this sunday, terror in denmark. two victims it dead and the alleged shooter. >> we feel certain it is a previously motivated attack and therefore it is a terrorist attack. >> one target, a swedish cartoonist on al qaeda's hit list. he survives. but a man shot debt outside a synagogue. we'll have all the latest. and fixing the va. what the agency's new leader has done. >> 900 people have been fired since i've been secretary. >> and what's still ahead, making sure veterans have the care they deserve. plus one year out, we have brand-new numbers in the race for 2016 from first three states that will start the voting. and 40 years of funny. >> 40th anniversary.

>> dana carvey and the "snl" effect on politics. i'm chuck todd. and joining me to provide insight and analysis this morning are nbc's joe scarborough, white house correspondent april ryan, the washington post's kathleen parker and former senior adviser to president obama david axelrod. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." from nbc news in washington this is "meet the press," with chuck todd. >> good morning. for the second time this year a european capital is recovering from an apparent terrorist attack, linked to islamic extremism. this time it is copenhagen, denmark. police shot dead a gunman they believe was responsible for a pair of attacks that left two people dead. one in a cafe, where a free speech event was taking place. and another at a synagogue. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel has been following the story and joins me now from istanbul. richard, what can you tell us? do we know for sure the attacker

was doing this on behalf or inspired by al qaeda? >> reporter: certainly officials in denmark believe that this was a terrorist attack. and they are going to great lengths to say that denmark is not at war with islam but is at war with radical islam. they seem to be linking it. and it is almost a mini charlie hebdo style attack a mini attack like the one we saw in paris. what happened was yesterday around 3:30 this gunman goes up to a cafe opened fire with an automatic rifle. the gunman was wearing a mask, heavy winter coat. he fires about 40 shots into the cafe window. at the cafe at the time was a free speech event and the keynote speaker at that event was lars, a swedish cartoonist who has been targeted for death by al qaeda who has drawn caricature of the prophet muhammad as a dog in the past.

someone that al qaeda wanted to kill. then the attacker got away. he was on the run for several hours as police were looking for him. around 1:00 in the morning overnight, he opened fire, not surprisingly at a synagogue. again, a jewish target, very similar to the "charlie hebdo" attack. he killed a guard at the synagogue and in the early hours overnight around 4:50 in the morning, police confronted the suspect. the suspect opened fire on police. police returned fire and they killed him. >> all right, as western europe deals with this, i know you just got back from iraq. and we're going to be debating this war resolution about what the president wants to go after isis to get congressional authority to do this it means it is going after isis in iraq and syria. what did you see in iraq? officials here claim they're making progress against isis in iraq. >> reporter: i was incredibly depressed frankly. i knew iraq was in bad shape. it was even worse than i

thought. isis is a huge problem in iraq and syria. but unless you confront the much bigger issues the issue of will occurred kurdistan be an independent state. what happens to sunni areas? will the government in baghdad continue to be run by shiite militia militias? what happens with assad? unless you address the bigger issues, it is still going to be there. i was completely discouraged by what i saw. the iraqi army has been described as pathetic, little more than a coalition of militias. so i got no indication that things are going well. >> all right. richard, thank you for your sober account there. we'll discuss this attack plus the war against isis with two key senators from the armed services committee the first one is the chairman of that committee, senator john mccain of arizona. and the 2008 republican presidential nominee. then i'll speak with the ranking member of the armed services committee, rhode island democrat

jack reed. it has been over a year since we had you on the program. let me start, based on what you heard richard engel report about the state of things in iraq, and as we debate this war resolution first of all, why do we need this resolution? why does the president need this authorization when we have two authorizations that essentially give him the authority to do what he wants in arguably both of the countrys? >> well, probably it is not absolutely necessary but it has been since 2002 as i recall that we had resolution that was aimed particularly at al qaeda, and those that were responsible for the attacks on the united states. so i think it is probably appropriate. it is probably appropriate to have the debate. but the president hasn't come forward yet with a plan or a strategy for us to succeed. and in his proposal, he left out bashar al assad, which is really amazing in that we are training

