[ theme ] bill hey, good morning everybody. Good to see you today. It is thursday, january 24. Welcome to the full court press here on current tv this thursday morning. Bringing you the news of the day. From our Nations Capital and our studio here on capitol hill, from around the country and around the globe. And big news today in his final act as defense secretary leon panetta will announce today hes lifting the ban on women serving in combat, a move thats long overdue, over 20,000 women have already served in combat in iraq and afghanistan. 131 of them giving their lives in those two wars. And if you dont believe that women are ready for armed combat just watch Hillary Clintons testimony yesterday before senate republicans. Man, she showed the way all right. All of that and a lot more here on todays full court press. But first, we get the latest, she does combat for us every morning, Lisa Ferguson out in los angeles. Hi lisa. Good morning. Hey bill. I dont know if i quite do combat but i do the news. Good morning everyone. Vice President Joe Biden is holding a talk on gun violence today. It is a modernday version of roosevelts fireside chat only this will be a google fireside hangout. The Online Meeting starts at 1 45 eastern this afternoon and lasts for half an hour. Biden will be alongside Venture Capital ist guy wysocki and phil defranco. Theyre discussing the new policies on curbing gun violence. Biden has scheduled his first gun safety trip. Friday, hes headed to richmond, virginia to discuss president obamas efforts on gun violence. It is a start of an outside push to build support for the president s new policies and while obama will likely also hit the road soon, for now hes staying home. Biden will be joined by other Administration Officials and by virginia senator tim kaine. The house has passed a shortterm extension on the debt ceiling, giving the country until may 18th to negotiate the limit and new budget priorities. As part of yesterdays deal though republicans are stepping up their Austerity Campaign and demanding steep cuts from president obama before they raise the debt ceiling. The g. O. P. Is calling to balance the federal budget in just ten years. Thats almost twice as fast as previous efforts by republicans. If that is the case, medicare and other safety net programs wills take a huge hit. Yesterdays extension of the debt ceiling now goes to the senate which will likely pass it as well. Well be right back. vo currents Award Winning original series is back with an all new episode straight from the headlines. vo in the minefield of the nations gun control debate, this could be the most polarizing issue. Anybody can claim stand your ground and they could get away with murder. Announcer broadcasting across the nation on your radio and current tv, this is the bill press show. Bill yes indeed. Equality moves to the front lines as the pentagon today lifts the ban on women in combat. Big move. A great move. Hello, everybody. Happy, happy thursday and welcome, welcome to the full court press. Coming to you live all the way across this great land of ours. God bless america. Were booming out to you on your local progressive talk Radio Station. How lucky you are if youve got one. Treasury treasure it. Support it. This hour only on exirious. All three hours on current tv. Good to have you with us. You can actually become a partner in the program. Express your point of view. We want to know what you think about them. It is as important as anything i have to say. You can do so by giving us a call at 186655press. Thats our toll free number. You can follow us on twitter at bpshow. More and more people do. I was tweeting out yesterday from the White House Briefing and you can follow my tweets there as long as you sign up to follow us on twitter. Or on facebook at facebook. Com billpressshow. There is a lot to talk about today. This lifting of the ban on women in combat, Hillary Clinton testifying yesterday in front of congress, controversy questions still swirl about beyonce did she or did she not lipsync . We know she did. And still trying to resolve the situation in algeria in libya in syria keeping her eye on that part of the world as well. And it is real. The results and the impact of the recent election. Weve got all of that to cover and we will right here with the help of team press this morning. Peter ogborn and dan henning leading up the battle. Good morning. Bill phil backerts got the phones. And cyprian bowlding our videographer extraordinaire on the video cam. Happy thursday. Bill whats up, guys. Big news is it has snowed in washington for the first time this winter. For the first time in like two winters by the way. Bill we had no snow at all last winter. And it was cold yesterday man. It was really cold. And this time we had you cant say it was much more than a dusting right . About an inch . I would say about an inch. We got an inch. Covered the roads. Bill looks pretty. Yeah. Bill but not enough to snarl one would hope, not enough to snarl traffic or close the schools or the government. Federal government is on unscheduled leave today. Bill get out of here. Unscheduled leave or telework. You overestimate bill thats ridiculous. I didnt even have to put on my snow boots this morning. Just regular a lot of schools are on a twohour delay. Bill weenies. I will give a shout out we complain it is cold here. A shout out to our brothers and sisters in ithaca, new york. I spent five years of my life there. Bill five years to get through college . No. Four and i worked there for a year. I worked at the radio group. Great place. Negative 1 degree for the high there yesterday. Negative 1. Bill yesterday it was up in mid teens here. Bill