[ female announcer ] tylenol® cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion. nyquil® co and flu doesn hi, everyone. i'm tamron hall. the news nation is developitrac developing news. the first family departing chicago and returning to the home to occupy for another four years. 1600 pennsylvania avenue. the first time we've seen the president since he walked on to a stage and accepted a second term as america's commander in chief. >> whether i earned your vote or not, i have listened to you. i have learned from you. and you've made me a better president.

and with your stories, and your struggles, i return to the white house more determined and more inspired than ever about the work there is to do and the future that lies ahead. >> at this hour, one state remains undecided. it is florida. still too close to call and nothing to change the outcome of the race. another big victory for democrats last night was in the senate. democrats not only maintain the majority but picked up a handful of seats. among the biggest wins, massachusetts, wisconsin, missouri, indiana, connecticut and virginia. senate majority leader harry reid just a short time ago called for bipartisanship. >> the way we get things done is to work together. but we need republicans to help us. there's compromises not a dirty word. >> but we're already seeing statements like this one from senator mitch mcconnell who said last night, quote, now it's time

for the president to propose solutions that actually have a chance of passing the republican-controlled house of representatives. perhaps setting the stage for further gridlock in washington, the results of the house where republicans maintained solid majority in the next hour we're expecting to hear of house speaker john boehner. right now, joining me, national syndicated talk show host michael smirconish and joe frolic for "the cleveland plain dealer." thank you all for joining. michael, when's the reaction you're hearing from people you talk to all day on the radio? >> nerds rule. >> we know that from high school. >> well, when all is said and done, though, the data trumped the emotion. there was a huge debate that broke out in the last couple of days. how could nate silver and the

poll-driven individuals believe there's a 90% chance that the president would rwin re-electio? the race was called by nbc in the 11:00 hour. that's a stunning development. >> i believe one of our colleagues sweeted it took the president 12 minutes longer to win this time around. >> right. >> in pennsylvania, it was 52-47 for the president. michael, and what's to the very end that romney's team at least said out loud, whether they believed it actually inside or behind the scenes, they believed they had a play in pennsylvania. >> i have said things mistaken on the program during our relationship. i have to trumpet my own horn. i told you yesterday pennsylvania three to five points. it was a hail mary. the romney campaign tried to convince they had traction. i think pennsylvania has got to permanently come off that list as a swing state because it just isn't at this point. >> all right. joe, let me bring you in.

ohio. 50-48. i did the exit polling last night. incredible to see the difference with white working class voters with ohio versus the rest of the country. a 12-point difference in your state. nationally, the white working class vote, romney up by 28%. all came down to when we look at the data, that auto bailout. and you talked about that a lot. that meant so much to those people in ohio. that they bucked the trend of other white working class voters. >> oh, i think it definitely did. one of the things in the exit poll is 60% of ohioans support the bailout. 75% of those people said they voted for president obama. i think it was very, very large. even the republican analysts looking at the vote today, one of the things they have pointed to are some of the smaller counties, particularly up in the northwest part of the state. you know, where romney first raised this issue about ten days out from the election about whether jeep was moving to

china. those areas, they underperformed compared to what they had done in 2004 when they won, particularly by doing very, very well again in some of the smaller counties around the state and the ones where they didn't do as well, counties with a significant auto industry presence. >> right. i'm curious, joe, in the last hours or days i should say that ad of the romney team saying jobs shipped to china, the president along the stump made a comment about revenge and some people including romney and ryan tried to say to people, this is about the love of country, not about revenge, but i couldn't help but to wnder about the people, the men and women in the state who have a job as a result of the auto bailout and not revenge in a negative sense but in the sense of the president had my back, i'm going to have his back. this other guy simply did not and i'm not going to vote for him. >> i think that was a big part of it. yeah. it was going with the people who

