to draw a picture. >> i think i'm one of the people who thinks beets tastes like dirt. >> "morning joe" starts right now. tweetable in a moment. "morning joe" starts right now. >> explosive new allegations of the bridgegate scandal. david wildstein says christie knew about the lane closures as they were happening. >> oh, pulp just got real! >> i can't wait to see the media tear into this one. >> we must wait and see for the emphasis to come out. >> we are waiting on the evidence. >> right now, no smoking gun and no evidence. >> everybody needs to take a breath and let the fact come out. >> it's very much wait and see. >> we are all in wait and see mode. >> we have to wait and see what the proof is. >> who are you people? the swift impatient justice and the court of public opinion? you know? the news!

i can't help but being disappointed. not in the governor. i expect that to be corrupt. but in the news media. if this measured approach thing catches on! i'm out of a [ bleep ] job! >> all right. that about sums that up. good morning, everyone. it is tuesday, february 4th. welcome to "morning joe." joe is a little under the weather this morning so tweet him at joe at msnbc and tell him to get better. >> i'll do it right now. >> you guys certainly aren't listening to me. you're online all the time. >> tweet. >> with us on set, msnbc contributor mike barnicle. go ahead. you're always texting people. national affairs editor for "new york" magazine and msnbc political analyst and my ombudsman, john heilemann. it wasn't woody allen's adopted daughter, it was his

girlfriend's adopted daughter that he ended up marrying. >> a lot of people still creeped out about that. >> thank you for the accuracy on that but it doesn't change my opinion. >> i didn't think it would. a sensitive subject and we have to be a little bit precise on this. >> he is my ombudsman. i appreciate that. >> just friendly. >> i urge everyone to do that for us, we have to help each other. i'd like to point out that is still kind of creepy. >> yes. the host of "way too early" thomas roberts is here. >> i'm tweeting joe from the gang. >> he has the flu or something. and in washington -- >> that is the thing. careful. the bear is in his cave. you don't want to provoke the bear. >> white house correspondent for "the huffington post" sam stein. hello, sam stein. >> hello. >> hello.

>> newman. hello, newman! >> he sounded like a young newman. we have got so much going on today! we were producing the show until 11:00 at night because things kept coming in. did you guys listen to the governor on the radio? i did. the new jersey governor. >> always listen to new jersey radio pretty much 24 hours a day. >> i did because it pertained to some of our top stories of the day and you all had to do your research, ombudsman. back-to-back snowstorms causing major headaches. the radio show that chris christie went on last night asked the governor he is doubling down that he knew nothing about the gw bridge lane closures before they happened. still, new poll in shows him slipping further behind in a potential race for president. but it was interesting some of the things he said last night. also obama adviser openly warned that hillary clinton is making some of the same mistakes from back in 2008.

is she more focused on building a machine than a message? so i was asking that question, what is her message like a couple of months ago. we are going to kick around that with chuck todd and eugene robinson. also some other people are deciding to get in the game on the democratic side. a new study linking soda to the nation's number one killer. now, do you all remember? i don't mean to be doing this but do you remember for five years i've been saying soda is poison? >> oh, no. mika, have you ever said that? >> never. all the time. the cdc says sugar has something to do with that and heart disease. so it's really scary story and it's a very legitimate study. we are going to be talking to some doctors about that. we are going to talk to the republican -- turned democrat" contemporarily crist and look who has a new shoe line? she is amazing.

she is going to be on the show today, sarah jessica parker. the weather is unbelievable what is going on out there. airline travel should go a lot smoother today compared to yesterday. after a snowstorm grounded thousands of flights across the east. but the relief is not going to last too long as a new round of nasty weather moves in. let's check in with bill karins and maybe just not only around, but rounds, bill. >> the final act may be something tos come monday. the one that is affecting everyone first. good advice by mika, if you can get in the air and travel on the east coast today, do it, because wednesday is going to be very difficult from philadelphia north wards all the way up through northern new england. right now, the snow has broken out here all across the midwest and the deep south. we are looking from amarillo to kansas city now with some snow and ice in areas of arkansas. as we go throughout this event, 118 million people are under either warnings or advisories. the purple color or pinkish

color from wichita to boston is winter storm warnings. this map shows you in general what you can expect in your area. the icy conditions today, oklahoma, arkansas, then right along the ohio river, into areas of the northern appalachians and into philadelphia and new york city. north of that will be the all snow. that snow could be heavy today. kansas city, i-70, north of st. louis. indianapolis, cleveland, buffalo and maybe very heavy snow from the poconos through the berkshires and the cat skill mountains. kansas city 6 to 10 inches for you. indianapolis to des moines plowable 4 to 8 inches and chicago and detroit a little less considering how your january was, this is a sneeze for you. oklahoma city and st. louis the wintry mess and freezing rain to deal with. this is for starting late tonight. probably about 2:00 to 4:00 a.m. and continuing right through the morning rush hour into the day wednesday, albany, new york,

somewhere through the cat skills and mass pike we could see a foot plus. then boston, 8 to 12 and providence 4 to 12. new york city to pittsburgh and philadelphia 2 inches of snow and sleet and freezing rain on top of it. >> terrific. >> a mess. mika, forget to mention the storm possibly the nor'easter. this would be sunday night/monday morning, computers in a little bit of disagreement. one has a brush. the other has a major hit with a cold fashioned nor'easter type storm so we will update that in the days ahead. >> 3 inches or 30? >> that is going around all of the internet and that is something from last winter that everyone thinks was just said about this storm but that was from last winter. >> so defensive. >> i've had to correct a lot of people and you know? >> be specific! >> look at bill. >> bye, bill. thank you for all of this great news. let's go to new jersey. governor chris christie is speaking publicly for the first time since a letter from a

former port authority official accused him of having direct knowledge of the bridge closures that have dominated the press. the governor said he only learned there was an issue with the bridge after reading a "the wall street journal" article. >> the most important issue is did i know anything about the plan to close these lanes? did i authorize it? did i know about it? did i approve it? did i have any knowledge of it beforehand? the answer is still the same. it's une vif kalli no. no one has accused me of that and that is the thing i think people care about the most. i have the responsibility for 8 million or 9 million people and i'll be damned if i'm going to let anything get in the way of me doing my job. tie an oath a couple of weeks ago. i had nothing to do with this. no knowledge. no authorization. no planning. nothing to do with this before

this decision was made to close these lanes by the port authority. secondly i am sfoied by what happened here, i am determined to fix it. i've told people all the time in this job, i can't promise you that we are going to be perfect. but what i can't promise you is that we are going to do our best and when there are mistakes we will do our best to fix them and that is what we are in the process of doing. >> we will get to that in a second. come here to the set. all weekend long -- by the way, please look. i'm not even going to look at twitter today, so don't bother. all right? i'm not defending chris christie. i think this thing looks bad and interesting to see what will come out and i don't know what will come out but we don't have what everyone thinks they have right now. they have a lot of evidence that they are looking. now, listen. if i'm the only one who can say whether smoke there is fire with

woody allen, i don't know why, you know, the same thing can be said for chris christie about all of the evidence that shows that there may have been some bullying going on. i get it. it looks bad. debit it, okay? so stop like shooting me on the internet. having said that, "the new york times" story on friday and all of the headlines on saturday and sunday, he knew, he knew what? >> well, we spoke about this yesterday. >> i don't get what -- "the new york times" had to like re-do their story. their ombudsman wrote something about it. they clarified. >> the ombudsman is great at "the new york times," she took it on and took it on correctly, i thought. this is what we call in the newspaper business, the whole story in the throes of the drip treatment. it's going to be every day there is going to be something. you got to let it play out. >> right. >> don't you agree? >> right now, all of the drips look bad. >> sure. >> but do they do anything beyond look bad?

really bad. but bad. not convicting him. >> the story is evolving. "the new york times" did not convict him of anything. they had to clarify the story. there is no doubt -- >> they were accusing him of lying? >> they were not accusing him of anything. what happened there is no question that matt drudge posting a headline a couple of hours after the headline came out he knew. >> and every newspaper covering this story -- >> i don't disagree with that. nonetheless the question still remains, what the governor said yes was that he knew -- the point you guys are trying to get to the bottom of yesterday, joe was saying, you know, how could chris christie not have known the lanes were closed in real-time when there was this massive traffic jam. gomp christie on the radio said he did not know there was real-time so there is a conflict. what governor christie is saying he had no idea there was a

problem here. >> right. >> also a story in "the wall street journal" on october 1st which is a couple of weeks after the lane closures happened. joe was acting as though -- >> i'm not talking about what joe -- >> i know. >> hello! >> yesterday, we had a whole discussion yesterday. i'm not excludeing you. >> i'm not talking about what joe was saying. >> there was a discussion around this table yesterday. all parties were asking kate selnicki, what is christie saying? it's crazy to think he didn't know about the lane closures while they were happening. i'm saying what governor christie yesterday said on the radio is that he didn't know when the lanes were closed. he heard traffic reports. there is often traffic reports. the only time he thought that there was a problem was on october 1st when he read the story in "the wall street journal." what wildstein is saying in the letter that "the new york times" made an issue of controversy is that chris christie, in fact, what is suggested in the letter is that what he is saying now is

a lie, and that he knew in real reas real-time that he knew the lanes were closed. that is a story. >> i'm not saying it isn't. >> if your chief aide at the port authority who is responsible for closing the lanes is making a claim that -- with the governor's public story is and is claiming that he has evidence to back it up, that is a news story. >> thank you! >> we have not seen the evidence -- >> you are my ombudsman. let me just ask you a question, john heilemann. here is the question. he knew the story. this and that. does that say that he was lying and that he was closing the lanes for political motivation which is the story we all want to know the answer to. correct? does anybody have evidence of that? excuse me? >> was he using political muscle for any type of retribution. >> right. >> the office of chris christie,

they do acknowledge they have been subpoenaed by the u.s. attorney in new jersey related to the bridge scandal. obviously, when you have the investigation going on, there are lots of questions that still remain unanswered. >> and they look bad. >> and it looks very suspicious. >> it really does. >> when you're an election campaign and governor ed rendell was on the air last night talking about this with the rev and saying when i was governor, if someone had closed the bridge during my re-election campaign i would have called them within 30 minutes and say you have those cones up or you're fired. in the middle of the re-election campaign to have this for four days closed, for him not to be aware of it just seems suspicious. >> sure -- suspicious? no, it seems like maybe just dumb but it doesn't say that he closed the bridge for political motivation which is the real story here and the real answer we want. >> it's not the only story. >> it doesn't sort of lead us to it. >> the other stories are of stuff that especially steve

kornacki has been following whether other things happened with sandy money that shows there is political motivation in a lot of the decision that are made out of the governor's office. again, it all looks bad but do we have any answers? i'm not defending him. i'm just saying the calm down advice is very good. sam? >> i agree. first of all, i agree that people need to step back. i think two questions here, though. one, was there political motivation and have we found it is in the question is no, we haven't found it yet. that doesn't mean there won't be. the evidence is just being compiled and could turn out that way. the other question is question of when christie actually knew this and what john was getting at. was it during real-time traffic problems in september or was it when he read press reports in october? he has stated he says he asked

his aids and maybe they lied to his face it's part of a study but he went out there with incomplete information and told the public that was not true when did he his press conferences in november. the question is why did his staff feel they had to lie to him or did he know the true story? it's hard to reconcile the image we have with chris christie with micro manager, hands-on, bold leader, with someone who allowed his staff to sort of run wild. >> absolutely a good question. >> those are the big questions to me. >> and fascinating. >> there's a variety of stories here. >> there are questions, heilemann. >> those are stories. they are questions. i'm not trying to say he is guilty of anything. >> i would argue the papers over the weekend, starting with "the new york times" on friday. >> "the new york times" did not say he was guilty of anything. >> it just became this huge kind of domino effect.

