but you really heard it in even starker terms than i expected, it was a pretty impassioned plea to europe to take this more seriously, be more outraged by what russia did. don't just rhetorically criticize what russia did, but do more. stand with the united states to do more. and i think it's a reminder that the president has struggled to get the europeans on the same page, not -- rhetorically they're there against punishing russia, but to try to do something with a little more teeth to get putin to back down. and i think that, overall, that's what the goal of this speech is. does it rally europe? and i think that's going to be the open question. clearly, that was the president's goal. rally europeans, using their own history, a war-torn continent, over the last hundred years, as a way to get them to look past their own personal issues, economic problems, all those issues that are short-term now, and look at the long-term threat

of allowing what russia, if you allow russia to maintain the status quo that it has. >> and chuck, that is sort of the irony, right? as a matter of domestic politics, the president is getting hammered by republicans for not being strong enough on what russia did in crimea. but that is in europe's backyard. how hard is the white house pushing behind the scenes to get these nato allies to step up and to really take the lead? this is in their sphere. how hard is the white house pressing that, you know, the speech notwithstanding? >> reporter: well, they are pressing it hard, and it is sort of, you know, if you were to line it up here, instead of looking, so you're right, there are some republicans criticizing the president saying, he's being too soft. the president is over here in europe, essentially criticizing the europeans, they're being too soft. so on a gradation scale there, as a reminder, it depends on your point of view. but that has been the goal of much of this trip. in fact, that part of the trip is over, by the way. you heard a couple of other things in here. the president trying to get

these nations, hey, by the way, nato's a pretty important partner here. it's a pretty important organization. it's your security blanket, and stop cutting back contributions to nato, because, guess what, you need nato now more than ever. that seemed to be a little bit more of a poke, almost, it was soft, subtle, a poke that the president had for nato member nations here in europe, because he's concerned that the united states is bearing too much soft burden. >> oh, the ironies of geopolitics. nbc's chuck todd, thanks so much. >> yes. >> and you can catch chuck on the daily rundown weekdays at 9:00 a.m. right here on msnbc. all right. turning now to the desperation closer to home. rescuers in snohomish county, washington, are still working alongside cadaver dogs, digging into the mud-ravaged mountains with bare hands and bulldozers, hoping for any signs of life under the mile of mud that buried the town of oso. but the question is, was this

tragic destruction of an entire community as unforeseen as some are saying? we're going to discuss that and more. but first, officials today say the death toll from saturday's devastating mud slide is now 16. and they believe they've located an additional eight bodies. 176 people are still missing and unaccounted for, but thankfully, officials say they expect that number to go down. five days into the rescue, we're still seeing the pictures of human zafgdevastation, however. the snohomish county helicopter released this video of a 4-year-old boy, named jacob, being pulled out of the mud on saturday. his father and siblings were being watched tv when the mud slide hit and they're still among the missing. jacob's cousin traveled across the country to join in the search. >> this is jacob getting rescued by a helicopter after they pulled his body out of the mud. >> you have to be out here with them, no matter what. i don't like knowing that they're up there, still missing. >> nbc's jennifer bjorklund is

in arlington, washington. jennifer, i know there are so many more families out there like the one we just heard about, what can you tell us about the rescue effort today? >> reporter: the rescue effort today is as netedious as it was yesterday. and you nailed it when you talked about the cadaver dogs, the bare hands, and sometimes those are the best tools to search. they have heavy equipment and backhoes they can use to move large amounts of earth. but they have to be very careful, and they are likening it to the recovery effort that happened in the world trade center, when you're talking about possible human remains and even, at this point, so many days later, the possibility, however remote, that there might be a survivor. you have to be very, very careful. so it's very difficult work. and the rain yesterday made it very hard, because the mud that had started to dry out became tacky and then slippery, as the top layer was re-wet. so they had a horrible time

