gloria borger. joy reed from msnbc and "time" michael duffley. while most were gratified congress had acted to avert a financial ca taste raef most were discouraged by all the drama. many have been calculating the tax hit they will take under the new law. the president is calculate, the degree of difficulty he faces ahead. >> we is k settle this debate. or at the very least not allow it to be so all consuming all the time. >> let's talk about this. the president wants a legacy of environment, gun laws, energy, is he going to get this or trapped in this debate over budgets and taxes and spending cuts? >> the budget, tax and spending, not so much on the tax but when history looks at what happened in the deal on the fiscal cliff, a lot of positives there. the 99% of the people get permanent tax cuts. that is a big deal if you're president of the united states. or even in congress. 1% 0 going to pay more. i would say certainly that's the right policy. so maybe it's not so bad. the problem is that the process was like this permanent divorce court. and

. >>> plus, gloria borger's interview with the vice president. he describes the aha moment when he decided the job was really worth while. (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. ♪ [ male announcer ] don't just reject convention. drown it out. introducing the all-new 2013 lexus ls f sport. an entirely new pursuit. we don't let frequent heartburn come between us and what we love. so if you're one of them people who gets heartburn and then treats day after day... block the acid with prilosec otc and don't get heartburn in the first place! [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. and don't get heartburn in the first place! [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk. >>> she grew emotional, got angry, but in two congressi

in the interest of the new year's resolution to be positive, let's start with the pros, gloria borger. let's go over the list with chuck hagel as the starting point. he's a war hero. and he has two purple hearts from vietnam serving alongside of his brother. each of them saving each other's life which is a story unto itself. and he went on to represent a native nebraska in the u.s. senate and now he co-chairs the president's intelligence advisory board. that sounds like a pretty good cv, they say. what's not to like? >> well, if you're in the white house, you say that's the reason his confirmation should be smooth sailing. but, you know, he was a two-term senator and when you're a two-term senator you have a record and you have a history. and chuck hagel's history at least according to some republicans and some democrats is not what they would call pro-israel enough. and there are some questionable comments made a while back about the so-called jewish lobby as he called it. he has to answer questions about that, about some votes on sanctions against iran soy think that's going to be q

let me bring in john king and gloria borger. john, first to you.arly, he's qualified to be the secretary of defense, serving on the president's foreign intelligence advisory board, serving on the defense advisory board, chairman of the atlantic council, major think tank here. served on various committees for over a decade. some of the statements, votes, some of the positions he has taken over the years have raised questions. >> that's all fair game, anything that's public record. they are fair game. he has been an opponent of some of the iranian sanctions, one of the pressing -- >> i want to be precise on this he is an opponent of unilateral sanctions. he supports multilateral, multinational sanctions, opposing unilateral saying they're not that effective. on that he could make a good argument. >> a strong argument, that they won't be effective. he will have to make that argument. he has talked in the past about maybe you should have conversations with people like hamas and hezbollah. he is not alone in saying that. a lot of people say that, includ

around our group here and i'm joined by cornell belcher, ari fleischer, chief political analyst gloria borger and jessica yellin. let me start with you, cornell. at the beginning of a second term, a speech with groundbreaking on gay rights laid out an agenda via to change immigration, gun control. some of those things he could have tackled in the first term but shied away from. your reaction, where do you think we are at this moment? >> i think what is big about this speech -- look, budget battles come and budget battles go. what is big about this is the gay rights talk. i don't think we've ever seen a founding father bridge the way he did. it's the moral of our founding fathers. it's interesting because he didn't use that to pivot and put stonewall in the same space and fail without controversy. understand, a lot of civil rights leaders from that era resist putting the gay rights movement within the civil rights movement. so i think when a lot of this has gone to pass, we will remember the bigness of the gay rights. >> was it a big speech? was it a partisan speech? >> well, it was both. it h

here to talk about it is gloria borger, and cornell belcher, and political contributor and republican consultant margaret hoover. gloria, let me start with you. what is so different this time around for the republicans? simply the reality of november's election? >> yeah, they are worried about their own survival as a political party. one way to survive as a party is to broaden your base and not remain hostage to a single part of it. and i think that has been the problem for the republican party when you talk about john mccain. when john mccain was challenged from the right in 2010, when he was running for re-election to the senate, he became much more conservative on immigration policy. now i think he's sort of unshackled and he's back to the position he was in in 2005 and 2007. i mean, you know, i spent a lot of time with him on that straight talk express when he was running for the presidency in 2007. and i remember him telling me that he was stunned at the vitriolic reaction within his own party to immigration. now it's about survival. so that's why you see them getting together wi

