patrick leahy. then life inauguration coverage including the swearing in of president obama and your phone calls. >> joining us on "newsmakers", senator patrick leahy. thank you for being with us. joining us is a congressional reporter for "the new york times." let me begin with the comments made this past week as the president outlined his gun strategy. he made a passing reference to violent in media. you said you want to take a closer look at that part of the debate. how can congress legislate morality when it comes to gun violence or movies? >> movies and television and what not the response and not the congress. it to be family members, parents. with my grandchildren there are programs that are not allowed to watch. i think that is right. we should be doing more of that. the industry has to ask itself how glamorous do they make killings, at the same in a movie. there's nothing glamorous about somebody being killed. i was at a number of murder scenes when i was a prosecutor. there's nothing glamo

el presidente del comite judicial del senado, el democrata patrick leahy anuncio que habra audienciasn unas pocas semanas. standup: fernando pizarro, washington d.c. el liderazgo democrata del senado ha senalado que esta preparado para empezar a analizar propuestas concretas sobre inmigracion tan pronto como el proximo mes. desde washington, fernando pizarro, univision. todavia existen probabilidad es de nieve en la region metropolitana... especialmente reportes decian que afectaria el trafico vehicular justamente en la hora pico... claudia uceda se encuentra en vivo desde la calle 14 en washington...claudia, esta nevando o no? el presidente obama quiere que toda la nacion se una al dia de voluntariado conmemorando asi al doctor martin luther king junior... lilian mass nos tiene el presidente obama, en su pasada toma de posesiÓn inicio una tradiciÓn, para honrar la vida y el legado del reverendo dr. martÍn luther king, jr. . una tradiciÓn en la cual insta a toda la naciÓn a servir a sus comunidades el dia nacional de servicio " tenemos personal en los 50 estados y mas de 200,000 volun

host: that is senator patrick leahy from this morning at georgetown university talking about the entire judiciary committee agenda for 2013. again guns on the agenda. we are going to show you-all of the comments by senator leahy right after our conversation with you by phone. we'll get back to our phones here in almond, georgia. jerry's on our republican line. go ahead with your comments. thanks for waiting. caller: this is a comment saying in a hypocritical way to use children, i'm so sorry for the little town, but when you take and turn that around the president and congress and senate make it legal to kill thousands of babies for abortion each and every year, yet they go around and try to stop someone with a gun. gun is important. gun is important to people. and i'm sure there should be something done about some of the guns being made, but at the same time there should be something done in trying to control the spending of our country and taking our country down the drain. every time you make a new law to spend more money, that's ridiculous. we need to get it down where they can live

. >> if chairman patrick leahy pressed lapierre. >> if you're a dealer, that is already the law. >> please, mr. lapierre, i'm not trying to play games here, but if you could just answer the question. >> rights demand responsibility. law abiding gun owners will not accept blame. >> americans are looking to us for solutions and for action. >> this time must be different. >> the senate judiciary committee today held the first senate hearing on gun and ammunition control, in the aftermath of the massacre of 20 first graders and six women educators at sandy hook elementary school. baltimore county police jim johnson addressed one of the more absurd proposals that have been floated in the wake of the first graders. the idea that they should be protected by teachers with guns. >> you're a teacher in a classroom, an educator, you dedicated your entire life to that pursuit, but you have a side arm strapped to yourself, you better have it all the time. because if you put it in the desk drawer, the brief case, where will you leave it? let me tell you something, carrying this weapon on my side has bee

an amendment by patrick leahy would have read -- required a reauthorization of every five years. senator paul put forth an amendment that would have required individual search warrants for certain -- why isn't anyone concerned about the content of this legislation? what efforts were to try to put into place, they failed. theet's think about reverse instance. is it safe? does it make sense for america, for the congress, for the legislation to say that if there are international communications occurring that are linked to potential terrorist activity, if there is an american on one end of that conversation, we are not allowed to listen to it unless we get case by case warrants. that is absurd in the age of the internet. that would make the work of those trying to protect american citizens absolutely impossible. if you put the reverse situation into play, it is clear. we have to have this capability. >> that is the purpose of this information gathering. correct me if i am wrong, anytime there is an attempt to question that, this is a state secret, it is in the interest of national s

