? no hidden fees from the bank where no branches equals great rates. thp sunday, the coming battle. president ob this sunday, the coming battle. president obama prepares to take on the new republican congress. >> we will take this fight to the president on the strongest possible ground with new majorities that the american people elected. >> on the brink of full control, republicans are scrambling as a party leader admits to addressing a white supremacist group and puts the party in damage control mode on the eve of their takeover. 2014 was supposed to be the year u.s. military left iraq and afghanistan for good. but the rise of isis and taliban have left both countries in chaos. are we now in a permanent state of war?

women in charge, one of the 50 largest cities in this country will have women in the top three jobs in 2015. do you know which city it is in i will be joined by the women running this town. i'm chuck todd. joining me are john stanton, helene mitchell, andrea mitchell. and mac bye of yahoo! news. welcome to sunday. it's oh "meet the press." good morning. welcome to first sunday of 2015. the battle lines have been drawn on one side you have a newly invigorated president obama, he will hit the road this week, not just to sell his agenda but to get credit for the economic recovery and acquire political capital. the white house believes they won the lame duck. you have a more powerful republican party. they hold both houses of congress and they are ready to fight over an aggressive agenda

of their own, keystone, taxes and trade and the healthcare battle. now just as the republicans were ready to take on the president, they to deal with a problem. a potential scandal involving one of their own. >> i haven't use the veto pen very often. now i suspect there will be times where i have to pull that pen out. >> just as the president is challenging republican leaders to "prove they can govern," they are scrambling to contain the fallout from the revolution that a top house republican leader spoke to a white supremacist group in 2002. on tuesday, the new majority whip steve scalese called the speech, leaked to a blogger, a mistake i regret. >> i'm not familiar with who that group was, but from what

i've seen about them, they don't represent the values that i represent. i just didn't detest hate group of any kind. >> the group was founded by david duke. duke's political adviser denied scalise spoke to the group. duke says he may have. republican leaders are behind scalise. john boehner calls him a man of high integrity and good character saying, more than a decade ago, representative scalise made an error in judgment. the only african-american member of louisiana delegation is defending him. >> i don't view steve as having racial challenges at all. i think that he is just a hard working public servant that will go talk to anybody at any time. whether he agrees with their social believes or not. >> some conservatives, particularly the anti-boehner voices, are skeptical of how this has been handled and see a

double standard believing if he were a real tea partier, he wouldn't be in his job. eric eric son, how does somebody show up at a david duke organized event in 2002 and claim ignorance. mark levine, if he was a tea party member of congress, boehner and his cheer leaders would have forced his resignation by now. they are renewing a call for baner to step down. trent lot was forced to resign his post when at strom thurmond's birthday he praised the senator who ran for president in 1948 on a segregationist platform. >> we voted for him. we're proud of him. if the rest of country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems. >> now republicans have to prove

they can govern. both parties in washington used their weekend video addresses to tee up the same old political fight. >> everyone is beginning to realize what millions of you already know, the affordable care act is working. >> one problem with the healthcare law, one of many, is because of its cost and mandates, small businesses face higher costs and have to hold off on hiring. >> so will washington work in 2015? i'm joined by two senators. welcome back to "meet the press." let me start with the steve scalise story. should he serve in leadership as a representative of the republican party? >> if he talked to this group and it seems there is confusion if he did or not, it's a grave mistake on his part. but -- >> grave is a strong word. >> i think it's a grave mistake to speak to the group. he's a congressman. he's a democrat, african-american, he said steve doesn't have a racist bone in

his body and i'm going to stick with that. >> you are comfortable with -- this adds to a stereotype of the republican party. >> well the democrats do want to paint this. i got back from wyoming. this has not come up as a discussion point. people want to talk about the new incoming republican leadership in the senate, majority there, jobs, the economy, what we're going to do about debt and spending and the healthcare law. >> you think it's a disqualifier? >> i think that's something that the republican leadership will have to decide and live with the consequences. it was an inappropriate place to be. this is a ku klux klan leader, david duke. what i'm more interested in -- people disown it, they say it was wrong. what do they do about it? what are the actions? i will give you a few. the republicans can get -- move along on loretta lynch. she's a u.s. attorney. the nominee for attorney general. get it done in a month. the justice department runs the

