a creative caption for this "new yorker" cover. >> nathan says "after i win the gold, i'll wrestle a bear, a straight bear." >> must be straight. okay. >> then danny says, putin does a triple axel. >> can we show this? we look for any excuse to show vladimir putin shirtless. anyway, that was "way too early." "morning joe" starts right now. >> let's see where else we can make progress together. let's make this a year of action. that's what most americans want, for all of news this chamber to focus on their lives, their hopes, their aspirations.

and what i believe unites the people of this nation, regardless of race, region or party, young or old, rich or poor, is the simple profound belief in opportunity for all, the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, can you get ahead in america. >> good morning, it is wednesday, january 29th, welcome to "morning joe." with us, national ed for the "new yorker magazine." and now, father of the most beautiful baby girl i think i have ever seen -- >> very nice. thank you. you have a few of your own. >> and then in washington -- i don't know what happened.

did you have any babies? >> i had one with a very big head. >> one was a total cringer for me. >> immediately? >> immediately and for about a year. >> and she knows who she is, right? >> but she's stunning now. people would go, "oh, look at the baby. oh. look at the baby." >> at least she wasn't smoking a child from right away like katie's child. we have a lot to cover this morning, jim cantore. we'll talk about that. we're going to talk obviously right now about the state of the union. something that happened i guess after this reporter. we'll just show you a little video and we'll show the whole interaction later. this republican congressman michael graham physically threatens a reporter. so we'll talk about that.

it's a very awkward interaction and very ugly as well. and some analysts are saying this is the kind of thing that happens. i've never seen that. did he threaten to throw him off? >> yeah. >> that doesn't work. >> reaction to the president's speech is where we're going to start. i'll start with my daughter texting me from medeira, loving it and where is john boehner's texas pin? good point, carly, who is absolutely gorgeous now. let go to the "new york times" headline "ditminished state of the union," "the washington

post," obama's muted call, and "the national review" called it a small speech on a big stage. and in "the stuffing tonight" and here comes a long list of stuff that never happens." >> i don't think he said stuff." >> no. >> and what do you think? >> if you want to do big changes in america, you've got to go with congress, you have to have legislation. the president has sadie peatedly with or without you i'm going is to try to do things and i'm going to try to do things for the lives of middle class americans with savings plans, education, with minimum wage, that will improve the lives for

millions of poor americans and i'll have to try to do it by myself. and the truth is he can't do very much himself, he can tinker around the edges. >> with his pen, executive action. he pretty much said if you can't work with me, i'm going to work alone. i'm not sure how that's going to play. i'm not sure that was the strategy. but i did like the calls for unity. president obama called for action, vowing to use executive action, if need be. >> but america does not stand still and neither will i. so wherever and whenever i can take steps without legislation to expand opportunities for more american families, that's what i'm going to do. >> the president also dedicated a lot of real estate to the minimum wage. we'll get to that in a hope, but first, what did you think about the president doing it himself if you guys can't work with me?

>> i don't know if that what it was. they previewed the speech that he would strike a confrontational tone. his tone was not very partisan pip think he reached out a fair amount and i think he laid out some areas where he wanted to act alone. he only had one stens aboentenc immigration. i thought the president's tone was more upbeat than i expected him to be. it was previewed it was going to focus on inequality. it did a little bit of that but more focus on mobility, rather than on the question of just pure inequality. i thought that was a more temperate tone than people expected opinion i thought the speech was very strong on health care and strong on foreign

policy. i thought this was a good speech. it was a speech that was clearly working within limits. he recognizes where he is in the political cycle, the limits of what his power are. i think it was a pretty strong speech. >> he asked that the congress work with him and get big things done but with the proposals, he conceded i've been here five years, i guess you're not going to work with me on the big things i want to get done. we talked about raising the minimum wage for federal contract workers. that's good for them but doesn't help the larger economy if you put it together. he can't use an executive order to fix every problem. he knows that so he's chipping away on that. >> immigration, a lot of people sat up and clapped on that, he talked about israel, recognizing a jewish state, the entire time

the entire body got up. i wanted to hear him say, you guys want keystone if you give me the natural gas retro fit stations. you don't like my health care plan, let's give some help to small business leaders. i want a big infrastructure investment, you want entitlement reform. we can teak the country from paying people at this level to another level. the higher paying jobs are in the energy sector, the health care sector and construction sector. that's what i wanted to hear him say. >> yeah, but you're not going to hear him say that, though. you didn't have any parties farther across than bill clinton

and newt gingrich and the democrats were livid in 1997 when bill clinton finally decided to agree to a balanced budget plan in seven years. they were livid, they were livid with welfare reform, republicans were livid on one compromise after another. we don't hear that from this president and we don't hear that from republicans because they don't know how to do it. they're amateurs. they don't know how to run washington, d.c., six years into this, they still don't know how to do a basic deal. >> what paul ryan was able to achieve helped lay the groundwork for these not huge budget agreement but they're bigger pip just wanted to hear the president lay out where he's

willing to go if republicans are willing to coming his way. five years in, i think we deserve that. >> let's hear what the president had to say now about the minimum wage. >> as chief executive, i intend to lead by example. profitable corporations like costco see higher wages as the smart way to boost productivity and reduce turnover beep should, too. in the coming weeks, i will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 because if you cook our troops' meals or wash their dishes, you should not have to live in poverty. this will help families, it will give businesses customers with more money to spend. it does not involve new bureaucratic program. so join the rest of the country. say yes. give america a raise.

give them a raise. >> and therein lies the difference between democrats and republicans, liberals and conservatives. liberals believe the wave you give americans a better future is by having the federal government pass new regulation, new demands, new orders on government. >> okay, don't even start me. are you kidding me? >> new health care plans. they think they're trying to help americans and they're actually stunting economic growth. you can be offended. that's the economic reality. that's the difference between conservative and liberals. liberals say let's help the american people -- >> because we're on such a good track. >> but pushing all of our regulatory ideas from washington, d.c. down instead of allowing small business go up. we got in trouble in 2007 and 2008 because it was one bubble after another bubble after another bubble fueled by what? the federal government. fueled by giving one big break

to another big break to wall street bankers and by barney frank and other people calling republicans racist if they said that 75% of americans shouldn't have houses and if you can't afford to buy a house, then you probably shouldn't -- we shouldn't gin up the market to do that. let's go back and look at why when two them and it came. >> what does that have to do with the minimum wage? >> ronald reagan raised the minimum wage. george w. bush raiseth the minimum wage. >> you have fewer people participating in the workforce, than any time since the 1980s saying, hey, i've got a great idea. let's actually make entrance into the job market even

tougher. listen, you go -- i swear to god you talk to one small business owner than another, they will tell you they're hiring less people because of obama care. they're retooling their entire operations because they're not able to afford the regulations. the president's view is let's make it hard who are. >> some part of the health care law i don't disagree with you, but to john's point, every time we raise minimum wage and make unemployment that's not been true, the data shows difference. the 10.10, if the men mum waj just increased at the rate of inflation, it would be a little higher than this. working for minimum wage on campus, it's fair. but people who are 24, 25, 26,

primary bread winners, i think it should be raised. >> do you think now is the time to pass on a minimum wage increase at a time when job participation is at its lowest rate and more people have given up hope of even getting a minimum wage war than ever before? >> not ever before. since the 1980s. i think it can be -- i think we can provide a series of tax breaks. >> where does the free lunch come from? >> joe, we're going to subsidize it -- >> not the free lunch from people giving like $10 an hour. the free lunch from if people can't afford to hire new employees now at the minimum wage, how is it going to be easier when it's $3 more policy. but if i accept your premise, the reality is we do hire at

7:25, $10, $10.50 an hour, you are and i still going to significant important is lives of their segment. >> right now we have a struggling economy. instead of the president striking these compromises we're talking about, this is what we want, we want t hire minimum wage for all americans. >> higher wages. >> right. >> what we're going to do in return for that is give you this. instead it just one government plan after another government plan after another government regulation, after another government scheme and there's never any trade-off. you're sitting there smirking. >> did yhe did not lay out a buf government schemes last night. he said here's one way to spur growth, cut cop prarp tax rates. neither one of those things seem

to be an impressive regulatory burden placed upon the private sector. it's just not the case. we have really high corporate profits in america right now. >> exactly. >> how do you pay for minimum wage jobs? you pay by reducing corporate profits than are higher than they they've been for a couple generations. wait. alex -- >> i'm for corporate tax return. >> excuse me. how are we doing getting the ceo of costco on? >> they live in california so it's tougher. >> can we try again? as bill gates told me how complicated it was raising minimum wage was, i would love for the ceo of costco and explain why paying people a little better is better for the company as well and doesn't actually hurt your bottom line and maybe the corporate titans who are making such great

profits can make profits. >> we shouldn't ignore that reality. >> it's better for the company if the company makes that decision and they figure it out -- and they figure out -- >> in this age of corporate greed, which still hasn't gone away and bubbles that still exist, and too big to fail that still exist, you're going to tell me that companies are going to make that decision? they're just not. they're cutting and slashing. >> before you put a top hat and mond monacle on me, think of all the things i've said about tax breaks and whoever wants to play the class warfare game can play the class warfare game about me. >> not you. >> the bottom line is i think that income inequality is the generational challenge that we

face. however, i don't think punishing them and making it harder for them to get into the work force. it gets an applause line. >> would you agree, joe, that it should go up with the rate of inflation? it would be a $10.50. >> i think you should look at the economy and when the economy gets stronger, it should go up. by the way, when i economy gets stronger, then inflation usually goes up. i don't think that a time to raise is at a time when the job participation is like a 30-year low, which means more and more people are given giving up looking for a job. >> in the studies you need to look at, joe, there's one a

community is raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour to see how it shakes out. do you have people who lose their jobs because the minimum wage is being raised and you set that against the amount of increased spending among those who have a little more money and the growth prospects that creates. the hope is that spurs on new hiring. the numbers wash out very closely in the study areas where they've done this. as haired said, the times where minimum wage has been hiked, you haven't seen a big fall in employment numbers in those areas. obviously everybody understands these are short-term fixes which bring with nem complications and only long-term fix to social mobility is improving education in the country. >> no doubt about it.

