before the "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ >> good morning, everybody. it's tuesday, february 11th. welcome to "morning joe." a lot of news to cover this morning. with us on set mike barnicle, msnbc and time magazine senior political analyst mark halpern and the host of "way too early," he is not here yet. in washington d you have to go a little faster, thomas. >> what is going on, thomas? >> willie was never late. >> willie was never late. he was always here. >> now he's in sochi. >> that's heavy.

yeah. hi, cutie. how are you? >> i was better a couple of seconds ago. now i'm out of breath. >> "the new york times" reporter -- you'll be fine -- jeremy peters is with us. good to see you! >> hi, mika. how are you? >> i'm fine. i didn't take that last night, if you know what i'm talking about. and andrea mitchell is looking awesome. i haven't seen you in a long time. >> i missed you guys. >> i've missed you so much! >> i love getting up early. >> i know you do. i know you do. a lot to talk about, joe. would you like to tease the big headline today? do you know what tease means? >> no, i don't. >> it means you say coming up, we're going to talk about dot, dot, dot, then you stop and i do the lead story. go ahead. i'll give it to you. >> i defer to you today but i think we should be leaving this.

yet another change. >> i don't really have much to add on that. >> thank you. let me tell you why we shouldn't be leading with it. >> why not? >> because you guys will go on forever and since we are going to do that, we are going to do a few other stories that is significant. >> the president unilaterally changed the law that he wasn't supposed to change unless he had congress' approval. >> that is a tease. can you now wait and then we will discuss it later? >> i'm going to get a couple of very interesting stories in. >> you're saying it's not even the second top story today? >> go ahead. >> you have to let me do the first top story. >> let's go. more subpoenas are going out in the george washington bridge scandal that continues to consume the new jersey governor's office. among them are the state republican party, the governor's office itself, and chris christie's re-election campaign but the committee is looking for

state helicopter logs. amid claims the governor flew in a chopper over the now famous traffic in ft. lee with none other than resigned port authority official david wildstein. >> wait a second. who is saying that? >> who thinks they flew over the bridge? i'm fascinated. >> we don't know about wildstein being in there. >> they put out a statement denying that the governor was on board a helicopter. >> was elvis ever on the helicopter? >> i don't know. >> stop. >> the two were seen together. >> there is also a subpoena. they believe they saw jesus and john lennon bearing over and hoffa in the middle of central

park. go ahead. >> photos like this one were obtained by "the wall street journal." the governor's office has issued a statement reading in part the governor used the helicopter to travel from new york to trenton following the 9/11 ceremony. david wildstein did not ride with him that day or any day. in high school? they did skip school and go to the candy store together and get -- anyhow. he has never flown in the helicopter with the government. in spite of the scandal the republican governors association says it broke fund-raising efforts in january with christie at the helm. the group brought in $6 million which it says is twice as much as previous months. strange. okay. >> so mark halpern, what is going on here? >> on the legal side or the political side? >> just the little side. >> in chicago today he is giving a big speech at the chicago economics club and the democrats are going to do what they have been doing which is stunts galore and try to get press

coverage. former governors doing an event to stoke this mean that christie is negative. he is raising money and donors are giving him a chance. an a.p. story that tries to push into the notion he is having trouble raising money but the fact is as long as the story holds up, donors will stay with him. what is chris christie's vision for the american economy? let's see if he can give it undistracted and good solid speech. if it is, it is a long path here if the story holds up. >> i said the distraction to the rga with all of these stories coming out that it would be better for the rga if he just stayed home and worried about what he was doing at home. joe scarborough is betrayal. it's not a betrayal of chris christie. it's just a fact. if you were a republican like myself and you want governors to get re-elected in 2014 and you don't want to control 30 state houses but 35 state houses you

want somebody who has no distraction. he raised a lot of money in january and, who knows, maybe everything is going to go swimmingly well. this is not exactly, you know, a guy that has focused 24 hours a day reelecting governors across the country. >> given the level of staffers we had read about the past three weeks, the high school memo he claimed he didn't see. i would i think it would behoove the governor to resign from the rga and concentrate on his immediate political future. >> that is my point. if he did not know this memo was going out, he does not need to focus on giving speeches across the country. >> anybody can pick this up anecdotally. the bully label has affixed itself to chris christie. rightly or wrongly, it has rightly affixed its to chris christie the past few weeks. you say people who have minimal

interest in politics or in chris christie, they say he is a bully. you get that automatic response. the other thing his credibility on when he found out about the traffic. >> yeah. >> it's not hanging in there. most people you speak to during the course of the day, two elements of conversation link them all, traffic and weather. they all talk about how they got stuck in traffic on the way to work and is it going to snow. >> this helicopter story, it's a wild goose chase or it's really troubling. >> they do confirm that path was used to get between 9/11 -- the memorial between trenton and new york city and the statement they confirm there was a flight path that went over that general area. whether or not they flew close to the ft. lee side to hover over and look down. >> can those logs confirm that? that will be interesting. i'm trying to think -- >> the passengers were on board? we know that the "the wall street journal" ran with that picture that wildstein and the governor were together that day

at one point but whether or not they traveled together, they are pooh poohing. >> moving on to our other top story this morning which joe mentioned earlier. very good, joe. you did good. it was a little slanted, ide ideologically but angry. >> i was angry? >> the way you couched it all. >> i was angry. i'm a happy guy. the white house is delaying the employer mandate for some businesses to enroll in obamacare. medium sized companies were announced will not have to provide health coverage for full-time workers until 2016 and applies to companies with fewer than 50 but companies with more than 100 implies have to offer

health coverage and full coverage by 2016. that doesn't mean the issue won't play a major role in campaigns throughout the year. rnc chair reins priebus said in a statement, elections matter. when it comes to his significant accomplishment obamacare each helped make it a reality. >> a unilateral change. politics do not like the fact it's a unilateral change. when you look at the language of the bill it shall be enforced by between and now we bump it back a year or so. it's good for the businesses exempted from it but what is the fallout on capitol hill? >> i question the political impact for republicans or democrats actually. i kind of lost track of how many different delays there have been now and i think if you read that

statement that reince priebus issued. as far as the impact for democrats, i mean, this is already looming like a dark cloud over the election for them. so i don't know that this makes it any worse. it certainly doesn't make it any better, but this was here and it was here to stay as an issue politically. >> andrea, it's sort of a drip, drip, drip, as far as one delay after another delay and each delay seems to underlie the fact to people who think like me as another example that was ill fought out. it was just was an ill-received bill. what is the impact politically on the hill and beyond? >> i think the impact what they hope the impact will be is that this takes some pressure off of democrats in the mid terms. that is their primary concern right now. is to do something to alleviate the pain of the health care

debacle of the rollout because the perceived benefits are not being felt yet and what we are still see are the after effects of that website as they get past the original trouble spot. i think the real problem is the mid terms and what they are hearing from people on the hill. >> is this all about helping democrats just get past 2014, andrea, any way they can take the affordable care act off the table. >> i don't know if you can take it off the table because republicans think they have a very good issue here. that is what the white house is hearing. this is the john podesto the new people in the white house trying to eliminate whatever bumps they can from the re-election and they are particularly concerned about the senate where they are very vulnerable. >> the "wall street journal" echoes what you said. executive action that -- it's not consistent with the language

of the law and they say if these things need to be delayed doesn't that suggest the law is bad for the economy? i think it would be great for both public policy and the politics to come out and explain why it is more than just to help mark pryer keep his job. why is waiting a year sensible if it's a good provision, let's get moving and be consistent. >> our debate has always been this is not good for the economy. these regulations are not good. it was an ill-conceived bill. i've asked people around the table have you talked to small business owners is this going to help their business. every time they delay this, why are you delaying this? if it's not bad for the economy why delay it another year and why did valerie have to talk to businesses on the first delay? because it's bad for the economy. >> some public policy argument bad there year and fine next year? >> if the economy grows. >> let's hear the president say

it, not a blog post but hear the president, his signature come out and explain. the last time it happened we said the same thing. let's have some transparency to explain why isn't this pure politics? if it's not a good idea this year, why a good idea next year? there may be an answer but it should come from the president and not a blog post. a couple of other stories. one interesting here about hillary clinton as she eyes a possible 2016 run for president echoes of the past refuse to stay there. today, it's the private papers, the late diane blair, a political science professor at the university of arkansas who clinton called her closest friend. blair's notes reveal some of the clintons lightest and dark he's times. hillary was frustrated with the white house staff and washington, d.c. scene. dumb founded by people who look in the eye and lie to her. they discuss plans to overhaul

health care and those plans tied into hillary's -- blair wrote hillary clinton is tired of all those whiny women and she needs pack wood on health care. packwood was accused of sexual misconduct and then the monica lewinsky affair. according to blair clinton dismissed her husband making a mistake. the first lady told blair the affair did not include sex, quote, within any real meaning. she said the president managed to try to manage the white house intern but things were quickly beyond control. rand paul has treaded into lewinsky territory lately with provocative comments and reince

priebus is calling it fair game. >> i don't see how anybody gets a pass on anything especially in today's politics so i think we will have a truckload of opposition research on hillary clinton and some things may be old and some things might be new, but i think everything is at stake when you talk about the leader of the free world and who are going to give the keys to run the united states of america. so, you know, look. i think everything is at play. >> andrea, this is all very exciting. i feel like michael j. fox about getting into -- >> "back to the future"? >> we are going to debate monica lewinsky and what else? we are going to have a bush versus a clinton. so we can do the '98 thing, the '92 thing. >> just what i want to do. >> maybe we can relive the robert bourque trials too. does anybody thinks americans want to go back and relitigate this? trust me. i was there the first time we litigated this and americans didn't want to hear it then.

