made nice with a man who is often one of his most vocal critics. >> i always found louie to be unbelievably gracious. i don't watch tv, i've got to admit. >> one funny moment there from president obama. prayers this morning but politicking this afternoon. the senate plans to stay another crack at extending unemployment benefits this afternoon and there was the raising of the debt ceiling and house speaker john boehner reportedly has convinced many of his fellow republicans and even tea party members to resist the urge to go to battle again over the debt ceiling, even michelle bachmann telling the "washington post," my assessment is that most of us don't think it is the time to fight. instead boehner is focusing on a small deal involving military pensions that he hopes can even attract democrats longer term president obama's poor job approval ratings makes him a questionable asset.

for some democratic senators, four senators in states that obama did not carry in 2012 are facing tough fights with two more democratic seats likely to turn republican after the democrats holding seats retire. one unnamed senator who sat in on a meeting with president obama told the "washington post," the president said he knew he was not popular in some states so he would not be offended if he was not invited to visit them this year. krystle ball and hogan, i'm glad you called each other so you can match. dana, let me start with you, maybe about 30 minutes ago and something he said caughtmy attention. >> now he's running around the country telling everyone he's

going to keep acting on his own, keeps talking about his phone and his pen. and he's feeding more distrust about whether he's committed to the rule of law. listen, there's widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws. and it's going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes. >> dana milbank, that seems to be the new line now. we can't go -- we can't move forward on immigration reform now because we can't trust this president. despite the fact this administration has deported more illegal immigrants than any previous administration. >> yeah, but he's still an outlaw, this president. it does seems to be the line and you can see it bubbling up from the conservative base, to some more of the conservative members in congress and now the speaker himself even though he previously indicated that the president was within his rights to do some of these executive

orders, i think it's continuing a process of saying, we're not even going to have a debate with this president, we're declaring him outside of this system of government. he is illegal and there by disqualified. >> hogan, one of the things i did not hear in the news conference, i never heard specific examples of how this president skirted the law. do you have some for us? >> sure, i mean, look, there were things that with the doj, for example, they completely just ash trarly changed things as related to drug courts or laws with -- people arrested for drug laws, let's ash trarly set limits on those. granted we should have drug courts, that's a different conversation. you can't change the law midway through. there are many parts of obamacare he decided not to

enforce and give people exemptions on those laws. that's a bad thing for the president to do. while the trust issue can be considered a scapegoat for rpz as it relation to immigration, it is accurate and truthful for us to use and the american people quite frankly do feel railroaded by the comments he made about obamacare being able to keep your doctor, for example -- >> but that's a separate issue. >> we're going to dog him for the rest of this term. >> can i just say -- >> he lied about that. he lie he can lie about something else. that's the argument. >> the problem here it has nothing to do with the president. a lot of republicans like john boehner would like to see immigration reform pass. as you mention, what you're hearing now from the conservative talk radio in particular, is the fact that the base is uncomfortable with immigration reform and quote unquote amnesty because they are fed this red meat rhetoric, telling them the illegals can't be trusted and we can't possibly

have amnesty for them. they are facing huge pushback and has nothing to do with the president. >> so instead of saying we've got a lot of folks in our party who can't get. >> uncomfortable with this. >> the new line becomes we can't do it because we can't trust this president to enforce the laws that we pass? >> that's exactly right. rather than looking for a way to maybe have mechanisms in there, to make sure the enforcement piece is in place before moving forward, they just want to scrap the whole conversation all together because of the problems and the pushback they are facing from the base. >> dana, you wrote recently about -- go ahead. you had something? >> at the end of the day, cristkri cristal is right here, people actually suffer here. >> that's not what i was saying. >> you call the gops, no fact

zones when it comes to the irs and benghazi. as if on cue, we had another irs hearing this morning and controversy over the obamacare numbers in the latest report. how big of a problem is that for the 2014 designs? >> well, i think it's a problem for the democrats because people largely accept this. i understand why it's being done as a matter of politics, but it's fundamentally dishonest, take the cbo report, that was pretty damning information about obama care but does not say about what is being said about killing jobs. likewise, plenty of questions to be asked about benghazi and irs, but you have lawmakers chairman of a subcommittee of ways and means yesterday, said that this administration is guilty of corruption. that's a crime. if they have evidence of a crime they ought to present it. >> my understanding is that he backtracked as well once you pressed him on it, no?