>> just to even further clarify what sam is saying. what christie right now is trying to do is define this issue and he focused on this on the radio yesterday. he is trying to say i did not know in advance. that is one issue. did he know in advance? did he order it? he is trying to say i did not. there is another issue which is while this thing was happening in real-time and while his aides were passing notes back and forth congratulating themselves on what they thought was political ritz birketribution, know about it then? he is not clear about that. he is trying to say not only did he not order it but he didn't know about it while his aides were high-fiving all around him and two separate stories and worth pursuing. >> all of the outcomes, if one of them is yes, is terrible. some more terrible than others but we don't know. sorry. we don't know. i'm not defending him. i think it looks terrible. it's horrific, actually.

mixed political news for the governor. first after being snubbed last year. he will speak this year at cpac. interesting choice. it is one of the most visible billings for republicans but the political cost is growing for christie when it comes to looking ahead to 2016. he now trails hillary clinton in a head-to-head matchup. 55 to 39. in december he led 48-46 but according to a new cnn/orc poll and christie was the man to beat in november leading by at least 11 points. but when the poll added mike huckabee this time, the pack looks different with christie following to the middle. we will follow that more and talk about it more. thomas, do you have something to say? >> about chris christie? >> yes. >> no. i think when we look the overarching thy ining theme wha on, he has problems in all different directions whether it's about the sandy money or

the gwb scandal and he has a lot to answer for right now and we will all find out more as the investigation continues. i don't see any reason to believe we can't take him at face value but if wildstein or bridget kelly and all of these people looking for immunity because they are facing jail time have one shred of evidence that connects him to it, that could be their get out of jail free card. wall street is struggling to find traction in 2014. yesterday, the slide continued as the dow fell by more than 300 points. adding on to what habits worst start to a year since 2011. so far, the dow has lost 7.3% of its value this year. but the damage wasn't just limited to the dow yesterday. both the s&p and the nasdaq were down by more than 2%. meanwhile, janet yellen was sworn in as chairwoman of the federal reserve yesterday. yellen is scheduled to appear before congress next week to update lawmakers on the state of the economy.

let's bring in chief economics correspondent for "the wall street journal" to take a look big picture, first, what is going on with the dow. john, good morning. >> good morning. >> my favorite part of the christie story that you all were just talking about was that he is getting all of his information from the journal. i love that. >> fantastic. >> you led the charge on bringing this story to the forefront. >> actually, we had some of your reporters on from the get-go because the reporting has been so good. i'm glad you're watching and listening to the governor on the radio. all right. you want to talk, first, about the slow start to the year and what is behind it? >> yeah. so i mean, i think a couple of things going on here. the markets are sniffing out yet another disappointment. not only in the u.s. economy, but in the second biggest economy in the world, which is china. so we have had a series of reports in the last couple of weeks that have frankly been disappointing. yesterday, we learned that car

sales were soft, that u.s. manufacturing was soft early in the year. we got a report earlier -- well, last month that employment growth wasn't as strong as people expected. so, you know, investors, after such a strong year last year, came into this -- came into 2014 thinking, all right, we are going to have another great double digit run and now they are wondering, oh, boy, maybe we will get disappointed all over again. >> john, isn't this just another reminder of something that we don't talk about enough? the fact that the global economy is now -- it's truly a global economy. china has a hiccup and the wall street tumbles for 250 points. >> what is remarkable it's not just china. the really big losers in the last couple of weeks have been places like turkey, south africa, argentina, russia. these are markets that we didn't use to think about being very important for the u.s. economy for the u.s. stock market.

we seem to be catching a cold now when they are sneezing too. >> sam stein? >> john, i'm wondering to what extent domestic politics has played a role in this. the fed tape ring, sort of a weak jobs report from the last month. a little bit of not contraction but we have seen unemployment insurance expire. are investors looking at that and wondering if we have our own house in order? >> investors are certainly obsessing about the fed. they have been for a few years now. i kind of doubt that is a big part of what is going on right now. because, you know, if you look at the markets, the fed is -- the markets are expecting the fed to keep interest rates really low for another couple of years. i think what this is really about is that investors got their expectations very high. the fed actually got its expectations high for 2014 and it's just starting to look like, instead of a decent year of economic growth, it just -- we might be another year kind of muddling through.

>> all right. "the wall street journal's" john hillson, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> 22 past. coming up on "morning joe," former republican governor charlie crist is running for his old job. we will talk to dr. emily senay being poison. later, actor sarah jessica parker on the set. up next, the political playbook. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. ♪ [ 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.

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♪ time now to take a look at the morning papers. from our parade of papers, "the washington post" former second lady joan mondale passed away yesterday. mondale was known as joan of art for her devotion to the fine arts. her husband, vice president walter mondale, served under

president jimmy carter from 1977 until 1981. she was also a supporter of the equal rights amendment and she is survived by her husband and their two sons. joan mondale was 83. new york city. people are mourning the death of philip seymour hoffman whose autopsy results could come today. the actor's death is exposing the underbelly about the fight against heroin in the u.s. more than 70 bags of heroin were found at the apartment. 49 of them were full. also on hand powder believed to be cocaine. also a number of prescription pills, one which included an addiction treatment drug and health officials warn that heroin's popularity is growing and over the last five years basically because it's cheap. a mexican fisherman washed up on the shore after adrift at sea for 13 months. the cast-away -- what? >> 13 months?

>> oh, my gosh. he says he has been lost at sea since december 2012. after a storm blew his boat nearly 6,000 miles off course. the fisherman says he survived by eating fish, small birds, and drinking rain water. >> i don't know. >> that seems skeptical. >> i don't know. >> i kind of say he looks pretty good for 13 months. >> redford just made his movie. >> he looks like tom hanks in "cast away" but better than tom hanks looked. >> family members in maryland told nbc news he resembles their missing brother. >> amazing story. more to come on that one. >> he looks pretty well fed. >> that is where we all say, calm down and wait for the information to come out, right? heilemann? >> yeah. >> ombudsman. >> let's take a peek at this one. "the san francisco chronicle." state agency ordering google to

move its mysterious barge to a different location in san francisco bay because of permit issues and complaints. city officials says the company could relocate this four-story structure to an alternate site in the bay. the secret project created a lot of buzz a few months ago and many speculate google is building a floating story or an interactive learning space. a lot of people talking. >> what are they doing? >> it's a spy ship. >> we got to wait for more. like everything else. >> like cast-away and christie, we have to wait. a new study says in "the dallas morning news," your sweet tooth may be killing pup the cdc says consuming too much sugar increases the risk of heart disease. it says having a can of soda a day increases a person's risk by 33%. about 70% of americans consume more than recommended amount of

sugar, sweetened beverages are the number one source of added sugar in diets. >> what will splitting a 12-pack of bear claws every morning? >> it doesn't mention coca-cola. >> you're in the clear. >> you're not okay. i'm addicted to sugar. i'm serious. i'm addicted to all of that stuff. >> you're addicted to sugar? >> that's why i wrote the book about it. everything has sugar in it and i eat way too much of it. >> how much is too much? we are going to find out? >> the report said in the a.p. yesterday if you have a cinnamon bun for breakfast, a soda for -- at lunch, and then i forget what the dessert was at dinner, you're way past the limit already. so that means most of america. >> i don't have a cinnamon bun for breakfast so i'm okay. >> you have a bear claw or a curler or old-fashioned? >> no, i usually have four chocolate covered doughnuts so that is not a cinnamon so i'm fine. >> look at him. he is 35. the miami herald --

>> only one triple by by pass. mike allen is joining us from politico for the morning playbook. what do you have going on for us? ted cruz making nice/nice? >> i like that story. >> yes, senator cruz is saying for months -- it's said for months that senator cruz need than an inside game in the senate. if you get things done in washington, in addition to being able to talk to outside conservatives, also work with your colleagues. our maneuvers says that is happening. that members have noticed is last bombastic. he promised privately he is not going to raise money for that outside tea party group that is running against some republican

senators. he is saying he is going to get the senators' backs when it comes to fund-raising. a funny moment where he was joking around with senator mccain who, as you remember, called -- was the one who called him a whacko bird. they were talking at lunch about how senator mccain said some crazy guy from texas had stormed out of the state of the union which he is referring to congressman steve stockman. we saw that here on the snow. senator cruz piped up and said, wait, i didn't walk out of the state of the union. so now they can kid. >> mike, what do you think the tea party is going to do in reaction to this change in tone from senator cruz as they always say you want to leave the dance with the one that brought you. is that dangerous for him? >> thomas, this is a great point but i think you'll agree senator cruz has built up so much street crud with the tea party that he can do this. that is why it's smart, because his challenge now is to not go native in washington, which most of them do and he said he wouldn't.

but also not become ineffective. we say in this story that he was a little bit humbled by the response to the shutdown strategy. it clearly didn't work and turned a lot of republicans against him. and seeing it didn't work, showed him that there was another way. >> politico's mike allen. great to see you, sir. thank you. >> likewise. have a great day. coming up one of the most lopsided super bowls in history but didn't stop people from tuning into this game. the surprising numbers coming up from nielsen is next in sports. ♪

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it is official now. the ratings are in and everybody watched the super bowl, pretty much, yeah. except for those people that flipped over to another show. we have 111 million people registering in the u.s. on sunday. that makes it the most watched television show in american history. the broncos/seahawks matchup barely edged out the giants and pats game from two years ago by about 200,000 viewers. you all right with this, mike? >> yeah. >> the world champs returned home to seattle last night after a few of the weather-related hiccups that they encountered. seattle will host a celebration coming up on wednesday. now to the real action. nevada scans reported taking in nearly 120 million in super bowl bets. the betting public loved the

broncos. meaning the seahawk blowout was a boom for the house. making a precedented number on the game and these are just the bets made on the books. >> i had the seahawks all the way. nobody had the scoring. nobody. >> amazingly, mike had the safety on the second play of the game and at 6,000-1 odds. that's why you're such a rich man. >> some suspect the gamblers may have wagered ten times of that amount of what we are talking about. >> on the books? >> yes. the news was not so good for a furniture store owner in houston. giving away a promotion for free furniture for anyone who spent six grand during the week of the super bowl if seattle won.

this cost mattress mack, $7 million. mattress mack is on back. >> that is a good one. >> i'm here all week. college hoops. double overtime iowa trailing by three. just more than a second left, tie up it. iowa state down two in triple overtime and cyclones outlast iowa state and first victory in stillwater since 1988. >> do you have one where a guy strips the ball? >> hold on. nuggets and clippers. watch this. >> too much time. too much time. randy foye. yes! nuggets win!