this is just sheer insanity and as far as these papers go, i mean, come on. the lawyer in me says it's hearsay. who knows what hillary really said. >> let me just put a little context. these papers were donated to the library in fayetteville and have been available to the public four years. so the freebie can post selected clips and i talked to the professor who has the diane blair chair in fayetteville and in charge of all of these documents. nobody came and looked to them until recently as we get closer to the election. it looks like the first tromp of research and why do we want to go back there? as you say, i don't know the legality of hearsay. >> it's actually not hearsay. it was just sort of a misstatement on my part. >> that's what i was saying among us in talking about this yesterday when we were deciding what to do with it. diane blair, whom i knew, who mark there knew and the closest

friend to hillary clinton was writing a very academic document as well. it's her take and some things are in quotation marks and we don't know how it was quickly noted, some are not. she stayed in the white house and they were the first overnight guests. bill clinton married the blair's and hillary was in the wedding party. she was hillary rodham and she wasn't married yet. they were the only women on campus in professor roles. this was a bond. this is a girlfriend bond and these are the kind of conversations and hillary, by the way, knew that these were going to be made public because she spoke. she did a video when they were donated to the library i. >> are you saying they are fair game, andrea? >> no, i'm not. i'm saying what we have seen so far we have taken out of context and we have read through more of

it and there is a lot more about the stress her husband was going through and she blamed herself and a lot more on the lewinsky stuff than we read. >> it's sort of legally you wouldn't call this hearsay in court but, one woman writing notes about a friend. again, if this is the opposition research that republicans are going to have -- no, i'm just saying. how do you get people back to work, right? and i would much rather fight about the affordable care act and debate that and talk about why that is bad for business and we need to build a keystone pipeline. let's have fights on issues, but this stuff? mike, it's going to get eyes rolling awfully fast. >> if reince priebus thinks this is a critical issue, he ought to wrap it up. this is so over and people are not interesting. >> it's also kind of insulting. this should not define her.

this is about somebody else who she was married to, do you know what i mean? ? >> sad news that nbc news has confirmed that shirley temple has passed away. made her motion debut picture. in 133 and in most of her films before she turned 12 and dazzled audience with her cheeks and hair. she was in "heidi" and she was among the most popular movie stars of her time and rivalling mae west and president franklin roosevelt reportedly said, quote, as long as our country has shirley temple, we will be all right. president nixon pointed her u.s. representative to the u.n. in 1969. she married twice and taking the name of her second husband charles black. an official says she passed away from natural causes in her home.

>> everybody remembers this. take a look. ♪ i'm the good ship lollipop ♪ ♪ it's a sweet trip to a candy shop where bonbons play on the sunday beach of peppermint bay ♪ >> i used to sing that song. >> mike actually was the guy -- >> stop it. >> no, he actually choreographed this scene. it was sort of midway through his career at that point. coming up on "morning joe," senator claire mccaskill will be here. >> oh, claire! >> chuck todd is going to be here. "the new york times" indicate surnnike will also be here. >> first, bill karins.

first, here is bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> bill, i don't like you. >> we will work it out. >> we are having trouble with the new run. national weather service in atlanta called this historic and catastrophic what they describe is occurring from atlanta to augusta and freezing rain and power outages. people were grabbing everything offer the grocery store shelves. a little bit rain and snow. mostly from birmingham north wards. atlanta will get sleet but it's a wednesday event for you really. here is how the whole storm plays out. wednesday p.m. the wintry mix then the storm up the coast. i-95 to the coast, snow and sleet but then once you get west of i-95, we are talking about a snowstorm. as far as the ice storm goes, major power outages expected up

to three-quarters of an inch of ice. the snow side of the storm, the heaviest snow over virginia and mountains in north carolina and washington, d.c. looks to be a sweet spot too. possibility 4 to 8 in richmond. in the northeast talking about totals 4 to 8 for new york city and 4 to 8 for boston. d.c. a chance after foot of snow. one of the biggest snowstorms possible. this is wednesday night into all day thursday. biggest snowstorm in four years. you're watching "morning joe." [ julie ] the wrinkle cream graveyard. if it doesn't work fast... you're on to the next thing. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair has the fastest retinol formula to visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles in just one week. neutrogena®.

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♪ galves. >> this one and "wichita lights" maybe one of my favorite songs. >> look at the morning papers. >> you tweeted your weight last night. >> i haven't weighed myself in two months. >> how much were you? >> 141, maybe 2. >> how long are you going to play this out? >> i don't know. maybe go to 150. yeah, no. it feels like a good weight. >> i think people should be comfortable with their weight. how much do you weigh? >> a hundred pounds. >> come on. 235. >> in my defense, the camera adds about 800 pounds. i weigh like 235. >> that's a good weight. >> i was 118. i was so skinny trying to be a tv person. tv girl or whatever. i'm done with that.

>> i'm not fat, i'm big boned. >> yeah. >> any way. glenn campbell, i cleaned my gun and dreamed of galveston. >> charleston daily mail. one month after residents were left waut water, officials still will not say whether the water is safe during a two-hour congressional hearing yesterday, four members of the house transportation and infrastructure committee questioned officials about this bill. when asked directly if the water is safe, this is the kind of answer i get from joe sometimes. when i'm trying to get an answer out of him. the commissioner of the state bureau for public health was very cautious with her language. >> that's, in a way, a difficult thing to say, because everybody has a different definition of safe. am i confident in the science?

i'm as confident as i can be, given what we had. i believe the water, based on the standards we have, is usable for every purpose and that includes drinking, bathing and cooking. >> the thing is she doesn't know. remember after noiv9/11, you we down there for two weeks after it happened. i think it's crazy you had the foresight to do this and a few others did, but you had a shirt that you said you wrapped around -- >> i don't know if it helped but i didn't want to breathe the air. >> you knew early on. we still heard epa officials saying months later that there was no danger to all of those particles that people were breathing in. >> cut to a year later. >> there certainly were. >> people were dying. >> they can't make any guarantees. >> it's interesting to me the answer was interesting. i made light of it a little bit. but to say -- i can't say it's safe but it is yoobusable for

drinking and bathing. whoa. what? >> i think we have been around these situations, all of us enough to know, if they can't tell that it's safe without any limitations, then you probably shouldn't be drinking the water. >> that's a disaster. >> again, even post-9/11, they couldn't say it was completely safe. i think you need to be very careful. unfortunately, contaminants get in ground water and they stay there sometimes for decades. >> now to "the new york times." the mayor de blasio outlined his state of the city address. he says the city will be the largest city to offer i.d. cards and to address income inequality by setting a higher minimum wage. the detroit free press, in addition to becoming the first female ceo of an automaker, mary

barra's compensation will be worth nearly $14 million and more than acreson made before he retired in between. gm released the reports that barra would be underpaid. >> i saw a tweet of a bunch of woman holding chocolate hearts and saying for valentine's day we don't want chocolate, we want equal pay. bosses, don't give chocolate or gifts for valentine's day. just look at the bottom line, right? >> right. "the dallas morning news." commercial flights have either landed or nearly touched down at the wrong airport. 150 times since -- >> it happens! it happens! if you're drunk while you're flying. >> stop. the associated press report follows two high profile landing mistakes in recent months.

sometimes the pilots realized their error will making the final decescentdescent. mistakes have occurred in san jose, california, six times. >> the first female to accuse bob filner of sexual harassment has reached a settlement. filner's former communications director will receive $250,000 from the city and step down from her position. the city agreed to defend filner in return for his resignation but could sue him for damages. 20 women came forward with similar claims and filner then retired. a new sfal vels school friends and work and family. many teenagers develop unhealthy behaviors to deal with their stress like sleeping less and not eating well. these habits will likely carry

over into adulthood. watch this. >> there is so much stress. no doubt about it for so many kids these days. >> technology, i think, keeps it going all night long. >> with us now is mike allen who is here with the morning playbook from politico. senator mitch mcconnell. i've been catching this with kind of -- been very skeptical about this guy. mitch mcconnell has been under fire from the republican base and they say conservative grassroots organizations are supporting his challenges. yesterday, mcconnell's colleague from kentucky rand paul was asked why he endorsed the minority leader. >> the hardest question that i have for you, and it is -- it is this. why are you endorsing mitch mcconnell? >> i'm here in texas today to endorse don huff.

we got our signals crossed here. the senator of kentucky asked me. he asked me when nobody else was in the race and i said yes. >> al gore has asked me to change my opinion on global warming and i don't do that. >> so there is a little levity there. we could talk about that. but i want to actually talk about the back story, if you want to. but i think more interestingly, the story that came out yesterday that is going to shake up this race is a story that matt bevin, who has been running around with self-righteousness indignation that mitch mcconnell supported t.a.r.p., the bank bailouts, which i did not, matt bevin supported it himself. not only did he support that, he said he, quote, reported the nationalization of fannie and freddy. isn't this going to blow a hole in his entire argument against

mitch mcconnell? >> it really has. the mcconnell campaign is going to be talking a lot about it. what is devastating about it, it ran back home. you know the difference between a story that originates in the home state media they are going to keep pushing and something that people cook up in washington or new york. in this exchange with glenn beck radio with senator rand paul, what we are seeing there is senator paul reminding the tea party and reminding the right he is not going native in washington. he's had a pretty good relationship as you know with mitch mcconnell but he is saying i'm not sucking up to my senior senator, to my leader. he -- what is especially awkward about this. you know jesse benton who is the manager for rand paul for president campaign and you know there is going to be one, is the manager of the mitch mcconnell for senate campaign. >> right. >> so what we are seeing here is an early look at that

nastiness -- >> you're either in or you're out. you go 90 miles an hour. you either endorse somebody or you don't endorse somebody. if you endorse, have an answer for it. why are you endorsing mitch mcconnell? rand paul could say i don't want democrats to keep running the senate and we are not in utah, we are in kentucky and a competitive race and get the guy most likely to stop harry reid from running the senate. i've been around here long enough to know, a lot of johnny come lately. everybody the past three years, i'm a tea party guy and conservative guy and a lot of the same people supported the bailout and medicare part d and supported these huge government programs. i want to read this to you, jeremy. this is from bevin. he said, most of the -- this is a letter he wrote in 2008, his entire campaign is actually

built around the notion that mitch mcconnell bailed out the big banks. this is what he said when he was in investment banking himself. most of the positive developments have been government led such as the effective nationalization of freddie may and freddie mac. the passage of the 700 billion dollar t.a.r.p. don't call it a bailout. the federal reserve's intention to invest in commercial paper. i mean, seriously? you talk about a snake oil salesman. these people are all over the republican party. you know what? the second it stopped being fashionable, you know, to support big government, they stop supporting big government. but, i mean, mitch mcconnell has to be feeling pretty good this morning, doesn't he? >> joe, you and i have talked about this a lot before. there is often very little id ideological policy distinction between the candidates who run to the right of incumbents. matt bevin was caught taking a

position that it was contrary to something he had said earlier. i think it's often a matter of tone, right? so you have candidates like bevin. you have candidates like ted cruz and mike levy, the guys who run from the right, and they are not all that much more conservative than the people they claim to be rallying against. so i think i just really think that you're seeing that and bevin got caught doing it. >> he really did. andrea, you know, these people sometimes try to run to the right of members that will have like a 90% conservative index. when you have people running around saying jon cornyn is a liberal it's time to take off the tin hat and say how do the republicans win the senate in 2014. this is another example of that. >> we saw recently in virginia in a congressional race where the party pressured someone out

of a race because they -- and supporting most party leaders supporting barbara comstock who is certainly a conservative, to try to differentiate yourself from truly conservative longstanding senators or members of congress or people trying to run for open seats. really does marginalize the party because it puts them in a situation of being hypocritical like you pointed out in kentucky and then they get trapped on social issues where most party leaders agree the republican party does not want to be in 2014 where they have a really good chance of retaking the senate. >> you didn't support t.a.r.p.? >> no, i didn't support the bailout. it's the same thing with medicare part d. you have all of these people that run now, 7 trillion dollar drug medicare benefit program and democrats thought to pass it in 2004 and they didn't pay for a single dime of it. there are a lot of grassroots

people that are well-intentioned in a well small government conservatives but people like matt bevin who decide they want to get into politics after they have done something else and here's a guy who has been blasting mitchell mcconnell on t.a.r.p. and we saw it in the presidential race. guys talking about how conservative they were and they were the most conservative person. you go back and see where they were. they supported medicare part 2rd. i think this is going to have a devastating impact on bevin's campaign only because he has embraced one of the biggest government plans out there and he has lied it bure it. >> politico's mike allen, thank you. coming up, one of the most highly anticipated events at the winter games but some snowboarders aren't excited about the olympic half-pipe. why the athletes say the course isn't ready. "morning joe" sports is next.

