with senate republican leader mitch mcconnell. and then wooing the latino vote with los angeles major antonio viary goe is a and former commerce secretary carlos gutierrez. i'm candy crowley. and this is "state of the union." there are more delegates at stake in florida than any of the previous contests. so major momentum will come out of this winner-take-all state. naturally ron paul, a road less traveled kind of guy, spent the week in maine. >> what am i doing in maine? why am i not in florida? >> truth is, ron paul doesn't need to be in florida to have a presence. >> the debt is certainly an importance issue. you can hear it from the ron paul -- >> that's the intrigue of the paul campaign. maximum commitment by voters in the face of minimal chances. his support now is too small to be a threat to romney or gingrich in the short run, but large enough to be a factor in the long run. and if ron paul shouldn't win, what's the price for his support? the texas congressman joins me now from his home state. thank you, congressman. i jus

i'm with scottrade. >>> mitch mcconnell said that president obama launched on the today and congratulated the president for doing it. that's how weird it can get in an election year. that's coming up, next. >>> and president obama is desperately trying to rewrite the democrats image on illegal immigration and he's doing this by deporting more people than ever before and immigration officials are making some pretty stupid mistakes in those deportations. that's in the re-write. [ male announcer ] capri sun has 25% less sugar than leading regular juice drinks. because less sugar is a better way to fly. ♪ just not literally. capri sun. respect what's in the pouch. >>> when do presidents announce the appointment of the newest members of their administrations in ohio, in an election year? from massachusetts they praise the democratic presidents highly political announcement of that appointment? in an election year. and when does every other republican senator condemn the appointment of the ultimate democracy because the president bypassed the senate after failing to get senate confirmation for

apparently mitch mcconnell doesn't think so. he thinks the president has arrogantly circumvented the american people, circumvented the american people? 63% want more financial oversight, not less. you're circumventing the truth, but it's not going to work any longer. the president is done with your obstruction. today he also announced that he's appointing three people to the national labor relations board who have also been consistently blocked by senate republicans. make no mistake, this next election will come down to ideas, and we know now more than ever who's on the side of the middle class. >> i've been an obligation to act on behalf of the american people, and i'm not going to stand by while a minority in the senate puts party ideology ahead of the people that we were elected to serve. not with so much at stake, not at this make-or-break moment for middle-class americans. we're not going to let that happen. >>> joining me now is senator sherrod brown, democrat from ohio. now, when you look at this, the president is saying

announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. >>> mish mitch mcconnell president obama launched on the today and congratulated the president for doing it. that's how weird it can get in an election year. that's coming up, next. >>> and president obama is desperately trying to rewrite the democrats image on illegal immigration and he's doing this by deporting more people than ever before and immigration officials are making some pretty stupid mistakes in those deportations. that's in the re-write. ♪ [ laughs ] ♪ ♪ you want to hear you've done a good job. that's why i recommend a rinse like crest pro-health multi-protection. it helps you get a better dental check-up. so be ready for your next dental check-up. try any crest pro-health rinse. >>> when do presidents announce the appointment of the newest members of their administrations in ohio, in an election year? from massachusetts they praise the democratic presidents highly political announcement of that appointment? in an election year. and when does every other republican senator condemn the appointmen

we talked to senator majority leader mitch mcconnell.see you. >> good to be back. >> greta: okay. last august, there was a big battle over what to do with the debt seal ceiling and a deal was struck that there would be 3 times that it would be raised. and the third one is now. but in the senate, there was a vote to -- to prevent -- i guess it wasn't a real vote because nobody expected it to prevail. but explain it. >> the congress gave to the president the authority to request us to raise the debt ceiling. he submitted his request. that is subject to a resolution of disapproval, in other words, i don't agree to raising the debt ceiling. if that passes, he can veto it. so it didn't guarantee a debt ceiling increase, dubut it made him ask for it. we thought that was appropriate. he has been in favor of increasing the national debt 35%. we thought the responsibility awl ought to be on him and it is. >> greta: as part of the deal, there was a super committee created it and they were supposed to come up with cuts to figure out how it pay for

response from senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. he will join us live shortly.next, going negative in florida. across the golden state, where everyone has been unbelievably nice. mornin'. i guess i'm helping them save hundreds on car insurance. it probably also doesn't hurt that i'm a world-famous advertising icon. cheers! i mean, who wouldn't want a piece of that? geico. ah... fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent oh dear... or more on car insurance. then i found new pronutrients omega-3. it's from centrum. it's a smaller minigel. with two of the best omegas to support my heart, brain and eyes. new pronutrients from centrum. >> bret: looking live at child there. now to the presidential campaign and the growing rank among the top two republicans. chief political correspondent carl cameron reports one week ahead of the florida primary, negativity is increasing dail daily. >> drawing one of the biggest crowds so far of the 2012 florida campaign, newt gingrich told sunshine state supporters in sarasota not to waiver on mitt romney onslaught of attack ads.

