can he do, what does he into ed to do in 2014 to turn it around or are republicans going to keep gaining ground on him? one of the big questions is the open question of immigration. republicans realize they have a problem. the base is hostile to immigration reform. will the liberation of john boehner calling out these conservative groups lead him to do what he knows is right politically? there s an opening. definitely an opening. that is one of the biggest questions. both parties realized there s more to gain in passing immigration reform in whatever form. in an election year in i don t have the hope it would happen. watch out. lindsey graham and other republicans have been clear on this. that fundamental diversity deficit will get bigger and bigger. will long-term strategy prevail or will something else dominate? immigration reform is the big open question here. a new year, new hopes. i believe they have learned a
and deficit, all the things they have been talking about for awhile. and lastly, a promise to appoint budget conferees, meaning negotiators to come together to deal with the budget which i don t think will be a tough sell since democrats have been demanding that for some time. those are the goals. whether or not obama care will be in there, that is a big open question. there is certainly a lot of pressure from ted cruz still not to give up on that. they say they might just try just to say that they tried, but privately republicans say that they just simply they know that s a nonstarter for the white house. we know democrats aren t thrilled that this republican plan doesn t include reopening the government but you are hearing now some republicans are unhappy about that, too. reporter: fascinating. our congressional producer has been combing the hallways as he usually does. he talked to so many senate republicans, really that run the gamut in the republican party from john mccain t
john mccain said i don t like this but i ll work with susan rice. be interesting to watch whether it s china challenge, cyber space. whether she can prove to the republicans she has an open mind and open door. grand bargain, immigration reform, domestic items. if the environment is so polarized and they don t want to give the president an inch there s a question whether something like susan rice that s unrelated to the budget and immigration does it contribute to the lousy environment in this town right now? john king, thank you very much. still to come the suspected fort hood shooter. he says he was protecting the taliban in afghanistan. that s his defense. okay. he says that. but keep in mind the u.s. government said he didn t commit a terrorist attack. how does that add up? plus new details about the cleveland kidnapper ariel castro, evidence he may have been planning a fourth abduction. and then the government said that she was too young to receive is a lung transplant. her par
this is a partisan move without a doubt and comfort food. the president likes susan rice, he trusts susan rice. a big question being asked by democrats does she have the management experience. the national security adviser has a tough job. they have to decide what gets to the president, decide the order of the questions, if you will. that s a big open question does she have this. you make a key point about the politic, washington is broken right now and this is not a move that s going to help fix it. not a move that will make the republicans think the president is reaching out to us. you had pretty good evidence to the contrary. this is sort of giving the bird to the republicans and that s fine and good except for when you supposedly need to work together on whether it be a grand bargain or anything else, right? they will be completely ill disposed to do so after this, right? it s a great question. here s a foreign policy person. number one she s been an intervention person in the
keep some out that might suggest that there s more here than the evidence, and that they re really going to try to inflame them by showing he s a vigilante or something like that. some areas are really hard and i don t see the judge granting that. now i guess i don t under the whole country involved in this case. everybody who is on the jury is well aware of it. so how does this make a difference. the phrase he confronted trayvon martin. i mean i don t get how removing that makes a difference. well, everybody who is familiar with this case, everybody watching your show is familiar with the case but not everybody is watching this case. some just simply remain to stay ignorant as far as what s going on with the news and around them. and so to go ahead and color this and to make it prejudicial one way or another the question could be reversed. if in fact doesn t make a difference then why use them, why take a risk that you ll be putting up word that are inflammatory and meant to arous