>> denver's randy foye sends a deep three at the buzzer for the win there. 116-115 is your final. the kings hosting the bulls. so check out what happens when sacramento's derrick williams gets out in the open. >> i love this. >> here is the steal. look out. this is on list of not so good plays of the week. >> it was sad. look. >> williams trying to show off this with an alley-oop dunk off the backboard but completely blows it. kings still get the win there 99-70. we will do better for you by tomorrow, i hope. we will get you something tomorrow. coming up, plenty of focus on the minimum wage right now but what about the rest of the economy? this is a great guest. we are going to ask the labor secretary who is standing by to join us next on "morning joe," tom perez. [ male announcer ] legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses.

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is there anything more american than america? because you can't import original. so let germany brew your beer. let switzerland make your watch. let asia assemble your phone. let france make your water. let denmark make your cheese. let india answer your tech support. legal chile catch your sea bass. let mexico make your pinatas. and let canada make your dental floss. let costa rico sew your cargo shorts and yemen manufacturing your chia pets and japan produce your animated torture corps. we will build your car. at least the parts that aren't

built in canada or mexico. >> here with us now, the secretary of labor tom perez. it's very good to have you. >> a pleasure to be mehere. >> what brings you to town, "morning joe"? >> of course. i work all around that, you know? i grew up in buffalo, i miss the snow so i wanted to come up here and see some snow yesterday. >> stay until sunday. let's go through a couple of different points here. because, obviously, you're tied to some of the big issues that are plaguing this country, if i may use that word. let's start with the minimum wage, where do we stand on the effort to increase the minimum wage? >> we are working like heck. congressman george miller and senator tom harkin have introduced a bill and the president strongly sports a ten because americans need a raise. people who work a full-time job shouldn't have to live in poverty. i was in jersey city yesterday meeting with a number of workers who were working at the newark

airport. they are cleaning the planes after people exit and handling bags. the only raise they got when the voters of new jersey voted $1 increase in the minimum wage. everywhere i go around the country, people are working hard and falling further behind and that is not america. >> you can't live on that salary. >> we heard very compelling stories yesterday of people who are working hard, collecting fo food stamps. they don't want to collect food stamps and wanted to be rewarded for work. that is what the president is talking about. people who work 40 hours a week shouldn't have to live in poverty. i work with health homeworkers and we passed a regulation to hem them who weren't getting protections in the minimum wage and 90% women are 50% minority and over 50% are collecting food stamps or some other form of public assistance. bank tellers are on some form of public assistance to the tune of

900 million subsidy. bank tellers. >> sad state. >> what do you say to the complainant governor scott walker of wisconsin raising the minimum wage is going to cost people their jobs? small businesses won't be able to hire. they refuse to hire people if you raise the minimum wage. what do you say to that? >> i've spoken to so many small business owners around the country and i've looked at the evidence. i think the overwhelming weight of the evidence demonstrates that is not the case. last friday, i spent some time at ace hardware store in the district of columbia. i asked the owner, why do you pay above the minimum wage? you don't have to. she said because i retain a loyal work force. a hundred years ago, henry ford did a pretty radical thing. he doubled the wages for people on the assembly ey line and for a couple of reasons. number one, he had 360% attrition at the time. it was hard work. they were paying lousy wages and try running a business when all of your employees are leaving.

he understood if i want to retain a loyal work force and produce a good work product i need to pay them well. he also understood the people who make my product ought to be able to afford to buy my product. if we grow the economy each further and we are moving in the right direction but we need to pick up the pace. consumption is the issue. putting money in people's pockets. >> i have a broad question about the sort of -- overall decline of unions in this country. unions made the middle class by securing -- what we have seen is a precipitous fall in unionization the past couple of decades. can you comment on take that trend? and the fascinating thing happening in university of connecticut. a case that is happening right now. i don't know if you've followed it but i'm curious if you have

any thoughts on that. >> your first question, sam, the bureau of labor statistics just came out on their data on union membership and it has remained ruffle flat the last year. i think it grew 0.1%. one other thing noted there. if you have a union job you're making on average $ 50 a week. if you have a nonunion job you're making $750 a week. collective bargainizing a big part of how this middle class grew in america and it continues to be important part of who we are as americans. and we're seeing a number of different settings whether northwestern university or people in the fast food industry they understand you can't work a full-time job and live in poverty and why you see people coming together, whether it's these -- the strikes that you see at the fast food workers. you see the actions that sam is talking about at northwestern university. this issue of wage fairness

is -- it started as a little bit of a prairie fire and has become a brush fire and now it's bec e becoming a wildfire. you see local legislatures and municipalities across this country. d.c. raised the minimum wage to $11.50 an hour. you're seeing action in state legislators all across america. the american people are ahead of many in congress on this issue. you look at the polling. it cuts across the divide that people recognize we should reward work with a fair wage. the most important family value is time with your children. when i was in the local government i spent a lot of people trying to encourage parental involvement. the thing i heard most frequently from parents how can i get involved when i'm working three jobs to make end's meet? >> when you make minimum wage, you need to work three jobs. in fact, some companies will tell you to get another job to

handle your budget. thank you tom perez. good to have you on the program. >> always a pleasure. still ahead, her book on parenting drew sharp reaction across the board. now amy twa is taking on culture in america. this is fascinating. why she says some groups thrive, while others are left behind. keep it right here on "morning joe." ♪ humans. even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com.

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bloomberg, as you know, used to have his food chewed and put back into his mouth. like a baby bird but this is unacceptable, sir. so, this is from, it's called john's pizzeria. i thought maybe you and i could break bread and we could share a slice. would you like a slice? >> i would love a slice. >> what are you doing? >> thank you, jon. jon -- >> i got to teach you everything? >> i want to say, jon, as mayor of -- i mean, new york city. we are always ready for a peas. >> oh, my god!

>> don't even! come on, come on! >> talk to me. >> there is another way? >> let me show you. >> let me do this. >> let me show you. >> that is a beautiful slice of peas. >> that technique. >> have a doughnut! have a doughnut! >> question for you folks. if i picked up and handed you a piece of peas, would you pick it up and eat it? >> yes. >> if i picked up a piece of peas and gave it to you, heilemann, would you eat it? >> yeah, with my hands. >> and you wouldn't mind that i pick it up with my hands? >> no. on. >> no. >> i just have some ocd friend. >> know your hands are clean. >> i've been having another couple -- >> at the peas place, the guys

are back there. they need the dough. their hands are in the dough. >> his wife sylvia was not and we were fighting about this. tom would not eat the peas. >> other people who touched it already! >> correct. i know! coming up at the top of the hour, "the washington post" eugene robinson and msnbc chuck todd. then dr. emily senay linking shu sugar and heart disease study. "morning joe" is back in a moment. [ male announcer ] at his current pace, bob will retire when he's 153, which would be fine if bob were a vampire. but he's not. ♪ he's an architect with two kids and a mortgage. luckily, he found someone who gave him a fresh perspective on his portfolio. and with some planning and effort, hopefully bob can retire at a more appropriate age. it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade.

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we went out on hollywood boulevard today and ask people a bunch of things we made up' these things did not happen. >> do you feel that tom brady choked? >> i wontuldn't go that far. >> what did you think about malog performance in the second half? >> i thought he could have played a lot better. >> do you think it was heart warming when they let that fan play in the fourth quarter as a seahawks fan? >> i didn't see it but i heard about it and that was pretty usa. >> do you think they should add a fifth quarter to help the broncos come back? >> i think that is because of the new rules that they added on d they had the recent rule changes. >> that's good stuff. a live look at washington, d.c. the sun comes up. over the nation's capital.

welcome back to "morning joe." joining us from washington pulitzer prize winning columnist and editor of "the washington post," eugene robinson. your column about philip seymour hoffman's death we will read in this block. msnbc chief white house correspondent and host of "the daily rundown" chuck todd and we also have mike barnicle and thomas roberts and john heilemann. back at the table with us. we begin this hour with the new study that has troubling news for millions of americans. according to the cdc, too much sugar can actually kill you. >> those doughnuts look good. >> too much sugar can actually kill you. the study found that having one can of soda a day can cause a 33% increase in the risk for heart disease. the research also pointed to sugar from processed and prepared foods.

in fact, i think gene just died right now. >> what was that? >> what happened? >> it's terrible. >> he is choking. >> he was having one of those doughnuts. in fact, 77% of packaged foods have added sugar. recent data shows the average american consumes 22 teaspoons of sugar each day. it's everywhere. it's in everything we eat. cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of the men and women in the united states. let's bring in medical correspondent for pbs, dr. emily senay. we called her late last night to come in and talk about this. emily, are we overreacting to say that too much sugar can cause death? that is what the headline says. >> it is what the headline says. it's important to find this study shows an association between sugar and increased risk of cardiovascular disease or

heart disease. i think what is most interesting this study it controlled for all of the usually things we think sugar does to people increased rate or increased risk for diabetes. what this study says sugar, in and of itself is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular. it's more of the mounting evidence there is something about sugar, in and of itself that can lead to disease and i think that is why you saw the ha headline. the beverage industry pushes back on this and says this isn't the typical of study where you can draw those type of conclusions and sugar is added calories and you have to be careful no matter where those calories are coming from. i do think that it's more of a beginning of an indictment of sugar as something that is not healthy for you. over and above just making you gain weight. >> this is the latest study in a series of studies that tell

americans what they seemingly already know instinctively, yet we act shocked when we talk about the study when we talk about the study this morning. what is a bigger element of cardiovascular disease in your opinion? sugar or jeanette ticks? >> sugar. >> come on on. >> come on. >> >> are you kidding me? >> it depends if you get a huge dose of genetics and if you do everything right you may have bad luck. for most people, sugar, whether it leads to obesity what leads to cardiovascular disease and sugar in and of itself causing cardiovascular disease for most of us that is a bigger risk factor. >> wow. okay. so as a doctor and a mom, is there soda pop in your house, emily? >> no there is no soda pop in my house. there never has been.