civil rights enforcement in the country. get the voting rights bill done. there's republicans in the house on it last year, leading it. get that done. that's action, not just words and get immigration reform done. to me, that is what do you when you have a problem like this, you say do you disown it, you say you want to move on civil rights, then do it. >> is that a proper response? >> i think we need to do -- get the new senators sworn into office, move in with specifically with regard to loretta lynch and i met where her. we had a cordial meeting. the issue is the president's illegal action on exec -- >> she qualified to be attorney general? >> that's going to come up with questioning what she views with the president's actions on amnesty. is it legal, is it not legal? is she going to be the people's attorney? is she going to be a presidential protector? that's a big part of the -- the hearing will be -- >> very much focus on immigration? >> that's part of it because of the president's actions, which i believe have been illegal. >> what's the first bill that will be on president's desk? >> the president will see the keystone pipeline on his desk and it's going to be a bell weather decision by the president whether to go with jobs in the economy, his state department said it's 42,000 new jobs. this is a good infrastructure

project to support widely across the united states. he will decide between jobs and the extreme supporters of not having the pipeline. >> where are you on this? >> i believe that this project has merit. but i still don't think congress should be in the business of deciding where a pipeline is located. i think the president needs to make a decision, a lot of us are frustrated that it has taken thp long. i think the bigger issue -- >> how are you going to vote? >> to allow the process to continue? >> allow the process to continue in favor -- >> to allow the president to make a decision.

i'm getting frustrated with this. i don't think you will see votes switching on the democratic side from just a month ago. the bigger issue is symbolic -- has become symbolic. bigger issue, we're the number one producer of oil in the world. we have surpassed saudi arabia. gas prices are down to something like two bucks a gallon. we're starting to move on climate change. i think what i want to look for is things where there is common ground. there are things. mitch mcconnell said this week, they don't want to make a point, they want to make a difference. infrastructure funding. there's common ground on that. getting the money back from overseas, over a trillion dollars over there and linking that into infrastructure funding. moving on making sure our high school kids are getting degrees with a job that we have that they get one in two year degrees, that we do something on the fact it's harder to afford college. i think those are things that there can be common ground on and we can go to the president and work with him on this. >> i want to go to healthcare. you said, i think two different messages on where you are on the healthcare law. in october of 2014, you said you would imagine that there will be a vote to repeal but let's be realistic, obama will be in the white house for two years and he won't sign that. then this week you said, we will use every tool that is out there, including reconciliation, meaning that you might have a repeal in the budget -- in a

reconciliation vote that would be mandatory with the budget. where are you going? is the priority the republican party to repeal healthcare or are you going to, quote/unquote fix it and go after it piece by piece? >> the priority is to repeal this healthcare law. it's bad for patients, bad for the providers, nurses and doctors who take care of them and terrible for taxpayers. we will put on the president's desk at a minimum stripping away the most damaging parts of the healthcare law. we will resume -- get back to the 40 hour workweek, which is hurting people right now in losing some of their pay. we are going to get rid of the

employer mandate -- >> you are not going to a repeal. >> there will be a vote on repeal. >> that's probably not going to get to the president's desk? >> in the white house, the president will veto that. we will get on his desk for signature bipartisan support, eliminating the tax on medical devices, the employer mandate, the 40-hour workweek. we have bipartisan support for that. there have been votes on those bills in the house many democrats have supported those efforts. this healthcare law continues -- the costs are crippling the middle class, the vice president in his message said, things are great. they are not. >> there seems to be some dispute about what's working or not. let's go to the medical device tax. you will support the repeal of this. it's important in your state. where are you going -- that's how this law is being paid for are on small taxes and fee opens various things, including the medical device industry. if you pick that apart, how do you flow that 20 other interest groups are going to do the same thing? don't you start pulling at a thread that actually undoes the healthcare law? >> this issue was not part of the agreement originally. a major tax was smacked on the medical device industry. it was in arbitrary reduced in half. senator hatch and i are leading the effort. there are democrats supporting it. the hope is that we will find a way to pay for this and get this

tax -- >> you haven't figured out how to pay for it? anything you can leave our viewers with? >> again, we are looking at a way to reduce this tax. i don't want to speak for senator hatch. we will keep working on finding a way to do it. this is a tax on manufacturing. the other piece to remember here that we had have 57 straight months of economic job growth in the private sector. we had the biggest reduction to the unemployment rate this year that we have seen since 1984. our economy is gaining steam. it is now important in this session for congress to gain steam and to get to work on compromise. >> i know you will say you hope 2015 is about compromise not conflict. but what's that likelihood? >> i think -- i'm optimistic. i think we have a great opportunity as well as an obligation to the american people to listen to what the voters said. they want us to work together. we're ready to deliver effective, efficient and accountable government. >> we can govern from a position of opportunity and not crisis when you see the economy. that's what we're going to do.

