nbc news special correspondent for rock center ted koppel. nbc's own ted koppel.tor for "the washington post," bob woodward. and nbc's chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell. welcome to all of you. a lot to get to. and as we react to paul ryan this morning, i want to show some of the headlines from the president's inaugural address. obama offers a liberal vision. we must act. charles kranthammer wrote this in "the washington post" and it caught my attention on friday and i want to put on the screen. his mission is to redeem and resurrect a 50-year pre-reagan liberal ascendency. accordi accordingly, his address is his historical marker, the reagan of the left. if he succeeds in the next four years, he would have earned the title. and i so that, bob, because of what paul ryan said that i thought was so notable, is that he believes this president is more interested in political conquest than political compromise. that is the backdrop for a second term. >> and ryan is an important figure in this in many ways. and i think you agree. he's quite likely the f

tonight his story as told to ted koppel. >>> but wait, there's more. the man who talks us into buying stuff, the man who tells us to set it and -- >> forget it! >> tonight at home with ron popeil, the master tv pitchman who is still going and actually never stops. >> you're not going to spend $400 or $350 or $320 or $290 like you may be thinking. not $280 or $250 or $260 -- >> that and more as "rock center" gets under way. >>> good evening and welcome to "rock center." we begin tonight with the youngest actress ever nominated for an academy award, and win or lose, maybe the nicest thing about her nomination will be that more people will seek out the movies she's in. it's called "beasts of the southern wild" and it's part fable, part clear-eyed view of nature and nurture, love and death, poverty, family, the environment. it's her first film performance. it's a small movie, make no mistake, compared to a 007 or a "lincoln," but it leaves a big mark on you. as ann curry reports tonight, the only thing more compelling than her work on screen is her story i

in 2002, it was koppel. >> exactly. >> you don't have the stature. >> i have to give credit to sinthcfadden and it's tough to put on a news show at 11:35 and beat the two biggest comedians and "nightline" was able to do that, but the program didn't make itself indispensable because more of a variety show where they would do light and more serious topics. >> very much so. >> and the reason abc musked it out of the time period was abc is seeking some sort of parody from 11:35 with a one-hour comedy show to control a lot more variety of advertisers and sponsors than a news program that only lasts a half an hour. just so much commercial time in a 25-minute show, which is what "nightline" had been reduced to and just so many advertisements that want to be with a serious news program. the door just flies open for sponsorships when you put a comedy show on at 11:35. >> you're giving me the business explanation. but already in the four nights this has happened the audience for "nightline" has been reduced from 4 million to just under 2 million on average. i mean, that is a big blow. >> but y

joins our future and ted koppel joins our political round table. >> welcome back.morning, everyone. plenty of sunshine out there to start the day. the time is coming up on 41 minutes past the hour. 27 degrees at b.w.i. 31 downtown and light northwest wind at three miles an hour. you would say it's mild compared to a week ago. but 22 in randallstown and 22 in rising sun. we should be able to sneak above freezing today. clouds we had earlier this morning have dissipated. it will probably start to fill back in as this next storm approaches. storm system here coming across the northwest producing freezing rain and sleet. from st. louis back into parts of iowa. unfortunately, i think it's going to do the same thing here. the time frame is early you remember the morning. we could see problems with rain, sleet and possibly a little bit of snow. we will transition from the cold to the warm and tomorrow morning there will be a warm front south of us and north of that warm front we could see a period of icing going on for the monday morning. in the western suburbs, i talked

and i remember i was to follow ted koppel and it was the first of pain times i had to follow ted koppel. and that's to the where you want to be. because he is very, very funny. and as i said that night, maybe a little too funny for a newsman. this was, gosh, 90-- i don't know, way, way back, a long time ago, '94, something like that. >> rose: one of your guests tonight is one of the funniest newsmen we've ever seen. >> well, brian williams, he's pretty fasel. pleasant fellow. very, very knowledgeable, very, very smart. and maybe funnier than everything else he is. and-- . >> rose: meaning that he's funnier than he is a good newsman, he's funnier than anything else he does. >> yes. he probably is what they're looking for, for this job or for the comparable job at fbc or any other job. this is-- this guy is a real throwback. i mean many guys are smart and knowledgeable. yourself included. and you're funny enough. but brian williams, i mean this guy is a triple threat. >> yeah. might he want to do something like that? >> i would hope so. i think he's honestly between you and me wasting his