are on their side. editorially last week when we talked about the inacucuracies n the ad we said people of ohio know who was on their side when -- and on the side of the domestic auto industry and it wasn't mitt romney and the republicans. >> let' bring in steve on this. steve, iowa 52-46. i spoke to you around this time yesterday. and you told me you'd heard from a lot of conservative friends and that you were seeing the chik-fil-a motivation and ready to support romney. what happened nationally then? >> i think what happened is the republicans did a better job than 2008 of turning out their vote and they won more independents than in 2008, including in battleground states like virginia and ohio but creamed by a more energized democrat base and to sum up the election i would say we were too hypocritical, too white and too

old. look at ohio. good luck sending a republican nominee there to a place like toledo, a fairly socially conservative state overall and telling them, hey, i don't think that the government should have helped you with the $15 an hour job feeding the middle class family but should have helped goldman sachs and bear stearns and merrill lynch and that's the case basically mitt romney was trying to make. this is why i've said everything on your show. i've been saying for last 11 months. i told you all along if we nominated him, we would be doing this show the day after the election and michael, i'm going to toot my own horn, too. >> you said yesterday that you were talking to conservatives who'd given you the indication that suddenly they found some passion for mitt romney. >> well, i was just relaying to you what people were telling me. listen. i'm the guy on a national conservative radio show two days ago and predicted obama to win

and took the hate mail for it. i like to live in reality and look at the numbers and not open what the truth or reality is. >> too old, too white. first read said what happened last night was a demographic time bomb that had been ticking and that blew up in the gop faces. let's look at some of the key groups, maria teresa. african-americans, 93%. we knew that. latinos, 71%. we knew they were siding with the president but it was a question of would they turn out. they upped the number this time around. unmarried women, 67%. folks, between or under the age of 30, 60% of the vote. there you have it. that is the coalition that was put together for the president. >> welcome to the new majority, gop. this is the new majority. single women, african-americans, latinos and asians broke for the president and we are talking about even in states like ohio where the latino vote is 2%, all of a sudden they started to

swing that election, as well. in virginia, as well. what we're talking about now is how's the gop going to regroup? they need to basically say, what kind of party do we want? the sunsetting party. >> we knew this before. talking about the state of texas. george w. bush knew and karl rove knew the importance of the latino vote and perplexed by the gop starting by ground zero, latinos exist and the vote matters. i lived in texas. i'm 42. i knew at age 1 it mattered. >> this is when i say that the gop has to regroup. they have to figure out, do they want to win congressional seats over and over again and gerrymandering or do they want to take over the senate and the white house and only way is to make the tent bigger, not just for latinos but for women and other minorities. >> let's bring you in. you have maria teresa and talking to three white males, as

well, and curious separating the national numbers with ethnic and gender gaps that we're seeing. but in ohio, michael, these were white working class people who did not look at some of the other factors of race and they said, he had our backs. specifically speaking of the auto industry there. so, it is not all certainly white voters siding with the gop. for the folks in ohio, it boiled down to truly economics. and maybe a little bit of class there. >> yeah. i think in ohio economics trumped race but i think that race is a critically important factor. >> yes. >> it's interesting. as you were running through the demographic groups, i was saying to myself, i can explain women because of the way the choice issue is handled by the republican candidates. i can understand hispanics with the opposition of the dream act and young people. asians, what accounts for the fact that roughly 70% of the asians -- >> immigration maria teresa

says. >> okay. but -- >> go ahead. >> but the republican party is doomed by the shifting demographics unless they change. by 2050, the country looks a whole lot different. what i was stunned by, did you look at the crowd reaction last night when governor romney spoke and see who was in that audience? and then take a look at the crowd that was in the audience when the president spoke in chicago last night. >> but michael -- >> a night and day difference at the conventions. let's play what mike murphy said on nbc last night real quick. >> we've got to modernize conservatism in a way that appeals to the demographics of the country we have now, not of 1980 or 1988. >> steve, you know, we respect mike and i respect you on the panel. this is nothing new. the gop -- i remember when one of my colleagues once said if the gop did not modernize they would be the modern-day whig party. steve, did you wake up today or conservatives wake up today