young syrians to go in andight against bashar al assad. does that mean we won't protect him against the barrel bombing of bashar al assad who already killed well over 200000 syrians? it is really kind of convoluted and i would say maybe call it an uncertain trumpet. >> are you going to be one of those proposing for broader authority for the president and the resolution as it gets debated? >> i think we should not restrain the president of the united states. the congress has the power of the purse. if we don't like what the commander in chief is doing, we can cut off his funds for doing so. but to restrain him in our authorization of him taking military action, i think frankly it is unconstitutional and eventually leads to 535 commanders in chief. >> let me ask you this larger question. you're somebody that you've been pushing hard to see a little more military presence in some of these countries, to increase the security. but as richard outlined if you

don't have -- if you don't have the iraqi government ready with a political solution, if you don't have a stable syria, don't have a stable libya, it doesn't matter the minute the u.s. pulls out, if they get involved in the country, they pull out, chaos ensues. if we stay in, you keep the stability, but we seem to want stability more than these countries. so why keep doing them? >> well i think it is pretty clear, in fact it is absolutely clear that once we had the situation stabilized, thanks to the surge and sacrifice for a lot of american lives, if we left the force behind, the position would have remained stable. to pull everybody out as the president did was a huge mistake. these things don't happen by accident. just as if he pulls everybody out of afghanistan, without conditions based, you're going to see the same thing happen there. and so many of us predicted, it was predictable and we predicted it. lindsey graham and i said this

would happen because of our many visits there. so you have to have the stabilizing force. you're going to also have to have american boots on the ground. that does not mean massive numbers as the president sets up that straw man all the time, but it means controllers, special forces and many others. it will be a tough, tough time rebuilding the iraqi military, which is defeated, which means get arms to the peshmerga who are fighting well and can fight but, look, in syria, there is no strategy whatsoever. we may train 3,000 to 5,000 people. we just hear our defense people that 20,000 people have already come into syria. >> let me get you a couple other quick questions. there is this homeland security funding debate taking place between senate republicans and house republicans. where do you stand on this? do you think using homeland security funding should be the way you protest the president's actions? on immigration?

>> i think it would be terrible. i think we have to -- the american people didn't give us majority to have a fight between house and senate republicans. they want things done. we cannot cut funding for the department of homeland security. we need to sit down and work this thing out and there is ways we can address what president did was unconstitutional. but it is not through cutting -- shutting down the department of homeland security. it is too serious. >> senator mccain i have to leave it there i have a lot to get to i appreciate you coming on. >> thank you. >> you got it. senator reed, welcome back to "meet the press." >> thank you. >> want to pick up on a couple of issues i didn't get to get to with him. talking about syria. he brought it up. the syria strategy -- you heard richard reporting in iraq, but everybody agrees nobody quite knows what it is. are you going to support a resolution giving the president more authority to combat isis in iraq and syria without knowing what the syria strategy is? >> the resolution is based upon

the threat of isil against the united states. they're holding territory in iraq defense our regionals. it is a national effort. we have the jordanians aligned with us, the uae with us, et cetera. we have concentrated on the most immediate threat, that threat is isil in syria and in iraq. and that's what the authority has requested for. >> you don't think you have to outline how -- what -- can you get rid of isis? that's fine. what's going to -- something will replace it in syria that is probably not going to be friendly to the united states. >> what we're trying to do, this is very challenging, is to develop an alternative to the radical jihadist in syria. that is the free syrian army. we begin to train them. we authorized the training. it is going to take time. we're going to have to build it. we're going to have to introduce it on the ground. hopefully that will be the nucleus for moderate forces to begin to turn the tide in syria.