>> this is the whole idea as you tip toe out there with outrageous allegations. they are guilty of corruption, and there's a cover-up involving the response in benghazi, when you get right down to it, it's a whole lot less than that. i think the republicans can maek a good case on all of these by sticking to the facts. maybe this will help them in terms of short term politics in 2014 but hogan was just talking about the trust issue with this president and that's a real issue. when the opposition is just making stuff up along the way, they are going to have a similar problem. >> krystal, this is something else the speaker said. >> there are things we can do to get the economy growing again and back on track. >> he was talking about obama care there. for the first time, first time i've heard, it sounds as if speaker boehner was owe facially waving the white flag. it may very well take a new

president for us to repeal or change in a dramatic way obamacare. was that the first time you heard that? >> they had their messaging also in the state of the union, sort of backing off of this rewe have to repeal and go forward with 40 more votes of repeal obamacare, you end up with more shutdowns and debt ceiling fights that were absolutely devastating to the republican party. i want to say on the cbo report, i don't think it change one thing. people who already hated the health care law, still hate of health care law. people like myself who support the health care law, still support the health care law. if anything it highlights the fact that people can take risks and start businesses they are no longer tied from the health care to the job sean that's a great thing undersold on the aca. >> we're going to have to -- i wish we had more time for you guys. hogan, i know you wish we had more time as well because i was

going to come to get to you. always good to see you and dana milbank in washington and krystal ball. >> income inequality and immigration and also we'll even get to the extending unemployment benefits this afternoon, big senate vote on that. later, we'll take you live to a city on the sea, the black sea that is, sochi russia as the 2014 winter olympics officially begin.

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let the games begin. the olympic torch has arrived in

sochi, while the opening ceremony may be under friday night lights, some of the competition is under way. advising airlines to watch ought for explosives possibly smuggled on to planes using tubes of toothpaste. joining me live from sochi, msnbc's brian shackman. let's start there. let me ask you about the security situation in sochi right now, the department of homeland security says there is no specific threat, they are just being cautious. describe the level of security as you see it on the ground there. >> reporter: right, craig, first of all, they are talking about planes that aren't even originating in the u.s. or going to the u.s. a couple of things to point out in russia, they are throwing a lot of people at it and you have to separate now and when the games start -- when the games start who knows what it will be like. there will be so many more people here. down by the coast where we are

now, there are police at every single exit to every single road. i'm not just talking highways, there are police there on side streets they have a definite presence. never been a feeling of insecurity down here. up in the mountains and i talked about this yesterday, you have soldiers in the woods in the hunting blinds, it's offputting when you see them but they are ever where. the only difference today, there was a helicopter circling the mountains constantly. in terms of appearance, there's an omnipresent presence of security. >> another story line leading up to the games, the issue of gay rights. the u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon spoke before the international olympic committee, urging activists and protesters to continue making their voices heard. take a list rn. >> we must all raise our voices against attacks on lesbians and

gays, bisexual, trans gender or intersex people. we must oppose the arrest and imprisonment and discriminatory restrictions they face. >> ban ki-moon there. could the spotlight brian shactman, could it turn out to be a good thing for the lgbt movement? >> it already ha. really in a contemporary fashion, there's no doubt people are on the good side of history on this one and even american companies have stepped up and really spoke against the law. at&t, dow component spoke out against it in support of lgbt and devi did the same and chobani, and perhaps the reason why they are getting yogurt over to russia, how outspoken they've been about supporting the

