Silent when our citizens are being short changed. Developing now in lower manhattan, piers are reopening after dozens are injured today when a ferry boat made a hard landing during the rush hour commute. And back in the swing of things at the state department, but look how Hillary Clinton responds when asked if shes looking forward to retirement. I dont know if thats the word i would use, but certainly stepping off the very fast track for a little while. And whats missing from this picture . Well discuss. Good day, im Andrea Mitchell live in washington. From joe biden at the white house to Chris Christie in new jersey, andrew cuomo in albany, theres new energy for a comprehensive approach to gun violence control. Chris cillizza, and kristen welker. Thanks much to both of you. First of all, kristen, you were there today, joe biden opening the Task Force Meetings for a brief photo opportunity saying something is going to get done. They have this end of the month deadline. Its going to be in the state of the union. But how comprehensive is this going to be and is it going to be any different from all of the other failed initiatives, frankly . Well, we are expecting something to be quite comprehensive, andrea, and one thing out of the meeting is joe biden said the president is considering taking some executive actions. Hes not sure what those actions are right now, but thats certainly something thats under consideration. We also expect some of the proposals that the Vice President puts forth to include some legislative proposals, stiffer gun laws, including banning assault weapons, banning those highcapacity magazines, as well as dealing with the Mental Health aspect of this, improving Mental Health services, access to Mental Health services, and also dealing with the culture of violence and gun violence that seems to permeate the american culture. So i expect that it will be far reaching, and as you point out, hes set the deadline for the end of the month. Hes meeting with all these groups today, victims rights groups, as well as gun safety groups, trying to get their input. Tomorrow hell be meeting with the nra, with walmart, well be focusing on that meeting to see if anything moves the needle that comes out of that meeting, because, of course, the nra and the white house seem to be pretty far apart on how to resolve this issue, andrea. The other big issue, of course, for this white house is the new cabinet, and the secondterm leaders. Chris cillizza, the worstkept secret in town is perhaps as early as tomorrow jack lew is going to be named treasury secretary. You got a lot of us excited because you tweeted out jack lews signature, its the legit signature. This is the signature thats going to be on all the u. S. Currency once he takes over as they recirculate the new bills. That signature is more in line with him being a doctor, andrea, maybe a reporter, not a secretary of the treasury. What i would say, somebody reminded me that tim geithner changed his signature a little bit when he became treasury secretary because hes going to be on the bill. So maybe. Lets see it again. Bring that picture back, because we just showed what it would look like. That is his signature. Thats jack lew. If you want to go to him he may be a doctor, maybe he has a ph. D. Hes not a medical doctor as far as i know. Its got to be the worlds worst signature, looks more like a doodle. I wonder how he came up with it. Assuming thats confirmed. One more quick thing, we showed you the picture that the white house photographer took of the president and his top advisers during one of the fiscal cliff deadline meetings in the oval office, and they swear to us that somewhere hidden Valerie Jarrett is sitting on the desk, so there is a woman somewhere in this picture, but christian, jack lew, assuming jack lew is named treasury tomorrow and there will be a male chief of staff replacing jack lew, where are the women . Well, andrea, theres no doubt that womens advocacy groups are critiquing and criticizing the president for the fact his top cabinet appointments are all male. The white house pushing back against that, pointing to the fact, look, there are a number of women appointed here at the white house, at one count its 43 , which is higher than the bush administration. Just the same as the clinton administration, 43 . Right. This is something the white house has been answering a lot of questions about. Lets put it that way. Yesterday jay carney was pressed on this issue. I asked about this issue a few weeks ago. He continues to say that diversity is one of the president s important initiatives, but if you look at the top people in his cabinet, certainly, this is a problem and womens advocacy groups are pointing it out. Andrea . Thank you very much. So to answer that question, among others, where are the women, joining me now, democratic senator from minnesota. We know where the women are, they are in the senate, at least 20 of them, yourself included. Congratulations on your reelection. Well, thank you, andrea. Were excited about all these new women coming into the senate. Senator, what about the gun violence issue, because this is one of the issues youre addressing. Youre talking about a comprehensive approach, and we looked at the map, the map that usa today had yesterday. Mental health, generally across the nation, we get a d grade for Mental Health comprehensive care. Minnesota among those states gets a c grade, you guys are about average. What about this gun control or gun violence control or taking a comprehensive approach, what do you