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these guys are feeding off each other with the tricks. they all like learning new tricks. >> wow shra! >> oh, my goodness. carrying a ton of speed.

oh! oh! man! already a better run. this is where he had trouble in the last -- oh! >> geez! >> oh! man! >> those are the three medalists. >> those are the medalists! >> tough stuff. >> this is sochi. the weather is impacting the competition there certainly making our olympic athletes around the world a little concerned about conditions. that's not the only venue impacted by the unseasonable temperatures there. snowboarders saying the halfpipe is less than ideal for them. shaun white says the halfpipe isn't up to snuff and the problems have led to a number of falls and these poor conditions have left riders weary and hesitant to practice the big tricks they like. white spoke to reporters after his practice session. >> it's not the best. i mean, i'm -- i don't want to bag on it, but it's very disappointing. it's just the weather. and the fact that so soft in the middle. it's really hard to get across

wall-to-wall. it's just not up to par. i don't think it's dangerous. it's definitely just frustrating. >> frustrating. who knows if they are going to be trying to attempt some of their bigger tricks because of the conditions there. he has been obviously outspoken about the conditions even pulling out of one of the events, the slopestyle event. >> it was like 61 degrees yesterday. >> it's beautiful. >> going to be a lot nicer there. >> organizers are trying to make the conditions comfortable. jew mancuso takes home a bronze medal in the slalom. her first olympic gold medal. no other american woman has won more than two. check out her reaction and her mom after she crosses the finish line. >> mancuso over the line and she gets the bronze! [ screaming ]

>> she does it again! this woman is amazing! >> amazing. her parents were so proud. no other woman can touch her in terms of medal count. she has four on her own. check out the overall medal count. look at canada and the leather lands tied at the top with three gold medals and seven silver. the u.s. sits in fourth place with two gold medals and five total. we will see what happens today. up next, the must read opinion pages. we will be right back with much more "morning joe." ♪ [ police radio, indistinct ]

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>> i'm sure i'm not supposed to but, sorry, we are breaking protocol here. that is the good thing about being president. i can do whatever i want. >> did the french president want to go over and start dating the woman that was leaving? what is wrong with that guy? >> i don't know. >> it's implicated. >> it's really not that implicated with the president of france. pick one! i'm sorry. this has got to be favorite headline of the day? >> no, no, no. >> i'm just saying. we are talking about headlines. daily news. teacher of the year. al qaeda instructor -- >> accidentally blows himself up." this is from hogan's heros. drops a hand grenade. >> that is for the table of boys. >> it's hogan's heroes.

>> let me help you along here, j joe. "wall street journal" -- maybe you don't want me to read this. >> i do. >> maybe i should not. by now, most of them of dubious legality. the text of the affordable care act specifically says when the mandate must take effect after december 31st, 2013 and does not give the white house the authority to change the terms. changing an unambiguous statutory mandate requires the approval of chronic but this president has decided the law is what he says it is. his administration's cavalier notions about law enforcement are especially notable here for their bias for corporations over people. the white house has refused to suspend the individual insurance mandate, despite the harm caused to millions who are losing their

previous coverage. liberals say the law isn't harming jobs or economic growth but everything this white house does screams the opposite. >> jeremy peters, you're going to be hearing the republicans say that a lot about on the hill. >> we already are. >> they talk about it a good bit. are we going to have hearings -- you hear this a lot, town hall meetings quote the lawlessness of the obama administration that the judiciary committee may be taking up here. personally, i don't think they have the legal right to do this but they are doing it any way. >> you're channeling a sentiment that i think is powerful on the right and could be a highly motivating factor in the midterm elections. you cannot overstate how much this enrages conservatives that the president is acting with this lawlessness that is he disregarding the law and that killed immigration reform, remember. the reason john boehner put off

immigration is because it was impossible to convince house republicans that the republicans would follow through and carry out the law as it is written. if you look into the rest of the country outside of washington. whatever hearings they have, i think, of a minimal political import. what is motivating the tea party folks is a powerful and potentially very dangerous problem for democrats. >> chuck schumer, by the way, picked up on this, mark halpern, so much so. he said, okay, we will pass immigration laws but we will make sure that it's not the obama administration that is enforcing it. again, tapping into this real concern about all of these unilateral decisions that actually cut against the exact language of the underlying bill which says it must be implemented by not it may be, it must be implemented by said date. >> it is just a huge emotional

issue. you travel around the country and any conservative that talks about the affordable care act brings this up. i think midterm elections as they are about emotion and passion this is a huge point the white house keeps teeing up for the republicans. this latest delay, i agree there have been others but the latest delay i think will set people off more than the others, simply because it involves a delay past the election. past the election. that screams of politics without an alternative explanation. >> we got to go really quickly while we are in must reads for those who support the affordable care act. interesting op-ed from allen blinder. obviously, noted professor of economics in princeton. b obamacare is a job killer, question mark? we will link that on the other

side. >> jeremy peterss, thank you very much. up ahead, we will talk to claire mccaskill. and representative buck mckeown to leave washington after 30 years.

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open manholes like "mad max" movie. take your chances. what are you? baby? embrace destiny. glory! sochi. everything fine. not to be worried. >> oh, my goodness! >> oh, my lord. >> a live look at sochi. >> mike, you said it was 61 in sochi? >> yes. >> it's like the bahamas. >> where i live tonight, it's going to be minus 2. so they are at 63-degree difference between where the winter olympics is and where we live. >> the snow where you live, very little snow. >> oh, my gosh. you can't walk outside. >> turn the torch down. welcome back to "morning joe." mike barnicle and mark halpern and thomas roberts still bus. joining us from washington is pulitzer prize winning winner,

eugene robinson and with the "the washington post" and msnbc political director chuck todd. >> subpoenas swirling around, chuck, democrats going after chris christie. i follow up with somebody said yesterday that was shocking people. >> what? >> i think i heard you say it last week, flib who knows politics and a lot of republican governors and people around republican governors have been saying to me quietly a couple of weeks now which is we love chris. he's a great guy to raise money and would love to have him here but if his problems keep going on and he is worried about a legal defense and he is worried about subpoenas and he is worried about, you know, staying in office fighting these charges, we don't know if he can be as effective fighting all of our races.

that's a pretty basically political calculus, isn't it? it's not a betrayal. people say i betrayed christie yesterday. that is one plus one equals two politics, right? >> i'm with you. i've been surprised that he is still there, that he is not taking a break. he doesn't have to step down. he can take a pause. the rga has a vice chair. yesterday, it was interesting. some folks close to the rga put out some fund-raising figures and not surprisingly, the rga is raising good money in the first -- in the month of january, the first year of the campaign year and more governors running for re-election than in a couple of circles. it was designed to say, hey, despite all of the distractions it isn't hurting them them on the bottom line. chris christie is leading an organization that is raising a lot of money. the point of raising money is the easy part of the rga because you can get the fattest of fat

checks. you don't need to raise them 25 bucks at a time. the interesting thing about chris christie at the rga was always he can go and help -- help troubled governors in certain states and bring some excitement and energy to the campaign trail. he can't do that now. you know? and anybody can show up at a fund-raiser. you would think that -- you know, i assume that his days at the rga are numbered if there is more drip, drip in new jersey. the reason you said, joe. everybody is a survivalist at some point. some governors will say we don't need this extra headache. >> this isn't a negative towards chris christie. i still support chris christie and still assume the best of chris christie and i personally think as a friend, he didn't know that all of this was going on in his office and that raises some other concerns that we will talk about later after the investigation is all done. but i would think it would be chris christie's best interest

to focus -- if somebody is throwing 14 subpoenas at me, if they got kremlin investigations going on, if i got stupid statements coming out of my office and i don't know anything about, which they are claiming he knows nothing about, i don't need to be going like, you know, oshkosh, wisconsin, campaigning for another governor. i need to clean stuff up. he can take leave and then he can come back. >> well, as a practical matter, if he takes leave -- i mean, this investigation is going to go on for a while, it looks like. and -- but i'm certainly with the consensus here that, you know, a, he, i think, is going to be a distraction for the other governors. he is not going to be able to help them on the campaign trail like the basic plan was and, b, if you're a public official and you've had to hire a criminal defense attorney and you're looking at subpoenas and you're looking at this investigations and, as you said, you apparently

don't have control of what is going out of your office at the bare minimum and you need to find out what has been going on in your office, you really got something to focus on there and you don't need to be worrying about, you know, the re-election of a governor halfway across the country. it doesn't make sense. >> joe, you mean take leave from the rga? >> yes, from the rga. >> mark halpern, if you truly believe you had nothing to do with this scandal, would you take leave from the rga? >> rationally, you would to focus on governing the state and dealing with the controversy. in chris christie's world and he is not yunique never show weakness and i think if he stepped down from the rga it is hugely overinterpreted for what it meant and the symbolism would take on a big stake. i don't know if he was ever helping people that much by campaigning for them. the rga he is to raise money and meeting people. he is going to meet people.

