who is wearing a wig? we're talking about who is wearing a wig. who is wearing the rig. >> rig? >> rig. >> now my ears are going. let's get a check on the day ahead before we toss it over to "morning joe." vice president joe biden announces new funding to help train americans for jobs in cyber security. oscar nominations come out this morning at 8:30 eastern. the 87th academy awards take place february 22nd. will the golden globes have been an determination for who gets nominated? what do you think, gang? >> maybe. >> oh, my gosh. the energy is here in palmable. can you feel i'll at home? "morning joe" starts right now. ♪

>> good morning. it is thursday january 15th. welcome to "morning joe," emp.",,"",," everyone. with us onset is foreign affairs columnist and editor at large for "time" magazine ian bremer. and associate professor at columbia university school of international and public affairs, dorian warren. in washington, msnbc political analyst and former chairman of the republican national committee michael steel joins us. in san diego, editor of bloomberg politics, mark halperin halperin. >> it's surprisingly like willie geist at 3:00 in the morning. >> he is up early. lovely background. >> gorgeous. that is gorgeous. you know mika these ohio people are just crazy. like what's the matter with ohio? i'm going to write a book called" what's the matter with ohio". >> who do you mean? >> whom the gods would destroy,

they first make mad. the second thing they do is give them a national championship. they burn down the campus. >> burn a couch. >> you're thinking okay that's not bad. it happen right? we, of course don't do that in alabama because you kind of get bored by winning championships. >> big ten here. >> but then willie -- >> i see where this is going. >> but then but then they get a bartender who wants to poison the speaker of the house. the orange america's first orange speaker. and they hate him just because of the color of his skin. but they're going to kill him for that. right? >> what? >> then another ohio dude decides he's going to blow up the capitol. >> i think they're one in the same, but whatever. >> was it the same dude? >> no. >> it's not. it's a different dude. >> i'm telling you, these buckeyes -- >> i think it's too early, joe. >> no this is serious point. >> i know. >> you can draw a straight line to urban meyer going to ohio

state and all of these terror plots. >> did you take your meds? >> am i the only one surprised? >> did you take your meds? >> hold on a second. dan dan, alex is this not happening? >> it's happening. >> it's a coincidence, they say. >> do we take over flyover states, do we do that? >> only -- only if i go there. and then it's the center of the world. then i come back to the coast and we just talk about the coast. and barack obama. >> yes, yes, yes. >> those poll numbers. >> i know. >> they're going high. they're getting up there. >> i'm not surprised. that's good yes. >> you know what they say. >> what? >> whom the gods will destroy, they give a majority in congress. it's always a surprise how president s do so much better when the opposing party controls congress. >> yeah. the dynamic, yes. >> it always happens. americans start looking at that president who they didn't really

like when he had a monopoly and they go wait a second we need him there to balance out the republicans, or vice versa. >> we'll get to that as well as other political news in just a moment. but first, on a serious note there are -- >> that was very serious. >> yes it was. there are new concerns about homegrown terrorism after authorities say they thwarted a terror plot against one of the country's most iconic buildings. an ohio man now facing charges for allegedly plotting a military style attack on the capitol capitol. officials say he was inspired by islamic state militants and anwar al awlaki. the u.s. born spokesman for al qaeda. this is the man now in custody. 20-year-old christopher lee cornell. koert documents say he wanted to plant pipe bombs around the capitol and then shoot officials who tried running away. investigators say he came to their attention last august when he used an alias to post pro-isis messages on twitter.

court documents also say he discussed his plans with a man that he thought was sympathetic. the man was actually working undercover for the fbi. officials say cornell was arrested after he bought two semi automatic rifles and 600 rounds of ammunition at a gun range. the fbi says the public was never in danger. cornell's father says his son did recently convert to islam but can't believe what he's being accused of. >> people that really know chris, they know he's a good guy. i don't think -- like i said you know i was completely blind sided by this. this came as a complete surprise, you know? chris is -- i mean he never leaves the house. he's a mommy's boy. he never showed any -- any signs of any -- any kind of violence or anything. i mean quiet, shy, good kid. >> you feel bad, so bad for dad.

but, willie if he hasn't left the house in 20 something years, that's a good warning. >> he's not that good a kid, dad. i understand dad is not feeling great about what happened. the police say he's hardly a model terrorist, re-enforcing what the father said. you can't leave the go i untouched if he's talking to informants and blowing up the capitol you've got to do something. great work by the fbi, unlgds cover, used their intelligence and took him down at a gun shop yesterday. now to france where police may be on the verge of a big break in their investigation into the paris terror attacks. police confirm that amedi coubali rented a small home and filled it with weapons the week before his siege at a kosher supermarket. a french newspaper reports a scooter was found that could identify a possible accomplice. there's also new security camera footage from inside the grocery store. the gunmen can be seen ordering a hostage to put his hands against the wall and in another image a worker is forced to

stand on a stool to disable a camera. meanwhile, since last week's attack france has arrested more than 50 people after prosecutors ordered a crack down on hate speech antisemitism and individual supporting terrorism. it comes as the first issue of "charlie hebdo" since the massacre sold out across france within hours. the paper is so sought after that companies are going for more than $1,000 -- some of them are going for $1,000 on ebay. french president francois hollande says the magazine has been reborn and, quote, you could murder men and women but you could never kill their ideas. >> ian obviously france is having to focus mainly on antisemitism right now. that seems to be where they're focused. this is such a big problem in france and across europe isn't it? >> it's doing to become much larger. i mean the fact is that the economic environment continues to be incredibly poor in these countries for large swaths of

the population. there's a very great division within these societies. treatment of jews. you look at surveys. one just came out recently from britain britain. some 45% of respondents promoted antisemitism in some direct way. over 50% of jews responded felt like they did not have a clear future in britain. >> you're an european expert. it is just absolutely fascinating to me and horrifying to me how antisemitism has played such a large role in the history of europe over the past thousand years. there's always a reason and always an excuse given to hate jews in europe. of course now it's the palestinian conflict. but you could go back you know you could go back to the days of martin luther. i mean the people that we revere martin luther was a raging antisemite. you could look at the magna carta, yes, freedom for

everybody but jews. you don't have to repay debt to jews. you don't have to treat jews equally. this strain of antisemitism reached the climb maxax when 6 million jews were murdered in europe while a lot of anticommunisms stood there and watched. i just wonder how this continent has -- after hitler and after the holocaust, how 50 60 years later they have collective amnesia. >> it's interesting. it's one of the reason, of course, you do see a backlash in many european countries against the motions of the kind of expansive free speech that we support in the united states. it's not because they don't care about individual liberties but because precisely they're concerned ability reopening these boxes that can lead to hate speech and hate crimes against any minorities. this has been the year where pecetti has been the man for europe. much less so in the united states.

he's not become the kind of celeb he has in europe and he has in france. the fact that the european economy is not rebounding the fact that they're not going up you don't see the productivity. energy prices are higher. people are not benefiting. if you're in these countryiescountries, you feel you're a peasant work for you, you go back to your lowest common denominator which is about the individual nations. that's the problem. >> can you explain for everyone watching quickly. it's telling we were talking about a couple of years ago, the french and german lecturing barack obama and his administration on economics. can you explain the difference between america's economy and -- don't worry, republicans, i'm not giving barack obama the credit, i'm giving america the credit and i always said we're going to rebound and be strong. can you explain the difference between america's economy, as imperfect as it is and the state of europe's economy? as far as attitudes go and vitality and.

>> tlb a lod ophere are a lot of factors here. the revolution, we are the world's largest producer of calories in terms of food. >> right. >> the demographics are great. >> yeah, yeah yeah. just tell us why we're winning. >> those are reasons why we're winning. >> you're supposed to say manifest destiny and we're great. >> we took lots of greatertory. that's certainly true. you also have enormous support for entrepreneurship in the united states. much easier to start your own company. and there's no question that the general attitudes of americans, you've consistently had pugh research and the rest that 90% of americans polled believe they will end up in the top 10% or their kids will over the course of the next -- although that's clearly not true. it's not true in europe. >> right. that is the essence, mika of the american dream and that is the essence of this country's economic greatness that i can grow up in a small house and belief that i can either live in

a small house when i get older or i can work really hard and live in the biggest house on the hill and blah blah, blah. whatever. you have that feeling, but you talk to people from france aroundand you talk to business owners in france and they constantly talk about their frustration, that if they work hard and work around the clock and are entrepreneurs, they're actually looked upon with suspicion. and even though upward mobility has really collapsed in this country -- >> glad you just said that because i was -- >> -- there is still the belief here and i believe we're going to fix that that there's never been dorian, in great britain, that there's never been in france, this class structure that muslims feel trapped by a lot of middle class and lower middle class frenchmen and brits have felt that for centuries. >> for centuries. america was at one point especially in the mid to late 20th century the democracy of

equal opportunity. as we've just mentioned, a lot of those ladders of opportunity have closed in the last 20 30 years. but i was reading an article this morning about french immigrants and outer rings of paris where unemployment rates are at 20% and for many french -- or immigrant youth are at 40%. so there's a sense that there is no economic opportunity at all in many of those communities. that gets us to a conversation about what are the underlying causes that drive people towards radical ideologies in certain place sdpls place. >> you can drive through those suburbs and you can see it immediately, just the difference. really quickly, one final thing on unemployment, 40%. i saw a stat last week that unemployment in america for people with bachelor's degree is like 2%. isn't that remarkable? >> well, and also just really quickly, we were going to get to

these polls and i think we'll have time. but according to a new poll americans, 27% of americans say the economy is excellent for good. up 11 points from a year ago. so attitudes are changing. the republican national committee has announced dates for 2016 convention. the event will be held in cleveland, in mid july about six weeks earlier than 2012 convention. party chairman ryan moved up the convention as part of a strategy -- >> in ohio. do they really want to go there? >> the nominee gained earlier access to the general election funds. he has sought to strengthen it by scaling back the number of debates as well. mark halperin, you're in san diego covering the republican's winter meeting. what do we expect to hear from that? >> announcement later today the first day of the convention will be devoted to capturing terrorists and murderers. >> he brings it. >> never been done before. >> going to be hard getting back to the buckeye state for me. i love that place. >> the delegates are going to

fan over ohio and capture people and bring them back to the convention. governor romney will be here tomorrow night but you will hear ben carson and scott walker speaking today, rick perry is speaking tomorrow. all the buzz here is about the 2016 race and a lot of surprise and question about what governor romney is doing and whether it's a little bit of a mirage that he might not even run or if he does run, collapse before he gets ahead of steam, or has he transformed the race? >> michael steel, it's been a remarkable ten days maybe two weeks in the party that you once led. chairman of the rnc with jeb bush effectively announcing he's getting into the race. for all intents and purposes and mitt romney being pressured by the pace of jeb's announcement to do the same. >> right. >> what do you make of the developments over the last two weeks? do you think mitt romney/jeb bush do run? are they standing on the stage of those late debates? >> i do.

i think that mitt romney has done a reassessment of the caliber and quality of the potential challengers and said -- because you recall he said, you know i'm not going to run unless i see that there's someone or no one that can do this. i think he's looking at you know, his position on a number of issues whether it was on russia or the economy as being correct and he's got this new mojo. yeah, i think he's going to be there. he's going to be in play the same with jeb bush. i have to tell you, willie the exciting part for me is yet to come. that is the republican governors. when the republican governors begin to throw down on this thing and get in this race that's when i really think the dynamics change because you're talking about two former governors who have been out for 8 and 12 years respectively. you're talking about versus governors who served through the recession, who had to deal with barack obamacare, who had to deal with the changes in our economy and govern through that. so when they engage this this conversation, that's when it's

going to be a real test of wills within the gop, this whole establishment versus tea party. i think that kind of goes away. it's really going to be about who can govern this country and who has. >> mark halperin really unside baseball where politics and media collide. but i found it fascinating, you know you always hear the stories about how tabloids back in the 1800s would pick a party or bash this candidate and bash this. it's fascinating the little sort of back and forth when "the washington post" which has actually become mitt romney's newspaper and "new york times" which officially trashes mitt romney for the benefit of jeb bush. every day there's a anti-jeb story and a pro-mitt story in the "washington post" which is then followed by a pro-jeb story and an anti-mitt story in the "new york times." it has played that way out for the past couple of weeks. it's fascinating. >> of course the "wall street journal" editorial page breaks the tie and votes against

romney. the jeb people and mitt people are behind the scenes. the candidates -- would be candidates, are doing a ton of stuff but very little in public. jeb bush is in california as well. he's not doing public events. the press right now is consumed as you suggested, not just those two papers but a lot of political media with this question of will we see a romney/bush face-off. what will that mean for christie and the current gov vers michael steele recoverferred to. what happens right now will determine the contours of the race even if there's two dozen candidates besides those two guys. >> one more big story. secret service is undergoing a massive changing of the guard at the top with six of eight top officers leaving. already julia pearson, the agency's first woman in charge, stepped down in october. now four of the agency's assistant directors are being forced out. two others retiring.

