six agencies into one will the republicans agree. the u.s. warns not to shut down the straight of hormuz, we will talk about that right here. and mitt romney strikes back with his first ad defending his record as a venture capitalist. >> this is a business that mitt romney helped start, and this one, and this steel mill mitt romney helped create and ran a company that invested in struggling businesses, grew new ones and rebuilt old ones creating thousands of jobs, those are the facts. with we expect today obama administration to put free markets on trial, but as the "wall street journal" said, mitt rommy is embarrassing himself -- >> romney speaks french? >> massachusetts moderate mitt romney will say anything to win. anything. and just like john kerry, he

speaks french too. >> our own chris matthews anticipated that one. >> can you say, let them eat cake in french? >> i can but i won't. >> will newt's attacks take hold? and sally atwater with the gingrich campaign in south carolina joining us and steven colbert making good on his pitch to run in the palmetto state. >> i think there may be a guy. john? john stewart everyone. >> colbert super pac transfer activate. >> and today makes history, 60

years of history. >> this is a new program that you will find your tv set working instead of a test pattern, called today from the nbc communications center, from the rca exhibition on 14th street if you know where that is, we have several amazed people on their way to work looking at us through the big glass windows of this spot. you may see yourselves next time. >> you know, it sounds amazing but it was 60 years ago this week that something revolutionary was happening right here in rockefeller plaza. >> mitt romney's soupsuper pack on the attack toward santorum. >> santorum pushed for billions in wasteful pork, voting for the bridge to nowhere a tea pot

museum and an indoor rain forest. he voted to raise the debt limit five times. how will santorum beat obama, obama knows he can't. >> chris is with us today. hey, chris, first of all, the most interesting thing is that mitt romney is going after santorum. going after santorum, perhaps to try to have a knock-out punch and newt gingrich got hoisted on his own with those pinochios. >> this tells you two things, one the romney campaign is more worried about rick santorum than gingrich. remember, this is the same super pac that spent millions dollars in iowa on newt gingrich. if you are wondering who the romney campaign think is their biggest opponent is rick santorum. number two, this they are making

the electability case, that whole ad was about rick santorum can't beat barack obama. the republican base may not love mitt romney, they know, but they like barack obama more and they want to elect somebody that can beat him sglc. >> governor romney's super pac is already up with ads in florida against me. so they must have some idea who might be coming out strongly out of south carolina. here is the interesting part, all the things lifted they do not exist. >> so what is the state of play right now? newt gingrich to defense over the false charges that were made in that film that his super pac is putting up. that is a big deal and it clear that people were interviewed. they were paid for their interview, they were taken out of context, what they are saying and what is being reported in

the washington post is very, very damaging. >> yeah, it's not helpful. gingrich will say it's a super pac, it's not. >> oh, yeah right. >> but it's in the meet the press debate that gingrich said there's a film coming out and there's a lot of good details. he said there was no coordination but that was endorsing this. it backfire odd hd on him. if they split the conservative vote, we will be talking about romney as the nominee. >> i don't know thank so much, see you later chris. and president obama is calling on republicans to give him the power to do something about government. he came out and said he wants to start by combine six overlapping

agencies part of bringing the government into the 21st century. >> we can consolidate them all into one department, one website, one mission, one phone number, helping american businesses to succeed. that's a big idea. [ applause ] >> hey, great to see you, he can't do this on his own. he cannot do it by executive order. i was looking at the initial response and mitch mcconnell, they seem to be willing to work with him, they cannot say they don't want to downsize government because it's an idea coming from the white house. >> you are right. the republican response so far has been cautious. they have made the point that they are interested in hearing more about the proposal and they made the statement that they believe in their words that the president hasincreased the size

of government. and one source said it's possible that it will pass through congress but they want to make sure there's no glitches. as you point out, this is something that republicans typically support. the idea of shrinking government and making it leaner. the big question is what will the tone be when congress comes back into session, you know they were deeply divided last session is, will they be able to work together and get a deal done on this if both sides agree to do that? >> is this going to be include ed the state of the union address? >> the timing is timely. we are likely to hear about this during the state of the union address. and of course, once the president hits the road, we expect him to make a few trips after the state of the union address as is typical for presidents to do and he will continue to travel and sell this. remember when he first proposed the jobs plan, you saw him

making a lot of trips andhappen -- and the republicans have been criticizing him for increasing government. >> beautiful day there at the white house, thanks so much. mitt romney has reason for can confidence, he has two wins in his column, a campaign flush with cash and endorsements from conservatives and the republican establishment but romney has been on defense all week. hey, todd, good to see you. >> glad to be here. >> he is marching towards victory and marching towards the nomination to face of it. what are the possible obstacles on the way that you layout? >> as was laid out, we are not ready to crown him yet, but if the conservative opponents to rom keep splitting the conservative field, i just don't