i think in the room he has to show he is not distracted. from what i've heard and seen myself a little bit, he looks a little distracted. he looks a little bit like it and understandably so but in these meetings, this is his chance. how many times is -- has he gone to iowa and new hampshire and illinois. if he wants to run for president still, he has got to meet those people and got to try to win them over. that is hard. if you're president, as president obama, has he dealt with things this distracting? yes. this is a chance to prove he can do more than one thing at a time. stepping down from the rga, it would be an in addition he has got a problem and he is trying to show business is usual. >> that is what is wrong -- >> a rock and a hard place. when he is out on the campaign trail, no one wants to be photographed with him. isn't that a problem for people running for re-election if he is coming to stump for them? >> it certainly is. chuck todd, you were about to say what i was about to say. >> yeah. >> my saying has always been when you go 90 miles an hour,

rightly? they never stop you. whatever you're doing, go at the time a 90 miles an hour and we had, you know, i forget who we had on a couple of days ago. but they were talking about -- oh, it was dr. oz. great political advice from dr. oz. chuck, dr. oz says do one thing at a time. it's good four health. it's also good in this case for your political health. you can either help elect governors or you can clean stuff up in your own backyard. i don't think he could -- >> i don't know, joe. would you back down? >> look. i agree. >> it's not backing down. it's not backing down if you take leave. go ahead. >> i agree with what mark is saying the thinking is, right? that the idea that if they do this, it shows weakness. but this is what is wrong. too many politicians go about that mindset and it can help you through the crisis in the short

term. i don't think you ever recover in the long term. i think it's sort of part what have is wrong a little bit with our system is that somehow you get punished, that we're such a zero sum game sometimes in politics. >> sometimes? >> that you get -- yes, sometimes. you get punished for something doing that is perfectly rational that in any other line of work or business you would do, which is you know what? i'm under siege right now in all of this. i got to take a break from this and focus on that. i can come back to this. that is a rational way to think and in politics, we don't think rationally. i get that what mark just said, which is it shows weakness and all of this stuff. but the weakness is there. we are seeing it. not managing your press office, not figuring out a week later you approved talking points and trashing some guy in high school is showing a lot more weakness than stepping down from the rga. >> chuck, you are absolutely

right in everything you just said, but chris christie is aware, as we are all aware, that if he steps down or takes a leave of absence from the rga, our reaction, the media reaction. >> the drip, drip, drip, turns into niagara falls. >> to that step would be something is big there. >> but here is the difference. let me argue the other side and what everybody is saying. >> so interesting. >> it's one thing if it's september of 2015. it's another thing if it's february of 2014. you know, i personally, nobody has asked -- but what i would do, what a lot of politicians would do is you turn a weakness into a strength. remember the two little guys that sold real estate late night tv? >> a decent advantage to an advantage! >> i will redouble my efforts in new jersey and i'm going to hold a hundred town hall meetings between now and april 15th or now and july fourth and i'm

going to go there and listen to your questions and answer every question you have for me and i'm going to let the democrats in trenton go ahead and they can have their subpoenas, they can have all of their -- remember "absence of malice"? possibly one of the greatest scenes. they can launch the subpoenas and launch their investigations. i'm coming tour town and i'm going to tell you, first of all, i had nothing to do with this. secondly, we are going to talk about how to get you back to work, how to turn new jersey around, how to cut taxes, how to steal jobs from new york state and how to steal jobs from connecticut and how to make new jersey the state that i believe it can be. you focus on that. guess what? you do that and you do that between now and the middle of the summer, guess what we are talking about in the fall? duh! chris christie, he sure is smart, he is going to be a front-runner in 20 -- i mean, we aren't -- he has a couple of years here. >> can he do it? >> let him gallop around the country and change the subject. i think he sits in new jersey. he doesn't have good answers right now.

better to be out and about and showing forward progress and momentum as long as the story doesn't change. >> gene, he doesn't have good answers, that is a much bigger problem. >> right. >> this strategy only works if you got good answers. >> this strategy only works if, you know, we don't move from subpoenas to -- >> depositions. >> basically. look. he's got a u.s. attorney on his tail. he used to be a u.s. attorney. he knows what that means. that is not a small thing. >> if i had a u.s. attorney on my tail, gene, i wouldn't be in san berdue. i would be in new jersey, you know? >> right now -- >> is that not the case? he has got enough to focus on at home. >> that's a lot to focus on, it really is. and it's not the kind of thing that you kind of let slip for a few days. >> no. >> because what happens in those few days and you don't respond to in the right way at the right

moment, it can make a big difference down the road. these are active investigations going on. not just the u.s. attorney but the legislature is calling people. it's a lot of stuff. maybe, you know, this isn't like walking and chewing gum at the same time. this is, you know, riding a unicycle and running for president. >> he has lost the democrats. he has lost the press. his constituency now is the republican party in new jersey and nationally. the best way to keep them happy is to raise a ton of money for the rga. >> i will tell you there have been times in my life where stuff has happened where i just, in my mind, gone like this. boom. i shut the lights off. i shut everything off. i go into a room. i put a notepad in front of me and i say, okay, this is what is facing me right now. what do i do? that is where chris christie needs to go. he needs to go in that little room and shut down all distractions and clean up stuff at home.

he does that, all of these distractions are distractions from -- as gene said, i think it's a fantastic point, a very big issue. this is not walking and chewing gum. this is an exowe essential threat to his career and needs to focus on it and fight back. >> a great point about turning your mess into your message but it takes great confidence to do that. you have to be not guilty. with all of the subpoenas flying around, so much more vetting that is going to take place that it does tie him and his attention to this mess back in jersey. >> that's why i said you have to have a message but when you go out to those town hall meetings and if you don't have good answers, then you don't have a good strategy. look what we have here, mika? >> the chairman of the house. i've been trying to tell you. >> why didn't you tell me he was here at our doorstep? >> sorry, sir. >> hey, buck. >> good to have you on the show. i don't know if you know, joe.

>> we have worked together. >> then i don't need to explain why it took 18 minutes to get to you, sir. nice to have you on the show. >> thank you, mika. good to see you, joe. >> buck, you have been a fighter certainly since i was there. even before i got there for the armed forces. >> forever. >> and you got really emotional during your speech talking about you getting out of congress. we have seen bob gates do that as well. talk about why it was so moving to you, that announcement. >> actually, i was doing just fine but my wife was there and i looked over at her and i thought, you know, we have been married now 51 years and she has always been there supporting me. and that is what i was emotional about. not leaving congress. it just hit me, all of a sudden. we have six children. we have 30 grandchildren and we just had a brand-new great

granddaughter! >> what hit you how much she has put up with, because washington is hard on families. >> there is no question. >> and six kids and a new grandkid as well. >> that is enough to make you cry right there, mike barnicle, right? >> congressman, give us a sense how washington has changed over the decades you've been there and what are your biggest concerns looking back in the rearview mirror? >> well, what really i guess takes up all of my time right now is these cuts to the defense to our national security. there's no question that we have serious financial problems, but we are trying to fix them all in a year or two on the backs of our military. the cuts that we have taken out of defense in the last couple of years going forward now amount to a trillion dollars. we have never had cuts so deep, so steep. you know, we always cut back after a war.

it seems to be in our dna. we just don't want to be ready for the next one. and this is the first time we have cut while we are still at war. we still have 35, 40,000 troops in afghanistan. and it's like we know we're never going to have to use the military again in the future and then, in fact, that is what i gained out of the benghazi report is that we expected the military to be there 7/24, no matter how we cut back on their resources and their abilities. we don't have tankers ready to refuel fighter jets. we don't have marines that have air-lift to get them immediately to any spot around the globe 7/24. we should learn a hard lesson from this. the commander in chief was basically awol in this situation. he talks about -- or the white house talks about a meeting they had on january 10th to make sure everything was okay on the 11th -- i mean, on september 10th and probably should have

happened in january. you know, why do we wait until the last minute to talk about what is going to happen tomorrow? >> mark halpern? >> a big vote coming up to deal with the raising of the debt ceiling which seems to be on the table now and run revision to help the military benefit cuts. where do you stand on that tradeoff o that vote and where do the house republicans stand overall on that? >> there will be some for it and some against it. we have, what, 232, 233 republicans and probably we have 232, 233 different solutions for the problem. it's the problem that leadership has trying to figure where most of us are and how to get this thing fixed. there is no question that we have already passed a budget that debt is going to go up. we have to face that fact. if we cut all of the discretionary spending that we vote on every year, if we totally eliminated it and grow

daisies down in the pentagon and eliminate the agriculture department and parks and everything we would still run a deficit of half a trillion dollars a year. when we have to face up to is the mandatory spending. >> congressman, thank you for being on the show this morning. chuck todd, thank you as well. we will watch "the daily rundown" coming up after "morning joe." eugene, stay with us, if you can. still ahead, the white house makes another change to obamacare. we will ask senator claire mccaskill. >> claire is back! >> i love claire. you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. ♪ ♪ saw a city in the fog

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♪ i just had a good friend send me the final scene of "absence of malice." paul newman and sally field.

a classic scene. i need to see that again. i didn't realize. you worked on "the verdict." >> yeah. >> what a great movie. >> a long time ago. >> don't tell me that. i remember seeing that just a couple of weeks ago in a movie theater. what a great movie. so the south. >> yeah. >> bracing for another snowstorm. already a big portion of georgia is under a state of emergency. this storm is going to be absolutely terrible for so many people across the deep south. let's go to bill karins right now with a check on the forecast. bill, bad news for the south starting now. and then washington, d.c. and new york and the northeast is pounded by thursday. >> a lot of us don't have room to put the snow any more but in the south it's not an inconvenience. it could ab dangerous situation with a lot of people without power for numerous days. because of what happened in atlanta two weeks ago, i mean,

the gas lines, the grocery stores, the home improovement stores were cleared out yesterday. insane stuff. now ice and snow moving through northern alabama and northern georgia. the kind of appetizer to the main event tomorrow. tomorrow is the day if you're going to lose power in georgia or south carolina it could happen with the ice storm that is coming up up the coast and some areas heavy snow out of this. richmond and d.c. i have my eyes on you. the ice storm that could be historic. atlanta even called it catastrophic. up to three-quarters of an inch of ice and windy conditions on top of that and ice and wind and you will get downed trees. darker purple is the greatest concern. as far as the snow map goes i have my eyes on virginia to the d.c. area and someone will get possibly a foot of snow. we can deal with that in the new england area but the real concern, joe a all of those

people with the ice and snow from south carolina to georgia. >> it's a killer in the deep south and they are ill prepared for it like the northeast but the impact always. >> the kids are losing days. people will be going to school until like june in the south. >> that's good. what are you talking about? all right, why west virginia officials are still reconfusing to call the water there safe after last month's chemical spill. "morning joe" will be right back. when you order the works you want everything. an expert ford technician knows your car's health depends on a full, complete checkup. the works. because when it comes to feeling safe behind the wheel,

