will list in madrid. plus, the biggest search for a missing aircraft intensifies as the pilots of the plane are now being investigated. malaysian authorities are due to hold their latest press conference in 30 minutes. >> you're watching "worldwide exchange" bringing you business news from around the globe. and a very good morning in north america. welcome to the start of the global trading day here on cnbc's "worldwide exchange." we saw the first loss for the dow since may 2012, down 2.3%. this morning, futures are indicating higher, up by about 105 points. the s&p was down just under t2% over the course of next week. they are now trading 28 points above fair value. and the s&p is trading about 12 points above fair value. the nasdaq is 27 points above fair value having the worst week since last week down 2.1%. the ftse global 300 is just up six points at the moment. the ftse was down .75%. despite the vote in crimea, it is now in russia's hands about what they do. for a while they could do nothing. house builders doing very well this morning. we got a budget coming out in the u.k. on wednesday with george osborne suggesting yesterday to extend his help to buy plans, which is going to fuel the market right move saying asking prices for homes up 1.6% in the last month, now up 7% from a year ago. so up 6.47%. barclays is up 3. dollar/yen, a little higher using a little bit of ground on the safehaven. 101.80 is where we stand from the two-and-a-half month high. sterling, still at 1.66. let's go to li sixuan in singapore. >> reporter: thank you, ross. investigators are still fretting over china's economy and the quality of corporate debt, but as china markets are concerned, the shanghai composite consolidated just above the key 2000 level ending higher by 1%. and the shenzhen gained a stronger 2% today. the hang seng index in hong kong ended lower by just modest .3%. concerns over the ukraine crisis continue to way on sentiment. and the nikkei slipped to a six-week closing low. and australia also ended near its one-month lows. but south korea's kospi saw bargain hunting after last week's steep loss ending .10%. as for solid winners, the chinese cement makers outperformed on support of policies and urbanization reforms. they totally surged up by 10%. and on to some individual movers jar japan's soft bank soared after ali babba decided to list the long-awaited ipo in the u.s. softbank earns a 37% stake in ali babba, but this headed further south ending lower for tencent at 3%. and that's a look at the asian markets. back to you, ross. >> li sixuan, thank you for that. we'll catch you later. meanwhile, more on the ukraine in crisis. steve is there in kiev post this referendum which has crimea wishing to succeed to russia. steve, what happens now? i presume russia can take their time. >> reporter: yes, i think you're right, ross. i think everything has been moving at a break-neck speed ever since the fall of yanukovych in kiev, but we are expecting things to carry on at that speed. and now that we have had the crim crimean region reacting to the vote, nearly 97% of people, whatever you think about poll, whether in the west or russia, agree they want to become part of the russian federation. now mr. putin can afford to potentially take his time as well, but no doubt about it, the putin reaction, which is key, yes, we know the eu and the u.s. will bring limited sanctions. yes, we know the kiev government doesn't agree with that poll result although the government has been telling me they do agree with more autonomy for crimea. the fact is it depends on mr. putin, whether mr. putin, a, agrees to an excrimea to the russian federation or b, reacts strongly to the european sanctions. and most importantly, is the expansion of russian military presence in this region going to happen, and i'm talking primarily about eastern ukraine as well because there's enormous military build-up going on on the border between russia and ukraine. and the fear is that provocations, incidents, violence and elsewhere could lead to further military action. of course, for all intensive purposes, many people believe the kiev government is powerless to present a russian invasion should that be the case. now, the reaction has been pretty forthright on both sides. mr. putin says it was legitimate and abated national law and u.n. charter. the americans and the west are adamant that's not the case. i've been speaking to a lot of politicians both domestic and international here in kiev. i spoke to half a dozen u.s. senators who came here to show support for the kiev government, including the incredibly hulkish john mccain. he's the former presidential candidate and republican senator for arizona. he's very aggressive in his language to mr. putin. listen in. >> this referendum on sunday will be a facade, a joke, although a sick one. so now we have to realize that that's happened and our long-term goal is to remain or regain crimea for crimea for ukraine and take a broad range of steps. range from helping the ukraine build up their military to renewing the defense missile defense system in the she can republic and poland that barack obama canceled, to military exercises, to moving georgia and ukraine into nato if they want to be, and hard, tough sanctions, but most of all, begin to realize that vladimir putin is what he is. and old kgb colonel that wants to restore the russian empire. >> reporter: we'll bring you more of that later on the show because he, dick durbin, rick johnson, a whole host of u.s. senators were very hulkish speaking in a bipartisan matter. this failed to get through the senate on friday. we also have been speaking to domestic key politicians as well including the foreign minister. and i asked him about diplomacy and what ukraine does next. >> we still believe there's a chance because there is a very big wide support of the ukrainian position on international arena of our partners in the eu or the united states and nato. so we do believe that with such an effort, we would be able to convince russia not to go to real war but to stop at this point and to settle all the issues around the table. >> reporter: one of the big problems, of course, is that kiev and the kremlin are not speaking. the kremlin has issues with legitimacy of the government in kiev, but we do have coming up the may 25th elections coming up in just under two months' time. so there's a hope, though, that when we have the presidential elections, this government will gain the international legitimacy and be able to start reasonable dialogue with the russians. the question is, who will be the president? i can tell you, the man who is the frontrunner in the presidential polls at the moment is an olygarch who will be coming up in 15 minutes' time. >> thank you for that. meanwhile, they continue to arrive in brussels to discuss their reaction. go to a live blog on cnbc.com. we have realtime updates with the latest news and the market moves as well. besides ukraine, more to come, could this be the biggest ipo sis facebook? alibaba has chosen new york. we'll bring you all the details. you're watching "worldwide exchange." >> a recap of the headlines, sanctions expected for russia as the west refuses to accept the crimea referendum result. alibaba picks new york for the million dollar listing. and the background of the pilots of the missing malaysian airliner are now being investigated. as far as the agenda stateside today, we have a february industrial production out at 9:15 eastern. look for the march sentiment survey from the national association of home builders. that's it. not much. other stories we are following today, call it the alibaba effect. stocks with china's commerce are gaping. alibaba is now electing to launch its $15 billion ipo in the u.s. instead. analysts suggest the listing could value alibaba around $140 billion in what could be the most anticipated ipo since facebook. it is working with six banks to lead the deal and plans to split fees roughly equally between them. meanwhile, weibo is planning to list in the u.s. market looking to raise $500 million in the share sale. the social networker says they have half as many users at twitter. the ceo makes his first visit to china. he'll meet academic students on his visit to signal the interest in entering the chinese market. twitter is being blocked by chinese since 2009. and vodafone is confirming to buy ono for nearly $3 billion. and many retailers are urged to stop selling tobacco products if they have a pharmacy. "the new york times" suggests letters from 28 states have gone out to rite aid, walgreens, kroeger, safeway and walmart. they also don't mention sales of e-cigarettes which the fda is also considering whether to regulate. and hertz is close to a spinoff of its equipment rental business. this deal could be valued near $4.5 billion. the split is the focus of investor questions for several years. reports say hertz has been exploring either spinoff or a so-called reverse morris trust. the separation combines a spinoff with a merger. hertz stock flat in frankfurt. all right. plenty more news surrounding crimea as the head military units in the region will be disbanded. this is according to ifx news world. we'll keep an eye on that. meanwhile, equities unpretesched this morning. with the fact, equities are higher, 8-1, advances leading current decliners. we'll have more right after this. opportunities aren't always obvious. sometimes they just drop in. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances. what does an apron have to do with car insurance? an apron is hard work. an apron is pride in what you do. an apron is not quitting until you've made something a little better. what does an apron have to do with car insurance? for us, everything. then a little time to kick back. earn double hilton honors points with the 2x points package and be one step closer to a weekend break. doubletree by hilton. where the little things mean everything. u.s. features suggest that the dow is down 2 1/3%. nasdaq having the worst week since april. the s&p is up 11.5 points and the nasdaq is up nearly 30. pending focus of course on the ukraine after crimea voted to secede and to try to join russia. the ukrainian parliament is trying to help with mobilization to call up 40,000 reservists. this as vladimir putin says he'll respect the wishes of the crimean people as they voted overwhelmingly to join russia. both the eu and the united states rejected the outcome of the ballot. william hague outlined potential sanctions that the russians can expect. >> well, the united kingdom in common with the rest of the european union will not recognize the crimea referendum that took place yesterday as legal or legitimate or meaningful. we propose to move to a further stage of the european response today with travel bans and asset freezes on individuals. that's one of the things we will be discussing today. i'm confident we'll reach agreement on that. at the same time, every diplomatic channel remains open to russia. and we continue to be in communication with russia about creating a diplomatic framework, about finding ways to de-escalate this crisis. >> and from crisis continuing to arise in brussels, this is the latest from the managing director at citi, tina, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> after an awful lot has happened in a short period of time, i wonder now if we'll enter a phase where a lot doesn't happen because clearly russia can take its time. >> right, there's no rush to act. and i think for that reason markets will also have a pause and see what happens. we tend to imagine there's some kind of a chess game going on when it's probably more like billiards. >> yeah, how is your billiards? it depends on how big the size of the pockets are. and what is russia? there's two things, what is russia now way up? >> well, i think russia can keep its options open, right? it's had a strong result in the crimean referendum contested as it was. it's still got troops in crimea which have a legal the right be there, plus the troops mast on the you crepan border. meanwhile, there are a number of meetings happening, but one of the challenges for russia is going to be what does it do with crimea, right? because there have been other cases of partition or other bits of former soviet satellite states, but they haven't formally joined russia. they have some kind of special status. >> could crimea sort of end up like that? >> that's part of the decision that will be taken. the russian dooma will meet this week. if one is created and you see the annexation, you will see it ratchet up. >> it could take a very long time. >> that's right. that's the key variable right now. is it annexation or some kind of loose as yet undetermined special status? >> the same time, violent pro-russian protests in demanding help from russia n the eastern part of the country, the eastern border, that's where putin says we need to go to protect russia. that seems the potential flare-up area. >> it's an open option. and that's why in my conversations with investors i've been talking about how this is a much longer time horizon where we could still see periodic upticks in ethnic clashes as you mentioned and ukrainian presidential elections on may 25th will be another sign post. but the ability for the ukraine yap authorities to maintain stability on the ground in the face of these challenges and such high tensions, plus the presence of troops not far away, is significant. >> what do we expect the west to do? besides sanctions on individuals. if there's no need to react from the russian government, if they take their time, what will happen? what will the reaction be? >> there are a few moving pieces here, right? so at the moment, if russian military intervention doesn't extend beyond crimea, then i wouldn't expect to see a response beyond this targeted sanctions, but you can also have a wider pool of individual who is are swept up into that group whom targeted sanctions are passed. we have seen real caution about economic sanctions. and the reason for that is obvious. russian retaliation could hurt u.s. and european companies. >> in that place, germany is the key player here. >> germany is also being prevailed upon by the polls and the baltic states to wave more than purely commercial interests. here is where market participants tend to overfocus on gas this year and there's a wider burden of history at work. >> the -- it would seem to me that the economics are against russia. yes, they could -- they have the security energy issue, but then there's a massive outflow, they need money. and if investors pull money out or not give them money, they have a much deeper problem than the west. it seems to be russia in a much weaker position than everybody else. >> in a globalized world, russia needs customers for its gas. and we have seen in the past putin is willing to take an economic hit in the short-term in order to maintain the long-term. >> the west is far more capable of taking a hit than russia is. >> i think there's caution on economic sanctions, but what i've said many times before is that the focus is on stabling ukraine, but that, too, bears risks of keeping tensions high with russia because it doesn't regard the government in kiev as a legal entity. >> yes. well, maybe it's not. i mean, this is a -- it wasn't elected government that had been -- they talk about we don't recognize crimea, they have not recognized the yanukovych government. in fact, there was a coup there. >> we have multiple interpretations of international law going on at the moment. >> one way of puting it. tina, stick around. she is from citi. plenty more on ukraine. get the latest realtime updates and we'll bring you the latest information on missing malaysian flight 370 as authorities gear up to hold their press conference in kuala lumpur. that's in a moment. power consumption in china,nn impact wool exports from new zealand, textile production in spain, and the use of medical technology in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. the headlines, crimea formally applies to join russia after a landslide vote. the european officials condemn the referendum and vow to agree on sanctions. >> well, the united kingdom in common with the rest of the european union will not recognize the crimea referendum that took place yesterday as legal or legitimate or meaningful. >> alibaba chooses new york over hong kong for its listing, said to be the biggest ipo since facebook. vodafone trades higher after selling the deal for $7 billion euros. and the biggest ever search for a missing aircraft intensifies. the pilots of malaysian 370 are now being investigated. >> you're watching "worldwide exchange" bringing you business news from around the globe. good morning to you. just joining us in north america, the latest press conference on missing malaysian flight 370 is due to start shortly in kuala lumpur. we'll bring you news on that as soon as it begins. meanwhile, after what we saw last week, the dow is down 1.3%. the dow at the moment, the futures are down 98 points above fair value. the nasdaq is 26 points above fair value. and the s&p is 11 points above fair value. the ftse is doing better up .1% as are european markets weighing heavily to the upside. nevertheless, ftse down 2.3% last year. here's where we stand. thank you. just up nearly half of 1% with two-thirds in the cac and the ftse up 8% at the moment. so, the start of this new week with ge,political issues in the area. here are thoughts on the channel already. >> we have been wrong so far on the short dollar call but it is still contingent on what the ecb does. if the fed continues to bond, like we think should be confirmed with this week. >> i'm not a big fan of common bonds. i think they are overvalued at this point. most of the markets are overvalue long-term. i'm in favor of risky assets or government bonds. >> what kind of risky assets? >> we are continuing to be in the position and credit risk is still favorable, credit in the u.k. is still good where some are quite up reasonably priced. >> i just haven't risen because of the activity and obviously the next stage is -- in terms of whether this value of selling off like last year, they have more to buy. i'm just reminded the latest press conference for the missing malaysian flight 370 is about to start. we'll bring you the beginning of that. >> during the last 24 hours, the prime minister has spoken to the prime minister of australia and the people of china. the minute industry of foreign affairs has sent diplomatic notes to all countries involved in the search and rescue operation. this includes two groups. first, countries in the search corridors and second countries from which we are seeking assistance and expertise. for countries in the search corridors, we are requesting radar and satellite information as well as specific assets for the search and rescue operation. he will do an aerial search and rescue action plans with the rescue coordination here in asia to coordinate the search effort. we have asked for regular updates including daily reports on both such activities and details of any information required from malaysia. we are not at liberty to reveal information from specific countries as the coordinating authority we are gathering all the information as part of the ongoing search and rescue operation. ladies and gentlemen, over the past 48 hours malaysia was working on the diplomatic, technical and logistical requirements. the number of countries involved in the search and rescue operation has increased to 26. they continue to lead the overall coordination of the effort. the southern corridor has been divided into two sections according to the international civil liberty organization demarcation. these demarcations work by the ic or by which russia is a council member. australia is agreeing to lead rescue operations in their suspected regions. today i can confirm that search and rescue efficiency that has already gun. countries including malaysia, china, indonesia, kazakhstan already initiated rescue and search operations. the royal mission air force and the royal mission navy have deployed assets to the southern corridor. two mission ships have been deployed. this also includes a helicopter which can hop from either ship. we have removed a p3 held chapter from the islands. and today the prime minister was an additional two or three. an aircraft will travel today to the site to help in the search. mission investigators have been working since day one. yesterday experts from civil administration with china join the investigation team. today officials from the french office of investigations and analysis for the liberty of civil aviation also joined the team. these authorities are working with refining it with top search. on saturday, april, march, the royal investigation is going to start into all crew members on board and the 317, including the pilot and co-pilot as well as all ground stops handling the aircraft. on sunday's march 27th, visit the homes of the pilot and co-pilot. we also spoke to members of the pilot and co-pilot. police visited the homes of the pilot and co-pilot on saturday, the 15th of march. the pilots simulator was taken from his house with the asis the answer of his family. the simulator was reassembled in police headquarters. at this point i would like to stress that malaysia has been working with many international authorities since day one. i would also liking to address the speck tlags she holds no matter what. for the families, i understand that every day belongs and ambushes your anguish. malaysia is missing its sons and daughters. there were 15 malaysians on board the plane. our party has always been to find the aircraft. we will not withhold any information that could help, but we also have a responsibility not to release information until it has been verified by international relationships. this is not only to the families and the investigation but also to the search and rescue operations. it would be irresponsible to deploy substantial assets nearly on the basis of i'm verified and can get cooperative information. as soon as she this acquisition was given by the mission authorities, the u.s. team was of the view that there were reasonable grounds for the malaysian authorities to deploy resources to conduct search on the west/east side of the peninsula of asia. we sent new satellite information as to the possible last known whereabouts of the aircraft. we recalibrate to the northern and southern corridors as the prime minister. after my statement, we'll release a moment of that. so the corridor looks something like this. the malitia -- >> we'll get more on the press conference. they are just going to give us more details. the police believe the plane could have flown into the northern or southern corridor. basically a little into the ocean as far as they were concerned. they will give you more details and they have not finishing the press conference. both the eu and the u.s. have rejected the outcome of the crimean ballot. steve is in kiev with the latest. steve, do we enter a quieter period in some ways now? last week we wait to see what russia does. >> reporter: maybe, ross, maybe. just not yet. that could come over the next couple of days. the douma is born as one of the next things to decide on whether to accept that from the crimean region. does he extend military activity to you crain and to the east? there's enormous russian military build-up on the other side of the border and a lot of trouble in the ooemp part of this country. which also has a lrnlg russian speak speaker medication. they are going to bring crimea into russia. and three, how does he react to the international sanctions. putin -- for the government here in kiev, i can tell you i was about to speak to one lawmaker 30 minutes ago. he rushed off to parliament because they just voted in the mobilization to partial mobilization of 40,000 reservists. so you can see this town, this country, remains on edged, the eu and the west have reaction. it is going to be limited in terms of asset breeze as well. we are expecting you out of the united states and in the eu foreign minister's meeting as well. i'll be speaking to senator john mccain. hulk has been strident in his criticism of russia and i asked him a whole lot of questions this weekend. i asked him, you were going to cooperate with putin but he said that failed. and it's a rivalry now. is it a cold war? that's the question i asked him and now we'll listen to his answer. >> how far away is that robbery between the u.s. and the west and russia. i do believe it is long overdo we accept him as he is and for who he is. >> reporter: i told the senate democrat from nebraska as well, dick durbin, the energy is massive today. tell us what your interpretation of this is. >> there's no question that natural gas has been the truck or play-by-play in recent history. he extorts from various countries, political favors and political decisions based on the price and availability of natural gas. we need to confront him once and for all as he tries to put pressure on the eu. secondly, we need to talk about the long-term energy survival of the european union and others that are nearby. there are ways and new approaches of energy. there's the possibility of liquefied natural gas which may come from the united states in some part and other parts of the world, but we'll welcome the story. vladimir due tin pushed you into this position. >> so no doubt the u.s. has invested more energy into europe. prop began da wars on both sides ofds the equation, but how do ukrainians believe you can put them away. in the next 20 minutes, we'll speak to the woman in the polls to. why irish eyes may not be smiling on new york city's st. patrick's day celebrations today. one sponsor synonymous with the holiday says it's not taking part. save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.ould yep, everybody knows that. well, did you know the ancient pyramids were actually a mistake? uh-oh. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. a recap of the headlines, sanctions as the west rejects the crimea referendum. and alibaba picks new york for the $15 billion listing. and homes of the two pilots from the missing malaysian airlines have been searched. senate lawmakers have unveiled their draft bill to wind down fannie mae and freddie mac which they first proposed last week. the more than 400-page measure aims to eliminate the more game finance jobs within five years, though both would continue to pay all profits to the u.s. government under terms of their 2008 bailout. at the same time, banks must radically up no vat to get ahead of the challenges they face. that's the conclusion of a new bwc survey claiming retail banking will be transformed by 2020. joining us from new york is john garvey, thank you for joining us. what's the biggest challenge or the biggest change we are likely to see in retail banking then by 2020? >> well, the biggest change is probably not the change from dominance into a branch-based model to one of mobile and advertising being the driver of a footprint of a bank versus a physical branch. >> yeah, so you sort of -- if you are wearing your google glasses, whatever headset you have, you speak to your bank on the move and you fix up your lens while driving, that sort of thing, you mean? >> that's right. and the information that you'll have at your finger tips in terms of comparing offers from different financial institutions will be amazing compared to what you have today. >> are individuals, though, what seems key to me, actually, if you are going to have more than a functional online retail bank, at the end of the day you still want somebody to speak to, you want somebody that knows you, knows what you want. and is there on the end on the phone to speak to you. >> absolutely. look, everybody skypes with their relatives and their children and everybody else they are close to these dies, why not skype with their banker, right? >> it will be delivered in a slightly different way. the banks, they are not brilliant at sort of radical change. they are slow institutions, so how are they going to face up to this? >> one of the ways we talk about in the report is through partnerships and perhaps even acquisitions of third party. so if you look at what silicon valley is funding these days in terms of start-ups and innovation, i think a lot of that innovation is going to come from outside the banks, though the banks themselves are going to have to do some of it internally as well, but i think as we have seen in other industries like technology, for example, start-ups and acquiring them, you know, the banks are going to do the same thing. >> and how many bank execs are prepared for the future, john, and how many non-traditional elements are come pettive rather that helping? >> well, here's an interesting thing in our survey, first of all, about 90% believe they need to get a grip on what 2020 is going to look at, look like, i mean, but only 20% are feeling they are prepared. in terms of the rise of kind of non-traditional competitors, it is interesting. in the emerging markets, you know, most people view the competitors as potential partners and sources of innovation whereas in traditional markets like the u.s. and europe, the non-traditional entrance, if you will, are viewing more as threats. so i think that really reflects an attitude difference between emerging in development markets. >> john, thank you for shedding a little light on this report. i'm sure there's an awful lot more in it. thank you, john garvey, capital market euc. guinness is pulling sponsorship from new york city's annual st. patrick's day parade. they say the move is because organizers are refusing to let gays and lesbians march. on friday heineken boss, boston beer and others pulled their sponsorship after not reaching a deal to let gays to join. we'll look ahead to the trading day right after this. ♪ [ cellphones beeping ] ♪ [ cellphone rings ] hello? 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[ male announcer ] the all new cadillac cts, the 2014 motor trend car of the year. on the agenda today stateside, february industrial production out at 9:15 eastern. the march sentiment survey from the national association of home builders coming after u.s. markets down 2% last week. the dow having its first monday to friday since may 2012. the senior vice president at trade is joining us from the cme. scott, good morning to you. after the falls last week, futures are indicating a bounce higher today. how do you see this week panning out? >> well, i think it's really going to be a lot about the u.s. data. a little bit about the ukraine and a lot about china. i think that last week we had kind of a one-two punch with ukraine getting us nervous for the u.s. market. at the same time, we are hearing a softening in the china economy. with the ukraine crisis and china, we need to see good u.s. data. and ultimately it's all about the u.s. market data. if the market goes higher, then we'll take off again and erase last week's losses. >> we did see falling costs but there doesn't seem to be any real kind of up nation problem here. will that keep treasuries -- they obviously come down on risk aversion, will that help out? >> well, i think that really is a bigger question about whether the taper was working or the qe is working and that's why we are tapering. we are tapering not because the u.s. economy is doing very well, but i say we are tapering with a failed economic policy. we have a record number of people on food stamps. the economy here is hanging on by its finger nails. we need to see wall street or main street catch up with wall street here. and i think that janet yellin has a difficult job in front of her. so our yields will stay relatively low until we see some sort of growth and u.s. data is coming through kind of tend and we are not seeing things get really heated up. so it's all going to be about our data this week again and maybe see if this china situation is softening or not is going to affect the equity market. >> absolutely. very quickly, gold is up to six-month highs. still see support for that? >> probably up to the 1400 level, maybe a bit more, but i still think the world can't afford $100 oil and can't afford $1400 gold. i think that slowly but surely we'll see the pressures ease out of the commodities. >> scott, thank you for that. have a good week. don't forget, "squawk box" is coming up next. meanwhile, for viewers in europe, vodafone is ringing in a new deal buying spain's ono. we'll dig deeper into that. good monday morning. crimea voted to secede from ukraine. vladimir putin is told they are rejecting the results and warning of sanctions. and alibaba picking new york for the destination and it could be a huge deal for underwriters. we'll talk about it. and it is time to fill the brackets. florida, wichita state and arizona all get number one seeds. "squawk box" begins right now. ♪ good morning, everybody. welcome to squawk box on cnbc. happy st. patrick's day to you. i'm becky quick along with brian sorkin. i reminded the kids to wear green and went upstairs and forgot. brian has a good excuse for why he's not. >> yeah, because i do this thing on cnbc digital which uses a green screen, so i can't wear green. then i become invisible. if i wore a green shirt, i would have no torso. that said, sullivan, i think it stands to reason that i'm irish enough. >> we already had this conversation this morning. yeah. >> brian, welcome. andrew, welcome back. >> thank you. i missed you guys. you did a lot last week. you had buffett last week, a huge show. and march madness and these brackets, we'll talk about what these seeds may mean for the
important issue, but it does have tentacles that extend to the economy, the health care, all of those in the top five. so we started this evening with a story out of california that could be a sign of things to come. a historic bill to consider reparations for black americans. the first of its kind in any state in the country and it was signed yesterday by governor gavin newsom. it will begin to grapple with questions of how would you pay reparations and who would be entitled to them since the last living slave and america died in the 1970s. 1850 is a free state. here's governor newsom. >> this is not just about california. it's about making an impact across the rest of the country. >> martha: so at least three other places in the country have already taken up reparations on a local level. asheville, north carolina, providence, rhode island, has a plan and evidenced it illinois where what they are going to do -- tax revenue from newly legal marijuana sales. reparations also get attention, as you may remember when some black lives matter supporters claimed that the rioting and eluding of the burning of businesses was actually a form of repayment. >> so i don't care if somebody decides to loot a gucci or a macy's or a nike because that makes sure that that person eats. that makes sure that that person has closed. not only that, that's reparations. that is reparations. anything they want to take, take it because these businesses have insurance. they are going to get their money back. my people aren't getting anything. >> martha: so it may seem like an issue but the viewpoints on that extend to the larger way that each side sees the road towards equality and leveling the playing field, which is discussed a lot. so president trump has said that it is "an interesting debate" but he says he doesn't see it happening. no. much earlier in his career, then freshman senator joe biden said this. "i don't feel responsible for the sins of my father and grandfather. i feel responsible for what the situation is today and i will be damned if i'm responsible to pay for what happened three years ago. there's what he said more recently, what his running mate said and what the top republican in the senate. >> if, in fact, there are ways to get direct payments for reparations, i want to see it, but why are we waiting around for the study? >> if you are elected president would you sign that bill if it came across her desk? >> when i'm elected president i will sign that bill. >> i don't think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for whom none of us currently living our responsible is a good idea. >> martha: so the [indiscernible] equity, equality, and increasing that across the country, i want to discuss that with former nfl player herschel walker. good to have you with us tonight. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> martha: so you just listened to all of that, the black lives matter supporter talking about how gucci, stealing, looting is a form of reparations and then sort of the history of what people have said about this and now it feels like it's becoming more of a reality in terms of working on a plan to start this process, at least in some places in the country, what do you think? >> well, i'm upset about it. i'm upset because all they are doing is pandering for a vote because let me tell you why. paying african-americans, instead empowering african-americans. they don't have an answer for what donald trump is saying, by empowering african-americans by putting jobs in those areas, putting better education in those areas, going out putting small businesses, african-american owned businesses in those areas. what they are trying to do now is pander for a vote. it is sad that they are going to say i'm going to give you money. who are you going to get the money to? what about the people that freed you? what about the white people that freed you? who is considered white? only a few vote democratic when joe biden said? nayak at the biden president, ms. harris, who may be the vice president who would block all the black and brown people up in jail. not talking about you want to pay reparations. let's get serious here. you don't give people a job, why don't you teach them how to work? that's what i want to say, don't give them a fish, teach them how to fish. that's what's going to make african-americans better and help every african-american waking up and realize that's what they're doing right now. they have these lawless cities, people are breaking the law, young lady saying take whatever you want. they have insurance. you don't know if they have riot insurance, i've never heard of that. when you have people saying i'm going to pay you, to be reparations. bloomberg in florida, i'm going to get you out of jail, pay you for a vote. what about empowering you to run your own business is? what about empowering you to become a doctor, to become a lawyer? no one thought about that. everyone is thinking about let's pay you all -- that's what they used to do years ago. i thought we wanted to change. >> martha: it seems to be working in a lot of places, you know? you look at the polls right now and it does seem as if the side that believes that there's a different way to go about that -- and i think you're touching something that's really important. there are sort of two different ways to help people the matter what their color is and one is to sort of give them an opportunity and the other is to say, you know, we owe you something, we want to compensate you and you can sort of figure out what you want to do with that money. do you feel like that is the side that is winning more people over right now, just 30 some days from the selection? >> you know, it may win some people over, but one thing i think they are concerned about, this president right now is starting to get some african-americans and also hispanic-americans to come around and see what's going on. what's going on is that this president has done things for these communities that they didn't do a long time ago. how can you ask former vice president biden to do anything for anyone when he had 47 years to have done this? he could have done is a long time ago. how do you ask, harris, who could have changed the laws, she put have foot aligned to change things, get people better education to do different things for people they never did. now they want to do it and i hate to use this term, don't keep telling me you're going to do it, you've never done it. this president here has done most everything he set out to do and i'm not saying i'm tooting his horn, but he has. and one thing about it is they don't have anything to fight against it, so now let's pay you for the vote. there's other people also, pay the latinos, let's pay everybody. you can't just pay african-americans. there's other people out there also that are suffering. then think about, there is a homeless problem in california. there's fires going on in california, but we are going to worry about this right now. let's think about it. >> martha: i don't want to let you go without asking about the other issue that came up at the debate the other night with regard to condemning white supremacist organizations. the president was asked about proud boys, which is a fairly small -- there's several hundred to think across the country perhaps group and they say they're not white supremacist, but there's also some indications that they have cold hearted with some of these neo-nazi groups. anyway, when you look at this and you here with the president has said about it, he says i have condemned them, i've been clear about it, but some are finding his answers on it not convincing. what do you say to that? >> as an african-american man, it's kind of insulting to me. this president has denounced any sign of what's a pharmacy. he's denounced everything, but because they don't have anything to fight what he is done, they keep using the word racist and i've said many times, this guy is not a racist. president trump is not a racist. why don't you guys decide to put a plan together that you can do something to help the african-american instead of trying to call this president a racist. think about this. in the debate the other night, if somebody had called president obama, if they had told him to shut up, if they had said hey, you're a clown, if they had said, you know, you're stupid, what would have happen happened? but this has been going over these obstacles all these times, so i want the african-american people to realize this, i want hispanic people to realize this, native americans, i want america to realize this president has done a great deal for the african-american community, for america and one last thing i would like to say. this -- i said at the other day, this president here has been nominated for three nobel peace prize, not from anyone from the united states. these are people outside of the united states that don't have a dog in this fight. they don't have a dog in this fight but they realize what he's done for the world. and we need to realize what he's done for america and maybe then we will know who should be president of the united states. >> martha: herschel walker, always good to speak with you. if you have an interesting take on things and we always like to hear from you. thank you very much, sir, thanks for being here tonight. >> thank you. and god bless you. >> martha: you as well, sir. so joe biden will say if you would add justices and rapid-fire confirm them to cancel out the current conservative majority. pretty big deal. called back in the court. is it fair to say that america should know where he stands on that before they go to the voting booth? coming up next, senator ted cruz. >> the focus should stay on the fact that the constitution provides the american public one opportunity to weigh in on lifetime appointments. ♪ you too! so really, how are you? oh well, look! that's what we're both taking right now, fanapt. you know it's really been helping me manage my schizophrenia. i used to hear these terrible voices. loser! you're such a failure. you're so embarrassing. i used to feel like everyone was staring at me. but we're doing much better now, right? yeah. fanapt is approved for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults. in clinical trials, fanapt significantly improved symptoms of schizophrenia compared to placebo. fanapt may change your heart rhythm which could elevate risk of sudden death. your doctor will consider this when deciding among treatments and may prescribe another medication first or may instruct you to take a smaller dosage of fanapt. the good thing to know, is we're not alone. call 8557 fanapt it's time for aerotrainer, with your weight and health? 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"for presidential candidates who refused to answer in the hopes that he could turn around after an election and with a razor-thin majority in the senate both abolish the filibuster and pack the supreme court would represent a political deception of historic proportions, they write. but it doesn't say the american people will get the answer anytime soon. watch this. >> do you support the idea of packing the court? >> i'm not dodging the question, what i'm doing is staying focused. i'm not being critical of you at all, i give you my word, but if i answer the question, no matter which way i answer it, then that becomes the headline tomorrow. that becomes the headline for the next three years, the presidential nominee says he's going to do or not do the following. instead of focusing on the violations of the prince was of the constitution going on right now. >> martha: here now, ted cruz, member of the judiciary committee and author of the upcoming vote "one vote away." thank you for being here. he says he doesn't want that to become an issue. but it is an issue. so -- i mean it is an issue. it needs to be addressed one way or the other, doesn't it? >> it does and when he says he's not dodging the question what he means is he's dodging the question. the answer is of course yes. if the democrats win, their side, the radical left, they are angry, they are enraged, they hate the president. the democrats win the presidency and they win the senate, within a couple of weeks, chuck schumer will act to end the filibuster and i tell you, i served with these democrats, they have the votes, they will abolish the filibuster, which means the minority would not be able to stop any of their radical objectives. not only that though, i believe if they win a majority, they will act to try to pack the supreme court, to try to increase the number of justices from nine to 11 or 13. i can tell you just last week i debated chuck schumer on the senate floor about it. the senate was taking up a resolution to honor ruth bader ginsburg. typically when a justice passes, we pass a bipartisan resolution to honor them. schumer wanted to make it a partisan resolution by inserting that the vacancy should be held open through the election. i objected to that, but i suggested including -- so ginsburg actually said before she passed that packing the court was a bad idea, that she thought nine was the right number and it was a mistake when fdr, a democratic president, tried to pack it and chuck schumer and the democrats objected. joe biden just doesn't want to be honest with the american people, but that's absolutely part of the radical agenda of the far left democrats. >> martha: or maybe he's just afraid he will lose some of those folks if he is honest about it. he has set in the past he thought it was a bad idea to pack the court, but now he says he doesn't know what he thinks at this point. or he won't say. >> well, he won't say, and he won't say because he doesn't want people to realize -- i can tell you, the people driving the biden agenda are the extreme left. it's bernie sanders, aoc, is elizabeth warren. >> martha: he sat on the party. he said no, that's not true, he said i'm the party and i'm a moderate. >> he was marie antoinette, and you know what? baloney. joe biden does not have the strength to stand up to the rage and fury in his party on the left. he's not going to do it. and to understand really the stakes of what this election is about, you mentioned my book, it came out tuesday, two days ago and it is all about the supreme court in each chapter talks about the constitutional liberty that's hanging in the balance. that is being -- that has been decided 5-4, so talks about -- there's a chapter on free speech, a chapter on religious liberty, the second amendment, and what i do in each of the chapters is actually tell the inside story of landmark cases in the courts that i helped litigate. and everyone of them is just one vote away from being taken away. >> martha: that's why it ranks so highly in terms of what people care about when they vote. before i let you go, dianne feinstein, the ranking member, she sent a letter to lindsey graham asking for a delay of the amy coney barrett nomination. she says the timeline for consideration is incompatible with the senate's constitutional role. we again urge you to consider delays until after the presidential inauguration. the senate and the american public deserve the delivery of thorough process and this falls short. what you think is actually going to happen? this hearing is already scheduled, so what do you suggest will happen when the gavel comes down here? >> the hearing will begin on october 12th. we will have a full and fair consideration of judge barrett and i believe the senate will confirm her. we will confirm her by the end of the month before election day and we've got a responsibility to do that. one of the chapters in my book talks about dominic bush versus gore, health represent george w. bush and we saw 36 days of electoral uncertainty. this election could easily be contested, could easily be litigated and we have a responsibility to fill that seat so there is a nine justice supreme court, to decide the case and give uncertainty, so i would infer encourage folks go to amazon, go to barnes & noble, the book is available right now and it will help tell you the inside story of what's going on at the court and what the fight over judge barrett is all about. >> martha: it's a big issue, packing the court. you might have to change the name from one vote to maybe two or three votes or four or five or six votes on the next round. congratulations on the book, senator, good to have you here tonight. so we got exactly two weeks until round two, we get to go back in there again and watch them slug it out. joe biden's campaign says the next debate should come with a mute button. the trump campaign says no dice to that idea. we continue when the story continues. musical physical >> people sing well, they should have at a button that turned one microphone off while the other person is speaking. whatever it is, i think one and done, one and done. ♪ ♪ here's to the duers. to all the people who realize they can du more with less asthma thanks to dupixent, the add-on treatment for specific types of moderate-to-severe asthma. dupixent isn't for sudden breathing problems. it can improve lung function for better breathing in as little as 2 weeks and help prevent severe asthma attacks. it's not a steroid but can help reduce or eliminate oral steroids. dupixent can cause serious allergic reactions including anaphylaxis. get help right away if you have rash, shortness of breath, chest pain, tingling or numbness in your limbs. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection and don't change or stop your asthma treatments, including steroids, without talking to your doctor. are you ready to du more with less asthma? 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really? i didn't-- aah! ok. i'm on vibrate. aaah! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ♪ >> i'm not going to answer the question, because the question is -- the question is -- the question is -- will you shut up, man? >> nancy pelosi. >> will he just shush for a minute? >> don't use the word smart with me. don't ever use that word because you know what? there's nothing smart about you. 47 years you've done nothing. >> hard to get any word and with his plan -- excuse me, this person. >> martha: so after that discussion ensued about maybe adding some new rules. a source close to the negotiation tells fox that the biden campaign is asking for a mute button. the moderator could use if either candidate violates a ro role. president trump responded to the idea tweeting this. "why would i allow the debate commission to change the rules for the second and third debates when i easily won like last time"? and when asked if he supported muting mics, joe biden had this to say just a short time ago, watch this. >> as long as we have an opportunity to respond to the question from the audience. and i think it's appropriate [indiscernible] how they are going to vote this year when asked the question. [indiscernible] gets an opportunity [indiscernible]. >> martha: joining me now, fox news contributor lisa boothe and richard goodstein, democratic strategist and former advisor to the bill and hillary clinton presidential campaign, welcome to both of you, good to have you here. i just want to give everybody look -- hi, there, what this might look and feel like. in wisconsin, the governor's race, they employed this mute button and here's what it looked like. >> the programs and as far as the technical -- we saved the technical college their schools -- >> governor walker, your time is up. miss burke, your rebuttal. >> martha: that's terrible. richard. that would be terrible. >> hopefully don't have to use it on us. >> martha: her voice kind of fades off, what do you think? >> i don't know why joe biden would want to change the rules of the debate that according to all the scientific polls he won handily. cnbc showed -- cnn, basically 60-30 according to the people who watched the debate. so look, the reason that joe biden is not one to duck debates and not going to want to change the rules as a couple. he knows donald trump won't abide by the rules. we saw that. frank luntz did a focus group with people who are undecided, referred to donald trump as unhinged, arrogant, a bully, chaotic, and an american and the terms they use for joe biden were actually rather positive. and the one paul that's come out since the debate has biden up 13 points. having a mute button would be pointless. >> martha: i doubt the dynamic will ever be the way it was the other night. i think that both sides know they made mistakes. joe biden leveled -- the president was by most accounts overly aggressive and not always effective in landing some of those punches. what should change and that should there be a mute button? >> absolutely not and i think that the biden campaign, if they were so confident in our candidate's abilities and what he did the other night, by what they want a mute button? they would want things to go on i says, but this is what democrats do. it should be no surprise to any one at home. when they lose, they try to change the rules of the game. this is what they did in 2016 when they lost the presidential race. they called for the abolishment of the electoral college and they called [indiscernible]. this is what they're doing with the supreme court and calling for court packing because they didn't win the senate and the 2018 election. if i'm joe biden, i'm happy with what happened the other night because he didn't have the answer to his lies about his support for the green new deal. he didn't have to answer to the fact that his corrupt son took $3.25 million from a russian oligarch and joe biden knew about his son but lied to the american people last year. and he also didn't have to take a stance on an incredibly important issue to the american people, which is court packing, so if i'm joe biden, he actually didn't get pressed on many hard things at all, so he should be happy with the way things went. >> there was one question -- there was one question -- one question that donald trump didn't answer, is why do not disavow white supremacists with every republican senator said was painful the next day. listen, and there's a reason -- there's a reason he wasn't disavowing them. hold on. i didn't interrupt you. the reason he won't disavow white's premises, he got 46% of the vote in 2016. not ever trump voter was a racist whatever racist was a trump voter and he can't afford to lose them. that's why he won't disavow them. >> martha: give me a break. lisa, go ahead. >> martha, can i please -- i have to -- [indiscernible]. >> martha: lisa, go ahead, you had your moment, go ahead. then i got to go. >> first of all, i respect chris wallace, but his question to president trump about the very fine people is a fallacy and ally that unfortunately shouldn't be repeated in the line of a question. secondly, president trump has denounced what's a premise he more than probably any other human being in the history of this country. further, only one candidate in this race has eulogized a kkk recruiter and also said he didn't want his kids to go to a racial jungle due to integration. only one candidate in the race has that history. spare me, richard, with your lies. >> martha: we need a mute button for my debates here. we would never mute either one of you. we would never mute you richard, and we would never mute you, lisa. thank you so much, good to see you both tonight as always. >> thank you. >> martha: all right, a former black panther activist convicted of murdering two new york city police officers in cold blood is now set to be released from prison in just a few weeks. congressman peter parole board has become politicized and he wants to explain why and why he thinks it's time for a change >> they were assassinated only because they wore the blue uniforms. no other reason, just because they were [indiscernible]. ♪ ♪ smooth driving pays off with allstate the safer you drive the more you save ♪ you've never been in better hands allstate click or call for a quote today because i want to be a part of something amazing. - i know my gift to shriners hospitals for children makes a difference in the lives of children. - our support gives kids a bright future. - when you support shriners hospitals for children, you're joining thousands of other caring people like you who have helped kids like me and over 1.4 million other kids do amazing things. - will you call the number on your screen right now and give $19 a month, just 63 cents a day? 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(buzzer buzzing) - thank you! - [child] because of your support, we can say thank you by having the life we wouldn't have had without shriners hospitals for children. - yay, shriners! - yay, shriners! - with your monthly gift, we'll send you this adorable love to the rescue blanket as another way to say thank you. plus, it's a reminder of all the children who now have hope because of your support. - go online right now to loveshriners.org to give your monthly support so more kids like me get the care we need to be kids. - thank you for giving. - [child] please call right now to give. if operators are busy with other caring donors, please hold patiently, or go to loveshriners.org with priceline, you can get up to 60% off amazing hotels. and when you get a big deal... ...you feel like a big deal. ♪ priceline. every trip is a big deal. >> martha: so tonight, the suspected shooter of these two police officers in los angeles, remember this horrific moment in that video. so he's in custody now and has been charged. dion taylor lee murray pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and faces life in prison if he is convicted. those two police officers thankfully survived. but on the opposite coast, a man who did the same thing but killed both of the police officers is now set to become a free man. he has served 49 euros for the assassination of two new york city police officers. in 1971, anthony bottom and accomplice herman bell, members of the black liberation army, board officers -- lured officers into a public housing project in harlem with a phony 911 call and then when they got them into the building, they murdered them both in cold blood. bell was paroled two years ago and now bottom is set for release in the next couple of weeks. the widow of one officer is horrified by the release of her husband's killers. >> unbelievable. unbelievable that this is happening in this day and age when bottom 'his gun was empty he took joe's revolver out of the holster and proceeded to continue to shoot him. 22 bullet holes. >> martha: also paroled this month, -- raped and murdered two women in front of their children in 1977. this recent string of all parole approvals prompting oversight and overhaul from republican new york state lawmakers. join me now, we are commerce when peter king. and thank you very much for being here. >> you're welcome. >> martha: you've been a champion for police officers and for the men and women who wear blue. they've done under an enormous amount of pressure all across the country over the course of this whole summer and you have been sticking up for them pretty much every step of the way, so now you're bringing this situation to life. what do you think -- what's going on here? why are these people getting out? >> mainly the new york state parole board has gone far to the left. the most severe left-wing advocates of all, one of the members of the board is actually married to a convicted killer who is himself paroled just several years ago. 16 cop killers alone in the last three years who have been paroled. the murders of the officers were among the most despicable 11. as she said, she's a a very brave woman, i was with her [indiscernible]. he stood over them and shot -- he was still alive as bell and jones fire -- i'm sorry, bell and bottom fired their guns into them. absolute disgrace. bottom i guess is getting out in a week. bell got out two years ago. i was talking to a commissioner who was on the parole board several years ago when they were denied parole and she voted against him getting parole because to this day they show no remorse, they say they were freedom fighters and they have the right and the obligation to kill new york city police officers. these are horrible, terrible people, they should never see the light of day on the parole board is disgracing -- governor cuomo disappointing more and more of these left-wing parole board members. >> martha: what can be done? is this just sort of -- you know, is this out of the bag? is there anything that can change the course of what looks like is deftly going to happen in the next couple of weeks? >> nothing will be done to stop bottom. what we have to do is prevent more of this from happening in the future. and really as long as governor cuomo is there, he's going to nominate these left-wing advocates, these prisoner advocates to the parole board and said it unfortunately right now controlled by democrats. rubber-stamp whatever nomination gives them so i'm not trying to make this political but it would get some democrats with [indiscernible] in the state senate or we will elect some republican state senators to stop these nominations. it's really all them last i say several years. this got out of control. for many years, the parole board was looked upon as being very much common sense, very legitimate. if they address each case on its facts. each case on its facts. now the whole assumption is that these people should be paroled. they look at how long they've been in jail. and they overlook the importance -- the other important fact is supposed to be looked at, what impact this has, does this encourage disrespect of the law? [indiscernible] in new york which is turning criminals loose. at a time we see shootings up 90% in new york city and then on top of that releasing these convicted murderers who have no remorse, it's an absolute disgrace. >> martha: so tough on these families who have been through too much all of those years ago and now have the fresh wound of having to deal with the killers being back out on the streets. congressman peter king, thank you for bringing this to our attention and it's always good to see you, thank you very much. you bet. an antiabortion ad from 14 years ago now coming to the forefront in amy coney barrett's confirmation battle. critics say it's the clearest sign yet of how she would rule on anything having to do with roe v. wade, but colleague and notre dame law professor carter sneed insists that we have nothing to fear. he is next. >> a notre dame law professor carter sneed said, there is just consensus. amy barrett is the best student, the smartest and most talented person to ever come through the university of notre dame law school. ♪ i am totally blind. i am totally blind. and non-24 can make me show up too early... or too late. or make me feel like i'm not really "there." talk to your doctor, and call 844-234-2424. ♪ >> martha: a 2006 newspaper ad opposing abortion on demand, supporting the right to life from fertilization to natural death and calling for an end to the barbaric legacy of roe v. wade. supreme court nominee amy coney barrett was 1 of hundreds of signatures on the ad under the words -- her signature was under the words "we the following citizens of michiana opposed abortion on the demand and defend the right to life." the white house saying that's about it today. watch. >> judge amy coney barrett has on multiple occasions said it is never appropriate for a judge to impose that judge's personal convictions, whether they derive from faith or anywhere else under the law. >> martha: joining me now is someone who has worked with amy coney barrett for 15 years. carter sneed is a professor of law at university of notre dame and head of the nicholas center for ethics and culture at notre dame and of course you attended notre dame with amy coney barrett, she was there as well, she went to rhodes college in tennessee and the notre dame law school and she was a professor there as well. carter, good to see you, thanks for being here tonight. >> good to be here, glad to join you. >> martha: what was your reaction when you saw this ad get picked up today and highlighted and it's just probably the first of several things that she is going to have to face in answer to one way or another? >> sure. this ad is a distraction. reported that the only statement that these people signed was what you read on the air a moment ago. expressing a general concern for the right to life of the unborn child and opposition to abortion. the business about roe v. wade was a separate part of the ad, none of the signatories saw. every year the michiana light so mike right to life puts these out and they just collect signatures and then they produce the ads themselves without consulting people who signed them. it is still the case that judge barrett has never written or spoken, as far as i know, about roe v. wade as a precedent for either in its original sense or in terms of reviewing it with respect to [indiscernible], but you know, people are entitled to their own personal opinions. as you said, judge barrett testified under oath in 2017 that are personal reviews, or religious views, or political views are not relevant to her role as a judge. she sees her job is narrowly focused on the original meaning of the constitution and the plain language and text of the statutes. when you look back, justice ginsburg had an excellent comment on the scarce ago when she was nominated president clinton to the court. she said if you're electing a politician, if you're electing a senator, these kind of questions about personal commitments matter. if you're appointing a supreme court justice, they don't and justice ginsburg took many very unique positions, let's say, in the 1970s, suggesting perhaps the constitution protected bigamy and prostitution, but appropriately no one talked about that during her hearings in the early 90s because everyone understood based on her comments that are identical to judge barrett's comments, that these are simply not related to the role of a judge. >> martha: so we all know how ugly these proceedings can get and i'm sure that judge barrett and everybody who is supporting her is preparing her and thinking about, you know, what to expect during this process. she's got a lot of composure. i think she's going to be very cool under fire from what we have seen here. but this is from alan dershowitz in a hill op-ed today and he says barrett coauthored an article on the issue of whether and when orthodox catholic judges should be recused or recused themselves. barrett said she was unwilling to commit to, resolve conflicts between the law and the church in favor of the law. she should not be asked will she recuse herself from all such cases, and then he went on to say she should be asked whether she believes a fetus has a constitutional right to life. what do you think about that and what do you think her answer would be to those questions? >> so the first point is, this article was written in 19 -- was published in 1998. it was written when judge barrett was a law student, coauthored with john garvey, the president of [indiscernible] university of america. this came up in 2017 and she said she saw no conflict at all between her role as a judge on the u.s. court of appeals or the supreme court, it would extend also to the supreme court under faithfulness as a catholic. and the big question that came up in 2017 was a question of the death penalty and whether she would have to recuse herself in question has been answered, she has sat on multiple death penalty panels on the seventh circuit and has voted to affirm the death penalty. it's clear she sees no penalty at all -- conflict at all. professor durso which is question has really already been answered. the question whether a fetus has a constitutional right, that's a question no judge can answer entering a confirmation hearing because of those other kinds of questions that might very well come before them on the court. >> martha: i would imagine that would be the answer there and i also -- surprised she signed the original document in the ad, made it quite clear she's a catholic who believes in the tenants of the catholic church. it's not like it's a big surprise that she believes that abortion is a problem and an issue, but it's separate from the way you would rule on cases with regard to roe v. wade and other issues, but all right, we will see. carter, thank you very much, good to have you here tonight. >> good to talk to you. >> martha: you too. so why fox & friends host stayed up late to come visit us on "the story," coming up next. musical now is the time for a new bath from bath fitter. every bath fitter bath is installed quickly, safely, and beautifully, with a lifetime warranty. go from old to new. from worn to wow. the beautiful bath you've always wanted, done right, installed by one expert technician, all in one day. we've been creating moments like these for 35 years, and we're here to help you get started. book your free virtual or in-home design consultation today. to save you up to 60%. these are all great. and when you get a big deal... ♪ ...you feel like a big deal. ♪ priceline. every trip is a big deal. that selling carsarvana, 100% online wouldn't work. ♪ but we went to work. building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. creating a coast to coast network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow. recruiting an army of customer advocates to make your experience incredible. and putting you in control of the whole thing with powerful technology. that's why we've become the nation's fastest growing retailer. because our customers love it. see for yourself, at carvana.com. >> martha: now for something fun. so many americans working and learning from home, cooking has been an outlet during all of this. my good friend of serving up fresh options in their new cookbook. it's also a show. >> we all have foods that make us happy. when i was growing up, i love pot roast. my wife makes it, i walk into the the house, i smell it, it triggered something in the official nostalgia the department of my brain that takes me back to that happy ti time. >> martha: i love my mom's pot roast, too. i'm going to make it right now. cohost of fox and friends and author of happy in a hurry cookbook which has my name all over it, because we don't have a lot of time. what did you need for us? >> you know our friend, when she got married to tony and '87, her mother at a baby shower presented all of the family's recipes in index cards in a box. is she still has it. at this is from a michigan church lady group back in like the '60s. if this is the best pie you will ever have in your life. it's a ritz cracker crust peanut butter pie. >> yum. or should we wait to eat it? >> have a bite. >> this is the family recipe? >> right? >> martha: oh, my god. what is in there? >> i will tell you. you've got -- >> martha: it's fluffy and life, light, it made me happy in a hurry. >> it's got cool whip, cream cheese, milk, and ritz cracker. it's so easy to make. >> martha: it's delicious. are you and kathy have put together -- this is number one on amazon right now. why do you need to come here and see me? i'm glad you did. >> you are in your first cookbook. no one understands happy food other than you. if you just put a little bourbon in it and it will be good. the when i made -- they gave me a copy of this. i made the lemon pasta. it was really, really good. it was really fast. you've got the dressing recipes -- >> he's got a family artichoke pie, and please got her grandmother mimi's southern corn bread stuffing -- dressing she calls it. marcus luttrell has his mama's prime rib, and sean hannity has, this is one of the tastiest things as well. he has got mac and cheese egg rolls. you love mac and cheese -- >> martha: i saw those. who would've thought that? i just watched -- i actually just watched lone survivor last night. a movie with my family, i was thinking about marcus luttrell. it's a rib recipe? >> it's' mother's prime rib recipe. it's fantastic. the whole idea behind the first book was, people like food that reminds them of happy times. we are on the book to her two years ago, so many people said they loved the idea of happy food, but you know it, we don't have time to cook. so kathy goes, then we need happy in a hurry. >> martha: it's such a great idea. everyone wants to make things that don't have a huge list of ingredients. >> this is made with stuff that you probably have already. >> martha: there so many great pictures and stories, we love all of them. the other ones more than steve, but that's okay. >> these are challenging times. what do you have to look forward to at the end of the day? maybe some peanut butter pie. >> martha: i will be taking this home. at this is so delicious, thank you very much, congratulations to you and kathy on this awesome book. that is the story, happy in a hurry. thursday night, october 1st already. i will be back here with you tomorrow night, have some peanut butter pie! bye-bye. >> tucker: good evening and welcome to "tucker carlson tonight," if you been watching the news, most prominent journalists went on the four white supreme minutes. they are highly agitated, why are they so worried? you know. a white supremacist mobs burned our country down. they spent the summer torching buildings and shooting people in minneapolis, kenosha, portland, seattle. it was immersed, worst domestic terrorism in 50 years and white supremacists did it. we better find them, check under the bed. th
of the union address, vice president biden is meeting with law enforcement officials in philadelphia about reducing gun violence. while victims of gun violence, like former congresswoman gabby giffords, takes a stand. >> we have a problem where we shop, where we pray, where our children go to school. take it from me. congress must act. >> and this hour president obama will be awarding the medal of army to staff sergeant clinton for courage under fire in afghanistan. he is only the fourth living recipient of the military's highest honor for service in iraq or afghanistan. good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. a stunning announcement this morning from rome. pope benedict xvi is abdicating his office. joining me now is ann thompson, lee at st. patrick's cathedral in new york city, of course, and nbc vatican analyst george weigel is here with me, and we begin with claudio. you were shocked by this. people in st. peter's square didn't even know that it was happening. tell us what happened. >> no, they didn't, andrea. we came around here after the shocking news, and all the cameras came down, and what the tourists saw is what's going on. everybody was just wandering around st. peter's square like it was a normal day, of course, and when we told them that the pope was abdicating they were shocked. they couldn't even -- they didn't even know that a pope could abdicate, as a matter of fact. in a way money knew in a way because the last pope that did that was about 700 years ago. it was in 1294. it seemed like it was impossible in modern times, but pope benedict xvi hinted that in 2010 and a mof times after that that if he felt that his strength wasn't such that he could carry on the very important duties of a pope, that he would think about it at least, but nobody saw that coming. this morning he announced that in latin so it made it even more difficult for people to get that through that little speech that he gave to a number of cauldrons in a low key event. he just passed it on as an everyday kind of duty, and that was it. that's pope benedict xvi gone. that was the shocking part. that he didn't make a big deal out of it. >> as we understand it, he is iffing to vacate the office. he will abdicate at the end of the month, which is february 28, of course, and then the college of cardinals will convene. claudio, he has apointed a mof cardinals, so it is a full group of cardinals that will be making this critical decision. >> indeed. in a way if you look back at what happened in the last year or two years of his pontificate, he seemed like he had this at the back of his mind for a while now because he has come out with a number of surprised -- it's when you create new cardinals to hype up and increase the number of cardinals that will go to the sistine chapel to elect a new pope. you think was he already thinking about abdicating back then? there are cardinals that will be eligible to elect a new pope at the end of february. well, who comes next? we don't know. >> and one person who knows the inside story is greg burke. i think we have you on the lean now. the vatican spokesman, greg burke. greg, tell us the back story of this, when you first knew that the pope was even considering taking this momentous step. >> well, all of us knew, but none of us paid a lot of attention two years ago when the pope mentioned in a long interview -- there was a book interview "light of the world" and he mentioned that "pope could resign. he said he hadn't thought about doing it in the moment. it was a very difficult from then, but he said there are occasions when the pope can resign. there are occasions when the pope should resign. that was a couple of years ago, and i think that was a warning bell. i didn't find out please until early this morning. i got a call to come in early, which i did, and i was told about it, and then, of course, it just happened a couple of hours later. it is certainly a surprise because historically it's such a surprise, but knowing cardinal ratzinger, it's not such a surprise. >> greg, what are the next steps from inside the vatican as you begin this extraordinary process, the historic process that we have only seen in our lifetime several teams, but certainly we've mefr seen in abdication. >> right. it's not all that much different. there's a saying that the romans say. the one pope dies and you make a new one, and that's sort of true this time around as well. essentially living in monastery on vatican grounds. what happens now they'll start preparing the onclaif and they'll be finishing the monastery. they've been remodeling it, and they'll be finishing the monastery to which the pope will go, of course. it's unprecedented from that point of view, but i think there's a bright note on this and that is that the pope finally gets to do what he has wanted to do for the better part of 25 years, which is go and study, read his books, reflect, and pray. >> and have you seen from your perspective have you seen him cutting back on travel, on some of the more own russ duties because of health reasons in recent months? >> well, that was very clear. there was only one trip set for this year so far, which was brazil this summer for the world wroout day. the pope had not set up any other trips, and i think that was segment. that was a sign that -- it wasn't a sign that he was going resign, but it was certainly a sign that he was cutting back on his schedule. >> we thank you on a very busy day for taking time to bring us up-to-date. >> tom has covered the catholic church and the papacy for more than two decades. you've been through the process of choosing a new pope before. it's a very complicated and secret process. >> it is a secret process. the 118 cardinals who elect the new pope, andrea, will stay in a dormitory inside vatican city. they are not supposed to have any contact with the outside world. once that process begins. we'll see if that happens. it took about a day and a half to elect cardinal ratzinger to make hem pope benedict xvi last time. this time it could take a lot longer. just, you know, peek looking at sort of the early candidates note there's no clear favorite among the vatican experts. at this point in time a couple of interesting things to keep in mind as we watch this. most of the electors -- i think all of the electorses all the cardinals were appointed by john paul ii and benedict xvi. the growth in the catholic church these days is in latin america. is in asia and is in africa. will they go outside europe and possibly choose a pope from one of the other church is growing? that's one of the questions a lot of people are asking today. >> the author of the pew book evangelical catholicism, deep reform in the 21st century church. got a copy here. just hot off the presses. to write this book you deeply reporting and, of course, you have known pope benedict xvi for 23 years since he was cardinal ratzinger. tell us about this process, first of all, the decision which, as you have said and others, this comes from great humility. >> it's a real reflection of the character of the man. this is someone who has never thrust himself into the public eye. he is shy scholar. he is extraordinarily lucid mind, and if he decided in conscience and prayers, as he put it together, that he could not give the church the service the church deserved, then i think we ought to take him on face value at that. in this book evangelical catholicism, i describe in the last chapter some of the qualities that the cardinals will be looking for in the next pope. a man of evangelism, someone who will take the message to the world and indeed around the world. a man of judgment. a man who knows how to pick good suborder nants and then let them do their job. a man of linguistic skills. the catholic chr is a multi-lingual enterprise, and the pope needs a lot of language skills. deep spiritual resources. there's a sense in which, as i saw of john paul ii and as we've seen it with benedict xvi the pope bears the weight of the whole church, including the sins and the people in the church on his own back in a singular way. it takes a certain kind of character to be able to absorb that without being spiritually destroyed by it. >> drained by it. >> drained by it. >> to what extent do you think going back to what ann was just suggesting, sxipt to ask ann a follow-up and a question in a second, but to what extent is it possible this would be a noneuropean -- >> i think it's entirely possible. i think it's entirely possible. this is now a world church in a way it has not been before. the demographic center of gravity in the catholic church is the global self. at a recent sinod of bishops in rome, from all over the world, in october i believe it was the archbishop of an ethiopians, why are all these europeans here? the church is dying where you are. the church is alive where we are. the question of what's the growing end of the church and how do you address this faith deficit in the historic way of catholicism, the western world, is going to be high on the agenda, it would seem to me, of the cardinals meeting in conclave and in the informal conversations which let's not forget began about six hours ago that will precede the formal meetings before the conclave is closed. >> you've touched on something that ann thompson, you know very well, that there is a sight of this that is political. not in the grungy sense of the word, but in the larnler sense that there are factions, correct, and as you have been covering this in the past with john paul ii and the asinges of benedict xvi, you have a feel for how that work as well. >> well, i think the thing -- the thing for people to understand here, andrea, is that there is a clear difference between what some of the people in the pews want and what the leadership believes in. you know, there's a lot of speculation today. would the new pope consider married priests or women priests or gay marriage or sexual reproduction -- reproductive freedom? you have to remember the cardinals that are going to elect the next pope are just as conservative as pope benedict xvi and pope john paul ii. george can certainly speak to this. nobody is expecting sort of a great turn in the theological direction of the catholic church. what is -- what will be interesting and cardinal spoke to that this morning. the archbishop of wash washington. he said what is important in today's age, given 24 hour news cycles and our constant communication, is the men industry of presence and that means traveling the world. especially to asia, latin america, and africa where the church is growing, and that was something that clearly this pope felt he could no longer do, and it's a really, really important part of the job. >> and i saw that in havana when he was last march. it was a very limited communication or contact with the people. it wasn't like in the early days when we saw john paul iind first in alaska and then in denver with the youth ministry going into the crowds and reaching out to people. claudo, what would be the reaction many rome if will were a choice of a non-european? >> i mean, the italians in particular got used to a non-italian at first when john paul ii was elected. well, of course, that was difficult for them. the pope was always meant to be italian, and they accepted him and embraced him, and, of course, he became one of the most popular popes in history. well, then came joseph ratzinger, a german, but then at that point they could choose to a non-italian being pope. if our catholics, and especially catholics in rome and in italy, are they ready for a noneuropean? yes, i think so. they have come to understand that what really matters is the passion, the stamina, the strength, and the message that a pope sends out and how he delivers it. they embrace that and understand that the world is now a worldwide church. that the catholic church is now a worldwide church. yes, i think there are ready. they're not -- i don't think they are particularly too bothered about the fact that the next pope will be italian. they just want to know who is next because that's always a massive event here in rome. when the white smoke comes out of the sistine chapel, people will be charging here down the big street from rome into the vatican because everyone wantston who their new pope is. that's exciting. >> george, you talk about the challenges that the first has faced. is that going to be part of this conversation, the scandals here, and else where in the world. in ireland. >> i think very much ireland is on everybody's mind. andrea, i think what these cardinals are going to be reflecting on is the fact that the church is growing when the goss pet is preached without apology. the church is dying. catholic light is the winner of the day. who can express the fullness of the catholic nate a positive way that lifts up the dignity of human beings and in a vast variety of cultural situations. it's almost an impossible job, but somebody has to do it, and some one will be chosen. there is a modern church as well, and the book is evangelical catholicism. it's never more relevant than now and written by someone that knows benedict xvi and knew john paul ii very well, and we'll be talking to you in a bit. thank you very much. what's on the president's mind today? that's next. at the white house president obama is preparing for a state of the union speech focussing on the economy, while vice president biden at this hour is in philadelphia pushing for new gun laws. we're breaking it down next in "the daily fix." this is andrea mitchell reports only here on msnbc. with tasty grilled flavor and goodness to savor ♪ ♪ friskies grillers blend. ♪ feed the senses. a great cup of coffee should be easy as one, two... well, just one. new single serve cafe collections from maxwell house now available for use in the keurig k-cup brewer. always good to the last drop. tell me you have good insurance. yup, i've got... 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[ sigh of relief ] i have obligations. cute tobligations, but obligations.g. i need to rethink the core of my portfolio. what i really need is sleep. introducing the ishares core, building blocks for the heart of your portfolio. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. risk includes possible loss of principal. president obama is putting the finishing touches on his state of the union address for his second term. the first of the second term. white house officials are segment nauling that he wants to focus on improving the economic plight of the middle class with investments in education and clean energy, enfrom a structure and manufacturing. that is not a prescription for getting a budget deal with house republicans. joining me now for our daily fix, chris calliza. chris, another big topic, of course, will be guns, and they're going to be a number of guests in the chamber of both members principalically democratic members, house members, as well as, of course, mrs. obama who are victims of gun violence. right now at this hour the vice president is in philadelphia meeting with law enforcement officials, with mibz of congress, of course, the mayor, local police cheefdz, and talking about this just as tle there was a shooting at the courthouse in bloomington, delaware. >> right. >> where do you think the press will try to move the gun debate first in the state of the union? >> sure, i mean, look, his proposal is out there. vice president biden led the task force. you know, what i wonder about is how aggressive he will be and how much time he will devote to the topic of guns, andrea. you know, this is a speech that usually runs about an hour, maybe a little bit more. everyone is trying to get mentions of their issues in a speech like this. the president has said before that guns -- that limiting gun violence is something that he will spend all the sort of political energy and power he has on. what is that mean? does that mean universal background checks? does that mean some kind of limits on high capacity ammunition clips? it seems unliable -- i guess i would be surprised if the president said the time is now we need the assault weapons ban simply because the politics seem too frought for that. does he go for what he thinks is achievable, or does he go for what he really wants? does he go as big as possible and then sort of settle for what he can get? i do not know yet, but i do know we're going to hear from hem about it in the speech. >> and gabby giffords and her husband, mark kelly, speaking on a new television ad partly financed by mike bloomberg personally as part of their effort on gun laws. here's a little bit of the new ad that went on tv today. >> we have a problem where we shop, where we pray, where our children go to school, but there are solutions. we can agree on. even gun owners like us. take it from me, congress must act. let's get this done. >> and it's as compelling as her testimony was, and we know that one seed is paralyzed, that she still has the problems that she's overcoming with therapy. that's a very powerful testimony from someone who is a gun owner, and that is part of this message. >> i was going to say the most important line everybody i think knows gabby giffords' story and sort of weather wherever you are in the part sfwlan he'll sort of wowed and amazed by her courage. i they the most important part of that ad, though, andrea, is we gun owners, which is mark kelly and gabrielle giffords in their testimony as well as in this add vsd we own guns. we're talking about responsible restreks. the problem with the gun debate, at least it's always been a problem with, but the problem that's always been the case is that it's black or white. it's either no guns or no restrictions. that common senses middle ground that is gotten lost amid that political fight that sort of puts you in one camp or the other. gabrielle giffords and mark kelly are trying to say, look, there is common ground. you see in the ath thad nine out of ten people support universal background checks. there are things we can agree on that don't mean we're talking everybody's guns away and don't mean that no restrictions on gun control -- gun ownership are possible. the question is that third way doable, workable, in a political environment like congress? >> and, of course, as mark kelly has been pointing out. tucson wouldn't have happened in there were background checks. there's an economic message that the president is trying to convey. how difficult is this if he does not lay out the kind of specific alternative to the sequester that republicans are demanding in the house side? >> well, here's what's hard, ab drae. if he is going to talk about how we need to invest in infrastructure and education and all these other things, republicans will say wait, wait, wait. the problem we have is a spending problem. the deficit is running out of control. i would point you on pew that did some fascinating polling about people's priorities in january 2009 and january 2013. the fastest majority is reducing duj been fets. it will be interesting how much he focus on that behavior. snoo meanwhile, you are looking at live pictures of vatican city. the college of card mals will be convene says next month. could they picture first nonusual eastern to eat the national catholic church. you are watching the east room at the white house. president obama will be awarding the nation's highest military honor this hour for courage under fire in afghanistan to staff sergeant clinton. that's live in a fupts. you're watching andrea mitchell reports only on msnbc. humans. even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? otherworldly things. but there are some things i've never seen before. this ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. which is good for business. because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. suddenly, faraway places don't seem so...far away. ♪ eyelove the guy, and you know, one of the things everybody notices is his humility. it's almost in the gij he shrugged and said, boy, compared to john paul ii i don't know if i'm up to this, but with god's grace and mercy, i'll give it my best shot, and he has done well for almost eight years. he is winsome in his humble acknowledgment of his frailty and weakness. i think that's touched all of our hearts. >> cardinal dolan with matt and savannah. within a half hour of the news breaking walked over from st. pat's to the "today" show set. we're following all of the reaction here at home and, of course, across the globe to pope benedict's surprising decision to abdicate his position as leader of the catholic church. looking ahead to a papal process that is going to seem familiar to some, but it does have one major difference. professor john garvey joins us now. the president of the catholic university of america joining me by phone. president garvey, thank you for being with us. the big difference sshgs of course, that the pope is alive to witness the succession process, and there has got to be conversations along the margins tooz what would pope benedict xvi want. >> you got to wonder what affect that will have on the process, don't you? it isn't something we've seen in our lifetime or for centuries, for that matter. i don't think anybody has a clue. your guess is as good as mine. >> i was reading your statement, president garvey, and as the catholic university of america president, you spoke of his theological wisdom and what he imparted in the importance of catholic education. could you speak to that and to the reaction of young people as they look towards a change of leadership of the church? >> yes. to start with, the second point first, i've been talking to some of our students as well as my brothers and sisters about this, and one of the reactions that i got from one of them was, gosh, it's sort of like our dad saying he was going to resign as being our dad. you can't do that. it was a surprise, and i think it's deeply felt by people who look to the pope as the holy father, as catholics do. it's rare that somebody who is as accomplished as theologian as benedict was will be pope. they're all great, holy, and wise men, but they have their own particular skills, and this pope is somebody who is especially interested in catholic higher education, and wrote a lot about it. we have our press that's publishing a book of his speeches on catholic higher education and in another month or two, and i think he spoke to a real difference between the way catholic universities think about their job and the way other kinds of universities do. that faith as well as reason plays a role in what we teach, and that we should concern ourselves with people's relationship with god not just imparting knowledge of mandarin chinese and chemical engineering. >> john garvey, here with me, by the way, at the studio. as an old friend of yours, george weigel, and, george, we were talking about this very subject. you and john garvey are at that intersection where you deal with the future of the church, with young people, with the challenges that educators have. perhaps you want to raise some of those issues as well. >> john is right. this is the most accomplished intellectual pope in a very long time, although he succeeded in a world class intellectual in john ii. what was amazing to me about benedict xvi is how this span of deep learning, he may be the most learned man in the world. could in his sermons, his homilies, his little addresses at the wednesday audience, distill all of that learning into really solid but accessible material for people that don't have specialized training in theology or philosophy, bhaefr. i think that is where the pastor's heart in this man and the teacher's heart in this man came through. i told you a moment ago when we were off camera that he is the only man i have ever met in my life that when you ask him a serious question, he reflects and then answers in complete paragraphs. he has a remarkably lucid mind, and he is a great teacher. that's going to be missed, and i think young people felt that. i think they thought this is -- this is a wise man who is worth listening to. >> you touched, john garvey, on how this transition is being received by your students, by your undergraduates at catholic university, and your graduate students. is there a feeling of sort of searching now as to where the future of the church goes? is this a time of real reflection for them as well? >> i think that describes it well. i don't know whether the concern that our students feel in that first instance where the rest of the church will go. it's more their own personal reaction to being sort of orphaned for a time within the church. although the question you raise about what the next pope will mean for the future of the church is something that will affect them more than the rest of us. >> and, of course, the church has been challenged in america in the last decade by scandal, by a declining attendance. catholic schools, not catholic university, but other catholic schools have also been challenged at the perish level. we've seen the closures of some of the schools at the elementary and high school level. how important is this transition? >> you know, i was saying to somebody earlier this morning, unlikely as it seems, what a great time this would be for an american pope for this reason. that one of the great challenges that the church faces in the modern world is the one that benedict tried to deal with in his papacy in western europe. the increasing secularization of the culture and focus on materialism and other kinds of ideologies that pose a greater threat to the church sometimes than outright persecution does, and in america i think we're going through the same kind of experience. there's a sort of popular atheism that's no longer tabu to speak about, and i think that's an example you see many others in charles murray spoke in coming apart about how we are becoming less religious as a culture. not just as catholics, but many other faiths. that's a great challenge for the catholic church in the mechanics century. >> of the 118 cardinals who are going to be convening, are there any americans in that group who are real leaders and have seniority, george? >> yes. cardinal of chicago is one of the most highly respected members of the college of cardinals, without a doubt. i think cardinal dolan. he did a fine job when he was made a cardinal and addressing the entire college of cardinals and saying the church of the future has to be a missionary enterprise. this is the great theme of this moment. we're passing from institutional maintenance to evangelical activism. that was the theme of vatican two. that was the theme of john paul ii. it's the theme of benedict xvi, and it's going to be a very interesting ride into the rest of the 21st century. >> thank you for your wisdom, and john garvey, thank you for joining us today. we really appreciate that. >> thank you very much. >> and looking ahead to the next 24 hours, the president planning to pivot back to the economy in tomorrow night's state of the yoon. we'll get a preview from the man who knows exactly what's going on behind the scenes at the white house. right away former white house communications director, speechwriter, don bair joining us next. this is $100,000. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much. i appreciate it. i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. your money needs an ally. [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk. >> the president is expected for focus on his economy in the state of the union address. joining me now is former clinton white house communications director and responsible for bill clinton's state of the union addresses and this is 1996. it's the launch of the second term. this is awe key moment in bill clinton's state of the union. >> we face no imminent threat, but we do have an enemy. the enemy of our time is inaction, so tonight i issue a call to action. action by this congress, action by our states, by our people to prepare america for the 21st century. >> as yogi would say, deja vu all over again. the praez will go before a house republican dominated chamber. and say inaction and grade lock is our enemy. >> i love that line because i helped write it. there are very few, as you know, with bill clinton, you can say that one survived and that one survived. it is amazing. right? how similar these circumstances are. in fact, if anything now the gridlock is much worse. the need for action is more important, and the need for a president coming into his second term to reinstill a sense of plushment that we're going to get good things done is critical. >> also reminded of the age of big government is over. >> the era of big government. >> that was 1996. that was the year before. >> and that was, of course, bill clinton sort of playing to the crowd and saying we are a different kind of democrat. >> right. it was bill clinton, the new democrat. he was satisfying that the age of old-fashioned big government solutions to all of our problems was over, but, you know, there's a second part to that sentiment, which is that we can't go back to the time when we left everyone to themselves either. he was trying to create a third way. >> how tough is the environment right now inside the white house? take us behind the scenes, behind that curtain. >> what are they doing right now? >> what are they doing right now, and the pressure on staff and the speechwriting team and what happens when they come back with marks on it. >> every white house is different, right? i don't know this one firsthand. i know the one that -- they've got more than 24 hours to go. they're still constructing. they're still writing. he is still trying to figure out what his voice is and this president obama and which parts are in and out. the biggest challenge of all is you want to keep this to about an hour in length, which as you know in the clinton administration, we didn't always accomplish. >> how about like never? >> we did. that last speech came in at 58 minutes. i was very proud of him. >> there's a lot of -- there's probably still people from different parts of the government and some of the interest groups and they're still saying if we mention this and that. there's still marketing. >> you want to avoid a laundry list that doesn't have any poetry in it. >> there needs to be a theme, right? there needs to be a theory of the case and what it is you're saying here, and then the various pieces, the policies need to reinforce that. that's the real challenge in these speeches. >> dfrs the health care speech. i. >>ent wasn't there yet. you weren't responsible for that one. that's when the wrong speech was loaded. >> we're not going to have that. >> he won't be rewriting it at the last minute. >> i don't think. the practice with this president has been that he gets it pretty tucked in going into this, and ten he can practice. you never know what's going to happen, though? there's always something. i can remember for this speech, the 1997 speech, first one of the second term, we're practicing in the family theater in the white house which is traditional to go through and let the president use a teleprompter to practice. when mike mccurry, the press secretary came rushing up to me at the back of the room and said he just announced that the o.j. verdict in the civil trial is going to come in while the president is speaking. >> that's when we had the split screen state of the union where you saw the -- the other was the president of the united states. >> these things are always a high wire act, and you have to roll with the punches. >> our medal of honor recipient and military analyst colonel jack jacobs. jack, this is such ae moment. there were very few medal of honor recipients, and it's rare to have he is not there for himself but for all those that can't be there. that on that battlefield that day there were many acts of valor, and he represents them and represents all the men and women who sacrificed for us. it's an important day for the country and for the armed forces. it looks like it's a really important day for the individual, but all individuals feel the same way about it, that they are there representing all those men and women who can't be there. >> it says something of the nation. we don't honor our heroes often enough, but this is a tradition that goes back so many decades, so many wars, but to see someone who served in afghanistan, a war that we do not discuss enough. 60,000 troops still in the field even though we're drawing down. they are at risk every second, every minute of the day of the day and night, and here we're at least talking about the valor of one human being representing as you say them all. >> with all the people who have served, we do not pay sufficient attention to it, and this is only the fourth living recipient for any conflict since vietnam. it says a great deal about the distance between the people who are being searched and the people who are serving. i think it's really important that we bring the heroism of our men and women to the forefront and celebrate it as representative of what's being done as often as we possibly can. there are only 79 living recipients with the medal of honor. this will be the 08th. when i was decorated, there are almost 400. a lot of time has passed since then. >> as we hear hail to the chief, the president is entering the room, so let's go live to the white house and experience this ceremony. >> staff sergeant clinton -- >> let us pray. might where i eternal god for who we come, for who we belong and in service we find peace, hear our prayer. centuries ago were written to be called in a spirit to the faithful servants of truth and justice. arm yourself, be men of valor, be in readiness for the wlikt. it is better for us to perish in battle, look upon the outrage of our nation. lord, god, we pause to recognize the men of valor who in readiness for the conflict, the battle of cannedish in ponda. their sacred story is one of life and of death. the self-less service faithfully rendered at the moment of truth. he belongs to that small band of black knights. as a nation grateful for the spirit of the men who follow and the man who leads. we offer our gratitude for the actions of those men that day which were the actions of as the author wrote an intense god, short and wiry. thank you, oh god, for the honor of claiming their sacred story and writing it into our nation's history. bestoe our nation's highest honors upon staff sergeant romesha and recognize his actions that day grant unto us your holy presence. we pray your abiding grace and eteshl mercy upon the families. the friends who gave the last fullmer, devotion that day. staff sergeant vernon martin. staff sergeant dustin, staff substantialingent joshua hart, sergeant joshua kirk, sergeant michael scuza, sergeant christopher griffin, specialist steven mace, and pfc kevin thompson. we ask your blessing blessing u all of our service men and women at home and abroad as they support and defend our constitution. grant wisdom and guidance to those who lead our nation as sergeant romesha's example. we ask this and pray in your holy name. amen. >> please be seated, everybody. good afternoon. and on behalf of michelle and myself, welcome to the white house. every day at the white house we receive thousands of letters from folks all across america. and at night upstairs in my study i read a few. about three years ago, i rece e received a letter from a mom in west virginia. her son stephen, a specialist in the army, just 21 years old, had given his life in afghanistan. she had received the condolence letter i had sent to her family as i send to every family of the fallen. and she wrote me back. mr. president, he said, you wrote me a letter telling me that my son was a hero. i just wanted you to know what kind of hero he was. my son was a great soldier, she wrote. as far back as i can remember, stephen wanted to serve his country. she spoke of how he loved his brothers in b-troop. how he would do anything for them. and of the brave actions that would cost stephen his life, she wrote, his sacrifice was drib by pure love. today, we are honored to be joined by stephen's mother vanessa and his father larry. please stand. vanessa and -- [ applause ] larry. we're joined by the families of the seven other patriots who also gave their lives that day. can we please have them stand so we can acknowledge them, as well? [ applause ] we're joined by members of bravo troop whose courage that day was driven by pure love. and we gather to present the medal of honor to one of these soldiers. staff sergeant clinton l. romesha. clint, this is our nation's highest military decoration. it reflects the gratitude of our entire country. and so we're joined by members of congress, leaders from across our armed forces including secretary of defense leon panetta, chairman of the joints chiefs of staff marty dempsey, army secretary and army chief of staff genere ordearo. we are joined by iron horse soldiers. and members of the medal of honor society who today welcome you in to their ranks. now, despite all of this attention, you may already have a sense that clint is a pretty humble guy. we just spent sometime together in the oval office. he grew up in lake city, california. population less than 100. we welcomed his family including mom and dad tish and gary. clint, i hope he doesn't mind, he shared that clint was actually born at home. these days clint works in the oil feels of north dakota. he is a man of faith and after more than a decade in uniform, he says the thing he looks forward to the most is just being a husband and a father. in fact, this is not even the biggest event for clint this week. because tomorrow he and his wife tammy will celebrate their 13th wedding anniversary. clint and tammy, this is probably not the kind of intimate anniversary you planned. but we're so glad that you're here along with your three beautiful children, desi, gwen and colin. collin is not as shy as clint. he was in the oval office and he was racing around pretty good. and sampled a number of the apples. before he found the one that was just right. now, to truly understand the extraordinary actions for which clint is being honored, you need to understand the almost unbelievable conditions under which he and b-troop served. this was a time in 2009 when many of our troops still served in small rugged outposts. even as our commanders were shifting to us the to larger towns an cities. so command outpost keating was a collection of buildings, concrete and plywood with trenches and sandbags. of all the outposts in afghanistan keating was among the most remote. it sat the bottom of a steep valley surrounded by mountains. terrain that later investigation said gave ideal coverage for insurgents to attack. cop keating, the investigation found, was tactically indefensible. but that's what these soldiers were asked to do. defend the indefensible. the attack came in the morning. just as the sun rose. some of our guys were standing guard. most like clint were still sleeping. the explosions shook them out of their beds and sent them rushing for their weapons. and soon, the awful odds became clear. these 53 americans were surrounded by more than 300 taliban fighters. what happened next has been described as one of the most intense battles of the entire war in afghanistan. the attackers had the advantage. the high ground, the mountains above. an they were unleashing everything they had. rocket propelled grenades. heavy machine. mort mortars. snipers taking aim. to those americans down below, the fire was coming in from every single direction. they'd never seen anything like it. with gun fire impacting all around him, clint raced to one of the bar racks and grabbed a machine gun. he took aim at one of the enemy machine teams and took it out. a rocket propelled grenade exploded, sending shrapnel in to his hip, his arm and his neck. but he kept fighting. disregarding his own wounds and tending to an injured comrade instead. then over the radio, came words no solder ever wants to hear. enemy in the wire. the taliban had penetrated the camp. they were taking over buildings. the combat was close, at times ten feet. still, the enemy advanced. so the americans pulled back to buildings that were easier to defend to make one last stand. one of them was later compared to the alamo. one of them later compared it to the alamo. keating it seemed was going to be overran and that's when clint romesha decided to retake that camp. clint gathered up his guys and began to fight their way back. storming one building. and then another. pushing the enemy back. having to actually shoot up at the enemy in the mountains above. by now, most of the camp was on fire. amid the flames and smoke, clint stood in the doorway, calling in air strikes that shook the earth all around them. over the radio, they heard comrades who were pinned down in a humvee so clint and his team unloaded everything they had in to the enemy positions and with that cover three wounded americans made the escape including an injured stephen mace. but more americans, their bodies, were still out there. and clint romesha live it is soldiers' kree. i will never leave a fallen comrade so he and his team started charging as enemy fire poured down and charging, 50 meters, 80
capacity or incapacity it to fulfill the ministry and trusted to me. the pope added i thank you most sincerely for the love and support and i ask pardon. there is a report the pope's brother had said the doctor told the holy father he should no longer take trans atlantic trip. he is the first pope to resign in more than 600 years. will take place to elect a new pope. however, that will not begin before pope benedict steps down again on february 28th. tony and allison, back to you. >> all right. thank you very much. more on that throughout the course of this morning's show. >> now to mississippi where officials will spend the day assessing the damage thereafter massive tornado tore through the region. a funnel claude was caught on tape mangling hundreds of homes and businesses. officials blame the storm for more than a dozen injuries. fortunately no deaths have been reported. >> at the same time, more than 200,000 businesses will wake up without electricity. most of the outages are in massachusetts whereas much as three feet of snow fell. transit crews are working around the clock to get the region ready for work. most airports are running close to normal. amtrak is running on a limited schedule between new york and boston. rail lines are still working to restore service regional rail lines. >> let's get right to tucker barnes. all we're seeing is rainy weather. but what can we expect later? >> good morning allison, good morning tony. i don't think we're going to see rain for most of the day. most of the day cloud filled with warmer temperatures by late afternoon. there's a live look at your radar. has rained overnight. most of the area roadways are wet. but you can see that right now here on radar, much of the shower activity has pushed to the east. out towards annapolis pushing across the bay. still getting rain showers as well. all of that should be east of us in the next hour and dealing with cloud cover here for most of your monday along with these mild temperatures. right now warming up and it's just rain, reagan national reported a temperature of 39. bwi 37. enjoy today, it's going to warmup into the upper 50s and a few low 60s south and west of washington this afternoon. with a few peaks of sunshine but predominantly a cloudy monday. a very active weather pattern. might be wintery weather on the way. details on that in a minute. let's do traffic with julie wright. >> on the roads right now hands are full. police activity tying up the community along route 5 near silver hill road and route 5 at iverson. blocked because wires on the highway. inbound on 50 down to 26 miles an hour headed in towards northeast washington. pop up the cameras and show you what else is happening. southbound 270, they cleared an accident that was tying up the right hand exit. the right lanes rather headed on to the inner loop of the bhelt way. delays south on 270 and again from falls road headed out towards the split. lanes are open 395 and traffic slows again northbound from the pentagon to the inbound 14th street bridge. inbound suitland parkway and coming across the douglas bridge. that's a check of your fox 5 on time traffic. >> julie, thanks. red light cameras in maryland causing quite the stir among drivers in rockville. >> the amount of tickets in the last year has nearly doubled and the reason why may surprise you. melanie alnwick is live with more. >> reporter: good morning, tony and allison. yeah, you know, this is definitely causing a lot of consternation among drivers especially those who received tickets and didn't realize they were being cited for blowing through a red light when they believed they stopped at those intersections. so here's what's going on. the city of rockville changed camera vendors. changed the cameras and what they consider to be a red light violation. let's show you video we shot. here's what it looks like. the cameras will flash if the driver crosses the white stop line. also videotaped drivers making right turns on red but they'll get a ticket if they don't come to a complete stop before making the turn. westbound at research. 5087 tickets in 2012. only 1043 in in 2011. 4087 in 2012. only 756 last year . this is a brand new camera. it only began operating in august. 3981 in five months. here's what aaa had to say about that. >> in one year we saw the numbers of red light runners go from 8600 to 18,000 just shy of 18,000. now, what changed? the vendor and the methodology. doesn't mean that suddenly we have a whole rash of drivers in rockville that think it's all right to run red lights. there was no change in drivers. >> reporter: now aaa says using those stop lines as a trigger for red light violations may be contrary to guidelines that the federal highway administration has put out to jurisdictions around the country. calling on the rockville mayor and city council to review the way this program is now operating saying it has serious concerns about it. tony and allison, back to you. >> thank you very much. more bad news for local drivers. gas is taking an even bigger chunk out of your paycheck. i'm sure you know this. according to the latest survey, the average price of a gallon of gas has jumped 25 cents over the past two weeks. that brings the nationwide average to $3.59 for a gallon of regular. here in dc, it's even higher averaging $3.74 a gallon. drivers in maryland pay less $3.60. virginia is lowest at $3.45. >> happening today jury selection begins in the trial of a maryland man accused of murdering a mother and daughter. the bodies were found inside a burning car back in march of 2009 in largo. scott was convicted to 100 years in federal prison for a string of robbery ands home invasion. prince georges county police are looking for whomever killed an elderly woman. police found 71-year-old geradine mcintyre dead. a $25,000 reward is being issued for information leading to an arrest. >> police in california are offering $1 million in exchange leading to an arrest for christopher dorner. yesterday police continued searching a ski report town where dorner's burned out truck. but an la sighting forced an emergency evacuation. stepped up patrol outside the grammy awards. officials -- they were at a loss for words when they notified his family. >> you want to tell somebody it's going to be okay. this is never okay. >> so far still no sign of the suspect. in an online posting dorner says his rampage is retaliation for being fired back in 2008. in chicago, police are questioning two persons of interest in the shooting death of hydia pendleton. 15-year-old killed just days after performing after the president's second inauguration. the men were taken into custody early sunday. so far, no charges have been filed. >> carnival cruise ship stranded in the gulf of mexico this morning. a fire in the engine room knocked out the power. the ship is about 475 miles south of galveston texas. doesn't have enough power to get pack to port. the u.s. coast card is in contact. there are more than 4,000 people on that ship. to california now, authorities say the three people killed in a helicopter crash were recording video for a new reality tv show. the chopper went down early sunday north of los angeles. discovery has not yet released any details about the show. the crash is still under investigation. >> president obama is awarding the medal of honor to a former army staff sergeant later this afternoon. clinton romecia is only the 4th living to receive the medal. still ahead at 7:00, we will have more on the major breaking news today. pope benedict xvi announces he is resigning at the end of this month. this is a big shock and we will have much more this hour about it. >> also still to come, music's biggest night. a look back at the big winners and some of the most talked about moments of the grammies last night. the state of the union, we'll see what government workers want the white house to make a top priority. >> but first, a cap's come back? dave ross will join us live with a look at the big weekend win and whether it could be the turn around they need. >> and as we take you to the break, a live look outside. rainy start to this morning. the latest weather and traffic from tucker and julie next. it is 7:11. we'll be right back. this is so sick! i can't believe your mom let you take her car out. this is awesome! whoooo! you're crazy. go faster! go faster! go faster! go faster! no! stop...stop... (mom) i raised my son to be careful... hi, sweetie. hi, mom. (mom) but just to be safe... i got a subaru. (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru a subaru. time now for your sports breakfast. >> that's right. dave ross is here with that and more. >> and a big game this weekend. want to get to the caps with a big win. i want to start off with the boarder war. these are two teams on the bubble. march madness is going to be upon us before you can know it. you got to wonder if mark's boys are going to be in that field. in the first half here maryland gets a steal. right hand slam right there. terps trail by 6. virginia are they really that good? they get this win 7 and 3 now in the acc and they have a kid pretty interesting story. justin anderson at virginia. two years ago did a story on him and he decommitted to maryland. and he goes to virginia and gets a big win there. fans were razzing him a little bit. he gets the last laugh. georgetown with a big game tonight at the verizon center. what we saw over the weekend was great. >> i kid wisdom all the time. we're not a playoff team. right now they are the third hottest team in the eastern conference. boston is one. miami's won five. and these are all coming at home. only won 14 games all year hchlt 11 of those 14 have come at home. here's the problem, 3 and 21 on the road. that's the worst team in the nba. it's not could incidental. they've been three game s above 500. if you could extrapolate that over the whole season, he hasn't been there. almost half the season is gone. it would be a severe long shot for this team to make the playoffs. on the other side and we saw this saturday night at the verizon center. got a huge 5-0 relaxing win. you didn't have to sweat it out. with the shut out. offense was there. rocking the red. another sell out. everything looked great. here's the good news for the caps. bad news is they are still the worst team in hockey. only had 7 points. five points out of 8th place. and as we saw last year all we have to do is get in and be a dangerous team. so again, why are we already talking playoff? only 36 games left. already played a fourth of the hockey season. already coming and going before you can bat an eye. if the caps make things right, again, they play more florida tomorrow night. if they get two in a row, three points in 8th place. >> i love his glass half full. >> i love it. >> only five points out of 8th place. >> a lot of games they play in hockey. >> not this year. >> a lot of back to backs. truncated season. >> all right . thank you very much. >> all right mr. barnes. >> real quick. i want to thank everybody. i went to the auto show and ran into so many fox 5 fans. kind words about everybody. >> did you buy a car? >> i looked at a lot of cars i would like to buy. we all decided we'd have tony buy us a new car. >> good idea. >> i don't have a new car. >> do you enjoy this money bags? we like having friends. >> is it even a possibility? let's do weather. temperatures it's cool out there. we're well above 32. we're not concerned with any ice. 39 at reagan national. 27 a two foot snow pack will do that. 27 in boston. notice the warmer temperature s out to the west. columbus is 52 this morning. 606 degrees up ahead of our next cold front. that's actually going to have warmer air in here this afternoon. most of the shower activity is east into the city. we will be dealing with rain on and off and this afternoon a few peaks of sunshine. want you to focus on the wednesday time frame. hang up to our south. develop down in texas and that's going to push towards the area off the coast. there is a decent possibility that could bring us winter weather around there. second half of wednesday, wednesday night. question marks about it but there you go. and then do it again this weekend with cold arctic air. daytime highs only in the 30s. i think this time around it's going to feel like february for this february. >> all right. will you please and down. >> you just got heckled, sir. >> by julie wright and here she is with on time traffic. >> you know at this point does it have to happen during rush hour? >> ever since the inauguration, wintery mix or wet pavement. what do we pay you for? inner loop of the beltway on the wet pavement. >> we? >> slow traffic coming in from saint barnabus road with the lanes open. 295 on the breaks leaving the beltway. traffic slows again to the inbound 11th street bridge. show you what else is happening out there. southbound on 270 the wreck we had before the lane divide cleared. crash just before route 1. it's been moved over to the shoulder. big tie ups headed north through woodbridge. traffic will slow again and on 395 you are on the brakes to the inbound 14th street bridge. let's go now to our maps and show you what else is out there. problems along iverson street. that's where we have wires down across the highway. the pace is now slowing through river dale. headed from 410 to the kennel worth avenue split. for those inbound on route 50. that's a check of your fox 5 on time traffic. >> all right. thank you very much. it is 7:21 now. back to the morning 's breaking news. >> pope benedict xvi is resigning at the end of this month. the surprising announcement coming this morning. we are continuing to follow this story for you on myfoxdc.com and fox 5 of course. fox 5 morning news will be back in a moment. some folks didn't think that our coffee was their flavor, it wasn't their cup. if you don't like that dark roast, we've created a coffee for you. blonde is a beautiful, light roasted coffee. kind of mellow, sweet, a little citrusy. for me, personally, i love connecting with people, so blonde roast just gives me a whole nother reason to connect with more customers. ♪ ♪ this time i'm walking to new orleans ♪ >> mardi gras celebrations in full swing in the big easy ahead of fat tuesday, tomorrow. >> one of the famous parades was rocked by gunfire. shots rang out on burbon street. police are searching for three suspects. the shooting happened saturday night during an annual parade. and down in brazil the party is beginning a 4th day of carnival. thousands of party goers have been in the streets since last week. this is one of the smaller block parties and is a favorite due to its family friendly atmosphere. thousands attended the samba parade. tomorrow is the last day of celebrations. >> i was wondering what they were doing. very random for most people. >> all right. with valentine's day just three days away, travel web site orbits has some suggestions on where to take your sweet heart. >> top 10 valentine's day destinations asking americans where they considered the most romantic places to be. the top 5 include vegas. >> of course. >> you think so? >> of course. >> miami, orlando and new orleans. the hotels in these cities are the most booked in the country for valentine's day. >> so that's their list on where to take your sweet heart. >> tomorrow they'll put out a list on where to take your spouse. it's a joke. from your job to your retirement fund. these days seems nothing is certain. >> find out what's happening on the hill some hope will bring back stability to the country. >> it was a big night for fun. fun at this year's grammies. we're going to take a look at the winners. >> here's a live look outside. it has been raining this morning. we'll get the latest weather forecast and the latest traffic from tucker and julie. 7:30. back now to the breaking news out of the vatican. pope benedict xvi will resign at the end of this month on february 28th. the shocking announcement coming about 60 or 90 minutes ago. the holy father announced in a speech he just doesn't have the physical strength to carry on the mission. pope benedict is 85 years old. he became pope in 2005 after the baeth of john paul ii. likely take place before the end of march. the last pope to resign was way back in the 1200s 13th century. major headline today pope benedict xvi has announced he is resigning at the end of this month. much more on this to come throughout the morning. >> 7:30 right now. folks waking up to wet weather. >> a little bit of rain moving through overnight. the wet roadways will slow things down. but temperatures in the mid 30s, at least we're not doing ice. let's get to the maps. most of the vain now to the east. still pressing just east of the bay there out towards saint michaels. still getting rain showers. however, here locally in the metro area, up and down the 95 correspond door, we're generally done with the rain. not going to be a beautiful day. clouds for most of the day. for the most part, most of the measurable rain has pushed east of the bay. it will be east of those areas the next hour or two. let me show you the bigger picture. the bottom line is we have a warm front into the area later today. you are going to notice the temperatures are going to take a big jump. but temperatures in the mid 50s should feel pretty good. south and west of town if we get any sunshine at all may be low 60s. tonight it will be cool and another nice one tomorrow with sunshine building in. i want to mention what might be taking place. indications that are going to be a storm later tonight and tomorrow. this is going to scoot up and off the coast by wednesday afternoon, wednesday night. good set up for us to get winter weather. second half of wednesday and wednesday night. still question marks about the strength of the storm and the eventual track of it. here are your temperatures for the time being. 39 at reagan national. 40 in annapolis. leonard town 46. 40 in fredericksburg. very comfortable afternoon. early showers, mostly cloudy this afternoon. a little sunshine and warmer than yesterday. clearing out tonight, cool conditions overnight. 36 the overnight low. that may be a player on wednesday. looks like we could do rain or snow wednesday afternoon and wednesday night. and then again on saturday and sunday. and we'll have cold arctic air around here for the weekend. that one could be one to talk about towards the end of the week. that's a look at weather. let's do traffic and find out what's happening on the roads. >> good morning to you. morning drive as expected we have problems out here. south on the baltimore parkway 33 miles an hour headed for the split. inbound 50 now down to 17 miles an hour headed into northeast. trouble now on 236 the accident activity has the eastbound lanes closed. traveling from the beltway northbound up towards duke street. again, with the delay northbound pentagon out towards the 14th street bridge. still going to find delays on northbound i 95 through woodbridge. southbound along 270 with all lanes open. traffic remains below speed all the way out to the split. earlier three car pile up cleared. that's a check of your fox 5 on time traffic. >> thank you very much. just a moment ago we said the last pope to resign occurred in the 13th century. it was actually in the 15th century. in other news, leaders of two employee organizations are planning a rally on capitol hill. urging law makers to protect jobs and programs such as medicare and social security. the national president of the american federation of government employees. he joins us now from the fox news channel downtown with more. mr. cox, good morning to you. thanks for joining us. >> good morning. how are you doing today? >> doing well. your organization along with the afscme is going to be holding this rally tomorrow. tell us how many people are going to attend and what you are trying to do. >> joining together tomorrow with 1500 employees and our members nationwide that will be on capitol hill. we want to impress upon congress to stop the sequestration now. needs to be stopped. we need to be worried about jobs, medicare, social security, those type issues that's important to the american people. tell me what your concerns are for federal workers. >> federal workers provide good services throughout the country. afg members guard the boarders. protect you from the worst criminals through the bureau of prisons with correctional officers. we supply all the employees at the va medical centers. we help people process social security checks. we do all these good things for the american people. >> obviously, there are big budget concerns and there have been for a few years now. if we are not to reduce the federal workforce, how would we make up some of the money that needs to be made up in the years ahead? >> i have a very quick answer for that. stop all the service contracts that the government uses. those contracts cause hundreds of billions of dollars nationwide. and most of that work could be done by the government employees that are already on the payroll. >> do you think that congress, have you spoken to any congress people? i know you have a couple folks joining us tomorrow. are there others in your corner on this and reasonably that something might get done? >> oh, clearly there's many in our corner. senator has led the way on government contractors and massive abuse of charging the government. lots of money for very little services. and contracting out government services is just wrong. it's plain wrong. these services need to be performed by government employees at the federal level state city or county level. they do it for a better price. they also have more passion about the jobs. it is their job. it's what they do. they want it to be civil servants. >> you are in the midst of legislative conference. what are the main items besides this rally and this particular issue? >> many of our issues clearly has been about sequestration. also talking about the fact that many of our government agencies are facing downsizing in the department of defense. many employees are facing downsizing. and that's a real issue. afg wants to step forward, help the administration. work hand in hand with him. if there is downsizing in dod, we want to help them and be a partner in trying to reshape the workforce and have a workforce that is lean and mean but does a great job that it's made up of government employees. >> if downsizing is done through attrition, do you support that? >> if you do it through attrition, when you take a look at that, every one of your aircraft mechanics retires within one month, you have no aircraft mechanics left. so you don't fill any of those positions. other positions are there. that system while it sounds nice is not realistic. because people don't retire, quit or leave the government at the right spots and the right jobs. i think there has to be retooling of work. reeducation of workers. many of those type things that has to go on. just arbitrary cuts just will not work. >> all right national president with the american federation of government employees. we will be covering the event tomorrow. so thank you for spending time with us this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you so much, tony. have a good day . >> you too. it's 7:39. we'll be back with more fox 5 morning news in just a couple moments. welcome back. we are continuing to follow the breaking news today. news out of the vatican that the pope has decided to resign. we're joined on the phone right now by president john garza. president garza is over catholic university. thank you for joining us this morning. and how big of a surprise is this? >> it's a big surprise. it doesn't happen everyday. hasn't happened for about 600 years. president garvey, i assume you read the announcement the pope issued? >> yes i have. >> people are cynical these days. should we take it at face value he's concerned about his health or that he just doesn't have the energy to do this job any more? >> i think we should take it as face value. i saw him in november and he was his usual sharp self speaking in half a dozen languages but he was very frail. when you get to be 85, your condition can change quickly. i think it's a great act of humility on his part to recognize that. and hand it over to someone else. >> we have been saying last pope to resign was in the 1400s. tell us what usually happens. i think most of us are familiar with it. for those of us who don't know, the pope lives the rest of his days at the head of the church. >> he usually does. in order to choose a successor, to the pope the cardinals will gather together in rome and this time they have a little more advanced warning than they usually do. >> the conclave, the indications are the conclave will take place after the pope's resignation takes affect on february 28th. i want to ask is that unusual but this whole circumstance is unusual. >> it's very unusual. not since television was invented have we had to deal with this. i know for the good of the church, there is a natural interest in not leaving the seat vacant for any longer than necessary. >> when this pope took over after the death of pope john paul, the former pope was still beloved by all and energized the youth. catholic or not catholic. and this pope came in, he was already a little older. i'd like you to characterize his tenure as pope. >> you know, each pope has a different sort of impact and it's one felt by catholics in a personal way. this pope was a great intellectual and the greatest theologian since gregory the great. we were particularly interested in his leadership and he had a great interest in universities. he had been a university professor himself and had a lot to say that spoke directly to us. i don't think he was the kind of media presence that john paul ii was. but who is? pardon me from cardinal dolan. so we're going to miss him a great deal. >> you mentioned pope john paul ii. when he became pope, he was younger. a very vibrant leader as allison said watched him grow old. pope benedict is now 85 years old. do you think there might be some effort to elect a younger pope this time around? >> i don't really know. although, there are obvious advantages to having one. john paul ii had a great impact on the church. in some ways the most important figure of the 20th century. it was because his youth and energy permitted him to be pope for such a long time. it would be a good thing. on the other hand , it's a really big job. think of being the president only on steroids and the number of people you have to be concerned with. so it takes a lot of wisdom and experience to do that well. >> well, we thank you for your insight this morning, sir. we appreciate it. john garvey, president of catholic university joining us on the phone. we'll talk to you in the days ahead. >> thank you, tony and allison. >> pope benedict xvi has announced this morning he will be stepping down. he will resign his position affective february 28th. >> all right. we of course will be following that throughout the morning. big breaking news there. in the meantime, have we forgotten the big story to the north? >> i have a relative up in boston. she hasn't had power since friday. 30 inches of snow on the ground. >> that's the worst part of it. >> i will say this: it is a mess but moist of the cities up there have really handled it well in terms of the preparation clearing the streets. they did a very good job. >> considering it was so much snow. let's talk local weather. spring showers overnight. we're not concerned with any icing or presip around here today. 27 in boston. and we have a pretty good snow pack up across new england. 45 out in detroit. future cast. rain showers move through overnight. might be left over springle for parts of the area and then mostly cloudy today. there will be periods or peaks of sunshine during the day and noticeably warmer. yesterday mid 40s. today well into the 50s. there we are at 6:00 tonight. you can see the clouds still hanging tough. tomorrow looks like a nice bright sunny day. next couple days enjoy the warm temperatures. wednesday, there could be a coastal storm. could bring us rain and/or snow and/or a wintery mix. and could do it this weekend. both these storms if you are a snow lover look somewhat promising. >> i like that spin. >> there you go. >> find out what's happening on the roads. julie wright is here with that. >> a couple problems out here unfortunately. the wet pavement causing an issue along eastbound 236. the roadway remains blocked. 395 below speed. accident activity reported 29 at the industrial parkway. cleaning up the crash and southbound 270 one long string of break lights from 85 out towards old georgetown road. that's a check of your fox 5 on time traffic. more fox 5 morning news right after this. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] what's the point of an epa estimated 42 miles per gallon if the miles aren't interesting? the lexus ct hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. it was a good night for fun. the group fun at last night's grammy awards. picked up two major trophies including two. the biggest winner was dan from the black keys. he picked up four trophies. mumford and sons walked away with album of the year. gotye, jay z and kanye west also won three each. two trophies and earned a standing ovation for his performance of the song forest gump. >> all right. this morning we're meeting young people in the midst of preparations for a celebration. teratibu youth association. >> but holly morris is with them right now for a preview. that's just how she does it. she is live this morning. good morning. >> reporter: i always plan for the weekend on monday. you are exactly right. if you are planning for your weekend and this is a show you don't want to miss. because, when you talk about the youth association, they are often described as being rhythmically powerful and inspiring. you don't have to watch them for very long to know why they are described. good morning to you. >> good morning, holly. >> and wow. people say i have a lot of energy. but you guys might win. today. you win right now . tell me about this special performance. >> actually, it's our 5th anniversary of our black history month show. we're very excited to have been here five years. it is our annual production and major fundraiser for our trip to south africa. >> what are people going to see? >> they are going to see west african dance which is what's going on right now. south african gumbu, modern and a little ballet. >> you made mention it's the 5th annual concert. can you believe it's been five years already since this whole journey began? >> no, i cannot believe it. we've traveled to tanzania. that's a major accomplishment for a major organization. >> explain what teratibu is. >> we're trying to get the children to bring order to their lives. so this organization, we take a holistic approach. teach history culture leadership, self awareness and empowerment. >> and tell me the connection. i know you all perform locally. but the point of traveling and making this a global movement. >> as african americans we don't know enough about our history and don't make the connection to off rick a. it's important to make that connection to africa. they begin to build a sense of pride and begin to get a sense of pride and self respect. >> what have you seen in the young women when they realize this is more than just a dance company? >> initially there's a little resistance and they embrace it and become so much stronger. when you talk to them, they have seen themselves grow. >> what about the audience? >> they come in with a certain expectations. i'm thinking their expectations have been exceeded. >> yes. they are pretty amazed amazed. our goal is to touch someone's heart and expand their minds. that is the goal for every performance we good regardless if it's in a church, at a school, we teach as well as inspire. >> you've done all this in five years. >> would be to expand. >> we want to get more young ladies and young men. so that we can build a whole community of strong self determined young people. >> do you have any men? >> not right now. >> when we do this next year i want to see men in the group. we're putting the call out right now for you to take in the show. celebrating black history month with a special performance saturday february 16th. one at 4:00, one at 8:00. we're live in morning. myfoxdc.com is our web site. we have a link to theirs. coming up in our next hour, caroline malakai. she's going to join us to talk about her role and perform. >> thank you. coming up at 8:00. more on this morning's breaking news. pope benedict xvi says he's stepping down. he'll continue to update the surprise announcement just coming out of vatican city. [ male announcer ] we began with the rx. ♪ then we turned the page, creating the rx hybrid. ♪ now we've turned the page again with the rx f sport. ♪ this is the next chapter for the rx and the next chapter for lexus. this is the pursuit of perfection. this is fox 5 morning news. >> stepping down. shocked and surprised this morning after the pope announces he'll retire. we have all the breaking details including his reason for leaving and what's next for the catholic church. >> wicked winter weather. from twisters to monster snowstorms. mother nature leaves her mark in several states. we will survey the damage. >> the count down begins in california if the weather holds later today. nasa will launch first observing satellite into orbit. coming up a nasa scientist will join us live. good morning i'm tony perkins. >> and i'm allison seymour. happy you are with us on this monday morning. we know it's a little wet out there. tucker barnes is here to tell you when it's going to dry up. >> and most of the rain is out of here. not going to be a beautiful looking day. >> might get sun later. >> maybe a little sun. a few weaks of sun. today is not promising but tomorrow is. >> isn't that always the way, tuck? >> the sun will come out. rain showers to the east. we're generally done with the rain. not going to be a great looking day. the clouds are going to hold tough. a peak or two or sunshine. temperatures going to warm well into the 50s. should be even a little milder than what we had around here this weekend. temperature at reagan national 39. 39 dulles. bwi marhsall 38. these temperatures should jump 15 degrees or so by the afternoon. a little sun developing early afternoon. highs in the mid 50s around here. may do a 60 or so to our south. fredericksburg down into south central virginia, temperatures will be warmer. stay tuned for the forecast. things could get wintery. details on that coming up. >> thanks, tucker. let's get the latest from julie wright. >> on time traffic brought to you by toyota. >> slow moving traffic southbound along 270 continues out of german town out towards the split. the accident activity is a lane divide. 395 still gridlocked up and across the inbound 14th street bridge. we'll show you what else is happening out here on the roads. we have delays because of an accident blocking a portion of 236. 395 from the beltway to the 14th street bridge below speed here. accident reported 29 at the industrial parkway. the trip southbound on 270 all the way out to old georgetown over an hour and a half commute and accident activity at powder mill tying up the left side of the highway. that's a check of your fox 5 on time traffic. >> all right. thank you very much. we continue to follow breaking news out of the vatican this morning. pope benedict xvi will resign at the end of this month on february 28th. the surprising announcement came around two hours ago. announced in a speech today he just doesn't have the physical strength to carry on his mission. in a statement of that speech, or in part of that speech, the pope said quote in today's world subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of saint peter and proclaim the gospel both strength of mind and body are necessary. strength which inthe last few ms deteriorated in me to fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. pope benedict is 85 years old. became pope in 2005 after the death of john paul ii. >> so what is next for the leadership of the catholic church? >> wisdom martin is joining us back here with some details on what might happen now. >> well, you know, this hasn't happened in a long time. i'm talking 600 years. but tony and allison, this is very rare. sitting popes don't normally resign. in fact, as we just mentioned, 15 or 15th was the last time. let's fast forward to present day and now a scramble underway by the vatican to begin planning a faithful conclave. that is a meeting of the voting cardinals. all cardinals under the age of 80 are allowed to vote. held at the famous 16th chapel. burned after each voting round. black smoke that comes out of the chimney means no pope has been chosen. but when white smoke is seen that means a pope has been elected and that person will appear shortly thereafter. when benedict was elected pope in 2005 he was already the oldest pope elected in about 300 years. in fact, benedict had been planning to retire even then. so again, a conclave to elect a new pope will not convene until march as it cannot happen. amazingly he has to go through the process to resign and then start this process with the voting and everybody gets to vote under the age of 80 and the smoke. all that happens after he retires. after he resigns. >> i didn't know he could do it while he was sitting in the seat. >> this is all new. >> happens after the passing away. >> right. >> very good. thank you, wisdom. >> thanks , wisdom. >> checking our other top stories for you this monday morning. mississippi's governor will visit a day after a tornado tore through the town. the twister moves along one of the city's main street ands damaged buildings. at least a dozen people were hurt. >> meanwhile, the northeast begins to dig out days after a deadly snowstorm. more than 200,000 people are still without power following this weekend's massive blizzard. most are in the boston area where many schools remain closed today. they are working to make sure this morning's commute is safe. they are urging people to use mass transit or work from home if possible. >> anything you can do to help us knock the piles down on the intersections are going to help public safety shoveling sidewalks will take a couple days. if you are walking in the street, just be very careful. don't want to see a lot of pedestrian accidents. use caution. going to take us a couple days. things are moving along nicely. >> some airports are still experiencing delays in our region. reagan national airport has issued a ground delay program. flights arriving between now and 4:59 this afternoon. flights are being delayed an average of 32 minutes. >> an abandoned home goes up in flames snarling morning traffic. happened this morning at a house on field place. this is in northeast. no one was hurt. fire crews had to shut down portions of eastern avenue. along with 58th and 59th streets. traffic could still be slow around the area. >> a surge in red light camera tickets in maryland has drivers upset. the cameras in rockville are issuing tickets to drivers stopped just beyond the white line. although cars are not moving, cars are being ticketed. this is just a way to generate more money from tickets. the red light violations occur when the white line boundary is crossed and the new cameras help enforce that. >> police in california are offering up a million dollar reward. $1 million for information leading to the arrest of a former police officer wanted for murder. police continue to search a ski resort town near los angeles where dorner's burned out truck was discovered on thursday. a possible sighting at an la home improvement store forced evacuation. stepped up patrols outside the grammy awards. no sight of the suspect and an online manifesto, this former police officer says his rage is from being fired back in 2008. >> lindsay gram is threatening to holdup nominations until he gets more details about the attack that killed the u.s. ambassador. the republican from south carolina appeared on face the nation and promised not to confirm chuck hagel as defense secretary as the new director if he does not get answers from the white house. gram wants to know if the president personally reached out during the attack. >> lots of anticipation for president obama's address to the nation. address the looming sequestration automatic budget cuts that are due to kick in the 1st of march. also to focus on job creation and economic growth. tomorrow will be the first state of the union speech of his second term. >> it is now 8:10 on this monday morning. honoring harriet tubman. find out about a maryland senator's plan to highlight the historic abolitionist. >> will he stay in baltimore? dave ross serves up contract talk coming up in your next sports breakfast. it's 8:10. can you explain to me why the sprinkles are empty? >> well, they are not empty. >> look at me. >> they are not empty. >> did you eat those sprinkles? >> no, i did not. >> that is so cute. he doesn't have any idea. the evidence is all over his face. a three year old boy tries to pull a fast one. >> mom saw red sprinkles and confronted him. never fessed up denying it all day. his mom found it so funny she started to record the sweet interrogation. now a hit on youtube. >> those big brown eyes don't hurt it either. >> it is very cute but you know what it says to me? he's going to be trouble. he's three and sticking to his story. despite the visible evidence. >> if mom put a mirror, he'd crumble. anyway, that's good. i need some home grown cuteness. tucker barnes, can you dliefr deliver? >> i hope so. time for my first 5 photo of the day. this is 2 year old cameron. >> cameron you are gorgeous. >> she's beautiful. >> is that a big lolly pop? >> i think it might be a valentine's day. >> she wants to wish the fox 5 morning news happy valentine's day and thank her aunt for taking picture. >> i would assume that's a professional picture. >> she couldn't go wrong with that face. but it's a beautiful picture. >> that's quite a big lolly pop. >> it sure is. >> that's a lot. all right kamryn, we love the picture and the valentine's day theme. thank you to you and your aunt sharon and your family for sending in the picture. go to myfoxdc.com and click on the mornings tab and try to get them up on the air as soon as possible. let's do the temperatures. reagan national 39 degree s. 28 in boston this morning. 34 out in chicago. notice the warmer air out in cincinnati and nashville. guess what? that's headed in our direction. we're going to be in for a temporary warmup. our high temperatures will top out in the 50s. later this afternoon, we can get a little sunshine at all. a few of us may touch 60 degrees. casper, wyoming 1 degree for you. looking at the satellite radar, one or two left over sprinkles. most of the shower activity last night to the east of us. on top of the 2 feet of snow, they are getting a mix of snow, sleet and rain. that's not going to help matters at all up there. we should see clouds today. maybe a little fog developing. not going to be a good looking day for us. and we'll clear things out. here's a look at your 7 day forecast. want to point out a couple features. wednesday afternoon, wednesday night into early thursday. there could be a coastal storm. could bring rain and/or snow. and then we could do it again next weekend with a possibility of another coastal storm and cold air around here. high temperatures only in the 30s. definitely a february feel this year with things looking like they get active here. that's weather. let's do traffic and get the latest from julie wright. all right, tucker. on the roads right now wet pavement still causing problems out here. we have our hands full. accident activity closing 236 before you reach 395. no one able to get by on the eastbound side of the highway. southbound 270 on the brakes from 85 all the way out to old georgetown road. hour and a half commute there and southbound on the baltimore washington parkway. tying up the left lane. 95 below speed. let's go live and pop up those cameras and show you what's happening here. delays continue out of centerville trying to get past fair oak ands 123. and slow traffic north on 395 leaving the beltway. outer loop below speed. 95 college park. that's a check of your fox 5 on time traffic. >> dave likes when i say this. baseball king lebron james -- >> basketball. >> helps soar over kobe bryant and breaks a report. plus a new contract for a ravens. >> dave ross has it all in this morning's sports breakfast. >> we're going to talk about that in a moment. i kid again cause wisdom loves the king. >> you say he named himself the king. >> he's been playing like the best player in the world as of late and as of last year. if i had a hat on i'd tip it to labron. the guy is playing out of his mind. we need maryland to start playing better. they had a big boarder war yesterday. that's mark turgon and the terps never got it going. they get a steal and still trailed by 6 at the half. and the problem is it's what february 11th? you look up in a couple weeks we're in march. these are the type of games they call these bubble teams with virginia and maryland. the bubble if it came down with these two would it have burst? virginia comes in to college park and gets 80 -69 win. maryland is 17 to 7. they get a big win at your place. the committee will look into that. allison, here he is. the king lebron james taking on kobe bryant. the old king. and the new king . watch what the old king can do. 360 reverse it. >> still has some moves. >> that's pretty amazing. >> let's see what the new king can do. coming down the other end. i wish i could do this one time. >> who is 28? >> 28 points for kobe. he's got a 3 in front of that number. >> miami wins by 10. wizards have won three in a row. now, let's get down to the brass tax. when you win the superbowl, now all of a sudden you go to diz fee world. now you have to figure out what team we're going to have back here next year. try to defend that crown or go younger and get rid of some of our players due to make big money? ie, antwon. joe flacco is unrestricted. somewhere in the $100 million category. >> that hurts. >> bolden is on the last year of his contract is due to make $6 million. peanuts. but he's 32 years old . last year of a contract. he says if he doesn't resign with the ravens, he's going to retire. you got big time names. ed reed is another one is they have to pay these guys or do we say good-bye to the older players and hope the young kids can step up. that's the dilemma. he who wears the crown. something like that. >> i would say pay him. pay him and let him stay. >> you think so? >> sure. >> one more year. >> not your money. who cares? >> thank you , dave. it is 821:21 now. stranded at sea. a cruise ship with more than 4,000 passengers is a drift near the gulf of mexico. find out what went wrong and how the ship plans to get back to land. >> plus, celebrating black history on stage. holly will be live later with a preview of the 5th annual black history month show. we'll be right back. it's 8:21. itit's my coffee when i want it. you press a button, you have great dunkin' coffee. i got my coffee for the morning, i got my dunkin' k-cup packs for the rest of the day. only available at dunkin' donuts restaurants. america runs on dunkin' coffee. welcome back, everybody on a monday morning. we are following reports of a cruise ship that is stranded in the gulf of mexico. there are 4,000 passengers and crew on board. the ship is stuck with no power after an apparent engine room fire almost 500 miles south of galveston, texas. supposed to be back from a four day cruise later today. carnival cruise lines says the ship will be towed and the passengers will be flown back home. boeing completes a test run of its controversial 787 dream liner plane in seattle. the test flight will be used to gather detailed information on the lithium ion battery. the problem with the plane's batteries led to all 50 dream liners being grounded worldwide last month. >> once again calling for a series of national parts to honor harriet tubman. joining lauders from several groups including the naacp that would create parks in maryland and new york. spent 30 years there as a slave before escaping in 1849. >> 8:25 now on this monday morning. still ahead, ready to launch. nasa prepares to send another satellite into space. a nasa scientist will join us to explain. >> plus, a stunned vatican city, the pope has announced his retirement. more on the surprising announcement after the break. it's 8:26. 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[ male announcer ] that will put some gas in the old tank lindsay. supercharge your internet speeds. switch to fios and we'll triple your speed for free with an upgrade to fios quantum. living life at quantum speed, call the verizon center for customers with disabilities that's powerful. at 800-974-6006 tty/v. she would only get a splash of coffee in her cup and then fill the rest up with cream and it -- mommy, what's going on? what are you doing? so when we did the blonde roast, she finally went from a splash of coffee to only a splash of cream. and i thought that was so cool, i said "well she's enjoying this." ♪ ♪ we continue to follow breaking news this morning from the vatican. the pope has announced he will resign in just 17 days. this is a live look right now at saint peter's square. >> the pope says he no longer has the strength to carry out his duties. let's get the full story from sarah simmons who is live in northwest. >> it's very quiet outside the vatican embassy but everybody is shocked and stunned surprised at this announcement. no one was expecting this except maybe perhaps the pope's brother reportedly saying a doctor who had met with the pope had advised him not to take any trans atlantic trips and been considering stepping down for months. this is something he has been pondering for a while it seems. failing health and difficulty in walking losing his strength. he's 85 years old and the brother saying that the pope needed more time to rest. now, the pope made this announcement this morning. they gathered the cardinals to mark three saints. during the meeting, the pope made the announcement about his resignation. stunning those that he had gathered in that meeting as well. now, part of what -- there's lengthy statement that has been put out. the pope had said the duties of his job require strength of mind and in body. so again, very shocking to be hearing this. this is the first pope to resign from the position in 600 years. again, expected to resign stepping down february 28th at the end of the month. of course, we'll continue to follow and see what the developments will be and what the process will be from here on out. of course, feel like we just went through this not that long ago. and here we are coming to this process once again. back to you. >> sarah, thank you very much. >> it does seem like this yesterday. i know it wasn't but seems like just yesterday. >> bring you more information about it as the morning progresses. >> saw the cloud cover in sarah's report there. a little fog but not going to be raining all day. >> that's a good thing. >> and it's going to be mild. 50s today and tomorrow . get ready to enjoy a couple nice mild afternoon. 39 at reagan national. 40 in annapolis. notice the warmer temperature s working in from the south and east. salsbury jumps to 54 degrees. 48 in leonard town. and we'll start to see that warmer air pushup later today. any time talk about warm temperatures up around here can often be a slow go. often get fog developing. rain showers moving through. still left over rain along the eastern show and a few sprinkles out to the west. but most of your day will feature mostly cloudy skies out there. could be a few breaks in the clouds as we get into the afternoon hours. expected to surge in here on southwesterly winds. highs will be back in the mid 50s. couple features area of low pressure out to our west and the frontal system hanging out to our south. watch the next storm ride up and along that front and just off the coast here by wednesday night and thursday. and that could bring us another round of a little rain and/or snow. got to watch out by wednesday, wednesday night as we could be in for a bit of a winter event around here. there's your accu weather 7 day. saturday and sunday could be another storm. highs only in the 30s. tossing it back to tony and allison at the desk. >> thank you very much, tucker. satellites have captured and sent back millions of images of earth. those pictures show how natural disasters, urban development and defor he is station has affected. nasa earth scientist is joining us live this morning from the space flight center in greenbelt. good morning, sir. >> thanks for having me. i'm doing great. >> i imagine there has to be excitement. does it look like the satellite will take off today? yeah, the weather reports are very good. we're all very excited. this is really the next generation of the earth observing satellites that we call lansat. once it reaches orbit if everything goes as planned, it will be renamed lansat 8 and add to this 40 year record we have from space. >> is this the beginning of replacing older and aging satellites? >> well, this particular one the mission is called lansat data continuity mission. it's mandated by congress to have a series of these satellites looking at data from the earth at chunks of 90 feet on the side. and so it's really a process that is on going and yes lansat 5 and 7 have reached their limits but lansat 8 will continue that record into the future. >> tell me how this new satellite how it's different from some of the older satellites. >> again, the continuity means as a scientist we want to have the same kind of data. it's a different kind of technology used before. it also has imageer that looks at the temperature. so we can look at, for example, here you see images of crops. we can look at water use and crops. so that's one of the new things. >> and we were showing some of those images. i want to go back to some of those so you can explain them to us. they are all different colors and each image indicates something different; correct? >> right. these are beautiful images. sometimes we're lucky as scientists we get to use the data. it's almost as art. what you see here is pivot irrigation in kansas overtime. so the red areas are fields. the blue areas are bare fields. you'll see decreasing overtime as the water is used for agriculture. glaciers, cities, deforestation. >> i'm not meaning this as a political question but it's a 40 year plus program. are the changes that you are seeing, are they rather striking to you? are you surprised how much the planet is changing? >> well, i mean, there are very striking changes we can see. if we looked at for example las vegas or cities in china. the increase in urbanization is quite striking. we're looking at glaciers that for example, here you see a time series over las vegas. with population growth comes a dramatic increase in built up areas which also then impacts the water use. you know, glaciers are decreasing worldwide as well. those are the kinds of things we're tracking. that is an example of a glacier in alaska that's receding overtime. >> boy, the images are striking. if one wants to learn more and wants to access some of these images how do they go about doing that? >> we have a web site nasa.gov/lansat. that's launching today and add new data. we're really excited. i can't tell you how excited i am to get my hands on the data. >> it's important data too. a lot of people looking forward to that. thank you very much. we appreciate it. hope everything goes well today. >> thank you. >> fascinating to see that one lake dry up like that. wow. >> kind of scary to me. >> some of it is. coming up. sweet heart savings for valentine's day. the executive editor will show us how to scoop up flower deals before thursday. >> plus, music's big night out. a look back at the big winners from last night's grammy awards. time right now 8:38. we'll be right back. t back. 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[ male announcer ] with no blackout dates, you can use your citi thankyou points to travel whenever you want. visit citi.com/thankyoucards to apply. ♪ just went shook my hand ♪ >> gone but not forgotten. last night sir elton john took to the stage at the grammies with several on big names to perform a tribute to the band's late drummer and singer levon helms. john also dedicated the performance to the victims of sandy hook school shooting. their songs ended way too soon. >> and keeping with british tradition, the band mumford and sons took home the top prize. are they from england? >> i believe so. >> i didn't know that. bable. won the award for album of the year. last year's winner adele presented the award. the band has been together since 2007. >> british invasion part 2. and indy pop band fun took home song of the year. they earned it for their hit we are young and beat out other nominees. carly ray jepson. >> everybody can see our faces. these two guys who are the most amazing band mates anybody could ever ask for. >> i like that they said they've been grinding it out for 12 years and here they come. new artists. >> we think overnight sensation. they've been working a long time. >> some are. >> all right. >> boy. how about that green dress katy perry wore. 8:43 right now. still ahead, a budget friendly flower. find out how you can make valentine's day special without breaking the bank. >> celebrating black history month. holly is live with how some young people are honoring their culture. >> good morning to you. we are getting a treat this morning as we are live where they are indeed practicing for a special concertgoing on this saturday. it's youth association. along with grammy nominated caroline malakai. we're going to talk about it and watch her perform live. stay with us. h us. welcome back. valentine's day is this thursday and if you haven't arranged to get your flowers for your sweetie, our next guest has tips and advice to save you money and headaches. >> executive director excuse me editor. i don't know if that would be a pro meigs or not. i'm going to stick with your title of executive editor. welcome to the show. a lot of people might be looking at that calendar there. it's this thursday. the headline here, can we be smart even at this late date? >> oh, sure. the trick is to start shopping around. when we shop for flowers for our ratings, we found big price variation. for roses, for example, for a dozen roses some shops charged $25. some shops charged $75 or more per dozen. >> is there a difference? >> not really. we looked at the quality of service shops offer and the products they are selling and also their prices and we didn't find really any kind of relationship between price and quality. high price shops were as likely to have poor ratings promptness of delivery as the prices with low prices. sglz we're showing the viewers at home this one to how to keep your cost down. and choose less popular flowers by stems and use your own base. buy a single elegant flower or pick up from florist to save that delivery fee. >> look from buying from a super market or street vendor. they are all pretty much buying them from the same soirss. the florists which are much more expensive. a lot of florists and super markets will double or triple prices for valentine's day. so prices will be more expenses than the range i gave earlier. you can save a tremendous amount of money. the prices range from $6 to $20 per dozen. less than half basically is what you are looking at. the flowers are coming from the same places. the florist may have better buying standards. quality standards than the super markets but if you pay attention and make sure the flowers it smells good and doesn't smell sour, that they are fresh, you are pretty much getting the same product. >> all right. if you do that, you go to the super market, how to choose the best flower. this is the advice from checkbook.org. avoid flowers that are wilted or blemished. look for tight buds, early in the day. give a good description of what you want. >> right. and i would say the best test is the smell test. it's a flower, it should smell good. if it smells sour, move on. >> i don't know i've smelt a sour smelling flower. >> i have. >> you did buying and talk about places that you liked. we'll show these two. flowers and ferns. that's in manassas. mason's flowers. that was in faith er gaithersburg. i don't want to be wrong here. flower gallery in manassas . flowers and ferns in burke. what was the criteria for picking these? >> these are shops that had high ratings. overall quality, product quality and promptness of delivery. and also had lower than average prices. >> covered a nice area there too. want to let everybody know checkbook is offering a really nice deal for two weeks. fox 5 viewers can go on checkbook.org and sneak a peek at this and probably subscribe after you go on. and i want to make sure i gave the right information. is there a trick to doing this? >> i believe it's checkbook.org/fox5. >> sounds good to me. thank you so much . i hope you never get sour smelling flowers. thanks for being here today. he's the executive editor with checkbook.org. don't forget your sweetie. tony, over to you. >> thank you very much. people all over our area are celebrating black history. this saturday night the youth association hosts 5th annual black history show. holly morris is with them now for a preview. good morning, holly. >> reporter: good morning to you. this is always a special show for teratibu youth association. biggest fundraiser that they do. this year it's programs more special and has everything to do with the lovely lady. caroline malakai who i look up to late rally and figuratively. thank you for being a part of this. i know it's the first time you've been a part of this concert. yes, it's close to your heart. >> very much so. it is an art form i studied as a child. so it's a very special moment for me to be a part of this. i hope to continue working with the group. they are awesome. >> they are awesome. and you are awesome . even more so because of the free your mind. tell me about that. many people are calling this a game changer in the music industry. >> that's huge. free your mind is a song i worked on with local producers. marcus marshal. so we set out to make an incredible piece of art. and by partnering with the school fund, we were able to set this up so that every view of the music video equals an hour of class time for kids in east africa. the chambers bclc was really kind to us. leadership center. they let us debut the video and then from then, it just sort of grown so much so that generated about 7,000 hours of class time in the month of january alone. and every itunes download to free your mind with each itunes download we give an hour of class time. >> download now is what we're saying. are you doing this as part of the show on saturday as well? >> yes, we are. >> are you going to do a part of it for us right now? >> i think so. >> all right. very good. let me hand it over. >> ready? >> ♪ oh, oh, you don't want to miss this you don't want to miss this ♪ you don't want to miss this ♪ oh, oh, you don't want to miss this ♪ you don't want to miss this ♪ i got these dreams and i can't see defeat ♪ ♪ [ rap ] ♪ ♪ ♪ >> all right. well that should get everyone interested to come on out. in the mood and in the groove, what's going through your mind? >> i'm just telling the story. there are very few people who master the art of story telling and that's what makes them great. bob marly was an excellent story teller. >> so here's the story we're telling. this weekend this saturday here in mount rainer. the 5th annual black history month concert featuring caroline malakai. more from fox 5 morning news when we come back. now you tell me where you got those shoes. those shoes. so if you have a flat tire, those shoes. dead battery, need a tow or lock your keys in the car, geico's emergency roadside assistance is there 24/7. oh dear, i got a flat tire. hmmm. uh... yeah, can you find a take where it's a bit more dramatic on that last line, yeah? yeah i got it right here. someone help me!!! i have a flat tire!!! well it's good... good for me. what do you think? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. this is dylan right here, this is dylan, and this is his big brother hayden. dylan's only five, but he's already been through two surgeries for brain tumors. and he just went through his second round of chemo. and this is their mother, dawn, who runs this loving and happy home. she too struggled with tumors. but that doesn't slow her down. her love of family comes first. their dad, phil, works two jobs, repairing copiers, and on weekends delivering newspapers. but the bills keep piling up, and the heating bill gets pushed off. when you learn about their difficulties, it just breaks your heart. when we asked the biggest oil companies to help families in need, only citgo, the people of venezuela, and president hugo chavez responded. thanks to them, citizens energy is able to deliver millions of gallons of fuel to families just like the berios. i'm joe kennedy. if you need help staying warm, call me at 1-877-joe-4-oil. because no one should be left out in the cold! good morning, everybody. i'm allison seymour. >> and i'm tony perkins. lacking strength, breaking news out of vatican city where pope benedict xvi will step down at the end of the month. the reason behind his historic decision and what happens now. sarah simmons is live at the vatican embassy and speak with -- >> you might want to count on red light cameras to keep you safe. some people are being charged for an act they say they did not commit. the startling results and video ahead. also a local special olympian is a two time gold medallist. here to talk about his incredible trip to south korea. >> the tents at new york
beginning with breaking news from wilmington, delaware, as many as three people are dead after a shooting at the newcastle county courthouse. this happened around 8:00 this morning. several ambulances responded to the scene, and we have received word that two police officers were taken to the hospital with non life threatening injuries. thank you for joining us. i'm j.c. hayward. we have stunning news from the vatican today. pope benedict xvi says he is stepping down at the end of the month. catholics around the world are wondering who will replace him. we now get the latest information from anna at the vatican. >> reporter: pope benedict xvi delivered the surprising message in a speech to cardinals at the vatican this morning. the 85-year-old pontiff said he will step down february 28th, because he is simply too old to carry on. the leered of more than a billion roman catholics said carrying out his duties requires quote both strength of mind and body. the news stunned the church leaders around the world. >> i have to be honest, i'm as shocked and startled as all of you. >> reporter: it is the first time a pope has resigned in nearly 600 years. on the streets of europe, some people refused to believe it. he says it can't be true, it would be too huge for the church for something like this to happen. a vatican spokesman said the pope deserves respect for making such a personal and courageous decision to quit. the pope's resignation sets the stage for a new papal election. vatican officials hope to elect a new pope in time for holy week at the end of march. pope benedict had big shoes to fill in 2005 when cardinals chose him to succeed john paul ii. one of his biggest tasks was responding to the priest's sex abuse scandal. pope benedict issued an apology to victims and said the church made serious mistakes. today the pontiff calls his choice to resign quote delia goncalves continues our coverage. >> reporter: good afternoon j.c. the mass here at 12:10 starts at the basilica expects to be full of parishioners here to pray for the pope, are pray for his next chapter and the next chapter of the catholic church. monday mass at the basilica and the pope's resignation on the minds of many. it makes him more relatable to the people, not just this political figure and religious figure. >> with sadness, pope benedict has been such an inspirational leader for the church. >> he was himself a university professor and his writings are really pro found. >> reporter: john garvey, president of catholic university of america says the pope's visit five years ago left a lasting impression on campus. garvey admits the noun 895-year-old pontiff looks frail even back then, yet remained a giant figure. >> in some ways he is the spiritual leered of the world. >> whoever the next pope is going to be is going to need a lot of prayer and good smarts and an ability to reach out to people who are far and way in the church. >> reporter: pope benedict's had statements that seemed to be offensive to muslims jews and latin americas. still he will be remembered for his efforts in strengthening the catholic church, and its core beliefs. >> his legacy will be having followed pope john paul ii. (audio difficulty) (audio difficulty) (audio difficulty) that region represents 42% of the 1.23 billion catholics around the world. pope benedict was inaugurated in 2005 and for the first time in recent history the leader of the catholic church is leaving while he is still alive. stacey cohen has been following the story since it broke early this morning. she is joining us live now from northwest washington with more information, clearly, clearly, this is a shock to all of his followers. what are you hearing? >> reporter: well j.c., it has been a shock not only to the 1.2 billion catholics worldwide but to noncatholics alike. when you think this is something that hasn't taken place since the 1400s, when a pope resigned for entirely different reasons, i mean it is clearly unexpected. although he has been ill for the past year or so, and there was some speculation that perhaps he might step down, many didn't think it was a reality. he was 5 years old, older now than when his predecessor pope john paul passed away. that is to be taken into consideration. some of the are cardinals here in the united states are reacting. we heard from cardinal timothy dolan in new york, he was elevated to that office by pope benedict. let's hear what he had to say. >> i would presume his esteem for the office as the successor of st. peter and the chief pastor of the (audio difficulty) still to come when 9news continues we will have new developments in the search for a rogue california cop accused of killing outside a wave a 14-year-old is being charged as an adult in the murder of his seven-month-old sister. police say baby larissa was left from the care of her brother jonathan a aguilera. the teenager admitted covering her nose and her mouth in order to stop her from crying. he is due in court for a bond hearing this afternoon. a $11 million reward is now being offered for help to capture a former los angeles police officer wanted for murder. christopher dorner is accused of killing three people to avenge his firing from the police force. a massive search around big bear, where dorner's burned out truck was found has now been scaled back. coming up next, howard and the forecast. >> reporter: jc, we are still waiting for some of the air to get to us. 50s and even 60s. around here we are stuck in the 40s, only 43 in arlington. but a better afternoon headed our way. details, coming up i have been combing through the day's daily deals and retailer website to find you deep discounts and monday favorites. how about a massage to control all that stress? with this groupon with pay $35 for 45 minutes tension tamer massage at bella salon in fairfax. you are actually saving 54%. you want a set of bluetooth headphones on sale? you have got them. right now pay $49.99 for the headphones from me electronics. that saves you 45% off with best buy.com. and here's free turkish coffee this week at 90,817th street northwest tomorrow between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. turkish airlines is handing out free turkish cough of fee. it is also -- coffee. it is also handing out free promotional fares this month, prices start at 500 bucks a person. i'm about thing more online. if you have an offer you have seen or are a local merchant with a deal for our viewers, i would love to hear from you on facebook. i'm jessica doyle, wusa9. we are linking up with masn to bring you 20 washington nationals games right here on wusa9. that's righting you can watch the nationals games right here starting with the washington nationals opening day, april 1, against the miami marlins. of course w usa 9's president and general manager mark bur debt is beside himself following last year's 98 win season and playoff appearance, we are all thrilled to be able to bring you part of the nationals 2013 season. >> on paper they should be a better team than last year. >> i'm ai baseball -- a baseball fan. but what is this about two chance of snow? >> reporter: one wednesday night and one on the weekend. today is going to end up being a mild day for most of us. of some of us may get stuck still, but give it a few more hours. the warmth is oh so close. here's a look at the day planner, still quite foggy across much of the immediate metro area. a couple of breaks, mostly cloudy this afternoon as we make a run toward 55. i was thinking this morning when we might get into the upper 50s. fog has been a problem. quantico three quarters of a mile. the fog is shifting east baltimore and out west of town, good visibility where the warmer air is moving in. we have showers yesterday where earlier this morning they are now pushing across the northeast. bad news because they have snow covered roofs and stuff and this will get real heavy. a couple of sunny breaks in parts of the west virginia panhandlal. cumberland is 50. off to the south, almost 50 now at the airport, annapolis 51, 44 with lots of cloud and some fog still in washington. feeling like 3, south winds at 9 trying to scoop out all the cold air left at the surface. i want to tell everybody out west, wind advisory tonight until tomorrow morning, gusts 45 to 55 in the mountains in western virginia as well. west is pretty quiet, we have a big storm really big one up in the great lakes. the snow is there, this is helping to drive those winds for tonight. also push the showers through this morning. all the rain going back to texas low pressure going to form on that. we'll be north of it tomorrow, breezy tomorrow highs in the low 50s. then as we head into wednesday, this is when we see perhaps sun early in the day, clouds are going to increase by noon. notice the rain in southeastern west virginia. that is going to lift toward us. by the time we get into wednesday night maybe late afternoon the rain is going to turn into a little bit of snow. if we have any issues they will be wednesday night, which could lead to delays, et cetera on thursday morning. tonight going to have the winds picking up, temperatures mid- 30s in the northern shanendoah valley. looking for a low of 39. forecast today, eventually 55 degrees, going to be optimistic about that. mostly cloudy, tonight 38 as we head through tomorrow, 52 a mild and breezy day, we have this yellow alert out for wednesday with the lane and the snow at night. highs in the mid-40s. thursday and friday partly sunny mid-40s and cold this weekend with potentially snow sometime on saturday. j.c., back to you. howard we are learning the military personnel are committing suicide at an alarming rate. in fact their best numbers are higher than service personnellal who die in combat. four years ago an organization was established to fight this disturbing trend, and today on hero central, i'm saluting companions for hero. >> uncolonel love, i can tell him anything, i don't have to worry about being repeated. >> reporter: when raymond cook got out of the military, he developed most traumatic stress disorder and wanted to commit suicide. four years ago he learned about companions for heroes, a program that led him to his best friend meyer, are who gave him a new lease on life. >> i had been in school, serving in the military. but there was a dark side of me no one could touch. i wouldn't let anyone in. >> reporter: but meyer has been able to breakthrough. companions for heroes matches animals who face death because they don't have a home with veterans, active military and first responders. so far there have been over 140 perfect matches. >> it is the best work i have ever done in my life. it is a compilation of what i have done. what you are doing is saving two lives at once. >> reporter: the adoptions are free and the new owner is able to get financial aid and access to a professional dog train tore make sure the pet's health and behavior are compatible. >> our founder, david sharp, had such a wonderful idea from his own experience to pair veterans and shelter pets for mutual healing. and the thing is, it works. >> reporter: he never thought a four legged animal would mean so much in his life. >> founder david sharp is an air force veteran. three years ago, he spoke to us when the organization was first started. >> there was a time when i wanted to take my own life and she walked in, little puppy that she was, she walked in and licked my face. >> reporter: today meyer not only touches cook's life, but he is an important part of the entire family. >> my father hated dogs. but he loves meyer. meyer has been there when my granddaughter was born, two granddaughters, my grandson adores him. >> don't you love that story? i do. companions for heroes does not receive government support. if you are interested fill out an online application. you can get all the details by going to my website j.c. valentine's day is thursday, don't say i didn't warn you. so be sure to remember your sweetheart. and you know cupcakes are all the rage now, and i have kristen kendall from lily mcgillly. they have fabulous cupcakes. but she says we can do this at home. it is very easy? >> you can use a box to decorate your cupcakes and decorate with your kids. we have red and pink fond dant, you can buy it at the store already colored at michael's or any craft store that sells cake decorating products. i have basically rolled it out. use a regular rolling pin and any cutter. since it is valentine's day we'll do heart ones. you can put it right on top of the cupcake. and it is something you can do with your kids too and theyen i didn't to decorate the cupcakes. >> what else? >> we have these. so if you see this one here you can kind of make a little flower out of the candy corn. valentine's day you can buy them in pink. >> what are these? >> chock clast -- chocolates, kind of like m and ms. >> this is a great activity. if you want it already beautiful go to lily mcgillly and pick up a dozen already designed. >> already designed. >> and there one is calling on me. of i have got to try it. do you want to try one? >> these are my favorite. >> thanks for being with us. come back and visit us at 5:00. >> thank you. >> thanks for having us.
