Hello, everyone. Just about high noon here in the east. 9 00 a. M. In the west. Welcome to weekends with alex witt. Here are the top stories. The shocking death of an american sniper. Details on that. The missing new york woman turns up overseas. Another new picture around the globe, a big boom in the big easy for the super bowl. Well have those stories throughout the hour. First in a new interview airing today on telemundo, president obama is sharing his time line for passing immigration reform. The senators themselves have said that they would like to see legislation done by march. That they would like to present that not only to the fellow members of the senate, but also the American People. I think thats a reasonable time line. The important point here is that we have been working on this for a long time. We know what the issues are. I have a bill drafted. We have language. Also new today, outgoing defense secretary leon panetta is offering a sobering deadline that triggers automatic across the board cuts. Let me tell you, if sequester happens, it is going to damage the readiness of the United States of america. We have the most powerful military force right now. Its important to providing stability. If it goes into effect and we have to do the kind of cuts that will go right at readiness, right at maintenance, we are going to weaken the United States and make it more difficult to respond to the crises in the world. Joining me now, Peter Alexander. With a good sunday to you, my friend. We have the president talking about gun control proposals, what is he saying . Reporter its as much about what he is doing and what he is saying in his trip to minnesota. This is a state that has a long history of gun ownership in that community. Nearly one in ten people in the state of minnesota have licenses to hunt in that state. Minneapolis is an area that is familiar with gun violence as well. A mass shooting that took place in september. The president is going to lay out and put an emphasis on his proposals to crackdown on gun violence. Here is what he said to telemundo that will air later. It has nothing to do with taking away peoples guns. Nobody is talking about violating the Second Amendment. We are talking common sense things like i met with law enforcement, police chiefs, sheriffs Gabby Giffords today. Right. Small communities, rural communities, big cities. There are things they know will make sense. Its what we have proposed. Reporter the president is getting help today in the form of an ad put out by a group funded by michael bloomberg. This is an ad that is going to air exclusively in the washington, d. C. Mark up. It will be seen by politicians and the president who live in this community. It has a message they hope will grab the attention of the people across the country. It is narrated by children. Take a listen. The nra once supported background checks. We think its reasonable to provide mandatory instant criminal background checks for every sale at every gun show, no loopholes anywhere for anyone. America can do this. Reporter thats Wayne Lapierre in 1999. He, of course, is basically the chief voice of the nra still today. He was on fox news sunday, this morning. He was indicating his opposition to universal background checks. Obviously. Its not what he said in 1999. His fear is there would be a gun registry and the government would insert itself in what should be a private matter for individuals. That radical change of thought. You know the picture that jay carney tweeted, a lot of people were talking about it. Reporter there were a lot of people talking on it. If you go on social media, im sure you heard about the skeet shooting. We reached out to the nra after that photo was put out. One picture does not erase a lifetime of supporting every gun ban and every gun control scheme available. The white house would challenge that characterization of the president s policies on guns. He is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. Many thanks as always. New on meet the press, panetta gave his confirmation to chuck hagel. The political knives were out for chuck hagel. What disappointed me was that, you know, they talked a lot about past quotes. What about what a secretary of defense is confronting today . Joining me now is democratic senator richard bloomen that will. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Will you vote in favor of the nomination . I will vote in favor of chuck hagel. It was a tough, gruelling hearing. But, i believe that on the key question, is he qualified to be the secretary of defense, he established he is a combat veteran who gave his life. Clearly a man of statute, cares about men and women in uniform and veterans. On the important questions going forward. He said he has shown that he has the qualifications to guide the department of defense in this very challenging period when budget cutbacks and other challenges are going to be at the forefront. Yours was one of the more civil direct questionings of chuck hagel. You talked about veterans issues, prosecuting sec yule assault, classifying them have enough made of them, do the job to defend the country and the like. However, some of your colleagues seemed almost prosecuting. Why was it like that . I was disappoint eed by the lack of civility of someone who served in this country, served in the Veterans Organization and the United States senate. Most important, the lack of focus on the policy and budget issues going forward. We are now drawing down from afghanistan. I hope at an accelerated pace, more quickly. Virtually no questions about the mission in afghanistan, training the afghans and combatting al qaeda and its affiliates. Virtually, little, if any focus on the see quest ration we will face. I focused on building submarines which we must do. He committed himself unequivocally. Going forward, the Strategic Decisions of spending. I think that there should have been more focus on the forward looking aspect. I was disappointed there wasnt. So, do you think, senator, that part of the aggressive questioning was personal about hagel