"the washington post" was the first to report that the departures follow a series of security lapses in november a security contractor with an arrest record rode an elevator with the president in tlant while carrying a gun, and in the same month an iraq war veteran with a knife was able to climb the fence at the white house, making it into the building before being subdued by an off-duty agent because a number of security precautions failed. so let's bring in "washington post" reporter kara who has been leading the coverage and breaking all the stories every step of the way. >> your reporting has been absolutely extraordinary. tell us what's happened here. >> and is there more. >> thanks joe. thanks mika. there is probably going to be more but at least yesterday we were learning early in the morning that four assistant directors, which is kind of like the core group of people that run the secret service and have for decades, these four people were told they were going to be

out of their jobs that fresh ideas and a fresh perspective was needed. they got this news from the acting director joe clancy who you all know is very very well trusted, detail leader of president obama and almost as importantly is particularly well liked and trusted by the first lady. these four people are out, as well as two additional assistant directors who announced last month in the wake of a sort of scathing report about the secret service's leadership, they announced they were retiring. that means six out of eight people are gone. the only people that are still in leadership positions, the most senior ones are the deputy director who remains and the acting director. go ahead. >> cleaning house. >> carol, they really are cleaning house. i wanted to ask you though the one person incident among all those we listed where the guy leaped the fence, made his way into the front door of the white house and ran around for a while

until he was taken down by an off-duty agent. obviously shocked all of us. it shocked the american public. how big a shock to the system of the secret service was that? >> well, it was absolutely humiliating. even the fairly defensive secret service leadership had to admit that this was the lowest they had ever fallen. i interviewed some former senior officials who said they literally couldn't turn on the television they were so demoralized about the place that they love and they didn't want to read or see any more news about this because it was so devastating. i mean as congressman cummings said and congressman betty thompson said, you know, this is basic police work that no sort of local albuquerque police department would have been expected to fail at doing. >> i recall a leonnig, "washington post," appreciate

it. come back. still ahead on "morning joe," behind the veil of radical islam, foreign correspondent joins us with his interview of a militant religious leader accused of radicalizing young jihadists. plus, the lessons to be learned from the events in paris. "time" magazine has them and we reveal the new issue. also this morning, the oscar nominations, they're being announced at 8:30 eastern time. we're going to bring them to you live with full analysis with the woman who oversees the hollywood reporter, janice mann. you're watching "morning joe." discover card. hey, i heard you guys can help me with frog protection? yeah, we help with fraud protection. we monitor every purchase every day and alert you if anything looks unusual. wow! you're really looking out for us. we are. and if there are unauthorized purchases on your discover card, you're never held responsible. just to be clear you are saying "frog protection" right? yeah, fraud protection.

frog protection. fraud protection. frog. fraud. fro-g. frau-d. i think we're on the same page. we're totally on the same page. at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you. fraud protection. get it at discover.com we come by almost every day to deliver your mail so if you have any packages youant to return you should just give them to us i mean, we're going to be there anyway why don't you just leave it for us to pick up? or you could always get in your car and take it back yourself yeah, us picking it up is probably your easiest option it's kind of a no brainer ok, well, good talk

♪ we have more bill cosby news. >> let's look at the morning papers. >> now we have somebody within the statute of little takeses. >> 2008. >> you've got something within the statue of limitationing and you're going to take to it trial, take to it trial. i have problems with people who say, oh, this happened to me 48 years ago and now, bill cosby, don't prove it. if you're going to confront him and do it in the court of law, do it at the court of law. >> drukd at the playboy mansion in 2008 by bill cost write. san francisco chronicle, experts describe it a the most difficult free climb in the world. the almost completely vertical el capitan. two men found out what it feels like.

>> feels good. willie and i can tell you it feels good. >> we didn't tell the press we did it. >> we didn't want to because it's not about us. >> we did it for the kids. >> 19 days of their journey up the 3,000 foot granite base. tommy caldwell and kevin have jorkson reached the summit greeted by dozens of loved ones. they celebrated becoming the first people in history to scale the wall of el capitan using only their hands and feet to pull them up. the men started their journey -- >> we had it we had scaffolding and an elevator. okay maybe we don't. >> they started their journey on december 27th with no climbing equipment besides harnesses and ropes in case of falls. each night they ate and slept in hanging tents. >> what? >> thousands of feet above the valley floor. for a little perspective the half mile stretch of granite they climb is about as tall as two empire state buildings stacked on top of each other.

president obama offered his congratulations with this picture from instagram. crooked picture. it reads in part you remind us that anything is possible. okay. >> all right. the indianapolis star colts backup linebacker josh mcnarry has been charged with rape criminal confinement with bodily injury and battery. police mooef mcnary is spons responsible for an attack on a female accuser. he denies the charges. they play new england for the championship on sunday. taxi drivers across china are going on strike over low pay and competition from taxi apps such as uber. in china, the apps permit drivers without taxi licenses to pick up passengers with many of them offering cheaper prices than regular taxis. frustrated taxi drivers argue their prices are due to the high rent paid to the taxi companies and state tax sdples with willie, you're a city guy.

how is that uber thing? seems dangerous sometimes. >> it is sent from heaven. >> really? >> yuber is great. >> tell me about it. >> you put an app op your phone. >> right. >> you are sitting a the restaurant. check comes. you want to leave in five minutes. call up the app. you pop it. there's a car three minutes or four minutes or two minutes away. click on that car. sends you the driver's picture, the driver's name and phone number. he calls you, i will be out front in five minutes. >> what about quality. >> it's more expensive than the taxi is the downside and i know they've had specific isolated incidents. >> has anybody tried to sexually assault you? >> stop. >> no but that -- >> that would be my concern, especially if i were -- especially if i were a woman. >> here's why joe is jealous. >> here's the deal. there's a quality control issue. and i'm just wondering. i will tell you i would not want, let's say, my daughter if she were 17 18. >> and they have her cellphone

number. >> would that happen with a taxi cab? you get on an empty subway car. >> they have your cellphone numbers. >> haven't exchanged cellphone numbers. >> like he could find you later, you mean? >> yeah. >> i guess so. it's a problem uber has to deal with. they've had a few of those incidents. oef all, it's an incredible convenience and popping up all over the world. >> even in china. the daily mail. >> royal family increased social media presence with brand new twitter and instagram. >> thank goodness. i've been waiting for this for years. >> palace officials say it will feature posts from the duke and duchess of cambridge and prince harry. so far the posts have been pretty mundane. what you would expect from prince harry who has found himself in trouble with the photos. >> harry is great. i've got no problem with harry. you know william is going to be -- my male pattern baldness. look what it's done over the past month or two, right? >> stop. >> postings will promote the

charitable foundation we're told. >> you're mean to prince william. >> are you going to follow them on twitter? >> i already am. i already am. we're exchanging hairlines. "time" magazine, in honor of "saturday night live's" 40-year anniversary vh1 will air an 19-day, 433-hour marathon of the series set to be the longest tv marathon in history. it's kind of cool. >> amazing. >> it will begin -- >> about like eight or nine seasons we will want to skip. fast forward through. >> it will begin with season 39 working its way back to the 1975 premier episode with guest host george carlon. it will not feature every single episode. the events runs january 28th through february 15th leading up to nbc's three-hour snl special that night. longest marathon was fsx with "the simpsons" last summer.

>> there were. there were some moments. >> late '80s, mid '80s, actually. >> good or bad? >> bad. >> there were some horrible. >> but way more good than bad. >> it's amazing how they always came back with eddie murphy and joe piscopo. >> they've been left for dead so many times. will pharrell leaves the show we're done, and then all of these new people pop up. 100 largest political donors last year gave roughly the same amount as 5 million people. he calls that a tipping point for the country and he joins us next. >> what happened? where is the hat? >> they want the cowboy. can't say thank you enough. you have made my life special by being apart of it. (everyone) cheers! glad you made it buddy.

thanks for inviting me. thanks again my friends. for everything for all your help. through all life's milestones our trusted advisors are with you every step of the way. congratulations! thanks for helping me plan for my retirement. you should come celebrate with us. i'd be honored. plan for your goals with advisors you know and trust. so you can celebrate today and feel confident about tomorrow. chase. so you can.

startup-ny. it's working for new york state. already 55 companies are investing over $98 million dollars and creating over 2100 jobs. from long island to all across upstate new york, more businesses are coming to new york. they are paying no property taxes no corporate taxes no sales taxes. and with over 300 locations, and 3.7 million square feet available, there's a place that's right for your business. see if startup-ny can work for you. go to startup.ny.gov. we're in seattle to see which 100 calorie black cherry greek yogurt tastes best. definitely that one. that one's delicious. it's yoplait! what? i love yoplait! the other one is chobani. really. i like this one better. yoplait wins again! take the taste-off for yourself. thank you for being a sailor and my daddy. thank you mom, for protecting my future. thank you for being my hero and my dad.

military families are thankful for many things. the legacy of usaa auto insurance could be one of them. our world-class service earned usaa the top spot in a study of the most recommended large companies in america. if you're current or former military, or their family, see if you're eligible to get an auto insurance quote. ♪

joining us for the opinion pages chairman of take back our republic, the organization and former adviser, president of george w. bush mark mcken non, nice to see you. he still doesn't have a hat on. >> i want to talk to politics for a minute. jeb bush you've been saying that you thought that jeb was going to jump in. jeb looks like he's going to jump in.

mitt though kind of surprising. >> that's the big surprise. you know, jeb has thrown down the gauntlet and is all in as has been running a pretty formidable campaign early on and surprised a lot of people. now the latest surprise is that mitt romney despite saying the opposite for months has now showing signs he may want to run. >> a lot of people in the republican establishment are sort of knocking mitt over the past 24 hours, but you are just saying some things off air that i agree with. mitt has some actually stronger traits in 2015 than he had in -- >> he's running a modern campaign. he's got sharpened candidate skills that deal with the 21st century media and day-to-day campaigns. he's gotten better over the years. you watch him from the early debates, became a great debater. >> he was the first republican i think, that won a debate with a knockout since ronald reagan in 1980. first republican that you walk away from the debate going, wow.

>> he's got the fire and the belly. >> you want this guy to be president. >> mark, you recently wrote about the tipping of -- tipping point of big spending in politics. so let's talk about that. what do you mean because i thought we -- don't we -- haven't we hit it many times at this point? >> yes, but in many ways worse because of recent laws in the oversight of political spending. ken vogel did great reporting recently looking at what's happening. we still don't know anything because there's so much dark money spent that's not disclosed so we don't know. here's an amazing fact. of the approximately $5 million that was spent in the last cycle on campaigns, 100 people spent more than the rest of the almost 5 million people. think about that. >> wow. >> 100 people. so when you think about where do candidates spend their time if 100 people are spending as much as the other 5 million? it's no wonder. i was so depressed when i saw mitt romney and others in the

republican party going to casino olders aidleson rather than being out with factory workers. they control more money. it's not just a republican thing. tom steyer of the 100, 52 were democrats. tom steyer spent $76 million. we're starting a conservative organization called take back our republic which is focused on conservative solutions. the first person to really preach on this issue was barry goldwater. the roots of our movement. >> let's go to mark halperin. he is fresh off of a walk on the beaches of san diego in his wing tips. mark? >> mark, let me take the counter argument and just ask you. so what? these are rich people who care about america and want to participate in the democracy. why does it matter if rich people who really in some cases don't need anything from government, what does it matter if they're contribute some of their money to increase

political dialogue? >> i don't fault them at all, mark. i think if you have money and you have issues you feel strongly about, you should make your voice known. what we believe we think we need to do is create a system where through small donor donations, through tax credit tax voucher, democracy vouchers that small dollar donors have as much say in the process so the candidates spend their time talking to small dollar donors as much as the sheldon aiddlesons of the world. >> didn't president obama do that? >> he did but it's changed a lot since then. what you see happening is rollbacks to the dodd frank banking bill get to the top of the line in the last cycle $100 million was spent from the banking industry on 700 lobbyists. so our point of view is simply i let's figure out small dollar donation schemes and there are plenty of them and many of them are republican market solutions, so that these candidates spend

more time with regular americans rather than the mega rich. >> what's your website? >> takeback.org. >> takeback.org. i'm going to it now. sounds great. >> all right. thank you, gentlemen. up next behind the rise of isis. mikey kay traveled to lebanon to interview a radical cleric and what the cleric says about the strength of isis and the group's access to chemical weapons is chilling. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] you wouldn't ignore signs of damage in your home. are you sure you're not ignoring them in your body? even if you're treating your crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis an occasional flare may be a sign of damaging inflammation. and if you ignore the signs, the more debilitating your symptoms could become. learn more about the role damaging inflammation may be playing in your symptoms with the expert advice tool at crohnsandcolitis.com.

and then speak with your gastroenterologist. introducing preferred rewards from bank of america the new banking rewards program that rewards our customers, every day. you'll get things like rewards bonuses on credit cards.... extra interest on a savings account... preferred pricing on merrill edge online trades and more... across your banking and investing get used to getting more. that's the power of more rewarding connections that's preferred rewards from bank of america. next. ♪♪ expected wait time: 55 minutes. your call is important to us. thank you for your patience. waiter! vo: in the nation, we know how it feels when you aren't treated like a priority. we do things differently. we'll take care of it. vo: we put members first... join the nation. thank you.

