Listen to this, he pressed to rebuild america starting with our bridges out there. A push for a 9 minimum wage, real immigration reform, a decision to end the war in afghanistan by the end of next year and an end to progressive government itself. Well talk about smoking out our adversaries. The failure of opposition like today puny pathetic reaction from the other side. Tonight the crazed unequal day we heard in washington. This large but unmistakable declaration of how small has become this right leaning opposition. Small, squeaky, and spiteful. Im joined by amy klobuchar. And chuck todd. A democratic president made this pronouncement about a government in america. We have work to give the American People. A smaller, less bureaucratic government in washington. And we have to give the people one that lives within its means. The era of Big Government is over. Last night this president barack obama gave a strong role and criticized republicans who say we must balance the budget. Take a listen. It is our unfinished task to make sure that this Government Works on behalf of the many. And not just the few. Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than 2. 5 trillion. Mostly through spending cuts but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest 1 of americans. We cant ask Senior Citizens and families to shoulder the entire burden while asking nothing more from the wealthiest and powerful. Most democrats, republicans, and independents understand that we cant just cut our way to prosperity. Senator, thank you for joining us tonight. It seems to me there was a statement there from the president which is clearly distinguished from the statement president bill clinton made in an attempt to get reelection back in 96. He wasnt apologetic. He was positive about the role of government last night. And it got a backlash from the other side today. Well, it doesnt surprise me it got a backlash. But i think it was one of the best state of the unions president obama has given. He said this is what we have to do. He started right in. I remember sitting thinking wow he just started right in on the economy. What needs to be done. We didnt even have copies of the speech. Just simply a pointbypoint agenda. Part of the beauty of not having the speech was nobody read it ahead of time. You had the powerful moment at the end when the entire congress was standing whether they agreed with what he was saying about victims of gun violence, there was this moment where people said yeah we should have a vote. He didnt say you have to vote with me. He said these people deserve a vote. I think it was a bread and butter speech about very clear economic agenda for the country. I didnt see it as a caustic speech. They were simply words that said lets get this done. Lets get this going. We need no reduce our debt in a balanced way but we also have to move forward as a country to compete in this global economy. Well, chucks here as well. Chuck todd. Heres the republican reaction we were mentioning there. It was out in force today. Senator Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell said the speech was full of recycled liberal talking points. Lets listen to the senator. An opportunity to bring together the country instead became another retread of lip service and liberalism. For a democratic president entering his second term, it was simply unequal to the moment. Following four years of this president s unwillingness to challenge liberal dogma, we got more of the same. Well, Speaker John Boehner dismissed the president s proposal to raise the minimum wage to 9 on hour. Lets listen to the speaker. Listen. Ive been dealing with the minimum wage issue for the last 28 years that ive been in elective office. And when you raise the price of employment, guess what happens. You get less of it. At a time when the American People are still asking the question where are the jobs, why would we want to make it harder for small employers to hire people . You know, chuck, last night reminded me of high school debating. It was the same old arguments. I mean, im not putting him down necessarily. But what we heard from senator rubio and boehner. Lets fight over minimum wage. The evils of minimum wage. This is where you look at this and i look at this speech as a political document. You look at the minimum wage is a 65 approved item. When you look at universal prek. Thats a 65 approval. When you look at the idea of having high schools get more skill teach more actic skills, this is 65 ideals. Its similar to what bill clinton would pull on republicans in the late 90s. Theyd say they seem liberal. School uniforms. All this stuff. And yet its what average people around the Kitchen Table are thinking well, you know what . Universal prek. I wish i could do that. I cant afford this private school and im not poor enough to qualify for assistance here. So if republicans find themselves where theyre letting the president talk about Kitchen Table issues and have that conversation on his own and theyre not having it. So the minimum wage is a classic thing. Theyre going to end up looking like theyre on the wrong side. Because theres an argument that the minimum wage is sort of like the payroll tax cut. Its actually a way to put stimulus into the economy. Because what happens when you have lower income people, you give them more money, they spend it all. So theres a some economists who say you know what . You want to stimulate consumerism, give lower income people more money. You know, senator, you deal with people all the time. This seems like an easy way to smoke out your opponents and prove their the elite party. More people would like to get minimum wage than those who want to pay it. There are few employers out hey, there u some breaking news from zrksan bernandino. David mcgarr, Irvine Police department. Chief charlie sbrksbeck, specia agent in charge, tim delaney from the federal bureau of investigations. Assistant chief, state of california, department of fish and game. And chief bill siegel, california highway patrol. If you have any questions regarding individual or specific questions, please hold them until the question and answer period. With that, i introduce sheriff