see see how he doesn't have a good result in south carolina at the end of the day. if that happens he will have won three, that is kind of a modern record breaking streak and it would be hard to see how he gets the nomination. that being said, it's still hard to see how he gets the excited embrace of the whole of the republican party and that could hurt him all through the rest of the year. >> he is live right now at a rally in south carolina, on the road as his republican conservatives layout the play book for david axelrod, the vulture capitalist charge makes the democratic case and so the general election is more complicated down the road. >> it starts sooner. they are making the president's general election case, mitt romney's opponents are right now. and four years ago, andrea, john mccain won the nomination. the party as his mother said had to hold their nose and take him but in something like 19

primaries and caucuses never got below the below 30s in support. if romney faces the same thing, he may well face the similar fate in the fall. >> having looked at the romney campaign and watched the dynamics in the campaigns, it seems to me that romney has to figure out a way to get around the vulture capitalist, you know, we are using that phrase as it comes from rick perry and others to republican side, using it in quotation marks he has to find a better narrative for that, has he done that? >> there's an ad, but the hard part for mitt romney is by the nature of his personality, and the nature of his mannerisms and the nature of the way he is as communicator, he is not the ideal perpendiculson to talk ab because he sounds so formal and botch it all.

what he needs is somebody like bill clinton to explain the good side of what bain capital was. >> if you look at the writers that were looking at bain capital, their job is to not make jobs. and mitt romney mistake was to claim that because of his experience at bain capital, he is a job creator. that is not really what bain capital is all about. >> no, it's a wealth creator and a wealth creator for the investors and it was a misstep for if campaign. i mean, i think, in someplace kay ways he left himself open to these charges and they are now coming from all sides. >> thank you for being with us. and will younger voters come to newt's rescue and still ahead our guest, u.s. ambassador susan rice, if you have a question for me, join us for a live chat on

the at andrea.msnbc.com. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc.

i want to ask if all of the young people who are here would like to come up for a second. these young people are what this campaign is all b it is there country and their future. >> gingrich trying to appeal to the young voters. sally atwater is spearing the students for newt efforts in south carolina, it great to see you again, have you a famous name in south carolina, but you have your own career now as a political organizer so we are

talking another generation of political organizers. why should newt gingrich beappealing to young voters? >> honestly for me, i'm a senior right now and the thing that stood out for him was job creation. that is what people in college are thinking about, getting a job. and you know what? it's really scary, most of us don't want to go to the job market because there are not any jobs available. so looking at his record as speaker and the fact that you know his unemployment rate when he was speaker was 4.2% and we have almost 10% in south carolina, it's ridiculous. >> sally, at the same time, mitt romney is making the campaign pitch,i pit pitch, that he has better business experience, what is your argument in favor of newt

gingrich against romney? >> he said in the past that he was a great businessman, but has he shown that. when he was the governor of massachusetts they were ranked 47th in job creation, that does not make him sound like a businessman. >> many are saying that newt gingrich is taking credit for things he did not do. he worked on job creation and the economy but not a single republican voted for clinton's economic plan in 1993, in fact, gingrich would not have retaken the house if they had not campaigned against that economic plan and there's many that say that plan is what led to the expansion in the '90s more so than what congress did. >> just looking at his record though, you cannot deny that fact that he created over p11

million jobs, he balanced the budget. and the laststa statistics on oa i saw was that he had 30% of the debt due to obama right now. so, i think that newt is the only candidate qualified and able to run the country. >> sally, i have to tell you, that i know you are your own person doing your own politics, but now newt gingrich has the benefit of your name and you look so much like your late dad, controversial tough south carolina politics. what do you think of that legacy as well? the good and bad, you know, he helped elect, of course, george bush the senior, bush 41, and we knew him so well through some very tough campaigns. what about the way politics was practiced back then? >> you know, i was actually, i was 11 months old when my father

passed away. >> i know. >> so i was not really around during that period, but my dad did create a fantastic legacy, you know, some things people say were, you know, not, were negative and whatnot, but i really do kind of hold him on a pedestal because he was my father. >> he had some remarkable thoughts during his illness and we know your mom and we knew him very well and we thank you and look forward to seeing how you develop and grow into your own political activist. >> my mom currently right now is in myrtle beach phone banking at the newt gingrich phone bank. so it's still a family affair. >> thank you for taking the time. >> thank you and i hope you have a good day. >> up next, we have our politico