it is going to take a much longer time. relatively speaking -- >> three year then, you think it should be longer. you think three years is too short? >> i think three years is not appropriate where we don't want to send a signal to the world that we're there for just some years. unfortunately, this battle will take a long time. it is a battle based upon richard reporting, he said some of the fundamental issues are political. the engagement of sunnis, the allocation of resources within iraq, even when you get into syria, what is this little opposition going to look like? not so much what kind of tactical units do we have on the ground. i think we would be better off having a resolution that did not have a specific time limit. i do think though it makes sense to indicate strongly that our engagement would be limited in terms of american military

personnel. and that i think is in the resolution. >> let me ask you a question i get a lot, why is it our fight? at some point there is a feeling, we can't do it. >> this became our fight in 2002-2003 when we decided to preempt take out the iraqi government. >> but whether you agree with the iraq war or not, you ble the united states government has a responsibility to put the middle east together. >> we have the consequences of the decision. that is destabilize country in iraq to a degree, syria. a lot of this is flowing from that decision. we have to do this in our own self-interest. we're doing this to help countries, but ultimately it is about protecting ourselves. we don't want radicalized well trained individuals coming back from iraq or syria and attacking the united states. we don't want other countries

that are allies are being subjected to this pressure. the fight has to be theirs. the fight is as much about the politics of the situation as it is about operational technique and forces them ever out. >> both you and senator mccain are allied when it comes to this idea of giving ukraine arms. arming this opposition. >> ukrainian army could never gee feet the defeat the russian army if the russians chose to escalate. if we do this and the ukrainians get slaughtered is it the united states responsible to escalate again on that clause. >> i believe that defineing defensive weapons should not be played with ultimately sending in any ground forces or more overt help. that has to be clear to them. what it will do is it will increase the cost to the

russians. and not only the military efforts, but more importantly the economic sanctions. these costs accumulate at some point. the hope is that putin becomes more sensitive to what he's doing and stop this. it sends a strong signal to the ukrainian people fighting very badly but to our allies part of nato and other countries that we're not just going to stand completely aside. >> i have no great optimism but the way you do that is first get the attention. this may be a way to do that. >> senator jack reed, thank you very much. before that senator john mccain. we have new polling. we were discussing this on friday. it was this issue, a majority of americans support what the president is trying to do there is basically mixed feelings

about whether there is confidence in the president's strategy. i think it goes to this where i think americans realize they want to get rid of the threat but they assume once we get ritt of it we'll never get out. >> well, they have learned. they watched the news since 2003. they hear republicans blaming democrats for getting out of iraq too early. we heard that today. it the democrat blaming republicans for getting into iraq in the first place. and they sit here and here we are 11, 12 years later we're worse off. you're right chuck. what you heard is what i heard and sure 300, 400 speeches -- nobody wants us to go back in there. yes we may have to put boots on the ground. but they don't want america fighting this battle anymore. japan has a stake in it.

saudi arabia, the whole world has a stake in it. all i here is enough. this is not america's war. we'll help out. but we're not leading the parade anymore. >> another poll number here. what is the president going to be remembered for, ending a war or starting a war. many people said about starting a new war. that's not the legacy candidate barack obama thought he was going to have and maybe the country thinks el going to have -- >> one of the pieces of hope and change is the fact he was going to pull troops out of iraq. you have to -- i was too surprised at this poll, when it tet something about the president, his legacy starting the war. is he starting a war or acting. we're seeing advances in iraq by isis and the iraqis are not able

to stand up for themselves. we are are dealing with situations we are having to respond to especially with the lone wolf issue that we're wondering what is going to happen. >> david, something in the war resolution and you're a wordsmith. the president's proposed resolution checked every -- here we have this -- you're asking for congressional authority to military action, should you be rechecking them? it is all about pulling at heart strings? >> i was surprised the name check. >> it is a way of saying we have a real national security interest in being there. we wrote in 2002 as a young candidate for the senate he said he impotionsed the invasion. that's what happened. until we find a little splugsolution, we can create the time and space

for them to get together. >> it feels like -- it is just like -- >> yeah. with. >> we got to go in because you got to clear and create stability, create the space for them to create their own political stability. they don't do it some other group will raise up. >> we had 180,000 troops in iraq and afghanistan when he took office and 15,000 there now. history is hard to judge in the moment. >> kathleen. >> look, president bush never keeps -- when he's with president and had to go to war under the circumstances we all believed at the time, he put in place a lot of tools. the patriot act and all that. he told me once during an interview, difficult things that

were very unpopular. i think president obama is in that situation now where he does see. the ball is in his cord and he feels he has to do something. he would be in a loss, loss situation. if he does something it is the wrong thing. >> it is a debate we won't end this morning here. i'm going to be back in a minute. we'll change topics a little bit. the race for the white house. brant new polling data. a week this sunday we'll be dealing with a sunday primary. our "name your price" tool helps -- oh, jamie you got a little something on the back of your shoe there. a price tag! danger! price tag alert! oh. hey, guys. price tag alert! is this normal? well, progressive is a price tag free zone. we let you tell us what you want to pay and we help you find options to fit your budget. where are they taking him? i don't know.