>> we will see. you sound good here. we will be watching. so will a lot of voters. reaction from the panel. john, i want to go to the issue of scalise. you are a capitol hill reporter. these stories look like they die down and then everybody comes back and suddenly -- he has to survive one more week here before this is quote unquote over for him. >> he has a week. assuming there's no more instances of him speaking to groups like this, and assuming he can deal with some of the questions about the state level votes on martin luther king day and get past this, he should be fine. the republicans should be fine. talking to republicans, we are supporting him but he has to deal with this. we will not take any kind of heat for him on this anymore because he will start backing up our agenda if he hangs out there. >> andrea, trent lott, you could say said nice things about an old man at his 100th birthday party. how he said it -- there was an agenda by some who wanted to get rid of lott.

scalise doesn't have enemies yet. if there was an agenda to get rid of him, this could have been used as an excuse. >> it could have. i don't think he's over it yet. we will see what happens with leadership votes. he has to be the whip, he has to have relationships within his caucus. if you look back, there's just no credible way that anyone in louisiana politics did not know what david duke represented. we showed the "meet the press" famous "meet the press" with -- >> a couple of them with duke. >> tim russert questioning david duke in 1999, two years, three years before this happened. he was running for congress. he was in a runoff a decade earlier for governor. >> before i move on, you matt, you wrote this, five ways you know you you are speaking to white supremacist. it was founded by david duke. banners that say white group. the name of the group. the hotel hosting the event is ashamed. and no one there cares about his

tax stand, which is what scalise claimed. you don't buy the story? >> i don't. i was having fun with it. why this story resonates is because the leadership of the republican party says they want to be responsible, a party that can show america they are serious about governing. there's a feeling they are indulgent off the radar screen of some of the darker impulses in their party and the darker impulses in america. that's why a story from 2002 resonates the way it does. i don't think it's credible just because david duke's right hand man said maybe he didn't speak. i think he was there and everybody knew what was going on. >> let's move to what we saw there, senators individually always say that they will get things done and they will work together. then the reality hits the road. keystone gets on the president's desk. he will veto it. what is life like in washington? >> we go back to gridlock in washington. i'm just curious to see how the

democrats and republicans are going to do -- are going to move forward on any agenda this year. what you will see -- what the republicans are going to discover is how you have to govern from the center. you can't govern from the right. and i think the scalise stuff speaks to that. the republicans want to move forward, they want to talk about keystone, they are talking about -- you just mentioned -- you began your show with the words white supremacist group and ku klux klan. >> in 2014. how did this happen? >> exactly. at a time where you look at -- the republicans are looking to appeal to hispanics and looking to show that they can govern from the center and they are inclusive of the country, this is the last -- talking about david duke and white supremacy is not where they want to be. will they have a harder time finding six to eight democrats to get over the threshold or

will it be harder for boehner and hk connell to agree. >> john, i'm curious with senate republicans, are they going to have a harder time finding six to eight democrats to get them over 60 vote thresholds or hadder for boehner and mcconnell to agree on specific pieces of legislation? i have been curious about that. i don't think -- >> i don't think it's a problem with boehner and mcconnell. i think they get along fine. >> personally, yes. >> agree on most things. they will have trouble finding a way to get enough house republicans to agree to things they can get this sort of revolving cast of six or eight democrats. it's never going to be the same -- >> that's what the senator was saying. it won't be the same ten democrats. it will be different democrats depending on the bill. >> one of the first things they will do is this immigration vote on dhs. that is going to really test their ability to get anybody after that back on. >> wait until they get to trade. which democrats are going to join with the president and who won't on trade? he thinks he can cut a deal on the -- on trade with republicans. >> with trade, always go to the coast. coastal senators usually are

more off to trade than the ones -- >> forget about the midwest. >> we will pause here. back with a three star general who says we have lost the wars in iraq and afghanistan. in iraq and afghanistan. i was not expecting to get a ford. we went around the country talking to people who made the switch to ford. it felt nicer than my bmw. good gas mileage... ecoboost makes a four cylinder engine feel like a six cylinder. my dad went and turned in his lexus and got the exact same car as me. he had to have it... i'm very happy with my escape. i don't know if i'll ever not buy a ford. make the switch to america's favorite brand. check out special offers on ford escape at ford.com or see your local ford dealer. ♪

welcome back. a few years ago president welcome back. a few years ago president obama was promising that 2015 would be the year that americans could stop worrying about wars in iraq

and afghanistan. technically, u.s. combat operations did formally come to a close in afghanistan in 2014. however, here are the facts. there are still going to be 11,000 american soldiers in the country just as chaos is beginning thanks to a resurge enter taliban. there will be 3,000 american troops in iraq where the situation there is if anything bleaker. thanks to isis slaughtering thousands and controlling that country as well as syria. we asked our chief foreign correspondent to look at what appear to be wars now without an end. >> reporter: isis now has a new kind of brutal propaganda tool. they are asking for tips online on how it should murder a jordanian pilot it captured, the