>> and the president didn't lay out a very comprehensive plan to do and there just isn't the long-time thinking going on in this country at a home to do that. you can do that with obama care. obama may go in and maybe the unemployment rates stay flat but there are thousands and thousands of business owners remaining disent peoples don't give me that look on your face, mika, because i hear it every time i talk to a small business owner. so it's small business owners -- >> so is that dentist paying

minimum wage? >> i'm not talking about minimum wage. i'm talking about the affordable care act. you can take it done to minimum wage. i know nobody wants to hear about this but the bottom line is we need a president and we need a congress that understands that you grow the economy and you help people with their jobs by letting small business owners have more control and more power and more authority to grow their companies without washington's interference. one plafr after another plan after another plan coming down from washington, d.c. only makes it harder for them to hire new people. >> we're going to continue this conversation. we have much more to say about the president's speech last night, including his comments on health care and his challenges to congress. and also, this altercation that happened with this congressman and the reporter. did you see that?

>> let's see it. >> we don't have time. >> are we teasing it? >> it's a tease. deep tease. it's crazy. it was a little bit of a physical threat. >> "i will throw you over," like the balcony opinion. >> that's four floors up. >> that will break you in half like a little kid. >> coming up, reince priebus jones us, david actionelrod. jim gregory next. jim vandehei with us and we'll be right back. ♪ just like yesterday and i'll get on my knees and pray ♪ [ simpson ] remember how simple life was when we were little?

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i've come to charleston a few times before to cover tropical storms and hurricanes,

but not an ice and snowstorm, which is what we're expecting. we have not gotten into this storm yet. that is to come a little later on tonight. obviously here at the college of charleston, they're already having a good time. >> all right, that was jim can torn -- cantore on the job. >> south carolina to texas. did you see this, the hardest hit area? atlanta. >> atlanta, not so hot. >> okay, stop. let's go to bill karins. what is going on, bill? >> they have a lot to explain. last night a couple hundred students had to sleep in their school because they couldn't get on their buses. a lot of explaining to do. it was only about two inches of snow but just before the hush

hour caused all the concern. it's very cold, even in atlanta. if they didn't treat the road, it's not going to be much better than it was last night. just a coating of snow from new york city up to connecticut and down to philadelphia and areas near d.c. maybe some slick spots but any treated roads are okay. looks likes maybe one or two inches coastal journey. just enough to make it a little harry on your morning commute. any salted routes should be fine. it does look like we're going to have a warming trend slightly. still very cold from chicago to minneapolis. but it's about 20 degrees warmer today as it was yesterday. today all the air from yesterday will be headed east. and the super bowl forecast, guys, is still looking great, 35 degrees and just a light breeze,

no rain at all. >> i love that he was talking about a warm trend and it showed boston at zero. >> zero. >> oh, my gosh, i'm gok get the bathing suit. >> bill, thank you. it's time now to look at the "morning papers." >> i love this part of the show, mika. >> do you? i do, too. >> what's your problem? no problem. i'm trying to be warm and fuzzy, social. >> it's good to call epg us and you are a challenge as well. >> a lot of weak-minded people -- >> i'm so glad you're here every morning to help us. >> i think people should get paid $5 an hour.

>> you're so mean. >> from our parade of papers, the "san francisco chronicle," yao hao continues to struggle to create advising dollars. the company has been unable to turn that into cash. the ceo says she plans to get more involved with advertising, bhos shares fell 5%. >> and american airlines are up to a strong start since merger revenue was up 9% in the first quarter. and -- >> and back in 2011 a farmer refused to return cows that wandered on to his property. the situation escalated into an

armed standoff -- >> with local officials. this actually land to harold ford and i. >> please stop. >> we had a ranch outside the gatlinberg. >> three years in prison. >> we settled too, too. we didn't get caught. >> gun fight. >> the coast guard of miami is in possession of 2,000 pounds of joe cane. this makes john heileman's life more difficult. a speed boat was started near the dominican republic. four men will appear in court on drug charges. >> before we get to the state of the union, i want to talk about a story that really jumped out at me yesterday.

so these republicans in texas have been saying some really crappy things about wendy davis, saying she's a lousy mom. i mean, really personal crap, which is really the reason why people hate politics. up know what, the erm pier didn't strike back, her daughters did. what a strong defense they gave for wendy davis, saying "but yesterday she said she's tired of her opponent the pushing this gien line. i weeks. the last thing you want to be is a politician trying to plane you're not distorting your record, even if it's just a minor distortion. she's has to find a way to get beyond it. >> but the story that morphed

into wendy davis abandoned her kids. there was an overreach by some people in texas. so i think that actually changed the story from something about her bioto her being a lousy mom and now her daughters are striking back saying it's garbage. >> but her daughters were part of that story, right? they were talking about living in a trailer for a certain period of time. they were there. >> they did live in a trailer. the question is what is she saying now? her marriage effectively ended when -- >> but who cares? who cares if she lived in a trailer when she was 19 or 21? or got divorced at 19 or 21 or lived in a trailer? this all seems like a bunch of

nonsense. this seems -- for two, three, four, weeks at a time that they are distortions their record. >> the biggest distortion is she said she got separated at 19 and the divorce was in '21. >> do you think people are say, oh, my god, i can't dance for her. >> i'm saying if you talk about went away fare lirr quickly. in the state of texas, too, there are enough things she's said and done from a policy perspective that you can go to if you're not fond of wendy davis. all three of her daughters wrote and said she shared equally in

the justice and she was a good mom. >> so hard. >> she left school two weeks at a time to be with her. and it was a struggle. good for her. she did a hell of a good job raising our kids and everything else. it's a bunch of nonsense. what's your take on the state of the union? >> i have a different one than all of you. i think people should be feeling decent or good about washington right now. number one, you got to work from the basics that almost nothing can get done in town. the differences are so big, you can even talk about aspirations. i love your idea of a grand compromise. it's not going to happen, not even plausible in this environment. but a couple things are happening. one, you have a budget agreement for the time time in some time. yesterday the republican ago nalls they're playing -- let's stop your hopefulness money.

>> old on. >> we'll talk about beating up a reporter. alex, people don't know that when i jump in, it's because we have to go to break. >> the reason that the tone from both speeches, the republican response and obama's were important is there wasn't any of the nonsense we seen in. so speeches in the past because both sides think there is a chance can you get small pieces of immigration reform done, you can have the appropriations process start to work again and at least in the context of dysfunctional things that won't washington a drag. >> all right. >> you know who did well last night too? mike lee. i liked his speech and his message and i like it in contrast to what this faction of my party was saying a year ago,

it's hopeful. he's saying it's not enough to be against barack obama, we've got to be for something. >> for people who don't know mike lee, pay attention to him. >> even if you disagree with mike lee, it's good for washington, it's good for this country. >> oh, stop. >> they're talking about putting real ideas out there like throwing people off balconies. michael grimm, not a tea party guy. >> let's talk about something after the state of the union address. congressman michael grimm from staten island here in new york physically threatening a new york one reporter. tried to ask the republican after talking about the speech about a campaign finance -- >> i'm not talking about anything off topic. this is only about the president. >> all right. so congressman michael grimm does not want to talk about some of the allegations concerning his campaign finances.

we wanted to get him on camera on that but he, as you saw, refused to talk about that. back to you. why -- >> [ inaudible ]. >> reporter:. why? why? it's a valid question. >> no. you're not man enough. you're not man enough. i'll break you in half. like a boy. >> what the heck is wrong with him? >> that's wait he used to respond every time we asked him a question. >> how many reporters did you -- that's the way we did interviews, come at you. what's over/under? how many reporters when you get to throw off the balcony?

>> this isn't funny. >> no more than four. >> i'm sure he apologized. >> he apologized in a big way. he put out a statement. he said "i was extremely annoyed because i was doing new york one a favor by rushing to do their interview first in lieu of overly s several other requests. the reporter knew i was in a hurry and was only there to comment on the state of the union. i verbally took the reporter to task and told him off because i expect a certain level of professionalism and respect, especially when i go out of my way to do that reporter a favor. no apologies. >> how do you put that in perspective? you have michael graham sayikchg

to break you in half or tyson saying i'm going to eat your babies. >> he said he didn't have time to answer the question but he hung around. >> who does that? seriously? who does that? it is a competitive district, right? it's a democratic seat, a republican seat. he's a republican, right? >> he's a former agent. >> he's got a tough reelection race. his ex-girl friend was recently arrested for having created the straw donors to get more dollars into his campaign. so he's irritated. >> he threatened that reporter's life. >> it's a psychotic response. >> we've been hanging around

washington since the early, mid the 90s. i can't remember anybody threatening physical force on a reporter like that, can you? >> i've had two congressmen call me and tell me to f off over a story. that's different. >> i almost did right now. >> but threatening somebody with force? >> and then doubling down by defending it. that's astonishing. >> i mean, isn't that actionable? >> is that assault? >> i don't mean to be overly dramatic, but if someone said that to me, i might call the police. >> like something out of "house of cards." >> i heard somebody talk about it's just a kerfuffle, it didn't

mean anything. >> was the reporter a republican? >> the reporter was very subtle. >> if you have a guy that was under investigation and you don't ask, you're not doing your job. >> and as a congressman, you fully anticipate you're going to be asked. >> are you serious? >> get him on the show. we'll be right back. >> he'll throw us off the set. >> we're scared now. >> i'd like to see him break you in half. you make a great team.