el presidente del comite judicial del senado, el democrata patrick leahy anuncio que habra audienciasanas. standup: fernando pizarro, washington d.c. el liderazgo democrata del senado ha senalado que esta preparado para empezar a analizar propuestas concretas sobre inmigrion tan pronto como el proximo mes. desde washington, fernando pizarro, univision. los dias los dias en que usted estaba obligado a retirar billetes de 20 dolares de los cajeros automaticos, esta llegando a su fin para algunos clientes... cajeros automaticos capaces de dispensar billetes de uno y cinco dolares estan proliferando por todo el pais... los bancos chase y p-n-c estan desplengando maquinas q brindaran un cambio exacto en dolares y pronto tambien podran dispensar monedas... las nuevas maquinas son gratis para los clientes... mas adelante:. ... el pais se une al dia de voluntariado para conmemor al lider de los derechos civiles martin luther king junior... tambien:. la aerolinea american airlines dio a conocer su renovada imagen... temperaturas frias con cielo soleado y despejado son las condiciones atmosferi

patrick leahy called the hearing in response to the school shooting in newtown, connecticut where 20six adults were killed

next, an article about senator patrick leahy, whose heading the senate judiciary committee. --eefe says bob in michigan, republican. caller: that last caller, what a piece of work. how did he get the idea all of these killers were right-wing conservatives? there were young kids. most of them are liberal democrats. so i don't understand that at all. as far as the president goes, he swore to uphold the constitution. how can he put his hand on the bible and that's where the oath of office, if the constitution is an impediment to him doing what he wants to do? host: about senator patrick leahy, he will give a speech. this morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. we will bring coverage of that to you here on c-span. he will talk about the judiciary committee's agenda for the 113th congress. also, he will be our guest this weekend on sunday at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. steve in georgia, a gun owner. what are your thoughts? caller: good morning. one of the things i would like to see the president talk about is, under the first amendment, and that is hollywood. , in i grew up in the 1950's

senator patrick leahy walks a tight rope on these issues.r. he respects the rights of gun ownership in this country. reading through his prepared remarks today is pretty clear that he's going to walk a fine line in this hearing. he recognizes the fact that in 2008 the supreme court essentially agreed with justice scalia -- >> washington, d.c.'s gun ban overturned. >> the district of columbia against heller. they upheld the right of people to own guns. the question, of course, here and what you can expect this committee to really drill down on is what is reasonable gun ownership? this is something we haven't heard so much about. there's been a lot of talk about so-called assault weapons. what's reasonable? for example, ar-15s, which are semiautomatic rifles widely considered assault weapons are extremely popular across the united states. police departments use them everywhere. so is it reasonable to ban those are what's unreasonable? the same thing with large capacity magazines for rounds. what is reasonable? a lot of police departments, a lo

patrick leahy says he plans to finish work on a bill by then of february.s mid-march. this paves the way over a possible showdown. the nra has promised to block any sort of ban, and is not too keen on any other gun legislation either. lawmakers like diane feinstein and others are planning on holding submit tee hearings during the next few weeks. we can expect senator feinstein so introduce that as an aamendment. and as hillary clinton moves out of her position as secretary of state she leaving her impact on gay rights throughout the world. she called gay rights and human rights one in the same. we'll be right back. ♪ 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. [♪ theme music ♪] >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio

still, democrat patrick leahy, who chairs the senate judiciary committee, told an audience at georgetown university he intends to hold hearings on the proposals starting in two weeks. >> there are some who say nothing will pass. i disagree with that. what i'm interested in is what we can get. >> reporter: and that might mean putting the assault weapons ban on the back burner in favor of less-controversial measures. california democrat mike thompson leads the party's new gun task force and is a gun owner himself. >> i think we need to look at each piece as to how much good it will do if it passes, and we need to prioritize. and the two areas that i think are most important are universal background checks and the assault magazines. >> reporter: and do you think that those two things stand a fighting chance in this congress? >> oh, yeah. i'm the eternal optimist. >> reporter: the republican house speaker, john boehner, said he will wait to see what the democratically controlled senate can pass, and even that scott, won't be easy. there are a number of western and southern democrats who have