movement. >> russian authorities saying there was some sort of problem with paperwork with that -- >> reporter: yeah, right. yeah. >> let's turn to the games, opening ceremony tomorrow night, competition already under way featuring the debut of two new events today. you were up in the mountains. how did it go? >> reporter: awesome, shaun white wasn't in the slope style but it doesn't matter. they do qualifiers before because they give out the gold misdemean medal on saturday. and americans are involved in that. the energy in town here and up in the mountains changed decidedly overnight. there's more people and more energy and the events, i was at the slope style, unbelievable event. i was at women's hockey today and also got to talk to one of the jamaican bobsledders. i think the u.s. women's team

got to meet putin it and talking about it at practice, he wandered in, there's president putin. they got to talk to him real briefly and said that was a thrill although they did point out meeting obama is a bigger thrill. >> it's good to see the president of russia in the picture with his shirt on at least. >> reporter: for us it's a better thing, for sure. >> brian shactman, in sochi, thank you. >> coming up, is more snow in the future? we'll have the answer to that question straight ahead. don't forget, you can catch complete coverage of all of the olympic action across our family of nbc networks starting tonight at 8:00 eastern. as we go to break, one more look at the city of sochi as the games officially begin. in the nation, we reward safe driving.

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listen, there's widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws. and it's going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes. >> so that was less than an hour ago. speaker boehner there at his briefing saying that immigration reform is not likely to happen in 2014 because of his words, a lack of trust. nbc capitol hill correspondent luke russert joins me live now. luke, how could president obama go about building up this trust that the speaker is talking about? >> reporter: that's a good question, craig. it was posed to speaker boehner at the press conference and he essentially said that the president will not work with us on smaller bills, ideas we sent him last week, so we don't trust him to move forward on large scale immigration reform. there's a deep distrust as they

feel he sort of taken very aspects of the health care law and implemented the way they see fit in away that was on -- an obstruction of the constitution. let's talk about the political reality, because this is what the news is of the day. john boehner has wanted to pass immigration reform for a long time. he went forward to his members and retreat they had in cambridge, maryland, offered up ideas. those were totally rejected. they were accepted in the sense that some like them but when they put them into motion, that idea was reject d because there was no trust for president obama to enforce border security. we go back to this thing we've talked about a long time. what constitutes border security for house republicans? the answer is unknown but they do know this do not trust president obama on border security, because of that they'll kill immigration reform more than likely than not this

year. >> did someone point out to the speaker, that facts are facts, did someone point out this administration has deported more illegal immigrants than any previous administration? and what was his response to that? >> that was -- that question was not posed but that is certainly something that i think immigration reform advocates say is look, one of the strategies the obama administration had to try to pursue politically has been these deportations because that is their effort to show they are serious about border security. you remember the comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed the united states senate, bob corker from tennessee said maybe billions of billions put into border security there was quote, overkill. we get back to this question of what is securing the border in away that the house republicans see fit. they don't want to go down that road because there's a huge just opposition to any type of immigration reform within the house gop conference.

a lot of them represent districts that do not have a large immigrant population. so the worry amongst a lot of republicans was that this fight would divide the party in a mid-term election year, mitch mcconnell, the senate minority leader doesn't see how it will get done in 2014. john boehner, had he wanted to move anything, would have had to move with mainly democratic votes, something he's been reluctant to do on an issue where there's no, shall we say, time limit. there's no strict deadline here for immigration reform. it's not like the debt limit where they have to pass it or the world ends. right? what do they do? i think it's -- it would be a great shock if you see any reform from house republicans this year pertaining to immigration, simply because the conference is so divided. >> luke russert, always enjoy your insight. thank you so much. >> reporter: take care, be well. are you ready for a third winter storm this week? that's right. the latest forecast coming up,