saying that the party is too white, too old or something you knew and didn't say on air, a gut feeling about the election? >> well, i mean, i'm from a different generation. you know? what happens when you're gripped as an organization byes no tall yeah, i think the democrats were gripped by kennedies ies no tal yeah and needed to reboot the pair dime and the republicans are gripped byes no tall ye s n. tradition gives you confidence if you put the right people in place it can work again but nostalgia is regressive. it's paralyzing. it has you want to keep going back and recreating a moment in time. we have an entire generation of leadership that came out of the reagan era. when reagan was in office, man, i was trying to eat paste and going out to resez. >> yeah. >> i wasn't paying attention and these guys want to keep going back to 1988 over and over again and once and for all it doesn't work. >> you would be run out of town

-- >> and he had the latino vote. >> absolutely. >> reagan would be considered an extreme moderate in the republican party. >> that's the conversation now starting at ground zero about immigration, the importance of latino votes with just alone ronald reagan on this issue. >> this is a bigger issue but i think one of the things and the president mentioned it last night in the speech. we have to talk about how to modernize elections, as well. waiting two hours in line. there was a very strategic part of the republican party to suppress the vote. >> can i react to that? can i suggest another problem of the republicans? >> go ahead. >> i think fundamentally going back four years, they never respected this president but they didn't respect the organization around him. they thought 2008 was sort of a blip. this messianic moment. i don't think they thought the electorate would look like it did in 2008 and yesterday.

72% white versus 74% four years ago. >> we are out of time. i wish i could talk to all of you all day long. i appreciate your insight but i have to move on and hopefully have you more on. there's more to come. thank you all. thank you. just in the last hour, the man that they called the defacto leader of the republican party, he is reacting to latinos siding with the president. >> in order to get the hispanic or latino vote, does that mean open the borders and embrace the illegals? a history-making night for women in congress. >> despite the odds, you elected the first woman senator to the state of massachusetts. >> and we have new details on just how big the gender gap was between the president and governor romney and join the conversation on twitter. find us. but first, here's a look at the

front pages of newspapers across the country today. check it out. as we go to a break. [ female announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. it has more of 7 antioxidants to support cell health.

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welcome back. the 113th congress convenes there's a record number of women. the four women who won last night, missouri senator clair mccaskill is returning to washington after winning 55% of the vote beating congressman todd akin whose comments about so-called legitimate rape set mccaskill on the road to victory. >> they all said, it's over.

it's done. it's too red. it's just too red. there is no way that claire mccaskill can survive. well, you know what happened? you proved them wrong. >> in new hampshire, with the election of two female representatives and governor, the delegation of the state now women. bring in congresswoman diane da get and salon.com's writer. let's look at the gender gap. president obama had a 11-point edge of women making up for the 7% loss among men. in the last weeks of this election we saw some polls that indicated or at least claimed the gender gap was closing and narrowing. that proved not to be the case. a significant difference there. >> i never believed that the gender gap was closing because the women of america, they think that they should be able to be

equal in this society, get equal health care that they need, that they should be able to get birth control, they should be able to go to planned parenthood for the well woman visits and get pay equity in this country. it doesn't seem very radical to women. my daughters are 18 and 22. they found it unbelievable that we were debating about these things in this day and age. and so, i wasn't surprised at all to see that 11-point gender gap and to be honest if the republicans in congress and if the republican party in general doesn't start really thinking about how to come in to the 21st century, that gender gap is going to persist. because women are increasingly breadwinners in this country and getting equality across the board so this was no error or no mistake. this is really a serious issue that the republican party's going to have to deal with. >> when you look in hindsight on the comments, mourdock, for example, we talked about todd akin, as well, what do you