first coalition pilot to be taken captive. suggestions have been tragically pouring in, including impalement and burning him alive. isis hardly seems deterred by the u.s.-led war against it. now in its seventh month. 2014 was the year when old wounds and old wars in the middle east, many americans hoped were over, returned to center stage. syria imploded allowing isis to explode on to the scene. iraq, well, the u.s. is now back at war there with around 3,000 troops on an increasingly dangerous training mission. >> the iraqi army came apart 25% of it ran off and left their equipment. but it's hard to imagine a modest training mission being the key to gluing iraq back together. i think it's come apart and it will not have to settle along new geo-political grounds. >> reporter: the war in afghanistan won't go away either.

last month, the president in a very understand stated ceremony announced the end of the combat mission there after 13 years. america's longest war ended with the faintest of whimpers. >> we have been in continuous war now for almost 13 years -- over 13 years. next week, we will be ending our combat mission in afghanistan. >> reporter: the war isn't really ending. military families will still have to keep giving. around 10,000 u.s. troops will remain in afghanistan to support local security forces. the mission's success is far from certain. >> it's hard to imagine the afghan army and police pulling together these factions. so i think bad news in afghanistan is what we ought to expect. >> reporter: for the u.s. military, 2015 will focus on preventing old wars from getting worse, which means those conflicts will continue to be a drain on american resources and perhaps a distraction from what could be the real security challenges, like iran's nuclear problem or cyber warfare. the u.s. now seems to be in a semi-permanent state of war unable to break from the past. for "meet the press," i'm richard engel, turkey.

>> i'm joined by daniel p. bolger, author of "why we lost a general's inside account of the iraq and afghanistan wars" and sara shays who served as a special adviser. to admiral mike mullen when he was chairman of the joint chiefs of is staff. welcome to "meet the press" to both of you. general, let me start with you. it was your veteran's day op ed that got a lot of people's attention, which had the headline about why we lost both wars. the wars haven't ended, even though we're saying they have ended as far as 2014. what are we in right now? what is this is war we are fighting? how would you describe it? >> right now, chuck, i would say we're in the salvage or damage control phase from two failed campaigns. in iraq, we have sent in just enough guys to lep the current iraqi government try and hold on to what they have. in afghanistan, we're trying to do a similar thing with 10,000

troops in a land locked country where the supply lines run through pakistan and russia. pretty tricky area to fight in even under best circumstances. right now we're just in damage control. we're talking about end of combat operations. our enemies, the taliban and isis are talking about winning. >> so sarah, what is -- what is the u.s. policy now? the president hinted at it in the interview he did. i'm not going to have another trillion dollar expenditure for a ground war in either iraq or afghanistan. but there seems to be a new containment policy we are coming up with without saying containment, is that fair? >> good morning. yeah. i think it is fair to say. and i think what's really interesting about this policy is the president repeatedly explains that there is no military solution to these wars. and yet, you still see all of the focus, all of the energy, even at this somewhat reduced level on the military approaches

to the war. so in both iraq and afghanistan, the focus on the quality of governance on the ability of populations to feel they have a stake in the way the country is run has been ignored. >> there's no evidence right now that we're focused on planting those seeds. >> correct. >> general, in your op ed said there needs to be and accounting of why we lost the wars. a 9/11-style commission outside the military. there's a cover story in the atlanta monthly i know you are familiar with, why do the best soldiers in the world lose the decline of the american military. i know you know this report very well.

is he right, by the way? why do we have this incredible military that can't win these wars? what is your explanation? >> i think he is right on target. i think the reality is, the u.s. military is all about winning battles but wars are an act of the entire country. one of the challenges that we have, one of the reasons an accounting of these wars is -- the president said we fought for more than 13 years is in order, we have to determine what we're doing wrong that's preventing us from winning. in a military sense, i could tell you and sarah referenced it when she said it, the military can give you a quick victory over a conventional army.

