breaking news out of washington where the supreme court has agreed to hear a new challenge to president obama's health care law. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is live in washington, d.c. pete, what part of the affordable care act is being challenged this time? >> well, this time the question is, which part of the law provides subsidy that is critical for low and medium income family to be able to afford health insurance. that is indispensable to the obamacare law to providing insurance for those who can't afford. two years ago the supreme court rescued the obamacare law from dealing with tabss. this has to deal with whether those subsidies are critical to people who buy their insurance on the federal exchange, healthcare.gov as opposed to the state exchanges. it's a big problem because only 16 states so sfar have set up their own exchanges. about 5.5 million people are getting their health care through the federal exchanges. it's the guts of the law and the

challengers say that the law only provides that subsidy on the state exchanges, not the federal one. and now the supreme court has agreed to answer that question of which way it actually which way -- what the words of the statute mean. what does the law provide? >> that's an interesting thing, pete, because we're talking about the words used and if they can be ordered to be interpreted different from the way the law put forward meant it. is it unusual for the supreme court to take a case where the law that put the side forward is telling the country what it intended but just the linguistics are in question? >> no, because the word of the law are ultimately what count. everybody agrees on that. you're right, the obama administration says when you read the law as a whole, it's quite clear that the goal of the law was to provide this insurance subsidy for anybody. the opponents say, well, that's nice. that may have been the goal but

the law itself, the black and white words are what govern and the words are unambiguous. two federal appeals courts have looked at this and come to opposite conclusions. the court here in the washington, d.c. that said the law does not provide the subsidy for the federal exchange, that decision has been wiped off the books because the full appeals court has agreed to hear that case. so, only the -- the only decision right now is one from the fourth circuit that said the subsidies do count. that is the challenge -- the challenge to that is what the supreme court has agreed to hear. >> we'll definitely be watching this, nbc's pete williams, thank you very much. now to lunchtime at the white house where president obama just met with congressional leaders of the two major parties. the first such meeting since the gop's big wins in tuesday's midterm elections. nbc news kristin welker is at the white house. how did that lunch go? was in any food thrown? >> reporter: i don't think any food was thrown. we're still trying to figure out what specifically was on the

menu, joy. i don't think it's wrapped up yet. we're hoping some lawmakers will come out and talk to us once that lunch finally finishes. we know what was on the agenda, the goal here from white house officials is to identify some common ground so that president obama, this new congress, can actually accomplish something in the coming months. so, we understand that some of the topics that will be discussed are thins like fighting isis, fighting ebola, finding some common ground on trade as well as new bridges, infrastructure projects. of course, the big question is, will those more devises ive issues like health care come up. as president obama has said, he will move forward with an executive order on immigration reform. he's going to take action without congress. that's what that means. of course, you have republicans saying that they plan to bring up bills that would call for the repeal of the president's signature piece of legislation, health care.

so if those things actually happen, it could make it more difficult for both sides to come together on some of those smaller issues, joy. so, i will be interested to see what type of discussion they have about the timeline and whether or not they're actually going to move forward with some of those more divisive issues, joy. >> let's listen quickly to what the president had to say. i'm come back to you on the other side. >> one thing i committed to both speaker boehner and leader mcconnell is that i am not going to judge ideas based on whether they're democratic or republican. i'm going to be judging them on whether or not they were. >> so, kristin, the -- several things they'll have to deal with, but among them is some of the other news coming out of the white house and that's the potential to pick an attorney general, which would involve this newly republican-held senate. what do we know about that? >> reporter: there are some reports president obama is readying to pick loretta lynch. on our reporting we know she's

one of the front-runners. the white house insists no final decision has been made. she's a u.s. attorney in brooklyn, appointed by president clinton in 2000. pointed by president obama in 2010. she's done work on police brutality, cyber crimes, a policy adviser to the current attorney general, eric holder. the thought is she could get through confirmation. that it wouldn't be too difficult. the question, again, is about timing, joy. this is something president obama is going to announce in the lame duck so that he can try to get this true easily, or is he going to wait until there is a new congress installed? so, no timeline yet. again, the white house insisting the president has not yet made up his mind. president obama travels to asia on sunday. he's going to -- going to be going to beijing as well as myanmar and australia, brisbane, australia. i'll be traveling with him. we don't anticipate any announcement prior to that big trip. >> hopefully we'll talk to you