. >>> we have got all of our reporters with us, including our chief political analyst gloria borger, what are you going to be looking at in the president's opening statement? >> i think i'm going to be looking for him to lay down the gauntlet to the republicans. it's going to say we have got to extend the debt ceiling, we don't want to shut down the president. i assume the president will be telling, nds he's going to say to the midwestern people wuk, we have to be responsible about this. entitlement problem that we have got with to force him on this debt ceiling issue. i know it seems like we have seen this movie before, but i think this is going to make a fiscal cliff fight look small because republicans are angry about what happened last time, they're angry at their speaker. they believe he capitulated an the spending cut side, they're not willing to do that again, and many republicans are willing to take this right to default and the president is going to say that's irresponsible. >> our senior congressional correspondent dana bash is here. the republicans say the nice's debt is e

you used two words -- gloria borger, you're saying grand bargain? that -- ali velshi, let me ask you that, grand bargain, is that in our lexicon anymore? >> yeah, i don't even know if bargain is a possibility. gloria knows the politics of this better than i do. the -- somebody asked the question at the press conference, the president said he's not negotiating on this, but you said that about increasing taxes, the last debt limit. i don't know where you go from here politically. i only know economically the market will act as an enforcer and interest rates will act as an enforcer if you don't get it right. how you get a deal, that's above my pay grade. >> and, brooke, the real problem here, i think, for the president is that he's got to deal with the house speaker who has got a lot of problems. this is a house speaker that upset his own republican caucus, during the fiscal cliff negotiations. he brought up a measure that did not have the majority support of his own party. and they put their speaker on notice, you will not do that to us again. you hav

let's get to gloria borger. i was writing down those numbers.lso here. that's an interesting set of numbers. i would look at 49 in terms of approval, things like that, six, eight months ago as a big improvement. >> it is. and his personal likability is still over 61%. but what i'm looking at is the country's expectations. when president obama was first inaugurated, he became -- and a lot of his staffers will tell you this -- sort of a victim of the high expectations that the public had for him. now the expectations are kind of lower, so the folks in the administration are saying, well, if the expectations are lower, maybe we can overperform a little instead of underperforming like people thought we did last time around. so they're kind of looking for the glass half full part of this. equation. >> one of the things going on beneath numbers indicates a sort of tsunami of hyperpartisanship that this administration has tried to operate in. it's a stark partisan divide. 76% of democrats thinks things are going well in the country. only 28% of republi

both of them run, listen to what biden told our colleague, deploria borger, this week about -- gloria borger, this week about running. >> i haven't made that judgment and hillary hasn't made that judgment but i can tell you what. everything that should be done over the next two years that i should be part of would have to be done whether i run or i don't run. chris: is that what he's like when you grab him at the white house and get ahead of him and talk -- >> that's who he is. the fact of the matter is he wants to run. he's right about this from what i understand in my reporting and knows beating hillary in a primary is near impossible and he's not going to drag out and have this big long primary fight. if hillary decides to run he'll look at it for a while and quietly back out. chris: how do you know that? >> just various people i talk to on this. he's clear eyed. yes, he wants to run but he knows beating her might be near impossible. if not absolutely impossible. chris: not the old fight between gene mccarthy and bobby kennedy. >> they will not both stay in it. >> and here's the other thi

i'm here with gloria borger.at down with vice president joe biden and one of the things you asked him about was this criticism that the president's new foreign policy team, senator former john kerry, the new secretary of state, and chuck hagel are two dullish. let's play that clip. >> for four year, the real president obama has exercised force responsibly as boldly and as as bravely as any president in american history. this is a guy who has not backed away and he's also ended wars that almost every military man out there will tell you we should not be engaged in again. the idea of getting engaged in a ground war in a country that's in transition is not a prescription any military man would suggest. and to suggest that two -- two war heroes, one with the bronze star, a purple heart, silver star, taking over both the state department and defense is -- is whatever the phrase was, is ridiculous. >> it's ridiculous. is it really ridiculous, gloria i think even bush -- i'm sorry, i think even obama white house visors