thousands of people to jail for years without a judge's approval but now democratic senator patrick patrick leahy wants to scrap minimum sentences altogether he says that one size fits all crime strategies are mistaken just don't work or to correspondent liz wahl profiles one family who was caught in the crosshairs of this type of prosecution it didn't matter they still went to prison in spring of one thousand nine hundred ninety eight karen garrisons twin sons were top students about to graduate from howard university they had dreams of going to law school but that all changed. the informant claim that they were at the. drug transaction the man that worked on their car was indicted for cocaine and crack distribution he told authorities the garrisons were involved in the conspiracy his sentence was reduced i think he did like. eleven months something like that i mean when they were going in a few months later the investigator told me he was coming it was common. that eleven months paled in comparison to what the twins faced fifteen and a half years for lawrence and nineteen and a half years for l

the chairman of the committee, patrick leahy of vermont says he wants to work up legislation that he can introduce to the committee within a month. norah and charlie? >> nancy, thanks. >>> a win storm in the south killed two and caused heavy damage. overnight it knocked out power to tens of thousands. in new york city this morning runoff from heavy rain is rushing down city streets. >> and six tornados hit tennessee yesterday crushing homes and businesses. one man died when a tree fell on the shed where he took corps. the mauve destructive twister killed another man in adairsville, georgia, and that's where we find terrell brown. terrell, good morning. >> reporter: norah and charlie, good morning. this is what's left in adairsville. much of the debris is from one of the sides of the building. that is the roof. and mangled in all of this debris is downed power lines. this is what cleanup crews will have to deal with today as many residents return to see if they have anything left. >> hey, that's a tornado, buddy. >> reporter: late wednesday the tornado touched down here in adairsville

. >> it flared up early when patrick leahy grilled lapierre over background checks. >> you do not support mandatory background checks in all >> we do not because the fact is, law right now is a failure the way it's working. >> as it turns out, he was for background checks at gun shows before he was against them. and said so in 1999. >> we think it's reasonable to provide mandatory, instant criminal background checks for every sale at every gun show. no loopholes anywhere for anyone. >> when he was reminded of that line -- >> now, you do not support background checks for all firearms. >> i think the check system the way it's working now is a failure. >> lapierre's argument -- >> the problem with gun laws is criminals don't cooperate with them. >> but between 1994 and 2009, the justice department says out of 108 million background checks, nearly 2 million were denied. still, he was right on another front. >> 23 states have not been putting the mental records of these mentally incontinent of the system. >> that's backed up by a gao report last year finding between 2004 and 2011, almost half

. >> and the chair of the judiciary committee patrick leahy also tried to pin down lapierre on the samessue. background checks. >> should we have mandatory background checks at gun shows? >> if you're a dealer, that's already the law. >> that's not my question. i'm not trying to play games here. but if you could, just answer my question. >> senator, i do not believe the way the law is working now unfortunately, that it does any good to extend the law to private sales between hobbyists and collectors. >> with all due respect, that was not the question i asked. nor did you answer it. >> but i think it is the answer. >> mark glaze, if we can't get it done on background checks where the polling data i see suggests seven in ten americans are supportive, what means assault weapons and clips will be game? >> everybody should have to pass a background check because they back passed background checks. i would not take this too seriously. this is people staking out their positions. but i think wayne lapierre would find it very hard to stick until the end of this process with the position of rejec