i like the taste of soda, for sure, but i'm not a big soda drinker and my family doesn't drink soda. my son does, he is 17 and i don't have a lot of control over him. >> no, you don't. thanks for coming in, dr. emily senay. we will watch this for sure. guys, it's just the beginning. i know. i sound like a broken record. >> salt, sugar, fat, the devastating effects on our bodies and the fact it is per invading our food supply. >> i'm okay giving up the sugar but you can't take away my soul food. >> it's all sugar. they make everything with sugar now. even barbecue sauce. read the ingredients. often the first second or third ingredient is sugar. >> let's go to politics because i'm turning into a moral school and i don't want to do that. we will let the information speak for itself. for hillary clinton, any chance she will be hearing the

phrase madam president in the near future may rest on one word, inevitably. the very idea that could prevent her from returning to the white house any time soon. several democrats associated with barack obama's campaign spoke on the record with buzzfeed's ben smith saying they believe hillary is repeating the same mistakes from six years ago. the president's chief campaign pollster says i just don't see any strategic value in stories positioning her as inevitable or the preemptive nominee and i don't think people who are out there talking about this help her, and i think she should make that clear. ben labolt added this. activists and donors and voters like to see candidates fighting for every vote. if they start to feel like their power and influence is diminished, it could have unforeseen consequences. you want to explain that, john

heilemann? what are the consequences? well, i think -- >> what is the power? >> these folks are -- the obama people running against hillary clinton in 2008 when inevitably was her thing and they proved inevitably was her curse in 2008 and they are looking back and saying, i think quite reasonably, this does not help her. if she is resting on her laurels and cruising into the nomination. i don't think the clinton people are driving these stories. the problem is these stories are -- >> ready for hillary. >> they are being driven naturally by democrats and the press which see the factors make hillary's strength as a presump tim. >> couldn't she make a call and say you're not helping me and they could start in a heartbeat? come on. >> she could but she wants people out there raising money for her but i think the press is driving these stories much more than the clinton campaign because there is no clinton campaign right now. >> chuck todd, off of what heilemann just introduced into this discussion, hillary clinton

really doesn't have to do anything at any time for a while, right? >> she doesn't, but, you know, we got to look back on our history and find out how long did we have three-year inevitable front runners. sort of reagan in '77 and '78. kind of. but you really have to go back to dwight eisenhower who was quoted by both parties as sort of this inevitable president in waiting type of thing. we don't treat front runners very well and we certainly don't treat them very well in our modern politics. >> who do we treat well? >> and the idea of three years of her being a front-runner seems like something of herculean task to keep up. but john is right. you know, this is a case -- now, look. i think there are some things she does have within her control. i've been surprised -- i was surprised at how public she was last year. i really thought she was basically going to take the year off, do the cgi events with bill clinton now that the two of them are running the foundation

together, and then that is it. but she has been a little more active i think than a lot of -- a lot of people in the democratic party thought. but some of this stuff is out of her control. i think between ready for hillary and this other stuff and all of these other clinton superpacts while they announced they have sign this obama person or that obama person, it's all part of the old clinton pour structure who are desperate, who know they are not going to be involved in the new clinton campaign so they are looking for relevancy and they have found it on the super pacts and they are the ones -- i mean, you know, there was an event in iowa two weeks ago i think with long time sort of political players, they are sitting there holding an iowa event. i think hillary could have picked up the phone and go, whoa. >> come on. >> you want to raise money, you want to be a place holder, you want to help push back if people start attacking hillary is one thing but you start holding

events in iowa now for me because no matter what, it just adds to this idea there is an entire apparatus. >> can i just say i don't get the criticism from ben labolt and the other obama people. they say, well, voters want to see you scrapping for every vote. to scrap for every vote, you have to be a candidate. she is not a candidate. what is she supposed to do? is she supposed to say take 30 percentage points off my polling data for the hell of it so i don't seem inevitable? we cease these people positioning themselves for a race a year away, maybe two years away. let's keep in mind she hasn't announced she is running so i don't get why we are criticizing her positioning if there is nothing to position for at this juncture. >> maryland governor martin o'malley telling "the washington post" he won't wait for hillary to make her decision to announce his plans for 2016.

gene robinson, i guess the other criticism, she is not doing anything to incite the criticism so i'm not sure this is fair -- is that she really doesn't have a message. what would her platform be as opposed to martin o'malley's or i'll just bring up elizabeth warren because it's clear what her message would be, would she run. >> well, i'm not sure and she may not be sure at this particular time because as sam pointed out, she hasn't announced she is running and we have to wait until the election to kind of pile on and ben labolt and others who might think there is something wrong with what she is doing. i think political jegeniuses ar geniuses because their perception is right for that moment and they were so right for eight years ago. they got the wave. they knew what was happening in the country before other people did and that rarely lasts. know? and so it's a different time and

i think inevidentability eight years ago was a terrible strategy and a terrible place to be. this time, it might be a better place to be. it certainly seems to be scaring a lot of democrats out. martin o'malley is, frankly, running for vice president at this point if she gets in. >> chuck todd, i'm going to ask you to chime in real quick here and then we are going to read gene's column. is it too soon to be talking about inevitability or lack thereof on chris christie's side or not, and what did you think of his radio column yesterday? real quick. >> i'm of the -- we should stop talking about 2016 with chris christie. i think it's sort of over right now. maybe he can come back, but he's got to fight his way back to belonging in the 2016 conversation. doesn't belong there any more.

look. he was mostly listener calls. he didn't -- you know, we got the news, which is this idea he now has got to have a legal defense fund that he has dealt with the u.s. attorney's office. let me just say quickly on the legal defense fund, you know, look. i think we are not far away from him having to make the tough decision that says you know what? i got to have to take a pause from the rga. i just don't see how -- i'm assuming a lot of republican governors are not going to be happy about this next development since now christie is going to have to be raising money for himself to deal with this legal issue and then going around the country raising money for republicans. it just doesn't seem like anything but a bad distraction for a group that, you know, needs a lot of cash right now because there is a lot of governors to defend. i think next week could be a circus when he goes to chicago, to be frank. >> thomas? >> i want to shirt gears now and talk about philip seymour

hoffman. the autopsy results could come out as early as today. the actor's death is exposing the underbelly of fight against heroin in the united states. more than 70 bags of heroin were found at the apartment of offman and 49 of them full and a number of prescription pills as well including an addictive treatment drug. eugene makes this the topic of his piece in his latest column for "the washington post" writing, hoffman's death shows we're losing this drug war. you write, eugene, quote. when you talk to leaders in the country that produce or ship illegal drugs they say the same thing, we wouldn't have a drug industry if there were no demand. you put this stuff in your veins and nos and they are right and since we don't have to eliminate this demand we need to try new approaches. for marijuana follow colorado

and washington. addiction to harder drugs should be a problem. there would be times managing addiction means describing two addicts and other drugs and medically monitoring them. there would be other times when it means treatment to get clean. philip seymour hoffman had tried and failed. tried and failed. but who knows. next time, he might have made it. eugene, when we talk about the problem and the war on drugs in this country that has been going on over four decades now, how do we look at this' and re-examine this guy got clean in his 20s and relapsed later in life. when we look at what police say they found in his apartment, it's amazing to think he was storing up that much drugs or had that much heroin on hand, that this wasn't a guy -- he was just a ticking time bomb basically back in the grips of his own addiction. >> he had clearly fallen right back into it.

we understand some things about addiction and not enough, i think, but there are not a lot of families in this country, i think, who are totally untouched by some form of addiction so it's very common but we don't really understand how it works. it is a disease. it is a sickness. and, yet, we hesitate to treat it like that because of the moral dimension. we see it as a personal failing as well. and i think we need to step back and take a look at that, because we have had this prohibition and war against drugs for decades and decades and decades. and here we are. >> when we talk about alcoholics in this country, it's not as taboo because we have the access everywhere we go. restaurants and over there

social engagement that has alcohol there. when we talk about drugs it is very taboo and people do not want to talk about that and as common as it is for drug use in this country. >> yes. and we are not prepared to make it impossible to buy drugs. we make it difficult to buy drugs. but this is a free society and we are not going to impose strictures that would make it impossible to buy drugs like it is, say, in cuba. you can't buy heroin on the corner in cuba because it's a police state but we are not going to have a police state. it is going to get in as long as the demand is there and we need to deal with that rather than convince ourselves that somehow we're either going to get addicted to the drugs or just ignore the addiction problem and let it take care of itself. >> eugene, thank you so much. chuck, we will see you coming up on "the daily rundown." >> sugar-free! >> what? you should do the story. first, she took on parenting

in her battle him of the tiger mother. now author amy chua is weighing in on american culture in her brand-new book. up next, four years ago, charlie crist was a republican. today he describes the gop as, forty qoeuote, a party of jealo and hate. he explains that next on "morning joe." mine was earned in korea in 1953. afghanistan, in 2009. orbiting the moon in 1971. [ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. . level of protection. and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve.

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bx says he failed to lay out a business plan to get florida out of its worse recession. democratic chair karen thurman said he has done nothing to create jobs. his only core believe is his personal ambition. he is an opportunistic says another. congressman kendrick meek says he can't be trusted and al gore said it's a little unusual to have somebody flip-flop and flop flip. who were they all talking about?

this man, charlie crist. >> that was an ad launched late last year by governor rick scott's political action committee. let's get to work. joining us now, the former republican governor of florida, charlie crist. he is currently running for that same office in florida this time as a democrat. he is also the author of the book, "the party is over how the extreme right hijacked the gop and i became a democrat." you know, off-camera i guess, i do know some republicans who are really frustrated with their party. >> there a lot of them, no question. >> i say that, obviously, from my point of view. why don't you say it from yours as a former republican, what is it that put you over the edge? >> a lot of things. the party just really changed or i should say the leadership of the party primary. jeb bush said it better than i can say it. he said today's republican party is perceived as being anti-women and anti-immigrant and anti-minority and anti-gay couples and anti-environment and

anti-education and pretty soon, nobody is left in the room. when the party goes in that direction and the leadership guides it that way, really hijacked by the tea party is what happened to the republican party in our country. >> is there a tonal shift that needed to be made that wasn't? because, i mean, some of those viewpoints are being pro life sometimes they say that makes you anti-woman and an issue you could go around in circle about. what about the tone some of the republicans have, the choice of words? >> it's a business harsh, frankly. and i lived it. i mean, i saw it. when i was running for the senate in 2010 carol, my wife, we went to events i had recently been with president bush in ft. myers and hugged them after i introduced them and that was like a sin to some in the

republican party p.m. i would go to events and people would yell out from the back of the room, why don't you go hug obama again. i'm like, wow, what is up with that? it continued to get more harsh as the campaign progressed. >> what damage did they think you were doing hugging the president? >> that's a great question, mika. and i didn't think there was any damage. i remember my staff came in to me and said the president would like you to greet him when he comes down to ft. myers and he is talking about the recovery act. would you like to go? i said i'd love to go. he said are you sugar? i said, what do you mean? he's a democrat, you know? wait a minute. this man is the president of the united states of america and the way my mom and dad raised my three sisters and me, you respect people. you respect others, especially if the other happens to be the president of the united states of america. and so i went and when i got there, he asked if i would introduce him and i said i would be honored to do so, of course. so i went up to the podium and said a few words.