plus, we'll take you to the white house where the white house briefing is under way. there you see him right there, speaker -- almost promoted jay carney, spokesperson for the white house, we'll be right back. hey guys! sorry we're late. did you run into traffic? no, just had to stop by the house to grab a few things. you stopped by the house? uh-huh. yea. alright, whenever you get your stuff, run upstairs, get cleaned up for dinner. you leave the house in good shape? yea. yea, of course. ♪ [ sportscaster talking on tv ] last-second field go-- yea, sure ya did. [ male announcer ] introducing at&t digital life. personalized home security and automation. get professionally monitored security for just $29.99 a month. with limited availability in select markets. ♪ [ male announcer ] this man has an accomplished research and analytical group at his disposal. ♪ but even more impressive is how he puts it to work for his clients. ♪

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can i get my aleve back yet? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. ♪ [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap. nearly half a million folks in this country do not have power for a second straight day and many wonder, if they need to prepare for this week's third round of nasty weather? power crews are rushing to restore service to folks left in the crowd. one pennsylvania power company says the storm was the second worst in their history, only behind superstorm sandy. you can look at the map right there. officials warn that power will not return for days in the hardest hit of those areas on the map. the busy storm season is digging deep into salt supplies as well, communities from kansas to new york are running low on salt, forcing officials to scramble

for more icy roads, causing scenes like this one. in oklahoma city, look at that truck completely spins out. that's i-40. meanwhile in louisville, slippery streets left in spaked school bus struggling on the way to school this morning. the bus was eventually freed there and millions of frigid americans are cleaning up, there is more winter weather on the way. alex wallace has the forecast now. >> hey, craig, just as we look towards the weekend, looking for more snow into the northeast. what's coming together? we've got two branches of the jet stream, one to the new york and o north and one to the south. originally we were thinking they would come together and form a big system for the northeast. now the thinking is they'll stay separate, one for saturday to bring in a bit of snow and one for sunday to bring in a bit of snow. here's saturday from the ohio valley into the mid -atlanticmi

d.c. and baltimore dealing with that. on sunday, the second one impacts us farther north, boston and new york you'll have a chance for snow. the key is, it is all expected to be very light. not looking for a major system at all. meanwhile on the west coast we're watching disturbances move in here. we've been dealing with dry conditions and this means rain will be in place across the northwest down into california where we desperately need it. rain in the west while we've got more snow to deal with in the east. back to you, craig. >> alex wallace, good news for friends on left coast. switching back to politics, fact checkers had an absolute field day with republicans and new cbo report, and politifact, all rebutted claims that the report said obamacare would kill millions of jobs. moments ago john boehner, although he backed away from the

more exaggerated claims, still seemed to be beating pay very similar drum. >> this week we got a report from a congressional budget office that reminded us of one big reason and that's the president's health care law. under the law people will work less and under its employer mandate, wages will be lower. and in the end, the law is going to drive 2.5 million full-time workers out of the economy. >> democratic congresswoman gwen moore sits on the committee. you're nodding your head. i didn't even ask you a question and you're nodding your head. why? >> listen, craig, i mean, you know, i have to laugh to keep from crying. these republicans are so pathetic in their efforts to kill the affordable care act, something that is really given health care so far to 10 million people, whether it's to expand

medicaid, whether it's to provide them with an opportunity to get lower health care costs, what the cbo really said is that people were going to have to freedom and choice. something liberty, something we thought republicans were for. they are not going to find themselves at age 65 tired and sick, perhaps and won't retire because they've got to keep their family on their company's health care benefits. they have got to find -- they'll be able to be entrepreneurs because they won't be stuck in job lock. >> i do want to ask about another part of the cbo report. paul ryan mentioned it yesterday and other lawmakers pointed to this as well. what's your response to this idea that for some the new health care plan, new health care law will be a disincentive to continue working, perhaps or disins dis disincentive to work as many