briefing, could mitt win the bible belt? stay with us and a historic day here at 30 rock, the today show celebrates 60 years on tv. gathered all the hosts together. across the nation, major land marks also toasted to "today's" six decades. new york harbor, niagra falls and the casino in las vegas and even the goodyear blimp delivered a special message and the president and first lady got into the celebrating. >> the today show has become part of american culture. that is why we are both so policlease -- we know you'll ha many more years of success, but

first this is "today" on nbc. >> i wanted to say that. >> sorry. happy 60th all you guys. we will be right back. it's got 10 speeds, my friend. ♪ is it fast? it's got a lightning bolt on it, doesn't it? ♪ is it fast? i don't even know if it's street-legal. ♪ is it safe? oh, yeah. it's a volkswagen. [ male announcer ] the security of a jetta. one of nine volkswagen models named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. ♪ got you in a stranglehold, baby ♪

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thanks, mom. i just want to get my car back. [ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. in today's politico briefing, could it be a case of un intentional consequences by splitting the vote. we have jim with us from washington and he will talk about that and he has written about it today. jim, the evangelicals are divided and now mitt romney we just got a new radio ad shares your values where mitt romney, the romney campaign are putting out a radio ad in south carolina on the abortion issue. do they have concerns about that in particular?

>> they certainly do, social conservatives dominate in south carolina, he is benefitting from dividing opposition. he send ends but because evanges do not have an alternative to rally around but he knows they have to win a chunk of evangelical christians so he is going up with ads trying to defend himself on things like abortion. he did well with the evangelical christians in new hampshire so he can do well in south carolina with them. the division of the other three and the fact that there's no one for evangelical christians to rally around is a reason that people think he can win that state. >> the evangelical leaders meeting to see if they can come

behind one alternative. they were looking at santorum, but given how he did in new hampshire, this is the last test for santorum as to whether he can be the guy. >> right, and i caution people, this is not the christian coalition of the '80s, there's not one leader that can lay their hands on a candidate and say rally behind him. even if they find a consensus, i don't know that it will have that big of at difference at this point in the race. >> thank you, jim. >> thank you. >> the chance of conflict with iran, and our guest susan rice, send me your thoughts on twitter. s a million things to pick up each month on top of her prescriptions. so she was thrilled that her walgreens pharmacist recommended a 3-month supply and would always be there to answer questions about her health.

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♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8. topping the headlines right now on "andrea mitchell reports," three people are dead today and one other injured after a gunman entered a north carolina lumber

yard, he entered the warehouse and started shooting he was transported to a local hospital after being found in a home with a self inflicted wound. the snow storm has been causing trouble for morning commuters. the storm is expected to drop more than a foot of snow across the region. jimmy carter said that the results of the election are acceptable despite irregularity during the vote. president carter was part of the historic 1978 camp david acord that led to that agreement. newt gingrich was hoping to

show his critics wrong, has he proven them right? hey, michael, you have taken a look at the track record so far, what is your take away to way that newt gingrich has been campaigning? >> that is the point. i mean, in early december he thought he had the nomination and his whole goal was to relaunch the gingrich image, this was no longer the volatile candidate we saw in the past. when he came under attack i think he feels that the nomination was stolen from him and now he is reacting as the old gingrich, with attacks. he is attacking romney from the hard right on abortion in south carolina, and he is attacking him from the hard left when it

comes from the bain attack and the only thing that unites these things is gingrich himself. >> at this stage, can he bounce back and forth between his high-minded complaints, i'm putting quotation marks around this, he goes to the super pac and takes a left turn and goes after romney, does he risk sort of confusing people as to who the real newt gingrich is? >> this is a remarkable story on the bain matter. he used it initially. then he actually apologized for using it saying that it was not consistent with his values. then it was used by the pac in an inaccurate way and the thing is the film would not have been used by the obama administration, or campaign, not because it's inaccurate, which

it is, but because it's extreme. newt gingrich accuses barack obama of being a socialist and newt gingrich and the only one who actually sounds like a socialist right now in the campaign. attacking romney's personal wealth, aacking the roll of venture capitalists in our society, there's tremendous inconsistenciy here. >> you have is been hearing that republican leaders have been putting pressure on newt gingrich to stop going after romney with these attacks because they are hurting the brand, they are hurting the potential nominee. do you get a sense that gingrich is listening? >> no. i describe him as a party of one. his main focus is his own agenda. and he really doesn't, i don't think, care very much what happens to the conservative movement or the republican party in this. he is really samson bringing