while you're on the road with the president. >> reporter: absolutely. >> kristin welker, thank you very much. breaking news out of detroit. a federal judge confirmed the city's massive plan to emerge from the nation's largest ever municipal bankruptcy. we'll have all the details on that coming up later in the hour. in a live report from cnbc's scott cohen who is outside the courthouse in detroit. let's go to philadelphia where we're learning more about how police were able to catch a suspect on a woman's abduction captured by a surveillance camera. barnes is in custody after being extra dated to virginia for his alleged role in a separate kidnapping. tell us more about this suspect. >> reporter: it's a -- it's a horrifying crime that delvin barnes is accused of in virginia, attempted rape, kidnapping of a 16-year-old girl. authorities on the charge say he

kidnapped this young girl, forced her to take her clothes off, burned them, doused her in gasoline and clorox. the mother says the daughter was able to escape from this man but she suffered serious injuries. he'll face charges in virginia on that before he could ever be brought here to pennsylvania to face kidnapping charges here. >> a horrific story. thanks very much. now back to the nation's capital, where the fight for marriage equality could once again wind up on the supreme court's agenda. late on thursday a federal appeals court panel upheld bans in ohio, kentucky, tennessee and michigan. the decision comes just one month after justices declined to hear cases dealing with marriage ee quul equality. following that nondecision, the number of same-sex marriage states are 32. families are vowing to take it

back to the supreme court. >> the united states supreme court needs to be the court that makes the decision for all 50 states in the country at this point so that we can have marriage equality everywhere in the united states of america. >> and the supreme court has until january to decide whether or not it will take up the case during its spring term. the post-election niceties are over and battle lines are being drawn. after the break, we'll discuss the big issues that will divide the president and an emboldened republican congress, including new legal challenges ahead for the president's signature health care act. plus, more on the breaking news on the future of detroit and how it affects retired pensioners. so i can reach ally bank 24/7, but there are no branches? 24/7 it's just i'm a little reluctant to try new things. what's wrong with trying new things? feel that in your muscles? yeah... i do... try a new way to bank, where no branches equals great rates. oats go! wow!

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republicans and president obama although the white house today. meetings after midterm are usually pleasant affairs with talk of bipartisanship. with a major obamacare lawsuit headed to the supreme court and with john boehner saying this week that the house intends to vote once again to appeal the affordable care act and so many other gop priorities, the question for president obama is how does he stick to his priorities in the face of republican resolve? particularly when you have republicans on an issue like immigration, laying the defeat of reform at the feet of democrats. >> it's democrats holding our border security hostage for a guaranteed citizenship. i come from wisconsin. there's a lot of immigrants there. i've never had an immigrant ask me for citizenship. they just don't want us to deport their mom or dad or husband and wife. let's first start securing the border. >> maria theresa kumar, let's

talk about this supposed the bipartisanship that's going to break out all over washington, joe, it's wonderful, because the compromise in the beltway wisdom is president obama is going to be nicer to the republicans. is that the answer? >> well, that's the bias of the beltway media in general, is democrats always need to be nicer and republicans can be as tough and resolute as they want. no one criticizes them for that. and what never gets talked about in the -- when we talk about the historic victory of the republicans is we had a historic low voter turnout. and that's the reason why they had a historic victory. in other words, when you see republicans constantly trying to suppress the vote, had they do, we now know why, because the fewest number of people actually vote, they do the best they've ever done. so, when we're talking about issues and policies and what should be advanced and what shouldn't be, it's really important to keep in mind. the president had when he was

first elected the highest turnout, possibly ever, or certainly one of. and this is the lowest. what does that mean in terms of mandate? he did pretty well in 2012, too. landslide victory over their candidate. >> and i think -- >> we have to try to balance this a little bit. >> maria, even in an election where you had about 38% republicans and republicans won over half, let's say they won 20 million votes, even in that election a majority of people in this very red, red, red election favor things like immigration reform. so now the question of whose responsibility is it to do immigration reform? you go ahead and explain. whose responsibility do you think it? >> definitely the congressional party. let's take a step back. what joe said is absolutely right. this is the very first election, joy, we've had without voter -- without the voter -- without the voting rights act that was gutted back in 2013 with the supreme court. and the idea that so many people were disenfranchised is very real. with we're seeing a lot of people come out of the nation

