i'm joined by george will, bob riech, liz cheney, and judy woodruff. did the president put this behind him? >> i don't think it's behind him yet. he started to dig out of the hole he had dug himself into when he first said this is an isolated extremist. >> that was the big problem here. al hunt. streams of intelligence from the national security agency for months saying a nigerian was likely on a plot. his father goes to the embassy in london and they failed to connect the dots. >> there was clearly a breakdown. i think they've acknowledged that now. and hopefully corrected it. it's tougher than it looks, though. there are 550,000 people on the watch list. there are 4,000 on the no-fly list. there ought to be more. the way you get there is tougher. some guy is saying the u.s. is the great satan. we ought to do something about that. a lot of people around the world say things like that. there are, you look at some guy goes to a website, there are lots that do that. how do you make that connection? they botched this one, no question. >> i don't disagree.

is it lynne cheney or the daughter who -- >> liz cheney, is my information. you think combined with the two week time span and the president being very forceful coming out visibly angry with what happened, no veiling that. do you think he is vulnerable on national security? >> we have to wait and see in this sense. there are going to be at least seven congressional hearings which will take place over the next few weeks examining what happened on christmas day. the u.s. responds to what happened on christmas day including hearings with the senate and house and homeland security committees. there is going to be a lot of criticism of the obama administration from a number of republicans in the house and senate. yes, there will be attention on this, of course, the president is dealing with a very bad economy, the job numbers we saw came out yesterday indicate that. i think that pretty much will be the focus of the news cycle and also the focus of the president going forward. >> let's get to the rudy guiliani situation, making headlines for a plunder he made sayin

liz cheney will join the roundtable. along with george will, robert reich, al hunt. judy woodruff. >> a packed show. we'll be watching. you can tune in to "this week" a little later on. speaking with christina romer. >>> the worst night yet of the deep freeze in florida. farmers are doing whatever they can to save their crops. an arctic blast plunging temperatures to record lows last night. a rare snowfall put added pressure on growers. abc's ryan owens joins us now. ryan, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. plenty of ice around this morning. this was intentionally put here by the farmer to provide insulation. this morning, he tells us that it largely worked. he may have lost 30% of his crops. not nearly as bad as he feared. in florida alone, an estimated $300 million of crops are threatened by this cold snap. >> that's what's at risk tonight. good luck, guys. >> reporter: no wonder he didn't get much sleep last night. >> we're bracing for the worst and hoping for the best. >> reporter: how worried are you? >> i'm as worried as a man can be. >> reporter: matt pa

liz cheney and some others say he should be classified as an enemy combatant before a military tribunal. you were a prosecutor. what do you think of trying him in the criminal courts? >> i don't think it's a question of trying him so much as the opportunity that was lost. i think the president made a very big mistake in not making him an enemy combatant, because the minute you make him a criminal justice defendant, you cut off the ability to really question him. in fact, as far as i know -- i don't know the inside story here. he was talking until we went out and got him a lawyer. cut him off from talking. you want to talk to this guy for about a month. you want to keep him an enemy combatant for about a month or two to get all the intelligence he's willing to give you because that intelligence could be about other possible attacks on the united states. and i really believe the president and attorney general holder really should rethink this. they should really rething this rigid commitment to the criminal justice system. after all, this guy came from outside the country. what he was pla

the ad is paid for by the group keep america safe, which counts liz cheney among its board members, andt takes an hour-by-hour look at the president's response to the bomb attempt in the style of the tv show "24." check it out. >> but what already is apparent is there was a mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security. >> how long did it take you to realize the system failed? >> i'm joined now live from washington by my boys, msnbc political analyst pat buchanan and democratic strategist peter fenn. hi, guys! >> hi, alex, how are you? >> good morning, alex. >> happy new year. nothing like rushing into the year on a pretty intense, full-speed note, right? pat, nothing gets people going like seeing the president swinging a golf club during a perceived time of national crisis, but isn't it a little inflammatory to use these images in the ad? >> i'm not sure it's in the proper order, frankly. but sure, it's inflammatory, but it's not the republican party, it's another group. the truth is, alex, the president's been hurt badly by this

it is paid for by the group keep america safe which counts liz cheney among its board member and reportshour by hour look at the president's response to the bomb attempt in the style of the tv show "24." >> but what already is apparent is that there was a mix of human and systemic failures that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security. >> how long did it take you to realize the system failed? >> john decker is a washington correspondent for reuters. good morning, again. >> good morning again to you, alex. >> how damaging do you think an attack like this is? did the president's actions leave him vulnerable on this issue? >> well, it left him vulnerable among those americans for whom national security, homeland security is a very important issue. certainly with the folks like rudy giuliani who is critical of the president and his reaction to what happened on december 25th, and over the past two week, it tapped into those concerns that he's had. but i think that overall the president is moving forward. he's been in front of the camera six times over the past two weeks s