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of a loading website. don't listen to the naysayer. switch to comcast business today and get 50 megabits per second for $89.95. comcast business. built for business. one year from a this sunday we'll be through iowa and new hampshire. we thought it would be a good time to see where the race starts. we have brand-new nbc news marist polls from those early primary presidential battleground states. here is the biggest takeaway. a wide open republican field. let me go through the leaders. in iowa, huckabee, bush walker. only guys in double digits. new hampshire bush walker hall and christie. south carolina, lindsey graham, bush, walker, huckabee and carson. in all, there were seven

different republican candidates who got double digits from the reports we saw there. interestingly enough if you sort of give their standings and do a points system, here is the four leaders in total. jeb bush and scott walker got double digit support in all three states. huckabee and paul. you could argue that might end up being the final four. in the democratic side hillary clinton leads the pack and she leads big. 68 69 65%. she's going away the democratic field. let me bring you to the desk. kathleen parker, those four, one thing i grabbed from this, there is no one front-runner but i think we know what the top tier is. the top tier is bush and walker. >> absolutely. i was actually surprised to see jeb bush doing as well as he is.

he's starting from scratch there. the thing that i think is interesting is huckabee's place in that top four because i don't know how long that will hold. because one thing i heard from social conservatives is their going to follow the william f berkeley rule. >> if you look at it, you have the insider, the governor the evangelical and libertarian, right? so question is which one of them eats into the other guy's support here. that's what it comes down to. >> it does. you have three moderate but establishment republicans who will try to cut each other up. jeb bush and chris christie. scott walker. >> why do you put walker? >> he's actually the sweet spot.

a little bit above. what is as iffing is i heard people saying scott walker. he's a aa short stop. not big enough to figure the stage there are a lot of people in the bush camp that are surprised. >> we test eded eded -- this is hillary's nomination. this will not be competitive despite the bush polls. >> chuck, it is hillary clinton's stage. you never know. anything can happen. but she is the rock star for the democratic party. i say this now, when barack obama leaves the office, there will be a lot of air left out. the democrats will try to find somebody to bring back that love, is the latter love to

laugh, the republicans, i think she's got it for a while. >> she had to pick. >> we haven't seen him. we don't know how he's going to deal with the pressures of running for president. i've been through this a few times. and the bar gets raised every sim. i think jeb bush could be a tough candidate. >> we saw rand paul stumbling early early. scott walker has been through three tough fights. not about the struggle, but we'll see. >> a little later on the show don't miss this. dana carvey who helped turn doing impressions of politicians into an art form. >> rockefeller center.

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hey matt, what's up? i'm just looking over the company bills. is that what we pay for internet? yup. dsl is about 90 bucks a month. that's funny, for that price with comcast business, i think you get like 50 megabits. wow, that's fast. personally, i prefer a slow internet. there is something about the sweet meditative glow of a loading website. don't listen to the naysayer. switch to comcast business today and get 50 megabits per second for $89.95. comcast business. built for business.

tfrnlts . welcome back. as you may remember eric shinseki was forced to resign after it was revealed that some veterans had died while waiting for care at va facilities in arizona and elsewhere. in a moment, i'll be joined by the new veterans affairs secretary robert mcdonald. first tom brokaw has been investigating the polite of homeless homeless veterans. >> an spoerm of volunteer ss to count the homeless. and one in ten is a veteran. >> they gave sacrifices that none of the rest of us will ever understand. >> los angeles has the largest

population of homeless veterans in the country. many get a cool reception. it wasn't all that way. in 1888, land was given to be maintained for soldiers. it was leased to outsiders who had nothing to do with the veterans. and neighborhoods such as brentwood westwood closed in. james carr saw a raw deal. >> they don't care about any of this. they want to turn it into what they want. >> a class action lawsuit was fired force the government to watch the original deed. >> you have politicians going around the country saying it is not right for these young men