yesterday. they made some very grim discoveries, and today, what we know is happening as a first priority is to recover those additional eight bodies that were spotted in the wreckage yesterday. >> just an awful story. nbc's jennifer bjorklund, thanks so much. now, officials say a small earthquake 12 days earlier might have contributed to the mud slide. but when you step back and look at the timeline of events, was the danger of a landslide in this area really unforeseeable? if you look closely at these images in "the washington post," you can see the erosion in the landslide area over the last decade. not to mention the region's long history of left sides. according to this seattle times article, back in the 1960s, some residents used to refer to it as simply, slide hill. and in 1999, a report for the u.s. army corps of engineers warned of a potential for a large, catastrophic failure in the region. that report was co-written by

geomorphologist, dan miller. >> i think the county should have been aware of the risks. there have been numerous studies that have documented it. there's a historical record of repeated failures on that landslide that have gone all the way across the river. >> despite that, the head of the county's department of emergency management called the slide completely unforeseen. that was on monday. at today's news conference, he clarified that assessment. >> there was the original slide. we all now know that. it was a pretty decent-sized slide that impacted the community, flooded it pretty good. there was a lot of mission effort that within the into that river after that fact, and i'm talks about millions of dollars worth of work. that community felt safe because of that mission effort. people knew that this is a landslide-prone area. sometimes big events just happen. sometimes large events that nobody sees happens. and this event happened. and i want to find out why.

>> ken armstrong is an investigative reporter at "the seattle times." he's been covering this story. so ken, mr. pennington, we just heard speaking there, he talks about millions and millions of dollars of work being done in that region to shore it up a after the 2006 mud slide. but in your article, a man named dan miller, talks about seeing construction work there just weeks after that landslide. there some kind of a disconnect between this statement that millions were done to shore it up and the work that continued to be done right up until what happened this past weekend? >> there is. in fact, i think disconnect is probably the best word for this. you know, what dan miller described was going out after a 2006 slide, and seeing all of this evidence of debris and destruction, you know, from what had happened, just days before. and at the same time, he's seen carpenters building new homes. at the same time, the county was issuing building permits for more homes in that same area. that's happened historically in this particular valley. you know, they have had slides in 1949, '51, '67, '88, 2006.

yet construction has continued and building permits have continued to be issued. >> and men when people were buying those homes, because even the satellite images we showed, the three satellite images side by side, the earliest one dating back to 2003, that's more than a decade ago, and you say that people were continuing to build, developers were continuing to work in that area, was there any warning when people were buying these homes, sort of a buy at your own risk? did that ever happen? or were people literally buying in an area they were often aware was this prone to mud slides? >> i'm sure that differed from home buyer to home buyer. you had mentioned before that residents in the area, as long as a half century ago, referred to it as slide hill. i think that one indicative as how there's a certain general knowledge in the neighborhood that this hill is unstable. whether they could have foreseen a slide of this magnitude, one that would have collapsed and sent mud crashing across the river and eroded into their neighborhood is another

question. since the county continued to issue building permits, i think you might have taken some comfort in the fact that the county had evaluated the area, evaluated the hazards, and determined that it was safe to build. >> i mean, this is a very small town. obviously, people talk, and as we discussed, there was sort of a reputation that the area had, it's a very small town. but if you think about people seeing these mission effort took place after 2006, is there any indication, just from talking with the army corps of engineers, that maybe after those mission efforts, that the continued flooding just simply eroded the work that was done? >> it's been a constant battle there, even before 2006. you have reports from geologists, hydrologists, environmental biologists who have talked about how unstable the terrain is. and some of those reports have said, whatever mission efforts we do, they'll only be temporary. and they're not going to prevent this hill from continuing to move, and we're always going to be having to shore it up.

you have so many factors that contribute to the instability of this hill. you have so much rain and you have 7 inches of rain in the three weeks proceeding this slide. you have a river that's eroding the base of the hill. and you have clear cutting at the -- on the plateau, at the top of the hill, which is sending more water down the slope and into the ground water. so you have this confluence of events that contributes to the instability. and the area of this slide, because it's constantly moving, has simply expanded over the years. so there have been mission efforts, but the scientists have always been pessimistic about how effective they'll be in the long-term. >> and you mentioned the clear cutting. how much of a factor, if you weigh these things on a scale, the erosion, the rainfall, how much of a factor is the clear-cutting itself? >> i think scientists would say that it contributes to the hill's instability. the river eroding the toe, or the base of the hill, is probably the leading factor in