john mcmahon. Good afternoon. The events that occurred yesterday in the big bay area, brought to close an extensive man hunt for murder suspect, krisz fer dorner. It was in response to a stolen vehicle with the suspect matching the description of dorner, was later discovered that he crashed that vehicle and carjacked a vehicle in the angelesoaks area. The deputies continued searching that area for the new suspect vehicle, the white pickup truck, as well as dorner. The deputies were able to locate the vehicle crashed and he dorner, fled into a vacant cabin. As the deputies were arriving, we believe suspect dorner began firing and ambushed her dep city sheriffs that were responding. Two of our deputy sheriffs were struck by gunfire, one of which was severely injured. Deputy alex collins, hes currently at the hospital being treated. He went through a couple of different surgeries. I just spoke to his wife. Hes in good spirits and should make a full recovery after a number of additional surgeries. Unfortunately, our other deputy, detective jeremiah was pronounced deceased at 2 24 p. M. Yesterday at the hospital. The detective is 35 years old and has been a member of our department for 15 years. Hes married and has two children, a 7yearold daughter and a 4monthold son. Hes presently assigned to the station but had also been a detective at the big bear station. My sincere condolences go out to the family. This is truly another sad day for law enforcement. Our department is grieving from this event. Its just a terrible deal for allover us. The folks that are up here with me, as well, have also been dealing with this suspects behavior over the last week. We believe that this investigation is over at this point and well just need to move on from here. I will tell you that the dep city sheriffs that responded to this active shooting scene yesterday were absolutely true heroes. There were rounds being fired, as you saw on the news coverage, was absolutely incredible. Our deputies continued to go in to that area and tried to neutralize and stop the threat. The rounds kept coming, but the deputies didnt give up. Our deputy sheriffs are some true heroes. Theyre highly trained and i will tell you that im proud to be a member of this department. And our deputy sheriffs did a great job yesterday. Thank you any questions . Will you take questions now, chief . Yes. Can you confirm that it is mr. Dorner, his remains. I cannot absolutely positively confirm its him. The suspect that we were following and also had stolen the vehicle, matched his description. His behavior, based on our deputys intersaction with him was consistent to mr. Dorner prior to and were not currently involved in a man hunt any longer. Our coroner is working on trying to confirm the identity through forensics and we should know that at some point. Sheriff, there are lots of questions about the fire that started at the cabin. Was that on purpose . Did firefighters set the blaze as a result of the tear gas that was fired in there . I can tell you that it was not on purpose. We did not intentionally burn down that cabin. We used a cold tear gas that was pyre tech nick. It does generate a lot of heat. We had introduced those canisters into the residence and a fire erupted. There was some product about a burner and i dont know what that is. Can you explain that . The canisters are commonly referred to as burners. That goes to your command po post. Im growing to ask the deputy chief who was heading up from big bear to answer that question. Good afternoon, during the initial arrangements, dorners vek was found. We did an extensive search of that area. About 80 of the cabins in that area are part time cabins. We went to each cabin. If there were no signs of break in or no open doors, we then o note noted it and moved on to the next cabin. Any other questions . All of those cabins in that particular area, we sent teams of deputies out to check to see if there was any entry and if we could make con takt. Can you tell us about what happened . What happened to the people that were in there . I dont believe that anybody was in there on thursday. At the start of the investigation, we dont believe that there was anybody that was in that cabin, eerlt a rental or the owner. Did you guys find weapons in the burned out cabin or the one that hoes staying in, any sort of personal belongings that had been linked . Some of these things are still preliminary. As the investigation moves forward, well have more information. As i said, some of that information will become available at the conclusion of the investigation. I would imagine that it could have been thursday, but im telling you, at the time, there was nobody renting that cabin. Did you tell individuals we did not find any forced entry. Do you believe that he picked that cabin because it was close to where the station was . Do you believe that he was planning another attack . Or the shootout just happened because he got scared . No, at this point, that would be speculative and well comment on that later. We spoked to individuals in that neighborhood said people never knocked on their doors. That cabin was a vacation rental. It doesnt sound like you guys were there, you know, and you completely cleared that area. I can tell you that the cabin that had been rented out was february 26th. And there was extensive work of the cabins. Please understand that theres an on going investigation and many of your question wills be answered at a later date. Were not going to be taking any further questions at this point. Statements will be made summarized and well be posting an update to the Department Web site. Id like to thank you all for coming to our press conference. That concludes the press conference for today. Was there any offer to surrender . Can anybody speak to whether there was any tactical abilities that he bragged about . We had been listening in to authorities from the Sheriffs Department there speaking with reporters taking questions during a news con frensz. They are still not positively identifying the remains of what is believed to be Christopher Dorner. He has been identified as jeremiah mccay. Were looking at a picture of him right there. Mccay joined the department in 1998. He is survived by his wife and his two children. Im Veronica Delacruz in the msnbc newsroom. Now, back to hardball. The short time ive been here in washington, nothing has frustrated me more than false choices like the one the president laid out tonight. Well, welcome back to hardball. By any measure marco rubios water gate moment was an awkward one for him and many who see him as the gops savior. A greater consequence may be something more awkward. The effort to reposition itself as a kinder, gentler Republican Party. Lets start with the content of rubios speech. It was more or less a throwback last night. I called it a yafer speech from the old days. The youth speech which we heard back in the 1960s. Lets watch him. President s in both parties from john f. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan have known that our Free Enterprise economy is the source of our middle class prosperity. But president obama . He believes its the cause of our problems. Well, that of course is nonsense. I dont think obamas ever attacked the Free Enterprise system, but rubio wasnt alone last night. A little earlier in the day freshman senator ted cruz of texas put on an ugly performance when he questioned chuck hagels money. I will point out that right now this committee knows absolutely nothing about the personal compensation chuck hagel received in 2008 and 2009 or 2010. We do not know, for example, if he received compensation for giving paid speeches at extreme or radical groups. Well, cruzs attacks were so over the line that even john mccain who lamb basted hagel a week ago came to the senators defense. Senator hagel is an honorable man. He has served his country and no one on this committee at any time should impugn his character or his integrity. Thats what cruz was doing. And john boehner couldnt stick to the script today for the softer, gentler, kinder gop. He told reporters at a breakfast briefing that obama doesnt have this is the new phrase. He doesnt have the guts to cut spending. Today more republican intransigents are holding up again by demanding the speaker actually harry reid from nevada come up with 60 votes to move forward the vote. And senator rand paul put a hold on president obamas pick. Joining me now is salons joan walsh and washington posts dana milbank. They cant beat these people so theyre doing this obstructing. Theyre trying to smear this guy. They know hes going to be secretary of defense. There is absolutely no purpose in what cruz is doing except trying to move hes more obnoxious than neocons are. Theyre just messing around with the government of the United States, i think. Theyre messing around in a particularly ugly way. I mean, ted cruz, this is ugly stuff, chris. And the good news for marco rubio is he makes rubio look like a statesman. And john mccain god bless him is rising to the occasion. And i havent had many nice things to say about mccain in the last few years. It is separating out the attack dogs and the really vicious people from the people who are merely obstructionists. Anyway, marco rubio missed a big moment last night. Its not about the drink of water. It comes down to the fact they do not understand that this new democratic electorate, latinos, women, africanamericans, asians, young people. They like government. They really believe that government has a role in their lives. And they also know something that white voters have forgot. And that is that government created the middle class the first time around. Only they mainly did it for white men, basically. And we can do it again for this next america. They get that. And marco rubio looks different, has a different name, says nice things about government, but its the same old warmed over yafer or tea party nonsense. Yeah thats my point, joan. Hes not saying anything new. Hes saying im a latino, i can talk like this. He was actually saying i can echo the same old stuff you have been washing your mouth out with for 30, 40 years. Same mouthwash. And if i say it not even with an accent, if i have a name rubio somehow thats new. I agree with what youre saying there. The problem was not with what came up to his lips, it was what was coming out. You brought your water with you. You have your prop. First last night i have seen this described as boring, pathetic. Ive never heard a speech maker described as parched. I mean, his thirst was his crowning feature. You could see him literally wiping sweat and wiping lips. It was heading for a crisis. But i dont think thats a problem for marco rubio. In fact, were talking about water instead of the fact that he gay this why was he so nervous last night . And he was so good at places like the convention . Because Time Magazine calls him the savior of the Republican Party. All this pressure on him, all eyes on him. He did, he read the broiler plate script. The reason hes attractive is not just because of his background but hes offering something new in terms of a new republican immigration policy. He gave that the most passing of references last night. Whats he for . The second class deal . Hes now suggesting there should be a path to legalization. Hes behind this deal but hes afraid to say it to his own base right now. Lets go over this pattern. The republicans obviously are you lose the election you try to make yourself more cosmetically pleasing. But look at the way its been here. Rubio, cruz with the nastiness again today, boehner. This sort of soured look at the 9 an hour minimum wage. Dont republicans know theyre stepping back into the bear trap when they say we dont even want to pay a guy 9 bucks an hour. Were not going to give them 18,000 a year. Thats too much. It puts them right back in the trap where mitt romney was caught trashing the 47 . Right back in there. They walked into it. But theyre not getting that. Because they live in a world of an echo chamber whether its fox news. We know that raising the minimum wage has a negligible effect. Where they peddle the same crummy numbers to one another whether its about Climate Change or the minimum wage. And they dont really ever step out into a world where theyre challenged. The other thing to go back to rubio and what da