our wheel political analyst, gloria borger is here, kate baldwin, as well, brianna keilar at the whiteief business correspondent, ali velshi, joining us from new york. let's start with gloria first. tell us about jack lew. >> jack lew is someone who has spent most of his life in government service. he did work at citigroup for a while in the wealth management division. he's a numbers nerd. he's the guy who understands the federal budget. you just noted that he had been head of the office of management and budget twice in his career. i first met him when he worked for house speaker tip o'neill when he was his chief domestic policy adviser. it gives you an indication, wolf, of where this administration thinks the arguments are going to be, the fights going to be. he is not a business and markets guy, gives wall street a little concern. but he is somebody with an incredible understanding of the federal budget, where to cut, how to cut, and also politically what not to cut. that's what gets him in trouble with some republicans who believe that he has defended a lot of social programs way t

gloria borger, our chief political analyst, you listened to this.rice gives you technical questions, how do they write the law and enforce it and the critics of the president, there is more consensus today, but is there enough consensus to get an issue that we have seen, we have seen at the beginning. and ted kennedy was standing with george w. bush and john mccain years ago, you thought this is going to happen. and it didn't happen. >> i did. >> will it this time? >> i think there is more likelihood, john, it will happen. that's because of the political reality. most of the country supports some kind of pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. you saw that president obama beat mitt romney by about 3 to 1 with hispanic voters. problem is that the divides the republican party only about a third of self-i'ded republic ee self-identified republicans support it. you have to get someone like marco rubio, putting himself on the front line, a senator with real conservative tea party credentials, putting himself on the front line and saying we need do

wolf blitzer, gloria borger, thank you for your help and your analysis. we'll bring you back in a half hour or so. you're watching "cnn newsroom." we're going to be right black. t luckily, her family wasn't there, but what if this happened here? what if our girls were home? and since we can't monitor everything 24/7, we got someone who could. adt. [ male announcer ] while some companies are new to home security, adt has been helping to save lives for over 135 years. we have more monitoring centers, more of tomorrow's technology right here today, and more value. 24/7 monitoring against burglary, fire, and high levels of carbon monoxide starting at just over $1 a day. and now get adt installed for just $99. isn't your family worth america's number-one security company, adt? our girls got us thinking, but the break-in got us calling. and after buying two of everything, it was nice to only need one security system -- adt. [ male announcer ] get adt installed for just $99. and ask about adt pulse, advanced home management here today. adt. always there. >>> the

. >>> up next, joe biden is opening up to our own gloria borger about the next four years.know, listen. >> are you ready to run against hoil clinton in 2016? [ female announcer ] what if the next big thing, isn't a thing at all? it's lots of things. all waking up. ♪ becoming part of the global phenomenon we call the internet of everything. ♪ trees will talk to networks will talk to scientists about climate change. cars will talk to road sensors will talk to stoplights about traffic efficiency. the ambulance will talk to patient records will talk to doctors about saving lives. it's going to be amazing. and exciting. and maybe, most remarkably, not that far away. the next big thing? we're going to wake the world up. ♪ and watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work. ♪ cisco. tomorrow starts here. ♪ cisco. (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. >>> vice president joe biden seemed to be everywhere during monday's inauguration festivities. he was waving, smiling, shaking hands like a candidate running

lot to digest from the interview we've been watching from elise and jill, so let's bring in our gloria borgerjoining us from the new yorker. hi, there. >> how's it going? >> good. >> gloria, even if she wants to stay out of the spotlight, there's no way she's going to be able to -- she is hillary clinton. she'll be in the spotlight, no matter what her next adventure is. >> well, we're already asking her about 2016, so of course she's going to be in the spotlight. i'm sure she's going to take a little bit of a break, but i doubt she'll be off her blackberry. and there's a political team in waiting for her, should she decide to run. i'm sure she wants to get off the international kind of treadmill that she's been on, but she's a clinton. she will always be in the spotlight. she will always be interesting. whatever she does, wolf, you know this, will be of interest to all of us, what she decides to do next, if she writes her memoirs, i'm sure they'll be really well-read, as her first book was. so i think, you know, we're always going to be paying attention to hillary clinton, whether she runs or