♪ nationwide is on your side ♪

you just got a big bump in miles. so this is a great opportunity for an upgrade. sound good? great. because you're not you you're a whole airline... and it's not a ticket you're upgrading it's your entire operations, from domestic to international... which means you need help from a whole team of advisors. from workforce strategies to tech solutions and a thousand other things. so you call pwc. the right people to get the extraordinary done. ♪ ♪ affairs correspondent and retired senior british officer mikey kay. mikey, you are taking a closer look for us at the rise of isis. you get it from a really interesting source. tell us about the radical cleric

you interviewed in lebanon. >> thanks, mika. the emergence of isis has taken syria and iraq by storm and the west by surprise. how isis became so powerful so quickly is a question many are struggling with. but what makes isis such a potent threat is easier to answer and has been a long time in the making. in october 2013 i traveled to tripoli, lebanon's second largest city four-hour drive north of the capital beirut. for decades this lawless city has been a hotbed for sectarian violence. with gunfire being a daily occurrence. one of tripoli's notorious residents is omar bakri, a well-known radical cleric who fled from the uk in 2005. he is despised by many in the west and infamous for describing the 9/11 bombers as the magnificent 19 and the london's 77 bombers as the fantastic four. >> osama bin laden, may god accept him as a martyr. he declared al qaeda, then al

qaeda decided like all the other islamic groups al qaeda's an islamic groups. but the islamic groups decided to have the state of islam and the truth but they -- >> in iraq? >> in iraq. >> reporter: a number of jihadists entering syria from the region and beyond is increasing at an alarming rate. >> reporter: the complete void of security in syria is troubling on many fronts. recent reports from fighting in the syrian border town of kobani suggests that isis militant may

have access to chemical weapons. >> reporter: according to bakri isis has recruited some 700 suicide bombers from all over the world, which are then added to a so-called list thattis lamb mick state leadership pulls from. they could come from europe? >> these people came from belgium, italy, france some were from us a staleaustraliaia. came even from afghanistan. >> omar bakri was or reed last may and faces charges of including encouraging terror acts preparing to create islamic and inciting hatred against the lebanese army. if convicted, could face the death penalty. >> what about the u.s. bombing runs? what impact is it having?

why is it not slowing isis downey more than it is? >> that's kind of the big question. it's kind of like putting a band-aid on a huge gaping wound without addressing what the root cause to the problem and that is sad. when i went there over a year ago the main protagonists if you like were the opposition, the free islamic army and the front and syrian regime and hezbollah, loggerheads. isis wasn't really prominent. only became prominent last year. speaking to omar bakri, speaking to him, they had been planning this for a long time. these officers that have been disbursed all over europe to recruit suicide bomber or self-sacrificing matters as they call them, they've been in position for a couple of years. so they had been brewing this and this is something that obama admitted, the head of

intelligence completely underestimated. >> you and i were just discussing this piece on the front page of the "wall street journal." militants in syria advance despite air strikes. three months of u.s. strikes inside syria and yet isis has gained ground. doing better in iraq although the leader of the iraqi parliament told us yesterday general john allen needs to do more. why syria, why is it so difficult, why do bombs in the air not have any impact on ice snis. >> two big points. one is in the iraq the united states has clear large number of folks on the ground to work with both among the kurds who are well trained and the iraqi government. in syria that's not remotely the case. as a consequence you're also not getting the level of international support. the u.s. is doing less bombing in syria than iraq. it's not enormous amount of air strikes but virtually nothing else happening from america's coalition alallies. in iraq it's significant. you've got it from the ground and on the air. and counter intelligence the u.s. has a lot of information in

iraq on the ground we do have those boots. in syria, one thing i expect is going to start happening is the europeans are going to start coordinating or trying to coordinate at least a little bit with syria's assad to start getting some intel on the ground. assad will want to use that to do sanctions. that won't work but none the less right now it's frozen out from the united states and europe. as much as we hate assad, given what's happening on the ground there, it's not clear how long that is sustainable. >> muk i can, howikey, how did you get the interview? how dangerous was it? >> it's not as dangerous as it is now. i went for provocative, this new news digital agency a little bit like vice but for millennials. i went and spent 30 days in lebanon. i went up to the north to meet omar bakri. i went to the mountainous region just over the border. it's the big refugee hub which is breaking at the seams with

refugees. i met with free syrian army, the moderates, are actually working with nasra the affiliate with the al qaeda leader to fight against assad. to your point, the problem is we don't seem addressing is assad. there's a summit in russia coming up but the syrian opposition have said they're not interested in participating because of assad again. >> right. >> so we can keep talking about military air strikes, we can keep talking about the peshmerga. >> you think assad is just the -- >> he's the -- he is the common problem. it doesn't matter whether it was a year ago or whether it's now when you've got the syrian ypg and person murg ga peshmerga and isis fighting. until that is addressed -- >> the mosque is broken down as a consequence. >> mikey kay, thank you so much. >> thank you. coming up a live report on that foiled bomb -- foiled plot to bomb the u.s. capitol.

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has the latest details. plus, the israeli ambassador to the united states joins us with his view on the come bustive situation across europe, the middle east and beyond. we'll be right back. discover card. hey, i heard you guys can help me with frog protection? yeah, we help with fraud protection. we monitor every purchase every day and alert you if anything looks unusual. wow! you're really looking out for us. we are. and if there are unauthorized purchases on your discover card, you're never held responsible. just to be clear you are saying "frog protection" right? yeah, fraud protection. frog protection. fraud protection. frog.

fraud. fro-g. frau-d. i think we're on the same page. we're totally on the same page. at discover, we treat you like you'd treat you. fraud protection. get it at discover.com she inspires you. no question about that. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips tongue or throat or difficulty breathing or swallowing,

stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30-tablet trial.

mark halperin, thank you forgettingfor getting up early for us on the west coast. what do you expect to see today. >> a lot of chatter about whether mitt romney is doing something real or it's just a vanity project that's going to go away. he's telling people he's going to decide in the next couple of weeks but a lot of people i've talked to talked directly to him say he's already made up his mind, he's going to do it. >> what's your gut, mark? is he going to do it? >> i think he's going to do it unless things continue to go bad. the trend line has not been good. we'll see if he the turn things around both today privately and the big speech at the rnc late tomorrow night. >> you're going tva lot of people from teachm bush and the republican establishment connected to team bush continue to put out what they've put out in the past 48 hours. they're going to try to push mitt out of the race. there are a lot of leaks. "new york times" story saying that everybody hates mitt. that's not the case. you and i know that. we go and we talk to a lot of

events and we're very very surprised by the -- and we have been for the past year and half the reaction that romney gets. president francois hollande says that antimus lymph acts like anti-semitism should not just be denounced but severely published. the israeli ambassador to the u.s. is our guest. plus new poll shows americans are growing more optimistic about the economy. a closer look at the numbers and who is getting the credit? >> the president is getting some credit. >> presidential historian doug brinkley joins us at the table. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ out of 42 vehicles... based on 6 different criteria... why did a panel of 11 automotive experts... ... name the volkswagen golf motor trend's 2015 car of the year? we'll give you four good reasons the all-new volkswagen golf starting at $17,995. there's an award winning golf for everyone. can this decadent, fruit topped pastry... ...with indulgent streusel crumble, be from... fiber one. fiber one streusel. startup-ny. it's working for new york state. already 55 companies are investing

over $98 million dollars and creating over 2100 jobs. from long island to all across upstate new york, more businesses are coming to new york. they are paying no property taxes no corporate taxes no sales taxes. and with over 300 locations, and 3.7 million square feet available, there's a place that's right for your business. see if startup-ny can work for you. go to startup.ny.gov. push your enterprise and you can move the world. ♪ ♪ but to get from the old way to the new you'll need the right it infrastructure. from a partner who knows how to make your enterprise more agile, borderless and secure. hp helps business move on all the possibilities of today. and stay ready for everything that is still to come.

sheila! you see this ball control? you see this right? it's 80% confidence and 64% knee brace. that's more... shh... i know that's more than 100%. but that's what winners give. now bicycle kick your old 401(k) into an ira. i know, i know. listen, just get td ameritrade's rollover consultants on the horn. they'll guide you through the whole process. it's simple. even she could do it. whatever, janet. for all the confidence you need. td ameritrade. you got this.

♪ welcome back to "morning joe." top of the hour. ian bremer and michael steele still with us. join the fabletable, history professor at rice university, douglas brinkley. he's the co-editor of the book "the nixon tapes." >> how are you doing? >> wonderful. thanks for having me. >> what are you work og snn. >> i'm doing a booing called "rightful heritage on franklin d. roosevelt" and the dust bowl that occurred and which the federal government did to arrest mainly planting of 2 billion trees with the conservation core in america and on the birth of the modern law -- >> he's just not doing anything. >> i'm working hard on fdr.

you can't beat fdr. >> idle hands are -- what? >> exactly. >> i saw -- i have been sick for the last two weeks. >> oh, my god. >> i actually -- and i never fun of a tv. it's one of the great ironies except when i'm on. i saw ken burns documentary on "the rest voltoosevelts" again. it is second time. it is remarkable what those two men did. >> nothing like them. i mean when you look at fra franklin -- talk about executive orders with barack obama, the numbers are so small. fdr did over 3,000 executive orders. i mean one after another. it was a different america. i mean, i've been writing about a woman who suddenly wants to save a million acres of the california desert and february ag gets a meeting with fdr. okay, i'll do it. warning the train companies own some of that and mining claims. oh goes, oh, lawyers can fix

that. that's grandiosity of fdr and americanism. they represent the country. >> let's bring it to today where america's views on the economy are improving. and it appears president obama is getting a little bit of the credit here. according to a new pew poll 27% of americans say the economy is excellent or good. that's up 11 points from a year ago. and twice as many as last year are optimistic about its outlook. for the first time in five years americans say the president's policies have made the economy stronger rather than weaker. but a stark reality remains for many americans. more than half say they're falling behind in the cost of living. and as the president's state of the union approaches pew mapped the approval ratings compared the other presidents. he's nearly on par with reagan at this point and below clinton but above george w. bush. interesting. >> we've been following obviously daily the president's approval ratings over the past six, seven years.

and certainly america's attitudes. things do seem to be -- we have noticed an upswing, haven't we over the past three or four months. >> yeah. we commented, i think it was that his floor was at 40%, which was pretty good considering how bad things felt like they were going for a while. now when you see economic progress it comes up. doug, it does raise the question, we feel better the unemployment number is better. but it's also been a lot of people dropped out of the workforce. wages have stagnated. presidents probably always get more credit than they deserve, more blame than they deserve for things that happen beyond their control. what about president obama? if we get, let's say, two years from now and he's out of the presidency, if things stay the way they are right now how will he begin to be viewed based on this economy? >> i think if they stay the way they are right now he will be seen as a very good president, not a great one. and i say that because the great recession had crashed the country out. if he could say unemployment stays at 5.5% and wall street is at an all-time high. even though the middle class is

still sure ingffering, even though historians will say he didn't do this right or that right, incredible argument he got it out of the ditch and got us up and running again. the problem with that is who knows what it's going to look like two years from now. conversely if this economy does badly obama's presidency will not get high marks. it's very hinged on the economic record, on the day he leaves office, those numbers will freeze and that's when he's going to live with. >> i understand that economics is what's driving perceptions of president obama on a day-to-day basis right now. if you think out in 5, 10 20 years time nnd obama's legacy do you think it's just as much a question of how the economy looks when he leaves or is there going to be much more of america's role in the world where i think a lot of people are asking more questions about almost annes exostential issue?