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welcome back to "morning joe." yesterday was super bowl media day. >> when you're a little kid and you practice in the back yard, you're like i am going to go to the super bowl, to the rose bowl on south beach or in newark on media day. what a dream, living the dream. >> a lot of focus on richard sherman. >> of course. he had the biggest crowd of media around him, sat up there all day answering questions in

newark, including one, a strange one about strip clubs. >> a lot of you football players, going and throwing down on the strippers. i think that's a bad example for you're girls. >> i've never gone into a strip club throwing money down. trying to understand there are other eaves and other ways of making money. women can do anything they want. you can go out there and be a kre o of a company. same can be said to kids in inner city. the possibilities are limitless and you can work your way out of those situations. >> how about that one. >> that's a stanford education. >> michael grimm can take a lesson from sherman.

>> peyton manning who hosted snl was asked, hey, peyton, you're in new york, are you going to do snl this week? no, i'm in new york. i'm not going do snl. and impeach carroll was asked, "coach, is this a must-win game for you?" i hope it was a parody from somebody. >> it's a long season. if we lose this one, we'll get the next one. >> the guy's a good guy, right, sherman? >> a very good guy. >> seems like it. >> and he was super stoked and passionate. >> he was like dean's list at stanford, out of come tpton. >> you played football. that was two minutes after the

game -- >>ism g is got to admit, five m after the game, i was the calmest guy in the world. but 30 seconds later, i was a nightmare. >> prevented a pass that would have taken your team out of going to the super bowl. it got a lot of attention. it was good marketing. >> mika's must-read opinion paejs next. -- pages next. can you start tomorrow? yes sir. alright. let's share the news tomorrow. today we failrly busy. tomorrow we're booked solid. we close on the house tomorrow.

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pipeline, i do the keystone cops. >> katty, i have a question for you. joe wanted me to read purnham but he talked so much, i don't have time. what did you make overall about the sflun, positive, negative or didn't move the needle? >> i think given the circumstances, it was overall positive. he had an optimistic enough tone and he talked about issues that millions of americans actually do care about. if he-the-could get new savings accounts, it would make a difference this their lives, if they could raise the minimum wage, it would be a big deal. and as written in political, had it become a little bit of theater that network spent a

little time on. and can you really address it all when you're talking climate change to minimum wage and the kitchen sink gets thrown in, too. i have some sympathy with todd's comment that we have to scale the address back again. but on balance i think he did as well as he could do. >> as todd say it reached a new level of emptiness selling more to procter & gamble than jefferson and madison. katty, thank you so much. >> good to see you guys. >> still ahead, reince priebus joins the discussion. we'll be right back with more "morning joe." [ male announcer ] staples has everything you need to launch your big idea.

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coming up, ari fleischer joins the political table. "morning joe" is back in a moment. ♪ make every day, her day with a full menu of appetizers and entrées

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joins the political table. ♪ i can't help but feeling i'm fighting the effects of illusion ♪ >> what did you think about the president's state of the union last night? >> i don't know. >> did you think there was too much product placement in the state of the union? >> that surprises me. cheapens politics. >> do you think that joe biden embarrassed himself last night? >> very much so. >> what did you think about obama faking the heart attack at the end? >> i think that was more for shock value, not sympathy or

what have you. >> even worse, those questions were asked before. >> look how beautiful that is. >> a beautiful snowy day in washington. >> ari -- keep it on there. it's a lot more beautiful on the outside than when you're working on the inside. >> it's pretty beautiful on the inside, too. >> even during the bad times. >> the people you have to work with get a little harder and the issues make it harder but the place is beautiful. >> here with us, former president white house press secretary, ari fleischer, now president of ari fleischer communications. >> and director of chicago's institute of politics and also mr. saturday night fever. kind of looks "saturday night

feverish," doesn't he? >> i don't think so. >> he looks sleepy. >> and moderator of "meet the press" very conservative david gregory. >> david axelrod, thinking about you and your family and the passing of your mom. a remarkable woman. >> my mom lived a good, long life. she was a reporter in the 1940s when very few women were big city newspaper reporters. she was a pioneer on madison avenue. she was an advertising executive during the "mad men" era, which wasn't easy for a woman. she was a trail blazer in qualitative research. she was one of the early pioneers and focus groups. so she did an awful lot in her life. and, you know, we're really, really proud of her. sad to not have her with us anymore. but she lived a good, long life.

wa wasn't cheated at all. >> an extraordinary life. >> so let's move to politics. the president last night speaking with an awful lot of challenges. just look at the fact that any president six years in is going to be facing a certain tune-out factor. what struck you about the president's speech last night? >> well, i thought he actually thread the needle really well. what you don't want to do is engage in what everybody sees as a kabuki dance, where you have a long list of things that you know aren't going to get done. people were looking for real practical answers to the real troubles of our time, which is we have an economy that are growing, but many are being left behind, we have forces that we these effects and what do we do to push back and give people more security for the values of

americans, which is you work hard, you should be able to get ahead. that was the focus of the speech and i thought he did it well. >> well, fleischer, what did you speak about that? >> well, the tribute to the sergeant. the down side is i think that's the only thing people are going to remember of this speech. but it was a marvelous tribute. >> six years in, president bush and president obama's approval ratings about the same according to chuck todd. almost identical. and you do face that tune-out factor. >> i think the tune-out is overrated. three years is a long time for presidents to still have power and presidents have power. when you look at president clinton's last two years in office, he got a lot of legislation enacted through a republican congress, able to

repeal major banking legislation. president clinton was able to enact the balanced budget act in 1987. george bush worked with a democratic congress, congressional approval and of course t.a.r.p. it's a question of does president obama have the legislative and executive ability to do these things. he doesn't have a strong track record of getting things done. >> as you watched the speech last night, what was the one thing you took away, here are some marching orders and some things that can get done in 2014, but that one solid thing where you said, okay, here's a piece of legislative meat that maybe republicans will chew on with the president. >> i think it's immigration. i don't think we're going to be talking about my ira for a long

period of time but i do think immigration has momentum. there's going to be pushback. but the house speaker was clear there's no good time to take it on. while the president certainly laid out last night, he has taken to heart what the house speaker and others said to him, which is don't talk about it too much, let's just get to work on it. i think out of everything, the president wants to try to both explain why there's inequality in the economy and set a course toward fixing it which is about this year and in years to come. i think immigration is perhaps achievable here. >> on the issue of health care, president obama called on republicans to either come up with ideas or accept the law of the land. >> i do not expect to convince my republicans friends on the merits of this law. [ laughter ] >> but, i know that the american

people are not interested in refighting old battles. so, again, if you have specific plans to cut costs, cover more people, increase choice, tell america what you'd do differently, let's see if the numbers add up. but let's not have another 40 something votes to repeal a law that's already helping millions of americans like amanda. [ cheers and applause ] >> the first 40 were plenty. we all owe it to the american people to say what we're for, not just what we're against. >> he made a point like that several times, david gregory. he's like, listen, i'm going to have to do there myself if you can't get it done. when you read the text of the speech before the speech, you might think this is going to be really confrontational. but the tone of it was -- i

don't want to say playful but he helped his case a lot trying to say let's work together, let's all try and do this and let's not be ridiculous anymore. >> mika, when i talked to democrats ahead of the speech, particularly for those running for reelection, they said the president needs to stop apologizing for obamacare. they don't want to spend all the time trying to win the argument. they want to neutralize the argument. the president said to american people the republicans are beating this dead here when it's already the law of the land, and we've got to deal with who it actually helps, even though he understands that republicans are not really giving up this fight. but they'd like to fight it to neutral so the president can pivot to talk about these middle class pocketbook issues that they want to run on and they want his help to run on in a lot of these districts this year. >> those who may say the

president last year spent a lot of time talking about gun reform and new regulations after the tragedy the country's faced and we had another tragedy in hawaii and honolulu yesterday with very little attention about. the president has taken action about the minimum wage. to those of you who listened last night and said it's a lot more of the same. how do you say what he talked about is achievable? >> relative to guns? >> no. how can we have optimism about things that can be achieved between now and next year? >> i think that's why he focused on very discrete things, expanding high-tech hubs, revamping our training program so that you can match people with the jobs that are available out there and the jobs that will be available tomorrow. he was vareful to balance large

legislative proposals with some of these other proposals that be could executed without big action. that was the needle he had to thread because people came with great skepticism. yes, the other presidents got things done in their later years, but the fact of the matter is it's never been the case we've seen a legislative leader like mitch mcconnell say our goal was not to cooperate on any issue because we didn't want to give him that big bipartisan victory or john boehner say our job is not it pass legislation, it's to block legislation. these were the things the leaders have been saying. that's the attitude that the president faced. the american people know that. so they're looking for him to find ways to act and to move the ball forward, even if congress sits on its hands. >> when george bush was president, i just wanted to point out, the senate majority leader harry reid called him a loser and a liar.

every president has cantankerous relationships. >> the law is fine. your means are extraordinarily regulated. look at gun control. he had the country significantly with him after newtown, did everything in his power after executive orders. if you asked anybody in the democratic base, they'd say it's absolutely insufficient, we need more. that's the problem that president obama will run into as he pushes executive orders. >> let me point out a couple of things. first of all, it was the democrats in congress who at the end of the bush administration when we faced a financial crisis stood up while many republicans were running away and supported the president at a very difficult time politically to keep the financial system from collapsing. we haven't seen that kind of cooperation since president

obama's been president. as for guns, the president indicated last night he was going to continue to search for avenues, particularly to -- i assume around background checks. so we'll see where that all leads. but the notion that somehow george bush faced what this president has faced simply isn't true. this has been an organized policy from the very beginning to try and thwart this president and now he has to find ways to move the ball forward, even if congress isn't willing to act. >> i think it is actually, david, a good parallel. i think the hatred and vitriol that was spewed toward president bush during his eight years in office, i will find mainstream or cable news or talk radio hateful statements made about barack obama and i will match them line for line with hateful, vitriolic statements about

george w. bush being a nazi, being a war criminal, et cetera. and i will, by the way, be able to match those to bill clinton. >> those of represehensible things. and obama denounced them, sometimes to the dismay of the left. but that's different from cooperating when there were urgent national leads. but when the democrats were called on to help save the system from collapse -- >> and the auto industry. >> and the auto industry. >> but i'll take it to the next step. give an example of when republicans have stood with this president in a national moment that's as urgent as what we saw -- >> raising the debt limit three years ago. when you look at the vote, republicans delivered more votes on this than the democrats did.