think needs to be done . Kristen got it right in talking about all the many complicated things that have to be looked at here that Vice President bidens group is going to make recommendations on. First of all, mental illness, im a former prosecutor, theres a regulation here, weve seen an increase in these crimes, so that has to be a piece of it. Better background checks. That was the issue in virginia tech, where we have now 19 states that have less than 100 records theyve submitted for the background Check National system to buy a gun. You have the issue, of course, of the highcapacity magazines, and if we can put some limits there. Each of these shootings, you need to look at the facts. Im a prosecutor, i believe at looking at evidence and youll see a vast number of things that can be solutions here. Its not a one size fits all, and i think the fact that the people are open to looking at a number of things, including some conservative lawmakers who have been endorsed by the nra in the past and said we need to look at everything and make some changes. Chris christie was on morning joe today talking about a comprehensive approach for some, im not suggesting he, but for some opponents of gun control, is talk about the Mental Health issues and the violent video games, is that a cop out, a way to try to get past doing anything substantive about controlling the assault weapons and the magazines . I dont think so. I think its only a copout if you refuse to look at the other side of the equation here. Clearly, when you look at the Movie Theater shooting in colorado and you look at what happened in newtown, the highcapacity magazines and assault weapons is something you have to look at in terms of reducing the number of deaths, but the other piece of this is mental illness. We should look at some of the violence in our culture, whether its having video games with better ratings systems, those things should all be in the mix. As a senator, youre going to have to consider the confirmations of some of these new cabinet members, what about hagel and john brennan, because they have been controversial and have some opposition. Well, first of all, with chuck hagel, you have someone whos decorated war hero, you have someone who served well in the senate, who has a lot of support from people. At the same time, you have senators who have legitimate questions. I think whats important here, andrea, were finally going to have a hearing to have opportunity for the nominee to answer these questions instead of just having his name out there not being able to answer it. Youve seen a number of senators that are open minded and give full consideration to his nomination. I was just concerned this kept going without a nominee, now there is a nominee for both positions and all of these concerns, as they should be, should be considered in the process. Based on what you now know, do you think hagel will be confirmed . I have no chrrystal ball, i wouldnt have thought wed be in the senate at 2 00 in the morning on new years eve. I dont think anyone can really say, but i think there are a number of people who have been very open minded here and getting to the bottom of these concerns that have been raised and making sure that we have a good and thorough process. I think thats a positive thing and im glad the president s moved forward with the nomination. We showed earlier the picture pete souza took of the president and his advisers. Were now seeing a predominantly white male cabinet in the top posts. Is there an issue for you and the lack of diversity so far . First of all, look what the president has done here, Hillary Clinton, cant get a stronger woman in as secretary of state, stronger president in. Napolitano, karen mills, Small Business director, two Supreme Court nominees have been women, he does have a strong track record here. Not all nominees have been announce ed yet. Obviously, id like to see women there. Its important to reflect the country that he represents. On the senate issue, what a great thing to see all those 20 women in the senate, as i noted to you in the past, we already had our first ever in United States history traffic jam in the womens senate bathroom, so things are changing and im pleased to be the mentor to the new republican senator from nebraska, deb fischer. Women in the senate have always worked together and the bigger our numbers, the better for the country. One thing, you always worked together in the past is the violence against women act, all 17 women voted for it. Of course, it died in the house. Are you going to try to resurrect that this session . We certainly are. This is an outrage. All 17 women in the senate, 68 votes in the senate for that act. It basically consolidated the number of programs, did new things with immigrant victims, American Indian victims, that its still sitting over at the house is a crime. When Police Officers that i used to work with as prosecutor go to a door and theres a victim of domestic abuse, they just do their job. Thats what congress has to do here and reauthorize whats always been a bipartisan bill. The senate did its job, time for the house to do theirs. Thank you very much, senator klobuchar. Thanks for being with us today. Well have more women on the Softball Team, congressional Softball Team to compete with your press team, andrea. Were glad about that. Well do better this year. The Young Survivors Coalition against breast cancer. Thank you very much, amy klobuchar. Thank you for all your work on that, thank you. Still ahead, a public plea from the family of robert