with that, chris cillizza, even chuck schumer has gotten into this. what is the problem with putin blocking our yogurt for our athletes. >> chobani made in new york and chuck schumer involving himself, it is basically at the airport for the u.s. winter olympic team being blocked according to schumer because of sort of unattainable demands being made by the russians to get it over to our people. but you point out, golly, this is the latest -- might be minor, but the latest in a long string of our not so friendly relations with russia in the last years. >> and ruth marcus, let's talk about this. yogurt is yogurt, but when it isn't when you have an international situation. >> international yogurt situation. >> tension between us and russians. >> and listening to the earlier report and the serious concerns about security, the notion of course, that while it's not more dangerous than boston and new york might not be so comforting to people and look, it is different than boston and new york. there's kind of home grown serious terrorist element. and the noti

let's also talk about chris christie with chris cillizza and bob ingle. the whole dispute between david wildstein and what he had to say and bridget kelly taking the fifth. where does this now stand? is this all people either not only taking the fifth but also their lawyers trying to get some kind of immunity or perhaps that's the case with wildstein? >> we've all seen "law and order", they get one person and say, if you cooperate we can go easy on you. i think it's a race to see who gets to the courthouse first and gets a deal. >> and chris cillizza, this is first time we heard from chris christie since the sort of friday night memo from wildstein's lawyer. he was pretty effective, i think, in taking to the microphone and trying to regain some kind of upper hand here. >> he's a good communicator, we saw that in the january 9th press conference. he is someone who is effective at seemingly answering questions forthrightly. he sticks to his message by and large. and he did that in this radio interview. he said i unequivocally had no knowledge there was any

this is no longer about saving his reputation. >> chris cillizza, the question that came to my mind, did you appoint him? >> i literally andrea, just wrote something, saying that if you knew all of these things, you are someone who knew david wild stein all the way back to high school. if he did sue over a local school board election or these other accusations in there, why would you have him be in the port authority. >> promised a political post in new jersey, az great job, a job you give to a pal. >> it is an appointment -- >> sitting on the bench. >> right. >> now, ruth, as far as i know you are the only person in this group who went to livingston high school. >> indeed. >> congratulations. what a group, christie, allen krueger, david wildstein, ruth marcus. >> editor of the year book the year after -- >> who knew? >> i love, by the way, check it out, the "washington post" had a great story on high school chris christie and the baseball team and how he was replaced as the catcher but let that fight go and how they won. how he showed up when one of his old pals the pitcher, was pit

thank you, chris cillizza. we'll be right back. >>> let me finish tonight with this.the line of the congressman caught up in an scam. the gist of it was that money talks. well, now hear this. what happens when the vast economic inequality in this country gets money transferred into political power? what happens when the top end of the 1% form themselves into superpacs and start knocking off senators, governors and congressmen they don't like? what happens when the billionaires learn to leverage their economic advantage in the political dominance? the fact is we haven't seen nothing yet. remember how mitt romney used his cash edge to finish off his rivals in 2012. watch how that kind of brazen money, billionaire's money, begins to target those troublesome senators now fighting for their survival in states like north carolina this november, arkansas. all the big boys have to do, as i said, by them i mean the koch brothers and their copycats is check the state polls, look to see who's in trouble, where they are, and throw a huge pile of money into the hands of the challe

. >> joining me now, chris cillizza and managing editor of postpolitics.com and ann gearan. rand paul, relitigating impeachment? what's going on here? >> i put out a few calls and e-mails to folks and gotten two answers looking for why is he doing this. this is not first time or seconds time he's gone after bill clintmultiple times. attacking bill clinton for his admitted sexual peg dell los is the most -- rand paul wants to run for president. even people that consider themselves allies, we don't know -- they are not sure there's a strategy behind this. it may just be personal and rand paul is not one we know to back down from a fight he's made comments initially about bill clinton and keeps getting asked about them and keeps making more and more comments about them. so i think we might have a tendency to think there's a grand strategy here. this may be a personal dislike between rand paul and bill clinton. >> pretty extraordinary. i want to ask ann for further background on victoria nuland, a career diplomat, russian speaker, was the spokeswoman for hillary clinton at the s