what has happened with the major slides that have occurred on this hill. but when you have clear cutting, all of those trees that intercept and absorb the water are gone. and some of that water is going to work its way down the slope. that's going to add weight to the hill and that's going to add pressure to the base, to the toe. so they're all working together. you have weight working on the river, which is eroding the base. at the same time, you have all these streams that are feeding water into the same slope. and you have precipitation, both from rain and from snowmelt. >> and you have economic interests which have very much an interest in continuing to do the clear-cutting, which is a story for another day. thank you very much, ken armstrong from the seattle times. >> thank you, joy. coming up, satellites have spotted over 100 objects floating off the coast of australia. they're calling it the most encouraging lead so far for any

trace of missing malaysia airlines flight 370. and minutes ago, the president spoke in brussels and had more tough talk for russia. >> it's an assault on ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be met with condemnation. not because we're trying to keep russia down, but because the principles that have meant so much to europe and the world must be lifted up. >> we'll get a reaction from colonel larry wilkins wilkerson chief of staff to colin powell. hey, i notice your car is not in the driveway. yeah. it's in the shop. it's going to cost me an arm and a leg. that's hilarious. sorry. you shoulda taken it to midas. get some of that midas touch. they tell you what stuff needs fixing, and what stuff can wait. next time i'm going to midas. high-five! arg! i did not see that coming. trust the midas touch. for brakes, tires, oil, everything. (whistling)

humans. even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

370 resumes in the southern indian ocean. search crews on thursday will look for evidence of a large cache of debris, up to 122 objects spotted by french

satellite imagery on sunday. the images were released earlier today. this might be the best lead to date in the search for the missing plane. the objects were spotted in a roughly 150-square-mile search area in the general vicinity where three previous sets of satellite images have also spotted debris. it also comes one day after officials say new data analysis reveals a partial ping,ing aminutes after flight 370's last previously disclosed transmission. today, officials in malaysia remained cautiously optimistic that the new satellite imagery could mean they're closer to finding the vanished flight. >> it must be emphasized that we cannot tell whether the potential objects are from mh370. nevertheless, this is another new lead that will help direct the search operation. >> while today's search found no evidence of debris, for searchers, it was a welcome change to just be out there. search efforts were shut down on

tuesday, due to a cyclone north of the search area, which produced gale force winds and heavy swells. for the families of flight 370, the losses are all catastrophic. but for the families from china, which is home to more than two-thirds of flight 370's passengers, a longtime policy of that country's government could be making the losses particularly difficult. gordon chang is a "forbes" columnist who's done extensive reporting on china. gordon, i want to quickly read to you a passage from a piece in the london "telegraph". it reads as follows. "the disappearance of mh370 has cast light on a less well-known but equally devastating phenomenon, that of the orphaned parents. who throughout accident or illness, lost the only child the chinese government allowed them to have. and about a third of them were born in the '80s, which means they were likely born in the era subject to that one-child

policy. how does that impact overall this case? >> it's devastating. the total fertility rate in china, the number of births per average woman was 5.9. and if you had the loss of a child then, it was devastating, but it wasn't the loss of a bloodline. and in a confucian society, it is it. and that is just catastrophic for parents. >> and you mentioned that this happened before in 2008. >> the great sichuan earthquake, where you had about 69,000, 70,000 deaths and 18,000 missing. the chinese government then kind of relaxed the one-child policy for that one-time event only and allowed parents the to have another child. and people are going to be pressing them to do the same thing this time, but many of the parents on this flight who lost their only children are in their 50s and 60s, so they're not going to be able to have another

child. >> one of the other things we've seen as a result of this are actual protests in china. not something we commonly see. >> and this is really striking. because what the relatives of the mh370 passengers are saying about malaysia in public is what many chinese think about their own government. and they can only say it in private. that, you know, the malaysian government has a chaotic response. so people are saying, you know, they're lying, they're opaque, but this is what the chinese people always say about the communist party. the party does not allow protests against it for being lying and opaque. but when it comes to malaysia, they're encouraging these protests. >> let's talk about the intergovernmental relationships here between china and malaysia. what is that relationship like? >> many lailaysia was china's b friend in the south china sea. they were so friendly, they did not complain about incursions. but all of that changed, because china has been very arrogant, a very unhelpful and unnecessary attitude and yesterday malaysia

