welcome, everybody, it is 1:00 p.m. here in washington, d.c. we're live for our special coverage of the moment you've all probably not been waiting for but you'll watch and fire up a few tweets anyway it's time for the awkward handshakes and stink eye across the aisle, michelle obama being better dressed than everybody, it's the state of the union! this is a new picture of president obama putting the final touches on the sixth annual address as president just eight hours from now he'll be delivering that address and awkward handshaking going on on

the way in should be that much more awkward, first state of the union in a republican led congress. he has been touring the country previewing this speech which should ship on global security and cuba relations and the big one, the economy. >> i think what the president is saying the middle class economics we pursued since 2009 have gotten us to where we are. there's still yet work to be done and he'll talk about it tonight. >> dennis mcdonough confident the newly popularity has everything to do with economics and not plummeting gas prices. kristen, what's at stake with this particular state of the union this year? >> reporter: well a lot is at stake. white house officials hope this will help frame the debate with the republican-led congress. as you pointed out, president obama has been criss crossing

the country and unveiling policies he's going to talk about tonight ahead of time the strategy not only to frame the debate with congress but also allow the speech to be more about the story telling aspect and the story that president obama wants to tell he's going to argue that there has been a resurgence in the american economy and he's em boldened by the figures we're getting and the unemployment rate is at 5.6%. it was at 7.8 when he took office. the aprol rating is up 46%, that's its highest since october of 2013. tonight you're going to hear him talk about all of that and focus on some of the policies which was unveiled over the weekend. his proposal to increase taxes on wealthy americans, to close the loophole for trust funds, for example, also to increase capital gains, all of that will go towards funding middle class priorities, things like two free

years of community college expanded paid sick leave, housing initiatives. president obama, this white house really hoping to get the upper hand here but of course ronan, those proposals will not go anywhere in a republican led congress. it's about laying the groundwork for 2016. just a little bit of behind the scenes here a senior official says president obama thinks his speech is in very good shape, he's going to have dinner in the residence with the family before heading to the capitol to deliver his remarks tonight. i'm told he'll have trinkets in his pockets, objects given to him by people he has met on the road. one see yor officials saying these are items that remind him what he's fighting for. >> everybody has got a good luck strategy. thanks for that fascinating detail. president obama will face a nation increasingly happy with his performance it seems from the latest polls. the economy giving him a sizable bump in approval rating.

let's take a look at those numbers, 46% now approve of president obama's job, 48% disapprove. it's not all rosy those are good numbers but this is a less good one. six in ten still believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction. we can only assume they became aware of courtney and chloe take the hamptons. nevertheless, congress is perhaps the toughest and most important audience president obama will face tonight. kelly o'donnell is following congressional action and on the hill with that right now. does it look like the president will dig in his heels tonight or is there going to be a large effort at reaching across the aisle here? >> certainly the president always at least rhetorically does try to reach across the aisle. it's a different, smaller aisle to reach across. one of the most notable thing, larger number of republicans who will have seats in the chamber tonight. when they stand and when they

applaud, you'll see a greater dominance of the chamber just because of the elections. you gave us poll numbers there. that paint and creasingly good picture for the president. republicans will want to look back to poll from november when they had pretty sweeping victories. we'll also see tonight speaker boehner will be behind the president and see mitch mcconnell probably a lot of cutaway shots during the remarks. harry reid won't be there tonight because he's still recovering from injuries from a home accident. but you will hear a note that might be different in some ways because so many policy ideas have been rolled out before. republicans have had a chance to think about them. democrats too. and they'll be poised to jump to their feet when the president is talking about income inequality and ways to make things more fair for middle income americans. there is certainly some agreement on wanting to see the middle class improve but how to get there will be very different. there are always great moments of theater and important policy

that gets laid out during this address. republicans will hopefully find ways they can be supportive of the president in that moment. of course there will be ways they can show displeasure when they hear policy ideas they don't agree with. it will be interesting for everyone to see after the president laid out so many of the policies how will he make tonight fresh and interesting and compelling for the audience in the room which has to carry the ball on any legislation the president wants done. his executive actions of course have been a real issue with members on the republican side. they might have pushback in these ideas too. it will be fun to watch. >> you mentioned people showing displeasure, wouldn't be the state of the union if that didn't happen. kelly o'donnell, appreciate it. if washington has mastered one thing it's turning everything and anything into partisan war fair. even the vip guest list for the state of the union is shaping up to be a standoff. one big bone of contention is