believe the source of this is? i mean, we are talking about at one point intrusive vaginal probes and some of these issues that so many women have said and come on this show, especially women older than myself who said we thought we were done with this. how did this become a part of the narrative when you kept hearing mitt romney, for example, even though he didn't come out against the people in his party say it's about the economy and then a war on women? >> what happened was these conservative republicans just got used to always saying, well, i'm pro-life and eventually what happened was the policies they started supporting were things that would reduce access to birth control or would reduce access to abortion even in the case of rape. and the republican party went further and further to the right and people said, what do you mean when you say you're right

to life and then the terrible truths that the policies that the folks supported were really far right. you know why they say it? they believed it. they weren't making a mistake. they believed the issues and i don't think men or women has realized it up until that point. >> erin, we pointed out elizabeth warren, the first female senator of massachusetts. let's play what she said last night. >> this one was grassroots all the way. these were people who showed up in living rooms and kitchens and school auditoriums who held signs, who called neighbors, who really made this happen. and they saw this race as a race about what kind of a people we are, what kind of country we're going to build. and they wanted to be part of it and they made it happen yesterday. >> we know the polls show the race was neck and neck between her and senator scott brown and some saying perhaps the coat tails of the president, the issues regarding women may have

helped the female candidates for his party, erin. >> scott brown also let's not forget allied with the party on some really crucial votes including limiting access to birth control so we have where scott brown is part of the party limiting access to birth control, trying to defukt planned parenthood and redefine rape. i think across the board we saw that people, men and women, who are allies of reproductive freedom, allies of women's participation in society, stood up and made the voices heard. >> quickly, we have heard a lot of republican strategists talk about a curve correction and new strategies for the party. do you believe that conversation will be had regarding women regarding the gender gap? >> we have to look at the fact that women of color really responsible for electing not only the president but the progressive women coming to congress and lindsey graham said

there aren't enough angry white men. they have to wake up today and look at the demographics of this country, women turning out, it includes women voting on issues and reacting pretty badly talked about in disrespectful ways as rape survivors, as women in the work force, as women with rights over their own bodies. >> thank you. a pleasure having you both on. i know you've had a long night. right now, outside of politics. snow is already falling. look at this shot. you can't even really see the skyline to guess what city that is but it is in the northeast. another big storm hits the region. this is a lot of people are still without power. so many have no place to call home. and this is what's roaring to the same region that sandy hit. plus, have you heard? a tweet has suddenly disappeared from donald trump's twitter page. was it deleted? what happened? we don't know but we know what

tweet was there and now it's gone. we'll tell you what tweet it is. it is just one of those things we thought you should know. but first, british prime minister david cameron tweeted, warm congratulations to my friend barack obama. look forward to continuing to work together. and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu told reporters, quote, i will continue to work with president obama to preserve the strategic interests of israel's citizens. [ female announcer ] e-trade technology can help make you a better investor. our e-trade 360 investing dashboard shows you where your money is, live. e-trade pro is so usable you'll actually use it. and our apps are the ultimate in mobile investing. become a better investor at e-trade. is efficiently absorbed in small continuous amounts. citracal slow release continuously releases calcium plus d with efficient absorption in one daily dose.

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york city skyline. you can't see a thing. on the right side, that's point pleasant, new jersey. we know that's one of the communities still dealing with tremendous damage as a result of hurricane sandy. the nor'easter is expected to hit full force tonight. more than 600,000 people are right now still without power and the storm could cause even more outages. plow crews are on stand by. flights in and out of airports in the northeast being canceled. forecasters expect high winds, heavy rain and snow and eight to 12-foot waves along the coast. incredible. and back to toll picks and article says republicans are facing a crisis. the country's growing less white and the coalition more white. republican jonathan, democrat chris and real clear politics erin mcpike will join me next. plus, today's gut check. here it is for you to answer today. a lot of you on twit we are the thoughts. just explode.

do you think the president's victory will break the partisan fever in congress? check out the tumblr page. this is my executive producer hanging with me all night long on ice as we delivered the exit polling for the evening. ♪