with ari berman in north carolina, florida, texas, areas we expected a larger turnout than usual, but unfortunately people felt they didn't understand how to navigate basically having the proper i.d., so on and so forth. i don't want to underestimate what that means with the fact that we don't have the same type of voting environment we had even in the 2010 election, the last midterm. but when we start talking about what does it mean to have comprehensive immigration reform, let's not kid ourselves. congress had over a year the senate bill, a bipartisan bill, that was basically -- that was satisfactory to most parties and they decided not to move on it. they decided to kick it forward and say, you know what, mr. president, we're not even going to consider it. we have an honest conversation and say, i don't think the republicans have any idea whether or not they're going to pass immigration reform, let alone something that's actually going to be suitable that looks at how do you actually bring in 11 million out of the shadows? >> also, joe, you have their

base that didn't want it. this was very much a base election for republicans. >> i was going to say, the reason they can't pass an immigration reform is not because of anything that president obama has done or will do. it is because they're party's completely divided on it. the base doesn't want any immigration reform whatsoever. no path to citizenship. none of the things democrats are quite united on. democrats have a policy on immigration reform, whether you like it or not. the republicans don't. they have a position. the position is the president might do something bad. >> let me give you a couple examples of people explaining their position. i think you make a good point. also in serving your constituency, you just won an election and that constituency came out and voted for you. let's play senator ronnon sop. this is what senator johnson, who's up in two years h to say about immigration reform? do we not have senator johnson? let's go to john boehner. john boehner, whose now job it is to pass immigration reform, if he so chooses, because it is

now in the house's court because the senate has already done it. >> what held us back last year was a flood of kids coming to the border because of the actions that the president had already taken. and let me tell you what, the american people from the right to the left started to look at this issue in a very different way. that's why i made it clear. the president, if he continues to get on this path of taking action on his own, is inviting big trouble. >> maria theresa, what he means by that, is there would be an impeachment fight that would follow if the president decided to take immigration reform. for the latino community that really wants to see this happen, is that something on the table, that at this stage getting immigration reform would mean risking an impeachment battle with this very emboldened congress? >> the latino community, asian

community and americans want the president to provide relief. what speaker boehner said was the reason americans didn't want immigration reform because of the flood of children, what the president did, that's nonsense. let's not conflate the issue. they were seeking refugee asy m asylum. not just in the united states. they were looking at it in costa rica, honduras and belize, and el salvador and guatemala where they're being brought in and abus abused. the republican party continues to inflate these two issues. what the latino community is seeking is for the president to finally provide relief to the individuals who are constantly being torn apart and actually draw a line in the sand. say, you know what, congress, this is what we expect from you. have leadership. it's the right thing for our national security. americans want to know, who are

those 11 million people living within our borders? let them come out of the shadows. let americans compete fairly for jobs and increase our wages because we're not paying people poor wages under the table. i think if the president actually provides that blueprint, the republicans whether they're going to like it or not, they have to swallow a very hard pill because, yes, 2016 is right around the corner. while they may not need every latino vote, what we saw in the last election, the number one reason latinos came out to vote was not for party, but the community. that's significant. >> and just a question, joe, do we wind up getting any hot button issues through or is it dead on arrival? >> i think it's very hard for anything to get done now. i'm hopeful they'll at least have the good sense to approve the ebola spending the president asked for, at a minimum. i don't think a lot gets done after that. >> i'm with you. in terms of immigration reform,

caribbean-american group is waiting for something to be done. thank you very much. thank you both for being here. three things to know for your friday. minnesota police have no idea what set off 68-year-old charles emmett logan, attacking hospital staff with a metal pole. at least four nurses were injured in the attack. one of whom suffered a collapsed lung. logan fled after the attack but police detained him about three blocks from the hospital. he later died from unknown causes. after a major recall and apologizing for producing defective air bags, takata is the subject of a "new york times" column. two former employees said they ordered the defebts but ordered lab techs to delete the data. at least four deaths have been linked to the defect. in ukraine a military spokesman says an armored column of 32 tanks and two dozen trucks have crossed the border from

russia into ukraine. technically there's been a cease-fire in place for more than two months but unhad yous of people have been killed in sporadic fighting since then. despite those reports the russian government said it's still committed to the peace process with ukraine. they're still after me. get to the terminal across town. are all the green lights you? no. it's called grid iq. the 4:51 is leaving at 4:51. ♪ they cut the power. it'll fix itself. power's back on. quick thinking traffic lights and self correcting power grids make the world predictable. thrillingly predictable.