i'm with gloria borger and david gergen. jessica yellin.ee a half dozen marching bands still lined up and there are still a few around the corner. fasten your seat belts, warm the coffee, and consider the moment. david, i want to start with you it you've worked, served in four white houses, democrats and republicans. four of our last five presidents have enjoyed this moment, a second term. you saw the president up on the capitol steps. saying, wait a second, this is the last time i'm going to see this. he seems to be in a mood not necessarily known as a deeply introspective guy, but seems to be in the mood to soak this in. >> he sure does. and with good reason. this is a day that the president, the vice president, their families, are obviously very happy, but they should be very proud. and it's been, it's a happy city tonight, i must say. i think that's the mood here. they originally were expecting maybe 600,000, 800,000. smaller than last time. one official from the inaugural committee now says he thinks the number was around 1 million. we

thanks. >>> cnn gloria borger spoke exclusively with vice president biden.hy he thinks republicans are wrong to oppose chuck hagel for defense secretary. >>> and on this, the eve of super bowl xlvii, cnn is live with the biggest take on the city and how it's become a cultural phenomena and a whole lot more. we'll welcome rachel nickels, a new host of cnn, a special cnn bleacher report this saturday at 4:00 p.m. eastern. twins. i didn't see them coming. i have obligations. cute obligations, but obligations. i need to rethink the core of my portfolio. what i really need is sleep. introducing the ishares core, building blocks for the heart of your portfolio. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. risk includes possible loss of principal. >>> we are expecting a major fight on capitol hill tomorrow when confirmation hearings get under way for secr

cnn's wolf blitzer and gloria borger will anchor our special live coverage. >>> vice president joe bidengun violence will present recommendation tuesday. he said it will serve as a beginning and not an end to the discussion. president obama called for the task force after the massacre in newtown, connecticut. >>> in a little more than a week president obama will take the oath of office for his second term, but his inaugural committee is struggling to replace one key speaker, pastor louie giglio will no longer give the bendiction over criticism of a sermon he gave in the '90s over homosexuality. joining me now are wayne bessen the executive direct of truth wins out a nonprofit group that fights what it calls, quote, anti-gay extreme and senior sprig a senior fellow from the family research council, welcome to you both. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> wayne, why the objection to this pastor? >> there are a lot of pastors in this country who are pro-gay, are progressive who aren't anti-gay and gave horrible sermons that basically dehuman nice and demonize an entire group of people. there are

at stake for afghanistan, our white house correspondent brianna keilar, chief political analyst gloria borgerence, and richard haass, author of the book foreign policy begins at home. let's go to the east room of the white house first. they've been meeting now for a while. set the scene for us. i know one of the key issues involves any u.s. military presence in afghanistan after all u.s. troops are supposed to be out by the end of 2014. that's right. and it has been cordial reception as he comes here today for bilateral meetings that have already taken place as well as a work lunch with president obama and the vice president and then he'll be wrapping up his day here with the press conference. but that cordiality which we saw here today and also when karzai met with secretaries clinton and panetta be llies in tension ove the past few years. some very serious issues that are being discussed today and that we will hear questions asked of both president obama and president karzai in that does does to do of course with u.s. troops remaining in afghanistan beyond 2014. the question is if any remai

cnn chief political analyst gloria borger is with me here in "the situation room" right now.u know, of course we've got some quick reaction from house speaker boehner -- >> yeah, boom. >> absolutely, let's put it up. i'll read it. the american people do not support raising the debt ceiling without reducing government spending at the same time. the consequences of failing to increase the debt ceiling are real, but so too are the consequences of allowing our spending problem to go unresolved. so it certainly appears we're set up for another major showdown already. >> we are. i thirn it's going to be a bigger showdown in fact than the fiscal cliff. you know, the president today said, quote, we have to stop lurching from crisis to crisis to crisis. then he went and set the stage for yet another crisis, right. this time of course it' over the debt ceiling. and it's going to be big, because it really reflects two different visions of what the debt ceiling is all about. for the president, you heard today, it's about paying your bill. going to a restaurant. picking up the tab for foo

gloria borger just spent some time with the vice president. gloria, if you can hear me, talk a little about what we're seeing right now. >> i think you're seeing vintage joe biden. this is the joe biden that those of us who have covered him for quite some time know pretty well. i mean, it's unvarnished. this is not his parade but he's kind of turning it into his parade. i think he knows, wolf, that this could be his last parade unless he does run again. he wouldn't commit to me one way or another. i think he's surely thinking about it. we were talking here about how fit joe biden is. for a man his age. when i was -- i interviewed him in the old executive office building on friday. look at him run. and that's how he walks down the hall at the old eob. and stops to talk to everybody. and irrepressible. he's also a little bit of a goof, like he likes to have fun. when you have donors come into the white house who don't feel like they always get enough attention and it's not the president's favorite thing to pay them a lot of attention. sometimes v