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it looks like the future! we must have encountered a temporal vortex. further analytics are necessary. beam us up. ♪ that's my phone. hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. tv and internet together like never before. joining us now, "the new york times" national correspondent kate zernike. great to have you back on the show. at the table is mark halpern. >> kate, a thing we were just talking about where christie, the office has hired a private attorney. he used to work for rudy giuliani who is being aggressive and tell us what he is doing and who is paying for it? >> rand master who worked with rudy giuliani in the federal prosecutor's office and city hall he has gone to don zimmer the mayor of hoboken who accused

the governor's office of pressuring her and threatening to hold sandy money unless he approves a project. he is going after other -- >> wait a second. what do you mean? >> requesting copies of all the e-mails. >> why is that? >> why? >> yes. >> i think for the same reason he wants a private people with dawn zimmer. i think what their message is, you know, they are trying to sort of threaten people and not explicitly but saying we are going to go back after you if you come after us. and so, you know, look. i think this is their strategy. i think we knew about randy master coming in that he was going to try to block people who were coming after chris christie and probably why christie hired him and i think this is part of that strategy. >> mark, they are asking for accordance between the "times" and these people? >> yeah. >> under what space for that? >> i think they are trying to

get as much information as they can about what "the new york times" has and what "the new york times" asked for. randy master is hired to do two things. right? he is supposed to be doing the internal investigation, defensive move but also supposed to be defending the governor and i think he is going on offense if not to intimidate people but figure out how to undermine people. he is trying to serve his client well. the question i have, which kate raises as well, who is paying for this? >> who is? >> we don't know. the taxpayers in new jersey it appears are paying a expensive lawyer to launch quite an aggressive operation. i think some people would say that is not a role for government. >> mike? >> the taxpayers in new jersey are paying randy master's bill. what is it an hour? >> $650 an hour. >> when he concludes his report and on behalf of the governor seeing the taxpayers are footing the bill, do we get to read it or do they say, this is not private? >> they have not relieved the

retainer agreement. we know very little about this investigation. we know from dawn zimmer he has five federal prosecutors working on this so it's probably an expensive bill but we don't know who is going to pay it and we don't know whether the governor will see the report and keep it to himself and gets relieved to the new jersey taxpayers. we dent tell us who the client is. >> eugene robinson? >> do you have a sense what the mood is inside of christie's office or inside his inner circle? >> i was surprised that the governor said he is doing a town hall on thursday which may be cancelled due to snow. it's really the operation system is shut down. the press office, for instance, is really not responding to comments. you have to e-mail your questions most of the time. the governor has been doing his work and traveling for the rga but not much else. day after day seems to be no public schedule at all. >> kate zernike, thank you. keep us posted. up next, we will ask claire

mccaskill if the democrats are in danger of losing the senate as we approach the midterm elections. "morning joe" is back in a moment. ♪ while we sleep we will find you acting on your best behavior ♪ [ telephone rings ] [ shirley ] edward jones.

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♪ 38 past the hour. joining us is the member of the armed services committee, senator claire mckags kicaskicc. do the democrats have a midterm problem? >> it's a challenge but it reminds me of everyone saying in the early months of 2012 that democrats couldn't hold on, that democrats were going to lose the senate and we not only won in 2012, we picked up seats.

so, you know, there is problems on the republican side. they have got some really nasty primaries out there. the dominant message in those primaries i think does not appeal to mainstream so i feel good about november. >> she feels good about it. i don't know. mark halpern? >> senator, mark halpern here. if you you were running for re-election in arkansas and louisiana or north carolina, could you invite the president and campaign side-by-side with him? >> probably not. i mean, i try to be candid and honest on this show. new york, the president's numbers are not strong in my state or in arkansas or louisiana or north carolina. he did not win those states when he ran for re-election in 2012. but that doesn't mean that you can't win. these candidates in those states are strong candidates. they have been an independent voice for their states. they know how to stay on offense and talk about the republican shutting down the government.

and the republicans marginalizing great hard working people who come to this country wanting nothing more than be a part of the american dream. so i don't -- i think this issue of whether or not you have obama come to your state is something we like to focus on in washington. but probably is not that important when you get out to these states. >> senator mccaskill, obviously, you're aware of the delay in the health law that was implemented or announced yesterday. but when you speak to medical people, to doctors about the aca or obamacare, whatever you want to call it, they continually bring up the need for more tort reform or tort reform within this bill to make health care really work in this country. where and what are the prospects for really, really good tort reform right now? >> well, first of all, mike, we have done forty reform all over the country. if tort renorm were the magic

bullet for health care cost we would be enjoying a huge downtick in health care costs. you tick off the big states. florida, texas, california, my state, major tort reform. and it hasn't made one bit of a difference in health care costs. this is really playing on the margins and it's more of a political talking point than a real solution to health care costs. what we have got to do to really bring down health care costs is incentivize the system toward health than to make more money the sicker people are. if we begin to do that and i think the rear forms are a great first step but many things embedded in these reforms turning the corner on that, we will be much better off. >> like the senator from montana was saying yesterday, thomas. that you also do want healthy employees. that will eventually pay you back. >> absolutely. >> we had on the other day the

authors of the new book "hrc." what do you think is going through hillary clinton's mind right now as we have this fresh information about these hillary papers coming out of the university of arkansas that rehash a lot of old ghosts for them? what do you think is her forecast for a presidential run? >> first of all, there is no one better equipped to handle all of the nonsense that comes with the presidential campaign than hillary clinton. there is no resume stronger. there is no one more focused or more prepared for not only the policy challenges our country faces, but the political challenges the campaign faces. i can't imagine that she is not going to be the dominant candidate and i feel great about campaigning for her. i think she is going to be a terrific president. >> do you know what her message is? >> i think her message is that we have got to make sure that we don't ignore the opportunities this country presents in terms of education and research and

technology, that we can't just turn our back on vesting in those things and expect to be number one in the world. i think her message is i know all of the foreign leaders, i know what has to happen in this very dangerous world to keep us safe and to keep our military prepared. i think her message is one of economic opportunity, that we can't argue about a minimum wage that hasn't kept up with inflation and think that is really going to allow americans to consume the amount of products that drives this economy. so i think she has got a lot of strong messages and i think they are going to try everything they can to nibble away at her stature, but i'm very confident that she is going to weather those storms very well. >> claire, two things. two things for you. what? >> what is that? >> thursday. >> what? >> will we are buried another foot or so of snow, pitchers and catchers are going to be reporting. >> yes! >> spring training is here!

i got another date for you. i hope you're in recess on this day. monday, april 7th. i told barnicle, after all of our jaromiring about our red sox, we need to go out opening day with you out to st. louis to watch the cardinals. >> i'd love that. >> can we throw the first pitch? >> i will see about getting you to throw a pitch but i would love to host you. we have four seats right behind home plate. i probably cannot get my husband out of those seats that day. >> i'll sit with him. that will be great! >> we will figure it out on. >> he doesn't want you there. they are his seats. >> we want you there, mika. we will figure it out. i'd love it if you would come for opening day. we do an amazing opening day in st. louis. when we say to the boston fans after the world series, we will see you next year, in st. louis, we really mean it. >> you mean it? that's true. >> mike barnicle has always said, he's always said st. louis

has the second best fan base in baseball. >> the nicest fan base. >> i was going to say. i think some of ted williams family may disagree that boston is the best fan base. we met so many people from the cardinals organization that were so gracious and so nice during the world series. great people. we can't wait to get out there. >> okay. opening day, it's a date. >> congratulations on the chiefs. it was a painful way to go out. i am sure they are going to march through. >> when jamaal went down, you know, he was so much of our offense. they did a miraculous job in that game knowing what had happened to our premiere running back and -- but i was really proud of the chiefs. let me take a moment of personal privilege, because i don't -- i'm so proud of my missouri tigers and michael sam. i am incredibly proud. what is important about this story and i think people missed

it he came out to his team a year ago. they went 12-2 and he was the number one defensive player in the s.e.c. which is no small feat considering what that s.e.c. represents in terms of college football. his team loves this guy and he loves them back. the coach is so supportive. it is exactly the way this should work. now he has got a lot of press swirling around him but when it mattered, he told the people he played with and they embraced him like family and i am so proud of my missouri tigers because of that. >> that is, i think, the best read of the story so far, because i remember hearing it thinking, what is the story? and that is what those guys said. and they love him, no matter what. senator claire mccaskill, thank you so much. >> you bet. >> it's great to see you. we want to mention that senator mccaskill will take questions directly about her push to crack down on sexual assault in the military from msnbc.

go to taking the hill.msnbc.com to click on on the exclusive article. coming up our next guest as harnessing the power of failure is the key to success. the authors of "the upside of down" joins the table next on "morning joe." [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman,

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did you like it? it worked? >> that's pretty good. >> i'm sorry, what were you saying, joe? i didn't mean to interrupt you. >> the author of "the upside of down: why failing well is the key to success." and the founder and ceo of the industry-leading marketing firm. always great to have you. >> always great to be here. >> the good old days. back when we were younger, i lived in upstate new york about five years. >> i lived in queens. >> all the snow, man. it was like the normal thing. >> white christmas. snow. it would snow and before the snow would come off the ground

it would snow again. feels normal again like global warming has turned around. >> exactly. >> sun spots are going to cause an epic. my home district. i love it. i love the concept of this book, "the upside of down." >> it's the story of our lives. >> it's the story of my life. i'm like the epitome of failure. that's why i wrote this book. >> we learn a lot more by failure than we do by success. failure helps prepare us for our next success. but you say something really important here. when you fail, fail smartly. >> yes, exactly. so the idea is not to take everything you have, put it all on red and see if you can win the lottery. but it is to recognize that, look, before a product comes

out, you look at something like the most extensively tested product ever. it just didn't g that's because the question you're asking in some sort of test is never really the question you want to know, which is when i put this in stores are people going to pick it up, put it in their carts and take it home? you can only really approximate it. really quickly you have to put stuff out in the real world and see what happens. the mistake coke made was about the company but the smart thing they did was to be watching really carefully and pull back. it was only the shelves a few months before they said no, we made a huge mistake and do-over. >> i agree 100%. as an entrepreneur, failing smartly is important. you go all out. i think you do better all on red but i'm an entrepreneur. if it fails, you take from those learning. and sometimes it's one degree of separation between success and failure. and you have to find that one degree and test and refine. >> i don't think can you truly be a success unless you've had a