cuba. alan gross has become a symbol of the president's plan to normalize relations with the island since he was released from a cuban prison last month. in response to that invitation, some top republicans, including marco rubio and speaker john boehner announced their state of the union guests cuban dissents who suffered because the castro regime. charlie rangel was in cuba when the relations were was first announced. you came on last right after alan gross's release and told me you've never been prouder to be an american. how would you explain the president's plan to normalize relations? loss family members to the castro regime? >> it's always -- under a communist regime and the question is how do we ease that pain what can we do? but the most important thing is

this -- we're not going to overthrow the communist government in cuba would involve -- in order for the world to get along easier. we have to have trade. to do this we have to insist that the cuban. >> plenty who oppose this plan to normalize relations -- >> cuba improve human rights agenda. >> well there's been plenty of dissent on the hill to that opinion, one of the lawmakers who opposes this plan ross layton has a guest, a woman who lost her father to the castro

regime and she talked about that earlier today to my colleague. listen to this. >> we should listen to the dissidents who say this is not the way to go about getting freedom and democracy on the aisle. the cuban military runs all of the tourism enterprise in cuba. you're really feeding the monster is that o presses the people. >> anything to that charge, that you're feeding the monster with this plan? >> listen this congresswoman is one of the most sensitive, wonderful people in the united states congress. we have to feel pain for all of her losses. and all of the other cuban-americans that have really suffered as a result of some of the policies in cuba. and we have that no matter what country people come from. we have those type of stories. but the question is what are we going to do for the future not what we've done in the past and how can we change these things now. i don't think anyone can challenge that what the president has done is make it easier for republicans and

democrats to get over the political hangup and that is the vote in florida and do what everyone knows, move towards normalization and make sure the cuban people have an opportunity to see what democracy can do. we see what it's done in south korea. we have to make certain that we communicate with people and train with people. i was in cuba when the president announced the policy and most of the cubans were saying that there's two things they love about america, one, american movies two, every darn thing else. let's take advantage of this friendship. let's expand trade and let them see what democracy is really all about. >> congressman charlie rangel very clear response to those on the hill making a statement against these normalization plans. thank you so much. >> don't forget to watch the state of the union, you can't live tweet if you don't watch. we'll be live with our coverage starting at 8:00 p.m. tonight

eastern time right here on msnbc, hosted by our favorite tv couple, rachel maddow and chris matthews. we'll look at one of the most controversial proposals planned for tonight, the robin hood style tax. one leading voice on the senate finance committee has a thing or so to say about it after these few moments of breathless aepgs. health can change in a minute. so cvs health is changing healthcare. making it more accessible and affordable with over 900 locations for walk-in medical care. and more on the way. minuteclinic. another innovation from cvs health. because health is everything. you're driving along, having a perfectly nice day, when out of nowhere a pick-up truck slams into your brand new car.

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growing economy? >> president obama not using the phrase growing the economy while striking a positive tone ahead of tonight's state of the union. the president will put his money where his increasingly scandinavian sounding mouth is tonight, pushing new proposals to tax the wealthy to pay for new programs that help the middle class. so far so good on the economic front. unemployment is down. the dow is up. deficit has been cut by about 66%. in fact our new nbc news poll shows 49% of americans now approval of the president's handling of the economy. how does this new set of announcements going to sit with that trajectory joining us now, senator bob casey. always a pleasure. how does that help the president make this sweeping case on raises taxes to certain parts of the american population? >> ronan, i think to a large

extent what this does the economic data compared to where we were a couple of years ago, just imagine the first six months of the president's first term, because of what had happened prior to him coming into office 780,000 jobs lost each and every month. almost staggering to consider that. so i think one thing he can say, the strategy that he put forth and that i voted for and others did, the recovery act, the strategy to cut payroll taxes at one point, for a two-year period allowed the kind of job growth we're seeing the kind of numbers now. i think there's some validation in that we have to focus on it. when we say we i mean both parties have to focus on the middle class and wages. >> but does the growing economy really give him a mandate on this or is this just down to global market forces one of the key changing issues here is gas prices, they have plummeted. the national average is $2.05. it's down from $3.28 a year ago.