>> in most inaugurals he added a huge paragraph about the climate. you're looking at the keystone debate going on right now. he's very worried about climate being an issue 50 years from now. if he can't solve it he wants to be seen as we indicating the public for a new kind of energy grid. a group of historians meet with the president once in a while and one of his frustrations early on is if we needed a moon shot today he thought it would be a new energy grid. we don't have that new energy grid right now. and on foreign affairs, it's going to be a mixed record. the red line in the sand in syria was disastrous. the drone strikes where are not sure. he's going to be seen as drone president. but the middle east is always a. tinder box. there's always going to be dislocation and problems going on. it's going to be hard, i think, to blame him for everything going on in the middle east like some of the republicans want to do today. i don't know who can handle the situation going on in syria, for example. >> but he does have though he

is going to have foreign policy issues. we look back at presidents. you talk about how their legacies are locked in. you look at presidents who have left you know ronald reagan will be remembered for a couple of things but foreign policy in equal doses with domestic policy. jimmy carter of course was framed by foreign policy. challenged with the rise of iran. but barack obama, i think the verdict is still out. is he going to be seen as an economic president or is he going to be seen as somebody that misraidead putin and russia misread a misread. >> soldiers in iraq and afghanistan. >> all of that. especially with iraq though. especially with iraq.

and when you have -- and i'm certainly not striking a case against him. i'm saying this is going to be a fascinating debate. when you have in 2012 two or three things that his republican opponents specifically said he got wrong and then a year or two later on russia on isis in getting out of iraq he's proven to be wrong. >> it just takes something looic putin, it's unclear or the sanctions working? maybe they are. nobody seems to want to invest in russia right now. what may have seen to be weakness at the start in history might be seen as a bit of strength that the russian economy collapsed. the deal the president got with cuba was basically cuba saying, we don't want to deal with russia anymore. they're not going to be able to fund us anymore. nobody wants to put money into that country right now so the president may have had a measured response to putin. >> we may. we shall see. now to france where police may be on the verge of a big break in their investigation into the paris terror attacks.

police confirm that amedi coubali rented a small home and filled it with weapons the week before his siege at a kosher supermarket. french newspaper reports a scooter was found that could identify a possible accomplice. there's also new security camera footage from inside the grocery store. the gunman can be seen ordering a hostage to put his hands against a wall. and in another image, a worker is forced to stand on a stool to disable a camera. meanwhile, since last week's attack france has arrested more than 50 people after prosecutors ordered a crack down on hate speech antisemitism and individual supporting terrorism. here with us now from washington israeli ambassador to the united states ambassador ron dermer. >> mr. ambassador thank you for being with us. the president of france is taking some steps, pushing back against antisemitism that is really really infected that country for some time. is he doing enough?

>> well, he's trying but you're right, there's been a rising tide of antisemitism in france for some time. three years ago 1900 jews in france moved to israel. two years ago, 3500 jews moved. last year 7,000 jews. this year we're expecting 15,000 jews, french jews to move to israel. >> mr. ambassador, it's obviously we noticed what happened this past week across the globe, took great notice of the attacks against the cartoonists. not as much against the four jews who were slaughtered in a kosher supermarket. but there have been violent attacks against jews and murders against jews in france before that really hasn't gained the attention, has it? >> that's correct. two years ago you had an attack on a school in france where terrorists on a motorcycle came in and killed an adult and three children. he took an 8-year-old by the hair and shot her at point blank range. you didn't see a mass rally

against that. there were a lot of statements made at the time of everything that would be done to protect the jews of france. but unfortunately it didn't happen. we appreciate the comments made by the president of france prime minister of france. there have been european leaders taking a strong stand against antisechl tim like chancellor america until germ in. but europe is a place with a lot of old traditions and antisemitism is probably the oldest one. >> we were talking about that earlier. it's, again, there always seems to be an excuse in europe to be antisemitic. right now it's the palestinian conflict, which you can go back 500, 600 years, 700 years and there is always an excuse. >> immigration in europe in general has always been much more about cultural issues it has been political ideology. in france you can be a communist but you can still be french. in united states you that would be anti-american. it's a lot harder in a lot of

the countries in europe and i think that's a problem for the jews. ambassador, i wanted to ask you on this. there's been a lot of interesting stories around netanyahu's attendance in france, the fact that president hollande actually sort of was basically said you know it would be -- it's not a convenient time for you to come right now and then netanyahu himself actually talking about that jews are welcome in israel if not in france. it feels a little raw. i mean do you feel like the tension just got too high around this and it's time to back off of it or would these appropriate mess samgs from both the french and israelis at this point? >> look i think the prime minister of israel did exactly what a prime minister of israel has to do. first, we have to stand with france when they're fighting against terrorism. those reports about hollande not wanting him there, that's not true. sort of internalish recally store israeli story. we asked the world to stand with

israel in our battle against terrorism. we think we're fighting that same battle in our -- in israel at home against militant islam that france is fighting in europe. so it's important for the prime minister of israel to stand with france in its hour of need. another thing the prime minister of israel always believes in and always says all prime minister of israel since the founding of the state, is that every jew in the world should know they always have a home in israel. jews should be protected wherever they are, whether it's in france or whether it's in the united states, but jews around the world should know that they can always come to israel. in israel the jewish people do not ask others to defend them. this israel the jewish people defend themselves. >> stay with us. nbc news chief global correspondent bill neely joins us live from paris. bill i understand secretary john kerry arrives there tob ss there tonight. what's on his agenda? >> yes, he arrives tonight and will meet the french foreign

minister. of course john kerry speaks french but there's no word on whether he will utter the sorry, for the fact that no high rachking from the u.s. came to paris. the world leaders admitted that was a mistake. tomorrow he meets the french president francois hollande. mr. hollande's poll ratings skyrocketed. last month he was the most unpop unpopular president in recent history. he left eight points to 29% in the polls. he's still not that popular. but generally people feel he's done a pretty good job in handling this crisis. but there's an atmosphere here someone described its a utterly surreal. people still cueing to buy a magazine that hardly anyone bought in the past. "charlie hebdo" used to tell 50,000 copy on a good week now 5 million copies printed.

there's a debate about free speech and yet french authorities have not only arrested but charged a french comedian, a very well-known one for putting on his facebook page that he feels like that is defending and advocating terrorism. many people disagreeing with that arrest. you know everywhere you go in paris there is this music, as my producer described it the sound of sirens that are keeping people on edge here. on the investigation, not many leads today. people still dealing with the aftermath of this. and four funerals today for those who were killed in these attacks. >> bill what have you personally heard? what can you report back to us on the reaction to the french to the united states, first of all not being there, and then

apologizing? has it -- is it considered a slight that they're going to remember or do -- is it much ado about nothing? >> well, you know amid the national trauma here it was remarked that neither president obama nor vice president biden have come. but really they have too much else on their minds. i don't think, you know, it will be a great part of the conversation here. you know i think maybe it's in foreign policy circles and in washington, it's more of a conversation. i've heard again that, you know is this the u.s. leading from behind again? you know the u.s. ambassador was in that crowd but so far into the crowd that you could hardly see her. so in a way, i think it's probably more of an issue in washington than it is here in paris. >> all right. bill thank you so much. we greatly appreciate it. and, mr. ambassador any final thoughts?

>> look, i think it's important to understand, joe, that what you saw happen in the few decades after the holocaust was the exception and not the rule. the rule in european history has been antisemitism and there was a brief period in the wake of the holocaust where it was politically incorrect to be antisemitic. that has changed over the last couple of decades. and in old hatred towards the jewish people has turned into a hatred for the jewish state. i hope the leaders will stand firmly in beating back the antisemitism and treat israel as they would treat any other country in the world. i think we would all be in a better place then. >> thank you. >> talked about the roosevelt documentary, it is striking how there was an understanding in 1945 that there had to be a jewish state created to make sure a holocaust never happened again and talking with the roosevelts, you know one of the fiercist champions of an israeli state was the jewish state was

eleanor roosevelt. this was not an ideologicalish shaw in 1945. this was a necessity so jews being persecuted killed slaughtered in europe and across the world, would have a place to go to be safe. that has been forgotten. there are new concerns this morning about homegrown terrorism after authorities say they thwarted a terror plo t. an ohio man is facing charges for allegedly planning a military style attack on the u.s. capitol. joining us now from washington with that nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pete, how close was this suspect to carrying out the plot? >> well, investigators say this young man was 20 years old. he wanted to carry out his attack as a way of supporting the isis group. and they say he talked about his plans to somebody he thought was like-minded but who turned out to be working for the fbi. the plan federal prosecutors say was to set off pipe bombs at the u.s. capitol, then shoot people as they fled.

fbi investigators say christopher lee cornell, age 20 from suburban cincinnati first came to their attention last august when he began posting message on twitter calling himself raheel and expressing support for the isis terror group. he soon met someone in the cincinnati area he thought was sympathetic but who was actually an undercover operative for the fbi. on wednesday officials say cornell took a further step in his plot going to the shooting range and buying two assault type rifles like this along with 600 rounds of ammunition as the fbi and the manager watched closely. >> as soon as as the purchase was over and he left the door several agents came out and tackled him here in the parking lot and took him down. >> reporter: according to court documents cornell said he drew inspiration from former al qaeda figure al awlaki and videos from isis and the brothers over there, isis quote, gave a thumbs up for acts of violent jihad. >> new battleground in the terrorist war against us and

that's the social media being used to communicate with people who are willing to carry out desperate acts to kill americans. >> reporter: family members say they believe the fbi pushed him to do something he would not have done on his own. >> i think a lot of it was coercion. i think he got coerced. no way he had the money to carry out any kind of terrorist attack. >> there's been no comment from his public defender. federal officials say there was never any danger to the public because he was under close watch for months and to directly answer your question mika they said he had not even gotten to the point of buying components or building his bombs. >> okay. nbc's pete williams. thank you very much. thank you as well. >> thank you, douglas. >> thanks. >> we learned something about you. >> yes. thank you forfeiting us into your busy schedule. >> america should know doug brinkley in the 1970s followed z.z. top around. >> a huge zz top fan. >> and the marshall tucker band and charlie daniels. >> and you had the long hair.

>> and the beard. >> outlaw country. >> went around playing guitar? >> yes. coming up on "morning joe," a man to believe to be in a vegetative state for years was forced to watch hour after hour of "barney." do you know "barney"? >> oh, my gosh. >> one of his reflections after waking up, quote, i can't even express to you how much i hate "barney "barney." i don't think he was in that vegetative a state. >> that story and more, and the morning paper.

in my world, wall isn't a street... return on investment isn't the only return i'm looking forward to. for some every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. our commitment to current and former military members and their families is without equal. start investing with as little as fifty dollars. i've been called a control freak... i like to think of myself as more of a control... enthusiast. mmm, a perfect 177-degrees. and that's why this road warrior rents from national. i can bypass the counter and go straight to my car. and i don't have to talk to any humans, unless i want to.

and i don't. and national lets me choose any car in the aisle. control. it's so, what's the word?... sexy. go national. go like a pro.

morning papers from the huffington post, there is a heartbreaking illustration of loss in pakistan where gunmen late last year killed nearly 150 people, most of them children during an attack on a school in peshawar. a student posted this before and after picture to social media. showing how his group of friends had been cut in half. two students missing from the top photo, among those killed in the taliban assault. afghan officials say they recently captured five suspects after getting intelligence from the pakistan government. >> heartbreaker. "the washington post," president obama will announce a proposeal for seven days of paid sick leave each year for u.s.