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by itself the recognition that we have common hopes and dreams won't end all the gridlock or solve all our problems or substitute for the pain staking work of building consensus. and making the difficult compromises needed to move this country forward. but that common bond is where we must begin. >> president obama talking about

unity as he claimed victory in chicago last night. much of his win as we mentioned can be attributed to a declining portion of white voters. politico asks if the gop too old and too white? president obama's thrashing of mitt romney exposes structural weaknesses that shut the republicans out of the white house until they appeal to a rapidly changing america. bring in the political panel. chris cofinis, erin mcpike and jonathan caleggio. thank you all for joining me. jonathan, let me start off with you. i'll ask the question as quoted by politico. not my words but the question is, is the gop too old and too white? >> that's a very, very good question. i know that in that same article jonathan martin talked about how the bush margin with hispanics from 44% in 2004 to 27% in 2012.

this is exacerbated by the fact that hispanics are a growing population. if you're on a down woward tren with a growing group it's a -- there's inroads with asians and outreach opportunity that is we have but something that we need to regroup and look at, not only for 2014 and 2016 but i think part of a sustained effort and a sustained repositioning to do moving forward. >> so your answer is yes or no? i'm just being honest. you went on and on. >> i take the argument. i respect the argument and we do need to move forward. >> okay. i'm going to take that as a yes. chris, let's bring you in on this. you were so confident and you had been since we talked with you. i think you were the last man standing at the dnc. everyone else rolled out of town and we were talking with chris and you were optimistic then and then after the first debate when there were some within your

party who had thrown their hands up and make me want to holler as the song says. what was the key to success last snigt. >> well, there were a couple. i would say the obama campaign ran a really smart, targeted campaign. that they were able to bring out in terms of the microtargeting, the numbers that you saw in terms of turnout of african-americans, women, young voters, hispanics, that was a really sophisticated operation. i have to say, i give them enormous amount of credit. i didn't think it was that possible to do what they did and they exceeded it. the other part is, you know, in terms of the republican party being, you know, too old, too white, i would add another thing. they're too wrong. they're wrong on the key issues in terms of where the country is. think about this one fact. american people asked in the exit polls where they stood on tax increases for those making more than $250,000, president obama won 60% of the voters and

overall majority supported that. that tells you i think really clearly that the republicans are lo losing on issues they thought they would win and win big on. >> erin, let's play chris christie a short time ago finally giving reaction after taking a lot of heat from republicans who basically labeled him without using the word sellout and implied it. let's play what he said regarding the election and the results. >> my work with president obama was symbolic of -- it was symbolic of the leadership i've brought to trenton over three years. sometimes you need to be a little direct and blunt to get the attention of the other party. i plead guilty to that. i'm happy to do it. but in the end the other party knowings i'm a guy to sit down with and make a compromise with. >> very strong words from chris christie. is he the new face of the republican party? i mean, he, i know, stood alongside mitt romney. but it's interesting the way he's handling this at this point. is he the modern republican?

>> he may be, tamron, but i think the other republican to be seeing a lot of in the coming days, weeks, months ahead is marco rubio who's a cuban american senator of mr. florida they're looking to him as a republican to reach across the divide for them, tamron. so we'll be hearing a lot from him in the coming days. >> he's not shown the ability to have a nonpartisan spirit that chris christie seems to be -- i think he's trying to own it, to be quite honest with you. >> i think you're absolutely right but look. one thing, tamron, i think is really important, republicans may want to blame chris christie for the praise of president obama in the closing days and superstorm sandy but that is not it. this was a thumping and we know that from the senate races. democrats won senate races in north dakota and montana. >> this is not -- chris christie did not say let detroit go bankrupt and that was the difference in ohio.

not hurricane sandy and that was not chris christie. that was the auto bailout and the numbers prove it in ohio. jonathan, let's bring you back in. we have been gauging reaction from members of your party. let me play what rush limbaugh, what he's said now regarding diversity and outreach. let's play it. >> clarence thomas, herman cain, none of it counts. don't tell me the republican party doesn't have outreach. we do. but what are we supposed to do now? are we supposed to -- in order to get the hispanic or latino vote, does that mean open borders and embrace the illegals? i want you to think about this. if we're not getting the female vote, do we become pro-choice? do we start passing out birth control pills? is that what we have to do? >> jonathan, are you a ditto head on those remarks?