few failures. how do you know what you have? >> even outside success itself you learn to appreciate the value of success. you understand what it is. >> which makes you not only value it but hold it closer. >> hold it closely. >> you have several best things that ever happened to me, the answers are surprising. divorce, cancer, getting fired, being left at the alter and prison. so, let's talk about, for instance, getting fired. mika and i talk about her story all the time. she goes sbout tells people the best thing that ever happened to me was getting fired. >> it's surprising to hear people say this. i tell my own story in the book, which was after business school i had a job with management consulting firm that laid us off before we ever started. it took me two years to find a job, paid $40,000 a year, a third of what i had been

expecting. and it's the best thing that ever happened to me. i love my job so much. would i have dared to do that with my $100,000 of student loans? i probably would have been too afraid to take that risk. freedom can be another word for nothing left to lose. >> the art of reinvention is something a lot of people transition through when they get fired. i was canned once. it was the worst time in my life, but in your book you write about finding that compassion and forgiveness. you say learning to fail well means overcoming our natural instincts to blame someone, maybe ourselves, whenever something goes on. and societies and people fail best when they err on the side of forgiveness. >> i'm not a failure. i'm someone who has failed. that sounds a little hipy dippy. we beat ourselves up, rehearse all the things we could have done differently. it's good to look back and say,

okay, that didn't work. failure is what happens when we're doing something that we don't know how to do. >> have you ever gotten fired before? >> no. >> i have. joe loves to tell the story. >> no. >> seriously, he does. >> i repeat this story because it's inspiring. oh, my god, he loves to tell this story. >> he does. >> my favorite morning show. >> i've had failures before. and they really were -- you know, they were really helpful. >> i was in the record business early. i've gotten fired because they just decided to get rid of a department. it was like 1994. and they decided that rap music wouldn't sell. they blew the whole department up. >> it was over. >> look at me now. >> run dmc is getting old. >> run dmc, that's an outlier. let's blow him out. >> exactly. >> i remember that feeling of getting fired. >> i got fired during lunch. >> soul crushing. >> again really quickly here, i

know we're late. alex is going to yell at me here. i love this question. which is better, frequent small failures or an occasional big failu failure? >> frequent small failures. you should be taking cal calculated risks all the time. you haven't had that vaccination of oh, we tried that. it didn't work. we're moving in a different direction. instead you think you're safe and suddenly you get side swiped by it and it's a lot harder to recover. >> "the up side of down." thank you. steve, thank you as well. >> love being here. look at this! >> willie sends his love frrks so mu from sochi. >> vh1's latest. >> really? >> february 24th. >> come back and talk about that. >> i will. i would love to come back.

inside hillary clinton's best and worst times as first lady, revelations from her best friend's diary and what they could mean for 2016. "morning joe" will be right back. [announcer] word is getting out. purina dog chow light & healthy is a deliciously tender and crunchy kibble blend. with 20% fewer calories than purina dog chow. isn't it time you discovered the lighter side of dog chow. purina dog chow light & healthy.

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barnicle, thomas roberts, mark halperin and in washington "the new york times" peters and an ann dree andrea mitchell. governor's office itself and chris christie's re-election campaign. state helicopter logs amid claims that the governor flew in a chopper overw none other than port authority resigned david wildstein. >> wait a second, who is saying that? >> i would like to know. because it's either a witch hunt or it is unbelievably bad. >> who thinks they flew over the bridge? i'm fascinated. >> he somehow got back and forth. >> they say that the route went from the -- we don't know about wildstein being in there. >> the governor's office put out

a statement denying that wildstein has ever been on the helicopter. >> right. >> however -- >> was elvis ever on the helicopter? >> kri don't know. >> there's a lot of speculation. >> the two were seen together -- >> there's also a subpoena, they believe they saw jesus and swjo lennon hovering over the spaceship. >> burying hoffa. >> yeah, burying hoffa. sorry, go ahead. >> the governor's office has issued a statement, thank you, thomas, reading in part the governor used the helicopter to travel from new york to trenton, following the 9/11 ceremony. david wildstein did not ride with him that day. >> however. >> or any day. >> in fifth grade. >> in high school, they did skip school and go to the candy store together and get -- any how, he has never flown in the helicopter with the governor. in spite of the scandal -- i'm not done. >> thanks. >> the republican governors association says it broke fund-raising records in january

with christie at the helm. the group brought in $6 million, which it says is twice as much as previous months. strange. >> mark halperin, what's going on here? >> legal side or political side? >> just the political side. >> in chicago today, giving a big speech at the chicago economics club and the democrats are going to do what they've been doing, which they'll try to get press coverage. governor strictiland, former governor of ohio. having trouble raising money. as long as this story holds up, donors will stay with him. the big thing is the speech. what is his vision for the american economy? let's see if he can give it undistracted and good, solid speech. if he does, that is part of the path back here as long as his story holds up. >> mike i said if he was a distraction to the rga with all these stories coming out it

would be better for the rga if he just stayed home and worried about what he was doing at home. the betrayal of joe scarborou scarborough -- it's not a betrayal of chris christie. it's just a fact. if you were a republican like myself and you want governors to get re-elected in 2014 and you don't want to control 30 state houses, you want to control 35 state houses you want somebody who has no distraction. he raised a lot of money in january. who knows, maybe everything will go swimmingly well. this is not exactly, you know, a guy that is focused 24 hours a day on re-electing governors. >> given the level that we've read about in the past two or three weeks, the high school memo, which he claims he didn't see, i think it would behoove the governor to resign from the rga and focus on his political

future. >> exactly my point. if he didn't know that this staffing memo was going out, he doesn't need to focus on national speeches. >> the bully label has now really affixed itself to chris christie. rightly or wrongly, it has really affixed itself the last five or six weeks. you mention chris christie to people who have very little interest in politics or minimal interest in politics. oh, yeah, he's a bully, isn't he? you get that automatic response. the other thing is his credibility on when he found out about the traffic -- >> yeah. >> -- it's not hanging in there. most people you speak to during the course of the day, two elements of conversation link them all. >> yeah. >> traffic and weather. they all talk about how they got stuck in traffic on their way to work and is it going to snow? >> this helicopter story, it's either a wild goose chase or really troubling. >> they do confirm that path was used. >> one that goes up over ft.

lee? >> trenton and new york state. they confirm there was a flight path that went over that general area. whether or not they flew close to the ft. lee side to hover over and look down or -- >> can those logs confirm that? that will be interesting. trying to think of the -- >> passengers that were on board, we know that ""the wall street journal" ran with the story that david wildstein and the governor were together at one point. whether or not they traveled together, they're poo-poo'ing that. the white house is delaying the employer mandate for some businesses. yesterday the obama administration announced medium-sized companies will not have to provide broad health coverage until 2016. that applies to companies with more than 50, but fewer than 100 employees. company with his more than 100 employees must offer coverage to 70% of its workforce in 2015 and full coverage by 2016.

politically speaking, the move may grant democrats some leeway heading into the mid term elections, but that doesn't mean the issue won't play a major role on campaigns throughout the year. rnc chair reince priebus said in a statement, quote, elections matter. democrats may try hiding from president obama on the campaign trail but when it comes to his signature accomplishment, obamacare, each democrat senator up for re-election this year helped make it a reality. >> unilateral change. the language of the bill says it shall be enforced by 2014. we bump it back a year or so. what's the fallout on capitol hill? >> i question the political fallout really or political impact for republicans or democrats actually. i kind of lost track of how many different delays there have been now. and i think if you read that

statement that reince priebus issued, it sounded like the first statement that they issued when the first announcement for delay came about. i don't know that it makes it any worse. it certainly doesn't make it better. this is here and here to stay as an issue politically. couple of other stories, one interesting about hillary clinton as she eyes a possible 2016 run for president, echoes of the past refuse to stay there. the private papers of the late diane blair, political science professor at the university ofc closest friend. they reveal some of the lightest and darkest times, often frustrated with the white house staff and washington, d.c. scene. blair wrote hc dumbfounded by people who look her in the eye and lie to her. they discuss plans to try to overhaul health care and how

those plans tie in to hillary's frustration. blair wrote hillary clinton is tired of all those winy women and she needs packwood on health care. he was accused by ten women of sexual misconduct. and then, of course, the monica lewinsky affair and ensuing impeachment. according to blair, clinton dismissed the incident as her husband making a mistake with the, quote, narcissistic looney toon. she told blair that it did not include sex within any real meaning and that the president tried to manage the white house intern but things were quickly beyond control. senator rand paul, possible opponent for hillary clinton has lewinsky territory with comments, priebus is calling the topic fair game.

>> i don't see how someone just gets a pass on anything. especially in today's politics. i think we have a truckload of opposition research on hillary clinton. some things may be old. some things might be new. everything is at stake when you're talking about the leader of the free world and who we're going to give the keys to run the united states of america. so, look, everything is at play. >> so, andrea, this is all very exciting. i feel like michael j. fox about to get into the delorean. >> back to the future? >> we're going to debate monica lewinsky. what else? a bush versus a clinton so we can do the '98 thing, the '92 thing. maybe we can actually relive the robert bourke trials, too. does anybody think americans want to go back and relitigate this -- trust me, i was there the first time we litigate this and americans didn't want to

hear it then. this is sheer insanity. as far as these papers go, come on. the lawyer in me says it's hearsay. who knows what was said. >> exactly. let me put a little context. these papers were donate d to te library in fayetteville and have been available to the public for four years. so, "the free beacon" posted selected clips. and i spoke to -- it does look like this is the first and why do we want to go back there? as i say i don't know the legality of hearsay -- >> actually it's not hearsay. that's sort of a misstatement on my part. >> that's what i was saying, among us, in talking about this yesterday when we were deciding what to do with it, because diane blair, whom i knew, who mark there knew, who was the closest friend to hillary clinton, was writing a very

academic document as well. this diary is really interesting, but it's her take. and some things are in quotation marks and we don't know how that was quickly noted and some are not. it's just her notes from years of conversation. they stayed in the white house, first overnight guests. bill clinton married the blares, hillary was in the wed iding party. this was the first woman she met when she moved in 1974. she was hillary rodham. she wasn't married yet. the only women on campus in professor roles. this was a bond. this was a girlfriend bond and these are the kind of conversations that hillary, by the way, knew that these were going to be made public. >> right. >> because she spoke, did a video when they were donated to the library. >> are you saying they are fair game, andrea? sorry. >> no, i'm not. >> okay. >> i'm saying what we've seen so far, taken out of context, we've read through more of it and there's a lot more about the

stress that her husband was going through and she blames herself. a lot more on the lewinsky stuff than what we've read. >> legally you wouldn't call this hearsay in court but one woman writing notes about a friend. and, again, if this is the opposition research that republicans are going to have -- >> this is so -- >> no, i'm just saying, how do you get people back to work, right? i would much rather fight about the affordable care act and debate that and talk about why that's bad for business and talk about why, you know, we need to build the keystone pipeline. republicans need to focus. let's have fights on issues. but this stuff, mike, is going to get eyes rolling awfully fast. >> if reince priebus thinks this is a critical issue, he ought to wrap it up. this is so over. people are not interested in this. >> this is kind of insulting in -- this should not be what defines her. this is about someone else that she was married to.