. >> so, a few moments later the republican leader mitch mcconnell. >> i understand that you have been bribed, have you? i have no gifts to offer you, so i expect the worst possible treatment in return. >> kate never brings me cupcakes. we have to go. stay with cnn for the president's complete state of the union address. and erin "outfront" starts right and erin "outfront" starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> well, bowing to pressure, mitt romney relesions his tax return and it is a 500-page monster. we killed a lot of trees today, and did it reveal anything? >>> and the re-election campaign of president obama starts tonight. we are counting down to the state of the union. >> the death toll continues the climb off of the cruise ship crash off of the coast of italy. we have video of the search and rescue of the divers. let's go there tonight, "outfront." >>> well, good evening, everyone, i'm erin burnett and out front crunching the numbers in mitt romney's tax returns. here they are. we have flags in here, because i will admit that as we said, i'm not sure that an

finally, billionaire investor warn buffet wants mitch mcconnell to put his money where his mouth is.uld take buffet up on his offer to pay more taxes, buffet tells "time" magazine he'll match all republican members of congress dollar for dollar. he'll even go three for one with mitch mcconnell himself. >>> in health news now, a new movement is hitting facebook. bald bar by as a role model for young girls going through chemo or hair loss conditions. the page created by women dealing with baldness or had gone through it themselves has more than 18,000 likes. so far mattel only sent a form letter to the group saying they don't accept outside ideas. >>> for more information on this story and other health news, you can always head to the health page online at anybomsnbc.com. >>> kobe not just 40 again. the mavericks and shamrocks go down the wire and a good decision to go pro. plus, blake griffin and the clippers challenge the rich gays fr guys from miami. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. [ female announcer ] can only a prestige cream give you effective anti-aging results? challenge

thank you. >> senator mitch mcconnell weighing in on the 2012 republican race. the polls closing in a couple of minutes in some parts of florida at 8:00 eastern time. that is when c-span will begin the live coverages and results and speeches by newt gingrich and mitt romney. a special house election seat. it will determine whether a republican can win in a democratic district. the two parties going head-to-head in the november election. the republican candidate is rob cornelious. he has been emphasizing his business background. the democratic candidate is suzanne. they are running against david wu. a democrat who resigned last august after admitting in an unwanted sexual affair with an 18-year-old girl. this is oregon's first congressional district. here are some of the ads now on the air. >> the same people who covered up for david wu are now deceiving you because suzanne is wrong on the issues. she has no record of job creation. we need a fresh start. >> as the only job creator in the race, all work for bipartisan solutions that create oregon jobs. i will prot

mitch mcconnell considers it his number one job. >> ari, a lot of democrats doing that in. >> i remember whining about the same thing when i was the press secretary, democratic senate at the beginning of the senate, they blocked bush's appointments at the courts. all white house's moan about that. >> so, you don't buy the idea -- >> that's the real issue here. >> the white house is sayings in a unprecedented move by the gop. >> all white houses whine and moan about that. we had huge numbers blocked by the senate. but what it also shows at its core and this is the biggest issue, is barack obama is not a reformer. he didn't come to change washington. he came to preserve his own brand. you go back to his original campaign. he said he'd take public financing. realized he'd make more without it. he let lobbyists into the white house. he said no signing statements because he said the -- he issues signing statements. now this. the president's words are wind. they don't have any value. his actions are very expensive and they're putting us into debt, but the president's words are meaningless. >>