it cannot deliver a rebuilt country in the place you go. that takes an effort in the entire u.s. population and government and moreover it takes the commitment of the american people for the long-term. that's what jim is getting at. >> sarah, what is going to be the solution next? we're going to manage this and then what? at what point do we walk away or do we now just never walk away? >> it becomes difficult to walk away. because these situations are spinning quite badly out of control. and it's spreading. you can -- there is a theme in these conflicts that also crosses a number of other really serious security situations, which is acutely bad governance or even -- look at arab spring, central asia, these issues are not being dealt with. they are being sort of relegated as we keep playing catchup with stopgap military approaches. so it seems to me that if there really is going to be a wait to address these issues, it's got to be the civilian components of

u.s. government that step up to the plate. >> sarah, general, thank you for a sobering look at what is the state of america at war or i guess this is what post war america looks like in the 21st century. let me get reaction from the panel. andrea, this is your beat. 2015, the year of no more wars. that's not the case. >> it's not the case. and the general and sarah are both right, i think, in that where he not -- we're winning battles perhaps. we're not sure against isis we're winning battles. we're not winning quote wars. and i think this goes back to the volunteer army. the lack of engagement by the country. the country ramps itself up emotionally when there's horrendous beheading, but it falls back off the radar. we go about our lives. speaking metaphorically. and we're not really engaged in

this in a big way. clearly, the president does not want to be. >> the piece in the atlantic is a tour deforce about this. over reverence for the military, in a weird way that politicians, they are afraid to say a bad thing about the military, look like they're saying a bad thing, that we don't have this -- do we need to look internally and think we're not equipped to fight the in you war snz. >> you then end up -- if you keep going down that road, you talk about a draft again. that's something that it seems as if we're never -- the united states has moved so far beyond that. you can't even talk about that. it's so interesting. i thought the piece was really, really interesting. i had a few issues in that one of them being that when we talk about not -- there not being a connection between the united states and its military, i don't know i would say there's to connection between the united states and its military, i think there's no connection between the elite that run the united states. i think when you talk about the new york elite and all of that but if you go to small town america and you go out, there are people who are very close to the military and that, i think, is where you see that kind of disconnect. i would like to see the conversation focus on that. >> that's the disconnect, small town america who is fighting the wars. it's new immigrant populations. >> lower income. >> lower income america fighting the wars. nobody is disputing that this military isn't well equipped. the question is, do we -- this strategy of dealing with terrorism and terror groups,

this military -- there maybe isn't a military solution. >> we're 14 years into this, there's no public consensus. this is something jim webb is adamant about, wants to start a debate about these engagements. this is actually where campaigns really matter. the debate in 2004 and 2008 had a lot to do with -- i think democrats backed themselves into an afghanistan -- >> no doubt. it meant afghanistan -- >> had you to have a good war. >> how do you back away? >> i'm convinced the improving economy, foreign policy could be the dominant topic. >> if you look at afghanistan, iraq, now somalia, you are seeing area where there are attacks on u.s. trained troops. we're trying to stand up people there to fight these things. that strategy like this morning,

a car bombing targeting folks in somalia. i think that's going to become a major problem where they can't point to that now. they can't say we have troops on the ground that are not ours but we have them ready to go. that's clearly starting to fail. i don't know how you get around that if you don't want to send more americans in. >> right. that doesn't seem to be where anybody is at these days except for a few in congress. we will hit the pause button. women in charge. we will meet the women who run all aspects of a major american city. you may know this city better than you think. top stop.

welcome back.

when former welcome back. when former new york governor mario cuomo passed away this week, the country lost a liberal icon. what president obama was and elizabeth warren was, that's what mario was to progressives in the 1980s. after losing for mayor of new york city in the '70s, he beat him in 1982 and won the general election. by 1984, with cuomo's speech to the democratic national convention, he had supplanted ted kennedy as the leading voice of american liberalism. >> there is despair, mr. president, in the faces that you don't see, in the places that you don't visit in your shining city.

>> cuomo was the poet of american liberalism in the '80s where he once said, politicians campaign in poetry but govern in prose. in his terms as governor, he balanced budgets, reduced taxes and stood strong against the death penalty when it was not very popular to do so. but for some, cuomo will likely be remembered for what he didn't do, he twice didn't run for president, despite being at the top of many democrats' wish list. >> mario cuomo's on again off again presidential pain is off, period. for 1992, mostly for sure. >> the second no go in 1991, a down to the wire drama that left two planes on the tarmac that were there to rush him to file for the primary. he cited the new york state budget as a reason that he could not run. >> it seems to me i cannot turn my attention to new hampshire while this threat hangs over the head of the new yorkers that i have sworn to put first.