>> well, i can tell that you patrick leahy voted for the bill in 1994.eid. look, everybody says, do you have every vote? the answer is no. that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. look, what happened in connecticut at sandy hook, the ripping apart of bodies of 5 and 6-year-olds a. mother who gave her son a gun when that son shouldn't have been anywhere near the gun, shows the falsity of the situation that we live in now. we've got to change that and we've got to protect our schools. you can't just protect them with guards. i have no problem with guards. there was a deputy sheriff armed at columbine. he couldn't hit the sniper or the shooter that was in that school. so we have to keep these weapons, which are military weapons, out of the hands of gang bangers, of mental incompetence, people who would use them for bad purposes. >> senator feinstein, i know that you feel very passionately on this issue. >> i do. >> we'll see what happens in the weeks to come. appreciate you joining us. >> thanks, wolf. >>> our own anderson cooper is taking a look at the debate i

as for what's next, senator patrick leahy, in the u.s.reform the day after the state of the union on february 13th. kate? >> and jessica, this is his first out of town trip since the inauguration. what's the strategy behind the president kind of taking it on the road, going before the supportive crowd to make this big speech on immigration? >> reporter: well, as you might recall on election night, i reported that the president will begin his second term by taking his case to the people. he thought that in his first term, his biggest mistake was not rallying the american people to support his key issues. and he said he will correct that. and that's what he's doing on what is one of his top two legislative priorities for his second term. taking his case to the people who he thinks will help pressure congress to get this done. and he did it in a state that he won by a large majority in nevada, and where one out of four people is latino. so he's hoping it will be a grassroots movement to get this done fast, kate. >> you made the prediction on

violence, and everybody is watching and waiting to see what other kinds of legislation that senator patrick leahychairman, might come up with, but at this point, it's too soon to say which direction he might go >> shep: thanks, and for the first time in three years, our economy shrank in the last three months of last year. that was unexpected, the markets were a lit aloof for awhile, but look where they're standing now. as you can see. we'll continue to cover breaking news on studio b. ...so as you can see, geico's customer satisfaction is at 97%. mmmm tasty. and cut! very good. people are always asking me how we make these geico adverts. so we're taking you behind the scenes. this coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. it's not real. geico's customer satisfaction is quite real though. this computer-animated coffee tastes dreadful. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 % or more on car insurance. someone get me a latte will ya, please? >> shep: the country, the economy shrank for the first time since last year, and it has taken economists by surprised. it slowed down 3.2% from the last quar

. >> giffords's testimony was followed by an intense day of questioning including patrick leahy and dick durbin taking on the head of nra. wayne la pierre. >> should we have mandatory background checks at gun shows for the sales? >> if you are a dealer, that's already the law. >> that's not my question. i'm not trying to play games here. if you could, just answer my question. >> i do not believe the way the law is working now unfortunately that it does any good to extend the law to private sales in collectors. >> worry all due respect that was not the question asked. >> i think it is the answer. we have to get in the real world on what works and doesn't work. my problem with background checks is you are never going to get criminals to go through several background checks. >> mr. la pierre, that's the point. the criminals won't purchase the guns because there will be a background check that stop them from the original purchase. you missed that point completely. it's basic. >> i think you missed -- >> let there be order. please wait. i said earlier, there will be order. >> joining me now f

patrick leahy of vermont ran that by him again. >> should we have mandatory checks at gun shows. >> ifdealer, that's already the law. >> that's not my question, please mr. la pierre i'm not trying to play games but if you could just answer my question. >> senator, i do not believe the way the law is working now unfortunately, that it does any good to extend the law to private sales between hobbiests and collectors. >> john: never mind the fact that they're all hobbyists and collectors until one of them shoots a lot of people. but what about sales where they don't care who buys their guns and certifiable deranged killers. could background checks work there? >> my wife would not be sitting in this seat, she would not be sitting here today if we had stronger background checks. >> john: that might have been true for another more recent gun violence victim. she marched as a majorette in the president's inaugural parade parade. senator dick durban described what happened to her by a man with hands on a gun. >> a gunman came in and shot her dead. just a matter of days after the happiest tape