yeah but something damn it, what was it on the news last night. Oh, i know, it was a ski resort in maine or New Hampshire oh, i heard about this. Bill closed because it was too cold to ski. It was minus 27 degrees. Holy cow bill never heard of it, too dold ski. Wow. So ill take what weve got. Bill who would have thunk it. Who knew. James taylor did perform at the Democratic Convention in charlottesville in charlotte. And of course, he performed at the inauguration but i still never considered him you know like some big liberal democrat. But it turns out he sort of is. And he was on charlie rose yesterday. He had taped this before the inauguration where he says its people like karl rove that are destroying this nation. Naming him by name. There are people who you know to their discredit, there are people who mine and encourage us to refight the civil war. They find political strength from doing that. Im talking about karl rove here. Reopening those wounds of the civil war. For political advantage. For political base. To hide their real political agenda which is elitist. He doesnt even wait for charlie rose to say who are you talking about . Im talking about karl rove bill and the koch brothers. Good for james taylor, man. He did sing for real. Played guitar. Bill on all of the foreign policies Joe Cirincione will be along. Lynn sweet from the chicago suntimes and jeff kelley, center from American Progress on prospects for comprehensive Immigration Reform this year. And Hillary Clinton rules the day yesterday in the United States congress. But first. This is the full court press. On this thursday, other headlines making news, in sports, a historic upset on the College Hardwood last night. Number oneranked duke considered by that ranking as the best Basketball Team in the country, lost to the unranked university of miami and not by a close margin. 9063. First time the hurricanes beat a number one team. Theyre now 143. I went to bed before the game was over last night. I was watching some of the highlights this morning. It was amazing. They never it was never close. They were blowing them away from the very beginning. Bill duke of all schools. Big surprise. Beyonce has remained silent thus far on her lipsyncing National Anthem performance at the inauguration, other singers have weighed in including Aretha Franklin who says the cool air temperature was not good singing weather and she likely would have done the same thing. Aretha franklin did sing it in Colder Weather and she did it live. Aerosmiths steven tyler said hey, whatever gets you through the night. Beyonce is so hot, she can do anything. Lets get real. Bill an inauguration official quoted this morning as saying she did not sing live. All of the nonsense over whether she did or not. B. S. She was lipsyncing. It looks like the mcrib saved mcdonalds from a bad Fourth Quarter. Huffington post reporting the fast food chains Fourth Quarter profits rose slightly and would have been worse had they not brought back the mcrib during the winter. The pork sandwich. They made money because of their push to make many franchises stay open on thanksgiving and christmas. Mcdonald has lost a bunch of market share to burger king and wendys in the last year. I will say i did my duty over the holidays. I go to mcdonalds once a year. To get the mcrib . I go there just to go get my mcrib. Just once. Bill is it worth it . Yeah. I have to say. I really do like the mcrib. It has a lot to do with the fact that i ate them a lot when i was a kid. If you were not if you were new to the mcrib, you would probably think it tastes like crap like the rest of the mcdonalds food but i remember it fondly. Bill you can have mine. Yes, indeed. I have to tell you man watching the secretary of state Hillary Clinton in front of the Senate ForeignRelations Committee yesterday and she appeared in front of the House Committee in the afternoon. I was reminded of several things. Number one the republican war on women. It continues. It aint over, man. They were in the middle of it yesterday. Number two, its a good thing that the violence against women act hasnt been renewed. Otherwise there would have been some of the a whole handful of thugs in the republican republican thugs in the senate and house led by rand paul and john mccain who would have been arrested for assaulting secretary of state Hillary Clinton. And third, i kept thinking about what a glorious time for the pentagon to announce it was lifting the ban on women in combat because if there was any proof that women are ready for combat, it was watching Hillary Clinton. In front of those senators yesterday. I thought she was magnificent andself things about this hearing. But the first one we gotta say again, its disgusting what the republicans have been doing. Remember mitt romney started this, in the middle of the campaign, when we have a terrorist attack against the United States. It was just like 911 in the sense this was american soil, i dont care, benghazi is in libya but it is american soil. American consulate. Terrorists attacked us. What do we do after 911, we all pulled together and said were going to get those s. O. B. S. What did the Republican Party do after benghazi . Were going to get president obama. Were going to get Hillary Clinton. Were going to get susan rice. Started by mitt romney. Picked up by john mccain. Ever since theyve been trying to exploit the murder of a United States ambassador and three other americans for cheap political gains and they are still at it and still trying to make a big point about the fact that when susan rice went on the sunday talk shows and gave what she said was preliminary information that would probably change might likely