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mitch mcconnell considers his number one job to stop the president from being re-elected.s is just one part of that. >> what about that, ari? there are a lot of democrats that feel that way. >> surement i remember whining about the same thing when i was the press secretary and democratic senate which is a democratic senate at the beginning of the bush administration under george mitchell. they blocked bush's appointments to subcabinet agencies. >> so you don't buy the idea that the white house is saying this is a unprecedented level of obstruction by this gop? you don't fwhi? >> bhaz what i mean. all white house is whine and moan about. that we all have numbers we can show them what our numbers of blockages are. we had huge numbers blocked by the senate. but what it also shows at its core and this is the big issue is that president obama is not a reformer. he came to preserve his own brand. you go back to the original campaign. he would take public financing. he didn't take it. he let lobbyists into the white house. he said no signing statements because it's an abuse of pr

is the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell in the house i'm sure he'd agree on that one last year we relied on foreign oil then in any of the past sixteen years. i guess mcconnell wants more foreign oil shipped from nations who want to kill us all right let's try one more the president wants to turn our military green the department of defense is the largest consumer of oil literally in the world we can all agree the greening d.o.d. is a good thing for everyone right speaker boehner i'm proud to announce that the department of defense working. with us the world's largest consumer of energy will make one of the largest commitments to clean energy in history with the navy purchasing enough capacity to power a quarter of a million homes a year. that's one tough audience republicans aside though it appears that the president's message did resonate with the american people and big time last night c.b.s. poll speech watchers found that ninety one percent of americans approved of his proposals eighty three percent approved of his economic plans and by the way is a substantial jump up fro

in a statement, senate minority leader mitch mcconnel said: the president had nominated cordray in julyrun the new agency created under the dodd- frank financial reform law. consumer advocates initially hoped that elizabeth warren-- the bureau's chief architect-- would oversee it. but the harvard professor and the agency itself ran into strong opposition from republicans. alabama senator richard shelby: >> this massive new bureaucracy was designed by the drafters of dodd-frank to be virtually unaccountable to the american people. before we spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a new federal government agency, i believe we should ensure that it can be held accountable for its actions. >> brown: last month, senate republicans blocked action on richard cordray's nomination. but in his announcement today, the president said, "i refuse to take 'no' for an answer." >> but when congress refuses to act and as a result hurts our economy and puts people at risk, i have an obligation as president to do what i can without them. >> brown: for his part, cordray was trying to stay above the fray. h

. >> mitch mcconnell said it clearly, his job was to make sure this man would be a one-term president. he needs help from the republicans to work with them but he won't. every time of reaches out they slap his hand. >> the question is can the president get it done? whether it's in the last year of his term or another four years? >> jamie, if he compromises yes, but christopher is right, and i'm sorry mitch mcconnell said that because that's not his job, to block things from the president. they need to create laws that creates more jobs and a prosperous america. but the state of the union address was more ground hot dog. >> it has been all year. the president proposes something and republicans say no. even if it's their own idea. >> got to leave it there. >> christopher's being fair and balanced, blaming both sides of the aisle. thank you so much, guys. appreciate your comments. >> both sides will keep us locked into this for a while. >>> meantime one of the biggest names in social media is under international attack and we'll tell you why. twitter is facing serious sensorship and it's

mitch mcconnell in the end is not some crazy, nutcase right- wing ideologue. more than anything else he is a tough-minded conservative pragmatist who wants to win and more important, doesn't want to lose. >> reporter: publicly, at least, the senate minority leader says the onus is on the president to show things can work in washington. >> well we've certainly had, as i indicated earlier, lost opportunities in 2011. opportunities the president had to lead, that would have made him look better. he doesn't look all that good either. congress as an institution is not going to be on the ballot, he is. >> reporter: and with that in mind, the president is visiting a series of battleground states this week, including colorado, where voters such as these have a decidedly jaundiced view of the national legislature. >> you can get rid of the people that aren't getting anything done and replace them with new people who wont get anything done. i don't know how you can fix it. >> i blame both republicans and dems. i happen to be a democrat. but i'm as unhappy with the dems

mitch mcconnell has said let the press cover every futile thing the president does.ealize it's futile and juvenile? >> well, you know, the state of the union is an american moment. whoever is the president of the united states brings to bear upon the elected representatives of the country that american moment in a few of where we at and a vision of where we need to go. to act the way that so many of my colleagues is really unresponsible. what we sneneed is a coming together to get people back to work. he's going to talk about a sense of value and community in which not only is that opportunity more prevalent for each and every american but also the fairness in which that opportunity takes place and the responsibility of us collectively to help our nation move forward. that should be taken seriously and not just as a circus. >> thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back with much more on 2012. i've never ever gone and done any lobbying. we brought in an expert on lobbying law and trained all of our staff. >> jerry, just remember, it's not a li