workers. in an executive action the president will also grant six weeks of paid leave to federal employees following a birth or adoption adoption. valley jarrett writes on linked linkedin, quote, president obama will call on congress to pass the healthy families act which would allow millions of working americans to earn up to seven days a year of paid sick time and call on states and cities to pass similar laws. we know that today 43 million private sector workers in the u.s. are without any form of paid sick leave. only three states california new jersey and rhode island suffer paid family and medical leave. the truth is success and productivity of our workers are tied to their ability to care for their families and maintain a stable life at home. >> that's a long statement. we think valerie for being able to say all of that without taking a breath. >> i was talking about it yesterday. >> hold on. >> so. seven days paid sick leave? >> seven days. >> if we got that here you and i would be able to take off nine

days, eight, nine days a year? >> yes. >> exactly right. >> it's really beneficial to women who work because often when people are sick it's the women who take care of their parents or their kids or their husbands when they're sick. and men benefit, too, and families as well. this is one of the ideas that came out of the working fallies summit that we did last spring. and i think it's one of the ways we're going to really move forward as more and more women are stepping up and working. >> got to keep working on maternity leave, too. >> come on. >> the number of days and weeks. the few we have here compared to the rest of the world is insane. >> unpaid. uk south african man spent a decade trapped inside his own body without anyone knowing. >> okay. >> martin pistorius contracted a rare illness at the age of 12 that left him in a vegetative state. he was in a virtual coma with no mental capacity at all but pistorius was actually aware of everything. in his book he spent a period

spent at special care facility where he was left to watch reruns of "barney" all day as the driving force behind his push to make people aware of his consciousness consciousness. >> that just sent chills up my spine. >> the same. seriously? >> 12-year coma. >> that's torture. >> "barney." >> it is. still ahead, the president of the center for american progress and britain's shad i do chancellor of the x-checker are teaming up to tackle with president obama has called the defining challenge of our time. they join us next to explain what that is and what's being done about it. double wings, extra ranch. we need

to do something different. callahan's? ehh, i mean get away. like away away. road trip? double wings, extra ranch. it feels good to mix it up. the all-new, fuel-efficient volkswagen golf tdi clean diesel. up to 594 miles of adventure in every tank. introducing the all-new volkswagen golf family. 2015 motor trend car of the year. you just got a big bump in miles. so this is a great opportunity for an upgrade. sound good? great. because you're not you you're a whole airline... and it's not a ticket you're upgrading it's your entire operations, from domestic to international... which means you need help from a whole team of advisors. from workforce strategies to tech solutions and a thousand other things. so you call pwc. the right people to get the extraordinary done. ♪ ♪

it's time to drop your pants for underwareness, a cause to support the over 65 million people who may need the trusted protection of depend underwear. show them they're not alone and show off a pair of depend. get a free sample at underwareness.com. startup-ny. it's working for new york state. already 55 companies are investing over $98 million dollars and creating over 2100 jobs. from long island to all across upstate new york, more businesses are coming to new york. they are paying no property taxes no corporate taxes no sales taxes. and with over 300 locations, and 3.7 million square feet available, there's a place that's right for your business. see if startup-ny can work for you. go to startup.ny.gov.

i make a lot of purchases for my business. and i get a lot in return with ink plus from chase. like 50,000 bonus points when i spent $5,000 in the first 3 months after i opened my account. and i earn 5 times the rewards on internet, phone services and at office supply stores. with ink plus i can choose how to redeem my points. travel, gift cards even cash back. and my rewards points won't expire. so you can make owning a business even more rewarding. ink from chase. so you can.

welcome back to "morning joe." here with us now from washington, britain's shadow chancellor of the x checker and president and ceo of the center for american progress. both of you, good to have you back. ed is the cochair of the commission on inclusive

prosperity which is out with a new report on ways to revive the middle class and reduce income inequality. doran, ian, michael steele all with us as well. ed, let's start there. you're holding it up. tell us about it. >> good to see you, mika. happy new year to everybody. good to be back on the show. it's i think a very important report which will have an impact here in the states but also in britain and australia and in europe because what it says is that even in countries like america and britain where after the financial crisis we're starting to see our economies growing again. that's not translating into rising living standards for most people in our country. >> so -- this is joe. what is the fix? this really is one of the great challenges of america, one of the great challenges of britain and the west. what are some soft thingof the things we can do to lessen the income disparity between the richest and poorest?

>> we say here a number of things which we can do which is common across our countries. how retranslate that in policy is different in different countries. make sure we have more good jobs, make work pay by raising the minimum wages and have tax credit which makes work pay, mike child care more affordable. more skills but the kind of skills that employers want to hire and we want to more apprenticeship for our young people, more signs of innovation to get ideas, long-term investment in our infrastructure making the private sector and companies work in a more long-term way. and also internationally we've got to corporate to make sure the global tax system is fair global economy growing. stop financial crisis in the future but also to make sure that we keep the international economy open and that we don't turn our face against globalization and trade but we make it work in a way which doesn't only reward some people but makes it work for working people. unless we do that joe, i think you're right, what we're going to see is a growth in reaction

against trades, against mainstream politics. we see in europe populous parties rising. that's dangerous. this is a big agenda for all of our countries. >> dorian? >> good morning. this is dorian warren here. >> hi, dorian. >> i'm wondering what you think and can you talk about the efforts to raise wages? given unemployment is now it keeps dropping which is a great thing for our economy. what specifically in the report do you think would help increase wages for american workers? >> so we look particularly at the u.s. as well. and you see just in the last jobs report you see that we have lower unemployment but still this drag on wages. wages actually went down the month before which really proves the point that ways in the united states are not keeping up with higher costs. so we have a multi-prime strategy in the report laid out for the u.s. obviously we need to increase minimum wage but we need to do more than that.

we need to actually look at ways that companies can share profits with workers, encouraging through tax policies, profit sharing because that's the challenge. companies are profitable but workers' wages are still stagnant. that's the conundrum we have in the u.s. we have to make sure that they are thinking long term and encourage them to do so. more business investment which is also investment in their workers. so it's -- one final thing is we are really well behind everyone else in the developed world, benefits we offer for workers, including paid leave and other things. the president was talking about last night. but also in ensuring that we have a fair tax system. so those are all issues. you know it not one silver bullet to address wages but what's a really important part of the report is that it can be done. it can be done. there are things we can do. >> michael steele is with us from washington. he has question. michael? >> does the report go into the

fact that you've got -- when you're talking about increasing wages for workers, which is important, and striking this balance with businesses globally, have you considered the trillions of dollars that are sitting on the shelves that are offshore, for example? what steps can be taken to encourage those businesses to re those funds so those dollars that are sitting on the shelf, in the banks that are not being put to good use can be put to good use? >> so just -- ed can jump in as well. but one quick point on that. one of the reasons why we talk about how we need to harmonize our tax systems is that one of the challenges is companies kind of leap frog country to country looking for the best tax deal for them. that doesn't serve any of us. that's a race to the bottom. so we actually have a better global system on taxes, where we're not raising taxes across the board but we're really just having a better system for our

companies. >> i think the report says no one country can do this on its own. you've got to get america and britain and other developed countries saying we're going to make the global tax system work so that if profits are being made in couldn't country, that's where the tax rest paid. and you don't have companies you can avoid paying tax anywhere because part of the resentiment from people is saying i'm working, i'm paying my taxes. my wages are not going up. and other companies, some individuals are getting away from paying any tax. there's a proud question as well. we've got to make sure that our companies are using those resources they've got to invest for the long term. and in our country, look we've got growth coming back and our prime minister says we've got growth but our business investment is being very weak. wages are stagnating for people. and other thing is look unless we can say to you and to america, britain will stay in the european union we're going to stay part of the global economy, that i'm afraid there will be very many businesses who

say, may maybe britain is not the place to invest and create jobs. >> thank you ed. always great to see you. ed, it's been a rough year. mers i can mercy said, it's been tough for liverpool. how is norwich doing? >> we are challenging to get back into the premiership. we got relegated. we're just sat with our manager a week ago. that might be our big turn around moment. this britain, everybody is very sad that steven girard one of your heroes is leaving liverpool but he's coming to los angeles to play for the galaxy. you will be able to see the stars here in u.s. football -- soccer, i should say. >> i suspect it will be much warmer than it was when i went to your hometown. >> oh, my god. >> in norwich in april and froze to death. >> with no coat by the way. >> your pronunciation, joe, has gotten a lot better as well. >> yeah.

>> now it's norwich. >> it's norwich. >> the greatest team in the world of the liverpool. >> other than liverpool. >> thank you so much. we reveal the new cover of "time" magazine next right here on "morning joe." ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ i've had a lot of hondas. we went around the country talking to people who made the switch to ford. i loved the look of the fusion... we test drove it...i was like "this is my car". all-wheel drive is amazing... i felt so secure. you can do it, emmie!

ecoboost is when you can take a four cylinder and make it feel like a six cylinder... i was really surprised... i drove the fusion... and i never went back. make the switch to america's favorite brand. check out special offers on ford fusion at ford.com or see your local ford dealer. ♪ push your enterprise and you can move the world. ♪ ♪ but to get from the old way to the new you'll need the right it infrastructure. from a partner who knows how to make your enterprise more agile, borderless and secure. hp helps business move on all the possibilities of today. and stay ready for everything that is still to come.

listen up... i'm reworking the menu. veggies you're cool... mayo, corn dogs...you are so out of here! ahh... the complete balanced nutrition of great tasting ensure. 24 vitamins and minerals. 9 grams of protein... with 30% less sugars than before. ensure, your #1 dr. recommended brand now introduces ensure active. muscle health. clear protein drink and high protein. targeted nutrition to feed your active life. ensure. take life in.

we got the managing editor of "time" magazine with us with the first look at the latest issue. the cover story "after paris, lessons from the attack." what are the lessons? >> well that scene that was very moving in paris and all the leaders together may have been poignant but i don't think it was pro thetic. the force pulling europe are stronger than the ones holding it together. >> we were just talking about the fact that the forces that were nationalist sentiment moving out of the eu the desire to do that and to stop massive

immigration, that was happening well before paris. >> it was. and now you get the vicious cycle where violence breeds fear, fear breeds prejudice, prejudice breeds resentment within the muslim minority that resentment can turn into another cycle of violence. i think the strategy of driving a wedge between a growing muslim population in europe and this also growing populous nationalist anti-immigration policies, you have 60% of non-muslim germans saying they think islam is incompatible with the western lifestyle, western front in france than any other french party. this is -- these forces i think, are the critical context for what we are seeing in this rising violence. >> ian, these forces are always framed in a negative light. but if you were born in france in 1945, let's say, or '48, post-war, or across europe, you you have seen radical changes in your country.

is there any legitimate argument for people saying hey, let's slow down on immigration in our country, let's slow down on turning everything over -- i only say this because i have yet to hear one person on american television or european television mainstream, say these people may have a point. >> there's a reason why 60% of europeans are ticked off with what's going on or whatever the number is in germany or france. >> the immigration debate in the united states has always been framed around jobs. it was the giant sucking sound. if we feel like our economy is going down that's when we have a problem with immigrants. when you go to europe you will talk to mainstream europeans, i've had these conversations across the continue nent. they will say we will accept a lower standard of living if our country can feel more french or dan anybody or swedish. >> because the very nature of america, obviously, is a melting pot, dorian, where immigrants, we're all immigrants. but that's not the case in britain or france or spain, that's not the case with these

countries who, again, feel like they're losing their identity. >> i think ian gets to something important and that's the stronghold of a particular cultural identity national identity. we do have a strong national identity in the u.s. but the role of culture mixed with economics is much more toxic in europe than in the u.s. >> pop lymphulism was taking hold. people were so concerned that upcoming greek elections that you're going to have sures win. in spain the most popular party right now is one that didn't exist a year ago. >> the eu parliamentary elections six months ago overwhelming wins. >> big wins for everybody. not many people vote in those but, none the less the trend line was clear. this goes on top of it. the notion that not only are we going to have the economic problems but now we're going couple that with this anti-immigrant sentiment. it drives germany further apart. >> our guest next tuesday, mike

huckabee, never stop running for president. >> everyone in the pool right now. we've been talking a lot in recent weeks about the fight for the establishment wing of the party with romney and jeb bush. huckabee is fighting for the social conservative wing. you will have rick santorum he has to deal with and bobby jindal. he never stopped running. he's been traveling to iowa and he has a book coming out. and so it's going to be fascinating to see how you have these respective mini civil wars before the big civil war for the republican nomination. >> little known fact. mike huckabee resident of my old district redneck riviera. >> i look forward to having him on. >> you have a young kid who just started up at "time" magazine. up and comer. >> this guy -- >> ian bremer self promoter. >> it's unbelievable. >> look at my story. but he talks about how cheap oil can boost the standing of china's leader. >> the idea of $40 a barrel oil

is incredible and has implications everywhere. what was so interesting to me is ian's point about what this means for china. but every single country and every single geopolitical issue is somehow tied to what is going to happen with oil prices and energy. >> nancy gibbs. >> thank you. >> she's packed. >> great issue. >> new issue of "time" magazine out now. up next it's not bad when your very first professional role is the lead role in a major broadway play. the costars of "the curious incident of the dog and the nighttime." >> i've heard this play is fantastic. >> gives us a backstage pass to the show. we'll be right back. >> great reviews. next. ♪♪ expected wait time: 55 minutes.

your call is important to us. thank you for your patience. waiter! vo: in the nation, we know how it feels when you aren't treated like a priority. we do things differently. we'll take care of it. vo: we put members first... join the nation. thank you. ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ ameriprise asked people a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. to get the real answers you need. start building your

confident retirement today. they're coming. what do i do? you need to catch the 4:10 huh? the equipment tracking system will get you to the loading dock. ♪ there should be a truck leaving now. i got it. now jump off the bridge. what? in 3...2...1... are you kidding me? go. right on time. right now, over 20,000 trains are running reliably. we call that predictable. thrillingly predictable.