snapped. you had the open transport minister openly blast china for hindering the investigation. no one would have foreseen this at the beginning of the month, so we're in uncharted territory when it comes to malaysia/china relations. >> quick exit question. do you think this does permanent or semi-permanent damage to that relationship? >> i think it's not permanent, but it's something the malaysians are not going to forget. just, you can't erase it out of your mind. >> gordon chang from "forbes," thanks so much for being here. >> thank you. all right. after a comprehensive safety review, the transportation security administration, were the tsa, wants to place armed law enforcement officers at airport check points during peak flying times. the agency began reviewing its policies after one of its own was killed during a shooting at l.a.x. in november. the 26-page report was released today. other recommendations include more training for dealing with gunmen and improving emergency kmup communications in airports. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ told ya you could do it. (dad vo) i want her to be safe. so, i taught her what i could and got her a subaru. (girl) piece of cake. ♪ (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

you want a loan to build you can't do that.ica? nobody builds factories in the us anymore... you can't do that. using american raw materials makes no sense... you can't do that. you want to hire workers here in the states? they're too expensive, you can't do that. fortunately we didn't listen to the experts. at weathertech we built american factories, we use american raw materials and we hire american workers. weathertech.com, proudly made in america. quality like this...you can't do that.

coming up, we read between the lines on how one man on the supreme court is more supremely powerful than the rest. but, first, it's time for the stories you can't stop buzzing about on social media in a little segment we call "we the betwe tweeple." mark zuckerberg is betting big, purchasing a company for a cool $2 billion. it's virtual reality goggles could be the future on social networks, according to some of you, even competing with google glass, because so many people use google glass. yeah, but after facebook shelled out $16 billion just weeks ago, to acquire the texting company what's app, and its billions of users, millions of users, i should say, some of you are wondering, is facebook trying to get in your head and take over the world? meanwhile, social media is actually helping you to provide support right now to hall of

fame quarterback, jim kelly. the former buffalo bill is back in the hospital, being treated for oral cancer after surgery last summer. many of you have been sharing words of support on twitter, using the hashtag get well jim kelly and prayers for jk. and you're posting to a special facebook page. kelly's brother said, quote, jim reads those messages on pray for jim kelly and it's encouraging him and gives him strength. kelly's daughter is also posting photos to instagram. they show him staying strong as he awaiting a second surgery at a new york city hospital. through the power of the internet, the five-time pro bowler is getting your positive vibes and encouragement. and that's great. but you know what's not encouraging? forced haircuts. the north korean dictatorship will now be dictating men's coifs. they now must support the same haircut as the dear leader, kim jong-un. his look was known as the chinese smuggler haircut not too

long ago in the region, but now it will be known as the haircut every man in north korea must have. lucky them. join in on the conversation on twitter, facebook, instagram, and keep telling us what's important to you. up next, president obama on the world stage with some tough words for russia, but also some good graces to reestablish with our european friends. are you ready grandma? just a second, sweetie. [ female announcer ] we eased your back pain, you turned up the fun. tylenol® provides strong pain relief while being gentle on your stomach. but for everything we do, we know you do so much more. tylenol®.

just a few moments ago, president obama wrapped up a major foreign policy speech on russia and ukraine. part of a near week-long mission to europe designed in part to unify the west's response to russian aggression. speaking in brussels, home to nato and the eu, the president directed his speech to the young, calling them heirs to a struggle to freedom. president obama spoke of the sacrifices of previous generations, even his own grandfather on the battlefields of europe. and how those sacrifices produced a peace that lasted through a cold war and to today.