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♪ it took me four days to hitch-hike from saginaw ♪ ♪ "i've come to look for america" ♪ it's time for the stories you can't stop buzzing about on social media. today they include tons of movie like "interstellar" and "toy story 4." a controversial exit poll allegedly occurred in south carolina during the midterms asking if blacks were too demanding in their push for equal rights. it suggests if blacks could only try harder they would be as well off as whites. david woodard of clemson university who created the poll told a tv station he does these kinds of polls every day and didn't think too much about it until he got out in the field and saw a reaction, specifically

an angry reaction. tweets like this, i cannot believe people even need to ask questions like this, let alone via an exit poll. the pollster says it was meant to find out how race affected tim scott's senate race. and that it was not meant to be provocative but this user still asks, is this 1814? meanwhile, 16-year-old alex from target is the latest internet sensation. al alex from texas had his picture snapped while working at the checkout counter and the picture went viral with 1.4 million mentions with #alex since wednesday. viral marketing companies are trying to take credit but alex says he didn't even know it was tweeted until his store manager showed it to him. some are marveling at the power of internet female fandom. some are tweeting, alex from

target did not ask for this. you should be ashamed of yourself. david hasselhoff on the fall of the berlin fall. this wax statue of the former "baywatch" star has been placed near the brandenburg gate. the hoff is huge in germany and performed one of his favorite hits atop the wall as it fell. you are daring to snark on the hoft in tweets like this, david hasselhoff wakes up every morning p.o.'d because they don't let him sing the knight rider theme song. you can join us on instagram, facebook or msnbc.com. many of you had questions for the cousteaus and we have answers. check out our website at thereedreport.msnbc.com. hands, where it belongs.

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our breaking news out of detroit where a federal judge has given the green light for the motor city's plan to slash $7 billion in unsecured debt from its books. cnbc's scott cohn is live outside the courthouse in detroit. what can you tell bus this reininvestment plan? >> reporter: make no mistake, detroit is still a city with lots of issues, widespread poverty, declining tax base, but for the first time in decades this city has a great deal of hope. as you mentioned, this plan cuts some $7 billion in debt and that's just the start. there's a $1.7 billion improvement fund including things like removing urban blight, buying new fire trucks and ambulances, updating the antiquated city computers, and a big down on the river front. perhaps the biggest thing they accomplished, remember the

issues going into this less than a year and a half, the city's troubled pension plan and the question of whether to sell the art collection at the detroit institute of arts. both of those fixed. the pension plan will be largely presevered, only small cuts for pensioners. the art museum, transferred to a private trust, thanks to donations from private foundations and from the state of michigan. the judge is still reading his decision. it's expected to wrap up shortly. then about a half an hour from now, michigan governor rick snyder, who cruised to re-election this week, will hold a news conference here at the courthouse and take a bit of a victory lap. back to you. >> cnbc's scott cohn, thank you very much. joining me is msnbc political analyst and detroit native, michael eric dyson. you heard scott cohn say they're going to fix blighted buildings, do a big water front development. i remember when we went there to do shows on detroit, people were concerned that all of that kind of cash infusion and help would only really come in downtown detroit and that the outskirts

where people live might not get any of the benefits. do you have that concern? >> and under this present mayor. so, it is quite striking that you talk about those places that continue to be blighted, that will not receive the wherewithal economically that others are receiving. they're more worried about which i understand, the detroit institute of art, don't sell off the art, but the reality is those people are still concerned and rightfully so. you know, i don't think rick snyder needs to take a, you know, victory lap here because, first of all, putting this city into receivership and bankruptcy and then appointing an undemocratically elected -- or nondemocratically unelected official suggests, again, there are tremendous consequences to this kind of arbitrary exercise of power. that being said, hopefully the people of detroit will begin now to dig out of the enormous rubble of their economic and fiscal, if you will, collapse. but the point is, it's not --

it's not enough to say, well, it was bad management over the last 20 years. no, this is the consequence of 30 and 40 years of denying legitimate opportunities to people locked inside of the city or people who were once vibrant in jobs, in manufacturing industries that have now fled. the shift from manufacturering to service industries have left them depleted. what kind of plan does the governor have, now the mayor, to address those gaping holes and figure out how people can make a living. >> is there a connection between what seems to be the disappearance of the union movement, its inability to fight back against rick snyder's re-election, they collapsed or were absent, and the fact had you the auto industry gutted, though it was saved by the federal government, something we don't talk much about. but you don't have that infrastructure that did hold up these middle class families. it's gone. >> that's exactly right. my father worked for -- was part of uaw, as was i, united autoworkers, and he worked at