and said that we need to support the president, the recovery act, the stimulus as it's commonly known because it's the right thing to do. i was governor at the time. and the economy was in the tank. you know? this was 2009, february of '09. i talk about it in the book. you know, everybody was in fear what was going to happen to your ira, your 401(k) and your investments. this man put out his hand as a governor and said, we want to help you get through this. he had americans invest in america. >> what else are you going to do? mike barnicle? >> when we began this conversation, you listed all of the points that have driven you to become a democrat because of the, they are anti-this and that. are you now pro immigration or have you always been pro immigration? gay marriage, are you anti-pro? issues like that. go through a couple of those issues. >> a great question, mike. i'm the grandson of a greek

immigrant. my grandfather immigrated to america in 1912. my father's mother immigrated from lebanon. how could i be against immigration? i wouldn't be sitting here with you if there wasn't immigration in this country. frankly, most of us sitting here wouldn't be. >> definitely, i wouldn't be. >> heilemann, germany, i suspect? the fact of the matter is we are a melting pot. and, you know, in florida, we are probably one of the most diverse states in the country and we have so many immigrants. puerto ricans and cubans and greeks and lebanese and all over the place and i think it's important to embrace that because you're embracing america and that is what we are. to be anti-grant is strange to me. i don't understand it. let's talk about gay marriage. i, like the president, support in the past civil unions. wasn't sure about marriage necessarily but came around to

the point of view as he did. i think he interviewed with robin roberts a couple of springs ago and said i've been thinking about this issue and really concentrating on it and have come to the conclusion essentially who am i to judge and tell you who to love or who to marry? i think he is right. and that is how i feel. i mean, even the pope said -- >> i think the vice president helped him with that. the book is "the party is over." former governor charlie crist, thank you. come back. >> i am. tomorrow. >> as governor of florida, you'll come back on the show as well. coming up here on "morning joe," em i didn't and golden globe winning actress sarah jessica parker joins the set to talk about her long awaited return to stage and shoes. she has shoes. you have to put up with this, barnicle, because i'm very excited about her shoe line. >> i've seen the play. >> i've seen the play too and i loved it. >> yeah. up next, another round of winter storms moving across the country. bill karins will tell us which

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32 minutes after the hour. a beautiful morning in washington, d.c. barnicle, they had a cleansing rain there yesterday. >> what we need to hear. >> instead we get socked with more snow and insult to injury. bill karins is here. >> cleansing. >> what are we looking at? >> snow tomorrow in new england area mixed with sleet and ice. the storm is right now getting its act together. a record snowfall in new york city yesterday is exiting and storm going out there to the south of canadian mayor a times. south in texas, this storm has a ton moisture to work with. it's pull up the rain and moisture out of the gulf of mexico. every storm needs a moisture source and this is a large storm and there is enough cold air on the north side of it and heavy snow. in the middle we get the icy problems. a classic cross-country winter storm. in the wipink wichita to portla

and boston, and maine. the snow on the northern side will be heavy. not record snow. very typically for a snowstorm. the icy problems along the ohio river and today in arkansas and oklahoma and then, tomorrow morning, up in the northeast. as far as the snow totals go. kansas city could be one of the highest in the midwest. shoveling from des moines to indianapolis and ohio included in in and cleveland and columbus. hae heaviest probably the cat skills. new york city and pittsburgh and also philadelphia, thomas, we are going to get a quick 2 to 3 inches of snen freezing rain and sleet on top of it. not like the last storm. this one will be crunchy and messy and hopefully we won't get power outages from the freezing rain. coming up next, actress sarah jessica parker. i think the two are comparing shoes.

we will talk about sarah jessica parker's role coming up. life's an adventure when you're with her.

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♪ >> the moment you came into the world, you wanted to be right here. probably you don't remember this one. >> look at me! >> you were about 11. >> what else have you lied about? >> what? >> did you know about daddy? >> of course, not! why do you drink this junk? >> i am talking to you! are you sure you didn't know? >> what is the matter with you? >> what is the matter with me?

i protected you! i believed you were incapable of something like this! you lied to me! >> makes you tired to look at, doesn't it? a scene from the play "the commons of pensacola," we will talk about in just a moment. first, look at these shoes. tell me whose shoes are hotter? it's kind of not. >> please explain to your devoted viewers and followers that you forced me to put my legs up on this desk. >> i did. at first, i did it and she told me it was not dignified but these are her shoes. you are now a shoe designer. barnicle, put your feet down. >> with the very wonderful and wise partnership of george malcolm, iii, who has been in the shoe business for a long, long time. he has been, you know, the owner of the minola brand for many years. >> the whole "sex in the city" carrie thing. >> she had an affection for

those shoes, as did it. rather boldly, that is the carrie shoe when which i'm wearing at this moment. they are made in italy. there is a wonderful gentleman who is probably third or fourth generation shoe maker in tuscany named ricardo and is wonderfully talented and his son now works with him. we have been able to make the shoes that i have not done for many, many years. >> let me ask you this because i bring it up not just to sell the shoes although i love them and will get them. you're a mother of three. you're doing a play. is it once or twice a day? >> we have two eight shows a week, two on saturday and two on sunday and two on wednesday. >> it's amazing. it's also an emotional roller coaster and if you're a mother or a daughter, you feel it. and i don't know how you're doing everything you do. i think it's amazing. you keep on going. quite frankly, unless like i'm wrong, you don't have to, but

you want to. >> well --." anterior t . >> there are working mothers who are doing things that are far more taxing and burdensome with little or no support and the financial -- little or no financial resource. i just want to say that doing a play and working on a shoe line is a privilege rather than -- i mean, there are women in this country who are working two and three jobs so i want to be clear about, you know, what is difficult and what is a chore. >> because you're doing something you love to do. >> and that i get to make a choice about and most women in this country do not have that opportunity. so is it tiring? sure. is it challenging? wonderfully so. is it a privilege to be tired and have these opportunities? absolutely. so you will not hear me complain. it doesn't mean i won't say, i'm tired, i'm sired, but the reality of my version of tired is really nothing that i should go on and on about. >> i love that answer.

that is absolutely correct. >> the play is spectacular. blythe danner and you are spectacular. >> she is extraordinary. >> not to give everything away. the run almost lapses soon, right? >> yes. we have been extended and extended and we can't extend any further. we are now -- it's becoming ungraceful to the next production. >> it's loosely based on -- a long time since you had done anything on broadway. of course, everybody knows you, obviously, principally from "sex and the city." what is the mindset from the long delays, the boredom of doing a tv series and multiple shoots and everything like that and then going live on stage? >> television actually works really quickly. i love the pace of television versus a luxurious film schedule if you're lucky enough to have one. i think in the most stark sort of portrait, theater requires

about 400 to 700 good takes every single night. film and television really need one take per scene to tell your story well, because once you get into the editing room, if you know have you that one good take and any great director or writer will say we got it, don't panic, you know? the other four were lousy but i got what i need. theater, which i guess is what separates the men from the boys or the women from the girls, is what it requires every single night. >> no net. >> no. and that is why i think they say it's an actor's medium because it's really you will to you. it's incumbent upon you to sort of find it every night and as human beings, it's often not possible to reach that kind of despair every single night and that is what is so engaging is when you know what it should be and you know where you have arrived perhaps the night before and you don't get there, how do you kind of reconcile that every night? but it's a thrill and new york

theater audiences are incredibly, they have very high standards, you know? their expectations are. and they should be. but it's a thrill. >> in this theater, thomas, i'll let you jump in, it's extremely intimate. >> yes. >> it's either there or it's not. when you walked out in the beginning, i thought that is sarah jessica parker. how am i going to get over this? no, i'm serious. you're right there. you're not even that far. but you did it. really quickly which is huge. >> sarah jessica and i have been imaginary friends since square pegs. >> i didn't know you knew that we had been imaginary friends. >> yes, we have been since square pegs so i want to come out on that. >> >> it's rarely revealed that one has harbored the same imaginary friend. i was just talking to my friend tabatha about an imaginary friend.

if it's so public, how can be imaginary? >> she asked that question? >> yes. in her uniquely marilyn monroe voice. she is 4. if everybody know is about it, how can it be imaginary? >> i'm glad to put it out on the table right now that we are imaginary friends. let's talk about the shoes because it's very cool. a lot of people recognize your love of fashion, not only from "sex in the city" but talk about the affordable. when you look at those shoes, do you say, hello, lover? >> in my interior monologue, i might have whispered, hello, lover. price point is very important only because i know how hard it can be to earn a dollar and when you're asking them of that dollar from somebody, what are you offering in return? and i feel as if i'm honor bound to these women who really were

an enormous part of any success that i've had. there were these 10 million women wand i feel a principle i have to maintain. so i wanted to make wonderful, beautiful shoes with, you know, great fit and comfort and i wanted to not do a mass line. so those margins get going like this. so we are pleased with the provides point we have been able to arrive at it it is what is called a sweet spot. it's called affordable but doesn't mean it's accessible to everybody. i wish we could have done it for a little bit less but i am pleased we are able to be between $250 and $400 for a pair of shoes made in italy with this kind of detail and this attention to this quality. >> where do you have shelf space to buy these shoes? >> it's exclusively at nordstrom which was a dream of mine because i have a nice history with the company. i started off as shoe merchants. it's an area that we are extremely good at doing well.

and they welcomed this partnership and they have been amazing so the shoes will be delivered february 28th. we have a pop-up shop in new york for a feud. >> i'm there. i'm there. oh, i'm so there. you don't have to reel me in. >> we are traveling around the country and i'm doing a whistle-stop tour. >> how fun! it's great to have you on. do you still watch "morning joe"? >> of course! i'm like are we going to talk about chris christie this morning? are they going to poll me? what better -- >> what do you think? >> a lot of conversations there to have. i know you have sentimental feelings and you have a friendship. >> i do. ask me questions. >> i would ask you this. do we have time for me to ask you a question? >> sure. >> during that two-hour press conference, what were you hoping to hear from him? and if you could kind of take -- if i could give you a truth serum now, tell me the one thing you thought was missing before everyone else jumped in and all of the pundits. what was missing from that press

conference? >> there were a couple of things missing. i think -- i know what was missing. when he -- when he said that bridget kelly was fired that he fired her on the spot. >> he never had a conversation with her? >> yeah. what? that's not the guy i know. >> i think -- yeah. i think for me that -- i had it -- i took issue. >> i took issue with that. >> and one other thing that really struck me and then i heard it a million times so this is now no longer rev la tory. when he kept talking about the betrayal he felt. >> right. >> and what i kept waiting for him to say, which i think would have done enormous goodwill for him at that moment was i regret that i ever set a tone in my office that it made it seemed to anybody who was working with me, subordinate or not, that any of this kind of behavior was acceptable. and he never said that. >> he did say -- he did say i've got to do a lot of soul searching. >> that's not enough because when you have to say is the fish stinks from the head down.

i am a leader and i set a tone in an office that made this somehow seem acceptable, or in any way sort of -- >> don't disagree. that is great don't need truth serum. ask me anything. >> i'm really curious to see what is forthcoming in all of these e-mails. >> i am too. >> any way, my parents live in bergen county so they have feelings. old school lefties! >> there you go. >> you know they are a little bit like i think we have enjoyed this. thank you for having me all of you. >> thank you for coming in. you can catch "the commons of pensacola" at the theater in manhattan. the dynamics between the mother and daughter. i walked out of there and i was like this. i called my mom and i called my daughter. so visit "the commons of pensacola" their website for

more details. amy chua says three trait that explain the her co-author and husband, jed rubenfeld, ahead on "morning joe." you're on to the next thing. clinically proven neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair. it targets fine lines and wrinkles with the fastest retinol formula available. you'll see younger looking skin in just one week. one week? this one's a keeper. rapid wrinkle repair. and for dark spots rapid tone repair. from neutrogena®. kand i don't have time foris morunreliable companies.b and for dark spots rapid tone repair. angie's list definitely saves me time and money. for over 18 years we've helped people take care of the things that matter most. join today. can you start tomorrow?