♪ coming up, as president obama second inauguration approaches, religious voices on the mood of the country and the outlook for the next four years. and bob faw reports on the shameful history of lynching in america, and african americans who found ways to forgive. major funding for "religion and ethics news weekly" provided by the indianapolis based family foundation dedicated to religion, community development and education. additional funding also provided by mutual of america, designing customized, individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. the jane henson foundation. and the corporation for public broadcasting. welcome, i'm bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. final preparations are underway in washington, d.c., for the second inauguration of barack obama, taking place on monday, martin luther king, jr. day. the benediction will now be given by the reverend luis leon of st. john's episcopal church, where the obamas sometimes attend services. leon replaces evangelical pastor louie giglio, who bowed out after controversy erupted over a sermon he gave in the 1990s condemning homosexuality. myrlie evers-williams, widow of murdered civil rights leader medgar evers, wildeliver te iocation anthe brooklyn tabernacle choir will sing. this week, many religious groups praised president obama's newly announced measures to try to reduce gun violence, particularly his call for mandatory background checks and a ban on assault weapons. vice-president biden said the nation has a "moral obligation" to prevent future tragedies like the school shooting in connecticut. at a press conference in washington, members of an interfaith coalition reiterated support for strongerun control, saying they agree that it is a "moral imperative." >> we stand together because we know beyond all else that god is love. let us love one another, bind ourselves together and challenge the onslaught of violence in our nation. also this week, christian groups ramped up their push for immigration reform. at a media event in washington, speakers sat at a table with empty chairs meant to represent deported family members of immigrants livinhere. meanwhile, evangelical leaders launched a campaign they are calling "i was a stranger." in a video released this week, they urged churches to spend 40 days studying biblical passages that relate to immigration, in order to build grassroots support for immigration reform. this weekend of inauguration celebrations, we want to explore the mood of the country and perspectives on the next four years with three distinguished people of faith. they are the right reverend mariann edgar budde, bishop of the episcopal diocese of washington, d.c., john garvey, a lawyer and the president of the catholic university of america, and harold dean trulear, a professor of theology at the howard university divinity school. he joins us from philadelphia, where he is active in ministry to prisoners. welcome to you all. >> thank you. professor trulear, four years ago, for many people, there was an extraordinary mood of excitement and hope. what happened? >> well, i think what we were witnessing four years ago was sort of like a revival service. there was a real sense of expectancy, a real sense of hope. and like all revival services, at the end of the service, you've got to go out and get the work done. and some of the energy begins to dissipate, some of the hope begins to dissipate as you come up against the harsh realities in society. and i think it's just natural that the second time around, you don't have the same tup type of expectancy. i see the first time as a revival service, and now it's communion and renewal, healing. that's the kind of service moody see this time. >> bishop? >>le wiell, my sense is that th president really saw himself and we saw him as the one who would bring us together as a country. there would you be able n't be there wouldn't be blue america, there would be one country together. and what we learned in the first administration, we were not yet ready to be that country. that we are far more isolated and polarized as aountry than we knew ourselves to be. and what we wanted ourselves to be at that time. so my sense is that the task now isn't so much to speak to the middle, but to, in fact, help create a middle, where it's so much easier for us to stay in our isolated areas it's so much easier for us to stay in our isolated areas with people who think like us and the president's task and the tasks of communities of faith is in fact to create that common ground, where we can find the compromises that we need to ma to go forward. >> let's come back to that. president? >> there's a temptation in talking about these things to look to the president and the government as the leaders in all of these matters and that's maybe a mistake in matters of religion. you know, we live in a country where the president is not the head of the national church. it's people like the bishop who are religious leaders. i think it might be for many of the issues we're dealing with in the country more forceful and outspoken religious leadership from religious leaders would be helpful. i think about immigration as a ood example and n control as another. othe other hand, there are some matters, just to finish the thought, where the conflicts that we've had are between the government and private actors, the fight we're having over health control, healthcare. >> when you talk to students at catholic university, and wherever, do they seem to you kind of disillusioned? >> maybe with the possibilities of political solutions for our problems, but young people are much more hopeful than the rest of us so i think there's always a much more optimistic spirit on college campuses than there is out in the world. >> well, i would even say, i take it further and i have two young adult sons so i watch through, i often watch the work of the country through their eyes and through the young people that i serve and my sense is in this election, the most recent election, that the future of our country kind of showed up and voted in a way that no one was really expecting that they would given what you surmised which was a sense of perhaps disillusionment or in the professor's words, the revival being over. but in fact, i think they came back more seasoned, more realistic, more determined to do the hard work to bring about the kind of political consensus that we need and particularly in the state of maryland, if you look at the two issues that were passed on referendum the religious communities, the immigrant communities, people of color, they all came together in ways that totally surprised the expectations given what was perceived to be such a mood of pessimism, even just months before. >> what about you, professor trulear? do you sense any little glimmer of hope anywhere that things can be better? >> oh, i think there's a lot of hope. i think that it's just more grounded in reality, which is, i think, the gist of the bishop's comments that there is a sense that there were things that were accomplished during the first administration. i think she's absolutely right, we have surfaced some of our unreadiness but then that gives us a more clear agenda for the next four years. i think that also we've got glimmers of hope in some of the things that, some of the ways in which people came together around hurricaneandy wee se thain the new york, new jersey, connecticut area. ways in which this country is now ready for a conversation on violence and gun control based on what happened in newtown, connecticut, and of course when the president made his remarks about newtown he not only included newtown, but he also included the streets of chicago and so there is, there are these different packets of hope, even in the midst of difficulty that a number of our students at howard university and other people that i work with are latching on to at this time. >> i would also say that one of the things that we are learning is what we would need to do as a country in the face of natural societal resistance to change and that there is, there are hard lessons to be learned about how to lead in times of polarization which are different than in times when we, when the country is more naturally coming together and so those require different leadership skills, different spiritual skills, different levels of truth telling. >> wanted to pick up on somhing that you said, professor trulear. when we were talking earlier you spoke about not just gun control, but violence control. talk about that a little bit. >> well, gun control is a piece of violence control. we're a very violent nation. i often talk with my students about the fact that thanksgiving is the big holiday in the united states because we get to eat as much as we can, which is our consumerism, then we get to watch football which is a celebratn of violence. that's wh we are a the violence that we see on our streets, the violence that we see in the mass killings is a reflection of a lack of civility all the way around in our country. one of the things that i know a number of faith leaders are doing and we saw it in "the washington post" this past thursday is calling on a more civil tone of political discourse because there's violence in words and the ways in which candidates attacked each other during the campaign and the ways in which the partisan divide is beg reflected in vehement speech and violent speech towards one another. so it seems to me that there's an opportunity for people of faith to deal with violence at a variety of levels, from mass killings to street violence to the way we talk to each other and our leaders need to model that. that's one thing that i think our president has been very good at. >> john? >> you know one of the hopeful signs that i saw coming out of the last election was an increased attention to problem of immigration reform on both sides i think the role that the hispanic and latino community played in the election outcomes themselves brought the republican party, or the parts of the republican party that have been hard to move on immigration reform, back into the, into the center on this issue. that's an area where i think we're going to see, we're going to see real results both marco rubio on one side and president obama on the other side. >> it's also instructive i think in terms of how the political landscape is influenced by what's hpening on the vel where people live. the reason the politics shifted is because the country is shifting and when the country shifts in such a dramatic way there's really no choice but for the political realities to shift in response to those. >> this is what i was trying to get at, whether we can look to churches and to denominations and different religions for some kind of coming together that will be a model as well as an encouragement for people, for elected officials. >> there's a model, but there's also a, yes coming together but also having, learning w to have conversations on very difficult topics. yes, without insulting and demeaning each other, but also trying to present one's perspective from our personhood, who we are as children of god so we can't so easily demonize one another or dismiss one another as unworthy of our consideration. >> but this is what i mean by tending to see everything through a political lens. so, you're talking about our job ought to be that we model behaviors so our politicians behave better, but in fact thi is a religis issue in much more important sense. the christian churches and the jewish congregations, the muslim congregations believe that taking care of the poor, the orphans, the aliens is a religious obligation because we're all children of god and so in the first instance we want to do it because it's good for the people who are here and need care among us and the politicians ought to be listening to that. >> well, our time is up i'm sorry to say. thank you very much right reverend marianne edgar budde, presint john garvey and professoraroldean truler. many thanks to each of you for an interesting conversation. we have a special report now on one of the greatest tragedies of american history. the lynching of many thousands of african-americans. before the generation of people who remember such atrocities dies off, scholars are trying to record eyewitness accounts and what they're findingsotust graphic photos and consuming hate, but the ability of some of those most affected to forgive. for two sisters who witnessed a lynching, memories still haunt. 94-year-old kathryn fletcher will never forget how her one-time classmate was murdered at st. oseph, missouri eig decas ago. >> they chained him to the back of a car and dragged him up and down the main street of the black neighborhood screaming, "this will happen to you so-and-sos" then they tranged him to a tree and set afire and burned his body. >> throughout the country from the civil war era well into the 20th century, african-american men, women and even some whites were lynched. their bodies often shot, mutilated and burned. kathryn fletcher's 92-year-old sister, korea strauder, remembers what a mob in mer eval, missouri did to a black man accused of killing a white woman. >> they decided to put him, chain him on the roof of the school, and then set the school on fire. >> there was no evidence that this man was involved with her at all. but they had to pick up somebody. >> kathryn fletcher is one of over 70 elderly african-americans interviewed by the reverend angela sims for her "remembering lynching" project housed at the institute of oral history. >> if we don't capture the narratives now, they will be lost to history forever. >> angela sims, who teaches ethics and black church studies in kansas city, missouri spent two years interviewing african-americans who grew up in what theologian james cohen callsed chate the shadow of the lynching tree. they lived in fear of one. or in the case of 92-year-old willie matthew thomas, narrowly escaped being lynched. >> so one of them said, look, we going to hang him or not? and they said, sure we're going to hang him. so he made up the noose, and they put it round my neck. and i -- i remembered in the bible it speak about how they treated jesus, and they said, "they led him away to be crucified." they led me away to be crucified, to be hung. >> thomas was saved when a white man, who knew his family, showed up with a shotgun and intervened. dr. sims got the idea for her project when she heard a speech about lynching by retired minister the reverend wallace hartsfield, sr. now 83, he was only eight or nine living in georgia when he peered from behind a curtain and saw a mob. >> they had taken the man out, and they had used his body for gun practice, and then they had hanged him, and then cut him down and dragged him through the street and this was supposed to be a warning to, you know -- >> photographs were made of lynchings, then turned into postcards. >> when we think about lynching, particularly lynching as mob spectacle, it was very much a spectator sport. and so children were even dismissed from school in order to participate in the spectacle that was hanging, burning, maiming, dismembering. >> i had to take the bus home, and i had to ride a bus through the mob and to see the joy on their faces, as if they were cong to picnic. >> these postcards are just a graphic depiction of the way in which a culture of terror is almost endemic to what it means to be a citizen of this republic. lynching was always more than the death act. it was really designed as a way to control human behavior. >> sims found that those who witnessed lynchings were left initially with fear and bitterness, then lifong scars. >> it just haunts you, it just stays with you. you don't, you don't, you don't, you don't forget it. >> it made me hate with a kind of hate i had never experienced. and i hated all white people. it was a hate that was really beginning to make me ill after awhile. >> raised a baptist, fletcher's faith was shaken by what she had seen. >> if e lord that i hear about is the lord of mercy and love, why would something like this happen? >> what is remarkable, what nearly all those who encountered lynchings told sims, is that despite the evil and the terror, they were not only able to carry on, the were also able to forgive. >> i had to. i realized that it was a burden on me, it was such a burden carrying around this weight of hate. i guess my answer was jesus was hated and treated so badly but he could, could, could forgive. if he could forgive, i should be able to forgive also. >> those things hurt, but i cannot allow the past to smother me, to make me so angry that i can't get over it. because if you get angry, mad and evil, you look to do evil. but i have been freed from that nd of thing. my faith continues. i refuse to hate them. i refuse to hate them. >> what that white man did to me, come and rescued me and took a chance on his life, that gives me a sense of forgiveness. i forgive those people. you have to do that. >> sims calls their faith "the theology of liberation." you at one point said, "i'm listening for what salvation and redemption might look like." >> i marvel at people's ability to not only live through what they experienced but not to become consumed by hatred. for some it was arriving at a point where they recognized that even in the midst of evil, god was still with them. >> their lives, their testimony, an affirmation that lives once scarred can transcend evil. >> i think my faith must dictate to me what i say, what i do, how i act, how i live my life. and my faith teaches me that i am to forgive. >> even as the lynching tree continues to cast its shadow, this is a tale of remembrance and redemption which shows that it is possible to move into the light. for "religion and ethics newsweekly," this is bob faw in kansas city. ♪ in other news, amid a particularly bad flu season, some congregations are making changes to their worship services to try to prevent spreading the illness. in some catholic dioceses, priests have been allowed to stop offering wine from the communal chalice. congregants were asked to bow during the sign of peace, inste of shaking hands. andn waington, d.c., the who are sick were encouraged to stay home and try to find a mass on television. on our calendar, this weekend, some eastern orthodox christians, including members of coptic and russian orthodox churches, celebrate epiphany, the day they mark the baptism of jesus. and, finally, the world's largest religious festival got underway in india this week. kim lawton has more. >> reporter: for the next two months, as money as 100 million hindu pill grams are expected to convert for the big picture festival. it happens only once every 12 years. pilgrims believe their sins will be washed away where the third rivers a third mystical river. the festival has been taken place for more than 2,000 years, and officials say this may be the biggest celebration yet. the event commemorates a hindu story that describes the god's fight with demons to gain possession of a golden pitcher containi the neck tar of immortality. during battle, some drops fell to the earth. smaller festivals are held more often at the spots where tradition says those drops fell. but this big picker pitcher festival is considered the holiest. they come out of seclusion and the event has become a meeting point for yoga practitioners around the world. authorities have constructed makeshift tents and medical facilities in the small town where the pilgrims are gathering but security is a huge challenge. another problem, dealing with severe pollution in the river. the government has banned pilgrims from using plastic bags and asked them not to use soap. industries have been put under new pollution restrictions. despite the problems and massive crowds, many pilgrims who make the trek say this will be the spiritual journey of their lifetime. i'm kim lawton reporting. 100 million pilgrims. that's our program for now. i'm bob abernathy. you can follow us on twitter and facebook a wach us any time onhe pbs app for iphones and ipads. there's always much more on our website, as well. including more of my conversation with professor harold dean trulean and john garvey. you can comment on all of our stories and share them. audio and video podcasts are also available. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, music from the brooklyn tabernacle choir which will perform at the presidential inauguration on monday. ♪ ♪ major funding for "religion and ethics news weekly" is provided by the lily endment and indianapolibased prate famy fountion, dedicated to its founder's interest in religion, community development and education. additional funding also provided by mutual of america, designing customized, individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. the jane henson foundation. and the corporation for public broadcasting. >> welcome to you all.
zoirnkts right now on "andrea mitchell reports" live pictures from vatican city. where pope benedict xvi shocked the world today and some of his closest advisors announcing he will step down as the leader of the 1.2 billion roman catholics at the end of this month. he will be the first pontiff to abductate in 719 years. >> today signing a lack of strength. the pope said i have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted me. reactions are pouring in. >> i think pope benedict xvi legacy is his engagement of faith with the modern world. >> i feel particular -- a particular bond with him and a note of sadness, to be honest with you. on the other hand, my appreciation for him, which was already high, is enhanced a bit because with the sense of realism that he has such an esteem for the office of the successor of st. peter, which is what the pope sshg the bishop of rome, the successor of st. peter, he says, you know, i may not be up to it now, and perhaps i can best serve jesus and his church and his people by stepping aside. i have to admire him. >> and here at home one day ahead of president obama's state of the union address, vice president biden is meeting with law enforcement officials in philadelphia about reducing gun violence. while victims of gun violence, like former congresswoman gabby giffords, takes a stand. >> we have a problem where we shop, where we pray, where our children go to school. take it from me. congress must act. >> and this hour president obama will be awarding the medal of army to staff sergeant clinton for courage under fire in afghanistan. he is only the fourth living recipient of the military's highest honor for service in iraq or afghanistan. good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. a stunning announcement this morning from rome. pope benedict xvi is abdicating his office. joining me now is ann thompson, lee at st. patrick's cathedral in new york city, of course, and nbc vatican analyst george weigel is here with me, and we begin with claudio. you were shocked by this. people in st. peter's square didn't even know that it was happening. tell us what happened. >> no, they didn't, andrea. we came around here after the shocking news, and all the cameras came down, and what the tourists saw is what's going on. everybody was just wandering around st. peter's square like it was a normal day, of course, and when we told them that the pope was abdicating they were shocked. they couldn't even -- they didn't even know that a pope could abdicate, as a matter of fact. in a way money knew in a way because the last pope that did that was about 700 years ago. it was in 1294. it seemed like it was impossible in modern times, but pope benedict xvi hinted that in 2010 and a mof times after that that if he felt that his strength wasn't such that he could carry on the very important duties of a pope, that he would think about it at least, but nobody saw that coming. this morning he announced that in latin so it made it even more difficult for people to get that through that little speech that he gave to a number of cauldrons in a low key event. he just passed it on as an everyday kind of duty, and that was it. that's pope benedict xvi gone. that was the shocking part. that he didn't make a big deal out of it. >> as we understand it, he is iffing to vacate the office. he will abdicate at the end of the month, which is february 28, of course, and then the college of cardinals will convene. claudio, he has apointed a mof cardinals, so it is a full group of cardinals that will be making this critical decision. >> indeed. in a way if you look back at what happened in the last year or two years of his pontificate, he seemed like he had this at the back of his mind for a while now because he has come out with a number of surprised -- it's when you create new cardinals to hype up and increase the number of cardinals that will go to the sistine chapel to elect a new pope. you think was he already thinking about abdicating back then? there are cardinals that will be eligible to elect a new pope at the end of february. well, who comes next? we don't know. >> and one person who knows the inside story is greg burke. i think we have you on the lean now. the vatican spokesman, greg burke. greg, tell us the back story of this, when you first knew that the pope was even considering taking this momentous step. >> well, all of us knew, but none of us paid a lot of attention two years ago when the pope mentioned in a long interview -- there was a book interview "light of the world" and he mentioned that "pope could resign. he said he hadn't thought about doing it in the moment. it was a very difficult from then, but he said there are occasions when the pope can resign. there are occasions when the pope should resign. that was a couple of years ago, and i think that was a warning bell. i didn't find out please until early this morning. i got a call to come in early, which i did, and i was told about it, and then, of course, it just happened a couple of hours later. it is certainly a surprise because historically it's such a surprise, but knowing cardinal ratzinger, it's not such a surprise. >> greg, what are the next steps from inside the vatican as you begin this extraordinary process, the historic process that we have only seen in our lifetime several teams, but certainly we've mefr seen in abdication. >> right. it's not all that much different. there's a saying that the romans say. the one pope dies and you make a new one, and that's sort of true this time around as well. essentially living in monastery on vatican grounds. what happens now they'll start preparing the onclaif and they'll be finishing the monastery. they've been remodeling it, and they'll be finishing the monastery to which the pope will go, of course. it's unprecedented from that point of view, but i think there's a bright note on this and that is that the pope finally gets to do what he has wanted to do for the better part of 25 years, which is go and study, read his books, reflect, and pray. >> and have you seen from your perspective have you seen him cutting back on travel, on some of the more own russ duties because of health reasons in recent months? >> well, that was very clear. there was only one trip set for this year so far, which was brazil this summer for the world wroout day. the pope had not set up any other trips, and i think that was segment. that was a sign that -- it wasn't a sign that he was going resign, but it was certainly a sign that he was cutting back on his schedule. >> we thank you on a very busy day for taking time to bring us up-to-date. >> tom has covered the catholic church and the papacy for more than two decades. you've been through the process of choosing a new pope before. it's a very complicated and secret process. >> it is a secret process. the 118 cardinals who elect the new pope, andrea, will stay in a dormitory inside vatican city. they are not supposed to have any contact with the outside world. once that process begins. we'll see if that happens. it took about a day and a half to elect cardinal ratzinger to make hem pope benedict xvi last time. this time it could take a lot longer. just, you know, peek looking at sort of the early candidates note there's no clear favorite among the vatican experts. at this point in time a couple of interesting things to keep in mind as we watch this. most of the electors -- i think all of the electorses all the cardinals were appointed by john paul ii and benedict xvi. the growth in the catholic church these days is in latin america. is in asia and is in africa. will they go outside europe and possibly choose a pope from one of the other church is growing? that's one of the questions a lot of people are asking today. >> the author of the pew book evangelical catholicism, deep reform in the 21st century church. got a copy here. just hot off the presses. to write this book you deeply reporting and, of course, you have known pope benedict xvi for 23 years since he was cardinal ratzinger. tell us about this process, first of all, the decision which, as you have said and others, this comes from great humility. >> it's a real reflection of the character of the man. this is someone who has never thrust himself into the public eye. he is shy scholar. he is extraordinarily lucid mind, and if he decided in conscience and prayers, as he put it together, that he could not give the church the service the church deserved, then i think we ought to take him on face value at that. in this book evangelical catholicism, i describe in the last chapter some of the qualities that the cardinals will be looking for in the next pope. a man of evangelism, someone who will take the message to the world and indeed around the world. a man of judgment. a man who knows how to pick good suborder nants and then let them do their job. a man of linguistic skills. the catholic chr is a multi-lingual enterprise, and the pope needs a lot of language skills. deep spiritual resources. there's a sense in which, as i saw of john paul ii and as we've seen it with benedict xvi the pope bears the weight of the whole church, including the sins and the people in the church on his own back in a singular way. it takes a certain kind of character to be able to absorb that without being spiritually destroyed by it. >> drained by it. >> drained by it. >> to what extent do you think going back to what ann was just suggesting, sxipt to ask ann a follow-up and a question in a second, but to what extent is it possible this would be a noneuropean -- >> i think it's entirely possible. i think it's entirely possible. this is now a world church in a way it has not been before. the demographic center of gravity in the catholic church is the global self. at a recent sinod of bishops in rome, from all over the world, in october i believe it was the archbishop of an ethiopians, why are all these europeans here? the church is dying where you are. the church is alive where we are. the question of what's the growing end of the church and how do you address this faith deficit in the historic way of catholicism, the western world, is going to be high on the agenda, it would seem to me, of the cardinals meeting in conclave and in the informal conversations which let's not forget began about six hours ago that will precede the formal meetings before the conclave is closed. >> you've touched on something that ann thompson, you know very well, that there is a sight of this that is political. not in the grungy sense of the word, but in the larnler sense that there are factions, correct, and as you have been covering this in the past with john paul ii and the asinges of benedict xvi, you have a feel for how that work as well. >> well, i think the thing -- the thing for people to understand here, andrea, is that there is a clear difference between what some of the people in the pews want and what the leadership believes in. you know, there's a lot of speculation today. would the new pope consider married priests or women priests or gay marriage or sexual reproduction -- reproductive freedom? you have to remember the cardinals that are going to elect the next pope are just as conservative as pope benedict xvi and pope john paul ii. george can certainly speak to this. nobody is expecting sort of a great turn in the theological direction of the catholic church. what is -- what will be interesting and cardinal spoke to that this morning. the archbishop of wash washington. he said what is important in today's age, given 24 hour news cycles and our constant communication, is the men industry of presence and that means traveling the world. especially to asia, latin america, and africa where the church is growing, and that was something that clearly this pope felt he could no longer do, and it's a really, really important part of the job. >> and i saw that in havana when he was last march. it was a very limited communication or contact with the people. it wasn't like in the early days when we saw john paul iind first in alaska and then in denver with the youth ministry going into the crowds and reaching out to people. claudo, what would be the reaction many rome if will were a choice of a non-european? >> i mean, the italians in particular got used to a non-italian at first when john paul ii was elected. well, of course, that was difficult for them. the pope was always meant to be italian, and they accepted him and embraced him, and, of course, he became one of the most popular popes in history. well, then came joseph ratzinger, a german, but then at that point they could choose to a non-italian being pope. if our catholics, and especially catholics in rome and in italy, are they ready for a noneuropean? yes, i think so. they have come to understand that what really matters is the passion, the stamina, the strength, and the message that a pope sends out and how he delivers it. they embrace that and understand that the world is now a worldwide church. that the catholic church is now a worldwide church. yes, i think there are ready. they're not -- i don't think they are particularly too bothered about the fact that the next pope will be italian. they just want to know who is next because that's always a massive event here in rome. when the white smoke comes out of the sistine chapel, people will be charging here down the big street from rome into the vatican because everyone wantston who their new pope is. that's exciting. >> george, you talk about the challenges that the first has faced. is that going to be part of this conversation, the scandals here, and else where in the world. in ireland. >> i think very much ireland is on everybody's mind. andrea, i think what these cardinals are going to be reflecting on is the fact that the church is growing when the goss pet is preached without apology. the church is dying. catholic light is the winner of the day. who can express the fullness of the catholic nate a positive way that lifts up the dignity of human beings and in a vast variety of cultural situations. it's almost an impossible job, but somebody has to do it, and some one will be chosen. there is a modern church as well, and the book is evangelical catholicism. it's never more relevant than now and written by someone that knows benedict xvi and knew john paul ii very well, and we'll be talking to you in a bit. thank you very much. what's on the president's mind today? that's next. at the white house president obama is preparing for a state of the union speech focussing on the economy, while vice president biden at this hour is in philadelphia pushing for new gun laws. we're breaking it down next in "the daily fix." this is andrea mitchell reports only here on msnbc. with tasty grilled flavor and goodness to savor ♪ ♪ friskies grillers blend. ♪ feed the senses. a great cup of coffee should be easy as one, two... well, just one. new single serve cafe collections from maxwell house now available for use in the keurig k-cup brewer. always good to the last drop. tell me you have good insurance. yup, i've got... 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[ sigh of relief ] i have obligations. cute tobligations, but obligations.g. i need to rethink the core of my portfolio. what i really need is sleep. introducing the ishares core, building blocks for the heart of your portfolio. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. risk includes possible loss of principal. president obama is putting the finishing touches on his state of the union address for his second term. the first of the second term. white house officials are segment nauling that he wants to focus on improving the economic plight of the middle class with investments in education and clean energy, enfrom a structure and manufacturing. that is not a prescription for getting a budget deal with house republicans. joining me now for our daily fix, chris calliza. chris, another big topic, of course, will be guns, and they're going to be a number of guests in the chamber of both members principalically democratic members, house members, as well as, of course, mrs. obama who are victims of gun violence. right now at this hour the vice president is in philadelphia meeting with law enforcement officials, with mibz of congress, of course, the mayor, local police cheefdz, and talking about this just as tle there was a shooting at the courthouse in bloomington, delaware. >> right. >> where do you think the press will try to move the gun debate first in the state of the union? >> sure, i mean, look, his proposal is out there. vice president biden led the task force. you know, what i wonder about is how aggressive he will be and how much time he will devote to the topic of guns, andrea. you know, this is a speech that usually runs about an hour, maybe a little bit more. everyone is trying to get mentions of their issues in a speech like this. the president has said before that guns -- that limiting gun violence is something that he will spend all the sort of political energy and power he has on. what is that mean? does that mean universal background checks? does that mean some kind of limits on high capacity ammunition clips? it seems unliable -- i guess i would be surprised if the president said the time is now we need the assault weapons ban simply because the politics seem too frought for that. does he go for what he thinks is achievable, or does he go for what he really wants? does he go as big as possible and then sort of settle for what he can get? i do not know yet, but i do know we're going to hear from hem about it in the speech. >> and gabby giffords and her husband, mark kelly, speaking on a new television ad partly financed by mike bloomberg personally as part of their effort on gun laws. here's a little bit of the new ad that went on tv today. >> we have a problem where we shop, where we pray, where our children go to school, but there are solutions. we can agree on. even gun owners like us. take it from me, congress must act. let's get this done. >> and it's as compelling as her testimony was, and we know that one seed is paralyzed, that she still has the problems that she's overcoming with therapy. that's a very powerful testimony from someone who is a gun owner, and that is part of this message. >> i was going to say the most important line everybody i think knows gabby giffords' story and sort of weather wherever you are in the part sfwlan he'll sort of wowed and amazed by her courage. i they the most important part of that ad, though, andrea, is we gun owners, which is mark kelly and gabrielle giffords in their testimony as well as in this add vsd we own guns. we're talking about responsible restreks. the problem with the gun debate, at least it's always been a problem with, but the problem that's always been the case is that it's black or white. it's either no guns or no restrictions. that common senses middle ground that is gotten lost amid that political fight that sort of puts you in one camp or the other. gabrielle giffords and mark kelly are trying to say, look, there is common ground. you see in the ath thad nine out of ten people support universal background checks. there are things we can agree on that don't mean we're talking everybody's guns away and don't mean that no restrictions on gun control -- gun ownership are possible. the question is that third way doable, workable, in a political environment like congress? >> and, of course, as mark kelly has been pointing out. tucson wouldn't have happened in there were background checks. there's an economic message that the president is trying to convey. how difficult is this if he does not lay out the kind of specific alternative to the sequester that republicans are demanding in the house side? >> well, here's what's hard, ab drae. if he is going to talk about how we need to invest in infrastructure and education and all these other things, republicans will say wait, wait, wait. the problem we have is a spending problem. the deficit is running out of control. i would point you on pew that did some fascinating polling about people's priorities in january 2009 and january 2013. the fastest majority is reducing duj been fets. it will be interesting how much he focus on that behavior. snoo meanwhile, you are looking at live pictures of vatican city. the college of card mals will be convene says next month. could they picture first nonusual eastern to eat the national catholic church. you are watching the east room at the white house. president obama will be awarding the nation's highest military honor this hour for courage under fire in afghanistan to staff sergeant clinton. that's live in a fupts. you're watching andrea mitchell reports only on msnbc. humans. even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? otherworldly things. but there are some things i've never seen before. this ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. which is good for business. because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. suddenly, faraway places don't seem so...far away. ♪ eyelove the guy, and you know, one of the things everybody notices is his humility. it's almost in the gij he shrugged and said, boy, compared to john paul ii i don't know if i'm up to this, but with god's grace and mercy, i'll give it my best shot, and he has done well for almost eight years. he is winsome in his humble acknowledgment of his frailty and weakness. i think that's touched all of our hearts. >> cardinal dolan with matt and savannah. within a half hour of the news breaking walked over from st. pat's to the "today" show set. we're following all of the reaction here at home and, of course, across the globe to pope benedict's surprising decision to abdicate his position as leader of the catholic church. looking ahead to a papal process that is going to seem familiar to some, but it does have one major difference. professor john garvey joins us now. the president of the catholic university of america joining me by phone. president garvey, thank you for being with us. the big difference sshgs of course, that the pope is alive to witness the succession process, and there has got to be conversations along the margins tooz what would pope benedict xvi want. >> you got to wonder what affect that will have on the process, don't you? it isn't something we've seen in our lifetime or for centuries, for that matter. i don't think anybody has a clue. your guess is as good as mine. >> i was reading your statement, president garvey, and as the catholic university of america president, you spoke of his theological wisdom and what he imparted in the importance of catholic education. could you speak to that and to the reaction of young people as they look towards a change of leadership of the church? >> yes. to start with, the second point first, i've been talking to some of our students as well as my brothers and sisters about this, and one of the reactions that i got from one of them was, gosh, it's sort of like our dad saying he was going to resign as being our dad. you can't do that. it was a surprise, and i think it's deeply felt by people who look to the pope as the holy father, as catholics do. it's rare that somebody who is as accomplished as theologian as benedict was will be pope. they're all great, holy, and wise men, but they have their own particular skills, and this pope is somebody who is especially interested in catholic higher education, and wrote a lot about it. we have our press that's publishing a book of his speeches on catholic higher education and in another month or two, and i think he spoke to a real difference between the way catholic universities think about their job and the way other kinds of universities do. that faith as well as reason plays a role in what we teach, and that we should concern ourselves with people's relationship with god not just imparting knowledge of mandarin chinese and chemical engineering. >> john garvey, here with me, by the way, at the studio. as an old friend of yours, george weigel, and, george, we were talking about this very subject. you and john garvey are at that intersection where you deal with the future of the church, with young people, with the challenges that educators have. perhaps you want to raise some of those issues as well. >> john is right. this is the most accomplished intellectual pope in a very long time, although he succeeded in a world class intellectual in john ii. what was amazing to me about benedict xvi is how this span of deep learning, he may be the most learned man in the world. could in his sermons, his homilies, his little addresses at the wednesday audience, distill all of that learning into really solid but accessible material for people that don't have specialized training in theology or philosophy, bhaefr. i think that is where the pastor's heart in this man and the teacher's heart in this man came through. i told you a moment ago when we were off camera that he is the only man i have ever met in my life that when you ask him a serious question, he reflects and then answers in complete paragraphs. he has a remarkably lucid mind, and he is a great teacher. that's going to be missed, and i think young people felt that. i think they thought this is -- this is a wise man who is worth listening to. >> you touched, john garvey, on how this transition is being received by your students, by your undergraduates at catholic university, and your graduate students. is there a feeling of sort of searching now as to where the future of the church goes? is this a time of real reflection for them as well? >> i think that describes it well. i don't know whether the concern that our students feel in that first instance where the rest of the church will go. it's more their own personal reaction to being sort of orphaned for a time within the church. although the question you raise about what the next pope will mean for the future of the church is something that will affect them more than the rest of us. >> and, of course, the church has been challenged in america in the last decade by scandal, by a declining attendance. catholic schools, not catholic university, but other catholic schools have also been challenged at the perish level. we've seen the closures of some of the schools at the elementary and high school level. how important is this transition? >> you know, i was saying to somebody earlier this morning, unlikely as it seems, what a great time this would be for an american pope for this reason. that one of the great challenges that the church faces in the modern world is the one that benedict tried to deal with in his papacy in western europe. the increasing secularization of the culture and focus on materialism and other kinds of ideologies that pose a greater threat to the church sometimes than outright persecution does, and in america i think we're going through the same kind of experience. there's a sort of popular atheism that's no longer tabu to speak about, and i think that's an example you see many others in charles murray spoke in coming apart about how we are becoming less religious as a culture. not just as catholics, but many other faiths. that's a great challenge for the catholic church in the mechanics century. >> of the 118 cardinals who are going to be convening, are there any americans in that group who are real leaders and have seniority, george? >> yes. cardinal of chicago is one of the most highly respected members of the college of cardinals, without a doubt. i think cardinal dolan. he did a fine job when he was made a cardinal and addressing the entire college of cardinals and saying the church of the future has to be a missionary enterprise. this is the great theme of this moment. we're passing from institutional maintenance to evangelical activism. that was the theme of vatican two. that was the theme of john paul ii. it's the theme of benedict xvi, and it's going to be a very interesting ride into the rest of the 21st century. >> thank you for your wisdom, and john garvey, thank you for joining us today. we really appreciate that. >> thank you very much. >> and looking ahead to the next 24 hours, the president planning to pivot back to the economy in tomorrow night's state of the yoon. we'll get a preview from the man who knows exactly what's going on behind the scenes at the white house. right away former white house communications director, speechwriter, don bair joining us next. this is $100,000. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much. i appreciate it. i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. your money needs an ally. [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk. >> the president is expected for focus on his economy in the state of the union address. joining me now is former clinton white house communications director and responsible for bill clinton's state of the union addresses and this is 1996. it's the launch of the second term. this is awe key moment in bill clinton's state of the union. >> we face no imminent threat, but we do have an enemy. the enemy of our time is inaction, so tonight i issue a call to action. action by this congress, action by our states, by our people to prepare america for the 21st century. >> as yogi would say, deja vu all over again. the praez will go before a house republican dominated chamber. and say inaction and grade lock is our enemy. >> i love that line because i helped write it. there are very few, as you know, with bill clinton, you can say that one survived and that one survived. it is amazing. right? how similar these circumstances are. in fact, if anything now the gridlock is much worse. the need for action is more important, and the need for a president coming into his second term to reinstill a sense of plushment that we're going to get good things done is critical. >> also reminded of the age of big government is over. >> the era of big government. >> that was 1996. that was the year before. >> and that was, of course, bill clinton sort of playing to the crowd and saying we are a different kind of democrat. >> right. it was bill clinton, the new democrat. he was satisfying that the age of old-fashioned big government solutions to all of our problems was over, but, you know, there's a second part to that sentiment, which is that we can't go back to the time when we left everyone to themselves either. he was trying to create a third way. >> how tough is the environment right now inside the white house? take us behind the scenes, behind that curtain. >> what are they doing right now? >> what are they doing right now, and the pressure on staff and the speechwriting team and what happens when they come back with marks on it. >> every white house is different, right? i don't know this one firsthand. i know the one that -- they've got more than 24 hours to go. they're still constructing. they're still writing. he is still trying to figure out what his voice is and this president obama and which parts are in and out. the biggest challenge of all is you want to keep this to about an hour in length, which as you know in the clinton administration, we didn't always accomplish. >> how about like never? >> we did. that last speech came in at 58 minutes. i was very proud of him. >> there's a lot of -- there's probably still people from different parts of the government and some of the interest groups and they're still saying if we mention this and that. there's still marketing. >> you want to avoid a laundry list that doesn't have any poetry in it. >> there needs to be a theme, right? there needs to be a theory of the case and what it is you're saying here, and then the various pieces, the policies need to reinforce that. that's the real challenge in these speeches. >> dfrs the health care speech. i. >>ent wasn't there yet. you weren't responsible for that one. that's when the wrong speech was loaded. >> we're not going to have that. >> he won't be rewriting it at the last minute. >> i don't think. the practice with this president has been that he gets it pretty tucked in going into this, and ten he can practice. you never know what's going to happen, though? there's always something. i can remember for this speech, the 1997 speech, first one of the second term, we're practicing in the family theater in the white house which is traditional to go through and let the president use a teleprompter to practice. when mike mccurry, the press secretary came rushing up to me at the back of the room and said he just announced that the o.j. verdict in the civil trial is going to come in while the president is speaking. >> that's when we had the split screen state of the union where you saw the -- the other was the president of the united states. >> these things are always a high wire act, and you have to roll with the punches. >> our medal of honor recipient and military analyst colonel jack jacobs. jack, this is such ae moment. there were very few medal of honor recipients, and it's rare to have he is not there for himself but for all those that can't be there. that on that battlefield that day there were many acts of valor, and he represents them and represents all the men and women who sacrificed for us. it's an important day for the country and for the armed forces. it looks like it's a really important day for the individual, but all individuals feel the same way about it, that they are there representing all those men and women who can't be there. >> it says something of the nation. we don't honor our heroes often enough, but this is a tradition that goes back so many decades, so many wars, but to see someone who served in afghanistan, a war that we do not discuss enough. 60,000 troops still in the field even though we're drawing down. they are at risk every second, every minute of the day of the day and night, and here we're at least talking about the valor of one human being representing as you say them all. >> with all the people who have served, we do not pay sufficient attention to it, and this is only the fourth living recipient for any conflict since vietnam. it says a great deal about the distance between the people who are being searched and the people who are serving. i think it's really important that we bring the heroism of our men and women to the forefront and celebrate it as representative of what's being done as often as we possibly can. there are only 79 living recipients with the medal of honor. this will be the 08th. when i was decorated, there are almost 400. a lot of time has passed since then. >> as we hear hail to the chief, the president is entering the room, so let's go live to the white house and experience this ceremony. >> staff sergeant clinton -- >> let us pray. might where i eternal god for who we come, for who we belong and in service we find peace, hear our prayer. centuries ago were written to be called in a spirit to the faithful servants of truth and justice. arm yourself, be men of valor, be in readiness for the wlikt. it is better for us to perish in battle, look upon the outrage of our nation. lord, god, we pause to recognize the men of valor who in readiness for the conflict, the battle of cannedish in ponda. their sacred story is one of life and of death. the self-less service faithfully rendered at the moment of truth. he belongs to that small band of black knights. as a nation grateful for the spirit of the men who follow and the man who leads. we offer our gratitude for the actions of those men that day which were the actions of as the author wrote an intense god, short and wiry. thank you, oh god, for the honor of claiming their sacred story and writing it into our nation's history. bestoe our nation's highest honors upon staff sergeant romesha and recognize his actions that day grant unto us your holy presence. we pray your abiding grace and eteshl mercy upon the families. the friends who gave the last fullmer, devotion that day. staff sergeant vernon martin. staff sergeant dustin, staff substantialingent joshua hart, sergeant joshua kirk, sergeant michael scuza, sergeant christopher griffin, specialist steven mace, and pfc kevin thompson. we ask your blessing blessing u all of our service men and women at home and abroad as they support and defend our constitution. grant wisdom and guidance to those who lead our nation as sergeant romesha's example. we ask this and pray in your holy name. amen. >> please be seated, everybody. good afternoon. and on behalf of michelle and myself, welcome to the white house. every day at the white house we receive thousands of letters from folks all across america. and at night upstairs in my study i read a few. about three years ago, i rece e received a letter from a mom in west virginia. her son stephen, a specialist in the army, just 21 years old, had given his life in afghanistan. she had received the condolence letter i had sent to her family as i send to every family of the fallen. and she wrote me back. mr. president, he said, you wrote me a letter telling me that my son was a hero. i just wanted you to know what kind of hero he was. my son was a great soldier, she wrote. as far back as i can remember, stephen wanted to serve his country. she spoke of how he loved his brothers in b-troop. how he would do anything for them. and of the brave actions that would cost stephen his life, she wrote, his sacrifice was drib by pure love. today, we are honored to be joined by stephen's mother vanessa and his father larry. please stand. vanessa and -- [ applause ] larry. we're joined by the families of the seven other patriots who also gave their lives that day. can we please have them stand so we can acknowledge them, as well? [ applause ] we're joined by members of bravo troop whose courage that day was driven by pure love. and we gather to present the medal of honor to one of these soldiers. staff sergeant clinton l. romesha. clint, this is our nation's highest military decoration. it reflects the gratitude of our entire country. and so we're joined by members of congress, leaders from across our armed forces including secretary of defense leon panetta, chairman of the joints chiefs of staff marty dempsey, army secretary and army chief of staff genere ordearo. we are joined by iron horse soldiers. and members of the medal of honor society who today welcome you in to their ranks. now, despite all of this attention, you may already have a sense that clint is a pretty humble guy. we just spent sometime together in the oval office. he grew up in lake city, california. population less than 100. we welcomed his family including mom and dad tish and gary. clint, i hope he doesn't mind, he shared that clint was actually born at home. these days clint works in the oil feels of north dakota. he is a man of faith and after more than a decade in uniform, he says the thing he looks forward to the most is just being a husband and a father. in fact, this is not even the biggest event for clint this week. because tomorrow he and his wife tammy will celebrate their 13th wedding anniversary. clint and tammy, this is probably not the kind of intimate anniversary you planned. but we're so glad that you're here along with your three beautiful children, desi, gwen and colin. collin is not as shy as clint. he was in the oval office and he was racing around pretty good. and sampled a number of the apples. before he found the one that was just right. now, to truly understand the extraordinary actions for which clint is being honored, you need to understand the almost unbelievable conditions under which he and b-troop served. this was a time in 2009 when many of our troops still served in small rugged outposts. even as our commanders were shifting to us the to larger towns an cities. so command outpost keating was a collection of buildings, concrete and plywood with trenches and sandbags. of all the outposts in afghanistan keating was among the most remote. it sat the bottom of a steep valley surrounded by mountains. terrain that later investigation said gave ideal coverage for insurgents to attack. cop keating, the investigation found, was tactically indefensible. but that's what these soldiers were asked to do. defend the indefensible. the attack came in the morning. just as the sun rose. some of our guys were standing guard. most like clint were still sleeping. the explosions shook them out of their beds and sent them rushing for their weapons. and soon, the awful odds became clear. these 53 americans were surrounded by more than 300 taliban fighters. what happened next has been described as one of the most intense battles of the entire war in afghanistan. the attackers had the advantage. the high ground, the mountains above. an they were unleashing everything they had. rocket propelled grenades. heavy machine. mort mortars. snipers taking aim. to those americans down below, the fire was coming in from every single direction. they'd never seen anything like it. with gun fire impacting all around him, clint raced to one of the bar racks and grabbed a machine gun. he took aim at one of the enemy machine teams and took it out. a rocket propelled grenade exploded, sending shrapnel in to his hip, his arm and his neck. but he kept fighting. disregarding his own wounds and tending to an injured comrade instead. then over the radio, came words no solder ever wants to hear. enemy in the wire. the taliban had penetrated the camp. they were taking over buildings. the combat was close,
itself. >> a jumble of thoughts today, brian. this will be a well attended funeral. we expect about 4,000 people to come to the funeral today. an astonishing number of people came to the court building yesterday, more than 6,000 people ended up coming into the supreme court building to file past justice scalia casket. many waited in lines for two-and-a-half or three hours. the line went from the front of the supreme court, wrapped around the side and then went three more blocks down east capitol street, as the supreme court is just across the street from the u.s. capitol. to get a chance to do what you're seeing right now, which is to file past the casket. yesterday was that kind of symbolic day. this lying in repose has only been done seven times in the supreme court history. today is a very different day. today is a day to look at another side of antonin scalia. we have talked a lot over the past week about his judicial career. this is about his spiritual life. we're going to hear from his son, paul, who is a catholic priest here in northern virginia, who will celebrate the mass is the right term. will in essence lead the ceremony today. also hear from someone whose voice is silent during the supreme court argument. one of the other catholics on the supreme court. he will do a reading today, as will a very close friend of justice scalia, be leonard leo, who is the executive vice president of the federalist society, the conservatively oriented legal group that justice scalia helped to found to in essence create a kind of greenhouse for growing future conservatives. and it's been sort of an intellectual side of justice scalia, as well. this will be a traditional mass. it will last the normal amount of time here. one departure from perhaps the normal way things are done here is isn't usually a homily. there isn't usually much discussion about the secular life of a person at a funeral mass. because the emphasis is supposed to be on spirituality. but we will hear a homily from paul scalia. so it will be a -- mostly spiritual day here, brian. i want to say one other thing here. yesterday, there was that huge gathering of justice scalia's former clerks, the two columns of people through which the casket came as it was brought into the court. many of them will be here today. and i heard an interesting anecdote from one of them. and i think reflects a lot on justice scalia. this clerk said that he actually applied for a job with scalia, who turned him down. so he ended up getting a position with another supreme court clerk, but he said after a few weeks, scalia kept coming up to him and saying, "hey, can you take a look at this and medical me what you think, maybe write me a note" and finally the clerk says to justice scalia. you know, mr. justice, i applied for a job with you and you didn't hire me so maybe you should get somebody else to do this for you. and he said about a week later, a gift-wrapped package came. he opened it up and inside was a signed picture of antonin scalia who said, "if i never made any mistakes, i would have hired you as a clerk." >> wow, that's a great story. and pete, you have covered the court for us for so many years. people may not know that among the veterans who cover the court, there are opportunities to be around the justices, to visit with them, to talk to them on and off the record basis. and i'm curious. we've all been reading different accounts of what kind of guy he was. how do you answer when asked that very same question. >> reporter: a person who was extremely bright, who could sometimes be a little prickly, but most of all, had a great sense of humor. and really liked the kind of hand to hand intellectual combat. he liked to talk about things. he liked to mix it up with people. he did not simply surround himself with people who agreed with him. he sometimes chose audiences like the aclu, for example, in which he knew he would get questions challenging his judicial philosophy. and he gave as good as he got. and he really loved that. and his son has written an op-ed in the "post," today, one of his nine children, reflecting on what it was like to grow up with him. and he said the dinner table conversation was just like that. that you would start out trying to have a serious conversation about something, and you couldn't do it, he said, because his dad kept making jokes. >> and carried that on. i just heard paul clement, so lis lister general and former clerk who said there were more interruptions in the written account of scalia's oral arguments that said laughter than any other justice in the modern era. >> reporter: that's actually been studied. just about everything about the supreme court, some law student somewhere or law professor, has studied and they have actually gone through methodically with computer programs and algorithms to figure that out. you know, i think that sort of sometimes irritated the chief justices of who he served that things got off track. he loved it. i think he was well aware that he was playing to the gallery, in addition to his fellow justices. and it didn't hurt from time to time when you were in these weighty sometimes rather dry subjects, if you were discussing a tax case or maybe the future of the earned income retired security act and footnote 17 in a statute to have a little lefty. he loved that. >> the court, pete, as no one needs to remind you, is one of the last mysteries in american public life, even in our new electronic era of what is supposed to be transparency. we saw them yesterday. scalia's death leaves eight of the nine. scalia himself always said that, you know, there are no enemies on this court, unlike pastor rahs, where you had justices who weren't speaking to each other while serving on the same court. there are no enemies here. contrary to that, there were deep friendships that justice scalia enjoyed on this court. just your power of observation, and knowing the justices as you do, what is this death going to do to this group of surviving eight? >> reporter: this is going to be disorienting to them. there is an expression that any time there is a new justice, it's a new court. and to some extent, i think you could say that in the negative, as well. the previous relationships that existed will continue. but this will be a blow to the justices and the way they have come to expect this court to operate. they know that there has been a change. they know another one is coming. and it's symbolically interesting, i think. we learned yesterday -- we saw that picture, you may recall, that the supreme court has throughout 100 years or so does this tradition of when a justice who is on the bench dies, there is a black drapery hung on the seat where they sat and on the bench in front of where they sat. and you may be looking at a picture of that now. what we're told is, when the court takes the bench again, that's where justice scalia sat. he was just to the right, as we look at it, to the left, of the chief justice, because the most senior associate justice. and that's the way they sit on the supreme court, sort of going back and forth in seniority. that is going to remain there for a month. the justices will come back to the bench on monday. that's when their midwinter break ends and they're now in head-long rush to finish this term by the end of june. so it's symbolically shows what a gap there will be on the court. but it also reflects the deeper fact that now this court has to get along with eight justices. this has happened throughout history. the last time this went on for a long time was back during the reagan administration when there's a gap of something like 237 days when without a full court. so this is not unprecedented. but it is disorienting. and we're going to have to see what it will do for the cases that would have been closely decided by 5-4 votes with him in the majority. now the court has a choice. will they just issue tie decisions? will they postpone those cases for the next term? those are the sort of questions now that we face. >> and justice scalia, pete, would probably not mind us observing that in his absence, looking at that bunting at his place. some lawyers will get a little bit further into their oral arguments and presentation before getting interrupted. >> reporter: well, that's probably true. although, you know, there were some close competitors on this bench for people who asked a lot of questions. sonia sotomayor has picked up that mantle, as well. she asked a lot of questions in oral argument. the only one who doesn't is famously justice thomas. he has gone ten years now without asking a single question in oral argument. he doesn't think it helps to under the case. that's why i say it will be somewhat unusual for people to hear him speak. he will be doing a reading from scripture today at this funeral mass. >> pete williams, who covers the court for us on this history-making day. a day none of us will forget, especially those of us who follow the court and the long tenure of associate justice antonin scalia. chris jansing joins pete outside the basilica. and chris, we're just allowed to see these live pictures, a camera in the rear of the basilica, as i said, for people who find these confines looking familiar. it's likely because we were -- our cameras were there in september. the visit of the pope, justice scalia, of course, was a religious catholic, very spiritual man. very religious man. and for those who missed it, his son, father paul scalia, will be officiating. >> reporter: and prbrian, he certainly could have had a cardinal, he could have had a high-ranking bishop, but it is his son who will do a traditional post vatican ii mass in english. but he was a devout catholic who every sunday usually went to one of two latin masses that are still said in this area, either at a church near his home in virginia, and one that he went to on and off for many years in chinatown. chinatown has now undergone as much of the city of d.c. has, a renaissan renaissance. they have a lot of shops, and they have the major centers there. that was not the case when he started going there. and i think when you think about justice scalia and his devout catholicism, there are two things that come to mind. someone a story pete was telling, stories about his kids. one of them is that for years and years, as the nine children were growing up, they were not allowed to wear, as they called them, blue jeans to school. it caused quite a lot of discussion over the dinner table there. and eventually, he relented. but he always said he wanted to instill very traditional values in his children who he said one of the great prides of his life was that they all still were catholic and mass-goers. the second is a story that was written in a paper by someone who for years went to church with justice scalia who said not only did he often go and have coffee and doughnuts afterwards, but it was clear he was not happy with the choir at the church. the man who wrote this admitted he was a member of that choir, and in spite of their best efforts, were unable to improve what he admitted were perhaps not the best renditions of some catholic songs. and eventually, justice scalia was able to convince the pastor of that church to get rid of that choir and reinstitute it with another all-men's chorus, which, by the way, the writer of this story was a member of as well. but he said it was very indicative of justice scalia that whether in his personal life or on the bench, he liked nothing more than winning a good argument, brian. >> well, just as i don't think it was easy growing up scalia, we now know it wasn't easy singing for justice scalia. and, of course, it was justice ginsberg who said justice scalia didn't have a bad singing voice himself. >> reporter: a tenor. >> i suppose this is a good time to kick off our discussion of this unlikely friendship between justices ginsberg and scalia. i think people have been so surprised to learn this over the years, because they are poles apart. they do represent different ideologies. but as people, not only are they forever linked in an opera, but as people, they truly enjoyed each other's company. >> reporter: in fact, you referenced an opera that actually was written about the two of them. and both of them like to quote. and they were both opera lovers and went to the opera together. this dates back to the time when they were both judges before they were on the supreme court. they also -- there's a famous photos of them when they were both riding elephants. and they spent -- their families were very close as well over the course of so many years. and always spent new year's eve together. but when you want to look at the differences, it's not it hard to find any 5-4 case on the court in which they were different. and just last summer, when justice ginsberg very famously officiated at a gay wedding, people pointed out that her bff, as they like to laugh when they were called, had written about homosexuality about his moral feelings against, as he put it, homosexuality. i think, though, on this day when we are standing here, one of the things that both justices would love to hear is that somehow it would rub off that there would be the idea of listening to an opinion different than your own. which was something they both believed and have talked about assistancively. they feel made them better, better people, better justices. there was nothing that justice scalia liked better than a good argument. he changed the face of oral arguments on the court, as well as doing some very impressive writing. some people have compared them to oliver wendell holmes. but all of that tied up in these personal relationships that you have when you spend 30 years on the court and some of it with other members like ruth bader ginsburg for decades, brian. >> chris jansing outside the steps of the shrine. and we should point out, for all the people who may be visiting washington, all of the people who are going to be outside for a time, where it looks like we're looking at 68 degrees later today. a spring-like day. another blessing for former associate justice antonin scalia. andrea mitchell is here with us in the studio. a person who has lived and worked and covered washington for so long. and andrea, listening to chris jansing talk about this unlikely friendship, it seems to me that he was so blindingly smart. if you were smart, you could be friends. i think that would be much more important than any ideological difference. >> there are so many memories flooding over me, having covered his confirmation, watched him over these decades, knowing ruth bader ginsburg and some of the other justices. and going to the opera and seeing them socially. and that is the wonderful sauce that makes all of this work. and as we know politically, it's broken down a lot of ways in washington. but in the supreme court, remarkable relationships. martin ginsberg -- the late martin ginsberg, ruth bader ginsbu ginsburg's husband and the scalia's vacationed. that picture of the elephant was a trip. martin ginsberg was a wonderful cook, specialized in italian cuisine, wonderful for the scalias. and these friendships -- i noticed that as pete was describing the very moving ceremony yesterday at the supreme court, walking up, the pall-bearers carrying the cassette past the clerks and you saw the spouses and their families. and i saw goody marshal, the widow of thurgood marshall, an elderly woman standing behind with the other members of the -- large family. one of my favorite recollections was written about the other day, that when -- in his first oral argument, justice scalia asked so many questions that justice powell turned to thurgood marshall and said, "do you think he knows that the rest of us are here?" >> wow. >> so this goes back a long way with them. and that recollection -- the writer who talked about the men's choir which now sings gregorian chants at the latin mass at saint mary's, our mother of god church in chinatown, he would linger and have coffee and doughnuts after the mass. and this writer -- the former choir director recalled that he would often see him driving up, no marshall escort, parking on g street in chinatown, put on his tie in the mirror of his bmw and rushing into latin mass. this is someone who did not love ceremony. and was just very much part of the fabric. >> and as the conspiracy theorists picked up on immediately after word of his death at age 79 at a ranch in texas. let's fit in a break here of what we're here to cover really gets you said way at 11:00. but we want to get a sense of the arrivals of the church, it at the church we want to get a sense of the man, the justice, and becausis germane the politics of this death, this vacancy, the future of the court, and the obama administration. on a spring-like saturday, in the northeast corner of 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[dog bark] trust me, we're dealing with a higher intelligence here. ♪ the all-new audi q7 is here. ♪ but they didn't know they were all tobacco products.e... ooh, this is cool. it smells like gum. yummy! this smells like strawberry. are these mints? given that 80% of kids who ever used tobacco started with a flavored product, who do you think tobacco companies are targeting? do we get to keep any? in northwest washington, d.c., the shrine. last part of a live television broadcast when pope francis said mass there. today, a sad gathering. we're expecting about 4,000 people. we will be hearing the voice of father paul scalia, one of justice scalia's nine children. notable, because justice scalia himself was an only child. certainly, a different experience for the scalia children than he himself had. well-wishers, dignitaries, family members are filing in. and we will have live coverage of all it for you. andrea mitchell is here with us. andrea, he was very well-known, justice scalia was, for his dissents. i'm sure he would have traded a bunch of them in to be on the top of a 5-4 decision. politically, though, he was like a bellows for the fire of the conservative cause. his political impact will live for years. >> for generations, really. because the federalist society, which pete williams referred to, that was the incubator. and he was the leader, the teacher, who created this movement, really. and there's no other conservative jurist who created as much of a following and of a new philosophy of jury prudence. he also changed the way they rely much less on legislative history on what congress intended. they are going back to, as he, you know, referred to the originalist theory. not strict constructionists, but originalist is his interpretation. in fact, there was a play last year called "the originalists" about scalia, with a liberal young clerk struggling with her professional and personal relationship, very successfully playing on arena stage in washington. and it makes you think, who else among those justices could be the subject of a theoretical experience of an original drama. but in terms of his influence on judges, when you think about even who is in contention, let's say, and on the short list, or longer list of president obama, if he does move toward a more conservative consensus candidate, nominee, it will be someone heavily influenced by scalia's writings and teachings. >> i've always despised the word "clerk." its connotation is so lowly, and it's so counter to what the task of clerking at the supreme court or for any federal judge truly is. there is nothing menial about it. it is for the best and the brightest, newly minted law school students who scalia used to say he didn't want anyone antagonistic to his view, but he liked clerks that were on the other side who could hold him to account for his own opinions. clerking for the supreme court has almost always been a ticket to ride for a career in the law. >> absolutely. from white house counsels to federal judges, appeals court judges, presidential candidate right now, ted cruz, famously, you know, clerked for rehnquist, and these are men and women who enjoy a lifetime in the law, but heavily influenced. and as pete williams was referring earlier, this is a large family. this is a life-long membership in that family. because they have annual reunions. they meet, they celebrate occasions sad and joyous. >> there we are looking at the lineup of the eight surviving justices of the supreme court. pete williams touched on this earlier. the court, of course, can function as a body of eight. it's not ideal, it's not optimal. but it looks like that will have to do. while the political debate goes on. and because politics is part of the backdrop, especially when you look at today on the calendar, we want to take a moment here before we switch to live coverage of the funeral mass. just to update you on the big event today, and that is the primary going on in the state of south carolina, our friends mark halperin and john heilemann are standing by. obviously co hosts of the broadcast, with all due respect that airs here on msnbc. john, you first. because when we look through a political lens today, it's colored by this event, first off. and then tonight it's okay to engage in a conversation that's more purely political. and let's keep talking about the republican party and what you make of things going into election day. >> reporter: well, brian, it's been a very intense period here in south carolina, basically from the new hampshire primary onward. all the campaigns, really, hammering each other. south carolina is a state famous for down and dirty politics. there has been a lot of negative ads, a lot of negative mail and a lot of very vicious accusations on the campaign trail. a little hard to say exactly what's going to happen. donald trump holds the lead in most polls. what will happen below him between ted cruz, marco rubio, in particular, and then with jeb bush looking like he's in fourth place right now, and what that would mean in south carolina. >> even always ask, why is south carolina known for this. why is it such a tough and at times dirty place to operate politically. what do you say? why? >> reporter: well, just the state and the region has a tradition of asking candidates maybe to talk less about policy, although there is certainly a lot of policy talk, and more to show that cannot so much throw a punch than take a punch. and why people think marco rubio has done well this week, he came down here, having stumbled pretty badly in new hampshire, and showed people he would come back. he's been hit hard this week. ted cruz has been hit particularly hard this week by both marco rubio and donald trump. and you're seeing there at the top of the heap those three who have been doing the best so far in the polling and putting in a lot of effort here. you're seeing the kind of full contact sport engagement that befits a state that takes its politics and football seriously. and mark, beyond taking a punch and throwing one, some of them are just plain dirty. they are below the belt, and they -- some of the political charges in south carolina have been obscene over these past few cycles. >> reporter: over the last few cycles. the candidates themselves, they're tired and they're taking things personally now. this one has been patty cake. there may be some last-minute stuff today, but this has not been the kind of personal negative campaign that we have seen in the past. and i think justice scalia's passing may have played some role in that. i think you have seen since his death a seriousness on both sides of the campaign, as these candidates and a lot of voters recognize the stakes are very high. not just because of the question of who will nominate future justices over the next four years after president obama leaves office, brian, but also the fact that there are big issues at play and justice scalia, whether you agreed with him or not, was one of the leading americans over the last quarter century in speaking out and saying ideas matter, public policy matters, all three branchs matter. >> jeb bush outside a polling place this morning. so much has been -- so much ink has been spilled over his campaign, his mother's visit to south carolina. jimmy kimmel compared their joint interview to a parent/teacher conference, the way it looked on camera, the former governor of california has taken off his ubiquitous glasses. he's now wearing lenses, he's trying to streamline his look a little bit, trying to infuse his life and certainly his political life with more energy. hey, john, one final question. and it's about justice scalia. maybe unanswerable, without the view of a couple before we get a couple years on us. but what did this supreme court justice do to and for the republican party? >> well, i mean, look, you mean what scalia's legacy is, brian or in terms of the campaign right now? >> yeah. >> reporter: well, look, he was in many ways on the court the most outspoken proponent of the view of originalism, right? that the constitution is not a living, breathing document, but was something that was written by its framers that by the people who created the document and that we need to -- though the court should in scalia's view, have the original intentions of the framers. that view, as a piece of ideology is now the definitive view of all republican politicians and of all republican jurists. that was not the case 20 years ago. it was not the case 30 years ago. and any republican politician or any future republican president that we can foresee will have to -- will make a litmus test in some ways to that notion. so scalia will have a huge impact going forward, because of the way in which he's embedded that idea into conservative ideology and into the spectrum of legal thinking that will shape the court going forward for decades. >> one of the best vocabularies, certainly, in 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lack of confirmation in this administration. most of the judiciary really has been republican influence. >> there is justice thomas. we also just saw justice breyer to join us in this conversation. we will stay on the pictures that are live here for the next 20 or so minutes until we actually get under way. before the supreme court, he has taught up at harvard about the supreme court. most recently he is known for something called scotus blog and for fans of the supreme court, it comes highly recommended. tom, thank you for being with us. dia lithwick, fans have listened to her podcast. she is a seniored editor at slate and has written and is spoken a lot about the man we remember today. and ken giasheeno from new york, nyuel school of law. and a specialist in anti discrimination law, among other fields. thank you all for being with us. tom, you getting to first. the influence of justice scalia on this court and on jurisprudence in general. >> you have to understand that when justice scalia became a judge and supreme court justice, there was a settled way almost of looking at the constitution that treated as a vibrant document that could change in its meaning that could be adapted for anti discrimination purposes. and justice scalia had everyone step back and take another look at that. and was incredibly influential in reshaping how it is that many, many, many people read the constitution and also the laws that congress passes. it's astonishing. we've got hundreds of thousands of lawyers, you know, innumerable judges as well that this one voice could change the conversation so much. >> dia, as we look at ted cruz in the center of the picture there, we just saw retired justice john paul stevens taking his seat. you've spoken quite passionately about the role of antonin scalia, just the excitement, the intellectual back and forth he brought to the court. how he made a job like yours, covering and talking about the court so much more interesting and exciting. >> it's so true, brian. he really was on a court of people who tended to be, for a long tile while i was covering it, fungible, gray-haired men with glasses and suddenly you had in the middle of it this physically huge kind of floor i had, very enthusiastic, exuberant. i think i described him in something i wrote this week, the only three dimensional jurist with sometimes only a two-world vi view. and in terms of the zingers he brought both to oral argument and to writing, he has no one, no one on the court that rivals him for that. we watch the arrival of justice samuel alito, a native of south jersey. scalia, of course, was born in trenton. but we associate him with queens, new york. he did most of his growing up there. at the time of his death, he was at a hunting lodge, of course, in texas. he spoke passionately about hunting. he said it was part of his family history, especially on the sicilian side. he talked about an uncle who was always hunting. he had among his off-court passions, dalia, he was all in. whether it was music or food or red wine or conversation or travel, opera, specifically in the music category. and just so many people found him such an unlikely hunter. >> it's funny. the hunting story i think goes to how polarizing he could be. because if you think of the two i think foundational scalia hunting stories, one is, as you remember, he was out hunting with dick cheney while there was a case pending at the court that involved dick cheney. and there were calls for his recusal, and it was really i think a dramatic example of how he liked to pal around with people who were washington players. sometimes edging right up. the flip of that, as soon as elena kagan was confirmed to the court, as we all know, he took her hunting. bridging barriers, reaching across ideologies. you know, he was sort of famous for both polarizing, i think, and en raging his opponents. but also as you're hearing over and over today. having this amazing ability to reach out across those boundaries and foster friendships where nobody would have expected them. >> i'm watching justice kennedy arrive. and dalia, for those of us who don't get to see the justices often, there's an occasional glimpse among those who choose to attend the state of the union, and there's an area where scalia was just down rite funny, talking about the state of the union and why he did not like to go in the modern era. we picture some of them back when they were nominated, as young men and women. but maybe the ideological -- the ideological twin, but behavioral opposite of scalia is justice kennedy, who is constantly described as kind of courtly and conservative in his bearing and demeanor. >> i think that's absolutely right. i think that as circumspect and gentle as justice kennedy is, as careful about gravitas and the impression he gives off. i think scalia really revelled in being sort of the enfonte in the court. and as you'll recall in his dissent in the gay marriage case, he really, really reserved special vitriol for justice kennedy. went out of his way, not just to insult in his dissent justice kennedy's reasoning, but really went after him, calling it pretension and calling it akin to fortune cookies. so it's always interesting to me that you can have two people who are more or less similar places on the conservative ideological spectrum, but such a vast distance, massive disparity, not just in temperament, but how they conducted themselves. >> ken, as i said, is also with us as justice ginsberg makes her way up the steps. counselor, do you think justice scalia is going to be better known for being on the losing end of, say, 5-4 decisions or his influence on cases where 5-4 prevailed in his favor? >> well, i actually think he'll be remembered for both. i mean, to build on what my two colleagues have said, justice scalia was incredibly tenacious about holding had toys philosophy. so he was in majorities in strange cases in the sense that on the one hand, he wrote the majority in the heller case, which was the individual right to bear arms case in 2008, and is so that will have a huge legacy, it's already had a huge impact on the nation with regard to gun rights. on the other hand, as originalist methodology led him to take extremely quote, unquote, liberal cases in other cases. the crawford case, decided in 2004. the first said that detainees who are citizens had to be released and given a fair trial. he was in dissent in that case. but in the other case, the crawford case, he was in the majority, but also in a liberal vein, where he was saying the confrontation clause required a heightened standard for protection of criminal defendants. so in all of these cases, his originalism led him to different paths. and so i think that it's really that methodology that tom was talking about, that arcs over these cases and makes him influential in his dissents. >> i have to take time out to talk to andrea mitchell. we were just watching the pictures of justice ginsberg come up the steps with a kerchief on, and not to criticize your town, but where motorcades end and security details have taken on comic dimensions, this giant of the law who i don't think cracks five feet in height, just an ordinary woman walking up the steps. >> and that is the way she lives her life. i've gotten to know her over the years as one would in washington. and she is -- she moves around, she gets to the opera, and sandra day o'connor always had their yoga and training classes at the court. they had an instructor come in. sandra day o'connor, by the way, amazingly vigorous over the years. and of course, the first woman whom i covered on the court when she came