the democrats split on raising the debt limit. the tea party -- the tea party -- >> the majority of freshmen voted for it. a lot of democrats didn't because it included big cuts -- >> i challenge you on that. >> the job is to come together. this is the president's past. >> by the way, it starts though -- i challenge you on this. george w. bush gets into office and comes to middle ground on j kaegs reform that offended voters, including me. let me make my point here. that was george bush coming to the center doing that. you tell me -- you know me. you worked with me in congress for four terms. you tell me which of these votes

i would have voted for. would i have voted for a bailout of big banks that was three pages long? no. would i have voted for a stimulus package that was the largest bill ever that no bell went through and epredicted it was a steaming pile of crap? and i said it on the air time and type again. >> no. >> then he came with cap and trade. i would have voted for obama care? like these questions, oh, these republicans, is there not a single bill that -- >> but it's not only -- >> that's the point -- >> give me a comprehensive plan that gives something to both sides. >> but it's not only that republicans did not vote with the president. many democrats voted against the president on these ideas because they weren't centrist ideas. that's the president's problem. >> but for teddy kennedy embracing, you would not have all the democrats supporting.

you make my point. democrats came to be helpful to this last president. i just don't know of an instance -- you named one, i challenge you -- >> but, harold, that starts with a president who on the stimulus package said i got elected. i won, you lost, this is the stimulus package we putting out there. then he capped trade. >> keystone. >> infrastructure. infrastructure. >> i agree on infrastructure, r & d. let's talk about the republican party's problems. you got a president that's got low approval ratings. republicans have even lower approval ratings. you have the president that has vision and then you have the republicans who can't even unite behind one speaker. >> they have three. >> they have three! >> can we show some? >> here's the three republican responses looked like. let's go.

>> our mission not only as republicans but as americans is to once again ensure that we are not bound by where we come from but empowered by what we can become. that is the gap republicans are working to close. it's the gap we all face between where you are and where you want to be. the president talks a lot about income inequality. but the real gap we face today is one of opportunity inequality, and with this administration's policies, that gap has become far too wide. >> you're probably as frustrated as i am about an ever-growing government that somehow thinks it's okay to lie to, spy on and even target its own citizens. many hard-working americans are discouraged and wondering what, if anything, can be done. today americans know in their hearts that something's wrong. much of what's wrong relates to the sense that the american dream is falling out of reach

for far too many of us. we're facing an inequality crisis, one to which the president has paid lip service but seems uninterested in correcting. >> a thriving middle class doesn't come from shuffling the deck chairs on the "titanic." families across america are worried. good jobs are hard to find. mr. president, where are the jobs? as a country, all of us together must ask are we better off when we borrow money from china? are we better off when we print more money to pass around, hoping no one will notice if the emperor has no clothes. the illusion wears thin. it's time we choose another path. >> good lord. what i said yesterday was just have kathy mcmorris rogers. >> kathy did a great job. >> she was fantastic. >> david?

>> i have to tell you guys that i respectfully disagree with at that. i think she did the best perhaps that she could do, but that is a terrible assignment responding. the next person who thinks they're going to get called to give the response ought to change their phone number and not share it with anybody. when i listened to her speech, she was very pleasant but it reminded me -- the old mayor daley once made a speech and he misread his lines and said "we have to rise to higher and higher platitudes." that's the way it was. >> and what about the republicans that can't even stand behind one response? >> it seems like a lot of responses. but i think the republican party, you know, speaker boehner is in a position where he feels a little built more empop-upered right now, even though he knows he'll get a lot of resistance

pushing immigration this year. he was even saying yesterday that the party has to change direction, that it has to go back to where it was. if they want to retake the white house and retake the senate, they have to get out of this opposition stage where they're meat grinders fighting the president. they have to generate ideas. i don't think that some of these huge fissures between the tea party and the rest of the party are resolved, which is why there will still be a lot of fighting about health care and aspects of health care reform that could be tied to the debt ceiling. don't forget, that has to be raised next month. while the speaker wants that to be drama free, there are still going to be some issues tied to it. >> so, david, seahawks or the

broncos? >> i'm going with the broncos. usually the defensive team wins but i think the broncos are so potent and peyton is on a roll. >> ari, what do you? >> how can you cheer against peyton. >> seahawks. >> did you say the seahawks, mika? >> yes. >> ari fleischer, thank you, david gregory thank you. up next, reince priebus joins us. and, joe, there's someone who would like to talk to you about the minimum wage. >> who is that? >> someone from the white house. and they're going to call you. >> fantastic. i love chalk and erasers. but change is coming. all my students have the brand new surface.

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all right, here with us now from washington, republican

national committee chairman reince priebus. really good to have you on the show this morning. >> how you doing, man? >> you know, everyone's complaining about the snow out here. this is like a spring break warmup for us cheese heads. >> i know, i know. speaking of cheese heads, scott walker, one of my favorites, why don't we do a little rnc paid advertisement. god knows we can use it around here after getting killed by mika on the minimum wage. scott walker is looking good in the latest polls. this is a guy who may have national aspirations. >> well, i mean, i think scott's a real testament of leadership, especially among our governors. but really, he's the kind of classic case of where if you just don't overpromise, you make a few big promises and you follow through and you're a man of your word and you're genuine, you're authentic, they'll support you. some democrats think he's doing

a great job. >> isn't it crazy? i heard some suggest scott walker's not conservative enough. what exactly do you do with people in our party like that? seriously when scott walker is not conservative enough for your party, perhaps you need to go to another party. >> i haven't heard a whole lot of that but i'm sure it's out there. >> we have to grow our party through addition and multiplication, we can't subtract and build our party stronger. i have to be the chairman that there are two doors we can go through. in 2012 about 60 million people walked through the mitt romney door. if we're going to grow our party, we got to make that door even wider so that people can come through and that means all aspects of our party have to be welcome in that door. >> i thought kathy did a good

job yesterday with the response. the republicans concerned with three responses, rather than one. don't we have to whittle that down. >> i heard the conversation. i actually don't think so. i think that having ross do the response to hispan response, the hispanic and latino response was good and the tea party express had mike lee. and there are people who are going to tune into the tea party express. i think it's a positive thing for the republican party for the tea party to put in a good republican, giving a good republican response saying this president isn't delivering on his promises and there's a better way and that there's a republican senator explaining the better way. i think it's great. >> doesn't that show the sense that you don't really have a leader and someone that you're

putting out there as like the universal head of the party who can really respond to the president? no? >> here's the reality, mika. when you're five years out of the white house, obviously there are a lot of voices, and i think one of the challenges in our party is to keep all of those different voices in the same room and speaking out of same hymnal. i think last night you saw that. granted different people speaking but if you look back over the last few years, it's the same thing that happened last year and the year before. but keeping the party together, look, we're going to have targeted races in montana, south dakota, arkansas, louisiana, west virginia. these are very red states. i feel really good about our chances in 2014. >> it's john heileman here. i wanted to talk about immigration, there's been a lot of debate in the last week in

your party. some of it on this set among some republican strategist who is say i know there a lot of people getting a lot of pressure from the business community. a lot of people think this would be a good thing to get done in 2014. some people have been pushing back saying bad idea for the party in the political election. where do you come on that in the course of getting this done over the course of the next ten months. >> it's probably a mixed bag. i think politically speaking it's a mixed bag. but the question is whether or not it's something we have to do as a country. i think that's what's trumping the political answer. you see in our party, whether you're rand paul, who has called for massive immigration reform or marco rubio, i think you have general con sense us that something big has to happen. what that is, i can't tell you. yesterday at the press conference i was at with speaker boehner, he pledged we were going to go with our retreat over the next couple of days and

come up with a set of principles and those principles would be revealed and shared with the press as soon as it was done. that's a commitment from the speaker of the house and there's a commitment among the most conservative and most moderate members of our party that it's something we have to get serious about and i think you're seeing that. >> the president said he was looking for more votes from republicans on health care instead of vote after vote of trying to repeal it. and can you support a minimum wage increase, particularly from states voting in overwhelming numbers, including tea party states, to raise the minimum wage? >> the president has to be willing to sit down and talk to republicans. one, it's kind of a novel idea but we ought to find a way to pay for these things. that's number one. number two, i think we ought to look at some of the 150 bills on

jobs that republican passed and maybe there's a few things that we can put into this program, if there is an increase in the minimum wage, to help get to the root of the problem. on the first part of your question -- what was the first part, senator? >> health care. what are some of your ideas? >> first of all, i don't think there's anything wrong with the fact that we have a republican party that understands that obamacare is something people don't want and it's something what we want to either defund or delay. there's nothing to be ashamed of. it's a crummy bill, a crummy law and people don't like it. as far as specifics, we've never tried in this country, we've never tried to get to this layer -- this layer above the poverty line on access and affordability is the issue. we've never tried ending junk lawsuits. we've never tried the idea of open pricing so that hospitals and doctors actually share with us what these charges are. we've never tried health care pooling where millions of individuals and businesses can pool their resources together so

that people can get lower prices. and, you know, yeah, preexisting conditions as well and mitt romney ran on that platform. so these are specifics but we don't get to sit down at the table with the president. i mean, he presents a decent speech but the follow-through isn't there. and that's the problem, harold. >> chairman, it's willie geist. on a different note, you made some comments on friday, addressing mike huckabee as libido comment and you said something pretty smart, guys, we have to have the policy right, we believe we have our policy right but we also have to watch the tone. last night you have a congressman from florida texting "i'm waiting on the commandante in chief, relating to the

president. >> we have to be careful because many people are waiting in the bushes to create bigger issues out of smaller issue. mike huckabee had a great message on last week and i wish people would listen to the whole speech, he did pretty well, and it goes back to we have to promote and be a big party. and word choices are important and they're especially important when we dealing with a stacked deck, i think, as republicans in this conversation. and i'm pretty careful. >> it was a good message. i mean, it was a good message that mike huckabee gave until he started talking about women's libido. >> i think it was one word in the wrong place that people were thrown off with. >> no, no, no, no, no. >> i don't want to make it about mike huckabee. i just don't want people going around stamping all of what mike huck baef said on you. you certainly disagree --