do you an gree. >> the rhetoric, i felt it was a venting and it was really, really unhelpful. using words like anchor babies. that type of language is extremely offensive and i think there's a -- >> that was popular language in the primary. in the republican primary, you saw what i keep bringing up and governor perry went down in flames before he couldn't name the agencies to close on immigration. >> yeah. i think that there really needs to be -- we do need to assess the policies but there's also a manner of demeanor in which we're approaching the people. we're talking about a population of immigrants, we are all immigrants. they're coming here, assimilating and no reason to treat them differently and a real area of improvement. >> let's ask you regarding -- there's a theory and floated out and i want chris to comment on this, as well. there are republicans who wants to see mitt romney in the white house but if he's to lose as he

did, that this would perhaps finally free moderate republicans from those on the hard right in your party who have to be catered in the republican primary, it may finally get them off the back of the party so that you can modernize. is there any truth to that? >> i mean, you're going to -- we saw two different things happen. you have the presidential race and on the level, suboptimal candidates. we had -- >> suboptimal people? people you don't want in your party. don't talk around it. suboptimal means candidates in the republican party you want no parts of. >> we need to be electing good candidates to run for office. folk that is are using language of respect and talking to people, you know, in a positive way and there is some policy differences but i think a lot of it is just a matter of demeanor. >> you are amazing filibuster. i love it. thank you very much. chris, i wish i had more time

but jonathan ate it up. you have to deal with him in a ballot l. thank you both very much. appreciate it. always a pleasure and honor. breaking news for you. nbc news reports that heidi highcamp is the apparently winner in north dakota. a lot of you interested in this big race and so there you have it. another female member of the senate, big news there. we'll keep you up to kate on the developments. but there you have it. heidi heitkamp apparent winner in north dakota. i'll talk to congressman from maryland chris van hollen. the top democrat on the budget committee. does he think the partisan gridlock in congress can be broken? first, here's a few things we knew thought you should know. wow. we saw this one coming. an angry donald trump lashed out on twitter last night as the election results came in. he slammed the electoral

college. the results themselves. one of the tweets read, this election is a total sham. and a trafdy. we're not a democracy. well, another tweet that's since disappeared from the twitter page said, quote, votes equals a loss. revolution! that's now gone. those are the things we thought you should know. begin. tomato, obviously. haha. there's more than that though, there's a kick to it. wahlalalalallala!

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welcome back. in less than an hour house speaker boehner will hold a news conference, the first since president obama's re-election and issued a statement saying if there's a mandate, it is a mandate for both parties to find common ground and to take steps together to help our economy grow and create jobs which is critical to solving our debt. all of this comes as the nation nears the edge of you know what, the fiscal cliff. joining me is democratic

congressman chris van hollen, he's the top democrat on the house budget committee. thank you so much for joining me. >> tamron, great to be with you. >> congratulations to you and your party. so many victories to celebrate. when's the around the corner and first read says we have a status quo result. what do you make of that? >> well, look. the president for the last four years has said he's willing to meet republicans halfway. he's willing to reach genuine compromise but for four years republicans in the house of representatives and in the senate said their number one priority has been to defeat the president. tried to block him at every turn so the question is what lessons will republicans learn from last night? as you discussed, there's some that say we have to become more moderate and others trying to double down on the right wing tea party message. if we compromise, they have to meet the president halfway and the president was very clear in the campaign on the fiscal cliff.