ted koppel tonight has an interview with general dempsey by the way, on tonight's broadcast of "rock center." >>> elsewhere in washington, secretary of state hillary clinton was back on capitol hill today, though this time it was to introduce the man nominated to replace her. massachusetts senator john kerry testifying before the very same committee he chairs, receiving quite a different welcome than the one she received 24 hours earlier. our chief foreign affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell, in our d.c. newsroom tonight with more. andrea, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the son of a diplomat, raised partly at u.s. embassies abroad, even republicans said john kerry has lived his whole life preparing to be secretary of state. what a difference a day makes. a day after hillary clinton was grilled about benghazi, she was back to join the same senators and lavishing praise on her presumed successor. >> john is the right choice to carry forward the obama administration's foreign policy. and i urge his speedy confirmation. >> if you confirm me, i would take office as sec

you see and sometimes i go in a restaurant i see you koppel are young you have full. they don't even look to each other they just roll things you know they do can you post with the not so subtle it's just. and you know and sometimes. i'm not against critics because you can't you can't please everyone. but but it's easy to say words yes no i don't like it it's you know they don't even think how much time you spend to do a project to prepare project to. it's i don't know i think and what the whole world will i would i would say the whole world is different ok patricia thank you very much messier for this interview i wish you all the success i wish you good trip i wish you have more rest and you know. this. famous words the staying the road be yourself no matter what they say you do it you do it better than most of the people ratio gosh. just a reminder that my guest on the show today was patricia a french pop star that's all from all of us spotlight spotlight will be back with more personal comments i was going on in and outside pressure to tell them stay and party and

likeness of bill clinton commissioned for washington's national portrait gallery looked more like ted koppel. >> a good portrait, in my point of view, makes you think that you're sitting in front of the person. >> reporter: new york portrait artist marvin mattelson sells his paintings for as much as $45,000 and agreed to let me sit for a quick 30-minute version. >> you can't please everyone, so there's only two people you want to please. you want to please yourself and you want to please your client. if anyone else is happy, that's a bonus. >> reporter: the duchess, an art history major herself, is said to be thrilled with her portrait. >> i'm done. >> reporter: all right. >> this is the finished study. >> reporter: oh, wow. what i see that you got is you -- the look in my eyes. and in the end, if the duchess likes hers too, that's all that really matters. kate snow, nbc news, new york. >> that's our broadcast on a friday night. and for this week. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. lester holt will be here with you this weekend. we, of course, hope to see you right back he

plus, nbc news special correspondent ted koppel. >> "meet the press" is brought we know why we're here. ♪

also, our own ted koppel joins our political roundtable.e press, the press pass conversation is with martin indig of the brookings institution. all ahead this morning. >>> we continue to stay on top of this breaking news out of brazil. the death toll now expected to rise from this nightclub fire as at least 245 people have died. 200 others injured in this fire that happened in santa maria. more than a thousand people were reportedly inside the club called "kiss" when the fire broke out overnight. the fire may have been started by the pyrotechnics display of the band playing in the club. a security guard described it. he said it was at maximum capacity, about 500 people. which means more than 1,000 people with in the building. that would be when the fire started. people started pushing and shoving each other to escape. many people were celebrating this weekend, which is the start of the carnivale in brazil. a lot of people also died when they got trampled. that's what officials are saying now. very tragic scene in santa maria. we'll stay on

just like "nightline" with tod koppel used to be the national confessional and now it's oprah. >> dohink, you know, we saw the split you talked about where hillary clinton sometimes emotional testimony on benghazi was ripped on fox, defended on msnbc, but do you think 2016 will decide this joint interview on "60 minutes" is part of an effort to give her a nice send off by the president. >> you know, this is to show that obama is neutral because until you mentioned that, i was thinking this is some kind of an endorsement by obama. but, you know, he's still going to have joe biden by his side for the next four years. and they have mraenty of opportunity for biden to get exposure. i think hillary clinton will be in that race, even if she doesn't realize it yet. >> she hasn't made up her mind, but you have. >>> she was a political superstar when fox news hired her and now not so much. ♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. so if ydead battery,t tire, need a tow or lock your keys in the car, geico's emergen

. >> next witness david koppel the research director for the institute and associate policy analyst and professor of advance constitutional law, denver university's strum college of law. did i get that correct? thank you. go ahead, please. >> thank you chairman leahy and senator grassley. to continue the themes that captain kelly so eloquently spoken about, gun rights and gun control don't have to be culture war enemies. properly conceived they can work together and reinforce each other. it's important to recognize that the second amendment is not absolute any more than the first amendment is. it has an absolute core that can't be violated under any circumstances but that doesn't prohibit all firearms controls. >> this won't come out of your time. all of the statements will be put in record in full so we can keep close -- >> thank you. >> we're going to continue to listen in. but a call to action for sure, captain mark kelly, a very vivid reminder of the many victims of gun violence. you don't have to be shot to be a victim. he was recently married to a very vibrant and verbally gifted

koppel, you wrote an article street journal." in the article, you point out that firearms are the most heavily regulated consumer product in the united states. gun-control laws are more prevalent now than in the mid- 1960's when you walk into any store and buy a semiautomatic weapon with no questions asked. in your opinion, the lack of firearms regulations is not a controlling factor to the recent rise of random-shootings. what factors have contributed to the rise of these mass random shootings? you may have answered this already but i would like to hear it again. could you put your microphone on? >> there is a copycat effect lots of studies of the scholars of all kinds of criminals but especially these people seeking notoriety show a strong copycat effect. that is something that makes me think we need immediate protection for schools because of the copycat danger right now. in addition, there was a an institutional causation of the mentally ill starting in the 1960's and going for the 1980's and some of that was because of budge