he also spoke of how doing nothing in the face of russia's annexation of crimea from ukraine would foresake that legacy and challenge truths that are self-evident. and in closing, he ended his speech with a question for the young people of europe and america. >> what kind of europe, what kind of america, what kind of world will we leave behind? and i believe that if we hold if i were to our principles and are willing to back our beliefs with courage and resolve, then hope will ultimately overcome fear, and freedom will continue to triumph over tyranny. because that is what forever stirs in the human heart. >> lawrence wilkerson is a retired u.s. army colonel and a former chief of staff to then secretary of state colin powell. and thank you so much for being

here, sir. i really appreciate it. and i want to start by asking you about a part of the speech that really did strike me, and i think a lot of americans, who have lived through all of the controversies over the iraq war. i want to play that sound for you and get your response. >> but even in iraq, america sought to work within the international system. we did not claim or annex iraq's territory. we did not grab its resources for our own gain. instead, we ended our war and left iraq to its people. >> did it surprise you that the president used the iraq war as an example to sort of spur on his audience, regarding pushing back on russia? >> this is a standard metaphor for american presidents to say, we seek neither territory or sovereignty over people when we fight them in wars. of course, it's somewhat nonsense, because one of the reasons we didn't remain in iraq was because the iraqi government, which we allowed to

be established, kicked us out. i suspect the same thing is going to happen in afghanistan. so it's a little bit disingenuous. but i understand his rhetoric and i understand what he's trying to do. he's trying to get europe and the west in general to stand up to what is, in his mind, and in his words, russian aggression. now, if we look at the history of this, it's a little less that be that. bill clinton started the process and george w. bush continued it, of extending nato to the extent where i clearly understand what russia has done. now, cooler heads have to prevail. the rhetoric has been to be tamped down, and i like what he's done so far. and we have to deal with this in the immediate political circumstances, where everybody has to get his piece of the action. but we have to rae, ultimately, prevent war. and i'm a little frightened in that concern. >> some of your former nemeses, who we call the neo cons, have come out really harshly on the

president, accusing him of being weak in the face of russian aggression. and it's not clear what it is they want him to do, but they certainly seem to want him to be more bellicose in a bushian way. >> first of all, i don't see their sons and daughters out there in the marine corps or the army, which will have to fulfill any fateful decision to do military action. and second, i think it's clear that all they're after is short-term political gain. my party, the republican party, has been after such gain ever since this man stepped into the white house. and it's torturous for me to watch these people who have these short-term interests that are ultimately not in the long-term interests of america, europe, or the world. >> especially given the fact that president bush, when russia was almost as equally as aggressive towards georgia, did not threaten war with russia over georgia. >> i understand that and i understand the reasons he didn't. what american wants to die for

georgia? for that matter, what american wants to die for kiev? this is a situation that we in part produced by our aggressive expansion of the nato alliance. an expansion, by the way, that weakened it, not strengthened it. and now we need to accept that, deal with the problems that we have to deal with to quiet the passions on both side. hope that moscow is thinking in a similar fashion, and do things that might make them like sanctions think in that fashion, bring germany in big-time, because that's the real power that russia fears, and at the same time, not let it go to the point where we're standing on the brink of war and perhaps even cross that brink. >> and there are signs that already some of the actions that have taken place from the obama administration, as well as from europe, are having an impact. "the wall street journal" is reporting that the world bank is saying that russia's gdp will shrink if the crimea crisis worsens. you've already had some hits to the russian stock market. are there some signs in your view that we actually are having some impact on russia's

behavior? just what's been done so far with sanctions? >> i would think so. but i would hasten to add, i don't think any like that will stop putin if he feels like he needs to go farther in ukraine. that's the alarming part of this. at the same time, though, these are the kinds of things that immediate to be dealt with, and eventually reach some kind of equilibrium. and i think that would produce a neutral ukraine, at least for the interim, and it would be neutral between the two opposing blocks, the eu and the united states, and on the other hand, russia and the whole idea of russian empire. that's the only real politic solution i see that would keep us from going on and on and on until we wind up in a shooting war. >> and lastly, what do you make president of the's real pushback to nato and calling on the europeans to step up here. is that something that you faced when you were working in the administration, in that world of europe always look our way when

these things happened, even when they're in our own backyard? >> yes, very much so. whether you're talking the balkans and the united nations operations there, talking kosovo, you're talking almost anything that the united states wound up being the heavy lifter in, you saw europe, it sort of shied back from even participating in that conflict or that heavy lifting. and that needs to change. it's partly our own fault, because for half a century, we've provided the public good of security for the better part of the western world. we need to back off of that a little bit and as president obama has said, we need to become more multi-lateral and we need to let our allies and our friends share in a lot of this burden. >> while i have to you, i have to ask you about this controversy over the cia, the senate, dianne feinstein, really taking on the cia over allegations that the cia hacked into or used senate computers. what do you make of that? >> i think this is bureaucratic infight right now, but i think it has some real substance beneath it.