gloria borger's exclusive interview with the vice president, joe biden.clinton's world, and our own lisa sylvester takes a closer look at how the obama daughters, sasha and malia, have grown up before our very own eyes, all that coming up on "the situation room." >>> all right, we'll be watching. >>> thank you, 100 years ago the first regiment of freed slaves found themselves in their very first battle. it is a story you probably haven't heard, stick around, the story is next. excuse me, sir i'm gonna have to ask you to power down your little word game. i think your friends will understand. oh no, it's actually my geico app...see? ...i just uh paid my bill. did you really? from the plane? yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geico 24/7. sounds a little too good to be true sir. i'll believe that when pigs fly. ok, did she seriously just say that? geico. just click away with our free mobile app. [ male announcer ] it's red lobster's 30 shrimp! for $11.99 pair any two shrimp selections on one plate! like mango jalapeÑo sh

. >> for more on this, let's bring in gloria borger. why do you think secretary clinton is going through this round of interviews? is she trying to sort of cement her legacy? >> she is. look, she's in demand. obviously we all want to talk to her. she's someone who has a 65 approval rating. if you're thinking about a future in politics, doesn't get much better than that, so you might as well do these interviews now. i think she does want to cement her legacy, look, as jill pointed out in the piece, there clearly have been problems for her in benghazi and there's a worry that that could blot her legacy. >> this is not how she expected to leave the office? >> no, it really isn't. and it's not how the president really expected her to leave either, which is why he suggested that "60 minutes" interview on sunday. you know, nobody goes to the president and says, how about you sit down with hillary clinton and give her a nice kiss on the way out the door and help her out and, you know, cement her legacy. i think the president actually wanted to

chief political analyst gloria borger there for me in our washington bureau.thers who we'll talk to in a minute. dana bash, i want to begin with this. the optimism, it seems, pervasive, right, on the hill, and we have heard that the time is right for immigration deals before. you were in the room in 2007 when senator ted kennedy was talking. let's watch this. >> now it is time for action. 2007 is the year we must fix our broken system. we must strike while the iron is hot. i've been around here long enough to know that opportunities like this don't come very often. the american people are demanding a solution. the president is committed. senator reed has made this a priority. senators from both parties are now determined to solve this crisis. >> dana bash, he says striking while the iron is hot. why is the iron hotter now than it was five, six years ago? >> reporter: the november election. it is as simple as that. republicans knew immediately when they saw the election results. not only that, the overall electorate was much more latino, 16%. but that mitt romn

john king is here, gloria borger is here with us. both of you stand by. brianna keilar was at the news conference. she's over there at the white house. brianna, the president was very tough in offering his assessment on what needs to be done. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. and he said he will not negotiate on the debt ceiling, the end. he has reiterated that, and this was his chance to come out today and say it yet again. he said today that the united states is not a deadbeat nation. and the point that he was making and i think we'll be hearing a lot more of, and we've heard some of in the past, is that he says this is spending that has already taken place. he used an analogy where he talked about, you go out for a meal at the restaurant and then you don't pay the bill. he's saying this is the equivalent of that. he was asked about the fact that republicans, this really is one of their only cards to play at this point, but he said that it's irresponsible and it's absurd. and he was also asked as well, wolf, about a couple of other topics, of course, gun

>> let's talk about it with john king and gloria borger. what are you anticipating, john, hearing today? >> i think broad strokes. time to bring the country together. time to get through the tough economic times. i think it will be a cautious speech because of the uncertain environment. the president doesn't quite understand what's going to happen with republicans. he thinks maybe common ground on immigration with most, but there are confrontations looming. if he wants to go back for a big grand bargain and a legacy on medicare and entitlement ds, he has a fight with the democratic party. if you look around the world, is syria at a tipping point? what exactly is happening in north africa right now? he begins with an uncertain political situation in town and big question marks around the world. i think, as jessica noted, you save the nuts and bolts for the state of the union and try to get off to an optimistic start. >> the question is whether he acknowledges the partisanship that exists in washington but then says, that doesn't mean you can