breaking rank with former len colleagues and i guess what comes to mind is senator mccains q a with him. Chuck hagel came out and accompanied president obama when he was a candidate and helped build his Foreign Policy and didnt hang out and support his friend and republican colleague john mccain. Was there something personal there . There is always something personal in relationships between senators and chuck hagel is a former senator. I cant speculate on motives of each of the senators. They are probably different motives, an array of intent and purpose. I think there will be a vote this week in the committee, if not this week, next week, but soon. I believe there will be republican votes for senator hagel and if not in committee, at least on the floor. I believe he will be approved. I think the personal issues, hopefully, will be put behind us. Most importantly, it will be a bipartisan vote. Whatever the motives on a personal level, i hope partisanship is not part of this process as the American People watching that hearing may have concluded it was because the weight of the republican questioning, the prosecuting or crass examination aspect was so much on the republican side. Do you agree with the old tradition that president s should be able to pick their own cabinet, choose the people with whom they want to work . You know, past quotes and votes are fair game. You said that. Exactly. I did. Senator hagel, in his Opening Statement said he should not be judged by a single quote or a single vote. Its a fair point, too. Those questions about policy, past statements and actions are fair enough for this kind of setting and the committee has a responsibility, an obligation as well as opportunity to vet the future secretary of defense. Again, the key question is, a combat veteran, the first secretary of defense who would be an enlisted man who has seen war as he put it very movingly and passionately from the bottom. I can tell you in his meetings with me privately as well as publicly, he was passionate and intense about his commitment to men and women in uniform and veterans at a time when we need to retain the leaders and war fighters of the future when we draw down and we reduce the size of our troop levels. Every war in the past has been followed by a hollowing out of military personnel strength, the greatest asset we have is our people. We need to attract and retain them. He would be a leader by virtue of his passion and caring about the enlisted man as well as officer that is would be seen in that way and could play a crucial role in the personnel decisions. I hope very much that he will be judged on his merits, his leadership for the future, not past quotes and votes alone although they are relevant and i believe strongly that he will be confirmed if that judgment is made on the forward looking questions. Senator, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you, alex. Now to texas where local and federal officials are investigating a double murder at a shooting range. One of the victims a highly decorated navy s. E. A. L. He was described as the most lethal sniper in military history. He was featured on stars and stripes. Moments ago, Police Released this booking photo. Many questions remain. We have a couple different scenes we are looking at. Thats all being processed. The crime seen itself is processed. Details about weapons and types of anything like that, that will come out later as the investigation unfolds. Joining me now from where police captured him is mark snyder from kxas. Mark . Reporter we are out the Lancaster Police department 100 miles east of the crime scene. This is the city where the suspect is from. Hes gone before a judge and been arraigned on two counts of capital murder. Hes left the Police Department and transferred back to where the crime happened. We have video of the scene where police got him here in lancaster. We checked his criminal history and found a dwi charge, conviction last year. We are trying to find out motive or relationship he has with Christopher Kyle and another victim, chad littlefield. After the shooting, he left the gun range in chris kyles ford pickup truck. He went back to his home in lancaster. Police found him, caught up with him. They had a short pursuit but put him into custody without incident. They have a long way to go on this investigation. Were in lancaster, mark schneider, back to you. Thank you so much. Lester holt has a conversation with him about his four tours in iraq. I searched on top of the roof. The Movement Made me zoom my scope in on him, figure out what hefgs doing. I saw he has an rpg. About the time i saw he was getting into attack position, i decided it was time to take the shot. We are going to have more of the interview at 1 30. An overwhelming response this weekend to gun buyback programs across the u. S. Early reports show a wide variety of weapons from handguns and sawed off shotguns to high powered assault rifles. In miami, people handed over 75 guns in exchange for gift cards or miami heat tickets. In seattle 160 guns turned in before police ran out of money. Now to super bowl xlvii a battle of west coast versus the east coast. Most people are there to have fun. Im confident you are working in fun with the work in new orleans. First question, are people still looking for tickets, can they get nem them . Reporter the tickets are the name of the game. When i was walking over here, people said got tickets, do you want to buy a ticket . If you go on stub hub, there are tickets available. At last count, 450. The lowest was priced at 1200. Its probably a nosebleed seat for that price. If you want to go, its possible. All the celebrities around town probably have their tickets already. They were out in force last night at the partys here in new orleans. A couple of them making the rounds were anna ferris, Neal Patrick Harris is here and rooney from rascal flatts. Celebrities were performing as well. Justin timberlake and jayz had a concert that was invitation only. They probably have good seats. The gates open in a couple hours. Already, there are hundreds of people outside the gates lining up, waiting to get in. Buying tshirts. Its super bowl day with glorious weather, already in full swing. Okay. Sounds like a great report. Im going to work in fun. Of course you are. Thank you very much. West coast headlines are next with a page on why farmland is disappearing. President obama should be like ike in his second term. Why . That writer joins me next. Ike for president ike for pth you like ike, i like ike well take ike to washington we dont want tom or hair yacht yes she is. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] couldve had a v8. 100 vegetable juice, with three of your daily vegetable servings in every little bottle. I honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didnt think i would ever quit. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. It reduces the urge to smoke. It put me at ease that you could smoke on the first week. [ male announcer ] some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. If you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. Tell your doctor about any history of depression or other Mental Health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. Dont take chantix if youve had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. If you develop these stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be lifethreatening. If you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms. Get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack. Use caution when driving or operating machinery. Common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. With chantix and with the support system it worked. It worked for me. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. This reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work . You just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. Step 1. Eat the soup. All those veggies and beans, thats what may help lower your cholesterol and well thats easy [ male announcer ] progresso. You gotta taste this soup. Some headlines making news on the west coast. The front page of the San Francisco chronicle. Most of the space is devoted to the 49ers. Its no surprise, they are playing in the super bowl. A piece on senator Dianne Feinsteins proposed gun bill. On the front page of the press enterprise in inland, california, a growing concern of solar farms where you see solar panels. Developers are buying up so much farmland some officials worry too much farmland will disappear. We have heard the second term curse. In the new issue of washington magazine, president obama should learn from president dwight eisenhower. The way to avoid the curse is be like ike. Joining me is evan thomas. He wrote ikes bluff. Welcome, so glad you are here. Hi, alex. What is so great about ike . He was enormously confident but the confidence to be humble. This is kind of a useful lesson for all of us, but particularly second term president s. It goes well if you are humble. He learned it growing up and as commander in world war ii. He showed as president , he has a nice modesty and humility to get things done. How does that reconcile with a guy who ranks being a fivestar general, you have to have an ego to do that. Sure. He learned how to control it. He used to work for general mcarthur. He was glorious and that. Eisenhower learned not to be that way. He said he got ahead by concealing his ambition. He did. It worked for him. If these great virtues include patient, confidence but not selfimportant, how does our current president stack up . I think hes a good man, but he can be cocky. Hes put upon. Hes doing everybody a favor by being president. It works against him. It alienates voters and other lawmakers. It would be useful for him to take his confidence and be more humble. You bring up a couple interesting points. Lets talk timing. They didnt have 24 7 cable news and twitter to deal with. You talk about political divisiveness. Everyone says Todays Congress is most partisan ever. Look at president eisenhowers tenure. It doesnt get much worse than that. How did he deal with that . Well, mccarthy was out of control. Eisenhower worried about his own right. He was low key. He thought mccar think would hang himself and he did. Not showing his hand, a hidden hand presidency. They brought mccarthy down. Eisenhower was very patient, a quality i wish i had more of. He worked behind the scenes to get things done. He reached out across the aisle. He was happy to work with democrats, particularly southern democrats. Yes, it was a different age. No cable tv and twitter. Some of the same human rules app apply. If you reach out to people, if you give credit to others, it goes better for you. I love that you talk about the patience he had. I thought it was funny that part you wrote about his having a temper and how he would be out playing golf and he took a golf and swung it at his doctor. He did. He had a big temper. He threw his golf club at his own doctor. Not so great. Yeah, not so great. But he hid his temper from the public and other senators and politicians. His aids said he was like peering into a furnace. He had tremendous selfcontrol. Its useful to have selfcontrol. Useful to be sneaky. You talk about how he could be that way with the fellow members. He played dumb pretty well. He did. He did. Once before a press conference, mr. President be careful. Eisenhower said dont worry. Ill just confuse them and he did. Sometimes he had intentionally bad sin tax. He was deflecting attention. He wasnt shy. He met with the press every other week. Its more than any other president. He was out there. He was careful not to overstate things. Careful not to show off too much. I want to ask you and this is the last thing, was he a little bit vain because of the eisenhower jacket. He took pains to show off his physiq physique. He did. I asked his family about it. He was a buff guy and he looked good in the eisenhower jacket, which he designed. He was vain, arent we all . He was careful not to show off. Well, ill glad you showed off with this book. Its a good one. Ikes bluff. Thanks for joining us. Thanks. T