and the real substance, i think, dianne feinstein, senator feinstein, as head of senator select on the intelligence committee, finally discovered. and that is the bush administration, the administration i worked for, actually perpetrated, purposefully perpetrated war crimes, particularly in the area of torture. and this 600-some page report from the senate and i'm told the panetta report, within the bowles of the cia, corroborate a lot of that. if i were john brennan, for example, i would be doing everything in my power to keep this from coming out, because i think he's going to be complicated in the report along with a number of other people at the cia who approachable should be implicated and maybe even indicted. >> and this is information, it's amazing we moved on so swiftly from that game-changing alteration of our foreign policy. and probably good, better good than bad that this is coming out. thank you so much, sir, for being here.

retired operating room colonel, lawrence wilkerson. thanks so much many. >> thanks for having me, joy. now to this reid alert. while the president was working hard in europe, some of his secret service detail were apparently playing hard. a spokesman for u.s. secret service has confirmed that three agents were sent home from the european trip for disciplinary reasons. "the washington post" reported one of the three was found drunk and passed out in a hotel hallway after a night of drinking. true story. next, americans get more time to sign up for health care. cue the slow clap from democrat. we asked people a question, how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪

if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪ see what's new at ready for projectluna.comment. before using her new bank of america credit card, which rewards her for responsibly managing her card balance. before receiving $25 toward her balance each quarter for making more than her minimum payment on time each month. tracey got the bankamericard better balance rewards credit card, which fits nicely with everything else in life she has to balance. that's the benefit of responsibility. apply online or visit a bank of america near you.

[ mom ] when we're having this much fun, why quit? and new bounty has no quit in it either. watch how one sheet of new bounty keeps working, while their two sheets just quit.

new bounty. the no-quit picker-upper. after two days of deliberations, a federal jury in new york has convicted osama bin laden's son-in-law of conspiring to kill americans in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. the 48-year-old kuwaiti cleric was bin laden's most senior adviser, known for his fiery anti-american speeches. he now faces the maximum

sentence of life in prison. all right. meanwhile, with their eyes frmly fixed on the mid-terms, republicans are literally pouncing on the news of the latest affordable care act rule change. the change means some people won't face a tax penalty if they complete their health care applications after the march 31st deadline. cue speaker boehner. >> he hasn't put enough loopholes into the law already, the administration is now resorting to an honor system to enforce it. what the hell is this? a joke? why don't they just say, we've moved the date until april 15th. >> gop party chair reince priebus wasted in time piling on, saying, "another day, another obamacare delay. democrats in leadership may say they are doubling down on obamacare, but you have to wonder, how many more unilateral delays their candidates running in 2014 can withstand." so far, some democrats are standing behind the change.

>> consider the source. i find it kind of interesting that someone who will not support any kind of modifications or any kind of improvements that could be made is bellyaching about the fact that we want to accommodate people who have started the process, for whatever reasons, have not been able to conclude them. >> what to do about the affordable care act isn't the only challenge facing democrats this election year. a new poll released just yesterday suggests voters are in the mood to punish everybody in congress this year. just 44% of republicans and 49% of democrats say they approve of their member of congress. and with just a few months to go to get their house in order, pollster celinda lake added, the best thing republicans have going for them now is how much the public hates the democrats and the best thing the democrats have going for them is how much the public hates the republicans. to shore up their prospects, democrats are trying to get