do you know what i mean? i don't know. >> thomas, breaking news. >> we do. it's sad new that is nbc news has just confirmed that acclaimed child actress shirley temple has pass aed away. in 30 feature films most before she turned the age of 12. pudgy cheeks, curly hair and those epic dance moves. she was in movies like "heidi." temple was among the most popular movie stars of her time, rivalling mae west and clark gable. president franklin roosevelt reportedly said, quote, as long as our country has shirley temple, we will be all right. and president nixon appointed her u.s. representative to the u.n. in 1969. she married twice, taking the last name of her second husband, charles black. the statement says she pass add way from natural causes in her california home. >> she was 85. and everybody remembers this. take a look. ♪ on the good ship lollipop

it's a sweet trip to a candy shop where bon bons play on the sunny beach at peppermint bay ♪ ♪ lemonade stands >> so sweet. >> i used to sing that song. >> mike actually was the guy -- >> stop it. >> no. he actually choreographed this scene. it was sort of midway through his career at the time. >> all right. >> so cute. coming up in the morning papers, a new report shows more pilots are getting mixed up in the air overheading to the wrong airport. >> you see this "post" story right here? >> what? no. >> this is what the yankees picked out. 787 to fly his poodle to new york. >> but can he throw? that's all i care about. >> when i come back, i want to be the poodle. senator rand paul tries to

change the subject when asked about his endorsement of mitch mcconnell. the awkward exchange in the morning playbook. we love awkward. first, here is bill karins, the king of awkward. >> we're the king of awkward. >> so bad. he keeps bringing more storms and you should take all the blame. >> 50% chance of locusts. >> right. >> bill, what's up? >> this high impact as we go throughout the next four days, area of greatest concern. the storm is starting in the areas first in dallas, texas, lot of freezing rain out there and all the way through the deep south and up the east coast. this is how i'm breaking it down. as far as the snow and ice, this is round one today. round two is the big story. the majority of the impact from this storm will be wednesday, wednesday night and then all day thursday up the east coast. it's a mess. we've got a lot of ice, also have heavy snow with it. the ice first, atlanta to

augusta to columbia, south carolina, to raleigh. that's the area with the best chance of significant ice accumulation downed trees and power outages. as far as the snow portion of the storm goes, the heaviest snows look to be the mountains of north carolina through central virginia, maybe up there around d.c. these are southern cities. they don't usually get a lot of snow like this. further north, we still have to fine tune this part of the forecast but you will be digging out, especially around d.c. possibly one of the bigger storms you've had in a while. snow banks are getting bigger. you were watching the winter olympics on tv and over in sochi, they're complaining it's too warm and the snow is melting in the mountains. how about giving us some of that? you're watching "morning joe." ♪ all kinds of good things started, when i started weight watchers new simple start. i started losing weight right away.

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ngalveston. >> what's going on? >> my dad used to -- tj must have heard. >> were you tweeting? >> i was. my dad would always -- whenever glenn campbell would come on in the car -- >> that's nice. i read your tweets. i retweeted one of them. >> this one and wichita lineman may be one of the great songs. you were tweeting last night as we continue to play glenn campbell. >> we should get a look at the morning paper. >> really quickly, you tweet ed your weight. >> i haven't weighed myself in two months. it was stunning. >> how much were you? >> 141 or so, maybe two. >> how long are you going to play this out? >> i don't know.

maybe go to 150. >> filling up. >> no, it feels like a good weight. >> you started at 118. >> i think people should just be comfortable with their weight. how much do you weigh? >> like 800 pounds. >> no. come on. >> the camera does add about 800 pounds. i weigh like 235. >> you know, that's a good weight. i was 118. i was so skinny, trying to be a tv person, tv girl or whatever. i'm done with that. >> as the department says i'm not fat. i'm big boned. >> yeah. so am i now. >> glenn campbell. cleaned my gun and galveston. >> tweeting like crazy, you about music and me about body image. >> what have you got? >> "charleston daily mail," 300,000 west virginia residents were left without water. get this, joe, officials will still not say if the water is safe. during a two-hour congressional hearing yesterday four members of the house transportation and

infrastructure committee questioned officials about this. when asked directly if the water is safe, this is the kind of answer i get from joe sometimes, when i'm trying to get an answer out of him. the commissioner for state bureau of public health was very cautious with her language. >> that's, in a way, a difficult thing to say, because everybody has a different definition of safe. am i confident in the science? i'm as confident as i can be, given what we had. you know, i believe the water, based on the standards we have, is useable for every purpose and that includes drinking, bathing and cooking. >> in order she just doesn't know. they don't know. remember after 9/11 -- obviously, you remember, because you were down there from the time it happened. >> i know where you're going. >> for two weeks. you were -- i think it's crazy that you had the foresight to do this and few others did. you had a shirt that you said you wrapped around --

>> i don't know if it helped. >> your nose and your mouth. you were one of the few that did that. you knew early on. we still heard e.p.a. officials saying months later there was no danger to all those particles that people were breathing in. >> cut to a year later. >> there certainly were. >> people were dying. >> they can't make any guarantees. >> the answer was interesting. i made light of it a little bit. but to say i can't say it's safe but it is useable for drinking, bathing -- what? >> listen, i think we've been around these situations enough, all of us have, enough to know that if they can't tell you that it's safe without any limitations, then you probably shouldn't be drinking the water. >> that's a disaster. >> again, even post 9/11, they couldn't say it was completely safe. i think you need to be very careful. >> yeah. >> unfortunately, contaminants get in groundwater and they stay there. sometimes for decades.

>> no, no. you're absolutely right. now let's go to the "new york times." mayor bill de blasio outlined his mission. the largest municipality to offer i.d. cards to all residents, no matter their legal status and also to address income inequality by setting a higher minimum wage. detroit free press in addition to becoming the first female ceo of an automaker, mary barro newly appointed ceo will be making $14.4 million, 60% more than former ceo dan akerson made before he retired. gm released the figure ahead of schedule to dispel false report that is barra would be underpaid. >> i saw a tweet with a bunch of women holding chocolate hearts and saying for valentine's day

they don't want chocolate. they want equal pay. >> equal pay. >> look at the bottom line. right? >> right. >> okay. the dallas morning news, pilots of u.s. commercial flights have either landed or nearly touched down at the wrong airport 150 times. >> it happens. it happens. >> yeah. >> if you're drunk while you're flying. >> oh, stop. the associated press report follows two high-profile landing mistakes. in some cases the pilots realized their error before making the final descent. most errors occur at night. most common troubled spot is san jose, california, where mistakes have occurred six times. >> and from the san diego union tribune, the first female to accuse former san diego mayor bob filner of sexual harassment has reached a settlement. former communication director will be receiving $250,000 from the city and step down from her position. the city agreed to defend filner in return for his resignation,

but could eventually sue him for damages. filner resigned in august after 20 women came forward with similar claims. teen stress levels are often higher than an adult's. this is very, very interesting. new survey reveals the major stressors include school, friends, work and family. experts say many teenagers develop unhealthy behaviors to deal with their stress like sleeping less and not eating well. these habits will likely carry over into adulthood. watch this. >> this is so much stress. no doubt about it. for so many kids these days. >> technology, i think, keep it is going all night long. >> keep it is churning. mike allen is here with the morning playbook. let me start with this. senator mitch mcconnell, i've been watching this with kind of -- you know, with a -- been very skeptical about this guy. mitch mcconnell -- not mitch mcconnell, but he has been under fire from the republican base,

say he's part of the republican establishment, conservative grassroots organization are supporting his challenger in the primary. yesterday mcconnell's colleague from kentucky, rand paul, was asked why he endorsed the minority leader. >> the hardest question that i have for you -- and it is this. why are you endorsing mitch mcconnell? >> i'm here in texas to endor endorse -- because he asked me. he asked me when there was nobody else in the race and i said yes. >> well, al gore has asked me to change my opinion on global warming and i don't do that, so -- >> okay. there's a little levity there. we could talk about that. talk about the backstory if you want to. more interestingly, the story that came out yesterday that's going to shake up this race is a story that matt bevin, who has

been running around with self righteous indignation that mitch mcconnell supported t.a.r.p., the bank bailouts, which i did not, but he and a lot of other people did, matt bevin supported it himself. not only did he support that, he said he, quote, supported the nationalization of fannie and fr fr freddie. isn't this going to blow a hole in his entire argument against mitch mcconnell? >> it really has. the mcconnell campaign will be talking a lot about it. joe, what's really devastating about it, it ran back home. you know the difference between a story that originates in the home state media that they're going to keep pushing and something that people cook up in washington or new york. in this exchange with glenn beck radio, senator rand paul, what we're seeing there is senator paul reminding the tea party, reminding the right that he's not going native in washington. he has had a pretty good

relationship, as you know, with mitch mcconnell. but he is saying i'm not going to suck up to my senior senator, to my leader. what's especially awkward about this is, as you know, jesse bentin, who will be the manager of the rand paul for president campaign -- and you know there's going to be one -- is the manager of the mitch mcconnell for senate campaign. >> right. >> so what we're seeing here is an early look at that nastiness to come. >> politico's mike allen, thank you. coming up, first she took on parenting as a self proclaimed tiger mom. now author amy chua is weighing in on american culture in her brand new book. >> great book. >> it's really interesting, she and her husband. plus the french president's personal life impacting his state visit to the white house. >> has he picked which woman he will bring over here? >> what a cat. >> cat?

i haven't heard this -- >> they should have both just left when that story broke. who wants to be with something like that? >> juggling like people in public. >> peter alexander has a live report next on "morning joe." [s surprising what your mouth goes through in a day. but what's even more surprising is that brushing alone isn't enough to keep it clean. fortunately, you've got listerine®. unlike brushing which misses 75% of your mouth, listerine® cleans virtually your entire mouth. so what are you waiting for? it's time to take your mouth to a whole new level of health. listerine®... power to your mouth™. and take the listerine® 21 day challenge. feel the difference, or your money back. ♪