change the same information that was given to members of the senate, to members of the house and to the white house, they all had the very very, very same reports from our Intelligence Officers that republicans finding she was deliberately misleading the American People. Theyve been beating the drum ever since. It is false false false. It was gusting to see them do it yesterday. The secretary of state handled herself admirably. First of all, as she has done she was tough, she was patient but she didnt take any crap either. As shes done before, she said look the buck stops here. As i have said many times i take responsibility and nobody is more committed to getting this right. Im determined to leave the state department and our country, safer stronger and more secure. Bill she also said, you know this is this means a lot to her because she knew some of these people and their families personally. For me, this is not just a matter of policy. It is personal. I stood next to president obama as the marines carried those flagdraped caskets off the plane at andrews. I put my arms around the mothers and fathers the sisters and brothers, the sons and daughters and the weis left alone to raise their and the wives left alone to raise their children. Bill the sect pointed out our job is to prevent this from happening again and to protect our embassies and consulates around the world. But your job as members of congress is to provide the funding we need to build proper security at our facilities around the world and you havent done it. And she pointed out that they have blocked and voted against request after request after request to increase security at our installations. So she said you guys ought to take responsibility, too. But then the other thing about this hearing is just watching you know i think we ought to have, every once in awhile, a whole day devoted to the ahole of the day. Or yesterday was aholes of the day. I gotta tell you, they were the republicans on that committee yesterday. Lets start with i still cant take him seriously. Rand paul. Thinking hes going to run for president in 2016. Hes got a play for the cameras here. Im glad that youre accepting responsibility. I think that ultimately with your leaving you accept the culpability for the worst tragedy since 911. And i really mean that. Had i been president at the time and i found that you did not read the cables from benghazi, you did not read the cables from stevens, i would have relieved you of your post. Bill worst tragedy since 911, what about the 5,000 americans plus who were killed, gave their lives in iraq . In an illegal unnecessary war. I think thats a worse tragedy than four americans killed in benghazi. How did Hillary Clinton not laugh out loud, when he said if i were president. Bill junior, youll never be president. Well pick up the others later. Ron johnson this jerk from wisconsin who doesnt deserve to be in the United States senate. Boy, hillary leveled him. Again, we were misled that there was supposedly protests and something sprang out of that and that was easily that was not the fact. People could have known that within days. With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead americans. Was it because of a protest or guys out for a walk who decide they would kill some americans . What difference, at this point does it make . It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again senator. Bill wham, bam slam boy, she won that round. Hillary clinton. I think it was her finest hour. Clear winner yesterday. These guys looked like the total jerks that they are. This is whats destroying the Republican Party. They dont realize how bad they looked yesterday. Or do they . Or do they care . Tell me what you think. 186655press. The full court press on this thursday morning. Announcer heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the bill press show. [ voice of dennis ] allstate. With accident forgiveness, they guarantee your rates wont go up just because of an accident. That viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. [ voice of dennis ] allstate. With accident forgiveness, they guarantee your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Smart kid. [ voice of dennis ] indeed. Are you in good hands . You know who is coming on to me now . You know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials . Those types are coming on to me all the time now. vo she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. Ok, so theres wiggle room in the ten commandments, thats what youre saying. You would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. Absolutely. And so would mitt romney. vo shes joy behar. And the best part is that current will let me say anything. What the hell were they thinking . The American People deserve to know answers and they certainly dont deserve false answers. And the answers that were given the American People on september 15th by the ambassador of the United Nations were false. Announcer this is the bill press show. Bill there it is. John mccain who knows better beating a dead horse again. Going back to susan rice when she appeared on those sunday talk shows with the report that had been given to john mccain, other members of the senate, every member of the house and to the white house and susan rice telling the world before she reported what we had been told about what happened in benghazi. She said these are the initial reports. They could very well prove not to be true. They could very well change. They proved not to be true. You attack her for lies . John mccain, get over it. But Hillary Clinton i thought won the day yesterday. Peter, on so many good comments on social media. On twitter were tweeting at