traction on several agenda items, including immigration, and today they're planning to push a plan to force republicans to vote up or down on a reform package in the house. >> while this house under republican leadership has found it possible in those same number of days to vote over 50 times to repeal our new health security law or to dismantle it, they have not allowed us one single vote, zero votes, on a common sense fix to our broken immigration system. >> we have the votes, we just need vote! >> i'm joined by congresswoman loretta sanchez, congresswoman from california. thanks so much for joining me. >> my leisupleasure, joy. >> i want to come back to the vote on immigration, but i want to start with the aca, the health care delay. we did reach out to the white house to ask what's going on there, and we're told, talk to hhs. are democrats on the hill, a, aann annoyed with this change, and b,

having serious conversations with the white house about it. and if so, what are they saying to you? >> actually, i'm pretty relieved about this. because what this means is those people who have been trying to get on the system, who have started the application process, but have a complex situation going on, need a little bit more time to understand the different plans, need to see if the doctors are actually in that particular plan that they have and the hospital also, that takes a little bit of time to figure out. and also, at least back in california, our hospitals are still sort of signing up for some of the networks and some of the doctors. so i'm very relieved that if you start the process, you'll have a few extra days in order to finish the process, so you'll be enrolled. it's actually a very good thing. >> congresswoman, you know, that, i think is very practical, what you just said, but is there any annoyance among your house colleagues, who are not from a state like california, that's on board fully with aca, that the

politics of this, in terms of the white house communicating in a way that doesn't leave democrats in a lurch. given the situation, the polls, the progress nonosticationprogn any annoyance among the caucus that the politics of this isn't been done well by the white hou house? >> let's begin by saying, certainly the administration didn't do as good a job as it could have to roll out the whole program. and honestly, they had about 2 1/2 years to work on that. so, that could be an annoyance. nobody wants to see that. but, now, they've gone through and they've tried to fix as much as they think. and the real annoyance has been that the republicans, at every turn, have tried to stop the program, have lied about the program, have thrown out wrong information, have discouraged people from signing up. and that's what annoys me. i know if the people that i represent who can sign up for

these programs sign up and if they use them correctly, that's the next stage, if they know how to use them, if they get a primary doctor, if they go and do the annual physical, if they see if there's something wrong, if they actually start changing a little bit of their life, take some personal responsibility, they will be healthier. and if they are halier, america will be halier. >> okay. i want to go to immigration now, because your caucus is planning to force this vote on the house floor, to get republican on record. and you're doing it in the face of 79% support. a new poll showing 79% of americans do support a call for immigration reforms. that vote is probably going to fail and then what? >> well, the disarrange petition, obviously, is to actually get a vote, get a vote on the senate bill and the house bill, the part of the, you know, the security piece that we actually voted unanimously out of the homeland security committee where i sit.

so we've married those two. we would like to get a vote on this immigration bill. we know if a vote actually took place on the house floor, that we would have more than the 218 votes necessary. but speaker boehner has refused to bring it to a vote. and so this discharge petition is about getting the vote. if we can get all democrats and another 20 or so republicans to sign and say, let us take this vote, this bill could pass in the house of representatives. >> i mean, you know what, obviously, with so much of the public on your side, an issue that is actually popular among americans, things like minimum wage that is also popular. in your mind, congresswoman, are the democrats both in the house and in the senate messaging strongly enough to the public that it is the composition of the house and senate that's stopping these popular policies from getting through? do you think that message has been delivered strongly enough to people, if you see polling saying people are sort of

metsa-metsa on who's controlling congress, is that message getting through that it's because who controls these branchs of congress. >> i think that message is getting through. but remember that the president was trying to work with the republicans, in good faith, and they wouldn't help him, so he would criticize congress. he wouldn't say the republicans in the congress or the republican-controlled house. so now he's realizing that we have to paint the picture much clearer for the american public, that we can get a whole lot of things passed that are important to the majority of americans if we began to talk about who's holding this up. and the people who are holding it up are these republicans who don't want to get any of this passed and they're holding back the rest of the republicans. so it really is the republican-controlled portion of the house that is stopping a lot of the work that we need to et g done. >> at the end of the day, you've got to run to get somebody. thank you very much,