to be a good astronaut you have to be intelligent, and i'm intelligent. you also have to understand how machines work and i'm good at understanding how machines work. >> you also have to be someone who would like being on their own in a tiny spacecraft thousands and thousands of miles from the surface of the earth, and not panic, or get claustrophobia or air sick or insane. >> that was a scene from "the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime," and here with us now. co-stars of the broadway show. >> you know what i really respect is i respect when everything's going wrong, you just keep soldiering on. like this play horrible reviews. calmed it the most in venom show on broadway. the associated press calls it

dazzling. extraordinary, "time" magazine. alex, this has to be rewarding to you. >> this will turn around. >> you have been working so hard for so many decades. you prepare for the life of a struggling young actor and, boom get the lucky break very early. >> yes, i'm very lucky. >> pretty talented. it's pretty great, though? >> truly awesome. i'm having the time of my life. it's like one of those rare opportunities. when you get a part as an actor, it's a dream you get a part you can put everything into and it's one of those parts. i'm just enjoying that. >> francesca, it's a remarkable story about a gifted young, talented boy who's accused of killing a dog, and then he sets out to find out who really did. >> really did. >> and what he discovers is life-changing. tell us about that part of the story? >> the book if anyone knows, came out to great success by

mark canton and about 15 or so years ago, and yes. it's a mystery story, really. at its core. but it unfolds and opens up a great deeper intense mystery for the young boy who's in the middle, and i play his teacher and the narrator of sorts and does a whole sort of -- his support system through the story. and they have a great relationship of trust and -- and she was really made a character much more in the play than in the book. >> so when our buddy jordan roth was here he came and of course speaks in broadway speak. we just call it "the curious incident." he shortened it down. because he's in the know but alex, for you, and this is a great way for kids out there that do have special needs to see somebody as the main character, who's highlighted in a fantastic way. are you hearing from kids that

have come to see you, or from parents that see you -- >> and tell us about your character. >> because of the character you portray son the spectrum. >> yeah, yeah. no. i hear from a lot of people and i think it's -- i mean it's a story that is a celebration of difference. it's just -- it's very positive in nature and it's you know, the hero is an unusual one. >> exactly. >> so i think a lot of people are drawn to it for that reason and i hear from people and families you know in the autistic community and all kinds of families really. it's very -- it means a lot to me. it's also that you can sort of be a part of like giving them a representation that's -- that feels good for them. >> broadway's such a tough landscape. it's tough for actors everywhere. were you all surprised at the unbelievable reviews you've gotten? francesca? >> yeah. >> were you bracing yourself? >> of course you do every time and even if you love something you never know how it's going to be received and even if

briiently receivebriient ly brilliantly received in london, you still don't know. this is fabulous. >> we congratulate you. after two shows yesterday, one tonight, this is a lot to come in here. we appreciate this. >> at least three hours of sleep. >> yeah. go take a nap. now playing at new york city's baranmore theater. visit curiousonbroadway.com for more detail. still ahead, the latest developments in the foiled plot to attack the u.s. capitol. >> plus reaching the summit. the two men who completed what is known as the most difficult free climb in the world. and the oscar nominations will be announced at 8:30 eastern time this morning. we're going to bring them to you live. we're back in just a moment with with much more "morning joe."

it's time to drop your pants for underwareness, a cause to support the over 65 million people who may need the trusted protection of depend underwear. show them they're not alone and show off a pair of depend. get a free sample at underwareness.com. you just got a big bump in miles. so this is a great opportunity for an upgrade. sound good? great. because you're not you you're a whole airline... and it's not a ticket you're upgrading it's your entire operations, from domestic to international... which means you need help from a whole team of advisors. from workforce strategies to tech solutions and a thousand other things. so you call pwc.

the right people to get the extraordinary done. ♪ ♪ she inspires you. no question about that. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury, get medical

help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips tongue or throat or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30-tablet trial. [ female announcer ] we help make secure financial tomorrows a reality for over 19 million people. [ alex ] transamerica helped provide a lifetime of retirement income. so i can focus on what matters most. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. transamerica.

welcome back to "morning joe." it's 8:00 on the east coast, and 5:00 a.m. on the west coast which means mark halperin needs to wake up now. >> he's wide awake. look at him. he's as tan, really as nixon when -- you know he was in san clemente. >> so -- >> nice to see him on the beach today, like to in his wing tips walking up and down the beach saying hi to the kids. >> and nothing else. also with us ian premmer, dorian warren and michael steele. >> what's the matter with ohio? i'm going to write a book called "what's the matter with ohio?" >> what do you mean?

>> so they win the -- whom the gods wom destroy they first make mad. the second thing they do they give them a national championship. willie win a national championship, burn down the campus, and you're thinking -- okay that's not bad. i mean it happens. right? we, of course, don't do that in alabama. kind of get bored by winning national championships. >> i'm big ten here. >> but then, willie -- >> i can't wait to see where this is going, how this ends. >> but then they get a bartender who wants to poison speaker of the house. the orange the -- >> oh, that is -- >> america's first orange speaker, and they hate him, just because of the speaker of his skin, but they're going to kill him for that. right? >> what? >> then another ohio dude decides he's going to blow up the capitol. >> okay. hold on. i think they're one in the same. whatever. >> is it the same dude? >> no it's not. >> no it's not. it's a different dude. i'm telling you, these buckeyes -- this is a serious

point. >> i know. >> you can draw a straight line to urban meyer going to ohio state and all of these -- like, terror plots. >> did you take your medicine? >> am i the only one surprised at everything -- >> i'm not seeing the connection. >> hold on a second. dan, alice, am i defaming an entire state or is this not happening? >> oh, it's happening. >> it's a coincidence, they say. okay. it's a coincidence. >> can we talk about flyover states? can we do that? >> only if i go there, and then it's the center of the world. and then i come back to the coast, and we just talk about the coast. barack obama, man. >> yes yes, yes. >> those poll numbers. >> i know. >> oop! they're going high. getting up there. >> not surprised, but that's good. >> you know what they say? >> what? >> whom the gods will destroy, they give a majority in congress. it's always a surprise how presidents do so much better when the opposing party controls congress. >> yeah. the dynamic shifts.

>> always happens, and americans start looking at that president, who they didn't really like when he had a monopoly and they go wait a second. we need him there to balance out the republicans, or vice versa. it always happens that way. >> we'll get to that as well as other political news in just a moment, but first on a serious note, there are -- >> oh that was very serious. >> oh, yes, it was. there are new concerns about homegrown terrorism after authorities say they thwart add terror plot against one of the country's most iconic buildings. an ohio man. >> ding, ding ding, ding. >> there you go. facing charged for plotting a military-style attack on the capitol. inspired by islamic state militants in anwar al awlaki. this is the nan custody. court documents state he wanted to plant pipe bombs around the capitol and then shoot officials who tried running away.

investigators say he came to their attention last august when he used an alias to post pro-isis documents on twitter, court documents say he discussed his plans with a man he thought was sympathetic, actually working undercover for the phish fib. fbi. he was arrested after he bought more than 600 rounds of ammunition at gun range, but the fbi says the public was never in danger. cornell's father says his son did recently convert to islam but can't believe what he's being accused of. >> people that really know chris chris they know he's a good guy. i don't -- like i said you know, i was completely blindsided by this. this -- this came as a complete surprise. you know? chris is -- i mean he never leaves the house. he's a mommy's boy. he never showed any signs of any kind of violence or anything. i mean -- quiet, shy.

good kid. >> if you're bad, so bad for a dad, but willie if he hasn't left the house in 20-something years, that's a warning sign. >> he's not that good a kid. i understand dad's not feeling good about what happened. hardly a model terrorist, reinforcing what the father said. as the guy said, you can't leave the guy untouched, talking about, informants blowing up the capitol and looks like great work undercover. the guy from the fbi. used intelligence and took him down at a gun shop yesterday. and to france. a big break into the investigation of the paris terror attacks. police confirm a home was filled with weapons a beak before the siege. a scooter found that could identify an accomplice and new security footage from a camera inside the grocery store.

the gunman can be seen ordering a hostage to put his hands against the wall and in another image, a worker forced to stand on a stool to disable a camera. since last week's attack france arrested more than 50 people after prosecutors ordered a krk crackdown on hate speech and comes as the first issue since "charlie hebdo" sold out across france. the company so sought-after the company is going for, some for $1,000 on ebay. french president francois hollande says the magazine has been reborn and, "you can murder men and women, but you can never kill their ideas." >> ian, obviously, france is having to focus mainly on anti-semitism right now. that seems to be where they're focused. this is such a big problem in france and across europe. isn't it? >> it's going to become much larger. the fact is that the economic

environment continues to be incredibly poor in these countries for large swaths of the population. there's a very great division great divisions within these societies. treatment of -- you look at surveys. one came out recently from britain in the last couple of days. some 45% of respondents promoted anti-semitism in some direct way, over 50% of jews that responded felt like they did not feel like they had a clear future in britain. >> and, ian, you're the european expert. it is absolutely fascinating to me and horrifying to me how anti-semitism has played such a large role in the history of europe over the past 1,000 years, and there's always a reason. and always an excuse given to hate jews in europe and, of course now it's a palestinian conflict, but you could go back you know -- you could go back to the days of martin luther. i mean the people that we revere martin luther was a raging anti-semite. you could look at even the mag

in a cartmagna carta. you don't have to treat jews equally. this strain of anti-semitism, of course reached its climax when 6 million jews were murdered in europe while a lot of european countries just stood there and watched. and i just wonder how this continent has -- has, after hitler and after the holocaust, how 50 60 years later, they have collective amnesia. >> that's interesting and one of the reasons, of course you see backlash in many european countries against the notions of the kind of expansive free speech that we support in the united states. it's not because they don't care about individual liberties, but because precisely, they're concerned about reopening these boxes that can lead to hate speech and hate crimes against any minorities. this has been the year where

pacetti has been really the man for europe much less so the united states. not so much as he has in europe and in france. the fact the european economy is not rebounding that you don't see the productivity, energy prices are higher. people aren't benefiting, and if you're in these countries, you feel that europe hasn't worked for you, you're going back to your lowest common denominator, about these individual nations. that's the problem. >> can you explain, everybody watching quickly. it's very telling. talking about a couple years when the french and the germans, and lecturing barack obama and his administration on economics. could you explain the difference between america's economy, and don't worry, praubarticular uben not giving barack obama the credit, i'm giving americans the credit. rebound and be strong. can you explain the american economy and the state it is and the state of europe's economy? i mean as far as attitudes goes

and vitality and -- >> ate of factors here. the united states first of all, is fortunate, because we are the largest producers of energy as a consequence the revolution, we are the world's largest producer of calories in terms of food. >> right. >> the demographics are great. >> yeah yeah yeah. just tell us why we're winning. >> those are reasons why we're winning. >> you're supposed to say manifest destiny and, we're just great. >> took lots of great territory. that's certainly true. but, you also have -- enormous support for entrepreneurship in the united states, much easier to start your own company, and there's no question that the general attitudes of americans, you've consistently had pew research and the rest 90% of americans polled believe they will end up in the top 10%, or their kids will, over the course of the next 20, 30 years, even though that's truly not true. that's not true in europe. >> that is the essence, mika of the american dream and that is the essence of this country's

economic greatness that i can grow up in a small house and believe that i can either live in a small house when i get older or work really hard and live in the biggest house on the hill and blah blah blah. whatever. you have that feeling. but you talked to people from france and you talk to business owners in france and they constantly talk about their frustration, that if they work hard and work around the clock, and are entrepreneurs, they're actually looked upon with suspicion. and even though upward mobility has really collapsed in this country. >> glad you said that, because i was -- >> there is still the belief here, and i believe we're going to fix that that there's never been dorian in great britain, that there's never been in france, this class structure that muslims feel trapped by. a lot of middle class and lower middle class frenchmen and brits

have felt that for centuries. >> for centuries. america was at one point especially the mid to late 20th century the democracy of equal opportunity. as we just mentioned a lot of those ladders of opportunity have closed in the last 20 30 years, but i was reading an article this morning about french immigrants and outer rings of paris, where unemployment rates are at 20% and for many french or immigrant youth, are at 40%. >> yeah. >> so there's a sense there is no economic opportunity at all. in many of those communities. and so that gives -- gets us to a conversation about what are the underlying causes that drive people towards radical ideology ideologies in certain places? >> can you drive through the suburbs and you really can -- you can see it immediately. just the difference. really quickly. one final thing on unemployment. 40%. i saw a stat last week that unemployment in america for people with bachelors degrees,

like 2%. isn't that remarkable? >> also, really quickly, we were going to get to these polls i don't think we'll have time. according to a new poll 27% of americans say the economic is excellent or good up 11 points from a year ago. attitudes are changing. the republican national committee announced dates for its 2016 convention. the event will be held in cleveland, in mid-july about six weeks earlier than the 2012 convention. party chairman rines priebus moved up the convention as part of a strategy -- >> in ohio? do they really want to go there. >> the nominee gave earlier access to the general election funds. priebus sought to strengthen the 2016 nominee by scaling back the number of debates as well. so mark halperin in san diego covering the republicans' winter meeting. what do we expect to hear from that? >> announcement later today the first day of the convention devoted to captures terrorists and murderers. >> exactly. >> never done before. the delegates are going to --