>> guest: the parties that i went to were parties where there were friends -- ted koppel, eric sevareid, professor richard gordon from georgetown, conservative think-tank people, a.e.i. people. casey was at one party. oh, it's a long list. i believe george bush was also at his house. i'm not a hundred percent sure, but i'm about 90 percent sure. quite an array of people. he really seemed to give parties for a living, but what he was doing was introducing and sort of constructing a matrix of people with influence and within that he was operating -- and so were the japanese. he was a good example, i think, as to how so many japanese were able to get a foothold here to see how it worked, to see how this town worked. it all began to fall apart for him in the '80s when his behavior began to change. things were changing for all of us. i had left the networks or was about to the leave the networks, many of our friends were off doing different things. we were still very much in touch. he appeared very ill. it was quite obvious or it began to be obvious; we began to suspect that he had aids. he

the judge quoted the vehicle code that koppel in was to relieve congestion on california highways.car pool is to relieve congestion. >> i am going to find you guilty. jonathan lost. >> the question is will the other and continue to ride in the carpool lane with his invisible friend. >> marin county stanley roberts kron 4 news. >> stanley always finds the restores. >> 4:46. it is chilly outside. if you head more inland you get more into the fog. erica good morning. >> the advisory is in effect for a inland spots the east bay in particular. >> we are seeing clear skies 10 mi. of visibility for oakland around s f o hayward, in redwood city. visibility now down to zero in fairfield. visibility has improved to 5 mi. in livermore. it depends on where you're located. the drive with extra caution. temperatures are not the big story is not freezing. upper '30's, early in napa, and santa rosa. 43 in oakland. 37 and pleasanton. futurecast 4 predict by 8:00 a.m. we could see some low 50s. most of us will be in the '40's as we put the clock into motion by lunch time it will be a pleasant day ar

koppel, you wrote an article that appeared in "the wall street journal." in the article, you point out that firearms are the most heavily regulated consumer product in the united states. gun-control laws are more prevalent now than in the mid- 1960's when you walk into any store and buy a semiautomatic weapon with no questions asked. in your opinion, the lack of firearms regulations is not a controlling factor to the recent rise of random-shootings. what factors have contributed to the rise of these mass random shootings. ? >>could you put your microphone on? >> there is a copycat effect lots of studies of the scholars of all kinds of criminals but especially these people seeking notoriety show a strong copycat effect. that is something that makes me think we need immediate protection for schools because of the copycat danger right now. in addition, there was a an institutional causation of the mentally ill starting in the 1960's and going for the 1980's and some of that was because of budgetary issues. a lot of the time, the promise was that we will put t

professor koppel, do you think that it is necessary for hunting, sports, target practice, even self defense? >> it would be not legal for hunting in most states where there are limits on how many rounds you can have in a magazine. as i think you have recognized, the second amendment is not primarily about hunting. what i have been talking about is what the supreme court said in the district of columbia versus heller, which is the second amendment, the firearms and their accessories which are commonly owned by law-abiding people for legitimate purposes. i am talking about what police officers carry, what citizens carry, semi-automatic handguns. >> but those are police officers. >> they are not military, they're not coming to attack people, they are protecting people. citizens protect themselves the same way the police officers do. >> if you can rationalize a 100- round drum that someone can strap onto a semi-automatic weapon, as did in aurora, colorado, killing dozens of people there, saving lives only because it jammed, then you ought to object to the laws that have been on the books for ye

. >> brian: if you watch the sunday shows, you saw steve koppel, hardly right wing conservative, sayerous than ever before and expects it odom nate the next four years. there is no secret dock train, there is no hillary clinton treaty, no reset with russia, no deal with china. why are we celebrating the four years? >> i won't blame hillary 'cause she's a friend of mine. but something is amiss. the world is absolutely a very, very -- a tinder box. every place is blowing up and every place that we support turns out to be against us. they take our money. they destroy our lives and the lives of our people and our soldiers and everybody and then we talk about our wonderful foreign policy. >> gretchen: she did talk about the fact that she did believe that the world was a more dangerous place now than ever before. but that was in the second part of the interview. the first part of the interview before the commercial break was talking about the relationship between president obama and mrs. clinton. i want now listen to this and then get your reaction. >> i just want to have a chance of to pu