• 'We were talking about that last emotional note': NBC News correspondents on Obama's speech

    NBC's Brian Williams, Andrea Mitchell, Savannah Guthrie, Chuck Todd and David Gregory discuss President Barack Obama's push for a vote on gun control at the end of his State of the Union address.

    President Barack Obama's emotional call for a congressional vote on gun control during Tuesday night's State of the Union address struck many in the House chamber as a powerful moment, including NBC News' top correspondents, who also picked up on significant points in the president's remarks on the economy and North Korea.

    Brian Williams
    Anchor and managing editor of 'NBC Nightly News' and 'Rock Center with Brian Williams'

    This is ... part of the backdrop of gun violence and public violence that kind of formed the backdrop for the president to come into that chamber tonight. Someone mentioned on social media tonight that immediately after the speech, we weren't talking about the economy. We were talking about that last emotional note.

    Chuck Todd
    NBC News political director and chief White House correspondent 

    To me, it was a tale of a couple of speeches. You had a very run-of-the-mill State of the Union where he was putting together agenda item after agenda item that sounded like the campaign, that was very well focus-grouped, very well poll-tested — minimum wage, pre-K, things that people care about at home, education and jobs. And then, I have to say, the entire tone of the speech changed there at the end. It was just incredibly emotional. You don't find many State of the Unions that have moments like that. He's had to do a State of the Union right after the Gabby Giffords shooting that had some emotional moments, but that was something else, and, boy, did he put his entire weight behind guns in a way that I don't think a lot of people expected.

    Savannah Guthrie
    Co-anchor of TODAY and NBC News chief legal correspondent

    To be crass about it, he played the best card he had in a very difficult political fight — the emotion card. Here he is in a hall full of people who have been directly affected by gun violence, and yet he faces an uphill battle. He's hoping that the tragedy of Newtown — that still-searing scar that this country has — will change the political calculus. But it's not just Republicans he has to deal with to get a coalition to enact some kind of gun legislation. He's got to get conservative Democrats, conservative members of his own party from red states, many of whom are facing re-election or are advocates of gun rights and gun ownership. ...

    It's the calendar that's the enemy right now. The farther away you get from Newtown, the more difficult this task becomes.

    David Gregory
    Moderator, 'Meet the Press'

    How does government work to make the economy better? That's the big challenge of his second term. Boy, there was a shot across the bow of Republicans tonight when, in effect, he said obsessing about the deficit (and) deficit reduction is not a plan for economic growth. ...

    He said, the president did, it's not a bigger government we need but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth. And who did he mention quite a lot tonight? Apple. Siemens. CEOs. The business community.

    Kelly O'Donnell
    NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent

    During the emotional part, where the president was referring to potential gun reforms, Gabby Giffords and her family, about 5 to 7 feet behind me, were standing — she was applauding with difficulty with her right hand. ... There was one moment where I just happened to catch it where a woman was shouting the name of a young woman and saying she deserves a vote.

    Andrea Mitchell
    NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent

    There was a clear warning to North Korea, but it was an empty warning. Unless China jumps in with heavy sanctions, which is unlikely, there is no further punishment of North Korea that the Western allies can enact.

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  • Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Feinstein: 'We will need to talk to David Petraeus' about Benghazi

    Congressman Peter King, who serves as Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, tells TODAY's Matt Lauer that the FBI had an "absolute obligation to tell the president" as soon as General Petraeus' name came up in the agency's investigation.

    By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee says she will seek testimony from former CIA Director David Petraeus, who resigned Friday as CIA director after acknowledging an extramarital affair, about the September attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead.


    “I have no doubt now that we will need to talk with David Petraeus and we will likely do that in closed session. But it will be done one way or another,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell on Monday.

    Feinstein also she also may subpoena reports on a trip Petraeus took to Libya in the last year.

    “I believe that Director Petraeus made a trip to the region shortly before this (Petraeus affair) became public,” Feinstein said on "Andrea Mitchell Reports." “We have asked to see the trip report. One person tells me he’s read it, and then we try to get it and they tell me it hasn’t been done. That’s unacceptable.” 

    “It may have some very relevant information to what happened in Benghazi,” Feinstein said.

    A week and a half ago, Petraeus went to Tripoli and conducted a personal inquiry into the Benghazi attack, NBC News has confirmed.

    Petraeus has not commented on his trip to Benghazi last month.

    Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., tells NBC's Andrea Mitchell that "a decision was made somewhere not to brief" the Senate Intelligence Committee about on the Petraeus affair and compares the scandal to "peeling an onion," saying "every day another peel comes off," revealing "a new dimension"

    Petraeus revelation began as cyber-harassment probe

    Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, information management officer Sean Smith and security personnel Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed in the Benghazi attack on Sept. 11-12.

    Petraeus, a decorated four-star general who received widespread praise for the surge strategy that helped stabilize the insurgency in Iraq, resigned as CIA director on Friday, citing an extramarital affair.

    Numerous federal government officials have told NBC News that the married general had a relationship with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, 40, who authored “All In,” a book about Petraeus’ education.

    Feinstein said she received no advance notice of Petraeus’ resignation or the affair.