kelsey hayes wheel and brake company and he was basically with an eighth grade education provide for his family and put us on the escalator to middle class and beyond. those jobs are gone. have you downsizing, outsourcing, exportation of jobs by the millions, manufacturing is all but gone, u.s. steel, auto industry hurt. that's why in the first two years when president obama came in and hooked us up, which is extremely important. people tend to now forget, like they forget the unemployment rate has slipped down even before, except for brothers and sisters, but the point is, hey, we didn't vote against him on tuesday. so, what's interesting is that, again, the economic and fiscal integrity of detroit is linked to those particular industries but we have to rethink what's going on now. green jobs, new technology coming in and an infusion of tremendous human capital and how do we deploy that in ways that are financially beneficial to those people? >> you said it quickly, but i

think we should come back to it. you do have today with these new unemployment numbers, african-american employment specifically at 9.4%, i believe, for african-american women and something higher for than than african-american men. it's actually under 11% for the first time in years. but part of that is these big urban centers. detroit has one of the highest -- michigan has one of the highest concentrations of african-americans outside of the south. is there a connection here because now you have really big management, a governor with a huge heavy hand over cities like detroit. don't they then have to also do that second piece of tackling inner city unemployment? that's where the unemployment is. >> that's huge. so, they'd rather come in and go, ha-ha, we won, we told you, slash costs -- >> the pensions. >> the pensions are slashed incredibly, even though the judge said it was miraculous they were able to be preserved. but the reality is, yes, we have to find a way then to deal with the constant, chronic

unemployment of vast numbers of people who live in that city. if you're not addressing that, then what you're doing is window dressing here. you're hooking up the people who are most able to afford to be able to go on their own steam. and the people who least have the aability to sustain themselves aren't really touched by this. you're caught in window dressing because it's cosmetically changed but the economic infrastructure for those left behind remains burdened and vulnerable. >> interested party for certain as a detroit native. >> no doubted. >> i'm sure you're going to keep on staying on top of this story. >> stevie wonder, aretha franklin, michael jackson, i'm just saying. can we preserve that city for those great people and others that they've produced? >> michael eric dyson, thank you very much. >> thank you. coming up, republicans got a gust of wind in their sails from tuesday night's victories. but can they make it to 2016 without going overboard?

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welcome back. we barely had a chance to take a breath since the midterms and already the 2016 candidate appears ready to announce. conservative favorite, dr. ben carson will air a 40-minute ad in 22 markets where he's expected to announce he wants to be your next president. just last month in an interview on fusion, dr. carson sounded resolute on the topic of running, absolutely not, but then again maybe. >> do you want to be president? >> no, i don't want to be president. >> you don't? >> why would any sane person want to do that? >> you're saying you don't want to be president but you're considering running for the white house? >> i think i have to consider that with so many people, you know, clamoring for me to do it. >> so, now here's the problem for the gop. despite his impressive background as a neurosurgeon, dr. carson is the latest in a

line of gop presidential candidates who tends to say things that are, shall we say, incendiary. for instance, calling obamacare the worst thing since slavery or comparing the u.s. to nazi germany. unfortunately this potential candidacy comes at a time when the gop took senate majority in part because their candidates managed to tamp down any positions they might hold that could appear extreme or provocative. so, can gop leaders keep up appearances or will ben carson's gaffe have coat tails? lynn winstead, jonathan capehart, an msnbc contributor, and hogan gidly is a republican strategist. i hesitate to say my pal because i still want you to get some work. >> thank you very much. >> let's talk about ben carson, first off. i'm going to start with you, liz, because dr. carson is one of those republicans who -- he fills a need in a lot of ways for republicans.