we're all feeling that in our day-to-day lives. how much of it is just down to that? >> i think it's larger than that. but certainly gas prices help it puts more dollars in people's pockets for sure. but i think the president appropriately is focused on what is -- what are we going to do together both parties, both branches of government for the middle class. if republicans rejengt cat gorically what he says tonight, i would hope they would come back with a counter proposal that focuses on the middle class. i want to do tax reform as much as anyone. but if your answer is going to be the president is totally wrong and we need to do tax reform we have to wait for a tax reform consensus before the middle class helps, i don't think that makes sense. we need to focus on families that have struggled. by one estimate ronan, back in the fall if you look at the data a lot of people believe this great recession we just got

through not too long ago thrust the middle class families back to 1989 by one estimate, not just a couple of tough years. >> so you're on the finance committee. what would these new proposals look like if they are put in action. how does it change the lives of americans that it aims to help? >> we'll have to closely examine the pay fors and the decisions that have to be made to finance any kind of tax cut for the middle class. that should be done in a collaborative fashion. what we don't need are cat gorical and frankly idealogical reactions of everything the president said. they have gotten pretty good at that over last number of years. now they can show they can govern and help the president govern to focus on what i would hope would be and is the main priority of the democrats, which is helping the middle class and

focusing on this terribly difficult problem of the terrible erosion of wages over the last generation. >> and let's talk about what actually could become a political reality. last year the president proposed expanding the earned income tax credit for those without children. that never passed. what out of this new bundle of proposals can actually get through the current atmosphere on the hill? >> we don't know yet for sure. but the earned income tax credit is probably -- is not the best poverty reducer that we have in our tool box of ideas. it's one of the best. that's something that i would certainly favor. but look the president -- this is the opening argument. he's going to be proposal things that focus on the middle class. but i'm glad he's doing this. i'm glad he's going down this path. i'm glad that he's putting a sense of urgency behind this. that's what we all need to bring to bear on this problem. i hear this back at home. even though all of the data is

better, people still don't have a sense that their own economic security is something that we're concerned about and we're working on. >> senator casey, always a pleasure to have you here with us thank you. >> thanks, ronan. >> up next here's an interesting one, yes, there's a drinking game for the state of the union. we don't endorse such behavior but yes, it's news. we'll explain it to you. also, remember we're asking for your take going into tonight's speech, what matters to you the most ahead of the speech? your answers when we get past this break's mere minutes of separation anxiety.

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and accelerate bowel movements. it helps you proactively manage your symptoms. do not give linzess to children under 6, and it should not be given to children 6 to 17. it may harm them. don't take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain especially with bloody or black stools. the most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. if it's severe stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. other side effects include, gas, stomach-area pain and swelling. bottom line, ask your doctor about linzess today. welcome back president obama will be vying for your affections tonight and we vi for your affections every day. we'll get your take go into the speech. we've been asking what matters most this state of the union.

you can weigh in and we've teamed up with bing pulse, still a thing for a spectacular realtime tracking exercise and craig melvin has been monitoring it for us. >> our fair gentle viewers, here's the thing about this ronan, we're asking folks on pulse.msnbc pulse.msnbc.com. we've given three options, not speculation here, not pure punditry, these are actual numbers. here's what they say right now overwhelmingly the economy. it's the economy, stupid according to folks who have been voting. we can break these numbers down by gender. this is apparently regardless of party as well regardless of sex as well, you'll see women and men here and if you take a look at it by party, there you go. republicans and democrats alike although democrats slightly more than republicans, but still overwhelmingly folks say it's the economy they want to hear

about. here's something else that we found interesting. a lot of folks will say, state of the union does it really matter? the president laying out his plan for the upcoming legislative session, will they really act on it? success of legislative action proposed in address, 43%, 43% of the things the president says in the state of the union, things acted on and enacted by congress. here are some interesting numbers here. notice the high mark 1965 lbj, his proposal success rate close to 75%. low under reagan. it will be interesting to see where we are after this state of the union. we'll send it back to you. >> craig melvin appreciate that absolutely. pulse.msnbc.com. one of the things we're asking you, what happens most into the trait of the union, interesting results there. it is an interesting breakdown, party lines, gender lines and

we've been tracking the broad are reaction on social media. we want to bring that to you. first up, how would you sum it up in three words? despite being needlessly long has been trending for several days. you can see how it spiked there. you have delivered, kiss my veto referencing any number of bills republican may land on the president's desk. tax, spends repeat thanks michelle. i'm going to need a drink, state of the union drinking games are seeing a renaissance online. one, drink for a long as nancy pelosi hugs the president when he enters the chamber. two, bounce a quarter in a shot glass and drink when obama says free education.