>> it was an interesting -- >> hold on, hold on, make sure this is very clear for everybody that's watching, you certainly do not associate yourself with mike huckabee's libido comments, would you? >> i wouldn't have put that word in there in that place, but i will tell you i'm not going to be a chairman that throws people under the bus, no matter who they are in our party, except for the most extreme circumstances and this is not an extreme circumstance. so i want to build everybody up in our party. we're not going to divide and subtract. whether it be governor huckabee, paul ryan, rand paul or scott walk walker, i need to build this party. that means lay the groundwork but it also means not throwing people under the bus. >> there you go. spoken like a chairman there. >> who wins the super bowl, chairman? >> my packers are out of it. i am nfl crazy as far as sports but i guess i'm going to go with

russell wilson and the wisconsin badgers on this one. >> there you go. >> well, that's what you and i have in common, reince priebus. >> one of many things, reince. >> i'm not convinced the the packers couldn't somehow still win. >> the packers could win! >> still ahead, a reporter from new york threatens a reporter. we'll be back in a minute. >> here it comes, here it comes ♪ during the day, we generate as much electricity as we can using solar. at night and when it's cloudy, we use more natural gas. this ensures we can produce clean electricity whenever our customers need it. ♪

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in atlanta, the snow came in during the afternoon. the kids were still in school, they weren't released yet and everyone had to get home from work and it started snowing. it under into a huge mess. a couple hundred students didn't make it home, slept in the school. two students spent the night on the bus with a bus driver stuck on the road. those parents not happy. the storm has just about completely gone. the only really snow that's left is out on long island, rhode island and cape cod.

cape cod up to 4 to 6 inches this morning. it's a little warmer in the plains. it's fine to call minus 14 warmer. the warm air is finally returning to the middle of the country, kansas city today, and arriving to the east coast by the end of the week. the super bowl looks just fine, temperatures should be in the 30s. >> coming up, how members of the house are reacting to the public's speech. we'll speak to cristi noem and elijah cummings next. [ female announcer ] yoplait greek 100.

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kristi noem and congressman elijah cummings. good to have you both on board this morning. >> i worked with elijah for a long time so i'm not going to start with him. i know what he's going to say. congresswoman, what did you think of the speech last night? anything the president said that you picked up and thought maybe we can work together as a congress, get some things done? >> there was parts of the president's speech that were certainly inspirational. when he referred to the army ranger and told his story, i think it brought all of us to tears. and we've had some agreements over the last months with the budgeteals and today the farm bill. i guess i was disappointed throughout the rest of his speech he didn't talk more about how we could work together. in fact, it was either my way or the highway and if you don't do it my way, i'm going to ignore

you and do it as an executive order. it alarmed people and it got very partisan through the middle of that speech. >> quick follow-up. what would be your proposal as to how to break through this gridlock. >> we have the skills program. i would love to see them sit down with the authors of that bill and see if there's some of that we could sit down and do together. we all have the ability to sit down and be reasonable individuals and talk and move this country forward. >> congressman cummings, willie geist. what are the specific pieces of legislation or a couple of things that you took out of the speech that are not pie in the sky but reasonable things that could get done in this congress? >> i do believe we should be

able to get immigration done. i think it's very important and i think that if, as the president said, if it was actually presented to us in the house, i think members would vote for it. but it's got to be presented. and i think that's a very, very important issue. it's interesting when that issue came up in a speech, my republican colleagues sat down. there's a whole segment of our population that wants to be included in the society and be a significant part. so i think that's a very important piece. but on the other hand, i think the president was making it clear that he still continues to reach out a hand to congress to say, look, let's work together. but you got to remember, this is a president who only has less than three years left in his term and he has seen over and over again when he has reached out, the republicans have said no, and they have been the ones saying my way or the highway. and i sit in a very unique

position as ranking on oversight and government reform to see a lot of things that a lot of members don't even know about, that is attacks on this president and to see them over and over again. >> if i can interrupt just for one second, house republicans have passed one piece of legislation after another after another. the conservatives like myself support and believe in. and instead of those pieces of legislation being worked on in the senate, have been compromised on in committee, harry reid just kills them. he never lets them see the light of day. so how do we come together as a country, how does capitol hill come together if harpy reid doesn't even let these republican bills that pass the house that get some democratic votes get debated on in the senate? >> certainly i cannot -- i have enough problems speaking for the house. i cannot speak for harry reid. i would hope the senate would look at those pieces of

legislation and bring them back, joe, in conference so we can get something done. i agree that my constituents get very frustrated. they want to see us get things done. the whole issue of economic inequality, i thought that was a great theme for the president because there are people looking at us right now who are tu suffering, who don't have jobs, who can't make ends meet and they see us not being able to raise the minimum wage, not being able to get unemployment insurance done, and they're frustrated. and they're slipping out of the middle class into a lower class. >> harold ford. >> good morning, congresswoman. your state has the second lowest unemployment rate in the country at about 3.7%. what role is energy playing in that and what can congress learn from some of the things you all are doing to create higher paying jobs in your state? >> you know, i am from south dakota. we don't have the energy boom that north dakota is certainly seeing.

but someone like me who lives in a stay where we need energy to stay warm in the wintertime, to stay cool in the summer, it's a long of the sources we use, 70%, 80%, comes from the sources he talked about regulating out of existence in the past. so that's alarming for people through the middle of the country that that's really the only option they have, and the regulations would drive up the costs and make it more difficult for people to pay their bills and those businesses to survive. >> congresswoman, if he agreed to that, could you support a minimum wage increase, if the president laid that out as one of the things that placate republican to support what the democrats -- >> yeah, we have minimum wage on our ballot the fall. it's a perfect way to handle this. it's not something i'm opposed to. but there needs to be other ideas. in south dakota, we've kept our taxes low, kept our regulations low. we've given people the opportunity to make smart budget desises. our state's made smart budget

decisions and we balance the budget every year. that's why we have a low unemployment rate. businesses are coming there. >> christine nome and elijah cummin cummings, thank you all so much. you know the report threatened by the congressman -- >> he might -- >> mike the scotto. >> we might have him next. >> who, the reporter? >> yes. the great michael scotto. has he been broken in half? all kinds of good things started, when i started weight watchers new simple start. i started losing weight right away. i started smiling right away. and the weight keeps coming off. simple start was the 2-week jump start i needed, and i'm well on my way. it's as simple as that. you'll see. join for free and get motivation at meetings like i did or do it entirely online. ♪ weight watchers. your new beginning starts here.

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so obviously last night a lot of handshaking, back slapping inside the chamber on capitol hill. but it got very tense outside -- >> "goodfellows." >> republican president michael grimm threatened a reporter after the state of the union. the new york 1 reporter tried to ask the congressman about a campaign finance investigation. >> since we have you here, we haven't had a chance to talk about -- >> i'm not speaking about anything about off-topic. this is about the president's speech -- >> what about -- so congressman michael grimm does not want to talk about some of the allegations concerning his campaign finances. we wanted to get him on camera on that, but he, as you saw, refused to talk about that. back to you. >> let me be clear to you -- [ inaudible ]

>> and that new york 1 reporter michael scotto jones us now. >> hi, how are you? >> you okay, man? >> i'm doing find. i'm doing find. >> you're right. you're a good reporter. so walk us through -- >> that's what freido -- >> this is serious. >> michael, we couldn't hear a lot of what was said there. walk us what happened from the time you signed off, pitched it back to the studio and congressman grimm came back and approached you? >> yeah, basically, i had tried to ask him, as you show, tried to ask him about the investigation -- the federal investigation into fund-raising for his 2010 campaign. as you saw, he walked away when i asked him that.

and then i signed off, tossed it back to the studio. and he then came back and approached me. and i was taken aback. i have never -- i'm used to people giving me pushback for questions, but i was not used to something like that. he basically came over to me, as you saw, and said if i ever do something like that again, he would throw me from the balcony, and he continued to criticize saying i really shouldn't have asked that question without giving him notice, and that he had only really agreed to talk about the state of the union address. >> michael, we kid -- there's a little bit of that that takes place off camera. did he look angry in his eyes? did he touch you at all, physically, like, accost you? >> no, he did not touch me. he did seem angry. angrier than i have ever seen a politician talk to a reporter about a question that he or she didn't like. he did not touch me. >> okay. >> do you think you threatened him in any way? >> what do you mean? >> no, it's ridiculous!

this is the nicest young man i've ever seen. >> young man, come on. seriously, you ask him a question that you really as a reporter had to ask him, right? there's an ongoing investigation. how could you not ask him that question? >> yeah, well, that's the then. the investigation's been going on for a couple of years. >> yeah. >> it was just in the last two weeks of the investigation started heating up. a person who's reportedly a friend of his was arrested in houston for apparently using straw donors to go above the campaign finance limits. and we really haven't been anyone to talk with him on camera about that. we've had reporter guess to events of his on staten island, and they've been unable to talk to him about it. when he was there talking about the state of the union, he thought it was the perfect opportunity to ask him a question that we've been trying to ask him for almost two weeks now. >> all right, michael, thank you so much. we greatly appreciate you coming on the show. and as old sarge used to say in "hill street blues," stay safe

out there. >> are you going to take it further? >> it seems actionable. >> i mean, legally -- >> no, i'm going to leave it. i'm going to leave it as is. i think the tape speaks for itself, so i'm going to leave it the way it is. >> stay safe, my friend. "morning joe" will be right back. hi, are we still on for tomorrow? tomorrow. quick look at the weather. nice day, beautiful tomorrow. tomorrow is full of promise. we can come back tomorrrow. and we promise to keep it that way. driven to preserve the environment, csx moves a ton of freight nearly 450 miles on one gallon of fuel. what a day. can't wait til tomorrow.