hours? >> come on, knock it off. you can say people don't want a promotion because if they make more money they'll have to pay more taxes. it's the same sort of silly argument. you know, this health care benefit is going to benefit millions of people who found that they weren't having diseases diagnosed early and they were facing early unnecessary deaths because they had no health care, greater mortality and morbidity rates and the republicans are just so determined that they would come up with any stupid economic argument that they can. people have an incentive and people want to work and people want those benefits to go along with work. there's never been an incentive to work somewhere where you didn't have any health care benefits. and now people are going to have the health care benefits no matter where they work, whether they decide to go in business

for themselves and this is a winner for workers. >> i want to get your take on something else the speaker said maybe an hour or so ago, saying it's going to be difficult now to move any immigration reform legislation forward until the president can be his word, trusted, can be trusted to enforce all of the laws related to obama care, related to some immigration as well apparently. does it seem to you the gop has given up on immigration reform in the lower chamber? >> i think that speaker boehner is making those statements because he's got to give cover to himself. i mean, he has a rekals trant part of his caucus that doesn't want any kind of immigration reform unless it's heavily weighted towards building walls and border security and billions of dollars. so to cover himself, he's punting it back to the trust

worthiness of the president. we see the fact that they've come up with some principles as at least a floor to where we could begin this discussion. so he has -- he's in a tough spot. >> congressional black caucus had its own prayer meeting today, i understand, it's going to happen at 1:00, i understand, this afternoon. the focus is going to be poverty and income inequality. we know that is going to be an issue this campaign year. what if anything can be done substantively? >> well, you know, prayer as much i think. i think when we are calling on the great spirit on god, allah, whatever, to intervene in this situation, i do think that we -- what we really are praying for is that businesses see that they are in the same boat as poor people. if poor people don't make more

than the minimum wage as it currently is, if we don't give unemployment benefits to people and don't give food stamps to folks, they won't be able to spend. our economy is built on consumption. and so you're no better off -- if your best buy or j.c. penney or pigly wiggly, you're in trouble when people don't have money. prayer will bring us together. >> amen. we'll leave it there congresswoman, thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> we'll head to the lone star state, exactly where you will find chris christie today. will texas republicans be welcoming the embattled governor with open arms and open wallets? first an nbc legend and bona fide american institute, jay len no will host his final tonight

show tonight. from time to time they stopped by for some laughs. >> i brought a painting for you. >> you did? >> yeah. >> did you paint that? look at that. >> what's this thing with trump and you? it's like me and letterman, what does he got against you here? >> this all dates back to when we were growing up together in kenya -- >> yeah. >> it's hard running for office when people can't say your name. my name looks like beaner, bonner -- >> my first race for congress was running against a guy named kindness, thank god my name wasn't weiner. >> there you go. >> what took you guys so long. the end.

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scheduled for tomorrow for philip seymour hoffman. three people have been arraigned on charges part of the hunt for hoffman's dealer. the actor's tragic death shined a spotlight on an issue that some call a national crisis and taken a deadly toll in my next guest's homestead. robert casey represents pennsylvania. senator, last friday, two days before hoffman's death, i understand that you sent a letter to the dea, following a span of 22 overdose deaths in pennsylvania due to a batch, as i understand it, fentanyl laced heroin. what more do you want to see from the drug enforcement agency? >> first of all they are helping but we wanted to make sure we specifically asked for help with this particular problem, which is a, in this case, 22 deaths weren't spread across the whole

state. it was in six counties in western pennsylvania. sometimes the biggest cities in the state you hear about and any state, in our state whether it's philadelphia or pittsburgh, these deaths occurred in places pretty far from a big city. so helping us get to the origin or source of that is one part of the challenge. also, dealing with this question of the -- the potency of the heroin, as well as the efforts made by the bad guys to get it into the hands of younger and younger people. this is an issue that frankly was highlighted a couple of years ago by the so-called ndic in pennsylvania, which was at the time located in johnstown. they focused on this as an east/west, eastern problem moving west and now we have evidence of it. >> the surge in heroin use hardly unique to your state. this is vermont's governor, in his state of the state address