three, five sips if you catch any member sleeping. a guaranteed thirst quencher. finally a moment of quiet emotional support for joni ernst. she'll give the response to the state of the union and apparently people don't know who she is. yes, that's right, who is joni ernst is one of the top searched questions against yahoo! and bing and google. people still search on yahoo!? >> i'm joni ernsts, grew up castrating hogs. washington is full of big spenders let's make them squeal. >> make them squeal senator earn the.

castrate away. we're hours from the sixth state of the union address. wondering what's happening now behind the scenes? we'll give you the inside story from someone who has been there firsthand, the faf ro of choice the former speechwriter joins me next. ♪ ♪ push it. ♪ ♪ p...push it real good! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ow! ♪ ♪ oooh baby baby...baby baby. ♪ if you're salt-n-pepa, you tell people to push it. ♪ push it real good. ♪ it's what you do. ♪ ah. push it. ♪ if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance you switch to geico. it's what you do. ♪ ah. push it. ♪ i'm pushing. i'm pushing it real good!

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larry knew the importance of preparing for retirement. that's why when the time came he counted on merrill edge to streamline his investing and help him plan for the road ahead. that's the power of streamlined connections. that's merrill edge and bank of america. . welcome back everybody, i'm live here in washington less than eight hours out from the state of the union tonight. there's a lot at stake from the president's sixth address. chuck todd nbc news political director is on the front lawn following preparations there. what's the main goal this time around. >> reporter: some some ways it's hoping that his message gets across and it's sustainable. the good news for him, he gets to deliver the state of the union with a little bit of political wind at his back.

he's acquiring political capital for first time in a long time. approval ratings are up and people's views of the economy are better. there's sort of -- there's less anger out there than there's been in some time. it's an opportunity for him. the difficulty is it's pessimistic public they don't believe divided government works anymore and not convinced problems will get solved. for me it's overcoming what i think is a massive credibility gap that government in general here in washington has with the public. >> and chuck, we've been delving into the robin hood style tax policies on the table for tonight. what is the biggest challenge in terms of getting bipartisan support tonight? is there any specific area you see getting bipartisan support after the speech? >> reporter: you know it's like if you took them each individually in a piecemeal way and said okay let's figure out 13 -- the idea of free community college 20 years ago, this was the idea of creating a mandatory

13th and 14th grade, which was sort of the same idea. it's actually been an idea out there, republicans and democrats have been for it in some form or another. individually some of the proposals could picture getting bipartisan support if it was like one or two that he was pushing in part of a larger deal. when you're doing it as this massive attempt to rewrite the tax code and base he canally the president saying it's not going to be done unless we sort of do a redistribution in some way. we obviously have a massive income equality issue let's do it with the tax code. fill sofically it's impossible to overcome the hurdles. all state of the unions are about framing a debate. sometimes it's framing an election year debate and sometimes it's framing a debate because you're about to tackle a big challenge or two. i guess what i'm surprised about the state of the union how much it feels like a framing of an election year debate and this is the least election year type of

state of the union you can, the year after a midterm two years before the end of office. and i think because it's very campaign framed i think it could get washed away very quickly in our polarization world. >> chuck todd, always a pleasure. >> reporter: you got it, buddy. >> we're hearing the speech is? good shape and president obama feels good shape. the speechwriters are putting the final touches in place and president obama's white house speechwriters, a team led by cody keenan from the press and president obama's hemingway, partly because of the facial hair. pictures coming up. they said there was no need for a yellow legal pad to rewrite the first draft. what goes into that draft? and what do speechwriters go through behind the scenes to make it happen?

jon favreau, it is a pleasure to have you here. >> thanks for having me. >> you worked on five state of the union speeches. what's going on in the white house right now? >> right now there's probably a frantic scramble for last minute edits and i'm sure cody is trying to keep more words out of the speech, various policy folks and fact checkers are trying to put more boards words in the speech. >> what's is the president's prep process? practicing on a prompter? >> he'll probably do one run-through on the prompter this afternoon with cody and probably dan and a few others and ben rhodes. then usually after he does one run through on prompter he has dinner with michelle and the girls. then maybe we'll go through it

one more time and then he'll be good to go. >> let's talk about some of your handy work you've been responsibility for the lighter moments in president obama's states of the union. this one in 2012 you maybe wish you could escape this one. we got rid of one rule to force dairy farmers proving they could contain a spill because milk was classified as oil. i guess it was worth crying over spilt milk. what happened? >> this is what happens until you're working on a speech multiple nights in a row and things become funny that are not funny in real life. >> when that line went down did your phone blow up with peoples groaning at you? >> the twitter feed. i had to stop looking. it was a tough moment. >> a hard learned lesson for all of us. the interior department is in charge of salmon while they are in fresh water but commerce department handles them in salt water.