. >> we need to take the statements now, you see the chairman of the committee, patrick leahy and among those seated at the table, gabby giffords and wayne lapierre. let's listen for a bit. >> gabby giffords is going to give a brief message. and captain kelly, thank you for your help in bringing your wife here. miss giffords. >> okay. thank you for inviting me here today. this is an important conversation for our children, for our communities, for democrats and republicans. speaking is difficult but i need to say something important. violence is a big problem. too many children are dying. too many children. we must do something. it will be hard but the time is now. you must act. be bold, be courageous. americans are counting on you. thank you. >> captain kelly, you want to help miss giffords out and i'll give you a few moments and -- >> gabby giffords with words that cannot fail to move you as she struggles with speech. the shooting in tucson, she was shot at point blank range and worth saying that the suspect jared loughner, charged with so many counts of murder, went into a gun shop a

we'll bring you more details and the senate judiciary committee, patrick leahy announced he'll be taking up issues of gun violence and immigration in the new term. republicans and democrats recently announced senate committee assignments and we'll talk about that as well. this afternoon the president kicked off the national day of service volunteering at a school here in the d.c. area. tomorrow he will take the oath of office in a private ceremony at noon. nbc's kristen welker is at the white house. nbc news senior political editor mark murray standing by with new insight from the new nbc news wall street journal poll. let me start with you. for folks who may not get this, a lot of folks wondering why is the president -- he's going to be sworn in on sunday and sworn in again on monday. what's the deal? >> reporter: well, craig, the reason is that the constitution states that the president has to be sworn in before noon on january 20th. january 20th falls on a sunday this year. it's the seventh time that happened in the nation's history so president obama will be officially sworn in here

>> reporter: if you listen to the line of questioning that the chairman patrick leahy is going through, you sort of see kind of the wheels churning and the outlines of potential legislation that he might be thinking it. it's all focused on background checks and making sure that guns are not in the hands of the wrong people. he talks about straw purchasers. he's effectively talking about the fact that if you own a gun and you sell it to me, it doesn't necessarily have to be registered. there doesn't have to be a background checks on that. it's not a prosecutable offense. that's the thing when democrats and republicans talk about strengthening background checks, they are talking about strengthening that kind of enforcement, if you will. you can see that kind of discussion starting here with the guy who really will be very involved in writing legislation. he's somebody that is a gun owner but he told me and others in the hallway yesterday that he understands there's a desire after newtown to see if any legislation can be accomplished. you can see that is where he's headed with those parti

former vice president dick cheney told patrick leahy to f yourself in an argument over halliburton andator john kerry used it with an interview with the rolling stone over an interview about the iraq war. did i expect george bush to f it up as badly as he did? i don't think anybody did. whoo. whole grain, multigrain cheerios! mom, are those my jeans? [ female announcer ] people who choose more whole grain tend to weigh less than those who don't. multigrain cheerios tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 after that, it's on to germany. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 then tonight, i'm trading 9500 miles away in japan. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 with the new global account from schwab, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i hunt down opportunities around the world tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 as if i'm right there. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and i'm in total control because i can trade tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 directly online in 12 markets in their local currencies. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i use their global research to get an edge. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 their equity ratings show me how schwab tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 rates specific foreign stocks tdd#: 1-800-345

issues of gun violence and the law enforcement their main calling card on capitol hill and that's patrick leahy and ann fine stine and chuck schumer from new york. we have 23, democrats running for re-election and most of them come from midwestern, western states. they have strong, rural communities and therefore are a lot more open to maintaining gun rights and so you will have a lot of these democrats who will be very nervous voting for any big changes and harry reid is one of them. the national rifle association stayed out of the reelection race and he owes it to them to perhaps temper the debate and not necessarily let all of this go through. >> that's one reason why you're seeing the president take executive action and that's something you heard critics and people who had been his supporters criticized him for not doing more of that in his first term and he's signaling that he's willing to do more of that on these big fights and it's about seizing the moment because the further and further you get from the sandy hook tragedy, the less you're likely to achieve and he's trying to make this h