>> back to the buckeye state. i love that place, anyway go ahead. >> democrats fan all over ohio and bring them back. look governor romney will be here tomorrow night but you'll hear ben carson and scott walker speaking today. rick perry is also speaking tomorrow and all the buzz here is about the 2016 race. and a lot of surprise and question about what governor romney's doing and whether it's a little bit of a mirage and he might not even run, or if he does run, collapse before he gets a head of steam or has he transformed the race? a huge topic here. >> michael steele a remarkable call it ten days maybe two weeks and the party you once led as that chairman of the rnc with jeb bush effectively announcing he's getting into the race for all intents and purposes and mitt romney sort of being pressured, i guess, by the pace of jeb's announcement to the do the same. what do you make of the developments over the last two weeks? do you think mitt romney jeb bush actually do run and are

there standing on the stage at those late debates? >> i do. i think that mitt romney has done a re-assessment of the caliber and quality of the potential challengers, and said -- because you recall he said, you know, i'm not going to run unless, you know i see there's someone or no someone who can do this and i think he's looking at his position on a number of issues. whether it was on russia or the economy, as being correct, and he's kind of got this new mojo. i think he'll be there, in play same with jeb bush but i have to tell you, willie the exciting part for me is yet to come, and that is the republican governors. when the republican governors begin to throw down on this thing and get in this race that's when i really think dynamics change. you're talking about two former governors out for 8 and 12 years respectively. talking about governors who served through the recession. who had to deal with obamacare, who had to deal with the changes

in our economy and govern through that. so when they engage in this conversation, that's when it's going to be a real test of wills within the gop. this whole establishment versus tea party. i think that kind of goes away and it's really going to be about who can govern this country and who has? >> mark halperin go to the say, inside baseball, politics and media collide. but i fund itound it fascinating. you hear stories tabloids in the 1800s, pick a party, bash this candidate and bash that -- it's fascinating the little sort of back and forth between thewp "washington post," officially mitt romney's newspaper and the "new york times," trashes mitt romney for the benefit of jeb bush. every tay an anti-jeb story and pro-mitt story and followed by a pro jeb and anti-mitt in the "new york times." plaged out in the last couple of

weeks and fascinating. >> the editorial page breaks tight in votes against romney. the jeb and mitt people behind the scenes and the would-be candidates doing a ton of stuff, but very little in public. and we don't flare them often. jeb bush is in california as well but not doing public events and the press is consumed, as you suggested, not just those two big papers but a lot of the political media with the question, will we see a romney/bush face-off? what does that mean for christie and current governors michael steele referred to? this is not over-coverage, though. what's happening will determine the contours of the race even if there's two dozen candidates besides those two guys. still ahead on "morning joe." the nominations for this year academy awards are just moments away, and you'll see them live right here. we'll be right back. you have enough money to live life on your terms? i sure hope so. with healthcare costs,

who knows. umm... everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor.... can get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today. push your enterprise and you can move the world. ♪ ♪ but to get from the old way to the new you'll need the right it infrastructure. from a partner who knows how to make your enterprise more agile, borderless and secure. hp helps business move on all the possibilities of today. and stay ready for everything that is still to come. thank you for being a sailor and my daddy. thank you mom, for protecting my future. thank you for being my hero and my dad. military families are thankful for many things.

the legacy of usaa auto insurance could be one of them. our world-class service earned usaa the top spot in a study of the most recommended large companies in america. if you're current or former military, or their family, see if you're eligible to get an auto insurance quote. ♪ startup-ny. it's working for new york state. already 55 companies are investing over $98 million dollars and creating over 2100 jobs. from long island to all across upstate new york, more businesses are coming to new york. they are paying no property taxes no corporate taxes no sales taxes. and with over 300 locations, and 3.7 million square feet available, there's a place that's right for your business. see if startup-ny can work for you. go to startup.ny.gov.

female announcer: during sleep train's huge year end clearance sale, get beautyrest, posturepedic even tempur-pedic mattress sets at low clearance prices. plus, free same-day delivery, set-up and removal of your old set. and through monday, get 3 years interest-free financing on selected models. but hurry! this special financing offer ends martin luther king jr. day. don't miss the year end clearance sale at sleep train. ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪

more bill cosby news. >> let's look at the morning papers. >> no. they actually have somebody within the statute of limitations. >> 2008. >> you got something within the statute of limitations, you're going to take to trial, take it to trial. i have problems with people saying, this happened 40 years ago. now, bill cosby, go prove it. do it in the court of law. >> drugged at the playboy mansion in 2008 by bill cosby. >> okay. the san francisco chronicle, experts describe it as the most difficult free climb in the world. the almost completely vertical 3,000-foot waffle el capitan at yosemite national park. look at that. yesterday two men found out what it feels like -- >> feels good.

willie and i can tell you, it feels good. >> you did not. stop. >> we didn't want to because it's not about us. >> yep. >> we did it for the kids. >> the 3,000-foot granite base tommy caldwell and kevin jorgeson reached the summit. becoming the first people in history. >> second and third. >> to scale the wall of el capitan using only their hands and feet. to pull them up. >> oh. wow. we used at least an elevator. >> we had scaffolding and an elevator. so, okay maybe we don't -- >> all right, okay. >> completed edcompleted -- started december 27th, only harnesses in case of falls. each night ate and slept in hanging tents thousands above the valley floor, for perspective, the half mile stretch of granite they climbed is about as tall as two empire state buildings. >> come on y'all. >> stacked on top of each other.

>> the indianapolis star. colts back up linebacker josh mcnairy charged with rape criminal confinement with body injury and battery. police believe he is responsible for a december 1st attack on a female accuser, an attorney for him denies those charges. the colts play flunked for the afc title on sunday. south china, morning post. taxi drivers across china going on strike over low pay and competition from taxi sevilles smartphone apps such as uber. in china, the apps permit drivers without taxi licenses to pick up passengers many offering cheaper prices. frustrated taxi drivers argue their fees are due to high taxes and city taxes. >> willie you're a city guy. how is that each thing? seems dangerous at times? >> it is sent from heaven. >> really? it's great? >> uber is great. put an app on your phone. sitting in a restaurant, check

comes, want to leave in five minutes. call up the app. pop it. shows a car three, four minutes away. click on the car. sends you the driver's picture, name, phone number. he calls you, says i'll be out front in five minutes. walk out, get in the car tell them where you want to go. it's more expensive than a taxi. the down side. they've had specific isolated -- >> has anybody triped to sexually assault you? >> no. but that -- >> stop! >> that would be my concern. especially if i were -- especially if i were a woman. >> why joe is jealous. he cannot get a cab. nobody will stop. >> there's a quality control issue. i'm wondering. i would not, let's say, my daughter, if she were 17 18 -- >> yeah. have her cell phone number that could happen in a taxicab. something could happen to you late at night on an empty subway car. have them exchange cell phone numbers? the guy calms you -- >> find you later you mean? >> yeah.

i don't know. >> i guess so. it's a problem uber has to deal with. had a few of those incidents. overall, an incredible convenience popping up all over the world. >> even china. >> "the daily mail." >> the royal family increased its social media presence with brand new twitter and instagram. >> thank goodness. waiting for years. >> palace officials say it will feature posts from the duke and duchess as well as prince harry. so far the posts mundane. quite what you would expect from prince harry who found himself in trouble with photos. >> harry's great. got no problem with harry, but, you know william, it's going to be look my male pattern baldness, look what it's done over the past month or two? >> he's doing all right for himself. >> stop. >> postings also promote the royalty charitable foundation we're told. >> you're mean. coming up on "morning joe," which films will be in the running for this year's best picture? we're going to bring you the oscar nomen ace nations live from

hollywood. and cosmo's joanna moles and janice minh join us with analysis. >> rooting for the other guy, willie. this is the year for the other guys. we'll be right back.

you just got a big bump in miles. so this is a great opportunity for an upgrade. sound good? great. because you're not you you're a whole airline... and it's not a ticket you're upgrading it's your entire operations, from domestic to international... which means you need help from a whole team of advisors. from workforce strategies to tech solutions and a thousand other things. so you call pwc. the right people to get the extraordinary done. ♪ ♪

bulldog: out with the old and in with the new! mattress discounters' year end clearance sale ends monday. pup: what's this red tag mean? bulldog: through monday, save up to 40% on clearance mattresses. pup: oh! here's another! bulldog: that means up to 48 months interest-free financing on tempur-pedic. pup: i found another red tag! bulldog: what? where? pup: right here, silly! [laughter] bulldog: that tickles! mattress discounters' year end clearance sale ends monday. ♪ mattress discounters ♪

you were a movie star. remember? >> who is this guy? >> he used to be birdman. >> what about you? how was your week? you know who do you hang out with? do you have a girlfriend? what have you been up to? >> i see your point. >> the name of my company is video production news a professional news gathering service. that's how it should be read and how it should be said i. want us to be together for as long as we've got, if that's not very long then that's just how it is

it will have to do. >> you don't know what's coming. as long as i am able to exercise my constitutional right to vote i do not have command of my own life. those that have gone before us say, no more. >> everyone thinks enigma is unbreakable. good. let me try and we'll foe for sure. >> would you be surprised if i told you that the navy has credited you with over 160 kills? ♪ those were the scenes from some of the most memorable films of 2014 and we are just a few minutes away from this year's -- oh. you got the glasses on. oscar nominations. they're nice. put them back. >> okay. >> and joining us editor of cosmopolitan magazine, joanna coles is back and president of the entertainment group at guggenheim media group, janice min. good to have you both onboard. start with you, janice in terms

of movies that are perkicking up steam before the nominations. i feel this is a big breakout role for bradley cooper? >> yes. you know listen, "american sniper" has come on really strong. people are liking it. it's doing well at the box office. this is probably in a year of small independent films i'll guess a lot of your audience still hasn't seen or may never see. "america sniper" hollywood likes, big broad, has stars and clint eastwood. talking yesterday, this is the first movie clint has done since he talked to the chair at the national republican convention and lab ral hollywood doesn't care. they still love clint and think he's one of the greatest. >> joe, jump in. >> i wanted to ask janice. i'm a big wes anderson fan and obviously great to see him win at the golden globes. any chance of repeating, the academy awards? >> okay. i'm saying i think he'll probably get a best picture nomination for "grand budapest."

probably a directing nominations. a kooky darling of hollywood. that golden globe was a huge surprise and also a conventional wisdom that the earlier your movie is released in the year the more likely academy voters will forget about it. this was released in march. it's a real testament to the staying power of the movie and how memorable it's been for people. >> thomas? >> joanna what do you like? because i think you have a distinction between the brits and us regular, old americans? i know that you -- >> ah ah ah. >> i do think my people are going to crush your people in the acting categories this year especially in the best actor category. we've got benedict cumberbatch, eddie redmayne in the role of a life time at's stephen hawking in 'the theory of everything" and david oyelowo as the great martin luther king and it's possible ralph fiennes might slip in for "grand budapest

hotel." could be four out of the five. >> i hate that bradley cooper gets a nomination but i feel every role he gets nominated, and this isn't as feel-good a movie, because people don't feel at comfortable seeing movies about snipers. not really a family movie. >> oh, yeah. >> janice kwhshgs it comes to bradley cooper think about a breakout role. so many great films. why would this be a distinct break breakout role? >> i think it's wrong to call it that. past two, "america hustle " -- >> "silver lining playbook e. >> thank you. >> mika to the rescue on that one. >> hello, everybody! >> oh my gosh. we're making her pop culture. it's happening. >> a great movie. i think we think of him as like the "hangover guy." got-looking funny guy but he's actually done an incredible amount of great work in the last few years. >> joe scarborough, no longer "the hangover guy."