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here with us now, law school

professor -- they're just yale law school professors, amy chua and her husband, jed rubenfeld. we know you, amy. how are you? >> little bit of deja vu. >> how are you? >> thanks for having me. >> the rise and fall of cultural groups in america. absolutely fascinating. i think people always wonder about this. first of all, what kinds of -- what cultural groups are the most successful, amy? >> well, they're -- >> you know she's the tiger mom, right? okay, go ahead. >> there are dozens of groups in america that are disproporti disproportionately successful. we focus on eight. >> like? >> nigerian, chinese, lebanese, mormons and jews. >> is it success determined by money, status? >> our own view of success is really a much broader view but it's hard to measure that. we look at success based on

conventional measures like income, wealth and education because that's easy to measure and take it from there. >> right. so now then, i'll -- jed, why don't you take us through what it was, the triple package. >> what's the triple play. the three qualities that we found in the successful groups -- and let me just say the remarkable thing is here is what we know. we've got a tough economy. inopportunity is rising. in some groups, much more than america as a whole, people are still rising and succeeding. we're saying let's not be afraid to look at that and see how they're doing it. because if we don't look at it, how are we going to learn from it? we looked at it and we found that what united all of these groups were three qualities. first, a sense -- deep-seated sense of exceptionality, specialness of the group. second, almost contradicting that, a sense of insecurity. a sense that -- an individual sense that what you are or what

you've done yet isn't good enough. you have to prove yourself. you're feeling on the one hand that you're part of this special -- you have this special confidence but on the other hand that you have to prove yourself and the third factor is impulse control. >> impulse control? >> what's happen ed within our culture, if you go to certain places in this country where they've had a large influx of, say, vietnamese and cambodians, their drive, their striving for excellence seems lessons as they assimilate into our culture. >> i've been a little surprised because of this explosive reaction before anyone has seen the book. we don't say any groups are better. we focus a lot on this dynamic quality that you mention. you hear about asian americans being so good at school. after two generations, they are exactly like the rest of the country. so, it's very much a fluid phenomena, the groups who are successful change over time. you mention these groups.

these are some of the groups that we talk about in our book, that we can learn from. even in this tough economy, why are some people still going from, you know, parents that are completely uneducated to really significant success. the vietnamese are very striking. >> the fact of the rise and fall, it's fascinating when we found it. it explodes the myth. it's not true that what's compelling success is inate, biological, nothing to do with skin color. it's something cultural. the groups that are succeeding change over time. what we're saying is let's not be afraid. let's look at that. >> you know what we have to do? you seem very surprised by the reaction that this book is getting. and you've gotten reaction before. you've been called some incredible names and i actually think it's fascinating the concepts you put out there in terms of parenting but also looking at society and why it is the way it is. we would love for you to come back. would you do it? >> thank you so much. >> because even on this show we

don't have enough time to fill out this conversation. the book is "the triple package," amy chua and jed rubenfeld. thank you for coming on this morning. and you will be back soon. >> thank you so much. >> we'll be back with much more of "morning joe." oh hey, neill, how are you? how was the trip? [ male announcer ] with nearly 7 million investors... [ shirley ] he's right here. hold on one sec. [ male announcer ] ...you'd expect us to have a highly skilled call center. kevin, neill holley's on line one. ok, great. [ male announcer ] and we do. it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪ [ male announcer ] to truck guys, the truck is everything. and when you put them in charge of making an unbeatable truck, good things happen. this is the ram 1500. the 2014 motor trend truck of the year.

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with a signature. legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. and we're here to help start yours. explosive new allegations in the bridgegate scandal. david wildstein says christie knew about the lane closures as they were happy. >> oh, [ bleep ] just got real. i can't wait to see the media

tear into this one. >> we must wait and see for the evidence to come out. >> we are waiting on the evidence. >> right now there's no smoking gun. there's no evidence. >> everybody needs to take a breath and let the facts come out. >> we're all in wait and see mode. >> we have to wait and see what the proof is. >> who are you people? where is the immediate eulogies for his political career, the swift and painful justice in public opinion. you know, the news! i can't help but being disappointed. not in the governor. i expect that to be corrupt. but in the news media. if this measured approach thing catches on, i'm out of a [ bleep ] job! good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast. 5:00 am on the west coast, as you take a live look at new york city. welcome back to "morning joe." back with us on set, we have mike barnicle. that's nice, mike. good smile there and thomas roberts who is just like perfect -- knows how to give it

that half smile. >> i dressed up for sjp. >> of course. >> john howellman. >> looking good. >> thank you. >> my ombudsman, thank you so much for your help. >> there's a new sheriff in town. >> oh, god. spooky. and in washington -- yeah, exactly. >> there's my barnicle smile. >> exactly. that's mike barnicle watching a red sox game. >> and you messed up my lawn. >> airline travel should go much smoother today than yesterday after a snow storm grounded thousands of flights across the east. but the relief will not be lasting as a new round of nasty weather moves in. let's check in with nbc meteorologist bill karins who has this incredibly accurate forecast for sunday. three inches or 30 inches. thank you, bill. please, tell us more. >> i was thinking of possibly going like one to ten or two to 20. and i said let's just include

everyone and go 3 to 30. you can't go wrong. we'll worry about that weekend storm once we get there. we have a storm to deal with in the next 24 to 48 hours. schools have been cancelled in little rock because of freezing rain. that's the worst of it on the map. pink is what you want to avoid. coming up through arkansas. eventually, that will push right along the ohio river. we'll have the worse icing with this storm. winter storm warnings, pretty much anywhere. the white is advisories. the purple or pinkish color means you'll have significant impacts from either snow or ice. on this map here, this is the pink. this is the area where you'll have the worst problem with his icing, sleet or freezing rain or a combination of both. that goes all the way to the east coast through philadelphia, up into new york city as we go throughout wednesday morning. how much snow are we talking about? higher totals will be found near kansas city. chicago, an impact for you. around four inches or so. more ice for you. woo ergoing to get nailed. one of the bigger winter storms

of the season, areas of the catskills, albany, new york, poconos, up to the berkshires. harvard, 48. new york city, areas philadelphia southward less because you'll mix in quicker with the sleet. third part of our three storms in one week. this will be sunday night into mond monday. possibility of a nor'easter type storm with a strengthening storm. possibility of some significant snows going from the boston area down to new york, maybe even as far south as washington, d.c. again that, timeframe would be monday morning we'll have to watch that. a lot on the plate. lot going on. big headline today is 118 million people, mika, being impacted by this current storm. you can see the pictures here. that's freezing rain right through the center of oklahoma. not going to be a pretty scene later on today. hopefully, they'll be able to keep power on. back to you, mika. governor chris christie is speaking publicly for the first

time since a letter from a former port authority official accused him of having knowledge of the lane closures that dominated the press. the governor said he only learned there was an issue with the bridge after reading a wall street journal article. >> the most important issue is, did i know anything about the plan to close these lanes? did i authorize it? did i know about it? did i approve it? did i have any knowledge of it beforehand? and the answer is still the same. it's unequivocally, no. in fact, no one has ever accused me of that. and that's the thing that i think the people of new jersey care about the most. i have the responsibility for 8.9 million people and i'll be damned if i'm going to let anything get in the way of me doing my job. i took an oath a couple of weeks ago. i had nothing to do with this. no knowledge. no authorization, no planning, nothing to do with this before this decision was made to close these lanes by the port

authority. secondly, while i am disappointed by what happened here, i am determined to fix it. i've told people all the time in this job, i can't promise you that we're going to be perfect. but what i can promise you is we're going to do our best and when there are mistakes, that we're going to do our best to fix them. that's what we're in the process of doing. >> all weekend long. and, by the way, please, look -- i'm not even going to look at twitter today, so don't bother. i'm not defending chris christie. i think this whole thing looks bad. i think that it will be very interesting to see what comes out. i don't know what will come out. but we don't have what everyone thinks they have right now. they have a lot of evidence they're looking at. listen, if i'm the only one who can say where there's smoke there's fire with woody allen, i don't know why the same thing can be said for chris christie about all the evidence that shows there may have been some

bullying going on. i get it. it looks bad. i get it. stop like shooting me on the internet. having said that, "the new york times" story on friday and all the headlines on saturday and sunday, he knew. he knew what? >> well, we spoke about this yesterday. and -- >> i don't get what the new -- and the "new york times" had to redo their story. their ombudsman broke something about it. >> they clarified it. by the way, the ombudsman is great at "the new york times." she took it on and took it on correctly i thought. this is what we used to call in the newspaper business the governor, the whole story is in the throes of the drip treatment. every day it's going to be something. you have to let it play out. don't you agree? >> right now all the drips look bad. >> sure. >> do they do anything beyond look bad? really bad, but bad. >> well, it's an -- >> "the new york times" --

>> they were accusing him of lying. >> no. wildstein was suggesting that he had lied which is what the wildstein letter does say. what happened was there's no question, there's no question that matt drudge posting a headline a couple of hours after "the new york times" came out saying he knew. >> and it drove every newspaper coverage of this inventory. >> i don't question that. what the governor said yesterday was he knew -- to the point you guys were trying to get to the bottom of yesterday, which joe was saying how could chris christie not have known the lanes were closed in real time when there was this massive traffic jam? he said yesterday he did not know in real time. >> right. i get that. >> there's a conflict. there is a conflict. what governor christie is saying is he had no idea there was a problem here until there was a story in the wall street journal. >> that's correct. >> on october 1st, which is a couple of weeks after the lane closures happened.