congresswoman loretta sanchez. >> thank you so much. next, nine justices on the bench. but who really holds the power? we're reading between the lines on the sharply divided supreme court and the one justice whose opinion matters most of all. ♪ [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge. ♪ we still run into problems. that's why liberty mutual insurance offers accident forgiveness if you qualify,

and new car replacement, standard with our auto policies. so call liberty mutual at... today. and if you switch, you could save up to $423. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? salegets up to 795 highwayeal's the passamiles per tank.sel salesperson #2: actually, we're throwing in a $1,000 fuel reward card. we've never done that. that's why there's never been a better time to buy a passat tdi clean diesel. husband: so it's like two deals in one? avo: during the salesperson #2: first ever exactly. volkswagen tdi clean diesel event, get a great deal on a passat tdi, that gets up to 795 highway miles per tank. and get a $1000 dollar fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models.

yesterday's hearing on whether two not-for-profit companies are persons under the law and therefore able to hold religious beliefs and refused to cover certain forms of contraception based on those beliefs, produced important discussions and high drama. justices elena kagan, ruth bader ginsburg, and sonia sotomayor, all considered among the court's liberal wing, grilled attorney c. paul clement on whether hobby lobby and conestoga specialties

getting the religious exemption would open the door to other religious exemptions, like allowing employees to consume pork profits or earn the minimum wage. the four conservatives on the court, or the three that spoke, samuel alito, antonin scalia, and john roberts pounced on the contraceptive mandate, with alito even suggesting that there might be something wrong with the corporate form if an innin m innamnant object can't have links. here's how they put it. the supreme court in a one-hour, 28-minute session on tuesday staged something like a two-act play on a revolving stage. first, the liberals had their chance and justice anthony kennedy gave them some help and then the scene shifted entirely and the conservatives had their

chance, and again, kennedy provided them with some support. and that turns out to be a trend. in a court that's basically split down the middle, 4-4, kennedy is the ultimate swing vote. the one ring to rule them all. kennedy has voted with the majority in 5-4 rulings more often than any other member of the court. and the roberts court has had more 5-4 decisions than any supreme court, ever. in texas in 2003, kennedy sided with the liberals in striking down anti-sodomy laws. in 2008, he shellacked the bush administration and congress for abusing the rights of people accused of terrorism. but he's also sided with conservatives in death penalty cases and in a 2007 late-term abortion case, he sided vigorously with the right. and of course, there's bush v. gore, where he and the former ultimate swing vote, sandraday o'connor, helped usher bush into the white house. one ring to rule them all, and a juror of one for the rights of

corporations claiming to be religious people versus the rights of women. stay tuned. and that wraps things up for "the reid report." the cycle comes up next. hey, cyclists, what's coming up next? >> we'll be covering the plane search, talking about the mud slide many my home state of washington, the rise of china, and an editorial on something you were just talking about, the supreme court and the rise and fall of ruth bader ginsburg. all in our how. >> very important stuff. thanks, guys. and "the cycle" comes up next. i've always had to keep my eye on her...

but i didn't always watch out for myself. with so much noise about health care, i tuned it all out. with unitedhealthcare, i get information that matters... my individual health profile, not random statistics. they even reward me for addressing my health risks. so i'm doing fine... but she's still gonna give me a heart attack. innovations that work for you. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. straight ahead in "the cycle," the search for malaysia airlines flight 370. we may have a debris field. if it does change happen, it couldn't have happened a moment too soon. and breaking news, the danger zone in the pacific northwest. crews discover additional bodies in the wreckage of that terrible mud slide in washington state. and the threat still hasn't passed. i'm krystal ball.

and perhaps even more chilling than the images from this disaster could be the idea that we were warned about it year ago. cycling now, the white house extending the obamacare deadline, seeking reassurance that you'll sign up for health insurance. i'm abby huntsman. republicans are already writing their latest prescription, and it could be bad medicine for the president. oh, boy. and march madness madness is down to the sweet 16, though not many of us at this point would use the word "sweet" to describe our brackets. i'm toure. jordan shultz is back at the head of the table to tell ari once again while coastal carolina was not an intelligent pick. this is still the most credible lead that we have. it now seems to corroborate some form of objects and debris, and if it is confirmed