he says he's prepared to make additional cuts as part of deficit reduction and equally clear that we have to ask very high income earners to go back to paying what they were during the clinton administration. on their income above $250,000. as part of a balanced approach. >> the president is very clear, as you pointed out, as you have been, as well. but the republicans today and last night also very clear. mitch mcconnell, he's the person you were quoting saying that the priority was to make sure barack obama is not re-elected and said today, now it's time for the president to propose solutions that actually have a chance of passing the republican-controlled house of representatives and a closely-divided senate. step up to the plate on the challenges of the moment and deliver in a way that he did not in his first four years in office. does that sound like someone who wants to compromise? >> it does not. >> so what then is the solution to break the fever? >> it is a disappointing

comment. but republicans face this choice. in the next six weeks and when we go in to january, are they going to take the position that they're going to drive the economy off the fiscal cliff by refusing to provide tax relief to 98% of the american people in unless they get another round of bonus tax breaks for very high income individuals, people like mitt romney? and i think their position is absolutely unsustainable. because the american people are not going to stand for a party that says, nobody gets tax relief unless very high income earners gt another round of tax relief and the president has been absolutely clear. the one thing that everybody agreed was on this was a choice election and a clear differences in paths. you can be sure if republicans won they would be arguing that we're all supposed to adopt the romney-ryan budget. the president was very clear on this point. you have to take a balanced approach to reducing the

long-term deficit. frankly, the same approach that bipartisan commissions recommended. not just democrats but bipartisan groups. >> congressman, thank you so much for your time. we greatly appreciate you coming on. >> thank you. >> so often to discuss the events leading up to the election and of course the big day after. thank you. we'll talk with you soon. landmark laws pass in two states, yes, one, two. they're being called a major blow to the war on drugs. the huffington post's ryan grim will join me next. ♪

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welcome back. the feds say they'll continue to enforce marijuana laws despite colorado and washington becoming the first states in the country to ever legalize the drug for recreational use.

federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug so don't break out the cheetos or goldfish too quickly. joining me now is author of "this is your country con drugs," from "the huffington post," ryan grim. you can have five on it. people will know what that means when you google it. you cannot break the law. it is against the law. >> right. you know, the dea is fighting a rear guard action and putting a lot of pressure on the states and actually watching what they do is pretty instructive. you know, in 2010, the dea asked eric holder and the justice department to come in to california and to campaign against proposition 19 which was on the ballot to legalize marijuana. holder did come out against it strongly and that helped defeat it just barely but it hept lped defeat it.

this year they did the same thing and holder declined. he just didn't did it. he said i'm not going to get involved in this. i think part is that holder sees which way the wind is blowing here. in fact, in colorado pot got 50,000 more voting than obama so, you know -- you don't want to be on the wrong side of this. >> you do not. is it also a larger conversation about the war on drugs? i remember the commercial and the egg and all of that, this is your brain on drugs. is this an evolution and the information we now know and the difference in drugs, the types of drugs? >> yeah. and you saw this in michigan where a lot of different towns and cities decriminalized. in massachusetts they passed a strong medical marijuana law. arkansas almost passed a medical marijuana law. arkansas. in california, voters reformed this three strikes and you're

out law where a third kind of penny ante crime gets you in prison for life and did away with that. definitely people are taking a new look at the criminal justice system. you know, both in the context of fairness and justice but also in a deficit context. you know, is this something that we want to be, you know, spending resources on at a time when we're complaining about record deficits? >> absolutely. it's an interesting topic. we'll see what happens and this may be the beginning of a process that will be followed in other states. >> could be. >> thank you, ryan. great pleasure having you on. you had a long night. thank you for joining me. time now for the gut check. we talked with congressman van hollen about the extreme partisanship in washington. does the status quo control equal status quo governing? what does your gut tell you? the more things change the more things stay the same? will it break the partisan fever in washington?

go to facebook.com/newsnation to cast the vote. we'll look at what you have to say. that does it for this edition of "news nation." i'm tamron hall. "the cycle" is up next. celain v, crafted with care by a talented blonde from sweden. ♪ smooth, rich, never bitter, gevalia.

five days later, i had a massive heart attack.