so joe was acting as though -- >> i'm not talking about what joe -- i'm talking about me. hello, i have a voice. >> no, no, we had a whole discussion yesterday. i'm not excluding you. >> i'm not talking about what joe was saying. >> i'm saying there was a discussion around this table yesterday. all parties were asking, is it possible, is the issue here what is christie saying? it's crazy to think he didn't know about the lane closures while they were happening. i'm saying, what governor christie yesterday said on the radio is that he didn't know when the lanes were closed. he heard traffic reports. there's often traffic reports. the only time he thought that there was a problem was on october 1st, when he read the story in the wall street journal. what wildstein is saying in the letter that "the new york times" made an issue of controversy is that chris christie, in fact -- what is suggested in the letter is that what he is saying now is a lie and he knew in real time about the fact that the lanes were closed and then there was a

suggestion that he also met with the -- that is a story. >> i'm not saying it isn't. >> if your chief aide at the port authority who is responsible for closing the lanes is making a claim with the governor public's story is and has claims to back it up, that is a news story. >> thank you. you are my ombudsman. let me ask you a question. >> that was the argument -- >> i'm not defending him, okay? calm down. >> that was the whole discussion. >> here is the question. he knew the story, this and that. does that say that he was lying and that he was closing the lanes for political motivation, which is the story we all want to know the answer to. correct? does anybody have evidence of that? >> excuse me? >> is it -- was he using political muscle for any type of retribution. >> right. >> the office of chris christie do acknowledge they've been subpoenaed by the u.s. attorney in new jersey related to the bridge scandal. so, obviously, when you have the

investigation going on, there are lots of questions that still remain unanswered. >> and they look bad. >> and it looks very suspicious. >> it really does. >> when you're in an election campaign. >> got a lot of questions. >> governor ed rendell was saying when i was governor if someone had closed the bridge during my re-election campaign i would have called them within 30 minutes and said have those cones up or you're fired. to have this for four days closed for him not to be aware of it just seems suspicious. >> sure. suspicious? no, it seems like maybe just dumb. but it doesn't say that he closed the bridge for political motivation, which is the real story here. and it's the real answer we want. >> it's really not the only story. >> it doesn't sort of lead us to it. >> it's not the other story. >> the other stories are of, especially steve cornaki has been following, whether other things happened with sandy money that show there were political motivation in a lot of decisions

made up at the governor's office. again it looks bad. do we have any answers? i'm not tevending h idefending . i'm just saying the calm down advice seems pretty good. >> was there political motivation? have we found it? the answer to that question is no, we haven't found it yet. that doesn't mean there will be, there won't be. the other question is a question of when christie actually knew this. that's what john was getting at. was it during real-time traffic problems in september or was it when he read press reports in october? he stated unequivocally it was during press reports in october. if it turns out that he was lying about that, that is a news story. it is also a secondary story as to why he didn't try to get to the bottom of this immediately upon finding out. he said he asked his aides and maybe he lied to his face and said it's part of a traffic study. he went out there with

incomplete information and told the public a story that was categorically not true when he was doing his press conferences in october and in november. and so then the question becomes, why did his staff feel like they had to lie to him? or did he know, in fact, the true story? it's hard to reconcile the image we had with chris christie, with this micromanager, hands on, bold leader, with someone who allowed his staff to run wild. >> it's absolutely a good question. >> those are the big questions to me. >> it's fascinating. >> there are a variety of stories. >> they're questions. >> i'm not saying he's guilty of anything i am saying that -- >> i would argue that all the papers over the weekend, starting with "the new york times" on friday. >> "the new york times" did not say he was guilty of anything. >> infered it and it became this huge kind of domino effect. >> to even further clarify what sam is saying, what christie right now is trying to do is define this issue. he focused on this, on the radio

yesterday. he is trying to say i did not know in advance. that is one issue. did he know in advance? did he order it? he is trying to say he did not. there is another issue, which is while this thing was happening in real time and while his aides were passing notes back and forth on congratulating themselves on political retribution that they had affected, or what they thought was political retribution, did they know it then? he is not being clear about that. in fact, he is trying to say not only did he not order it, but he didn't know about it while his aides were high fiving all around him. >> right. >> those are two separate stories and are worth pir suing. >> all of the outcomes, in one of them is yes, it's terrible. some more terrible than others but we still don't know. sorry. we don't know. i think it looks terrible. it's horrific actually. mixed political new force the governor first after being snubbed last year, will he speak

at cpac, one of the most visible billings for republicans. but the political cost is growing for christie when it comes to looks ahead to 2016. he now trails hillary clinton in a head-to-head match-up, 54-39. and for the gop field at large, christie was the man to beat in november, leading by at least 11 points. when the poll added mike huckabee this time, the pack looks very different with christie falling to the middle. i feel like thomas has more to say. no? >> about chris christie? >> yeah. >> no. i think when we look at the overarching theme of what's going on, it's that he has problems coming in all different directions. >> yeah. >> whether it's about the sandy money, gwb scandal and he has a lot to answer for right now. and we'll find out more as the investigation continues. i don't think there's any reason

to believe that we can't take him at face value. but if wildstein or bridget kelly and all these people looking for immunity because they're facing jail time have one shred of evidence, the connection to it, that could be their get out of jail free card. >> that's it, yeah. after having one of its best years in recent memory, wall street is struggling to find traction in 2014. the slide continued as the dow fell by more than 300 points adding on to what's been its worst start to a year since 2011. so far it's lost 7.3% of its value this year. the damage wasn't just limited to the dow yesterday. both the s&p and nasdaq were down by more than 2%. janet yellen was sworn in as chairwoman of the federal reserve yesterday. she is scheduled to appear before congress next week to update lawmakers on the state of the economy. let's bring in chief economic correspondent for "the wall street journal" to take a look at the big picture. first, what's going on with the

dow. john? >> good morning. >> good morning. >> you know, my favorite part of that christie story that you all were just talking about is that he's getting all his information from the journal. i love that. >> oh, fantastic. >> the charge on bringing the story to the forefront. >> actually, we had some of your reporters on from the get-go, because the reporting has been so good. glad you're watching and listening to the governor on the radio. you want to talk first about the slow start to the year and what's behind it? >> yeah. so, i think a couple of things are going on here. the markets are sniffing out yet another disappointment. not only in the u.s. economy, but in the second biggest economy in the world, which is china. so we've had a series of reports in the last couple of weeks that have frankly been disappointing. yesterday we learned that car sales were soft, that u.s. manufacturing was soft early in the year. we got a report earlier -- well, last month that employment

growth wasn't as strong as people expected. so, you know, investors, after such a strong year last year, came into 2014 theinking all right, we're going to have another great double digit run and now they're thinking oh, boy maybe we're going to get disappointed all over again. >> isn't this just another reminder of something we don't talk about enough? the fact that the global economy is now -- it's truly a global economy. china has a hiccup and wall street tumbles for 250 points. >> the really big losers in the last couple of weeks have been places like turkey, south africa, argentina, russia. these are market that is we didn't used to think about being very important for the u.s. economy, for the u.s. stock market. and we seem to be catching a cold now when they're sneezing, too. >> sam? >> i'm wondering to what extent

domestic politic has play aid role in this, job tapering. a little bit of, if not contraction, but we've seen unemployment insurance expire. investors looking at that and wondering if we have our own house in order? >> investors are certainly obsessing about the fed. they have been a few years now. i kind of doubt that's a big part of what's going on right now, because if you look at the markets -- the fed is actually expecting -- the markets are expecting the fed to keep interest rates really low for another couple of years. i think what this is really about is that investors got their expectations very high. the fed actually got its expectations high for 2014 and it's just starting to look like instead of a decent year of economic growth, it just -- we might be, you know, another year kind of muddling through. coming up on "morning joe" after a rocky start in the u.s. senate, it appears republican ted cruz may be playing nice with members of his caucus.

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time now to take a look at the morning papers. from our parade of papers. the washington post, form er second lady joan mondale pass add way today. she was known as joan of art for her devotion to the fine arts. her husband served under jimmy

carter from 1977 to 1981. she was supporter of the equal rights amendment. she is survived by her husband and two sons. mourning the death of philip seymour hoffman whose autopsy result koss come today, exposing the underbelly of the fight against heroin. >> it's unbelievable. >> it really is. more than 80 bags of heroin were found at the apartment, 49 of them were full. prescription pills, one which included an addiction treatment drug. experts warn that heroin's popularity is growing, doubled over the past five years. mostly because it's cheap. washed up on the shore of the marshall islands after being adrift at sea for 13 months. the castaway -- what? >> 13 months? >> oh, my god. >> yeah. >> the castaway says he has been

lost at sea since december 2012 after a storm blew his boat nearly 6,000 miles off course. the fisherman says he survived by eating fish, small birds and drinking rain water. >> i don't know. >> you seem skeptical? >> i don't know. >> he looks pretty good for 13 months. >> redford just made his movie. >> he looks like tom hanks in castaway. >> only a lot better than hanks looked. >> where is his volleyball? >> family members in maryland told nbc news he resembles their missing brother. >> amazing story. >> wait. >> more to come. >> yeah. >> more to come on that one. >> like that's where we all say calm down and wait for the information to come out. right, heilmann, my ombudsman. >> yeah. >> state agency ordering google to move its mysterious barge

because of issues and complaints. they could relocate this four-story structure to an alternate site in the bay. secretive project created buzz. either a floating store or interactive learning space. >> so what are they doing? >> it's a spy ship. >> we have to wait for more. it's like everything else, like the castaway, like christie. we just have to wait. dallas morning news. a new study says your sweet tooth may be killing you. the cdc says consuming too much sugar increases the risk of heart disease. it says having a can of soda a day increases a person's risk by 33%. about 70% of americans consume more than recommended amount of sugar, sweetened beverages are the number one source of added sugar in diets.

>> what does it say about mike -- >> who are we kidding about this? >> splitting a 12-pack of bear claws? >> as long as it doesn't mention coca cola, i'm all set. >> you're not okay. i'm addicted to sugar. i'm serious. i'm addicted to all of that stuff. >> you're addicted to sugar? >> everything has sugar in it. i eat way too much of it. >> how much is too much? we're going to find out. >> you know what the report said in the ap yesterday? if you have a cinnamon bun for breakfast, a soda for -- at lunch and then i forget what the dessert was at dinner. you are way past the limit already. so that means most of america. >> i don't have a cinnabun for breakfast. >> old fashioned? >> no. i have usually like four chocolate covered donuts. that's not a cinnabun. >> and look at him. he's 35. >> we're going to do a segment

on this and you all are going to sit and enjoy it. thomas, take us to politico. >> okay. joining us now, the chief white house correspondent for politico, mike allen, here with the morning playbook. mike, good morning. >> good morning, thomas. >> what do you have going on for us? ted cruz making nice nice? >> i like that story. >> yeah, senator cruz has been taking joe's advice. joe has been saying for months that he needs an inside game in the senate. if you want to get things done in washington, in addition to being able to talk to outside conservatives, you need to also work with your colleagues. that's happening. members notice he's less bombastic and he promised privately he's not going to raise money for that outside tea party group that's running against some republican senators. so he's saying he will get the senators' backs when it comes to fund-raising. there was a funny moment where he was joking around with senator mccain who, as you remember, was the one who called

him a wacko bird. they were talking at lunch as how senator mccain said some crazy guy from texas stormed out of the state of the union. of course, referring to congressman steve stockman. we talked about that on the show and then senator cruz said, wait a minute, i didn't walk out of the state of the union. now they can kid. >> change in tone from senator cruz. you always want to leave the dance with the one that brought you. is that dangerous for him? >> thomas, this is a great point. i think you'll agree, senator cruz has built up so much street cred with the tea party that he can do this. that's why it's smart. because his challenge now is to not go native in washington, with which most of them do and he said he wouldn't. but also not become ineffective. we say in this story he was a little bit humbled by the response of the shutdown strategy.

it clearly didn't work and turned a lot of republicans against him. and seeing that it didn't work showed him that there was another way. >> politico's mike allen, thank you. why our cars soon may be talking to each other on the nation's roads. tom costello reports on the future of accident prevention. ceo of johnson & johnson is here with a push to put america's veterans back to work. it's an important program. we'll talk about it on "morning joe." some announcements there, too. so i c an reach ally bank 24/7, but there are no branches? 24/7. i'm sorry, i'm just really reluctant to try new things. really? what's wrong with trying new things? look! mommy's new vacuum! (cat screech) you feel that in your muscles? i do... drink water. it's a long story. well, not having branches let's us give you great rates and service. i'd like that. a new way to bank. a better way to save.