down the temple. >> michael, you are republican and you have not endorsed anyone in this campaign. sg >> and i won't. >> u.s. is telling iran's leader to not block oil shipments in the straight of hormuz as a investigation is being called for in the death of a nuclear scientist. despite u.s. involvements in. is there any reaction to this, inside iran to the u.s. warning? >> it's an on going reaction, iran always has used this threat of shutting down the straight of hormuz, as you know, the army had war games though. they said that it would be as

easy as drinking a glass of water to shut it down. so more war games and practices are coming in the coming weeks in the persian gulf. andrea? >> and now joining me for our exclusive interview, u.s. ambassador to the united nation susan rice. i know you are zojoining us fro the white house today. first of all, your meetings at the white house and this decision to warn the iatola so directly, really the supreme leader not to shut down the straight of hormuz, why this worni i warning and it have an impact? >> obviously the united states and the entire international community have a interest in freedom of commerce and navigation in all international waters including the state of

hormuz, we have said it publically and we have communicated it privately in various ways and the message that we are dealing in public and private is very much the same. this is an international commons, it's necessary for international commerce and we won't tolerate any effort to block it. >> with itit's been the stated n that we have the assets and we would make sure that the flow of oil can continue. what if they mined the straight, they have tried that before, what can we do in that instance? >> i don't care to get into any particular hypothetical. there are ways that they can approach it, and we would of course respond as necessary to keep that international waterway open. but, i think it's also important to remember that iran, itself, has the greatest interest in a waterway being open, it's their oil, their commerce as well as

this of their neighbors that thr flows through that so it would be unwise and self defeating for them to do that. >> were you at a meeting on iran today? i'm not there so i don't know what your deliberations have been today. >> no, but you know i would not talk about what i was here to do in terms of classified meetings, but no, i'm here doing other business. >> let me ask you about the nuclear scientist, this is the fifth that we know of, targeted assassination, others were struck and injured and have recovered. the iranians went to the un and they say they want action on this. if it was on our territoriy we would be outraged by this, what about the assertion is that the u.s. is involved and israel on this? >> the united states has been clear, we had nothing to do with violence committed against the

scientists. and we have condemned it strongly and that is the position of the united states. >> if you were in iran's position, you would find it hard to believe that the u.s. was not involved and certainly hard to believe that israel was not involved. couldn't you understand them believing that israel was involved and that leads to the question of whether israel in doing this, whatever covert action that is being done is a way to get the iranians to react or over react and spark an incident that would lead to some sort of military action? >> i speak for the united states, from the u.s. point of view, we were clear, we had nothing to do with this. we condemn it and our approach is quite plain, we have been clear. we have a dual track policy to prevent iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. we are increasing pretty sure. we enforced the toughest

sanctions on iran, and we have combined that with exerting additional steps with other countries, to increase the economic pressure on iran. and indeed, you hear the president of iran acknowledging that this economic pressure is mounting and having an effect. at the same time we have been very plain that we would like to bring iran back to the negotiating table for iran to deal seriously with the international community's nuclear's concern. that is our purpose. >> and you can understand that with the assassinations continuing the iranians may not be as willing to talk. would we tell our allies and friends and others in the region not to kill iranian nuclear scientists? would that be a message that be would delivered? would you deliver that message?

>> we condemn the violence and this act and our policy is one of increasing the economic pressure, isolation of iran in order to persuade it to take the other course, the other track, which is the peaceful track to resolve the very legitimate and pressing concerns that the united states and the entire international community have been iran's nuclear program. iran has a choice and it and still and we hope it will decide to deal rationally and peacefully with the international concerns about its nuclear program and repeated violations of its international obligations, it can do so easily and directly if it chooses to do so. and the pressure we are mounting economically through the united nations and steps that partners and friends and allies are taking around the world are aimed at that solution. >> are you disappointed that china stiffed tim geithner when

he went to beijing and asked them to cooperate the way that iran is cooperating on the oil and imports? >> i don't think that we see it that way. all the countries in the p five plus one, that includes united kingdom and france and germany has a strong interest and a shared goal which is to prevent iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. i think that china is a rational actor and understands that the steps we have taken make everyone who is a purchaser of iranian oil think twice about whether they want to maintain such a high degree of dependence on iran or look for other sources of oil. a and i think we were happy that other partners are moving in a direction where they are reducing their dependence on iran for oil. and i am confident that china

sees the writing to wall too. >> ambassador rice. >> thank you. >> and the candidates fight to get on the legal ballot. next on "andrea mitchell reports." applications up. ♪ hands in position. airbags. ten of 'em. add blind spot monitor. 43 mpg, nice. dependability. yeah. activate dog. a bigger dog. ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing the reinvented 2012 camry. from toyota. ♪ from toyota. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement, if your car is totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. liberty mutual auto insurance. we asked total strangers to watch it for us.