for confirmation. and she was quoted, interestingly, in the last couple of days saying "get on with it." get on with nominating and confirming someone. >> i noted that. she is there today at this gathering. we have seen several of the justices, either inside or arriving. let's go back to tom goldstein. tom, the 8-8 court. a lot of people have said, well, how is this going to work? people who don't have the memory of it ever before. and isn't the short answer that cases that come before the court where it is a lower court decision getting decided upon, if it's a tie, indeed, 4-4, that case stands. >> that's right. the rule at the supreme court, if there is just an intractable tie, so that we've got four on each side, so we don't have a majority, then the lower court decision stands. but there is a special tradition at the court for a situation like this one, where you have the possibility of adding a new member to the court. this is in the case where a justice is recused because they have a financial interest or a family member is involved or they're close to one of the litigants. we're just missing a justice. and when we're missing a justice, they hold the case and they will try and have it argued again when they get to nine. >> we're looking at pictures outside. there have been a report indeed confirmed that the -- hearse carrying the body of justice scalia has arrived and the complex of driveways, streets leading up to the shrine. again, this is part of the catholic university of america, northeast washington. a very, very dramatic scene when the body arrived at the u.s. supreme court. with all of the former clerks, those who were able to make it to washington with all of the surviving justices there. in effect, to receive the body of antonin scalia. >> and brian, that's one of the senior members of the supreme court police who had walked in behind for a moment. >> okay. vice president biden is going to be attending. there was some kerfuffle over the president attending or not attending. and we should show you the picture of the president last night going from the working portion of the white house up to the residence. and he was carrying an enormous binder. the press corps was informed that that indeed is the briefing book, the bulk of his weekend's work, choosing between candidates to become the obama administration's nominee to fill this vacancy on the court. the -- that has not always been the way presidents have decided. some presidents prefer an oral briefing. the bare minimum on paper. but remember, this president, like his wife, a harvard law graduate, very much immersed in the law, probably requested opinions and written forms of jurisprudence from all these people they are considering. and andrea mitchell, joe biden has given an interview where he's talked about, you know, the likelihood of a fight and what would be an easier passage, in his view. >> and he is a former chairman of the judiciary committee that used to be his job to run these confirmations through. the possibility of a consensus nominee would be someone like jane kelly, originally from iowa, endorsed by now judiciary chairman grassley, confirmed in 2013, unanimously. so there are a number of potential federal judges and supreme court judges who have recently been confirmed and have a lot of support. and that would mean disappointing the democratic base, not going into the face of the republicans. but it would mean challenging mitch mcconnell and the republican leadership, which is already beginning to see some cracks in their rank and file of senators up for re-election in purple estates, republican senators who are anticipating some pushback from their constituencies from independent voters and others if they hold off and don't even grant a hearing to an obama nominee. >> indeed, this name we'll be hearing so much more of, sr sri srinivasan, was passed in the senate. >> a unanimous confirmation in 2013. so this republican senate confirming him. he would be the first asian american put on the court. we know this president with sonia sotomayor loves the narrative, making history. and so that would be a noteworthy nominee. he is very well-liked among the justices, as well. >> let's bring in a man who got to know antonin scalia for very well and for over three decades, federal judge martin feldman. a district judge for the eastern district of louisiana. judge, it's good to see you again. thank you for joining us today. and of all that you have read and heard about your friend, justice scalia, add something to the record that we ought to know about him in person, in private. what the person was like away from the bench. >> well, thanks for having me, brian. i -- it's hard to add to everything that has been said, because he was so well-known and so publicly well-known. and such a gigantic personality. but the man i knew for 33 years was a very kind and a very -- a man who was very conscious of not letting celebrity overcome him. he had no sense of celebrity. his kindness never faltered. and i think that's something that the viewers might be interested to know, in addition to all the bombaste and the dissents and he had absolutely no sense of celebrity. and wasn't too crazy about people who he thought did have a feeling of celebrity. >> how did he deal -- you yourself as a federal judge for people who don't know, it's a lifetime appointment. federal judges receive security as they sometimes need protection, given the cases that come before them, and the decisions they come to. that is written large as one of nine on the supreme court, death penalty decisions, all that they deal with. how did he balance the crush of business, very serious business, on the supreme court with his need, his demand for a private life, a vigorous private life, with many hobbies and interests? >> well, most of the time that i ever spent with justice scalia and his lovely wife, maureen, he would drive and there would be no security. occasionally if he had been at the supreme court and was coming to collect me to go to a meal, there would be -- it would be in a car that was driven by the court security. but more often than not, he would drive, there would be no security, and i have to say, maybe something that others don't know about him, he was a mad man behind the wheel. i used to tell him all of the time, please, neono, i don't want to ride with you, i have a weak heart. >> so let it -- for the record, a federal judge has just accused justice scalia of being a -- i think a threat to society bheenbehind the wheel is not too strong a term. judge feldman, you yourself converted to catholicism. i did not know this until today. and when you did, justice scalia became your godfather? >> yes. >> tell us about that. >> well, to back up, i don't want to make this about me. this is his day, and his family's day. but i had been drawn to the church most of my life, and i simply eventually made official what had been unofficial most of my life. but nino knew it. nino and i would discuss religion and the church all of the time. he would send me books i think every c.s. lewis book i ever read. he was responsible for giving me. and when i finally decided about ten years ago to officially convert, i called him, and i asked him if he would be my god matter. and his first words were, "maury, i'll be your god father, but i want you to know i've been working all my life to get into heaven and you're just going to slip in right ahead of me." >> and people have already said today's mass, because of the need for a large venue, it is being held at this very ornate place. and yet because this is a guy who didn't like a whole lot of fuss, it's kind of perfect that we will be hearing from his son, father paul scalia. >> well, i know father paul well. and like all of the scalia children, he is a wonderful, wonderful person. i mean, one of the children is a military career officer. a bunch of successful lawyers. the daughters are just wonderful people. his youngest daughter is maybe one of my all-time favorites. paul is a very special -- very special priest. also, like his father, very accessible. i would spend many evenings at their house at dinner with paul and maureen and the justice and after dinner, we would go down stairs, just the three of us. paul, me and justice scalia. and we would drink whiskey and watch old western movies and have a cigar. and paul could keep up with the best of us. >> that sounds pretty great. and judge, isn't it correct, if my memory serves, one of the scalia children had the good sense to marry somebody from louisiana? >> yes. john, the oldest, married someone from covington. i and a few other of his close friends happened to be honored to have been at the wedding. at st. joseph's abby in covington. >> let's -- with our thanks -- >> i'm sorry, i said john. i meant gene. >> oh, okay. the record is corrected. our thanks to federal judge martin feldman, who is going to -- as difficult as this is going to be for him, he's going to watch along with us. let's listen in on this moment taking place on the front steps. [ church bells ringing ] [ church bells ringing ] [ church bells ringing ] [ church bells ringing ] [ church bells ringing ] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ the grace of our lord, jesus christ, and the love of god, and the communion of the holy spirit be with you all. >> and with your spirit. >> in the waters of baptism antonin died with christ and rose with him to new life. may he now share with him eternal glory. ♪ just to add to this briefly, the young priest who looks so much like his dad and speaks with that same precision is indeed the son of justice scalia, father paul scalia. he will be presiding. we are joined in the studio by father james martin, and from time to time to walk what may be a lane on catholic audience through this will be explaining what we see. and father, even though there is a cardinal present, the mass will be said by this priest, of course, the son of justice scalia. this was a procession to come to the front of the church, and meet the arriving body of justice scalia. >> that's right. these are the introductory rights. it's the same as in any catholic funeral and the sbrant went to the casket, plefd it and on the casket was placed a wipe cloth. a child is given a paul or a white cloth at their baptism. and they're told, bring this garment unstained into the kingdom of heaven. so it links us with the baptism. and then the procession will come back to the front of the church where the casket will be placed. and then the funeral mass will start. >> father, thank you. we will only add our words to what you're seeing on the screen if something happens that is -- calls out for a description. but on a spring-like saturday, 4,000 people are inside the shrine in northeast washington to remember justice antonin scalia, died at age 79. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ my dear friends, please be seated for a few moments. >> dear friends, as we come together for this funeral mass for justice antonin scalia, i want to offer a word of welcome in the name of the archdiocese personal and together with bishop paul laverty, the home of the scalia family. and mon senior rosci, the director of the national shrine of the immaculate conception. and express with all who are here to you, maureen, to your children, to all of your family, to you, father paul, who will be the principle celebrant at this liturgy, our heart felt sympathy at the loss of your husband, your father, your grandfather and friend. and pledge once again our prayers that god will grant him eternal rest. and you comfort in consolation. in keeping with your desire to have a simple parish family mass. i will confine my remarks to these few words of greeting and welcome to the many, many people who are here in this magnificent basilica, simply to show their respect for the extraordinary man, justice antonin scalia. and to express their faith, their faith in god's abiding love and all embracing mercy. however, before proceeding with this welcome, i want to apologize for the condition of the center area in this basilica. the floor covering and the temporary seating arrangement the, as well concealed as they may be, are the result of a major project under way to complete the renovation and the final decoration of this great, great basilica. the great dome is going to be faced in mosaic, and the preparation, as you can see, is already under way. and so i'm grateful for your understanding and your patience. it's a pleasure for me to welcome to this funeral liturgy, the apostolic to the united states and holy father, pope francis' personal representative. also, bishop paul laverty, bishop of arlington. my brother bishop's distinguished participants at this funeral, especially the honorable john roberts, chief justice of the united states. and the other justices of the supreme court. the vice president of the united states, joseph biden, former vice president, richard cheney. newt gingrich, former speaker of the house. president and mrs. john garvey of the catholic university of america. and so many other distinguished guests here present. to my brother priests, deacons, women and men in consecrated life, brothers and sisters in the lord and friends all who have come here to show their respect. as i extend this warm welcome to each of you, i also express profound gratitude to all who are here. as i now ask justice scalia's son, father paul, to lead us in the church's lit urgency for him who has god has called to his eternal home. ♪ let us pray ♪ oh god whose nature is always to forgive and to show mercy ♪ ♪ we humbly implore you for your servant antonin who you have called to journey to you ♪ ♪ and since he hoped and believed in you ♪ ♪ grant that he may be led to our true homeland ♪ ♪ to delight in its everlasting joys ♪ ♪ through our lord jesus christ your son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit ♪ ♪ one god forever and ever ♪ amen a reading from the book of wisdom. the souls of the just are in the hand of god. and no torment shall touch them. in the view of the foolish, to be dead. and their passing away was thought an affliction. and their going forth from us utter destruction. but they are in peace. for if before men indeed they be punished, yet is their hope full of immorality. chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed. because god tried them and found them worthy of himself. as gold in the furnace, he proved them. and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself. in the time of their visitation, they shall shine. and shall dart about as sparks through stubble, they judge nations and rule over peoples. and their lord shall be king forever. those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love. because grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with his elect. the word of the lord. ♪ ♪ my lord is my shepherd ♪ there is nothing i shall want ♪ ♪ thy lord is my shepard there is nothing i shall want ♪ ♪ my lord is my shepherd i shall not want ♪ ♪ in verdant postures he gives me repose ♪ ♪ ♪ my lord is my shepherd there is nothing i shall want ♪ ♪ he guides me in right paths for his namesake ♪ ♪ even though i walk in a dark alley ♪ ♪ ♪ my lord is my shepherd there is nothing i shall want ♪ ♪ you spread the table before me in spite of my faults ♪ ♪ ♪ my lord is my shepherd there is nothing i shall want ♪ ♪ only goodness and kindness fall on me ♪ ♪ all days of my life ♪ ♪ my lord is my shepherd there is nothing i shall want ♪ a reading from the letter of st. paul to the romans. hope does not disappoint. because a the love of god has been poured out into our hearts through the holy spirit that has been given to us. for christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly. indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person. though perhaps for a good person, one might even find courage to die. but god proves his love for us in that while we were still centers, christ died for us. how much more, then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath? indeed, if while we were enemies we were reconciled to god through the death of his son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life? not only that, but we also boast of god through our lord, jesus christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. the word of the lord. >> thanks be to god. ♪ ♪ praise to you lord jesus christ ♪ ♪ praise to you lord jesus christ ♪ ♪ christ is our lord ♪ ♪ praise to you lord jesus christ king of endless glory ♪ ♪ the lord be with you. >> and with you. >> a reading from the holy gospel, according to matthew. at that time, jesus answered, i give praise to you, father. lord of heaven and earth. for although you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, you have revealed them to the child-like. yes, father. such has been your gracious will. all things have been handed over to me by my father. no one knows the son, except the father. and no one knows the father, except the son. and anyone to whom the son wishes to reveal him. come to me. all you who are labor and are burdened. and i will give you rest. take my yolk upon you, and learn from me. for i am meek and humble of heart. and you will find rest for yourselves. for my yolk is easy, and my burden light. the gospel of the lord. >> praise to you. your eminence, cardnally, your excellences, archbishop laverty, bishop higgins, my brother priests, deacons, distinguished guests, dear friends and faithful gathered. on behalf of our mother and the entire scalia family, i want to thank you for your presence here, for your many words of consolation and even more for the many prayers and masses you have offered at the death of our father, antonin scalia. in particular, i thank cardinal wherl for reach south so quickly and graciously to our mother. it was a consolation to her and therefore to us, as well. thank you also for allowing us to have this parish funeral mass here in this basilica, dedicated to our lady. what a great privilege and consolation that we were able to bring our father through the holy doors and for him gain the indulgence promised to those who enter in faith. i thank bishop laverty of arlington, a shepherd our father liked and respected a great deal. thank you, bishop, for your prompt visit to our mother, for your words of consolation, for your prayers. the family will depart for the private burial immediately after mass and will not have time to visit. so i want to express our thanks at this time. so that you all know, our profound appreciation and thanks. you'll notice in the program a mention of a memorial that will be held on march 1st. we hope to see many of you there. we pray that the lord will reward your great goodness to us. we are gathered here because of one man. a man known personally to many of us, known only by reputation to even more, a man loved by many, scorned by others. a man known for great controversy and for great compassion. that man, of course, is jesus of nazareth. it is he whom we proclaim, jesus christ, son of the father, born of the virgin mary, crucified, buried, risen, seated at the right hand of the father. it is because of him, because of his life, death and resurrection, that we do not mourn as those who have no hope. but in confidence we commend antonin scalia to the mercy of god. scripture says, "jesus christ is the same yesterday, today and forever." and that sets a good course for our thoughts and our prayers here today. in effect, we look in three directions. to yesterday in thanksgiving, to today in petition, and into eternity with hope. we look to jesus christ yesterday. that is, to the past, in thanksgiving for the blessings god bestowed upon dad. in the past week, many have recounted what dad did for them. but here, today, we recount what god did for dad. how he blessed him. we give thanks, first of all, for the atoning death and life-giving resurrection of jesus christ. our lord died and rose not only for all of us, but also for each of us. and at this time, we look to that yesterday of his death and resurrection and we give thanks that he died and rose for dad. further, we give thanks that jesus brought him to new life in baptism, nourisheded him with the eucharist, and healed him in the confessional. we give thanks to jesus bestowed upon him 55 years of marriage. to the woman he loved. a woman who could match him at every step. and even hold him accountable. god blessed dad with a deep catholic faith. the conviction that christ's presence and power continue in the world today through his body, the church. he loved the chairty and coherence of the church's teachings. he treasured the church's ceremonies, especially the beauty of her ancient worship. he trusted the power of her sacraments as the means of salvation, as christ working within him for his salvation. although one time, one saturday afternoon, he did scold me for having heard confessions that afternoon, that same day. and i hope as some source of consolation, if there are any lawyers lawyers present. that the roman collar was not a shield against his criticism. it is not that i heard the confession but that i was in his confessional line. and he quickly departed it. and he acquitted it later by confessing to you. the feeling was mutual. god bless dad as is well-known with a love for his country. he knew well what a close-run thing the founding of our nation was. and he saw in that founding, as did the founders themselves, a blessing. a blessing quickly lost when faith is banned from the public square or when we refuse to bring it there. so he understood there is no conflict between loving god and one's country. between one's faith and one's public service. dad understood that the deeper he went in his catholic faith the better a sit zcitizen he be because he was god's first. we scalias, however, give thanks for a particular blessing god bestowed. god blessed dad with a love for his family. we have been thrilled to read and hear the many words of praise and admiration for him, his speeches and writings and so son. but more important to us and to him, because he was dad, he was the father that god gave us for the great adventure of family life. sure, he forgot our names at times or mixed them up, but there are nine of us. he loved us and sought to show that love. and sought to share the blessing of the faith he treasured. and he gave us one another to have each other for support. that's the greatest wealth parents can bestow. and right now we are particularly grateful for it. so we look to the past to jesus christ yesterday. we called to mind all these blessings and we give our lord the honor and glory for them. for they are his work. we look to jesus today, to be present here and now, as we mourn the one that we love and admire, the one whose absence pains us. today we pray for him. we pray for the repose of his soul. we thank god for his goodness to dad as is right and just, but we also know that although dad believed, he did so imperfectly like the rest of us. he tried to love god and neighbor, but like the rest of us, did so imperfectly. he was a practicing catholic. practicing in the sense that he hadn't perfected it yet. or rather, christ was not yet perfected in him. and only those to whom christ has brought perfection can enter heaven. we are here then to lend our prayers to that perfecting, to that final work of god's grace in freeing dad from every em encombrance from sin. but don't take my word for it. dad writing years ago to a presbyterian minister whose funeral he admired, he summarized quite nicely the pitfalls of funerals and why he didn't like eulogies. he wrote, even when the deceased was an admirable person, indeed, especially when the deceased was an admirable person, praise for his virtues can cause us to forget that we are praying for and giving thanks for god's inexplicable mercy to a sinner. now he would not have exempted himself from that. we were here as he would want to pray for god's inexplicable mercy to a sinner, to this sinner, antonin scalia. let us not show him a false love and allow our admiration to deprive him of our prayers. we continue to show affection for him and do good for him by praying for him. that all stain of sin be washed away. that all wounds be healed. that he be purified of all that is not christ. that he rest in peace. finally, we look to jesus forever into eternity. for better we consider our own place in eternity and whether it will be with the lord. even as we pray for dad to enter swiftly into eternal glory, we should be mindful of ourselves. every funeral reminds us of just how thin the veil is between this world and the next, between time and eternity, between the opportunity for conversion and the moment of judgment. so we cannot depart here unchanged. it makes no sense to celebrate god's goodness and mercy to dad if we are not attentive and responsive to those realities in our own lives. we must allow this encounter we te we ternty to change us and to turn us to the lord. the english dominican father b. jarrett put it beautifully when he prayed, oh, strong son of god, while you prepare a place for us, prepare us, also, for that happy place, that we may be with you and with those we love for all eternity. jesus christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. my dear friends, this is also the structure of the mass. the greatest prayer we can offer for dad, because it's not our prayer but the lord's. the mass looks to jesus yesterday. it reaches into the past, reaches into the last supper, to the crucifixion, to the resurrection, and it makes those mysteries and their power present here on this altar. jesus himself becomes present here today in the form of bread and wine so that we can unite all our prayers of thanksgiving, sorrow and petition with christ himself as an offering to the father. and all of this with a view to eternity, stretching towards heaven, where we hope one day to enjoy that perfect union with god himself and to see dad again and with him rejoice in the communion of saints. god, the almighty father, raised christ, his son, from the dead. with confidence we ask him to save all his people living and dead. for antonin who in baptism was given the pledge of eternal life, that he may now be committed to the communion of the saints. we pray to the lord. >> lord, hear our prayer. >> for our brother antonin who ate the body of christ, the bread of life. that he may be raised up on the
unaccounted for. authorities are working hard to determine if they could be among the 31 innocent people killed or the 270 left injured. police are desperate to locate the man you see here in the light colored jacket, who was spotted with two of the airport bombers. it's believed he took off before the bombs exploded near the u.s. airline counters. because of the bomb's proximity to american airliners, some are now questioning if america herself was an intended target. listen. >> i think it's possible that it was -- that it was a proxy. keep in mind, a lot more is going to become available, but the locations to me clearly were where americans would be. >> shepard smith joins us live from brussels. what's the latest there? >> reporter: good evening. i must say with no disrespect to the senator or anyone else, the speculation is unwarranted. the aisles where the bombers blew up their bombs were used by different airlines at different times on different days. authorities say they are certain that these bombers chose those particular locations because that's where the lines were longest. you take the bomb to where the lines were longest, that causes the most injury and that was clearly their goal. the headline today is that the bomber himself, the man who made the ones, believed to be the one who made the ones in paris and here is dead. his name is najim laachraoui. they found his dna on the suicide vests in november in paris, and they found him blown up inside the airport at that terminal where the two suicide bombers carried out their mission. so the bomber, the man who made the bombs, and one of two brothers dead there in the airport. the other of two brothers killed in the subway when he exploded his suitcase. the one man still at large is a man for whom we have no identity, we don't know his name, what sort of participation he might have had and where he might have gone. witnesses initially said he may have run out during the bombings, but now authorities lead us to believe that they are of the opinion that he left prior to the explosions, whether he chickened out, or just left and changed his mind, whether he realized his bomb wouldn't detonate. those are matters for future news conferences. and further, authorities are insistent they believe some other unknowns also played a part in some way in these bombings. they have not given us any descriptions or reason that they have that to believe. they tell us they're looking for unknown people and raids are being carried out across the city even as we speak. those are the headlines here. i would say there are a number of investigations ongoing inside the neighborhood where they found that bomb making factory. and the taxi cab driver who led authorities to that house is being hailed as a hero here locally. he saw the pictures on screen, said that looks like the guys i took to the airport. led authorities to that home and that's where they found 33 pounds of that explosive that was used in all of these bombings. keep in mind, one pound of explosives is all they needed for the suicide vests in paris. >> shepard, what do you know about this neighborhood, molenbeek, where we're learning so many are becoming radicalized? >> reporter: the two brothers, khalid and ibrahim both grew up there and lived there for decades. it's neighborhood separate from the rest of the city. different police officers there, different language there. they didn't cooperate well with the national authorities. unemployment rate around 33%. a young person's unemployment rate in the mid 40s. and varied suggestions from almost everyone there, it's very hard to get ahead there. so you have that sort of an environment where people are looking for a way out and then in come the jihadis from syria saying we have a plan for you, we have a place that you can belong. like a cult would, they become brainwashed. now the task is to get the federal and local police and community organizers together change that culture. >> shepard smith live for us in brussels, belgium tonight. president obama faces criticism for choosing to continue his overseas trip. and even attended a baseball game in cuba. the former cia director suggesting this was a sign that the president doesn't view the attacks as all that important. >> this is going to sound harsh, but i think it's true. that wasn't a mistake, that wasn't weakness. that was policy. his going to the ballpark, and his spending less than a minute commenting on the attack. i actually believe in his heart of hearts, the president's policy is, that is not that big a deal. there are other things that are more important and that is what he was messaging. >> president obama says that is not the case. >> i've got a lot of things on my plate. but my top priority is to defeat isil, and to eliminate the scourge of this barbaric terrorism that's been taking place around the world. >> dr. sebastien gorka is author of "defeating jihad." good evening to you, sir. >> good evening. thank you. >> so is this criticism of president obama not coming home following these attacks, is it warranted? >> well, you just quoted a career air force general, head of the central intelligence agency, and i tend to agree with general hayden. the statements made by the president smack of the mary antoinette-ish attitude, let the people eat cake. terrorism seems to be a distraction from his life of being a celebrity. he wants to be hanging out with communist dictators and going to ball games. isis is simply not treated as a threat by this president or at least he doesn't give the impression that he really cares about our allies and the americans that were wounded. let's think about one thing here -- >> the white house response to that, president obama's response is he said we let the terrorists win if we all stay home and don't go about our daily business and he said today, isis is his number one -- that is his top priority. why is there a disconnect in what we feel versus what we see? >> these are just empty words. he said we have to unite to defeat the terrorists, but how? how are we going to defeat the terrorists while he's watching a ball game and giving interviews to espn? the fact is, we have to do something concrete. and also, it is the duty of the commander in chief to rally the people, to send a message that we will fight and destroy this evil scourge that is global jihadism. it's not enough to say, we're on top of it. remember, the day before san bernardino, the second largest attack on u.s. soil after september 11, both the president and secretary kerry said, isil is contained and we are winning this war. this is not how you win wars. >> so what would an appropriate response from the white house be to this? >> coming back home as soon as possible, making a statement from the rose garden or from the oval office to the american people about how we will not stand for this, who the enemy is, that they're really evil and we will destroy them and to do something tangible for the belgians, for the people that need our help right now. to send a message. and most important of all, if you want to have the long game, if you read my book, this war will be won by our muslim allies in the region, and we have to help the egyptians and jordanians much more than we are doing today. >> so dr. gorka, the associated press reporting today that isis has trained and deployed hundreds of their fighters to europe to carry out these terrorist attacks. we saw the state department today warn u.s. travelers, if you go there, to be vigilant, to be careful where you attend like ball games. where is this going? >> you don't have to hypothesize. just look at the fact, my wife and i published a paper on the domestic isis threat. in the last 18 months, we have killed or we have arrested more than 95 people in america linked to isis. so the jihad is already here. it's not just in brussels, it's not just in paris or in the middle east, it is here. they have the capabilities and they have an estimated 6,000 westerners who have been recruited by isis, who have western passports, including american passports who can travel freely. we must take this threat much more seriously. >> and michael mccaul saying today there are open investigations, isis investigations in all 50 of the u.s. states. so we thank you for joining us tonight, dr. gorka. >> thank you. my pleasure. as you heard, u.s. investigators are looking into whether the terrorists in brussels were trying to kill as many americans as possible in those attacks. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge has the latest information. >> reporter: sandra, based on the evidence so far in his classified briefings, the republican chairman of the house intelligence committee told reporters today he believes the terrorists in brussels were targeting americans. the bombs at the airport went off near the check-in desk for american and delta and detonated near the u.s. embassy stop. and the congressman said, it doesn't seem to be a coincidence. >> if it becomes true that american airlines and united and delta, that the explosive device went off there, when you couple that with the metro stop near the embassy was also targeted, those are two locations where a lot of americans can be killed. >> reporter: also today, the state department issuing a warning to americans traveling in europe. the terrorist groups are planning more attacks, possibly targeting sporting events, restaurants and transit systems, adding the threat is real and may be imminent. >> the travel alert reflects our assessment that given current information, we believe that daesh, al qaeda, and other terrorist groups continue to plan near-term attacks throughout europe. >> reporter: the associated press is reporting tonight based on european intelligence sources isis has dispatched 400 fighters to europe. u.s. government officials aren't commenting on the number, but said between france, germany, and belgium, more than 600 citizens have traveled to syria and returned home. sandra? >> catherine, thank you. the attack in brussels reshaping the 2016 presidential race, as candidates speak out on issues like the surveillance of u.s. muslim communities. and waterboarding. plus, a new fox poll just out as the gop finds itself no clearer on who will be its 2016 nominee. dana perino and herman cain are here on what we can expect on the road ahead. and one group of catholic nuns can fighting against obamacare for the right to not aid in any employees getting contraception. one of the sisters inside the supreme court today is with us tonight in a kelly file exclusive. >> the faith of the little sisters is the faith of every sisters is the faith of every american.[engines revving] you can't have a hero, if you don't have a villain. the world needs villains [tires screeching] and villains need cars. ♪ these are the hands that build the machines, the machines that sort, stack and seal. these are the hands that keep private information private. these are the hands of pitney bowes, the craftsmen of commerce. these are the hands that dig for opportunity, identify patterns, and uncover risk. these are the hands of pitney bowes, the craftsmen of commerce. you're an at&t small business expert? sure am. my staff could use your help staying in touch with customers. at&t can help you stay connected. no ma'am. our at&t 'buy one get one free' makes it easier for your staff to send appointment reminders to your customers... ...and share promotions on social media? you know it! now i'm seeing dollar signs. you should probably get your eyes checked. good one babe. optometry humor. right now get up to $650 in credits to help you switch to at&t. we focus on individuals who are committing or about to commit a crime. we don't focus on a whole community. we don't focus on a whole religion. and if he's that shortsighted, i can understand why the american public will repudiate his efforts to lead this country, because he is undervaluing the values on which we base our security and safety and democra democracy. >> that was bill bratton reacting to ted cruz's suggestion that law enforcement should be patrolling muslim neighborhoods in the u.s. to prevent terror. but with terrorists suggesting that the islamic state has trained and sent 400 attackers to europe and with the state department issuing a travel alert for americans traveling to and around europe, cruz is not backing down. trace gallagher is live in our west coast newsroom. good evening, trace. >> reporter: good evening. during his comments on the attacks in brussels, ted cruz listed a number of counterterror measures, including we need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized. critics blasted the statement saying it amounts to a police state against muslims. president obama noted that cruz's own father fled exactly that kind of draconian policing in cuba. and hillary clinton said this. >> so when republican candidates like ted cruz call for treating american muslims like criminals, and for racially profiling predominantly muslim neighborhoods, it's wrong. it's counterproductive. it's dangerous. >> reporter: clinton went on to say everyone should feel together in the fight against terrorism. ted cruz responded. watch. >> with all respect, people are fed up with the political correctness of barack obama and hillary clinton. >> reporter: and donald trump is siding with cruz saying he supports patrolling muslim neighborhoods. in fact, a president trump would take more expensive action. >> the waterboarding would be fine, and if they could expand the laws i would do a lot more. you have to get the information from these people. i am in the camp where you have to get the information and you have to get it rapidly. >> reporter: but even the former doj lawyer that wrote the memos that approved waterboarding during the george w. bush administration says what trump is suggesting is illegal. and he thinks trump is exaggerating. >> trace, thank you. joining me now to react, pete hegsath and carl higby, a former navy s.e.a.l. and supporter of trump. carl, where do you stand on water boarding? >> i don't think it's that bad. we get that as part of our training. it's miserable, but it's not that bad. if we water boarded that guy we had in brussels, we might have stopped this attack. >> it's miserable but not that bad. but you actually say that waterboarding could have prevented these attacks in brussels. >> i can tell you not waterboarding didn't get us the information. so why not give it a shot. >> all right. where do you stand, pete? >> well, i don't have much of a problem with waterboarding if it's going to get us the intelligence we need in realtime. the problem is the incoherence of what donald trump talks about. he says he wants to torture but his advisers say no, that's not what he means. he's not grounded in a real understanding of what his rhetoric means. therefore, he overcomplicates the situation. for the most part, carl and i agree. we would unleash war fighters, let them go and find the enemy and kill them. but his rhetoric is unhelpful. >> i think he's been real clear on that. >> pete's pamaking the argument that it's more the delivery of the message. >> he wants to bomb the crap out of isis and if the laws permit, he wants to do much more than waterboarding. >> so donald trump and ted cruz appear to agree on at least one thing. donald trump said late yesterday he agreed with ted cruz's proposal to target muslim neighborhoods, calling it a good idea. have we found common ground, carl? >> i think we have. this is the beginning of donald trump bringing the republican party together. i think the message is all getting on board. what's happening is people are coming around. he's not targeting muslim neighborhoods, just maintain the level of police force in those neighborhoods. >> pete, based on your experience, would this work, muslim surveillance? >> well, it did work with the nypd before de blasio got rid of it. you're talking about engagement, surveillance and intelligence. it makes sense. i know 100% of muslims aren't terrorists but 100% of terrorists are muslims. they've got parts of cities where bombers are provided havens. it's just a preview of what america could become. so when donald trump and ted cruz talk about this, they're ripping back the curtain, the false choice that so many of our politicians give us, that we're forsaking our values if we target the enemy. that's just wrong. we're at war right now and we should recognize it. >> pete, you look at any country in the world where muslims are the minority, they're screaming for rights. but where they're the majority, there are no minority rights. so why are we letting them defeat us at our own game. >> so based on both your experience in the military, which is significant, are we having the right conversation in this country about how to combat this? >> i think the way to combat this is we're going to have to go over and take the fight to them. the problem is our president with his limp wristed foreign policy has failed to define this enemy. >> carl, you've been very vocal of your support for donald trump and you say many of your peers in the military support them, as well. pete, who has the best plan that you have seen laid out by the presidential candidates to defeat isis? >> the guy who i felt like had the best plan was marco rubio, but he's not in the race anymore. ted cruz has a coherent understanding of the enemy and he understands how to target the enemy. and isn't wildly vacillating to the extremes like trump does. we need to engage allies in so many different parts of the battle and i think ted cruz has a good sense of what it means to be commander in chief. but the debate needs to happen. >> thank you to you both. >> thank you. another ugly turn on the campaign trail. this time involving the wives of the men, one and two in the gop presidential race. that's next with that. plus, catholic nuns are fighting against the obamacare contraception mandate, in what some are calling the biggest religious freedom fight since hobby lobby. >> this is not about us imposing any kind of restrictions on our employees. this is not about us denying them anything. this is about insisting that the government not impose its pressure on us to violate our faith. with hydrogenated oil... ...but real joyful moments are shared over the real cream in reddi-wip. ♪ reddi-wip. share the joy. 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"credit karma. give yourself some credit." breaking tonight. senator ted cruz's wife is firing back over an ugly new campaign trail fight ensnaring the wives of the men at the top of the polls for gop nomination. it started with a controversial new ad featuring a nude milania trump. mr. trump blamed senators cruz for it, despite the fact that it did not come from the texas senator's campaign. the gop front-runner tweeting, lying ted cruz just used a picture of milania in his ad. be careful, lying ted, or i will spill the beans on your wife. trace ghas the latest on this. >> reporter:s t >> reporter:s the ad was introduced by an anti-trump super pac. ted cruz tweeted, pick of your wife not from us. donald, if you attack heidi, you're more of a coward than i thought. trump doesn't believe cruz responding by saying that's why we call him lying ted. now that trump is threatening to spill the beans on heidi cruz, there's speculation what "the beans" might be. the cruzes have been accused of having a troubled marriage and pointed to a 2005 heavily redacted austin police report where an officer found heidi cruz next to an expressway and denied she might be a danger to herself. ted cruz advisers explained the incident, acknowledging that a decade ago, heidi cruz experienced a brief battle with depression, but got through it with prayer and the love and support of her family. today, heidi cruz deflected questions about the trump threat. listen. >> as i said, you probably know by now most of the things that donald trump says have no base necessary reality. so we are not worried in the least, we're focusing on our campaign and we are going to continue to do that. >> reporter: heidi cruz is a senior executive at goldman sachs who is on leave to help her husband's campaign. the nude picture of trump's wife was taken for british "gq" in 2000. >> trace, thank you. joining us now, guy benson, and adriana cohen. adriana, is it ever appropriate on the campaign trail to go of a family member, first question? aside from whether or not ted cruz had anything to do with it, is family fair game? >> well, you know, i certainly don't like to see anybody's family get dragged through the mud. but if you go after donald trump and you attack his wife, he has every right to defend himself and he has a right to punch back. >> wait, hold on, hold on. based on that statement, i have to get this in here. the super pac operator, run by a woman, a republican strategist, and she has issued a statement on this saying i know you're really upset about that ad, donald trump. but it would make america awesome, not ted cruz. she's denying ted cruz's involvement and thanks donald trump forgiving the ad so much attention. your response? >> i think she took a lot of heat from ted cruz, because now what mitt romney's former campaign person did is she effectively dragged heidi cruz in the mud. now donald trump, you know, is going to push back on ted cruz's wife, because he was provoked by this individual. so she probably got a phone call from ted cruz's people saying why did you do this? now you dragged my wife into this race. so she's trying to provide cover for ted cruz. we don't know if ted cruz knew about this coming or not. >> let me go with that point. >> he benefited in utah. this ad launched to throw the delegates, the caucus to ted cruz in utah. so he certainly benefited from it. >> so guy, she's pointing out that some people are pointingt, not connected with the super pac, that he could still be behind the message. >> there's zero evidence of that. i think this particular episode may be a fresh low in the campaign that has been characterized by boarishness and pettiness because of donald trump's presence in it. it has showcased donald trump's signature ignorance, where he's blaming inaccurately ted cruz for an add, that by the way i won't defend at all, that was not connected to cruz. it was connected to this outside super pac that's been trolling donald trump for months. it's also underscored donald trump's low rent temperament, where he takes his misplaced rage and directing it as another candidate's spouse through a threat. it's classless and stupid. >> when somebody goes after your wife, what is he supposed to do, just take it? >> no, i'm not saying that at all. >> what is he supposed to do? >> what i would like him to do is respond by defending his wife and to criticize the people who launched the attack, not to say oh, i'm going to assume this was launched by someone else -- >> should ted cruz have condemned the use of his wife in that ad? >> i believe that cruz should. i'm not defending the ad. i think milania trump and heidi cruz should be left out of it. but donald trump's knee jerk reaction is to blame the wrong person and threaten his wife. >> to be clear, i'll remind everybody when ted cruz's daughters were targeted by a cartoonist, every gop candidate came to his defense and said kids are not fair game. >> agreed. >> and if ted cruz -- ted cruz should have denounced that ad up front. breaking tonight, the little sisters of the poor have been fighting obamacare for years. today they had their day in the highest court of the land. we have one of the sisters at the center of this fight here tonight. plus, more than 30 2016 primary contests are behind us, and the fight for the nomination continues. dana perino and herman ♪ in new york state, we believe tomorrow starts today. all across the state, the economy is growing, with creative new business incentives, the lowest taxes in decades, and new infrastructure for a new generation attracting the talent and companies of tomorrow. like in rochester, with world-class botox. and in buffalo, where medicine meets the future. let us help grow your company's tomorrow - today - at business.ny.gov test test test test test test test does your mouth often feel dry? 