. >> it's what the glasses are to chris cillizza. once you take away the brand, it'ser ref cably damaged. >> and i can't see. >> that is also see. >> i'm taking verbs out of sentences. darryl isher wood. and chris cillizza. >> jan brewer says she will do the right thing on the bill. and when exactly she'll do it. only jan brewer knows. that is coming up. but first, ben affleck and seth rogan are on capitol hill and no, it is not because they're shooting a totally hilarious buddy movie. more on that coming up next. [announcer] if your dog can dream it, purina pro plan can help him achieve it. ♪ driving rock/metal music stops ♪music resumes music stops ♪music resumes [announcer] purina pro plan's bioavailable formulas deliver optimal nutrient absorption. [whistle] purina pro plan. nutrition that performs. a steel cage: death match of midsize sedans. the volkswagen passat against all comers. turbocharged engines against...engines. best in class rear legroom against other-class legroom. but then we realized. consumers already did that. t

thank you, chris cillizza. we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] hands were made for playing.eet...splashing. better things than the joint pain and swelling of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. if you're trying to manage your ra, now may be the time to ask about xeljanz. xeljanz (tofacitinib) is a small pill, not an injection or infusion, for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers have happened in patients taking xeljanz. don't start xeljanz if you have any infection, unless ok with your doctor. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz, and routinely check certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common, and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. tell your doctor about

joining me now, chris cillizza. the more you read into this, there's no implication of any knowledge that chris christie had. it is not about the governor. it's about people revery close to him, bridget kelly principlely? >> the hard thing here and this has been the case since we heard about bridget kelly and david wildstein and the ft. lee traffic closures, the best case scenario, he not only hired people that would engage in this political payback and joke about it before engaging in it but he also didn't know senior members of his staff were engaging in it. that's the best narrative for chris christie that preserves chris christie as a 2016 candidate. anything else -- this isn't it -- anything else that comes out that suggests his knowledge likely dooms him as a 2016 candidate. it's a bad -- his choices are between a bad storyline and worse story line. >> to give you a taste from the e-mails, one from bridget kelly about this rabbi who apparently he and wildstein were feuding on port authority. kelly said, we cann

(whistling) >>> and chris cillizza is back with us. y birthday, my friend. >> thank you. >> i won't dare to sing it. cake is on the way. >> i was all ready to talk about the national governor's association meeting tomorrow through sunday but that's fine. >> we'll talk about that tomorrow. >> 21 years young. thank you. >> yes. that does it for this edition of rain/snow mearview mirro "andrea mitchell reports." monday we start at noon weekdays. >>> in our next hour, i'll talk to former secretary of state bill richardson about the chaos that's happening in kiev. 39 people killed today alone, making it the deadliest day year in the three-month long conflict. we'll have the latest on that. also, an inside look at the record number of flight cancellations this season. more on precisely what goes into that decision to cancel a flight, including which passengers are more likely to get left holding their bags. >>> and fallout from the miami dolphins bullying case involving richie incognito and jonathan martin. an offensive line coach has been fi

joining us for our daily fix, chris cillizza and managing editor of postpolitics.com and here in thetudio, ruth marcus, "washington post" columnist. we'll start with you, there were real fears this would be deja vu all over again. what changed? >> well, i think john boehner's willingness to sort of push this all the way out to its logical conclusion is what changed. he tried to incentivize his conference as we've seen him do from the government shutdown to the fiscal cliff to the farm bill to virtually every piece of legislation, to get the tea party wing, 30 or 40 folks very resistant to voting for a debt ceiling increase, to get them on board. that failed. that is a song we've heard before but i think boehner just made the decision, look, we're not going to sort of -- this brinksmanship, we're not going to go that way. the reality is and this happened with a number of major initiatives, it has to be passed with a majority of democratic vot votes. >> hopefully that's the last time we heard that phrase, full faith and credit of the american people -- >> in the sights for conservative

. >> thanks very much, chris cillizza, mark halperin, great to see both of you guys. >>> down south,bracing for another ice storm. overnight georgia's governor, though, is vowing today not to repeat last time's debacle. two inches of snow, we remember, shut down atlanta and the suburbs last month, trapping cars on highways overnight, stranding thousands of kids in schools. this morning governor nathan diehl declared a state of emergency for 45 counties and released a plan to mobilize emergency services. authorities are asking people to stay off the roads starting this afternoon. >>> it's time for the "your business" entrepreneur of the week. when charlie created north carolina-based luxury golf accessory company stitch golf, he wanted to source his supplies locally. he found them by going door to door throughout the state, finding the perfect partners and helping the local small business economy. for more, watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. if i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple ameri

the "washington post" chris cillizza points out that at recent town hall meetings with the governor,are bad. >> well, at the very least, we've all said this before, what the texts show is the governor, even if the governor is a mile away from this scandal when it's all over, he's going to have to explain why he put such people around him. >> they worked -- >> it's a pattern. now you have a pattern -- >> they were doing it. it's proved now this was -- >> right. so he'll have to at least explain that. but chris cillizza brings up a point i wrote about last week in a column, chris christie is holding all of the town hall meetings, and they're open to the public. people are coming in with signs that say resign, and they're tough and pushing him on sandy and pushing him here, and pushing him there. not one person, not one new jersey resident, asking all of the tough questions of him, have brought up bridge scandal. not one of them. >> are the town halls open to the press? >> yeah, they're open to everybody. >> they should cover it. >> well, you know, we were talking the other day about th