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action. that's what most americans want. for all of us in this chamber to focus on their lives, their hopes, their aspirations. and what i believe unites the people of this nation, regardless of race or region or party, young or old, rich or poor, is the simple profound belief of opportunity for all. the notion that if you would, hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead in america. [ applause ] >> good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast, 5:00 a.m. on the west coast as you look live at new york city. back on set, john hywellman, harold ford jr. and in washington, catty kay. the diminished state of the union, and in "washington post," obama's muted call. "time" magazine characterized the president's proposals as modest, and "national review" called it a small speech on a big stage.

bill maher took a shoot at the failed premises at the beginning of the speech, here comes the long list of stuff that will never happen. >> i don't think he said stuff. >> yeah, he didn't. i'm not sure i really liked it. what did you think, cat ty? >> a speech of diminished expectations. the audacity of hope has -- i mean, if you want big chaens in america, you have to go with congress, you have to have legislation. and the president has realized and said repeatedly with or without you i'm going to try to do things, but it's mostly going to be without congress, and i'm going to try to do things to change the lives of middle class americans with savings plans, with education, with minimum wage that will improve the lives of millions of poorer americans, and i'll have to try to do what i can by myself. and the truth is he can't do very much by himself. it's not the way the system was

set up. he can tinker around the edges, and that's what his presidency over the next three years is going to be. tinkering around the edges. >> and he pretty much said, if you can't work with me, i'm going to work alone. and i'm not sure how that's going to play. i'm not sure that was the strategy. i did like the calls for unity. in his speech, president obama called for action vowing to use executive action if need be. >> but america does not stand still and neither will i, so wherever and whenever i can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more american families, that's what i'm going to do. >> the president also dedicated a lot of real estate to the minimum wage. we'll get to that in just a moment. but first, howlman, what do you think of the president saying, i'm going to do it myself if you can't work with me? and was that what he was saying? >> i don't totally think that he was. they previewed the speech as if that is what it would be about, and he would strike a slightly

confrontation tone. i thought his tone was pretty -- not very partisan. >> i agree. >> he did not take a lot of shots at the republicans. he reached out a fair amount, and more than i expected him to do. i think he laid out areas where he wants to act alone. he also laid out a bunch of areas where they could act together, and very purposefully steered clear of wading into the immigration thing. he thinks there's movement and a deal that could be reached there. i thought the president's was up -- more upbeat than i expected him to be. it was not a speech, again, previewed that he would focus on inequality. it did a little bit of that, but more focus on mobility, a slightly different economic mobility rather than on the question of just pure inequality. i thought that was a more temperate tone, and i thought the speech was very strong on foreign policy. i thought it was a pretty good speech given, i think catty is right a, speech working within

the limits. he recognizes where he is right now in the political cycle, and the limits to the capital that he has and what the limits on his power are. but within those constraents, i think it was a pretty strong speech. >> he asked with his words that congress work with him and get big things done, but with the proposals out there, conceded, listen, i've been here five years now, i get you're not going to work with me on the big things, and so, we talk about executive orders for raising the minimum wage on federal contract workers, it's good for them, but it doesn't help the larger economy. so he can't use an executive order to fix every problem, and he knows that, so he's sort of chipping away at it here. >> i would agree. i think john's take, your take spot on. immigration, a lot of people stood up and clapped. when he talked about israel, palestinian agreement recognizing a jewish statement, the only time i saw the entire body get up. i'll say two or three things i

was disappointed. i wanted to hear him say, you want keystone, you kwgive me th retrofit. and you want the help to small business leaders, i want a big infrastructure investment, you want entitlement reform. give me infrastructure investment, i'll give you no social security medicare for people under 45, unless they can show extreme hardship, take the country from paying at this level to this level. higher paying jobs are energy, health care, construction sector. >> you're not going to hear that from this president, but that's how washington works. >> that would have worked -- >> that is actually how it worked. you didn't have two sides any further apart than bill clinton and democrats and newt gingrich and republicans, and yet, you know what, we sat down and we made some compromises, both sides hated. the democrats were absolutely

livid in 1997 when bill clinton finally decided to agree do a balanced budget plan in seven years. they were livid. livid with welfare reform. republicans were livid on one compromise or another. we don't hear that from this president, and we don't hear it from republicans, because they don't know how to do it. they're amateurs. they don't know how to run washington, d.c., six years into this, republicans and democrats that are up there right now are such amateurs, they still don't know how to do a basic deal. >> it's like tennis. if the person you're playing with is terrible, you're going to play terribly. >> although a small deal, i'm encouraged, and we said on your show here, what paul ryan and patty murray were able to achieve, lay the groundwork, they're chipping away. there's some predicate that can be achieved and i want to hear the president lay out where he's willing to go. five years in, i think we

deserve that. >> to opponent out they may not have been in the past. let's hear what the president had to say about the minimum wage. >> as chief executive, i intend to lead by example. profitable korgss like costco see higher wages as the smart way to boost productivity and reduce turnover. we should, too. in the coming weeks, i will issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay their federally funded employees a fair wage of at least $10.10 an hour, because if you cook our troops' meals or wash their dishes, you should not have to live in poverty. this will help families. it will give businesses customers with more money to spend. it does not involve any new bureaucratic program. so join the rest of the country. say yes. give america a raise. [ applause ] give them a raise. >> and therein lies the

difference between republicans and democrats, liberals and dfrt republicans. >> don't even start me. are you kidding me? >> new health care plans that they're trying to help americans and what they're doing is stunting growth, economic growth. you can be offended and everybody can be offended. that's the economic reality. that is a difference between conservatives and liberals. liberals say let's help the american people -- >> because we were on such good track. >> let's help the american people by pushing all of our regulatory ideas from washington, d.c., down instead of allowing small business to grow and grow up. no, you know why we got in trouble in we got in trouble in 2007 and 2008, because one bubble after another bubble after another bubble fuelled by what, the federal government. fuelled by -- fuelled by giving one big break to another big break to wall street bankers, and by barney frank and other

people calling republicans racists, if they said that 75% of americans shouldn't have houses, and if you can't afford to buy a house, then you probably shouldn't -- we shouldn't gin up the market to do that. let's go back and look at why people said in 2002, 2003, when they warned about the economic bubble, and it came. you look shocked. >> what's that got to do with the men mum wage? ronald reagan raised the men mum wage. george w. bush raised the minimum wage. >> well, you have the president in a economy we're still struggling, fewer people participating in the workforce. what are we down, 63%, 64%, than anytime since the 1980s, saying i've got a great idea. let's make entrance into -- into the job market even tougher. i swear to god, you talk to one

small business owner after another, they will tell you they're hiring less people now because they're afraid of obamacare. they're retooling their entire operations because they're not able to afford the new regulations that are being passed onto them. the president's view is, let's help the people by pushing new regulations that are actually going to make it harder for small business owners to hire new employees. you guys can get aungry, shoot me if you want -- >> i don't disagree about -- >> it's just an -- >> something about john's opponent, every time we raise the minimum wage, we'll make unemployment go up, it's not been true. true, $10.10 he referred to, if the minimum wage had increased at the rate of inflation, it would be higher than this. i agree with you, enter the workforce, working for minimum wage, university of pennsylvania, places around, it's fair, but people 24, 25, 26, primary bread winners, it should be raised. there's no data to support that unemployment goes up when the minimum wage has been increased --

>> do you think now is the time to pass on a minimum wage increase at a time when job participation is at its lowest rate and more people have given up hope of even getting a minimum wage job than ever before? well, not ever were. >> absolutely. >> i think we can provide a series of tax breaks -- >> where does -- where do those jobs come from? where does the free lunch come -- >> joe, there's no -- >> no, hold on a second. [ overlapping speakers ] >> not free lunch from people giving, like, $10 an hour. the free lunch from, if people can't afford to hire new employees now at the minimum wage, how is it going to be easier when it's $3 more an hour? >> well, i'm not convinced that is the primary accounting that we can't hire people. if we hire people at 7.25 or 10.10, the u.s. taxpayers are subsidize parts of their lives.