i hear it gets more complicated once they are smoked. i don't know if you were directly involved but wow. >> the commerce department is still mad at us for that line. to this day they still contend that is completely wrong. but we had many people that fact checked that one. we felt pretty good about it. it was the most remembered line from that speech. >> people do remember it and it captures the bureaucracy pretty vividly. another slightly heavier moment that a lot of people remember an ending in which the president suddenly kmepded s.e.a.l. team 6 before it was public they carried out the mission against bin laden. >> that was in 2012 and we had been -- met with the president about the state of the union quite a few times and he mentioned it during one of the meetings that his most prized possession was the flag that s.e.a.l. team six gave to him after they completed the mission and went on to tell the story

about how they -- during the mission and we all sat there and thought what a great way to end the state of the union, talk about imagine if our country and politics could show the sort of unity and teamwork that those men did when they ran into that house. so it became -- probably one of my favorite of those used. >> that the moment you're most proud of under this president? >> you know i think in the state of the union, it -- there's a lot of work to be done. i always think that the endings are really where you can give it some lift and those are always our favorite parts to work on all of us would work on state of the union. >> you're in close touch with cody and current team. what is the biggest challenge for this year's speech? >> i think it's the same challenges every year which is making sure that the speech tells a story and isn't just a

laundry list of policy proposals and i think they've done a great job of that this year. the president is really going to talk about the economic progress we've made and the reason why is because we really made decisions based on middle class economics that the white house has been talking about. it's going to come through pretty strongly which is hard to have one theme come through in the state of the union but they did a good job of it this year. >> jon favreau, you're a scholar and gentleman, appreciate it. >> thanks ronan. take care. >> up next stay with us more on the state of the union and one particularly moving angle on it when 13-year-old chicago teen malik bryant asked santa for safety, he had no idea it would get forwarded to the president of the united states. he is a special guest of the first lady. we'll talk to him next.

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every year the first lady's state of the union guest list includes extraordinary americans, astronauts and scientists and activists. this year it includes one special middle school student, malik bryant. he caught the white house's attention with a lr he wrote to santa, he is from one of the most vi leapt neighborhoods in chicago. for christmas he didn't have for video games or clothes. he had one simple question all i ask for is safety. i just want to be safe. malik joins me now. thank you so much for taking the time. tonight is the big night. are you excited? how do you feel? >> i'm thrill the to meet the president and michelle. >> do you have a message you're going to deliver to the president? what are you going to say to him? >> that we need to find a better way to make chicago safer. >> and what do you think malik

would make chicago safer? >> like people need jobs so they won't be on corners with dope and all that. >> people need jobs and that's going to be one of the big messages of the speech tonight. tell me about the moment when you learned you were going to be a guest of the first family at the state of the union. where were you when you first heard? was it a phone call letter? tell me about learning about this. >> i had just came from home -- from school and my momma had got a call from the white house and they said that you know i was going to be on the state of the union and i got excited. >> tell me about that. how did your parents react to that? >> they didn't really rea act, inside they was excited. >> are your parents with you in d.c.? >> it's just my mom.

>> your mom is there with you. your mom must have been so proud of you? >> yeah and my daddy too. my whole family. >> and is there a particular part of the evening, malik that you're most excited about experiencing? anything you're excited about seeing? >> i'm excited about like being in there, because this is a once in a lifetime thing. >> yeah yeah. how have your classmates reacted? did they tease you, congratulate you? get a lot of high fives? >> didn't get no high five but they congratulated me some of them you know, some of them didn't believe me but you know -- >> yeah well wait until they see you on tv you'll get even more high fives now. what's your message to other students your age who are facing the same kind of situation you wrote about in that letter facing violence in their

neighborhoods? >> like they -- i know they are feeling the same way, you know because some of them say because all of this killing going on. >> does this experience malik, make you want to solve that problem yourself get into politics or lead in some other way, run for mayor maybe? >> like i ain't really into that. i'm into sports. >> well that is another promising way to go and, ladies and gentlemen, in the audience all of the good ones don't want to go into politics. i so appreciate you taking time to join us. i hope you have a great time tonight. >> okay. >> that's a fine suit sir. >> as the president gets ready to adris global terror threats in the speech tonight, a brand-new isis hostage video has emerge the. we'll update you on that in a few minutes. don't go away. we wish above all...is health.