    The affair came to light after an FBI investigation into harassing emails sent to a family friend of Petraeus, Jill Kelley, sources have told NBC News. The investigation traced the emails to Broadwell, who revealed the affair. Petraeus also admitted the affair.

    The FBI determined that no criminal charges would be filed as a result of the investigation.

    Lawmakers question timing of Petraeus resignation

    But now, Feinstein has linked the Petraeus affair with another controversy within the Obama administration – the attack on the Benghazi diplomatic mission in Libya.

    The Senate Intelligence committee planned to start closed-door hearings on the Benghazi attack on Thursday with further proceedings expected to follow. Petraeus had been expected to testify at the hearings before he resigned as CIA director.

    Republican lawmakers and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney have criticized the administration’s evolving explanation of what triggered the Benghazi attack. Officials early on said it was a spontaneous reaction during a protest about an anti-Islamic film. Later, it was termed a planned terrorist attack.

    Questions have also been raised about whether the consulate had adequate security and whether the State Department responded appropriately to requests for more protection.

    Feinstein also questioned Broadwell's role as Petraeus' biographer. 

    “It’s a rather confused situation because  at one point she was an Army reservist doing intelligence-related work, at the same time she was doing a journalist’s work, a biography on David Petraeus,” Feinstein said. “It seems to me these two things don’t go together, it seems to me someone who becomes active military should not be writing a book.”

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  • NBC's Andrea Mitchell: Title IX broke barriers beyond athletics for women

    By Andrea Mitchell, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent

    On a softball field near the Capitol this week, a scrappy team of bipartisan women from the House and Senate – including four grandmothers – took on a far younger lineup of women from the congressional press corps to raise money for breast cancer research. The women of the press corps won 13 to 10, but not without fighting off a late-inning rally from the politicians. Watching from the sidelines: an 82-year-old retired high school coach, a woman who flew across country to root for one of her former students, California Congresswoman Laura Richardson.  A lot of the women on both teams played high school and college ball. So did UN Ambassador Susan Rice, who showed she had game in a basketball face-off among cabinet secretaries and WNBA players Thursday night. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius also had some moves.   

    None of this would have happened before Title IX revolutionized women’s athletics, and a lot more. As President Obama (basketball coach to Sasha’s school team) points out today in his web address, “Title IX isn't just about sports. From addressing inequality in math and science education to preventing sexual assault on campus to fairly funding athletic programs, Title IX ensures equality for our young people in every aspect of their education. It's a springboard for success.”

    There is perhaps no better example of what women could accomplish through sport and education than Pat Summitt, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House for her accomplishments. And we shouldn’t forget that Title IX helped young women force their way into math and science courses that, in many cases, they had routinely been discouraged from taking.

    For me, it’s personal. When I was the program manager of my college radio station, women couldn’t do sports play-by-play. The barriers went well beyond athletics: after graduating, on assignment for a Philadelphia all-news radio station, I was once barred from the press room in the State Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa. No women allowed. Now, I look around our newsroom and see an incredible team of female executive and senior producers who have options that would have been inconceivable before Title IX. Appropriately, they take sports for granted. My senior producer, Michelle Perry, did crew for Berkeley. Our Senate producer, Libby Leist, was on the swim team in high school. And there is plenty of evidence that women who compete in sports perform better in other pursuits off the field.

    For my generation, the imbalance was perhaps best symbolized by the careers of women like Billie Jean King. That’s why her defeat of Bobby Riggs, in the same era as the passage of Title IX, was such an empowering moment. Thanks to Title IX,  Billie Jean and other women athletes were able to break down barriers  for all the women who will be taking the field next month at the London Olympics. I’m going to be cheering them on, and thanking Billie Jean, Pat Summitt and all the others who pioneered the way.

  • American in Cuban prison: 'Get me the hell out of here'

    The U.S. government contractor, who was imprisoned two years ago for bringing communications equipment into Cuba for a U.S. government democracy project, called NBC's Andrea Mitchell from jail in Havana.

    By Andrea Mitchell, NBC News correspondent

    A U.S. government contractor sentenced to 15 years prison reached out from prison in Havana to plead for help on Friday.

    "Get me the hell out of here," Brian Gross said, using his one phone call for the week to reach out to a reporter rather than his family.

    The Maryland native, who has served two and a half years, was convicted of crimes against the state for bringing satellite and other communications equipment onto the island as part of a USAID-funded democracy-building program. Cuba considers such programs an attempt to destabilize the government.

    Gross has been pleading for parole to visit his 90-year-old mother before she dies of lung cancer.

    "It is no longer about Cuban-U.S. relations," Gross said. "It's about my family and me."

    Gross gets one call a week, and usually he reserves that for his wife, Judy, but this week he called a reporter instead because he wanted to get the word out about his plight.

    Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was allowed to visit Gross at the prison on Feb. 24, and he later met with Cuban President Raul Castro to seek his release.

    Leahy said Castro agreed that Gross "was no spy" The Associated Press reported.

    Gross spoke virtually no Spanish and traveled to Cuba five times under his own name before his arrest in December 2009, according to AP.

    But Leahy came home with little optimism for Gross' release.

    The Gross affair has chilled relations between the U.S. and Cuba, diminishing chances for near-term rapprochement.

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