and women to go abroad and fight for their country have to right for a roof over their head and the politicians don't motorcycle something happen. that's hypocrisy. >> the department of justice argued the agency was within its rights to rent land off the rat ran s rans. >> many powerful neighbors turned again him when he advocated housing homeless veterans here. many of the democratic leaders were nowhere to be found. >> were you surprised we edd but the bush beck? >> yes, i was. let's put them in the empty

buildings. i thought who could be good at that. >> two weeks ago, a breakthrough. >> we're moving forward together designing a plan to end homelessness among veterans in -- >> the two sides moving from adversaries to potential partners in a matter of weeks. veterans like robert malone, formerly homeless himself, said it was about time. let's help our guys. we have been protectioning the country. let's protect them now. >> joining me is the new veterans affairs secretary robert mcdonald. thank you for coming "meet the press." >> the story that tom just did, you've been hands on it. why did it take a lawsuit to get this solved. >> i don't know, chuck.

i think when i learned about this, i thought this is something that is salved. i've known the tlifr familiarshriver family for a number of years i knew of ron -- >> how quickly can we see l.a. largest homeless veteran population in the country. how long will we see them in temporary housing? >> we announced the agreement, we were supposed to give them this week. as a result of that we're moving ahead right now. we're putting in more vouchers, more vouchers that will get people into housing. on the property itself we have buildings which are vacant. we need to do seismic work on the buildings. they're not safe.

they're not -- we're moving full -- >> would you erect temporary housing tents and things like that? >> we can. we're looking at all options. nothing is taken off the table. we need to veteran homelessness since the end of 2015. we're moving full speed ahead. >> i understand that. it is already an extension of the year of the original goal. the issue of the homeless call center 40500 missed opportunities where the call center didn't refer them to met cal facilities or take care of their problems. you give out your private cell phone number. >> i have. >> is it trickling down? what about this call center. >> it is not just trickling down. we're making fundamental changes in the department. in terms of leadership. we have held accountable 900 employees no locker with us that were with us before.

>> 900 people have been fired since i have been second. 60 people were fired for ma knit lating waite inginge inginge inging manipulating wait times. so we're holding people accountable. we're nine months since the scandal erupted. the gao general accounting office, named parts of it high risk and identified the following. >> ambiguous policies, inadequate oversight and accountability, information technology challenges, inadequate training for va stachlt unclear resource needs and allocation priorities. if you took over a company like this, this could could have been in bankruptcy. would it not? >> i met with the comptroller

general and encouraged him to put us on the high risk list. we're one of the largest businesses in the country. we have a budget, $170 billion. we run over 150 hospitals. i want to improve. that's what we're working to do with our plan called my va. wait times down 18% nationally. our backlog down 61% nationally. homelessness is down. >> your now being treated like a politician on the hot seat. you got in a heated exchange. here with republican congressman mike hoffman. >> i think that's characteristic of your glossing over the extraordinary problems could be fronted by your department. >> actually, i've been here six months, you've been here longer

than i have. i will give you my number and i'll make some calls. i run a large company. >> he put out a statement in response. let me tell you something i haven't done. i have never run a federal agency that tolerates corruption the way va has. i've never been a schill for inept bureaucrats who allowed american heros to die on a medical waiting list while waiting for medical insurance. most would apologize for a scandal committed against our military servicemen and women. this administration is seemingly inkabul of feeling shame. you were tibcked off at him. he was ticked off at you. is that appropriate? >> if you look at the entire hearing what you find is tremendous unanimity, bipartisan support for what we're trying to do. that was our budget hearing. >> you think he's being unfair?