he'll even go 3 for 1 with mcconnell himself. >>> the mavs and the shamrocks down to the wire in a bigecision to go pro. blake griffin and the clippers challenge the rich guys from miami. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. >>> your forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today." >>> very good morning to you. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports, the los angeles lakers made a strong statement last night handing the utah jazz their first home court loss of the year. here is nbc's fred roggin with an early look at your sports headlines. >> good morning. kobe bryant has done it again. the night after scoring 48 against the suns he dropped 40 in utah. lakers needed every single one of them and coney did most of his damage in the first and 14 at the quarter and 21 he is half enjazz hung around all game and forced overtime. josh howard tied it in the final minute with all eyes on kobe, he dished to pau gasol and he hit a three for the league. go figure. no one thought he was a threat from the outside. bryant hit the 40 mark for the second strai

what mitch mcconnell and republicans have figured out you don't have to. if you with hold the votes, you move the necessary votes to pass a deal to the right of the democratic party. your health care bill can't be further left than senator ben nelson, the nebraska senator who won't run for reelection. can't be any further left than you allow it to be. you end up with a health care bill almost what you would have thought you would end up with if the democrats and republicans had come to a compromise but not only do you not have to vote for it but you attack the other side and make them look partisan, make them do all the work of passing it into law. the unpopular parts of your idea, too. turns out to be pril -- brilliant, not a good thing we have figured out a way to get what they want without compromising given how much the system is reliant on compromise. >> is part of the problem the media tends to find the partisan or left-right contours of a policy based on who from which party is squawking about it? is there a way the media should be covering policy i

the repulican leader, and m counterpart, mitch mcconnell. we spent months on thin that used happen matter factually. raising the debt ceiling. we did it for presidenteagan 18 times, and we spent 2 1/2 months doing that. so the nber one go -- i hope the republicans have learned a lesson as extendsing the payroll tax, and that was disaster for them. can yobelieve they were opposed to lowering taxes? so i would hope that they understand that everything doesn't have to be afight. legislations are made tobe together and compromise, and i hope theea party doesn't have the influence, and it had been really bad for this country, and i understand why the american people feel the way they do. >> you thought the tea part would die out as the economy got better, and you were not ready about that? >> i think the tea party is dying outs the economy is getting betr slowly. >> you believe that. >> duri the past year, i would hope the two republican leaders have learned what took place i the previous year. you know, what we have to focus on this year is rebu

and buffett says he'd up that to a 3 for 1 match for mcconnell himself.ll be right back. >>> welcome back to "hardball." mitt romney has made himself the likely republican nominee by winning iowa and new hampshire. he's consistently attacked president obama's policies. whool the president has been speaking out about republicans and economic inequality. are those the arguments we're going to hear in the general election. john harwood writes in today's paper in this sour, fearful mood that economic setbacks have produced, american voters loathe both major symbols of the forces squeezing their pocketbooks and life savings. president obama will seek re-election vowing to rein in one of them -- wall street. mitt romney will focus on the other -- washington. well, wall street versus washington. that's it. john heileman is national affairs editor for "new york magazine" and joe williams covers the white house for politico. john heileman, let me ask you about this different blame game. from the beginning of our country's history, politicians have blamed new york

mcconnell: mr.blican leader -- mr. mcconnell: -- we do enjoy our sports discussions. the -- of course, i always have the ultimate trump, which is the university of kentucky's won seven ncaa championships. university of louisville, two. and so my friend is always trying to catch up. and i would say that -- mr. reid: only eight more to go. mr. mcconnell: unlv has a good team this year. probably not as good as kentuc kentucky. maybe as good as louisville. but it does give us an opportunity to catch up on each other's teams every day as we -- as we head to the floor. mr. president, let me just start on a sort of sober note by saying we're all thinking of our colleague, mark kirk. it's at moments like these that we're all reminded of how fragile life is and that there are far more important things in life than politics. so we send mark and his family our prayers and our wishes for a speedy recovery. now i'd like to begin my remarks today by simply stating the obvious -- the jobs crisis we're in continues