>> his public deliberation both in '88 and '92 earned him the moniker, hamlet on the hudson, adding to it when he seems to openly apply for a spot on the supreme court in 1993 only to pull out when president clinton was about to name him. that public indecision, his stance against the death penalty as well as the republican wave helped contribute to his defeat in 1994. he remained active in politics for years after leaving office. his sense of humor remains on full display over his 11 appearances on this program. >> you said you will do anything you can to help elect the democratic president. >> if it's legal and not sinful. anybody can kick down a barn. it takes a good plan or woman to build one. >> let's talk about your speech. vice president quayle last week said it will be a lengthy speech because you will have to retract all of the unkind attacks that you have made against governor clinton. how do you respond? >> for the vice president's been fit, if it's a lengthy speech, i will make sure to use small words. >> the great riddle is, why didn't he run? we may have the answer. he was happy to be home. he hated travel.

he boasted of wanting to sleep in his own bed, always. he had the temperament of writer not unlike barack obama. he preferred observing from the outside as if he were watching someone else's movie. among cuomo's accomplishments, perhaps the most important to the "meet the press" family is when he gave a job to a young guy from buffalo. we have more on mario cuomo on our website. check it out. mario cuomo was 82. mario cuomo was 82. colourists know roots take colour one way... and previously coloured hair another. introducing new vidal sassoon salonist first, brush roots with rich colour cream. then, add serum... and blend through lengths. our most advanced system outside the salon. visible depths and tones. new vidal sassoon salonist. ugh... ...heartburn. did someone say burn? try alka seltzer reliefchews. they work just as fast

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nerd screen time, as we say good-bye to 2014 and hello to 2015, we have some hopeful news to report. about 2014, about half of you, 47%, said it was an average or an above average year for the united states.

believe it or not, that's the best number in a decade we have recorded. compared to 2013, we have seen huge jumps. 17 points from 30% in 2013. this increase in optimism is practically across the board. among white americans, 17 point jump from 24% in 2013 saying 2014 was an average or a great year. african-americans saw a similar increase. 57% in 2013 to 71% saying 2014 was a pretty good year. we broke it down by gee off if i as well. people in urban areas are more optimistic than those living in rural america, both americans in the cities and americans in rural america felt optimistic

about how 2014 went. americans in the cities, their optimism jumped to 53% saying they felt 2014 was an average or above average year. the jump in rural areas was a 20-point bump. while this rise was across the board, there were a few groups that weren't as optimistic as the overall poll. retirees and folks with a high school diploma or less were somewhat less up beat. maybe it's about their own economic current economic status. even so, overall people were more optimistic about 2014 than at any time since 2004. it brings us to our last interesting fact courtesy of our friends at the american communities project. check this out. in 2004 when a similar 47% of americans said that the year was average or an above average year, it was republicans who drove that perception. 72% back then. it was a majority of democrats in 2004 called it a below average year. as for 2014, the trend is reversed. 70% of democrats who said the year was average, good or great. similar split, because republicans said it was a below average year. so, what do you make of the split? a good old partisan divide. do you wear blue or red glasses? in 2004, it was a republican in

the white house. in 2014, it's a democrat in the white house. shocked. shocked that people used their party label to answer a poll question. coming up, the women in charge. meet the three women, the only three women who in 2015 will run a major american city. not all toothbrushes are created equal. oral-b toothbrushes are engineered

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welcome back. women are still chronically under represented in u.s. politics. at both a local and national level. the 114th congress will contain a record number of women but the numbers are still low, especially considering a majority of voters are women. women will make out 11 of the biggest cities have women.

six from a female police chief. there's one city where the three top jobs will be filled by women for the next year. that city is washington, d.c. i'm pleased to be joined by the three powerful women. the mayor and police chief and the chancellor of public schools. my wife worked as a paid adviser for the mayoral campaign in 2014. congratulations. >> thank you. >> it was a wonderful inauguration that a lot of folks attended. you start off -- let's talk about this unique aspect of washington, d.c. what does it say? >> how fitting for the nation's capital to have three women in charge, women who have gotten things done in this city for years. and we're going to continue to focus on moving our city forward. washington has come a long way. we have improved our schools, driven down crime. and we want the world to know that we are a city on the move. >> let's start with the challenges you have. you have a unique challenge in that you have to deal with congress. as part of your -- as part of -- they control some of your funds. you will face a budget short fall.

something you addressed in your inauguration speech. what do you need from congress? do you need more money from the federal government? >> well, we're a city and a county and a state all at once. we do have a unique relationship with the congress. we're looking for it to work with the new congress and are optimistic. so we need the congress to focus on the big issues of our nation, immigration reform and working together and getting things done at the hill. we're getting things done for our city just fine governing ourselves. >> but you have the budget shortfall. where does the money come from? >> we will look at our budget. we balanced it the last 17 years. we will balance it again. we will make those decisions and send up a balanced budget to the congress. all they need to do is keep it clean. no riders, no -- >> they never do that. they make -- schools and social issues like abortion or marijuana. >> our focus is working with the congresswoman and all of the members who care about the district of columbia.