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it will be a totally new direction, calling for technology that would let cars actually talk to each other to prevent accidents. tom costello has the details. >> reporter: after decades of focusing on surviving a car crash, a dramatic shift in focus. beginning the process to one day require new cars to come with technology to avoid a crash before it happens. much like collision avoidance systems used in planes. on the ground it's called vehicle-to-vehicle or v2v communication. status report through a wi-fi system to every other nearby vehicle on the road. constantly updating its position, its speed, whether it's turning or braking. if a car ahead suddenly brakes,

everyone behind it gets an alert. >> i had an led screen across the front to warn me. my seat is rumbling. >> we were in ann arbor, michigan, with ford engineers a year ago for a d.o.t. test involving a thousand cars. alarms go off and your seat vibrates. >> i feel this rumble really catches your attention. the rumble in the seat. >> reporter: all the warnings went off when i turned up to a green light but a car on my left was moving too quickly to stop at his red. >> if i hadn't hit the brakes, he would have t-boned me. >> exactly. this is one of the most fatal crashes out there. >> reporter: helping to cut the fatal accident rate the past 10 years, 30,000 people still die on the roads each year. the government said v2v technology could cut up to 80% the number of unimpaired accidents. >> it is the game-changing p

potential to avoid a crash in the first place. >> reporter: already many cars come with sensors and radars. as technology helps to reduce the chance for human error. >> pretty wild to think that's in the future. that was nbc's tom costello reporting. brian sullivan has business before the bell. we're back with more of "morning joe." that's insane. yep, and you can customize it. i can download anything i want.

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get married, have a couple of kids, [ children laughing ] move to the country, and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll find some financial folks who will talk to them about preparing early for retirement and be able to focus on other things, like each other, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. new york, hit with six to, let's say, 28 inches of snow. it's actually providing the mayor with a chance for some snow removal redemption. we're going to go back to manhattan, though, and check in on the upper east side. how are conditions there? >> not good, john. not only has the city not cleared the streets, it seems

that de blasio is actively bringing snow in. >> you look completely buried in a snow bank. are you cold? >> nochlt i can't feel my legs. business before the bell now with cnbc's brian sullivan. where are we going with the stock market, brian? >> we're going down, mika. what a lousy start to 2014. drops across all the major indexes. we went back into our historical rolodex and discovered it was the worst start to february since 1933. that is not a misquote. 1933. one day does not a trend make. january was also lousy. we're off to one of the worst starts for the year, the dow down more than 7%. in a number of years your menu of concerns, if you will, is very long.

concerns about a china slowdown, weather impact in the united states. japan is on the slide again. emerging markets. you have all kinds of stuff out there. hard to pinpoint one reason. factored all together, guys, it has been an absolutely lousy start to the year. let's get in our hot tub time machine and go back about six weeks, shall we? >> okay, wow! let's do that separately. so, brian -- >> being in a hot tub with brian sullivan? >> such a good movie, though. that was a good movie. >> don't think so. >> what's the bear doing in the hot tub, by the way? i never figured that one out. >> what are you all talking about? >> hot tub time machine. it's a movie. >> oh. >> like mr. smith goes to washington. >> cinderella. >> i thought you were insinuating that you would get in a time machine hot tub, brian. >> depends on who else is in there. >> oh, lame. >> take me to target. >> well, target may be also wishing the same thing, guys. cfo of target is going in front

of congress today. they want answers and want to figure out what happened with the data breach, 110 million customers credit card or other personal information obviously hacked. you had similar concerns with neiman marcus, michael's arts and crafts. target getting all the attention. that will be in a couple of hours. john mulligan is expected to say we need to speed up the chips. if you go to europe, the credit cards have a microchip. we don't have that here. that chip protects a lot of personal information. we want to start implementing that here in a couple of years. target is saying they would like to roll that system out ahead of time. obviously, very expensive. when you have customer data on the line, costs need to be a second factor. disney interactive video maker, may lay off some people. video game business remains tough because everybody is buying games on the apps instead

of consoles. alex gorsky is here with his push to help veterans find solid jobs after service. keep it right here on "morning joe." [ park sounds, sound of spray paint ] ♪ we asked people a question, how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? $500,000. maybe half-million. say a million dollars. [ dan ] then we gave each person a ribbon

to show how many years that amount might last. ♪ i was trying to like pull it a little further. you know, i was trying to stretch it a little bit more. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. [ man ] i looked around at everybody else and i was like, "are you kidding me?" [ dan ] it's just human nature to focus on the here and now. so it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪ ♪ ♪ 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.

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that was a brand new public service announcement featuring johnson & johnson ceo alex gorsky, who is here with us now to talk about the program. i want to know what inspired it. obviously, your past military connection sincere probably part of that. but first there are so many skills that are transferrable.

but that link, that sort of ability to do that is what's missing in many cases, is it not? >> absolutely, mika. first of all, thank you for having me on the program this morning. >> thank you. >> but, you know, when you think about the fact that over 2 million men and women have served since 9/11 and we're expecting another million who have served to also be exiting, as the other 2 million have over the next two years. and despite maybe all the debate you may have on topics, one thing we can rally around is to make sure we take care of all those people. they have so many good skills. how do you manage ambiguity in today's environment? just the discipline that they've acquired through their years in the service. how can we apply that, frankly, to the job market? how can we use that as an engine of economic growth for us going forward? that's what this really is all about. >> you served in the military? >> i did. >> where and when? >> i graduated from west point in 1982. i had six years of active duty.

i spent about a year over in europe. the rest of my time was in the seventh infantry division. >> what of your military experience and training applies to your success as the head of j & j today? >> i think one of the most fundamental issues for me -- actually, what i looked for in a company i was joining coming out of the service, in the service it's a really values based environment and leadership environment. it's the cause you're there for. it's working with your fellow soldiers and what i found is that johnson & johnson, with accredo, our commitment to mothers and fathers and ultimately shareholders, it was really consistent with what i had been used to during my time in the service. >> perfect fit. >> you mentioned 2 million veterans since september 11th and another million coming online. one of the faults of the media, and the way we cover stories and build up stories is what you're

talking about is the true 1% in this country. it's not the rich 1%. the true 1% in this country are those 1% of americans who have served this country the last 12 or 13 years. how do we establish or continue to establish and build a pipeline where you can get a 22-year-old platoon leader coming out of the marine corps or the army into these corporations that seemingly, like the rest of america, have ignored to some extent their service. >> it's a great question. it is one of the challenges that we face today. because as we all know, a smaller and smaller segment tends to be serving in our different military services. and so what's important is not only, obviously, to make sure that the soldiers, the airmen, the marines, those serving the navy can come out and get access but also to expose the rest of america, to get them involved. that's wuvent things we talk about. how can we serve them? one of the great thing about

american corporate partners is it creates a mentorship. it's not about just getting the first line job but continuing and establishing a consistent, continuous relationship. frankly, a little bit like a gps that they use in the military that they're probably used to when they are trying to figure out where do i want to go? do i want to go back to school? do i want to start my own business or navigate my way through corporate america. and making sure they've got a link, a lifeline, in essence, over a long period of time. what's going to happen with some of these, they may get out and start in one role and decide that's not exactly suited. i want to go some place else. having that kind of long-term relationship is really important. again, that's a great part of american corporate partners program. >> thomas? >> alex, it's amazing when we look back at what you have done with your life and the foundation of military service you come from. i have two younger cousins, one on my mom's side and one on my dad's side, i don't think i'm talking out of school saying they've been disconnected trying to reengage in society.

one is in his 20s in san fran, trying to parlay these skills into a private security position. in reading about you, you said you had to get used to rejection. >> yes. >> and that that really helped you -- what would you say to the young men and women out there who have felt that rejection, but the hope that you're trying to provide through what you're doing? >> my first piece of advice is, look, make sure they're taking advantage of the resources that are out there. things like acp. but there are many other programs working with services to make sure that they understand what their options r i can remember when i first got out, i wasn't aware of what opportunities might be out there. and so that's step number one. step number two is working with mentors to help you translate those skills, thing that is they did day in day out and they took for granted in the military, what that may mean for corporate america. it's a bit like learning a new language. that's really critical. and third is don't get

frustrated. when you think about this generation, they truly are the next greatest generation in terms of the commitment, the service they've done. we all owe them. i think working -- frankly, during a time like right now, our economy needs them. because we think long term they can be a tremendous driver. >> you're going to put your money where your mouth is today. because this is about one on one mentor/mentee relationships. someone like you would be a great mentor. do you have a mentee? >> you're right, it's one thing to talk about it at a 30,000-foot level. >> so nice. >> but we all need to get involved. i've mentored hundreds men and women coming out of the service, today i'm going to sign up through acp with jerry rivera, who is at columbia right now, 32-year-old airman whose wife is also going to columbia. >> fantastic. >> it's all about making that connection at a very personal level. >> that's your new mentee and

his family. fantastic. your chief of staff, danielle, i would like one. can she get me one? >> absolutely. we would like to get you signed up. we would like to get everybody signed up. >> everybody who wants to. >> this is a chance for to us serve those who have served. >> if there's anything i can offer to serve as a mentor. alex gorsky, thank you very much. congratulations on this initiative. up next, what, if anything, did we learn today? honestly? my kids were always on my laptop. i didn't think i could buy them their own, let alone for under $300. but this asus with windows is lightweight and has everything they need -- not like chromebooks that can't install office or have to be connected to the internet to get much done. with this they can do homework, chat, play games -- on their own laptop, and their own time. so no more fighting... at least not over my laptop. ♪ honestly, i wanna see you be brave ♪

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with no shirt on and it was awkward. we'll show it to you tomorrow. time now to talk about what we learned today. >> i learned that sugar kills, but there is a bear claw exception for me and mike barnicle. >> that's right. yeah. >> we can eat as many bear claws as we want. >> thomas? >> i achieved my crush today of meeting sarah jessica parker and she's really -- >> had some questions for me. >> and great shoes. >> i know. i can't wait till those come out. i'm going to nordstrom's. what did you learn? keep it clean. >> keep it clean. >> 1% of those americans who have serve this had country for the last 12 careers in uniform, getting them employed.

>> join with us and be a mentor through alex gorsky's program. if it's way too early, what time is it? it's time for "morning joe." now it's time for chuck todd. >> the syria standstill. situation seems to be very stuck there right now. and as u.s. and russian diplomats try to find a way forward, america's top intelligence official suggesting syria's civil war could lead to attack in the u.s., there's now a split, potentially, inside the obama white house about what to do. plus radio row. while confirming that the u.s. attorney has subpoenaed his office, governor christie asserts again that he didn't know anything about the bridge closure that's engulfed him in turmoil. very specific on when he knew and when he didn't. and it actually might fit the wildstein timeline. and this