always there. >>> welcome back in the "crossfire" tonight mo elleithee and sean spicer. president obama spent today in maryland and pennsylvania reciting the greatest hits from his state of the union speech. he's going to wisconsin and tennessee tomorrow, but some democratic candidates don't seem interested in being seen with him. mary burke who is running for wisconsin governor and who would get a huge boost in name recognition by appearing with the president of the united states is too busy to greet obama tomorrow. this is part of a growing pattern. senator kay hagan of north carolina was also too busy to attend an obama event in her state this month. even more embarrassing was democratic senator mark udall's uncomfortable nonanswer last night when cnn's dana bash asked him if he'd campaign with the president in colorado. >> that was not a yes or no. >> we'll see what the president's schedule is, we'll see what my schedule is. but coloradans will re-elect me on my record, not the president's record. >> one more chance, you won't see yes or no, will you? >> we'll see wh

thank you, rnc communications director sean spicer. you might not know it, but i like you, pal, it's all good. thank you. >> i like you, too, alex, thank you. >> got to make peace here. >>> to break this down for us, daniela gibbs and ed brabender cox, john bray bender. john, some members of the party seem to have constant mouth in foot syndrome, despite the efforts to keep republicans from saying things that alienate so many women. what do you think needs to change in the party for some of these politicians to get the message? >> well, what they have to understand is there is a political reality to what we say and do, as well. when we have a mistake is we let ourselves be singularly defined by a very small number of issues. what we have to do a much better job is get hard working average americans understanding that we understand their life, we're on their side, we're fighting for them. instead we get very defensive on a small number of issues where most americans probably agree with us, but we get into terminology that's not helpful.

here's david axelrod on "morning joe" and sean spicer appearing in the last hour with chris jansing. >> all right. >> if it looks like he was forthright, i thought he looked good in that press conference. if you were uninitiated watching that press conference, you'd say here's a guy standing up, taking responsibility, admitting faults. i think that he can survive this. >> governor christie took responsibility and showed what a leader does, and i think that's refreshing, and i think it's important that you see that that's what happens when republicans deal with situations. >> all right, our nbc news "first read" team writes christie's enemies, democrats and republicans, are ready to pounce. michael, do you think the crisis is going to get worse before it gets better? and i understand what sean spicer is saying, the governor did take responsibility, but that's taking responsibility because he's been exposed, because his top aides have been exposed. this is something that he laughed off and basically also demeaned reporters when asked about the severity of this issue, and just said, wha

. >> sean spicer, communications director for the rnc. you, sean. >> thank you, chris. >>> one top republican says the scandal surrounding chris christie reenforces he's a bully, the other says if christie knows what he's saying, he's quote, toast. with friends like these, is his shot at 2016 in peril? both sides weighing in, coming up. [ female announcer ] it figures. on your busiest day, you see the gray. try root touch up by nice 'n easy. just brush our permanent color matching creme right where you need it. then rinse. in 10 minutes, zap those grays and get on with your day. nice 'n easy root touch up. this is the creamy chicken corn chowder. i mean, look at it. so indulgent. did i tell you i am on the... [ both ] chicken pot pie diet! me too! [ male announcer ] so indulgent, you'll never believe they're light. 100-calorie progresso light soups. . >>> with investigations and a lawsuit now facing new jersey governor chris christie, the other issue is the impact this will have on the 2016 presidential race. >> listen, at the end of the d

. >> sean spicer joins me on the phone and hillary rosen also with us. you heard that exchange. if the question is so silly, then who is the leader of the republican party? >> well, i think the republican party has several leaders. john boehner heads up the house republicans. mitch mcconnell heads up the senate republicans, chris christie is the head of the rga. the question you asked, though, erin, was with respect to responses. let me just go through what the chairman was saying. when there were several responses that came out, not only on our side, but in theirs. leader pelosi and senator baldwin, congressman hoyt. democrat after democrat. so, there's everybody these days is putting out a response. that's totally different than the question of leadership. and that's how you ask. more importantly, the interesting thing that didn't get asked is every one of the democrats put out a statement from senator mary landrui all put out responses to the state of the union running away from them as they head into a tough re-electi re-election. the tough question c

you heard that from sean spicer, from the rnc chairman, not speaking directly about these remarks, butave to be careful how you word these things and what you are saying and messaging on these social issue that is are important right now. >> here is what mike huckabee said last night. take a listen. >> everything i was accused of saying, i was saying the polar opposite. this was an affirmation of the intelligence, the capability of women. it wasn't about contraceptives. it's about the way democrats accused republicans of having a war on women when republicans believe that women are equal. >> ed, there's talk of huckabee considering 2016 presidential aspirations. does this play into that picture at all? >> well, if you look at the e-mail he sent out the night of this speech, when he was reacting to the fact that the media picked up on his comments and that e-mail included a link to a page to donate to him and his political efforts, i suppose it does have something to do with his 2016 presidential aspirations. he's made no secret, he's thinking about it. he's been approached by people an

karen tumulty, national political correspondent for "the washington post," and sean spicer, communicationsional committee. there are you in the middle. let me just start off with the gates book. because i did think it was sort of an astonishing timing and really took out after pretty much everybody. one of the things that's getting the most play, of course, is what he said about joe biden and this is a quote from the book. "the vice president was poisoning the well with the president with regard to petraeus and afghanistan. i said i thought biden was subjecting obama to chinese water torture ever day saying the military can't be trusted, the strategy can't work, it's all failing, the military is trying to game me to screw you." he also said biden's been wrong on every single foreign policy issue in the last 25 years. does this in any way figure into politician, because he also had some negative things to say about hillary clinton an the president. >> well, in this town i think you want everything to factor into politics. look, i'm going to disagree with secretary gates as much as i respect

speech tonight from the republican national committee headquarters, and communications director sean spicer. hi. >> hey. >> what - give me your reaction to what the president had to say tonight, over all. >> i think libby and mike summed it up. there was a lot of small ball, a lot of things heard before. a good speech, well delivered. he's let off, we are talking about a year of action and you have to wonder about the last six years, the last six state of the unions, where we had a lot of talk but not action, and you saw him get a lot of things down because he realised they made a lot of promises last year and hadn't done much in the way of fulfilling those things. it's a great speech, but probably into account more than that. after six years of being president, it's probably not a good record reaching across getting things done. that's why you see a lot of figuring out how to go around congress, because it's been tough working with dcongress. >> when you talk about the minimum wage and there's an executive order raised at aiming the minimum wage, at least with the contracts, how does that