>> there was tremendous unanimity. chairman miller went around the room and asked within the veteran service organization if they have seen a change and everybody to a bernperson, x one, said they had seen a change. i'm curious. >> can you run a government agency like a business? >> we'll talk about it. >> can you really do that? >> i think you can. that's what you're testing. >> you're willing to take ideas you ran and apply them here. >> i'm here to take business practicals and apply them to government and make them work. >> the movie "american sniper," hit home. >> great movie. >> what is the important message you think folks should take away from the movie and the story that tells about the plight of

veterans. >> we see that need at va. we're the canary in the coal mine. >> you run an agency that everybody is rotting to succeed. good luck to you. >> thanks for your help. >> thank you. >> when we come back we got a special treat. little fun here. 40 years of "snl" with none other than dana carvey. >> george bush sr. here, read my

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yo hey matt, what's up? i'm just looking over the company bills. is that what we pay for internet? yup. dsl is about 90 bucks a month. that's funny, for that price with comcast business, i think you get like 50 megabits. wow, that's fast. personally, i prefer a slow internet. there is something about the sweet meditative glow of a loading website. don't listen to the naysayer. switch to comcast business today and get 50 megabits per second for $89.95. comcast business. built for business.

welcome back. you've been watching nbc at all over the last couple of days, you know this weekend marks 40 years of "saturday night live," which has given us living in a van down by the river. but for political junkies like me, the enduring charm of "snl" has been its take on politics. and it all started with chevy chase's admittedly unfair portrayal of then president gerald ford. >> it was my understanding there would be no math. >> four decades ago, not ready for primetime players debuted a show called "saturday night" and

changed the way the presidents and those competing for the job are portrayed on television. >> watergate has no place in these debates. >> and the wake of watergate, america was ready to see political leaders lampooned. since chevy chase and dan aykroyd tangled, there have been two sets of presidential face-offs. the televised debates and the sendoffs live on saturday night. >> let me sum up on track stay the course, a thousand points of light stay the course. >> governor duekakis, rebuttal. >> i can't believe i'm losing to this guy. >> we have been here jabbering, our deficit increased by half million dollars. >> before bill clinton took the oath of office, one of the most unforgettable portrayals. >> right now we're sending food

to somalia, but it is not getting to the people who need it because it is being intercepted by warlords. your mcnuggets from great britain to somalia intercepted by warlords. >> "saturday night live" primary had few winners. >> i will instead ask each candidate to sum up in a single word the best argument for his candidacy. governor bush? >> strategory. >> vice president gore? >> lock box. >> the vice president's staff reportedly made him watch that debate to correct his actual performance. the show has fine tuned the sound bite. >> i consistently supported the war are in front of pro war audiences. >> or awkward body language. >> how do we as a people come together? >> creating fictional doubles

that are larger than life. >> i believe that diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign policy. >> and i can see russia from my house. >> while politicians attempt to play along. >> and now i'd like to entertain everybody with some fancy pageant walking. >> i really wish that had been you. >> 40 years after "saturday night live's" debut american politics isn't the same. >> go see it. >> you don't see it? >> it is exaggerated. it is not me, the crazy hand gestures, the pointing, i don't do them. never said it. in all my years of government service i never once said not gonna do it. >> i sat down with the man we just saw there who brought the first president bush and many other characters to life on "snl," dana carvey. you were at least from my generation the political impersonator. >> well, i had --

>> during the '88 campaign. >> that was -- it is funny because jon loveits was doing dukakis. jon did call me after the election and congratulates me. >> he called you. >> he knew i would be in the open playing the president. playing the president on "saturday night live" is a cool thing. it took me a year to break it. it took me a long time to find the hook and i was with now senator al franken sitting where you are, jamming, and this rhythm came out of this thing out there, that guy out in that whole area. >> the hook. let my play the first clip. we have clips. let's play it and we'll come back. >> debate '92 the challenge to avoid saying something stupid. >> can you see this election is about who can take the heat. it is hot in there.

