs are brought up or anything about bill clinton. let hillary clinton stand on her own and debate hillary clinton on her issues alone. so i thought it was kind of an

odd deal, and i remember i was sitting there and i was watching "meet the press" and i saw him do it, and i was like, oh, no, they are going to take this and run with it, and they did. and he should have known. >> these are the kinds of things, frankly, matt, that the other side can raise money on. we know that ready for hillary raised $4 million last year, now priorities usa is backing her. i'm wondering if you think, matt, with the super pacs raising so much money and obama veterans like jim messina onboard now, does that mean that a 2016 surprise would be much less likely? in other words, someone to challenge hillary clinton as obama challenged the more establishment candidates and, frankly, bill clinton did himself. >> well, look, predictions like that at this point are very dangerous to make. if you had asked people like me at this point in the cycle in 2008 if anyone had a prayer of taking on hillary clinton, we all would have said no. and we would have said no a lot closer to the time the iowa caucuses rolled around.

it's very difficult to say, however, this is a different moment. it does appear the stars, both metaphoric and actual stars are aligning around hillary clinton, so if she chooses to run, she, obviously, would be enormously formidable. >> always disadvantages being the only frontr-runner and noboy knows that more than hillary clinton, she lived it, but with donors and others involved with priorities usa looking to exceed what they spent on attack ads that helped define mitt romney early in the election, does that make you nervous? >> makes me very nervous and already i think this is going to be over a billion dollar race once again. >> noelle, matt, good to see you. >> thanks, chris. there are continuing to be increasing terror concerns that forced the torch relay to make a detour to the dagestan region. the torch had been scheduled to run through the streets of the capital city there, the place

tamerlan tsarnaev called home, but organizers invited a few thousand spectators into a soccer stadium to watch the torch do laps around the heavily guarded field. islamic militants in dagestan threatened to attack the winter games and a british threat assessment now concludes that a terror attack before or during the sochi games is very likely. >> i would say that the security threat to the olympics, this particular olympics, are the greatest i think i've ever seen because of the proximity of the terrorists to the olympic village. >> i cannot give them 100% guarantee. the fact is, these are going to be very much threatened olympics, probably more than any we've had in our past, more than greece, certainly more than london and china. >> we're joined now by nbc terrorism analyst evan coleman. let's start with the bbc report. it says the terror group from

the kcaucus region. >> one thing we have to put this in context is it's not just groups in the caucasus we have to worry about. a video was issued in the run up to sochi threatening to carry out an attack. there's a variety of different groups here that would like to make a statement. the question is, can these groups find a way in? there were a lot of precautions because it was takiing place in the capital of dagestan. there's a regular series of law enforcement investigations that take place there. just last week there was a casino that was bombed there. it was a dangerous area, probably smart to put that inside an indoor arena. >> we've shown a shootout between suspected islamic militants in dagestan and security forces. richard engel says these types of raids are an almost daily

occurrence now. obviously, 63,000 police and soldiers just fortifying the ring of steel, but when you see these kinds of shootouts, it's easy to see what the concerns are in the region. >> yes, what's worrying about these shootouts, they are not taking place in villages on the outskirts of civilization, they are taking place in the capital of dagestan, where russian forces should have this area secured. so i guess the problem here is if they can't secure dagestan, how much can they secure sochi, and if you see civilians attacked and raids taking place there, there's worrying given the proximity. i think that's obvious, yeah. >> we know the state department issued a travel warning for americans, obviously, attractive terror targets and noted the possible presence of black widow suicide bombers, which you and i have talked about. where are we with that? because we've gotten some conflicting reports from russian

security officials about whether or not one of these women might have gotten through into sochi. >> the reality is the russians don't really know and that's why they put these notices out. they think one might have gotten into sochi, but i don't think that's a guarantee of anything. and the reality is, even if there is an attack and there's a small chance of that, if there is an attack, it may have nothing to do with these women, so we have to be careful about putting too much emphasis. more importantly, this is a symbol of the kind of confusion that's surrounding security there and the sense, again, that iron ring of steel, or ring of steel, is not nearly as secure as the russians initially made it out to be. >> evan coleman, always good to have your perspective. thank you so much. >> thank you very much. checking the news feed this morning, the u.s. military launched a missile strike in somalia. while the u.s. says intelligence officials are still trying to assess whether the mission was successful, a somali intelligence official says, "a dangerous militant was killed."