we will send them a balanced budget and ask them to respect the will of the people. >> one more question before i bring in the chancellor and chief. the marijuana initiative, passed by voters in washington, d.c., congress basically said no. they will allow the decriminalization, but they said no to legalization, no federal funds nor local fees. are you going to challenge congress? >> we want to respect the will of the d.c. voters. we think that initiative is self-enacting. our legislator will send it to congress in january. the bottom line for us is that we have to have laws that are clear and enforceable. we have to have -- >> you will sue congress over this. >> we want to work with congress and we want the real -- >> you ruled out a lawsuit? >> we will explore every option to get our law enforced so the chief also can have -- can be clear with the officers of

what's legal in the district and what isn't. >> chancellor henderson, chief, let me bring you in. let me go back to the uniqueness of the fact that three women are running the -- you probably have the toughest aspect of this of a woman in leadership. majority of men on the force. why have you succeeded in this, seven years now as chief? >> i don't think your gender matters in this line of work. like most uniform services, if you come to work and work hard every day and you have a reputation for being a hard work he cops don't care if you are male or female or black or white nor does the community. i have been here 24 years. i love the city and i love my police department. i haven't had any issues. >> all right. let's talk about the challenges that both of you are going to face. chancellor henderson, school reform in d.c. has been an issue for as long as i have lived in the area, 25 years now. your predecessor was somebody who got a lot of attention for some of the reforms that she did. this is brought up all the time, how much per pupil the district

spends. yet the reforms are slow. what do you say to that? >> i say, i think that's actually incorrect if you ask the u.s. secretary of education. he would tell you that d.c. is the fastest improving urban school district in the country. we had a lot of work to do to kind of break down some things and to rebuild some things. but student satisfaction is at an all-time high. test scores are rising more rapidly than other places. we have satisfied teachers. most importantly, families are choosing dcps after 40 years of decline. >> if there were more residents who sent their kids to public schools rather than private schools, particularly in the

wealthier areas, do you think d.c. public schools would have more attention in. >> i think we're getting attention because for the third year in a row now, we have seen radical increases in the number of kids coming. families are coming back from private schools, from charter schools to dcps. people want -- are demanding good neighborhood schools. the only time that public school systems are great is when the community demands it and the government works with the community to deliver. >> chief, the focus on ferguson, the focus on what happened in staten island, it's a challenge to a lot of police forces. you haven't had these issues in your police force. why do you think that? >> i think it's really about building the strong relationships with the community. you have to do it every day. you can't do it in crisis. do you it every day. the community trusts and supports you. during the protests here, i had the good fortune of observing our community reaching out and hugging police officers and shaking our hand. we're very fortunate. >> i can't let you go mayor without asking about dc statehood. how much of a priority and would

you accept separate statehood or would you accept being a part of maryland. >> we are washington, d.c. the residents of washington deserve full democracy and statehood. >> but you can get that connected to maryland, could you not, or virginia? >> we're washington, d.c., chuck. the residents of the district of the columbia really want to forge a path toward statehood. we can unhook our government from the federal government. >> we wouldn't talk about lawsuits about marijuana. >> we wouldn't talk about lawsuits or shutting down the government when the congress can't figure it out. we're going to set a pragmatic way to amp up our federal presence and forge a new path. >> a lot of people want to know how washington would change if women were in charge. well, it's happening in washington, d.c. thank you all for coming on "meet the press." >> thank you. >> we will be watching. i want to make another note about a passing over the weekend. former senator edward brooke passed away yesterday. he was the first african-american to be elected to the u.s. senate since reconstruction when he got elected in 1966. brooke developed a reputation for rectitude. he ultimately was defeated for a third term after making false statements in a divorce deposition.

with his impeccable manner, he was representative of a more moderate gop of the '70s. here on "meet the press" in 1973, he fielded this question from the late great jack germond. >> the view of the way people vote, do you think the republican party is ready for a black presidential nominee? >> i think the country is and the party is not behind the country. i think the party will vote for a man that they believe can do the job. >> edward brooke was 95. we will be right back. [coughing] dave, i'm sorry to interrupt... i gotta take a sick day tomorrow.