>> their health care, their everything. >> here's my point. my big point is this, right now, we have a struggling economy. >> right. >> instead of the president of the united states doing what i hoped he would have done, strike these compromises you're talking about, this is what we want. we want to hire minimum wage for all americans, not just federal employees, but all americans, in our wages. higher wages. what we're going to do in return for that is give you this. >> right. >> instead, it's just one government plan after another government plan, after another government regulation, another government scheme -- >> i don't know -- it's not -- he did not lay out a bunch of government plans and government schemes last night. he talked about cutting corporate tax rates, you put that on the table. is that a compromise, is it not? should cut corporate tax rates. you know, we should raise the minimum wage. it doesn't seem like -- neither one of those seems seem to be a burden to put on the private

sector. >> would you agree, joe, it should go up with the rate of inflation? the point that harold make if it were adjusted for the rate of infliegs, 10.50. >> i think you should look at the economy and when the economy gets stronger, it should go up. by the way, when the economy gets stronger, inflation usually goes up. i don't think, though, the time to raise it, cat ty, is a time when the job participation rate 30-year low, which means more and more people are even giving up looking for a job. that's my biggest concern right now. >> the studies you need to look at, joe, are those that measure specific areas, and one being done in washington state, sea-tac, raising it to $15 an hour, and see how it shakes out. do you have people who lose their jobs because the minimum wage is being raised, and in sea-tac, they are finding tha some people will lose their jobs, and you set that against the amount of increased spending against those that have more

money and the growth prospects that creates. if people's wages have been raised, they go out and spend more money, and that spurs on new hiring amongst some businesses. the numbers wash out very closely in the study areas where they've done this. and as harold said, actually, the times when minimum wages have been hiked, you haven't seen a big fall in employment numbers in those areas. i think, obviously, everybody understands that these are short-term fixes, which bear -- bring with them complications and the only long-term fix to social mobility is improving education in the country. >> no doubt about it. >> and the president didn't lay out a very comprehensive plan last night, because that's the kind of thing that takes years and years to do. and where there isn't the long-term thinking going on in this country. >> you have to grow the economy. and another thing in the studies, you look at the opportunities lost. can you do that with obamacare. it may go in, and maybe the

unemployment rate stays flat. but i will tell you there are thousands and thousands of small business owners that are making decisions about who not to hire. not who am i going to fire. whom am i not going to hire. >> reducing people's hours. >> and a dentist with three chairs wants to go to five chairs but is not going to do that, because if he has five chairs, he has increased regulatory burdens. don't give me that look on your face, mika, because i hear it every time i talk to a small business owner. and it's small business owners -- >> is that dentist paying minimum wage? >> we're not talking about minimum wage. i'm talking about all of the things. i'm talking about affordable care act. >> oh. >> you can take it down to minimum wage for a small restaurant that wants to double the size, but knows she can't do that because of increased regulations. i know nobody wants to hear about this. but the bottom line is, we need a president and we need a congress that understands that

you grow the economy and you help people with their jobs by doing -- by letting small business owners have more control and more power and more authority to grow their companies without washington's interference. and one plan after another plan after another plan coming down from washington, d.c., only makes it harder for them to hire new people. >> coming up on "morning joe," the coast guard shows off quite a catch in miami. $37 million worth of cocaine. that's next in the morning papers. plus, a new york congressman goes a little nuts on a reporter. >> a little nuts? what's wrong with him? >> i think he threatened him badly. >> we'll show you that clip in the "playbook." first, bill karins has a check on the forecast. >> good morning, everyone. here's what we're dealing with. the south. it was horrible yesterday afternoon, just as advertised. only two inches of snow, a little bit of sleet, but at the time horrible around atlanta.

i mean, look what the roads looked like. people were abandoning their vehicles, accidents all over the place, and even last night it was reported that two students were stranded on a school bus with the driver overnight. those parents can't be happy. frozen in place in front of the "atlanta journal constitution" and it's not melting this morning. very cold in atlanta. 12 degrees. we still have freezing rain and some snow mixed with charleston and savannah. we're not quite done yet, right around the coastal plains, even out on the outer banks, still some snow to deal with. as much as 8 inches in greenville. a little bit of snow on cape cod this morning. be careful. still very cold as advertised back through the great lakes. this is it. we get better from here. today, we warm it up to 40s from dallas to kansas city, and chicago, near 30 degrees by thursday. even the northeast warms up. so i guess we've hit our peak of this latest cold outbreak. 30s going to feel like 70 in the summer in chicago.

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it's time to look at the "morning papers." >> i love this part of the show, meek ya. >> i love looking at the other headlines. >> yeah. what's your problem? >> i have no -- trying to be warm and fuzzy, because all of our socialists are probably -- >> are you being vernuncular.

>> it was very good of you to challenge us. >> yeah, weak-minded -- a lot of weak-minded people out there. >> right. >> it sounds good and it makes me sound good, so i'm for it -- >> i'm so glad you are here every morning to educate us now. >> hmm. thank you, joe. >> this part is one of my favorite -- >> i think people should get paid $5 an hour. >> you're so mean. >> from our papers, "the san francisco chronicle," yahoo! continues to struggle to generate advertising dollars. the company's revenue was down 6%, while yahoo! cites the traffic was up, the company has been unable to turn that into cash. ceo marissa mayer says she plans on getting involved with advertising. yahoo! shares fell 5% yesterday. and from "the dallas morning news," u.s. airways and american airlines are off to a strong start. 9% in the fourth quarter. shares soared 6% yesterday and up to a total of 30% since the

merger was announced. still the carrier reported a $2 billion net loss due to the cost related to the merger. >> "the washington times" north dakota farmer is the first to be convicted of a crime with the help of a predator drone. ba be in 2011, the farmer refused to return cows that wandered onto his property. the situation escalated into an armed standoff. >> yeah, local officials. this actually happened with harold ford and i, we had a ranch outside of gatlinburg back in '09 and we had a big fight -- >> three years in prison, i guess the drone got pictures. >> we didn't get caught. >> "miami herald," joe. >> the coast guard of miami is in possession of 2,000 lives of cocaine. this makes john hywellman's life more difficult. they made a $37 million bust. it was a joint effort between

the united states and british royal reflet. kwoeft guard officials caught up, the passengers began tossing bricks of cocaine into the ocean. four men are now in custody and will appear in federal kwort on drug charges. >> let's go to politico. >> a lot to talk about here. before the state of the union, i want to talk about a story that jumped out at me yesterday. >> yeah? >> so these republicans in texas have been saying some really crappy things about wendy davis, saying she's a lousy mom, just really personal crap. >> yeah. >> it's really the reason why people hate politics. you know what? the empire didn't strike back. her daughters did. and, man, what a strong defense they gave for wendy davis, basically saying, we had great parents, thank you very much, stop lying -- i mean, i thought it was great. both of them wrote letters, right? >> they did. they did. wendy davis herself talked to a fund-raiser about this yesterday, pushing back, saying she's tired of her opponents pushing this line.

i mean, it shows -- listen, one, it's an effective pushback for her. we're now weeks talking about this story. the last thing you wanted to be is a politician trying to explain you're not distorting your record, even if the distortion is a minor distortion. ever since that story appeared that's all anybody's been talking about in this campaign. she has to find a way to get beyond it. >> yeah, but the story morphed into wendy davis abandoned her kids. >> right. >> like there was an overreach by some people in texas. >> right. >> and so, i think this -- i think that actually changed the story from something about her bioto her being a lousy mom and now her daughters are striking -- >> they were a part of distorting, living on camera, living in a trailer for a certain period of time. they were there. >> they did live in a trailer. and the question is, since my marriage effectively ended when i was 19, did it actually end when i was 21. >> who cares?

>> i don't care. >> i just asked, who cares if -- >> who cares? who cares if she lived in a trailer when she was 19 or 21. or got divorced at 19 or 21, or lived in a trailer. this all seems like a bunch of nonsense. i would be shocked if anybody in texas outside of the political class really even cares about this. >> i don't think they care about the specifics. i think once you hear two, three weeks at a time that a politician is distorting, that's all -- >> what's the biggest distortion? >> the biggest distortion she'd have was she got divorced when she was 19, in fact she got divorced when she was 21, and certainly did downplay the role that her ex-husband -- >> -- if that's the biggest distortion, do you think people, like, in ft. worth are going oh, my god, i can't vote for her? >> again, i'm not saying it's a distortion that should be an election. when you have three weeks as a political candidate, and you're talking about an issue, it's --

>> marco rubio's distortion of the because ground that came out. that went away fairly quickly. >> right, who cares? >> maybe because she's a woman she's drilling down -- >> yeah, in texas, there's enough she's done from a policy point of view, you can go after her. all three of her daughters wrote letters saying she shared equally in the custody, at every parent-teacher performance, a good mom. >> that's nice. >> so left school two weeks at a time her third year to be with her -- and it was a struggle. good for her. she did a held of a good job raising her kids and everything else. it's a bunch of nonsense. >> let's talk about something that happened after the state of the union address. congressman michael grimm, staten island here in new york, threatening a new york 1 reporter. he dried to ask the republican after a speech about a campaign finance investigation into michael grimm. >> since we have you here, we haven't had a chance to -- >> i'm not speaking about anything off-topic. this is about the president's

speech, thank you. >> so congressman michael grimm does not want to talk about some of the allegations concerning his campaign finances. we wanted to get him on camera on that. but he, as you saw, refused to talk about that. back to you. why -- >> let me be clear to you. >> really? >> what the heck is wrong with him? >> that's the way he used to respond every time we asked him a question -- >> remember? >> can i ask harold, how many reporters did you -- because we always did, you know, that's where we did interviews, just,

like, what's over/under, how many reporters you threatened to throw off the balcony? >> no more than four. >> i'm sure he apologized. >> he apologized, right. >> michael grimm puts out a statement. i was extremely annoyed because i was doing new york 1 a favor by rushing to do their interview first in lieu of several ". the reporter knew i was in a hurry and was there to comment on the state of the union but insisted on taking a disrespectful, cheap shot at the end of the interview because i did not have time to speak off topic. i verbal took the reporter to task because i expect a certain level of professionalism and respect especially when i go out of my way to do that reporter a favor. i doubt i'm the first member of congress to tell off a reporter, and i'm sure i won't be the last. that's the end of the statement. no apology. >> no apologies, huh? how do you put this, like, on

the scale, harold ford, like for instance, michael grimm say, i'm going to break you in half, little boy, or mike tyson telling, was it evander holy wld, or lennox lewis, i'm going to eat your babies. which one of those -- where does grimm, on a scale of zero to tyson eating babies does i'm going to break you in half -- >> the amazing thing is he didn't have time to answer the question, but he hung around -- [ laughter ] >> who does this? seriously? who does this? >> he could have answered the question quickly and moved on. >> this is a competitive district. a republican seat, a democratic seat. >> he's a former marine. >> agent of some sort. >> former agent. and a tough re-election race, and his ex-girlfriend was recently arrested for having created the straw donors to be -- >> a big investigation. >> -- to have more campaign dollars in his campaign. he'sish ta isrritated.