ukraine's justice minister warns she'll call a state of emergency if they don't leave her building, the latest government office taken over by protesters. she also said negotiations between the opposition and the president would end if they don't get out. the protests in the ukraine started two months ago when the president rejected a pact with the e.u. because of russian pressure. edward snowden said he sleeps well at night. in an interview with german tv, snowden says he did the right thing by going public with the nsa's secrets and the u.s. engages in what he calls, economic spying. >> there's no question that the u.s. is engaged in economic spying. if there's information at sooe mans that they think would be beneficial to the national interests, not the national security of the united states, they'll go after that information and they'll take it. >> snowden, of course, is facing felony charges for here in the

u.s. for his nsa leaks. he has temporary asylum in russia. stocks are trying to bounce back after their worst week since 2012. cnbc's mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. how's it looking today and what's behind the recent sell-off? >> really trying to see stabilization in the states today. had good earnings from caterpillar, but we're still sort of on shaky ground and don't know whether we're out of the woods yet. the s&p is down as we speak and the nasdaq is also dropping. as i say we are down, but not as bad as what we saw on friday, and there were also red arrows around the world overnight. of course, part was a reaction of the big sell-off we had here last week. a lot of concerns have surfaced, currencies in argentina and turkey are banking, why do we care here in the united states? well, in the current globalized world, the markets are very much interlinked, many investors have investments in other parts of

the world, so everyone is sitting up and paying attention so we're trying to work out now what type of correction will we have and what will the fed do this wednesday, could they slow down their taper withdrawal of stimulus as a result of this? >> meantime, looking forward to the super bowl and if people want tickets, good news and bad news. >> yeah, good news, chris, is prices have dropped about 14% in the past week. bad news, you're still going to pay an average under $3,500. for a seat. now if that number holds up, it would make this super bowl, chris, between the broncos and the seahawks the most expensive ever. some are expecting tickets to drop much further as the mercury plunges. if you are looking for a so-called bargain ticket, you might want to wait a day or two before the big game. apparently some tickets last year did drop down to about $500. >> almost always day-of you can get something. mandy, thank you. >> thank you. seattle seahawks star

richard sherman will be chris hayes' guest tonight 8:00 p.m. eastern here on msnbc. don't know if you caught it, but the 56th annual grammy awards were handed out last night. the show is as much about performances as the awards. ♪ paul mccartney and ringo starr singing mccartney's "queeny eye" as yoko ono danced in the crowd. queen latifah officiated at a mass wedding of 34 couples. madonna wrapped it up with her classic, "open your heart." but the big winners were deft punk, they wear the masks and don't talk, album of the year, record of the year, and best pop performance. 17-year-old lord won song of the year and best pop solo performance for her song "royals" and macklamore and ryan

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these are good. told ya! i'm feeling better already. [ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. enjoy the relief! the scandal surrounding new jersey governor chris christie moves into its next phase this afternoon, that's when new jersey lawmakers will officially vote to form a joint committee to look into the allegations that the governor's aides closed lanes on the george washington bridge to exact some kind of political retribution, and they'll also look at any other possible abuse of government power. state senator loretta weinberg is co-chair of that committee. good morning. >> good morning. >> so, what will be the first step for you and for this panel? >> well, today we will formalize the joint committee by passing a joint resolution in both the senate and the assembly. that will then be followed by a, what i think, will be a brief organizing meeting and our next

major step is to await all the documents that are due as a result of subpoenas that are due on february 3rd. >> who are you expecting to come in, will it be people like bridget kelly, of course, the governor's aide who was fired after e-mails implicated her in the scandal? >> well, depending upon what we see in these documents as they are reviewed, those of the next -- that's the next important step, and i would hope that as we subpoena the people who were behind writing those documents, that they will be forthcoming so we can get on with the work of this committee and really find out particularly the george washington bridge issue. the big unanswered question is, who told bridget kelly to do it, what were the discussions that took place between bridget kelly and david wildstein. he, obviously, understood what

she meant, and then the big, very big question, is, why? why would anybody think of creating a traffic jam and punishing thousands of innocent people? what was the reason? those are big unanswered -- a big unanswered question four months, four and a half, almost five months since this was discovered. we still do not have the answers. >> and they seem like imminently reasonable questions, however, because this committee is made up of eight democrats and four republicans, there's been some criticism and someone named chris brown said over the weekend in "the burlington county times," i'm going to quote here, "the one-sided nature of the committee raises questions about the impartiality of the investigation. new jerseyans deserved a balanced bipartisan search for answers but the makeup of the committee is a stacked deck."