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♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates. i'm craig melvin coming up on news nation, coming up a woman that was shocked to see that she was left off the list of the long list of pardons. and mitt romney's republican rif rivalled have called him many names, we will talk about the attacks on romney's career at bain and will it help him in the long run, do you agree? it's today's news nation gut check. a homeless new york teenager featured on nbc nightly news last night is getting a home

after all. the 17-year-old is a finalist for the intel science competition and currently lives in a shelter in miami. her family is being offered a rent subsidized home. if she wins the grand prize she will also get $100,000 and gets to meet the president. michael bloomberg is raising teacher's $20,000, in his state of the city address, he offered assistance to teachers paying off student loloans. the teaches said they need to go back to the negotiation table to resolve on going disputes. mitt romney's rivals are waiting to hear about their

attempt to get on the virginia primary ballot. what are their legal options now? these are the complaints that they had, that they had not filed properly and missed the deadline? >> their odds are good. the issue is virginia's undoubtedly strict requirement forg forg, for, getting to ballot. those petitions cannot be circulated by out of state campaign volunteers, only romney and paul met the test and rick perry was the first to challenge the law, he has been joined by gingrich, huntsman and santorum and by the aclu coming to the aid of the republican candidates. the law is said by them to violate their rights of free speech. and perry said he could not

circulate brochures for his own candidacy. they will not print the ballots until the judge rules today on the legal challenge. he said earlier this week that he thought that perry and the other republicans had stated a pretty good case. >> and of course the legislature is involved, bob mcdonnell the governor is under a lot of spotlight because he is a potential running mate for any number of these candidates. >> and initially -- >> as the out going term limited governor. >> and initially the attorney general changed his mind, now he is defending the state law. sg . >> pete williams, thanks so. . okay... is this where we're at now, we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey clusters... actually there's a half a day's worth of fiber in every ... why stop at cereal? bring on the pork chops and the hot fudge. fantastic.

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so who had the worst week in washington?

i think we're talking about jon huntsman. we were going to talk about ticket to ride and his speech on election night. >> wrae. he spent a lot of his money and his father's money in new hampshire. he dedicated his whole campaign to new hampshire. supporters say he finished third. sure, but he finished well behind mitt romney. on his night of his speech, he said i've got a ticket to ride. he said third place is a ticket to ride, quoting the beetles and he said hello, south carolina. here is the problem. polling suggests he's running

behind stephen colbert in south carolina and i talked to a media buyer who said jon huntsman is spending zero dollars on television this week in south carolina. hard to see how he punched his ticket in south carolina. >> we know who is bankrolling that, it's his dad. for all the talk about what newt gingrich was getting he pulled the plug. that was a promise of $5 million. that was not $5 million committed. he didn't like some of the ads posted. >> that's always the thing you have to be careful when you're talking about major donates funding these. the only thing to be sure of is if the add is running. otherwise, it's just promises op money. look, if the guy decides he wants to write a million dollar

check rather than a $5 million check, that's a big difference. jon huntsman was very dependent on the largest of the super pac supporting him in new hampshire. he got 17% of the vote. he moved in the right direction but mitt romney won with 39. it just wasn't close. >> i want to share with you first lady michelle obama made a stop with the cast of icarly. he was asked what super power show would like to have. watch. >> you know what, i've always wanted to fly. when i was young, i used to always have dreams about flying. >> don't you love it?

>> my son is still too young for "icarly". too bad she's not doing a guest appearance on "cars" the movie. >> thank you for being with us. that does it for this special edition of "andrea mitchell reports" in new york. we'll be back next week on monday and follow the show online and on twitter. have a great weekend. melvin is in for tamron hall. coming up next, we're following developing news. president obama says it's time for an effective lean government as he asks congress for the power to reorganize part of the government. we're going to find out what it means. i'll talk to a woman outraged because her name and her sister's name was left off the list of pardons. the prime suspect in natalee halloway's disappearance is

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i'm craig melvin. president obama's new effort to shrink the federal government and save money. the president asking congress for the power the president's had for 52 years until it ran out in 1984 while president reagan was in office. he want to use it to merge six federal departments and agencies. >> we could consolidate them into one department with one website, one phone number and one mission. kristen is joining us live. the president attempting to fill a promise he made in his last state of the union address.