dads don't take sick days, dads take nyquil. the nighttime, sniffling sneezing, coughing aching, fever, best sleep with a cold medicine. when the game's on the line. hit him with a hard count, see if they'll tip their hand. the nfl trusts duracell quantum to their game day communication. they're blitzing up the gut! get out of the pocket! hut! duracell quantum. lasts up to 35% longer than the competition. welcome back. you know, stephen colbert didn't think i would get through this without mentioning 2016. it ain't going to happen on this show. there were three events over the

holiday break worth noting that i want to bring up. jeb bush continued his resignation frenzy. the education foundation that he put together. you have chris christie and rick perry both going to attend rick scott's inauguration of florida. its prominence in the the primary calendar. mike huckabee said this on his fox news show. >> god hasn't put me on earth just to have a good time or to make a good living. but rather god's put me on earth to try to make a good life. there's been a great deal of speculation as to whether i would run for president. if i were willing to absolutely rule that out, i can keep doing this show.

but i can't make such a declaration. i say good-bye, but as we say in television, stay tuned. >> matt, my suspicion is jeb bush has totally scrambled the timetable of some of these guys. if jeb bush doesn't throw his hat in the ring as quickly as he did last year, mike huckabee wouldn't be quitting his show. >> i wish god put me on earth to make a good living and have a good time. i think you are right. it changes the timetable. but we just got finished talking about cuomo and to invert yogi berra, it ain't beginning until it's beginning. it's not beginning yet. a lot of people can take steps. they're mulling a decision. i done get ramped up about covering any of the candidates until they're candidates. i think this is the logical thing to do if you want to keep the door open. but it's a big decision they have not made. >> it is. we all all have the hope and

strategists thought the race was not going to start until memorial day. it would be a later start. i think jeb bush ruined everybody's plans. >> on the republican side. i don't think this is advancing hillary clinton's timetable. but the fact that jeb bush has resigned from all those -- disentangled from the corporate stuff and the foundation, i think that huckabee actually helps jeb bush, because hub abein iowa and the diversity of republican conservatives in iowa makes -- you could have jeb bush actually doing well in iowa but with 20-some percent of the vote. >> that's the jeb bush strategy, hope the right is divided. but we still haven't seen jeb bush the candidate. he hasn't campaigned for

political office since 2002. >> he was smart to get his name out there early and then do all the stuff and keep himself in the background now. i think frankly with mike huckabee, i will believe it when i see it. >> i was the same way. i believe -- i was the same way. quitting that show was not insignificant. >> but there are plenty of other reasons why he may have done it. he has done this before in the past, i'm going to run and messes around and pulls out. >> he has given up a lot of money. >> in iowa next winter, right before the primary there, then i will believe it. >> the time -- it moved up earlier, it's moved up earlier. huckabee was the populous before it was cool. now rand paul wants to be that. rick santorum took the role of this. is he yesterday's news or does he -- can he re-establish himself as the evangelical populist guy? >> i don't think he's yesterday's news. he has a certain appeal to a lot of people that would be surprising. i can't believe we're talking about this already. >> i know. and yet -- that's what i mean. i'm go stock not blame us in the media.

>> obama announced in february of '07. >> in january -- that was the official announcement. a month earlier in january of '07 both clinton and obama dictating the schedule to each other. that's why it feels like jeb bush is dictating the schedule. >> i think he is. i think we need -- i have to accept the fact that we're not -- >> you accept this. >> okay. fine. >> what stage of grief is this? acceptance. you have been in denial. you moved on the show from denial to acceptance. >> i have moved to acceptance. >> what about anger? >> you know what, i accept it. not going to do anger.

welcome to the presidential campaign. >> speaking of anger, there may be anger out there. there's new laws. two times a year you get new laws. here is new laws that are out there. we picked three that are some of the more unusual legislation which have made it on the books. first, good news for you wine lovers out there. former patriot quarterback and washington state vineyard owner, he can ship wine to massachusetts. it's the drew bledsoe law. he wants to sell his wine. he can now do that. for any walter whites out there living in oregon, home sellers will now have to disclose if it was used as a meth lab. finally, it's bad news for you john stanton. no more selfies. with tigers, lions and other big cats in new york it will be illegal. >> amazing. as long as it's selfies -- whiz -- >> usually, you don't like big cats. >> i don't like little cats. >> you are a bear person. >> i don't like little cats. >> you're a bear person. >> allergic to cats. >> moose. >> the selfie thing, matt, i read there's an antenna that you can make your selfies look better. that's what america needs. the selfie stick. we don't need it. that was fun. that's all for today. we will be back next week, because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

>> holy crap. is that kid okay? >> who doesn't want to believe you can run on water? >> can you believe it? do you see this? believe it sunshine. >> video magicians at work. it's so goofy and so unbelievable that that's what makes it so funny. >> and bags full of tricks. >> by the end it was like pulling my hair out. i started to have nightmares about the pa charlie sheen. -- machine. >> how do they do it? >> what >> a good