very hot. the phone in the white house rings at 3:00 a.m., do you want somebody who answers the phone politely. hello, this is the president, speak slowly and clearly and tell me what the problem is. or do you want somebody cranky, someone who says shut up hangs up the phone and sleeps like a baby while the world burns. >> i hadn't seen that in a long time. >> i read in the "snl" book where you only actually said the word prudent or used it in a phrase once. >> i would make up things about -- i saw -- i think i saw him once go it's bad, kind of. so that became a huge hook. but the not gonna do it was kind of the spur -- took it. instead of not going to do it. on the cue card it would say not gonna do it. >> i read stories after he lost this basically you were shtick

for him, right? he would call you and say, hey i got a few jokes i got a few people i want to play pranks on. >> he called me. you get called by the president this is the white house operator number one hold for the president. and this is after he lost the election. everyone thought he was depressed and, you know. i'm talking and he goes, well, dana, thought you would come out to the white house, cheer up the troops thinking about his staff and everything. and i was so young and naive at the time, i said, well where would i stay? to the president -- he goes, stay right here in the white house and we did. we spent two days with him. had a wonderful time. >> you also became perot for so many people. let me play some of my favorite. >> yes, sir. you want a ham -- they say you're a drag on the ticket. they must have been watching a different show. when you were quiet there for an hour, that was world class. showed you ain't just talk, quiet man, a lot going on

upstairs. the others went shooting their mouth off. >> who am i? why am i sneer. >> you're the admiral, you're taking a joy roid. >> was perot easy because it is southern? >> perot was the gift, you know. i feel like as a character. sarah palin and ross perot, just fully formed characters walking on to the -- >> they had their own caricature, easy to caricature. >> we have videotape down the hall, see if you can do anything with it. and i put it on and it is like -- and i was, like, my god my god. can i finish one time or are are you you going to interrupt me? >> heard from hw, he loved it. ross perot? >> he invited me to be with him in dallas the night of the election. >> here's the deal.

now, now, you come on down, there will be two of us, see. two is funnier than one, you know what i'm talking about? that's the way he talks. we'll go on the road together. you'll campaign one way and i'll campaign the other. real character. >> this current republican field, anybody jump out? >> no. >> scott walker, jeb bush? >> there is always a way. >> ted cruz. >> yeah, i think i could do a ted cruz. i think i -- i want to keep my powder dry. ironically i do have -- the first inkling of my head of you. >> well, okay. >> it is just -- it is just starting. >> i don't want to hear it. >> you'll see it on "saturday night live." >> right. dana carvey, pleasure. >>0xñ

welcome back. big news affecting politics and showbiz this week. jon stewart is stepping down from "the daily show." want to bring in the panel on this. liberals are just in mourning, mr. axelrod about losing stewart. it was a reminder to me that when you think about it political satire dominated by liberals, stewart, oliver colbert, bill maher. conservative talk radio is limbaugh, mark leven, hugh hewitt. liberals can't succeed on radio and conservatives aren't succeeding in political satire. >> there is a long history of this. go back to the beginning of radio and father copland and right wing radio has always been

populist, always had huge audiences. there hasn't been a corollary on the left. satire goes to i think a more elite audience. and therefore it -- >> elite. >> it is the liberals it is the traveling salesman. >> what is your theory? >> it is the audience. you have the audience, the conservative audience, our you're talking about the traveling people, talk radio is still a conservative domain and probably will remain that way. as far as comedy goes, you know, entertainment industry has been filled by -- >> you think they don't reward the conservatives? >> that said jon stewart had a couple of years after barack obama was elected where he didn't go after barack obama, but, boy he did in the final few years. he went after him on immigration. he had a skit about him being an emperor. he went after him after benghazi. >> he went after -- wherever he

could find, including the news media. >> you think we should see a woman replace jon stewart? >> oh yes. i know i'm supposed to say yes but i hope it is somebody really funny. that's why they succeed is because liberals put funny first. and i think conservatives put politics first. >> it is time for women to take the big seat, the big chair. i think we are the ones to help make that spoon full of sugar make the medicine go down the medicine being politics. >> liberal talk radio is hard. it doesn't catch on as much. >> it doesn't, you're right. conservative talk moves, but liberal talk is not -- it is not as big as it used to be. >> that's all. this was an eclectic show. we loved it. we have fun. we'll be back next week. because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

good monday morning. right now on fist look dangerous weather in the eastern u.s. heavy snow 60-mile-per-hour win gusts and temperatures at 25 below. reports of one of the biggest banking heists ever. plus -- >> live from new york it's "saturday night". >> one night only. some of the biggest names in comedy come together to celebrate 40 years of snl. good morning, everybody. thanks for joining us today. much of the northeast is in a deep freeze this morning. parts of new