as an african-american he shows diversity, is a very impressive man. you know, his background as a neurosurgeon. a lot of us grew up reading his book and knowing who he was before knowing how conservative he is. but when he speaks, he speaks to a kind of conservative that's really, really way far to the right. is that something he could maybe fix or walk back on? and if he did, do you think he could be viable in 2016? >> i just don't know. i feel like you can also read a lot of things he's said before that have liberal leanings. affirmative action, he was a recipient of it and lauded it saying, i want to call it something else. i think that incendiary rhetoric only takes you so far. and i'm always confused about exactly what it is that makes sort of that prototypical republican candidate of now. who knows? i don't know. >> jonathan, the other thing is, you know, it's tricky for the republican party, is they do need to broaden themselves

racially. you look although a candidate like a tim scott, well, he only got 10% of the black vote in south carolina. and the black vote is something like 30% of the vote in south carolina because at the end of the day, african-americans don't necessarily vote for him and say, hey, i'm impressed because he's african-american. they say, but his policies are conservative republican. is it as simple as getting a brown or a black face? >> no. it's not -- no, it's not that simple. and the prospect of the republican party being attractive to the african-american vote more than -- infantly moinitely morew is a process that doesn't take one election cycle or two election cycles. it's going to take several. it won't just be putting up black or brown faces. it will be putting up black or brown faces and also changing the rhetoric and the policies so that the broader african-american community cannot only look at the republican party and say, hey, let me listen to their message,

but it's a message that doesn't turn those voters off from the get go. >> and hogan, over to you because you are a gop strategist on the panel. "the washington post" talked about how your party was able to do so well, mostly in red states. but they said from outside of the campaign, republicans had a simple plan. don't make mistakes and make it about obama, obama, obama. but none of that would work if if republicans did not get the right candidates. this time they recruited and coached contenders with broad appeal and resuscitated two flailing incumbents, roberts and cochran. when you no longer have obama, obama, obama because he's not on the ballot, can republicans continue to rinse and repeat two years from now? >> they can. remember, that's how obama won in the first place. it's bush, bush, bush. it's all cyclical. it comes back around. the real opportunity republicans have been given is golden. if they squander it and don't

actually pass legislation that affects people's lives in a positive way, then we're going to be back on the wrong side of this again in 2016. i want to point out something that capehart mentioned, and he's right on this. tim scott is my senator. i'm from south carolina. he's a friend and a great man, a great senator. but he's not the pied piper of blacks. we're not going to have all of these african-americans jump on board because tim scott got elected to office. we have to go out there and sell why republican governance is better. with this senate switch and with this flip, we've got the opportunity to do that and to actually showcase some of the things we've been talking about for the last little bit. and if it falls flat, we're going to be in political trouble all over again. >> liz, one of the things that the republican party has been talking about a lot is issues revolving around women. you have an organization that really litigates this issue a lot. let's talk about cordy guay garn colorado. he was a person for personhood. it was rejected in the state of

colorado twice. rejected again on the ballot. he managed to really dress it up and say he really wasn't for it. that worked. and it worked for joni ernst seemed a lot less conservative -- not less conservative but she didn't go out on a branch. did that rebrand work long term? >> it didn't work on the ballot. what is the salesman tell you? gardner is charming and joni ernst is charming. i think the thing that's interesting about the two of them is that they're incredibly relentless in their belief structure. even though they dialed back, the things that republicans value, family, joni ernst is a veteran, people -- republicans don't prioritize that issue the way democrats look at and do. and i think that they came out to vote in the miniscule amount that democrats came out to vote,

they said no on personhood but they did say yes on gardner because gardner seemed authentic to the base. >> jonathan, i want to go to you because you're on capitol hill. i'm wondering also about the temptation to senate stardom. there is this factor called ted cruz who's going to try to lead the new senators into the right, his camp. and he'll be competing in a way with a cory gardner and with a joni ernst for the limelight. does that then change the nature of the 016 conversation? because they're both potentially in it, too. >> right, it does. but i'm going to challenge your assumption here. yes, ted cruz is in the senate but ted cruz's power base is in the house. and that's -- that's going to be the challenge here for ted cruz. one, how are you going to run for president of the united states from the senate while at the same time gumming up the words, potentially, as he has in this current congress, gumming

up the works in the house to make it really difficult, if not impossible, for the now republican congress to actually put bills on the floor that can at least say they were passed. maybe even vetoed by the president, but to at least show that they've done something, that they know how to govern. that's the key thing that i'm looking for. leave aside ted cruz's 2016 ambitions. >> last but not least, has to be a one-word answer, and i'll give it to hogan, who do you think will be more influential in the senate, freshman joni ernst or sophomore ted cruz? >> probably ted cruz, although joni ernst's campaign office, her official office in iowa, is probably going to be a more popular and important stop for any 2016 candidate than the iowa state fair because she is going to be a rock star. and to have her support on your side, should you decide to run for president, will be huge in an early primary state like iowa. but ted cruz is ted cruz. he is loud. when he gets the microphone, he sure uses it to his advantage one way or the other.