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beauty shop look at the white house as we say hello to the french president francois hollande. he recently broke off his relationship with the french first lady. it has made international headlines about who will be attending with the president tonight. but apparently he is going stag. nbc's peter alexander joins us from the white house. i understand you were just impressing people with your french. >> reporter: we just saw the french media pass. [ speaking french ] >> what? >> what the what? >> i studied french just for this moment. they rolled in, smoking cigarettes and drinking champagne. >> as they were. >> the first state dinner obviously for president obama was memorable for those people who crashed the party, the salahis. this one may be memorable for a guest who was invited but will not attend, the unofficial first lady of france.

the arrival ceremony will take place a short time from now. we were checking in with the white house social office a short time ago and they tell us that as of late last night they hadn't formalized the seating arrangement for the head table. the real drama today is less about diplomacy and as much about the scenic -- the sort of scene that will be set here tonight. traditionally, next to the american president, next to president obama would be the head of state, foreign head of state's partner. in this case, it's still unclear who exactly will be sitting next to president obama tonight. they'll serve him up pretty well. caviar from the estuaries, quail eggs from pennsylvania, ribeye beef and mary j. blige will close things down with a performance tonight. >> this is another new thing they're doing in a tent on the ground. >> pavilion tent set up on the white house south lawn, 348

guests are expected to arrive tonight. these are always done for a reason. they don't just do this for a good party. tradition traditionally, state dinner is to say thank you or i'm sorry or i want to be your really, really good friend. in this case, it may be as much of an i'm sorry than anything else. the french president really stuck his neck out on the syria behind president obama. obviously, supporting air strikes in syria was not a popular position in france, hollande presented that position, side by side with the president, president obama to change courses. as much as anything, this could be an i'm sorry for hanging you out on the wind on that one. >> certainly a great day to be had in washington, d.c. before the big snow storm. so glad you speak fluent french. so useful. >> that's all i've got. >> no, no, many tricks up your sleeve.

we'll have business before the morning bell. we're back after this. i'm beth...

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you stand behind what you say. there's a saying around here, around here you don't make excuses. you make commitments. and when you can't live up to them, you own up, and make it right. some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where it's needed most. but i know you'll still find it when you know where to look.

all right. business before the bell now with cnbc's sarah eisen. first off, welcome aboard. let's talk about someone who was in a new job themselves, fed chair janet yellen, signaling she will taper stimulus. how will the marks read that? >> i'm excited to be here. she's in a much bigger job, i have to say. investors are always on pins and needles before any fed chairman speaks. this is even bigger because it's her public debut as fed chairman, takes the reins from ben bernanke. the big headline here is she says continuity in policy.

that's what investors need to hear, calm things down. she's not unleashing any major surprises in the way she looks at federal reserve policy. she says the fed is set to stay the course on tapering or scaling back its extraordinary stimulus, which we've seen in the last few meetings. it is a shift in monetary policy, one she says will continue under her watch if the economic data continues to come in as expected. so, this is the prepared testimony. she will be actually testifying before house financial services at 10:00 am. you can expect some fire works. she's going to take questions. this is her first time really taking questions from lawmakers. there are some critics of the federal reserve, of the quantitative easing. >> first impressions count. your critics, you have none here at the "morning joe" table, sara. >> thank you so much. coming up, her book on parenting kicked up controversy. now self-described tiger mom, amy chua, is taking on culture

in america and why she says some groups thrive while others are left behind. she's back with us, along with her husband, co-author of the book, next on "morning joe." ♪ ♪ ♪ where you think you're gonna go ♪ ♪ when your time's all gone? [ male announcer ] live a full life. the new lexus ct hybrid with an epa estimated 42 mpg. the further you go, the more interesting it gets. lease the 2014 ct 200h for $299 a month for 27 months. see your lexus dealer.

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joe." here with us, yale law professors, amy chua and jed rubenfeld. i got that correctly, right? >> perfect. >> perfect. >> they wrote a new book and they have a lot of different contributions to the contributions over success and also certain behavioral characteristics that lead to success or failure. and i thought it would be good to bring you back and let you talk to joe. >> yes. >> what? why? who? how? what now? >> you have a lot of questions for them about yourself. >> i was looking at this segment, of course, from the orphanage where i was working on friday. >> you were on location. >> i was on location in a bunker in west virginia with the kids. >> what did you think, joe? >> you said there were three traits that led to success. what were they again? >> a sense of exceptionality, that you can be number one. >> superiority complex. >> and secondly insecurity. you're not good enough yet.

>> check and check. >> and third impulse control. >> so i had a friend that e-mailed me who said two out of threes not bad. what's so fascinating, though, is what works for you, what doesn't work for you? i said there's this weird sense that i can do anything and along with that, insecurity. it's like this self hatred. people who can fail and are cool with it, i wish i was that secure with myself. it's like there's this friction that rubs together. >> but that makes sense, right, to be driven, something has to be pushing you. you can't just be feeling all fine. and that's what we're trying to bring out in this book. it's not supposed to be like sugar coating, right? let's look at success and drive. it's a complicated thing. you can have different doses, though. right now we're watching the olympics, i think every single person on that team has these three traits, i can be number one. i'm a little insecure, all these people could beat me. i need to work 50 times as hard.

that's what we're trying to kind of capture. >> if you don't have number one, even with number two, you never get out on the ice because you're like i'm going to fall down and embarrass myself in front of a billion people. >> that's right. that's exactly right. it's a strange combination. you feel somehow inside like you're king of the world but at the same time like you have to prove yourself and somehow there's some cultures, some groups, some families where they're instilling these qualities more often. >> let's talk about that. what cultures do it right? >> they change over time, right? we took a snapshot. who is doing really well right now? and they're interesting groups. the mormons that have come out of nowhere. >> right. >> and these are not people who started off rich. they're really driving up. indian-americans, chinese-americans, irani iranian-americans. >> you want to hire a mormon. they work hard. southern baptists, we don't. but what is it about the mormon faith, about the mormon experience that drives them to success?

>> they have these combination of quality. >> i'm use iing this generalization. >> these are all generalizations. overall, statistically speaking, in general, they've got this sense of exceptionality from their religion, moral practice. they've got this insecurity because they feel funny about their place in america still. same time they have all this discipline, impulse control from their habits. i can tell you about the single most important social science experiment ever conducted, you probably heard of it. it's called the marshmallow test. they gave three, five kids a marshmallow. if you wait 15 minutes we'll give you a second marshmallow. most of them ate it up. about a third of them didn't. then almost by accident they track these kids 30 years later. the ones who did not eat it, the ones who waited, they had way better educational achievement, better jobs, stronger family. >> how old were the kids when

the experiment -- >> 3, 4 and 5. >> in some families are there ways to strengthen that quality in kids? turns out there are. that's what's happening. >> the ones who didn't eat the marshmallow were girls. characteristics along sexual lines, too? >> it's so interesting to apply this to different groups, like gender. and in a way, i think what we're interested in is how do some people take being an outsider or minority, for example? you could think of women in that category and turn that into a source of strength. and one of the terms we explore is a chip on the shoulder. >> right. >> how many people were really driven? you were describing this. >> right. >> had that little bit of chip on their shoulder? somebody was talking about steve young. joe montana. and you could see this in the corporate area. it's not easy, but turning that sense of like -- they're not looking -- they're not respecting us enough. how can we turn that into something that is empowering.

>> interesting. interesting. >> i want to talk about two groups really quickly. and it's fascinating because of the history behind the group. first of all, american jews and, secondly, iranian-americans. you have two cultures that have two of the richest histories going. what sort of impact does that have on both groups? >> we write about that a lot in our book. the levels of achievement, disproportionate success in both groups are really quite remarkable. the immigrant jews who came over, the hundreds of thousands who came over in the 1910s, 1920s, you have to remember, they were butchers, tailors. they didn't start with much. similarly the children of korean and chinese, dry cleaners, restaurant workers. they are rising. we look at all these groups and find the same qualities in all of them. part of it, we think for

persian-americans, they're being said, look, you come from a great history. because you are looked down on this country, people think you're middle eastern maybe you're a terrorist, you have this armor against that. you come from a great civilization and you have to work four times as hard to prove yourself. >> let's talk about the potential, the reality of parental disappointment with a few groups. vietnamese, cam bodian, iranian, lebane lebanese. classically terrific students and excel far better than our children do in school. then at some point it seems the parents look at the children and say they're becoming americans. they're not doing as much work. >> there is this great -- group success tends to dissipate after two generations. part of it is assimilation. >> we ruin them, you say? >> america teaches them to realize we're all equal and what your parents were telling you about how different and special

you are, you have to look at that with a grain of salt. that loss of ethnic identity, that loss of superiority narrative and then their prosperity can soften so the next generation doesn't have the same fire. >> the book is "the triple package." amy chua and jed rubenfeld, thank you both so much. great to see you again. (phone rings) discover card. hey! so i'm looking at my bill, and my fico® credit score's on here. yeah, you've got our discover it card, so you get your fico® score on your monthly statements now, for free! that's nice of you! it's a great way to stay on top of your credit, and make sure things look the way they should. awesomesauce! huh! my twin sister always says that. wait...lisa? julie?! you sound really different on the phone. do i sound pleasant? for once in your life you sound very pleasant. at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you. free fico® credit score. get the it card at discover.com.

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welcome back to "morning joe." time for what we learned today. >> claire mccaskill is great. fantastic. >> shirley temple was the thomas robe roberts of radio. >> wow! >> i like that. i did have curly hair as a child. >> what did you learn, mika? >> we're going to throw out the first pitch. >> i don't think claire actually said that. >> tape playback. >> i just want to sit in the upper deck and you're talking about throwing out the first pitch. okay. >> you might never get invited. >> i might not. okay. great. i learned it's 63 degrees warmer at the winter olympics than it

is in my backyard. >> jen. >> jen, thanks a lot. it's "way too early," it's "morning joe." chuck todd was art linkletter, can you believe? >> 1956 st. louis cardinals. >> talking about his roast tonight at johnny carson. you want to see this next, chuck todd only on "the daily rundown." ah, french connection. live pictures here of the white house where french president francois hollande is expected to arrive any moment for an official visit. president obama and the first lady will welcome him with a 21-gun salute. we'll bring you all the action from the south lawn and preview of tonight's state dinner. got a jam packed show for you. u.s. ambassador to russia, mike mcfall will be here, and americans on both sides of the political spectrum want a change