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kerry's general frenchiness, the thing that lost him our presidency election is what makes him our perfect envoy. and he's meeting french president francois hollande. no. pull out. he's not wanting that. i have to check out that hug utilizing the nfl replace technology. let's see it again. the president goes with just touching hands. this is the distance. keep it at this distance. and kerry says forget that. bring it on in. we're bros. and the french president said okay i've had enough. all right. i'm done. i'm done. hollandy wants to get out and

kerry said i'm never letting you go. john kerry and francois hollande rendered by jon stewart. and out of france four men said to have assisted amedy coulibaly in paris. the prosecutor said they will be the first to face charges in this case. eight others were released today. amedy coulibaly seized and killed several hostages at a kosher supermarket two weeks ago. in germany, police officers raided 13 residences over night suspected of being an islamic cell. they were planning attacks in syria. they were aimed at members of a mosque in berlin neighborhoods where they have the terror cells they've been tracking. trulling news inging -- troubling news there.

but they didn't see in the homes that they were planning an attack. in isis a new video showing two japanese hostages and demanding 200$200 million in ransom. so adding up to a picture of global insecurity in which president obama will deliver his state of the union tonight. let's get to it with a men mohyeldin. aymen, how might the turmoil faced by these allies influence what we'll hear tonight? we have just lost aymen mohyeldin. and we are looking at pictures of the mounting tless of isis -- threats of isis across europe. europe shaken after the attacks in paris, after a foiled terror

blot in-- plot in belgium. and we'll track that and see if we can get ayman back. he's dealing with a shaking connection. but let's start with your tracking of your opinions going into the state of the union. you asked about national security and here are the results. the economy still in a staggering lead. national security 13%. immigration 13%. let's get back to the security issues. ayman mohyelding ayman mohyelding joining us. so unrest and fears in europe and filtering over to u.s. audiences. how is that likely to show up in the state of the union tonight, aymen. >> it is going to core the global landscape for issues of the united states. there are continues that spill over causing problems for the united states and its allies. if you look at some of the main

issues probably the most pressing is the rise of isis. that has been a major concern, not only for regional security but as global security with the recent terror attacks in france and elsewhere, people are drawing sim lair ilts and express -- similarities and expressing if similar attacks continue what will the u.s. do. we heard from arab allies want the u.s. to do more and not only to combat isis but to combat the syrian regime. the iran nuclear talks aren't going well. some concern from the u.s. close allies including israel and saudi arabia on that front. but also in europe european allies want to hear from president obama assurances about the situation in ukraine that has been festering for a while and in the last few weeks been escalate escalating. so as the president surveys the major issues internationally, the close allies here in the middle east and in europe are looking for the u.s. to become

more engaged in some of the conflicts that continue to royal on ronan. >> say real shadow looming over tonight's remarks. thank you so much for that update. thank you at home. i thank you for taking the time. that wraps up our preview from washington on the state of the union. it will be coming up tonight at 8:00. and it will be a big topic coming up with my colleague joy reid. don't go away, everybody. you only know in a fire to get out, to escape and now ok you are outside and you are safe but what do you do now and that's where the red cross came in... . we ran out of the house just wearing our pajamas. at that point just to even have a toothbrush that i could call my own was so important... .

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you did it again, didn't you? yup. ♪ ♪ stouffer's mac and cheese with real aged cheddar now in a convenient cup. new stouffer's mac cups. made for you to love. the countdown is on at the white house where president obama is putting the finishing touches on his state of the union address. we'll have your complete pre-game coverage ahead including a preview of what he will say with the white house domestic policy advisor. hello, everyone. i'm joy reid.

this is "the reid report." now there is a new threat from isis. in a video released overnight online, to quote the government and people of japan, isis has threatened to kill two japanese hostages within 72 hours unless they get a 200$200 million ransom. they have not identified the hostages, but they are named in the video as haruna yukawa and kenji goto. they are kneeling on the ground in two orange jump suits. today john kerry reiterated support for japan and ordered the hostages released. kerry plans to speak with japan today. and from ana of our asian american website. what do we know about the hostages and how are they responding to the ransom. >> the two men are believed to be japanese