democrats are mostly -- you know they think that scalice should resign. they want to make the most out of it. republicans are really divided here. republicans trying to say this is a big distraction, it's not helpful. others including boehner right now are certainly backing skalice. >> the immigration fight, are we going to see that again? >> absolutely a really big story. it's all about funding the department of homeland security. remember when congress ended up passing that spending bill in mid-december. it dealt with everything but the department of homeland security. this is where republicans want to have their big fight on immigration. the question is who ends up paying the bigger price for the fight? if you end up having some type of potential shutdown on the department of homeland security. >> what about boehner? is he safe in his position? will that come up too as an issue? >> barbara, he -- >> and what will be the issue? >> he is safe. there will be a speaker election tomorrow with the new congress. he is safe. but there are about 10 to 15 to 20

we are hearing from the house majority what steve scalice.e was recently at a house republican leadership event this morning. this is what he said. >>cy reject bigotry of all forms. people who know me best both here and especially back home people who i've been on opposite ends politically with who know the truth and know what's in my heart. they're the ones who speak the best. >> house speaker john boehner also throwing his support behind skal lease. there are some democrats who feel he should resign. according to the skalese camp he has no plans to do that. >> president obama is leaving for the midwest. he'll be highlighting his agenda with a new congress in place and a state of the union address just weeks away. nbc's tracie potts. >> the president plans to meet three stops starting with detroit today to talk about how washington helped bring back the auto industry and create manufacturing jobs. then it's off to phoenix to talk about housing there. some new things he wants to do. plus some new initiatives he'll announce in tennessee on col