just last month. take a listen. >> vermont since 2000, we've seen more than 770% increase in treatment for all opiates, what starts as oxycontin problem in vermont, has turned into a full blown heroin crisis. >> he devoted nearly his state of the state address to addiction in this state. he noted that prescription opiates are often the gateway to heroin, many experts say the success of the crackdown on drugs like oxycontin, that that's led to a lot of addicts turning to heroin. do we need to look at how we prescribe oepiates as well, is that a large part of the problem? >> it seems to be craig and that problem has been raised before. and part of the -- it's like any problem of this dimension, we

have to focus on the prevention or preventing folks from having ready availability of these drugs. but also we need help on the other end, which is the enforcement. we have to make sure even as we write to dea like i did and continue to ask them for help, we have to make sure they have the resources but ultimately the only way we'll stop this is to reduce the demand and that starts with early education that young people, children receive when they are early grades of school making sure they understand the dangers of this and being persistent about having this education continue throughout their school life. >> pennsylvania senator bob casey, talking about an important issue here. senator, thank you. >> craig, thank you. coming up, texas sized politics as chris christie is in the lone star start raising eyebrows, hopefully some cash as well for the rga, a lot of folks

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while investigators in new jersey continue to sift through documents, embattled governor chris christie is in texas on a fund raising trip. details are being kept close to the chest but state democrats plan to hold a press conference 15 minutes from now to respond to his advice it. duane slater is the senior political writer for the dallas morning news. what kind of reception do you expect for governor christie there? >> well, among the democrats the kind of reception the national party is rolling out all over

the country, warning if you a republican candidate are standing next to chris christie anywhere, his troubles will become your troubles. i've got to say the secrecy is amazing, it's like one of those 2:00 clubs that opens up in lower manhattan and only the guys who know where you got to go can get there. christie is a yankee. chrisris christie is popular among establishment republicans but this is a conservative state and his effort to raise money here for the republican governors association might meet with some resistance from conservatives who think he's too palsy wowcy with the president. >> christie, a wisconsin governor scott walker at the fundraiser in dallas on tuesday and rand paul is going to be giving speeches on friday and saturday we're told. that's a lot of 2016 hopefuls

for one state and one week. have prominent republicans hinted at all at who they are going to put their money behind? >> you just mentioned the word, there's plenty of money here, especially for a republican primary. that's why they are all covering, texas is one of the big atms for politics. i don't think prominent republicans know yet. there is an appeal among ted cruz but that's not establishment appeal. a lot of republicans in texas like ted cruz, but fundamentally a guy like scott walker would be seen as pretty good. fundamentally there is an affection in this state for the bushes, if jeb bush emerges as a candidate, then he would be very, very popular among republicans in the state of texas. >> the other big texas story is wendy davis's gubernatorial bid. you broke the story about her background, not exactly lining up with the life story that her campaign has touted.

but in a new article, you reported that the controversy may have actually helped her fundraising. how so? >> i heard this a few days after our article raising questions about her life story, which the campaign had made sort of show cased in its effort to lure money and attract voters, but what i saw in the most recent report is the per day hall after the story hit for wendy davis was four times what it was before. so it looks like a whole lot of wendy davis people, not just in texas, but all over the country, reach for their pocketbook and said, we don't like this. we still want her to be the governor of texas. >> all things considered, you know texas politics better than most, what do you put her chances at right now? >> not very good. the last time a democrat has been elected governor of texas was ann richardson in 1990. if her campaign continues the effort, what they've been doing in the last couple of months,