hopefully, though, that won't be used to the republicans disadvantage and they'll be able to get some things out and some things passed. >> that wasn't one word. >> you gave it to me. >> it was as good a collection as i can imagine. liz, jonathan, hogan, thank you. 24/7 it's just i'm a little reluctant to try new things. what's wrong with trying new things? feel that in your muscles? yeah... i do... try a new way to bank, where no branches equals great rates. if it doesn't work fast... you're on to the next thing. clinically proven neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair. it targets fine lines and wrinkles with the fastest retinol formula available. you'll see younger looking skin in just one week. one week? this one's a keeper. rapid wrinkle repair. and for dark spots rapid tone repair.

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see that? that is the latest unemployment figure. it represents the 56th consecutive month of u.s. job growth and the ninth consecutive month of jobs growing more than 200,000. it's also nearly half of what it was during the peak of the great recession. here are the unemployment numbers broken down by ethnicity. notice for white americans, the unemployment number is below 5%. to quote michael in "the daily beast" the recent election in which republicans routed democrats in most states was not about the economy because the economy is pretty good.

the gross domestic product is in the third quarter -- in the third quarter grew at an annual rate of 3.5%. the deficit is down to 2.8% of gdp from a high of 10.1% in the wake of the meltdown. at the moment that he's writing that paragraph, the dow jones industrial average is at 17,569 and closing at all-time highs lately. corporate profits are enormous. and as you know, average weekly jobless claims are at a 14-year low. as we just learned on friday morning, the economy added 214,000 jobs and it's now clear that 2014 will be the best year for job growth since 2006. when you hear republicans claip complaining about president obama's failed policies, are they talking about the record dow and employment streak that's look longer than bill clinton's? if a republican was in the white

house right now, do you think a lot more americans would know about those stats? do you think a republican president would feel free to brag about them? democrats' problem on tuesday was, indeed, the fact that we are a 60/40 country in which every four years 60% of eligible voters choose the president. two years later, 40% of eligible voters, mainly older, white, super voters head to the polls to try to undo whatever that president has done. and that drop-off is much more pronounced amongst voters who prefer the democrats. what exactly have democrats done about it? for one thing they developed a perennial habit of ditching their own president. they did it to bill clinton, even after he delivered a record recovery but got spurred by dems trying to outculture the gop. and they've done to president obama, who hasn't helped himself by giving in to blue dog demands he lay low as to not rile up talk listeners in their states. wouldn't red state be better

validaters of the president than his handlers in washington? wouldn't being validaters help with their voters if they also validated democratic policy like raising minimum wage and delivering health care to 10 million americans who didn't have it? do you know which states have benefitted the most from obamacare? red ones, of course. like arkansas, kentucky and west virginia, all of whom essentially voted to repeal their own health care on tuesday. mike says democrats have failed to go populist on the issue, which is stagnant wages. it's corporations, of course, who haven't raised wages, in some cases after reaching record profits. whoever pointed that out is elizabeth warren. she can't be everywhere, people. if democrats, particularly the centrist southern, who ditched

their seats in red states or ran like they never heard of a thing called the democratic party or some guy called obama, can't articulate a strong, coherent policy about why voting for democrats would make any difference, they can't be surprised when they can't win a low turnout midterm when a economic message might be the only chance to get disenfranchised americans back to the polls other than a presidential contest. just a thought. that wraps things up for "the reid report." have a wonderful weekend. we'll be back here next week at 2 p.m. eastern. "the cycle" is next. they're still after me. get to the terminal across town. are all the green lights you? no. it's called grid iq. the 4:51 is leaving at 4:51. ♪ they cut the power. it'll fix itself. power's back on. quick thinking traffic lights and self correcting power grids make the world predictable. thrillingly predictable.

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sea bass and a pumpkin tart this afternoon, no word on the soup. the economy and immigration were also on the agenda. >> the one thing i committed to both speaker boehner and leader mcconnell is that i am not going to judge ideas based on whether they're democratic or republican. i'm going to be judging them on whether or not they work. and i'm confident that they want to produce results as well on behalf of the american people. >> earlier this morning, president obama gathered his cabinet together. >> obviously, we've had a significant midterm election. as i said at the press conference, my attitude has been and will continue to be that good ideas don't necessarily come from just one party. i'm looking forward to seeing the leaders of both democratic and republican caucuses this afternoon, to have a chance to share with them both what i think we need to be doing to build on the economic