[ overlapping speakers ] >> so we've been hanging around washington since the early '90s, mid-'90s, and i'm being dead serious. i can't remember anybody threatening physical force to a reporter. >> i have two congressmen, i won't say who they are, call me and tell me to "f" off over a story. >> that's one thing. >> it's different than someone actually -- >> well, i almost did right now. >> but threatening -- >> threatening, yeah, that's nuts. doubling down by defending it. >> jim, thanks. coming up, an nbc sports exclusive, what tony dungy finds out next. i always say be the man with the plan

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the miami dolphins defensive lineman jonathan martin breaking his silence on a scandal that brought attention to the inner workers of locker rooms this season. he sat down with tony dungy for an exclusive interview about the alleged bullying incident and it's his first interview since leaving the dolphins. >> tell me the first thing that happened that caused you to feel uncomfortable. >> it was comments -- comes of a

racial nature. you know, aggressive sexual comments related to my sister and my mother. i've spoken to my teammates -- to former teammates, does this stuff go on, normal rookie hazing, and the consensus was this was not normal. >> a lot of what i'm hearing centers around richie incognito. one individual? or was it more than one individual? >> it was more than one. i think it was the culture. i don't think there's a place to disrespect people in a professional sport. you know, offensive linemen are, you know, like a brotherhood. >> this started your rookie year. did you feel like you were singled out? do you think you got it more than other guys did? >> there are other people that got it, too. i can't say why i may have gotten it more. you know, like i said, i have no problem with the normal hazing that you see in the nfl. you get a haircut.

you know, stuff like that, little pranks. but of a personal, you know, atabbing nature, i don't think there's any place for that. >> did you think about things or talk to anybody after your first year before you started your second year in. >> i did mention -- or members of the organization knew i was struggling. >> who did you talk to? >> i had conversations with my coaches immediately above me. i didn't get into specifics. you're not supposed to quote/unquote snitch on your teammates. i didn't see it to go above the leaders' heads. >> you mentioned no one specific incident, but at some point during this past season, you started thinking about leaving the team. tell me what led up to that. >> it was extending past my rookie season, and got to the point where things weren't changing and i had to remove myself from the situation for my own health. >> did you ever talk to your head coach about this? >> i did not. i worked hard to be friends with rich can i incognito and others.

i that i it's important to build the friendship. i turned the microscope back on myself, what am i doing wrong? >> as an outsider, i see the stories of the text messages going back and forth. they seem friendly. seems like he's sending you texts, you're sending him a bunch of texts. is that not, you know, the sign of friendship? >> it is. like i said, i was trying with all my being to do whatever i could to be a member of this culture and of our unit as an offensive line. >> have you talked to anybody from the dolphins since you left? >> no. >> what are you looking for in the next situation? what will be different for you so it doesn't end up like it did in mime my? >> well, i understand opportunities in the nfl are fleeting. i'm hopeful i get another opportunity and i'm going to make the most of it, because this is what i love to do. i don't know what i'd do. >> do you think you're ready to come back into this environment? >> i don't think there's any question that i'm ready. >> how can you assure me?

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for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today. joining us now for our political roundtable ari fleisher, former white house senior advisor david axelrod, and the moderator of "meet the press," david gregory. >> and, david, obviously, david axelrod, thinking about you and your family. >> thank you, joe. >> with the passing of your mom. a remarkable woman and a real trail blazer in her own right. tell us about her. >> she was. my mom lived a good, long life. she was a reporter in the 1940s when very few women were big-city newspaper reporters. she was a pioneer on madison avenue. she was an advertising executive during the mad men era which wasn't easy for a woman. she was a trail blazer in qualitative research. she was one of the early

pioneers in focus groups. and so, she did an awful lot in her life, and, you know, we're really, really proud of her and sad -- sad to not have her with husband anymore, she did it all. >> thanks for sharing that. >> an extraordinary life. david, let's move to politics, and specifically the president last night speaking with an awful lot of challenges, whether you look at the polls or look at the fact that any president six years in is going to be facing a certain tune-out factor. what struck you about the president's speech last night? >> well, you know, i actually thought he threaded the needle really well. what you don't want to do is engage as everybody sees as a kabuki dance, where you have a long list of things you're not going to get done. people are looking for practical answers to the fundamental problem of our time, which is we have an economy that's growing but many people are being left

behind. there are forces pushing that economy -- technology, globalization -- that create these effects. and what do we do to push back against that to give people more security and live up to that value that we believe in as americans, which is hard work should be rewarded, and if you work hard, you should be able to get ahead. that was the focus of the speech. i thought he did it well. >> ari fleisher, what did you like about the speech? >> the tribute to sergeant rensburg. there's no question. that was the emotional highlight, and a very fitting, poignant thing the president did in pointing him out. the downside of it-- i think that's the only thing people will remember from the speech. for a president that needs momentum ledgislativlegislative needed people to remember something legislatively, domestically oriented. >> -- here's some things that can get done in 2014, not to use that laundry list that david

axelrod talked about, but the one solid thing, here's a piece of legislative meat that maybe republicans will chew on with the president? >> i think it's immigration. i don't think we'll be talking about my i.r.a. for a long period of time, but i do think it has momentum. there will be some pushback, but the house speaker who met with some of us yesterday morning said there's no good time to take this on. he's been meeting with the president a lot about it. and i think that while the president certainly laid it out last night, he has taken to heart what the house speaker and others have said to him, don't talk about it too much. let's get to work on it. there's a difference of how they go about it. but i think out of everything, and i think david axelrod is right, the president wants to explain why there's inequality in the economy and set a course toward fixing it, which is about this year and in the years to come. but i think emigration is something that is perhaps achievable here. >> let's talk about the republican party's problems. you have a president that's got low approval ratings.

republicans have even lower ratings. you have the president who has his vision of where america should go over the next year. and then you have the republicans. they can't even unite behind one speaker. >> they had three. >> they had three. >> can we show some? >> here's what the three republican responses look like. let's go. >> o montage. >> our mission, not only as republicans, but as americans is to once again ensure that we are not bound by where we come from, but empowered by what we can become. that is the gap republicans are working to close. it's a gap we all face between where you are and where you want to be. the president talks a lot about income inequality, but the real gap we face today is one of opportunity inequality, and with this administration's policies, that gap has become far too wide. >> today, americans know in their hearts that something's

wrong. much of what's wrong relates to the sense that the american dream's falling out of reach for far too many of us. we're facing an inequality crisis, one to which the president has paid lip service, but seems uninterested in truly confronting or correcting. >> a thriving middle class doesn't come from shuffling the deck chairs on the "titanic." prosperity -- for the jobs, as a country, all of us together must ask, are we better off when we borrow money from china? are we better off when we print more money to pass around, hoping no one will notice that the emperor has though clothes? >> good lord. what i said yesterday was just have cathy mcmorris rodgers. >> she did a great job.

>> she was fantastic. >> david? >> i respectfully disagree with that. i think she did the best perhaps that she could do, but that is a terrible assignment responding -- i think the next person who thinks they're going to get called ought to change their phone number and not share it with nobody. there were no ideas. it was a completely substanceless response. >> -- the democrat response, and what about the republicans that can't even stand behind one response? >> it seems like a lot of responses. i think the republican party, you know, again, speaker boehner's in a position where he feels more empowered now, even though he knows he'll get a lot of resistance pushing immigration. he was saying yesterday before the state of the union that the party's got to change direction, that it's got to go back to where it was in 2007, be more of a party of ideas if they want to retake the white house, they want to retake the senate. they have to get out of this oppositional stage where they're

in this meat grinder, as he described it, fighting over the budget and become more of an idea party. i think what you saw, whether these were specific proposals or not, was trying to get into the conversation about where the economy is headed. >> david gregly, david axelrod, ari fleisher, thank you very much. "morning joe" is back. they flip the switch-- and the light comes on. it's our job to make sure that it does. using natural gas this power plant can produce enough energy for about 600,000 homes. generating electricity that's cleaner and reliable, with fewer emissions-- it matters. ♪ too small. too soft. too tasty. [ both laugh ] [ male announcer ] introducing progresso's new creamy alfredo soup.

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welcome back to "morning joe." i want to show you a live look in atlanta of the traffic tie-up that's crippled the south after

the snowstorm. look at that. trucks after the other one after the other lined up as people are trying to get through atlanta. we know the national guard are rescuing children stuck on a school bus overnight. back with what we've learned today after this. [ male announcer ] the new new york is open. open to innovation. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- dozens of tax free zones all across the state. move here, expand here, or start a new business here and pay no taxes for ten years... we're new york. if there's something that creates more jobs, and grows more businesses... we're open to it. start a tax-free business at startup-ny.com.

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welcome back to "morning joe." it's time to talk about what we learned today. >> i learned that young michael scotto of new york 1 could handle himself. he said he's pushing past it.

>> john? >> yeah. i mean, the congressman is going to have to live down the reputation for being a little bit of a thug, i think. >> wow. thuggish. mika has picked the seahawks. i have to stick with peyton. she has been right all along. >> she's been right -- >> if a lot of things, and we'll be talking an awful lot about the minimum wage in the coming days, because you had too much air time today. >> yeah. >> just wrap it up. chuck's next. a modest midterm agenda as president obama puts congress on notice in the state of the union. you're either with him or he'll go around you. we're going to hear reaction from the home state confidante senator dick durbin.