she's toast. but anything can happen. that's why they play games. i thought the broncos were going to win but the seahawks did. >> you and a lot of folks lost a lot of money on sunday. wayne slater, thank you, always appreciate you. to the white house now, president obama set to wrap up a busy week in east lansing, michigan, home to michigan state university where he'll be signing off on what's become quite rare in national politics these days, a bipartisan bill. he's going to sign the farm bill in michigan worth nearly a electrical dollars. joining me for a preview of tomorrow and more, kristen welker standing at 1600 pennsylvania. we'll get to the farm bill in just a moment. i want to start with immigration reform. after speaker boehner talked about the lack of trust with this white house on that issue, this is what president secretary jay carney said a few moments ago. >> i think that the challenges within the republican party on this issue are well known and

they certainly don't have anything to do with the president. but as i noted before, the progress has been significant. >> all right, again that's speaker carney at the briefing. we should note that briefing is still happening right now. it is ongoing. there's the speaker continuing to take questions. kristen, it sounded like we heard what is probably going to be the new line at least from the gop with regards to why immigration reform is not going to happen this year. >> right, you had house speaker john boehner this morning really tapping into voicing the frustration of the republican base when he said that they can't trust the president. of course that is an ongoing reaction to what president obama announced in his state of the u.n. i donnion address, namely would take executive actions to get things accomplished and acknowledging he won't be able to get large things accomplished the same way he would if there was legislative action but he's going to take small steps to get

things done like increasing the minimum wage for federal contractors. you recall that republicans had a sharp backlack and reaction to those comments. this is sort of the ongoing battle lines being drawn. this time around immigration reform. now house speaker john boehner i'm told by those who are familiar with his thinking, did want to get immigration reform done. he brought rebecca on his team, someone who has worked extensively on trying to get immigration reform passed. they laid out those principles last week, a way forward on immigration reform. but this is a major sticking point for the republican party or at least to your point, this is their latest talking point about why they can't move forward on immigration reform. of course the main sticking point continues to be this issue of citizenship, democrats want to see full citizenship and republicans are saying that no, they don't want immigration reform bill to include citizenship, rather they want it to include legalization. that continues to be the big sticking point but this is the

new talking point. >> really quickly here, tomorrow in michigan, president obama is going to sign the farm bill which includes $8 billion in cuts to the food stamp program over the next ten years or so. they are going to make a big display out of signing this bill. how is the white house feeling about signing the legislation. >> reporter: you have president obama praising the fact the farm bill got passed. they have been arguing over this bill for months, craig and republicans wanted large cuts to the food stamp program. they wound up getting about $8 billion and farmers are saying this is good for them. it will increase crop insurance, decrease some subsidies that senator stabenow of michigan thought were being a drag on the farm industry. it is a mixed bag and certainly didn't get everything that the president and democrats wanted but they see it as a reasonable compromise, $8 billion to food stamps cuts which republicans

were asking for as well. >> nbc's kristen welker for us, thank you and thank you for joining us on this thursday afternoon. that's going to do it for me. i'm craig melvin. up next, "andrea mitchell reports." ve a big meeting when we land, but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest. [ male announcer ] nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? alka seltzer plus night fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a decongestant. [ inhales deeply ] oh. what a relief it is. there's nothing like being your own boss! and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order. good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex.

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we put members first, because we don't have shareholders. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side right now, going for gold, the olympic competition kicks off in sochi ahead of tomorrow's opening ceremonies and the mancariing the flag for team usa is ready to lead the largest group of americans to ever compete in a winter olympics. >> it's a very deep honor bestowed on the athlete, i have 280 that thought i was the best. i have to thank them, it's a great honor. >> as athletes and fans arrive, the toothpaste threat. a warning issued to be on the lookout for terrorists trying to

smuggle explosives on planes in tubes of toothpaste. we'll have all of the latest as the so-called ring of steel protecting olympic venues is put to the real test. the monuments men will go inside the treasure hunt and tell the true story to save the great works of art. >> you want to go into an war zone and tell our boys what they can and cannot blow up. >> that's right. >> aren't we a little old for that? >> yes. >> good night jay, the legendary host after 27 years after first appearing on the tonight show with johnny. >> please welcome jay.