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this polling, it just keeps getting more interesting. >> i think so. for a long time the electoral race has been pretty much the same. i think this year the map is basically up ended. there a i think this poll, for ted cruz he doubled his approval. so did john kasich. trump gained five. so the republicans, as they have shed some of the candidates, the other ones are consolidating. but i would think both front-runners, trump and clinton, have some good news, they're winning at the ballot box. she's basically putting away bernie sanders. trump has a little bit further to go if he wants to get to tt 1237 number. but they're also winning with another number. she at 64% and he had 65% with being untrustworthy. opinions have settled in. and people have strong opinions. this is not an election where people feel sort of okay. they're either for or against. they feel strongly or they're emotional about it. >> when asked if you would be scared if a candidate was elected president, 49% trump, 33% clinton. i'll remind you, those are the front-runners. so it's not a lot of making sense this time around. >> i think that's partly reflective of the fact that a lot of people in america are saying that we are just distrustful of politicians. not that they think donald trump is a politician, but they are distrustful of washington as an institution. they are demoralized about government. and the other thing about the poll, while there's a little ways to go, 6 1/2 months until the general election, in head-to-head polls, kasich and cruz would beat clinton, donald trump right now 11 points behind. >> so why doesn't that help kasich more when people see that he has a better chance, according to the poll, of beating hillary clinton? >> it's a conundrum. but he's won in the southwest, he's won in the southeast, he won in the upper midwest. he won in new hampshire. he won in the -- came in second in iowa. so i think that in some ways the states are not actually reflecting the national news. but that's the way the primary works. >> do you see any change coming as far as leadership in the gop race or does donald trump continue to lead? >> right now everybody needs a breather. we don't have another primary contest until april 5th, and that will be in wisconsin. that's a big one. one of the things that trump supporters would say he might be able to finally bring some of those rust belt states into the gop column. we're talking michigan, wisconsin, maybe down into ohio. there are people on the other side who say dana, what are we talking about? if you look at the head-to-head with hillary clinton, he's down 9, 10, 11 points. here's the good new it is you like politics and cable news. this race, no matter who it is, is going to be very tight all the way until november. >> dana, thank you. >> thank you. >> good to have you. as you just heard, donald trump polled the highest percentage of voters who would be "scared with his presence in the white house" at 49%, with hillary clinton next in line at 33%. leaving some serious questions about 2016's two front-runners. joining me now, former republican presidential candidate herman cain. he's the author of "the right problems." do you see any problem here, herman? >> not really. first of all, remember that polls represent a trend. and i agree with dana, we have a long way to go. and the thing about the fact that these polls don't necessarily reflect the mood of the trump supporters, many of them aren't participating in the polls. here's what i believe are the two reasons why donald trump has the highest fear factor that you pointed out. first, remember a lot of people in the media, they spoon-feed the public with just negative perceptions of a particular candidate, whether that's donald trump or whether that's hillary clinton. a lot of it for hillary clinton is true, but they also spoon-feed a lot of negative impressions of donald trump. secondly, the democrats do a good job of dividing people by pandering to different groups, because the republicans started out with 17 candidates and now it's down to three, most of the time what donald trump really stands for that would help everybody doesn't come through. so i believe that over the next several weeks, more and more of his message that will help everybody come through, and as a result, i believe that the fear factor will go down. >> okay. that being said, in this latest polling, scared was a common word that was used to describe trump. by those that were polled. but he continues to lead this race, herman, and -- >> yes. >> you and i have spoken before. and you sound like you support him. i haven't heard you come out and publicly announce that you're supporting him, but it sounds like you do. do you see the opportunity or the chance that you'll see the party rally around him? where are we with that? >> my position is that i try to set the record straight, and because donald trump has been in the lead for most of this whole primary election, there have been more opportunities for people to take potshots at him. so i find myself trying to set the record straight, whoever it is. so as a result, it appears as if i'm more supportive of donald trump. i want people to know the truth. now, here's where i believe we are in this race. i believe that the people will decide if the establishment lets the people decide. i don't buy into the rhetoric that this is going to be a contested convention coming up for the republicans, and i don't buy into the rhetoric that donald trump can't get the 1237. he's 60% there. cruz is 38% there. kasich is way behind. but i think what's happening that the polls don't pick up is that as he goes from presidential primary to presidential primary, he is exceeding what is expected. so i believe that there's a good probability that he might clinch the 1237 by the time the convention rolls around. >> and as dana just detailed, wisconsin will be another big test coming up for the candidates. herman cain, thank you for joining us tonight. >> you're welcome, sandra. breaking tonight, what are some calling one of christianity's greatest religious liberty fights in our country today. it's playing out right now in front of the supreme court. the sister inside the fight the sister inside the fight [engines revving] joins us you can't have a hero, if you don't have a villain. the world needs villains [tires screeching] and villains need cars. ♪ for a limited time, great deal on this passat. wow, it looks really good... volkswagen believes safety is very important... so all eleven models come standard with an intelligent crash response system... hmm. ...seven stability-enhancing systems... hmmm... ...and equipment for two child seats. hmmm... for those who take safety seriously. like we do. the volkswagen safety in numbers event... is happening now! get a $1,250 volkswagen reward card and 0% apr on new 2016 passat models. breaking national correspondent an exclusive, what some are calling the biggest fight for religious liberty waged against obamacare to date. catholic group the little sisters of the an oral arguments heard today by the supreme court. they claim obamacare forces them to sign off on contraception against their faith. one of those sisters is here with us tonight. sister constance feet and mark rianzi representing the little sisters of the poor and part of the beckett fund for religious liberty and john garvey is here, president of the catholic university of america. welcome to you all tonight. >> thank you. >> sister, first, thank you for all of your service. you've been caring for the elderly and the poor for 28 years now. >> yes. >> you took your argument to the supreme court today. how did it go? >> we felt it was a wonderful day. we felt that it went as well as we could hope for. and we are just very, very hopeful and, you know, feel very positive about the whole experience of the day. >> what -- what essentially was the court's response to your argument today? >> you know, i'm no legal expert but we did feel that the court heard our point that the government is trying to hijack our health care plan, to insert the services in violation of our faith. so that's really what i took away from it was that they were hearing that argument. >> mark, could you fill in the blanks there? sister constance sounds pleased with the response from the court today. what was it? did the government change their tune at all? >> yeah, absolutely. it was both the response from the court and the response from the government. for years, the government argued that this coverage is separate from the sister's plan. it's independent. they have nothing to do wit. today they basically dropped that argument pretty quickly and made clear their interest is in making the coverage come with the sisters' plan and insisted only one plan, the sisters plan and they want to use it. that led to several of the justices saying essentially that you're hijacking the sisters' plan and justice kennedy and a great day for the sisters, did government gave up the argument that it has clung to for a few years and the truth really came out which is the government trying to use the sisters plan in a way totally unnecessary and the government can get people contraceptives without nuns. >> was today a small victory for the catholic church? >> well, we'll see who wins in the end but today was a -- it was a very good argument and we were pleased at the attention the court gave to our concerns. >> sister constance, you have to bring us back for a second and obamacare brought into law, what was the response of the little sisters of the poor? i mean, this is a very -- at the same time a very emotional argument that you are making. >> well, you know, when obamacare first came into effect, i don't think that we had a response but it was when the hhs mandate was announced which i believe was a couple of years later, so we really -- it came out to our radar in 2012 and we were just very concerned, anxious about the impact on our ministry because the fines that we face add up to about $70 million a year. >> wow. >> across our 27 u.s. so it's frightening. >> i'm sorry, sister, bhu what would that -- that's a lot of money. what would that have done? >> well, it's an impossible amount of money. something we can't really even fathom. so, you know, we knew that we had to take some action to prevent facing those fines. >> all right. and, mark, can you sum this up for us? where is this fight going? how do you see it ending up? >> well, i see it ending up with the government eventually having to come to its senses probably because the court tells them to but the idea that the government's going to fine the sisters $70 million and essentially take money away from their care for the elderly, poor over this is really a pretty crazy and pretty bad idea. >> right. >> ultimately, the government fought to have the health care exchanges to get insurance coverage and they can use the exchanges for anybody that wants the coverage. there's no need to say it's on the backs of the nuns and we think it ends in a good way and hopefully this june in a good way. >> john, mark, sister constance, thank you to all three. sister constance, w i know how it is. you're all set to book a flight using your airline credit card miles. and surprise! those seats sometimes cost a ridiculous number of miles, making it really hard to book the flight you want. luckily, there's a better way... with the capital one venture card. with venture, you'll earn unlimited double miles on every purchase, every day. and when you're ready to travel, just book the flight you want, on any airline, then use your miles to cover the cost. now you're getting somewhere. what's in your wallet? 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unaccounted for. authorities are working hard to determine if they could be among the 31 innocent people killed or the 270 left injured. police are desperate to locate the man you see here in the light colored jacket, who was spotted with two of the airport bombers. it's believed he took off before the bombs exploded near the u.s. airline counters. because of the bomb's proximity to american airliners, some are now questioning if america herself was an intended target. listen. >> i think it's possible that it was -- that it was a proxy. keep in mind, a lot more is going to become available, but the locations to me clearly were where americans would be. >> shepard smith joins us live from brussels. what's the latest there? >> reporter: good evening. i must say with no disrespect to the senator or anyone else, the speculation is unwarranted. the aisles where the bombers blew up their bombs were used by different airlines at different times on different days. authorities say they are certain that these bombers chose those particular locations because that's where the lines were longest. you take the bomb to where the lines were longest, that causes the most injury and that was clearly their goal. the headline today is that the bomber himself, the man who made the ones, believed to be the one who made the ones in paris and here is dead. his name is najim laachraoui. they found his dna on the suicide vests in november in paris, and they found him blown up inside the airport at that terminal where the two suicide bombers carried out their mission. so the bomber, the man who made the bombs, and one of two brothers dead there in the airport. the other of two brothers killed in the subway when he exploded his suitcase. the one man still at large is a man for whom we have no identity, we don't know his name, what sort of participation he might have had and where he might have gone. witnesses initially said he may have run out during the bombings, but now authorities lead us to believe that they are of the opinion that he left prior to the explosions, whether he chickened out, or just left and changed his mind, whether he realized his bomb wouldn't detonate. those are matters for future news conferences. and further, authorities are insistent they believe some other unknowns also played a part in some way in these bombings. they have not given us any descriptions or reason that they have that to believe. they tell us they're looking for unknown people and raids are being carried out across the city even as we speak. those are the headlines here. i would say there are a number of investigations ongoing inside the neighborhood where they found that bomb making factory. and the taxi cab driver who led authorities to that house is being hailed as a hero here locally. he saw the pictures on screen, said that looks like the guys i took to the airport. led authorities to that home and that's where they found 33 pounds of that explosive that was used in all of these bombings. keep in mind, one pound of explosives is all they needed for the suicide vests in paris. >> shepard, what do you know about this neighborhood, molenbeek, where we're learning so many are becoming radicalized? >> reporter: the two brothers, khalid and ibrahim both grew up there and lived there for decades. it's neighborhood separate from the rest of the city. different police officers there, different language there. they didn't cooperate well with the national authorities. unemployment rate around 33%. a young person's unemployment rate in the mid 40s. and varied suggestions from almost everyone there, it's very hard to get ahead there. so you have that sort of an environment where people are looking for a way out and then in come the jihadis from syria saying we have a plan for you, we have a place that you can belong. like a cult would, they become brainwashed. now the task is to get the federal and local police and community organizers together change that culture. >> shepard smith live for us in brussels, belgium tonight. president obama faces criticism for choosing to continue his overseas trip. and even attended a baseball game in cuba. the former cia director suggesting this was a sign that the president doesn't view the attacks as all that important. >> this is going to sound harsh, but i think it's true. that wasn't a mistake, that wasn't weakness. that was policy. his going to the ballpark, and his spending less than a minute commenting on the attack. i actually believe in his heart of hearts, the president's policy is, that is not that big a deal. there are other things that are more important and that is what he was messaging. >> president obama says that is not the case. >> i've got a lot of things on my plate. but my top priority is to defeat isil, and to eliminate the scourge of this barbaric terrorism that's been taking place around the world. >> dr. sebastien gorka is author of "defeating jihad." good evening to you, sir. >> good evening. thank you. >> so is this criticism of president obama not coming home following these attacks, is it warranted? >> well, you just quoted a career air force general, head of the central intelligence agency, and i tend to agree with general hayden. the statements made by the president smack of the mary antoinette-ish attitude, let the people eat cake. terrorism seems to be a distraction from his life of being a celebrity. he wants to be hanging out with communist dictators and going to ball games. isis is simply not treated as a threat by this president or at least he doesn't give the impression that he really cares about our allies and the americans that were wounded. let's think about one thing here -- >> the white house response to that, president obama's response is he said we let the terrorists win if we all stay home and don't go about our daily business and he said today, isis is his number one -- that is his top priority. why is there a disconnect in what we feel versus what we see? >> these are just empty words. he said we have to unite to defeat the terrorists, but how? how are we going to defeat the terrorists while he's watching a ball game and giving interviews to espn? the fact is, we have to do something concrete. and also, it is the duty of the commander in chief to rally the people, to send a message that we will fight and destroy this evil scourge that is global jihadism. it's not enough to say, we're on top of it. remember, the day before san bernardino, the second largest attack on u.s. soil after september 11, both the president and secretary kerry said, isil is contained and we are winning this war. this is not how you win wars. >> so what would an appropriate response from the white house be to this? >> coming back home as soon as possible, making a statement from the rose garden or from the oval office to the american people about how we will not stand for this, who the enemy is, that they're really evil and we will destroy them and to do something tangible for the belgians, for the people that need our help right now. to send a message. and most important of all, if you want to have the long game, if you read my book, this war will be won by our muslim allies in the region, and we have to help the egyptians and jordanians much more than we are doing today. >> so dr. gorka, the associated press reporting today that isis has trained and deployed hundreds of their fighters to europe to carry out these terrorist attacks. we saw the state department today warn u.s. travelers, if you go there, to be vigilant, to be careful where you attend like ball games. where is this going? >> you don't have to hypothesize. just look at the fact, my wife and i published a paper on the domestic isis threat. in the last 18 months, we have killed or we have arrested more than 95 people in america linked to isis. so the jihad is already here. it's not just in brussels, it's not just in paris or in the middle east, it is here. they have the capabilities and they have an estimated 6,000 westerners who have been recruited by isis, who have western passports, including american passports who can travel freely. we must take this threat much more seriously. >> and michael mccaul saying today there are open investigations, isis investigations in all 50 of the u.s. states. so we thank you for joining us tonight, dr. gorka. >> thank you. my pleasure. as you heard, u.s. investigators are looking into whether the terrorists in brussels were trying to kill as many americans as possible in those attacks. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge has the latest information. >> reporter: sandra, based on the evidence so far in his classified briefings, the republican chairman of the house intelligence committee told reporters today he believes the terrorists in brussels were targeting americans. the bombs at the airport went off near the check-in desk for american and delta and detonated near the u.s. embassy stop. and the congressman said, it doesn't seem to be a coincidence. >> if it becomes true that american airlines and united and delta, that the explosive device went off there, when you couple that with the metro stop near the embassy was also targeted, those are two locations where a lot of americans can be killed. >> reporter: also today, the state department issuing a warning to americans traveling in europe. the terrorist groups are planning more attacks, possibly targeting sporting events, restaurants and transit systems, adding the threat is real and may be imminent. >> the travel alert reflects our assessment that given current information, we believe that daesh, al qaeda, and other terrorist groups continue to plan near-term attacks throughout europe. >> reporter: the associated press is reporting tonight based on european intelligence sources isis has dispatched 400 fighters to europe. u.s. government officials aren't commenting on the number, but said between france, germany, and belgium, more than 600 citizens have traveled to syria and returned home. sandra? >> catherine, thank you. the attack in brussels reshaping the 2016 presidential race, as candidates speak out on issues like the surveillance of u.s. muslim communities. and waterboarding. plus, a new fox poll just out as the gop finds itself no clearer on who will be its 2016 nominee. dana perino and herman cain are here on what we can expect on the road ahead. and one group of catholic nuns can fighting against obamacare for the right to not aid in any employees getting contraception. one of the sisters inside the supreme court today is with us tonight in a kelly file exclusive. >> the faith of the little sisters is the faith of every american. 1, 2, 3, 4... ♪ ♪look out honey... ♪because i'm using technology...♪ ♪ ♪ain't got time to make no apologies...♪ ♪ ♪soul radiation in the dead of night...♪ ♪love in the middle of a fire fight...♪ ♪ ♪honey gotta strike me blind... ♪somebody gotta save my soul... ♪baby penetrates my mind... ♪ ♪ [cheering] ♪and i'm the world's forgotten boy...♪ ♪ ♪the one who's searchin'... ♪searchin' to destroy... ♪ ♪and honey i'm the world's forgotten boy...♪ ♪ does your mouth often feel dry? 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>> i don't think it's that bad. we get that as part of our training. it's miserable, but it's not that bad. if we water boarded that guy we had in brussels, we might have stopped this attack. >> it's miserable but not that bad. but you actually say that waterboarding could have prevented these attacks in brussels. >> i can tell you not waterboarding didn't get us the information. so why not give it a shot. >> all right. where do you stand, pete? >> well, i don't have much of a problem with waterboarding if it's going to get us the intelligence we need in realtime. the problem is the incoherence of what donald trump talks about. he says he wants to torture but his advisers say no, that's not what he means. he's not grounded in a real understanding of what his rhetoric means. therefore, he overcomplicates the situation. for the most part, carl and i agree. we would unleash war fighters, let them go and find the enemy and kill them. but his rhetoric is unhelpful. >> i think he's been real clear on that. >> pete's pamaking the argument that it's more the delivery of the message. >> he wants to bomb the crap out of isis and if the laws permit, he wants to do much more than waterboarding. >> so donald trump and ted cruz appear to agree on at least one thing. donald trump said late yesterday he agreed with ted cruz's proposal to target muslim neighborhoods, calling it a good idea. have we found common ground, carl? >> i think we have. this is the beginning of donald trump bringing the republican party together. i think the message is all getting on board. what's happening is people are coming around. he's not targeting muslim neighborhoods, just maintain the level of police force in those neighborhoods. >> pete, based on your experience, would this work, muslim surveillance? >> well, it did work with the nypd before de blasio got rid of it. you're talking about engagement, surveillance and intelligence. it makes sense. i know 100% of muslims aren't terrorists but 100% of terrorists are muslims. they've got parts of cities where bombers are provided havens. it's just a preview of what america could become. so when donald trump and ted cruz talk about this, they're ripping back the curtain, the false choice that so many of our politicians give us, that we're forsaking our values if we target the enemy. that's just wrong. we're at war right now and we should recognize it. >> pete, you look at any country in the world where muslims are the minority, they're screaming for rights. but where they're the majority, there are no minority rights. so why are we letting them defeat us at our own game. >> so based on both your experience in the military, which is significant, are we having the right conversation in this country about how to combat this? >> i think the way to combat this is we're going to have to go over and take the fight to them. the problem is our president with his limp wristed foreign policy has failed to define this enemy. >> carl, you've been very vocal of your support for donald trump and you say many of your peers in the military support them, as well. pete, who has the best plan that you have seen laid out by the presidential candidates to defeat isis? >> the guy who i felt like had the best plan was marco rubio, but he's not in the race anymore. ted cruz has a coherent understanding of the enemy and he understands how to target the enemy. and isn't wildly vacillating to the extremes like trump does. we need to engage allies in so many different parts of the battle and i think ted cruz has a good sense of what it means to be commander in chief. but the debate needs to happen. >> thank you to you both. >> thank you. another ugly turn on the campaign trail. this time involving the wives of the men, one and two in the gop presidential race. that's next with that. plus, catholic nuns are fighting against the obamacare contraception mandate, in what some are calling the biggest religious freedom fight since hobby lobby. >> this is not about us imposing any kind of restrictions on our employees. this is not about us denying them anything. this is about insisting that the government not impose its pressure on us to violate our faith. ♪ in new york state, we believe tomorrow starts today. all across the state, the economy is growing, with creative new business incentives, the lowest taxes in decades, and new infrastructure for a new generation attracting the talent and companies of tomorrow. like in rochester, with world-class botox. and in buffalo, where medicine meets the future. let us help grow your company's tomorrow - today - at business.ny.gov don't let dust and allergies get and life's beautiful moments. with flonase allergy relief, they wont. when we breathe allergens, our bodies react by over producing six key inflammatory substances that cause our symptoms. most allergy pills only control one substance. flonase controls six. and six is greater than one. flonase outperforms the #1 non-drowsy allergy pill. so you can seize those moments, wherever you find them. flonase. six is greater than one changes everything. hello?!n presents the yardley's. you do? 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aside from whether or not ted cruz had anything to do with it, is family fair game? >> well, you know, i certainly don't like to see anybody's family get dragged through the mud. but if you go after donald trump and you attack his wife, he has every right to defend himself and he has a right to punch back. >> wait, hold on, hold on. based on that statement, i have to get this in here. the super pac operator, run by a woman, a republican strategist, and she has issued a statement on this saying i know you're really upset about that ad, donald trump. but it would make america awesome, not ted cruz. she's denying ted cruz's involvement and thanks donald trump forgiving the ad so much attention. your response? >> i think she took a lot of heat from ted cruz, because now what mitt romney's former campaign person did is she effectively dragged heidi cruz in the mud. now donald trump, you know, is going to push back on ted cruz's wife, because he was provoked by this individual. so she probably got a phone call from ted cruz's people saying why did you do this? now you dragged my wife into this race. so she's trying to provide cover for ted cruz. we don't know if ted cruz knew about this coming or not. >> let me go with that point. >> he benefited in utah. this ad launched to throw the delegates, the caucus to ted cruz in utah. so he certainly benefited from it. >> so guy, she's pointing out that some people are pointing out, and that just because he's not connected with the super pac, that he could still be behind the message. >> there's zero evidence of that. i think this particular episode may be a fresh low in the campaign that has been characterized by boarishness and pettiness because of donald trump's presence in it. it has showcased donald trump's signature ignorance, where he's blaming inaccurately ted cruz for an add, that by the way i won't defend at all, that was not connected to cruz. it was connected to this outside super pac that's been trolling donald trump for months. it's also underscored donald trump's low rent temperament, where he takes his misplaced rage and directing it as another candidate's spouse through a threat. it's classless and stupid. >> when somebody goes after your wife, what is he supposed to do, just take it? >> no, i'm not saying that at all. >> what is he supposed to do? >> what i would like him to do is respond by defending his wife and to criticize the people who launched the attack, not to say oh, i'm going to assume this was launched by someone else -- >> should ted cruz have condemned the use of his wife in that ad? >> i believe that cruz should. i'm not defending the ad. i think milania trump and heidi cruz should be left out of it. but donald trump's knee jerk reaction is to blame the wrong person and threaten his wife. >> to be clear, i'll remind everybody when ted cruz's daughters were targeted by a cartoonist, every gop candidate came to his defense and said kids are not fair game. >> agreed. >> and if ted cruz -- ted cruz should have denounced that ad up front. breaking tonight, the little sisters of the poor have been fighting obamacare for years. today they had their day in the highest court of the land. we have one of the sisters at the center of this fight here tonight. plus, more than 30 2016 primary contests are behind us, and the fight for the nomination continues. dana perino and herman cain are here from the latest fox news poll results. the world needs villains [tires screeching] and villains need cars. ♪ and clean and real and inside jokes and school night. good, clean food pairs well with anything. try the clean pairings menu. at panera. food as it should be. burning of diabetic nerve pain, these feet learned the horn from my dad and played gigs from new york to miami. but i couldn't bear my diabetic nerve pain any longer. so i talked to my doctor and he prescribed lyrica. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior. test. test. test. rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling or blurry vision. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs, and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. now i have less diabetic nerve pain. ask your doctor about lyrica. twell what if i told you that peanuts can work for you? 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this polling, it just keeps getting more interesting. >> i think so. for a long time the electoral race has been pretty much the same. i think this year the map is basically up ended. there a i think this poll, for ted cruz he doubled his approval. so did john kasich. trump gained five. so the republicans, as they have shed some of the candidates, the other ones are consolidating. but i would think both front-runners, trump and clinton, have some good news, they're winning at the ballot box. she's basically putting away bernie sanders. trump has a little bit further to go if he wants to get to that 1237 number. but they're also winning with another number. she at 64% and he had 65% with being untrustworthy. opinions have settled in. and people have strong opinions. this is not an election where people feel sort of okay. they're either for or against. they feel strongly or they're emotional about it. >> when asked if you would be scared if a candidate was elected president, 49% trump, 33% clinton. i'll remind you, those are the front-runners. so it's not a lot of making sense this time around. >> i think that's partly reflective of the fact that a lot of people in america are saying that we are just distrustful of politicians. not that they think donald trump is a politician, but they are distrustful of washington as an institution. they are demoralized about government. and the other thing about the poll, while there's a little ways to go, 6 1/2 months until the general election, in head-to-head polls, kasich and cruz would beat clinton, donald trump right now 11 points behind. >> so why doesn't that help kasich more when people see that he has a better chance, according to the poll, of beating hillary clinton? >> it's a conundrum. but he's won in the southwest, he's won in the southeast, he won in the upper midwest. he won in new hampshire. he won in the -- came in second in iowa. so i think that in some ways the states are not actually reflecting the national news. but that's the way the primary works. >> do you see any change coming as far as leadership in the gop race or does donald trump continue to lead? >> right now everybody needs a breather. we don't have another primary contest until april 5th, and that will be in wisconsin. that's a big one. one of the things that trump supporters would say he might be able to finally bring some of those rust belt states into the gop column. we're talking michigan, wisconsin, maybe down into ohio. there are people on the other side who say dana, what are we talking about? if you look at the head-to-head with hillary clinton, he's down 9, 10, 11 points. here's the good new it is you like politics and cable news. this race, no matter who it is, is going to be very tight all the way until november. >> dana, thank you. >> thank you. >> good to have you. as you just heard, donald trump polled the highest percentage of voters who would be "scared with his presence in the white house" at 49%, with hillary clinton next in line at 33%. leaving some serious questions about 2016's two front-runners. joining me now, former republican presidential candidate herman cain. he's the author of "the right problems." do you see any problem here, herman? >> not really. first of all, remember that polls represent a trend. and i agree with dana, we have a long way to go. and the thing about the fact that these polls don't necessarily reflect the mood of the trump supporters, many of them aren't participating in the polls. here's what i believe are the two reasons why donald trump has the highest fear factor that you pointed out. first, remember a lot of people in the media, they spoon-feed the public with just negative perceptions of a particular candidate, whether that's donald trump or whether that's hillary clinton. a lot of it for hillary clinton is true, but they also spoon-feed a lot of negative impressions of donald trump. secondly, the democrats do a good job of dividing people by pandering to different groups, because the republicans started out with 17 candidates and now it's down to three, most of the time what donald trump really stands for that would help everybody doesn't come through. so i believe that over the next several weeks, more and more of his message that will help everybody come through, and as a result, i believe that the fear factor will go down. >> okay. that being said, in this latest polling, scared was a common word that was used to describe trump. by those that were polled. but he continues to lead this race, herman, and -- >> yes. >> you and i have spoken before. and you sound like you support him. i haven't heard you come out and publicly announce that you're supporting him, but it sounds like you do. do you see the opportunity or the chance that you'll see the party rally around him? where are we with that? >> my position is that i try to set the record straight, and because donald trump has been in the lead for most of this whole primary election, there have been more opportunities for people to take potshots at him. so i find myself trying to set the record straight, whoever it is. so as a result, it appears as if i'm more supportive of donald trump. i want people to know the truth. now, here's where i believe we are in this race. i believe that the people will decide if the establishment lets the people decide. i don't buy into the rhetoric that this is going to be a contested convention coming up for the republicans, and i don't buy into the rhetoric that donald trump can't get the 1237. he's 60% there. cruz is 38% there. kasich is way behind. but i think what's happening that the polls don't pick up is that as he goes from presidential primary to presidential primary, he is exceeding what is expected. so i believe that there's a good probability that he might clinch the 1237 by the time the convention rolls around. >> and as dana just detailed, wisconsin will be another big test coming up for the candidates. herman cain, thank you for joining us tonight. >> you're welcome, sandra. breaking tonight, what are some calling one of christianity's greatest religious liberty fights in our country today. it's playing out right now in front of the supreme court. the sister inside the fight against obamacare joins us exclusively next. sat. wow, it looks really good... volkswagen believes safety is very important... so all eleven models come standard with an intelligent crash response system... hmm. ...seven stability-enhancing systems... hmmm... ...and equipment for two child seats. hmmm... for those who take safety seriously. like we do. the volkswagen safety in numbers event... is happening now! get a $1,250 volkswagen reward card and 0% apr on new 2016 passat models. if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis isn't it time to let the real you shine through? 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>> we felt it was a wonderful day. we felt that it went as well as we could hope for. and we are just very, very hopeful and, you know, feel very positive about the whole experience of the day. >> what -- what essentially was the court's response to your argument today? >> you know, i'm no legal expert but we did feel that the court heard our point that the government is trying to hijack our health care plan, to insert the services in violation of our faith. so that's really what i took away from it was that they were hearing that argument. >> mark, could you fill in the blanks there? sister constance sounds pleased with the response from the court today. what was it? did the government change their tune at all? >> yeah, absolutely. it was both the response from the court and the response from the government. for years, the government argued that this coverage is separate from the sister's plan. it's independent. they have nothing to do wit. today they basically dropped that argument pretty quickly and made clear their interest is in making the coverage come with the sisters' plan and insisted only one plan, the sisters plan and they want to use it. that led to several of the justices saying essentially that you're hijacking the sisters' plan and justice kennedy and a great day for the sisters, did government gave up the argument that it has clung to for a few years and the truth really came out which is the government trying to use the sisters plan in a way totally unnecessary and the government can get people contraceptives without nuns. >> was today a small victory for the catholic church? >> well, we'll see who wins in the end but today was a -- it was a very good argument and we were pleased at the attention the court gave to our concerns. >> sister constance, you have to bring us back for a second and obamacare brought into law, what was the response of the little sisters of the poor? i mean, this is a very -- at the same time a very emotional argument that you are making. >> well, you know, when obamacare first came into effect, i don't think that we had a response but it was when the hhs mandate was announced which i believe was a couple of years later, so we really -- it came out to our radar in 2012 and we were just very concerned, anxious about the impact on our ministry because the fines that we face add up to about $70 million a year. >> wow. >> across our 27 u.s. so it's frightening. >> i'm sorry, sister, bhu what would that -- that's a lot of money. what would that have done? >> well, it's an impossible amount of money. something we can't really even fathom. so, you know, we knew that we had to take some action to prevent facing those fines. >> all right. and, mark, can you sum this up for us? where is this fight going? how do you see it ending up? >> well, i see it ending up with the government eventually having to come to its senses probably because the court tells them to but the idea that the government's going to fine the sisters $70 million and essentially take money away from their care for the elderly, poor over this is really a pretty crazy and pretty bad idea. >> right. >> ultimately, the government fought to have the health care exchanges to get insurance coverage and they can use the exchanges for anybody that wants the coverage. there's no need to say it's on the backs of the nuns and we think it ends in a good way and hopefully this june in a good way. >> john, mark, sister constance, thank you to all three. sister constance, we'll be watching you continue your fight. >> thank you. good night. >> we'll be right back. don't let dust and allergies get between you and life's beautiful moments. with flonase allergy relief, they wont. most allergy pills only control one inflammatory substance. flonase controls six. and six is greater than one. flonase changes everything. theno one surface...out there. no one speed... no one way of driving on each and every road. but there is one car that can conquer them all. the mercedes-benz c-class. five driving modes let you customize the steering, shift points, and suspension to fit the mood you're in... and the road you're on. the 2016 c-class. lease the c300 for $399 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. ♪rugreen presents the yardley's. ♪ sfx: leaf blower dad! sorry. this is more than a lawn. this is a trugreen lawn. live life outside with trugreen, america's #1 lawn care company. spring is on. start your trugreen lawn plan today. trugreen. live life outside. you can use whipped topping made ...but real joyful moments.. are shared over the real cream in reddi-wip. ♪ reddi-wip. share the joy. [engines revving] you can't have a hero, if you don't have a villain. the world needs villains [tires screeching] and villains need cars. ♪ the possibility of a flare was almost always on my mind. thinking about what to avoid, where to go... and how to deal with my uc. to me, that was normal. until i talked to my doctor. she told me that humira helps people like me get uc under control and keep it under control when certain medications haven't worked well enough. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. raise your expectations. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, control is possible. and don't miss a new episode of "war stories" this friday at 10:00 p.m. hosted by colonel oliver north. thanks for watching. i'm sandra smith. this is "the kelly file. this is a fox news alert. i'm mike tobin in brussels. the islamic state dispatched some 400 terrorists across europe. this information coming through the associated press. meantime, we are learning more about the three men caught on security video at the airport just before the attacks. the man to the far left identified as najim laachraoui the manned in middle killed