levinson, missing for six years in territorial iran, but now seen. Chris christie, his take on his partys identity problem. I describe myself as a mother, a writer and a performer. Im also a survivor of ovarian and uterine cancers. I even wrote a play about that. My symptoms were a pain in my abdomen and periods that were heavier and longer than usual for me. If you have symptoms that last two weeks or longer, be brave, go to the doctor. Ovarian and uterine cancers are gynecologic cancers. Symptoms are not the same for everyone. I got sick. And then i got better. Iimagine living your life withss less chronic low back pain. Imagine you with less pain. Cymbalta can help. Cymbalta is fdaapproved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. One nonnarcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. Tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. 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The family of former fbi man robert levinson, missing since he disappeared in iranian territory in 2007, as released pictures taken a couple of years ago. The retired fbi agent is seen in a orange prison jump suit Holding Signs taunting the u. S. Pleading for help. Levinson disappeared while on a private business trip. Pete williams, nbc news justice correspondent joins me now from the Supreme Court. First of all, pete, what do we know about do we know any more about levinson other than we see this visual evidence proof of life a couple of years ago. We got sources that this is proof of life and there was a revig rated attempt to try to get him out and find out what the iranians know, but weve had very few clues, if any. Thats right, these pictures were sent anonymously to the family in late 20102011, but his wife put them out to get more attention and build further pressure on what she believes is the iranian government thats holding him and also the u. S. To do more publicly to pressure iran. Iran put out a statement through its representatives in the u. S. Yesterday saying that they investigated it and have found no sign that hes in iran, but, obviously, the family doesnt believe that. The officials ive talked to say theres simply no evidence hes anywhere else. And so the still i guess its fair to say the assumption of the United States is hes still somehow being held in iran by somebody and the family hopes of putting these pictures out will call new attention and maybe get some new interest stirred in this case. Of course, with the state departments view is if someone is being held in iran, it is known to the top leadership. Its obviously known to the Republican Guard and others in charge. And the family agrees. The Supreme Court, where you are today, very interesting argument was heard today, where do the justices seem to be coming down or what kind of questions were they asking about the issue of whether someone can be forced to take a blood test when stopped for apparent drunken driving or suspicion of drunken driving . Thats the question. Normally the Fourth Amendment says it cant do a search and is well settled at taking blood by force is a search, that the police cant do a search without a warrant. Now, there are some exceptions, and one exception is if the cops knock on the door and somebody is washing drugs down the drain. Missouri, where this drunk driving arrest happened, says thats exactly the case here, every minute goes by, your body is metabolizing blood alcohol and the evidence is lost and thats enough, the state says, that you shouldnt have to ever get a search warrant when you arrest someone for drunk driving. But i think its surprising the justices didnt seem to be buying that. They were agreeing with the aclu here that you need to have something more than fear the blood alcohol level will drop in order to justify a search without a warrant. I think, andrea, it seems the Supreme Courts not going to agree with missouri. Interestingly, 25 states already ban taking blood tests without a warrant in these drunk driving cases. Very interesting, pete, thank you very much. Thanks for double duty there at the Supreme Court. Whether its the fight for sandy relief, tough talk about his own party or the impact on the 2012 election, Chris Christie is a reality waiting to happen. Jonathan martin is a senior political reporter for politico and joins me now. Chris christie is everywhere, on the cover of time magazine, morning joe, the today show, he always has a way of grabbing attention. Certainly, the fact hes taking on his own party puts him in the front lines of the conversation about how to reinvigorate the Republican Party after two losses. Hes a congenital newsmaker and it helps he lives not far from the hudson river in terms of national tv. He can be in a car and be in midtown manhattan pretty fast in a way that a governor of, say, louisiana cant do quite as easily. I think that certainly helps governor christie, but theres no question he is good copy, in terms of taking his own party or speaking out about the hurricane that the hip east coast, hes somebody that has a knack for getting attention. What im curious about is what the republican base, is he helping himself here of late and hows this all going to play when were in iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina in 2015 and 2016. Thats the open question, i think. And, you know, does he play outside of new jersey where his popularity is now skyrocketing . This is an exchange between Chris Christie and matt lauer today. Are you happy with the course of the Republican Party right now . Matt, weve lost two National Elections