what would you say to him? >> the committee is bipartisan, the minority party has representatives on that committee. they will have a voice to speak up to point out anything that they think is inappropriate, and they will certainly be able to ask the attorney any series of questions that they choose to ask, so i can assure you that this will move along in an impartial and very just way. >> well, let me ask you about that, move along, because as you said, it's already been so many months since this happened and people have a lot of questions and not a lot of answers at this point. do you have a kind of timeline for this? >> well, it will depend upon how quickly we get the documents, and on how forthcoming the folks who we subpoena following those documents will be. it's hard to give a timeline to it. i think we are willing to move along as efficiently as we can. the joining together of the two

committees into one committee makes it a much more efficient way to operate. people will not be subject to subpoenas from two different bodies of the legislature, so i think we've made a big step forward, or we will this morning. >> senator loretta weinberg, thank you so much for coming on. >> thank you. today's tweet of the day comes from david corn, dc editor for "mother jones." the kid that invented the extreme marshmallow cannon will be a guest. watch out, boehner. he's going to join several others in the first lady's box, along with boston marathon survivors and oklahoma fire chief gary bird, the nba's first openly gay player, jason collins, and 2013 public school teacher of the year. ♪ driving rock music

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hillary clinton just walked out a few minutes ago to address the national auto dealers association in new orleans. she gets $200,000 a speech. she's been recounting some personal stories, including some from hope, arkansas, but we're told she may be taking questions and answers. a lot going on around her 2016 possible presidential bid, so we're keeping our eye on that. in the meantime, to politics now where senator john mccain is getting labeled a liberal by his own party. arizona republicans formally censured the long-time senator on saturday saying his voting record isn't conservative enough. jon kyl brushed off the embarrassing vote, saying some whacky resolutions come out of those meetings. a new white house petition, speaking of whacky, they are asking president obama to deport justin bieber. the biebs, ka canadian, he's in trouble, of course, after being arrested last week. this petition has more than 40,000 signatures and if it gets

100,000, the white house has to respond. and the first-ever big block of cheese day, a nod to what andrew jackson did with an open house in the 1800s, and then made famous in the west wing. no, you don't actually get cheese. instead, you have a chance to ask questions to several administration officials. actually, the white house brought back a couple of "west wing" stars to promote the event on wednesday. and that's going to wrap up this hour of "jansing and co.," i'm chris jansing. brian shactman is up next. good morning, brian. >> 1,400-pound block of cheese can't taste very good, can it? >> i think more the better. >> there you go, thanks, chris. the agenda next hour, it's not hyperbolic to say president obama preparing one of the most critical speeches of his presidency, his state of the union address, and he'll be drawing on all his considerable oratory skills to make it a game

changer, we'll discuss with jim hyams of connecticut. rand paul shaking things up again. our agenda panel, by the way, just watering at the mouth on this particular topic. and the eight democrats who may hold the fate of same-sex marriage in their hands. that and more just three minutes away. crust that's made from scratch. or mix vegetables with all white meat chicken and homemade gravy. but marie callender's does. just sit down and savor. marie callender's. it's time to savor. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out

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you. >> the president sees this as a year of action to work with congress where he can and to bypass congress where necessary to let folks who want to come up into the middle class. >> here's problem number two, dropping approval ratings. new numbers from "washington post" and abc show him under water. >> they are all showing something that if i'm the white house, i'm really nervous about, is to me, it's american public that's not going to tune in tomorrow. >> after the speech, the president will take to the road to tout his planned year of action. the white house planning stops in maryland, pennsylvania, wisconsin, and tennessee, but before that, he'll face reaction from republicans. that's going to be quite a few of them actually, senator rand paul preparing to give an unsanctioned response of his own, senator mike lee delivering the official tea party response, and congresswoman cathy mcmorris rodgers giving the official republican party rebuttal. nbc white house correspondent peter