>> actually always the "wedding crasher" guy to me. i love bradley. shows extraordinary range in this movie. extraordinary. janice fascinating story about angelina jolie. puts together a great movie, "unbroken." as you say, for some reason this movie just never really took off with some critics and the buzz you say it dead? >> i would say the buzz died. i mean listen that would be a huge upset if she came back with any nomination for this movie. it came into the season -- >> why that janice? >> you know you look at -- when you look at the nominating process of how you get awards in other categories directors guild, screen actors guild it got shut out. behind the scenes people did not like the movie or didn't think it was awards worthy. we've heard from different members of different voting bodies that the torture scenes were too much for people to take. there's definitely also a little

bit of snobbery in the direct are field, which is you know what? oh, hey, actress, you can't just come in and do what we do. you have to ternearn it. >> we'll talk more abouts they and the host is neil pack trit harris. >> expect him to be great. >> stay with us. the nominations will the live after this quick break. stay with us. your mom's got your back. your friends have your back. your dog's definitely got your back.

but who's got your back when you need legal help? we do. we're legalzoom, and over the last 10 years we've helped millions of people protect their families and run their businesses. we have thright people on-hand to answer your questions, backed by a trusted network of attorneys. so visit us today for legal help you can count on. legalzoom. legal help is here. huh, fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know you that former pro football player ickey woods will celebrate almost anything? unh-uh. number 44... whoooo! forty-four, that's me! get some cold cuts... get some cold cuts... get some cold cuts! whooo! gimme some!

geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. whoo! forty-four ladies, that's me! whoo...gonna get some cold cuts today! can this decadent, fruit topped pastry... ...with indulgent streusel crumble, be from... fiber one. fiber one streusel. ♪ music ♪ ...the getaway vehicle!

for all the confidence you need. td ameritrade. you got this. the announcements of seconds away. the big showdowns you think? >> boyhood, birdman, michael keaton best actor and eddie redmayne, best actor, and joanna thinks your makeup is perfect. seeing spray tans at the events? >> hoping for fewer than the golden globes. not a good moment. george clooney's face seemed to be multicolor.

>> leave clooney alone. gauss the cecil b. mill award. looking very very good. >> i'll let you duke that out. live now to the samuel goldwyn theater in beverly hills where actor chris pine and academy president cheryl boone isaacs are announcing the nominees for the 2015 academy awards. [ applause ] welcome. what an exciting morning. thank you alfonso and j.j. for kicking it all off. chris, let's continue. >> for performance by an actor in a supporting role the nominees are -- robert duvall in "the judge." evening hawke in "boyhood." edward norton in "birdman or the unexpected virtue of ignorance." mark ruffalo in "foxcatcher." and j.k. simmons in "whiplash."

for parnens by an actress in a supporting role the nominees are -- patricia ar dmet "boyhood." laura dern in "wild." kyra nightly in "the imitation game." emma stone in "birdman or the unexpected virtue of ignorance "and meryl streep in "into the woods." >> for achievement in makeup and hair-styling, the nominees are -- bill corso and dennis lityard for "foxcatcher." frances hannan and mark coolier for "the grand budapest hotel" and elizabeth and david for "guardians of the galaxy." for achievement in costume design the nominees are --

malena kamanaro and mark bridges. colleen gnatwood and anna b. shepherd and jaclyn duran. for achievement in cinematography, the nominees are -- emanuel labefky for oh birdman." robert yeoman for "the grand boot peft hotel." loucash yall and rashard plan koski. dick pope for "mr. turner." and roger deacons for "unbroken." for adapted screenplay the nominees are -- jason hall for "american sniper."

graham moore for "the imitation game." paul thomas anderson anthony mccartan for "the theory of everything" and damien shazell for "y whenlash." for original screenplay, the nominees are -- al la al haund dre, and alexander and armando for the birdman or unexpected virtue of ignorance. richard linklater for "boyhood." e. max frye and dan fudderman for "foxcatcher." wes anderson and hugo guinness for "the grand budapest hotel." and dan gilroy for "night crawler." for original score the nominees are -- alexander day spla for "the

grand budapest hotel." alexander day spla for the imitation game. hans zimmer for interstellar gary for mr. turner and yohan johansson for "the theory of everything." in the best foreign language film category, the nominees are -- from poland eda. from russia laviathan. in estonia, tangerines. from moratania, timbuktu and from argentina, "wild tales." for achievement in directing, birdman, richard linklater, bennett miller, wes anderson and morton tilldon for

the "imitation game." >> for performance by an actress in a leading role, the nominees are -- marion cotillard. felicity jones gilejulianne moore rosamund pike and reese witherspoon witherspoon. for performance by an actor in a leading role the nominees are -- steve carell in "foxcatcher." bradley cooper in "american sniper." benedict cumberbatch in "the imitation game." michael keet keaton in birdman." and eddie redmayne in "the theory of everything."

and finally, we are pleased to announce the films selected as the best picture nominees. they are -- "american sniper." clint eastwood, robert lar"birdman," alejandro and john lesher and james w. xpoch apoll producers. "boyhood" richard linklater and kathleen sutherland producers. "the grand budapest hotel," wes anderson scott rudin, stephen rais and jeremy dawson, producers. "the imitation game," norah grossman do ostrakoski. "selma" christina colson oprah

winfrey, dee dee gardner and jeremy kleiner, producers. "the theory of everything." tim bevin, eric fellner, lisa bruce and anthony mccartan, producers. and "whiplash." jason blum helen estabrook and david lancaster, producers. for the complete list of all the nominations, please visit oscar.com. and join us sunday night, february 22nd, to celebrate these incredibly -- the nominations are in and, joe, the nominations for best picture, let you wrap everything up we just saw here though that is a real fight. that's a real fight. i can't imagine even which one i'd want to win. >> a real fight. a couple of things. robert duvall getting -- making history today as the oldest nominee in his category for best supporting actor at 84. just extraordinary actor forea long time. bradley cooper. once again. a nominee for best actor.

but "american sniper," "birdman" and "grand budapest hotel" have broken through, i can tell you, the scarborough guys all wes anderson fans. if he was yesterday a quirky hollywood director that everybody loved but nobody you know not everybody got in hollywood that has finished the academy, officially embraced wes anderson and just about every major category a big, big day for wes. >> all right. janice min, you've had a moment or two. i've seen you taking notes. what are the shockers to you? >> okay. big snub jennifer aniston. she has run a masterful campaign putting herself in the awards race. she was nominated for a golden globe, nominated for a s.a.g. completely shut occupy. that's going to be a big surprise people will talk about here. and another big snub david oyelowo who plays martin luther king in "selma." look at the field of nominated actors, if i'm not mistaken all

white. a chance to nominate and extraordinary performance and also add some diversity to the mix of candidates this year nominees. so stephen carell who was nominated, seems to be in the place of david oyelowo. "foxcatcher," a movie that had come and gone in the awards discussion. discussion of the movie, mark shultz, the wrestler attacking the movie on twitter, attacking the director bennett miller. the moment seemed to have passed but came back in this discussion. and the other snub clint eastwood did not get a nomination for "american sniper." seemed a sure thing but he didn't get it this year. >> reaction around the studio. joanna coles, your take? >> what is exciting this is not going to be a rerun of the golden globes. we have "american sniper" back. interesting, no female directors in this. >> right. >> selma got a best movie nomination -- >> but not its director. >> angelina completely locked

out. >> wow yeah. >> and the photographer nomination for "unbroken," nothing else. so sort of a mixed showing for women. but i'm very excited about the actual races, because they're all really talented. this is a great year for movies. >> it really is. thomas, what did you think? >> very interesting, but with janice, i was interested more in seeing who was left out and certainly jennifer aniston i thought it was revealing to see her not there. because of the names that they did put out. marion cotillard, janice her role, the film she was in has that gotten a lot of buzz? >> no. none at all. that was a real -- that just shows the academy's love of marion cotillard. this movie is not -- it's not like "la vie en rose" or other movies she's done that's become a darling in america. a huge surprise. i would have even wagered most people didn't even see the screener that came. >> really. lewis? >> janice are you surprised "birdman" is in so many

categories? >> this is our theory at the "hollywood theater" why people love "birdman." it plays to the classic hollywood fear and narrative of an out of work actor and what happens to you. it's -- the acting the actors are the biggest component of the voting body of the academy. and it's also beautifully directed by the director who were "babble" before and nominated for an oscar. it's the comeback story both in the plot but also in michael keaton. it has all the elements hollywood loves. like a fairy tale for actors. >> the big celebration. emma stone. >> yeah. >> this is a big morning for her. >> i'm going to force you all to do something in the last seconds. best picture? >> boyhood. >> no way. >> american sniper. >> going with the imitation game. >> birdman. >> there you we go. >> completely split. >> i'll make janice do it next. thank you so much. joanna, stay with us. what we've learned today, after a quick break.

(soft, calm music.) hi, you've reached emma. i'm out of the office right now, but will get back to you just as soon as i possibly can. your call is important to me. join us for exclusive discovery at sea experiences. enjoy cruises from $499 during our 50th anniversary sale. call your travel consultant or 1-800-princess. princess cruises. come back new.

startup-ny. it's working for new york state. already 55 companies are investing over $98 million dollars and creating over 2100 jobs. from long island to all across upstate new york, more businesses are coming to new york. they are paying no property taxes no corporate taxes no sales taxes. and with over 300 locations, and 3.7 million square feet available, there's a place that's right for your business. see if startup-ny can work for you. go to startup.ny.gov. discover card. hey, i heard you guys can help me with frog protection? yeah, we help with fraud protection. we monitor every purchase every day and alert you if anything looks unusual. wow! you're really looking out for us. we are. and if there are unauthorized purchases on your discover card, you're never held responsible. just to be clear you are saying "frog protection" right? yeah, fraud protection. frog protection. fraud protection. frog. fraud. fro-g. frau-d. i think we're on the same page. we're totally on the same page. at discover,

we treat you like you'd treat you. fraud protection. get it at discover.com as the velocity of change in the world increases new players in new markets face a choice: do it fast and cheap. or do it right. for almost 90 years, we've stayed true to the belief that if you put quality in, you get quality out. it's why everything we build, we build to last. build on progress. build on pride. build on a company that's built for it.

no way. welcome back to "morning joe." >> tomorrow on "morning joe" in our 8:30 half hour a fascinating story from bloomberg business week. why the u.s. is the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn't guarantee paid maternity leave. the ramifications of that on

working women and families. that's tomorrow at 8:30. >> we always talk about what we learned today. i'm afraid to ask you, because you -- >> just found a dog on the street. says we're adopting. i said no. >> oh it's so cute! i love it. >> i thought -- >> oh my goodness. look at your new dog. >> you got to keep that dog. >> thomas found a dog. so cute! that's a "yes"! . that's a yes. >> who does this for thomas? >> i thought there was breaking news. i thought thomas had breaking nugz from across the wires. >> no. >> patrick does this all the tile. the answer is, no! >> 20,000 people killed in ath earthquake. >> 1,100 square foot apartment. >> the answer is no. >> it wasn't killed in ath earthquake. i thought that was the breaking news. >> so cute. look! >> the signs of those paws. yeah. >> what i learned was, the extraordinary range of peculiar names for benedict cumberbatch out there.

bendy back cuecumber pants. janice min, predictions? >> okay. best picture, boyhood. best director will be alejandro for the birdman director and julianne moore actress, "still alice". >> so good. >> and michael keaton locked for best actor. >> okay. i'm going with "american sniper" for picture. >> really? >> uh-huh. >> we shall see. >> we shall see. nine nominations for "the grand budapest hotel." >> amazing. >> unbelievable. >> and wes anderson's day to come out. a guy that has been beloved by a lot of sort of -- >> you've been talking about him for years. >> we've always -- >> always. >> since "bottle rocket" a huge fan of his but he really went mainstream today. >> still disappointed david oyelowo didn't get one. >> "selma" got snubbed today. that's it for us. thomas and patrick got a new dog. >> no. >> what are you going to name it? >> rundown. after a brief break.

>> animal hoarder. >> yes. name limb cumberbatch. your eyes really are unique. in fact, they depend on a unique set of nutrients. that's why there's ocuvite to help protect your eye health. as you age your eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. ocuvite is a vitamin made just for your eyes from the eye care experts at bausch + lomb. ocuvite has a unique formula that's just not found in any leading multivitamin. your eyes are unique so help protect your eye health with ocuvite. at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like mute buttons equal danger. ...that sound good? not being on this phone call sounds good.

it's not muted. was that you jason? it was geoffrey! it was jason. it could've been brenda. in my world, wall isn't a street... return on investment isn't the only return i'm looking forward to. for some every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. our commitment to current and former military members and their families is without equal. start investing with as little as fifty dollars. she inspires you. no question about that. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines,

and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips tongue or throat or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30-tablet trial. you just got a big bump in miles. so this is a great opportunity for an upgrade. sound good? great. because you're not you you're a whole airline... and it's not a ticket you're upgrading

it's your entire operations, from domestic to international... which means you need help from a whole team of advisors. from workforce strategies to tech solutions and a thousand other things. so you call pwc. the right people to get the extraordinary done. ♪ ♪ good morning. i'm jose diaz-balart. surrounding paris and the ripple affect from last week's terrorist turns and new turn. and happening now secretary

of state john kerry should be getting on a plane as we speak, leaving bulgaria where he spoke just a few hours ago. >> my visit to france is basically to