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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By Tracy Connor, NBC News

Embattled U.N. envoy Susan Rice is dropping out of the running to be the next secretary of state after months of criticism over her Benghazi comments.

“Today, I made the decision that it was the best thing for our country, for the American people that I not continue to be considered by the president for nomination of secretary of state,” Rice told NBC’s Brian Williams.

“I didn’t want to see a confirmation process that was very prolonged, very politicized, very distracting and very disruptive because there are so many things we need to get done as a country and the first several months of a second term president’s agenda is really the opportunity to get the crucial things done.”

Rice noted that President Obama’s second-term agenda included “comprehensive immigration reform, balanced deficit reduction, job creation.”

She added, “And to the extent that my nomination could have delayed or distracted or deflected or maybe even some of these priorities impossible to achieve, I didn’t want that and I much prefer to keep doing what I’m doing which is a job I love at the United Nations.”

The full interview with Rice will air on tonight’s “Rock Center With Brian Williams” at 10p/9c. Excerpts will also be broadcast on Nightly News at 6:30 pm ET.

Obama said in a statement that he accepted her decision and regretted “the unfair and misleading attacks” on Rice, who was considered a front-runner to replace Hillary Clinton as the nation’s top foreign policy official.

Criticism over remarks
Rice has been under intense fire from Republicans for initially characterizing the Sept. 11 assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, as a spur-of-the-moment response to a crude anti-Muslim film.

“What happened in Benghazi was in fact initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo, almost a copycat of the demonstrations against our facility in Cairo, which were prompted, of course, by the video,” Rice said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” five days after the attack.

“Opportunistic extremist elements came to the consulate as this was unfolding. They came with heavy weapons, which unfortunately are readily available in post-revolutionary Libya, and it escalated into a much more violent episode.”

As more details emerged suggesting it was a premeditated terrorist action, GOP critics accused Rice of misleading the public at the height of the presidential campaign.

She countered that she went with the best information available about the attack, in which Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

“I relied solely and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community. I made clear that the information was preliminary and that our investigations would give us the definitive answers,” she said on Nov. 21 at the United Nations.

By then, Obama had already expressed strong support for Rice, warning Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to stop slamming her and vowing to block her confirmation.

“They should go after me,” he said at his first press conference after his re-election.

Despite a series of closed-door meeting with Capitol Hill lawmakers to drum up support, Rice continued to face questions from senators key to her confirmation.

After a Nov. 28 sitdown with Rice, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she couldn’t yet endorse the veteran diplomat and raised a new point of concern: her role in protecting American embassies in Kenya and Nairobi that were bombed by terrorists in 1998.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) suggested Rice was seen as too much of an Obama loyalist and the GOP preferred “someone of independence.”

Attack on critics
In her resignation letter to Obama, Rice took aim at her GOP critics.

“The position of secretary of state should never be politicized,” she wrote.

“As someone who grew up in an era of comparative bipartisanship and as a sitting U.S. national security official who has served in two U.S. Administrations, I’m saddened that we have reached this point, even before you have decided whom to nominate. We cannot afford such an irresponsible distraction from the most pressing issues facing the American people.”

Obama praised Rice as “an extraordinarily capable, patriotic, and passionate public servant.”

“While I deeply regret the unfair and misleading attacks on Susan Rice in recent weeks, her decision demonstrates the strength of her character, and an admirable commitment to rise above the politics of the moment to put our national interests first.”

McCain and Graham, among Rice’s loudest critics, said they would continue to press the administration on Benghazi.

“I respect Ambassador Rice’s decision,” Graham said in a statement. “President Obama has many talented people to choose from to serve as our next secretary of state.”

The withdrawal leaves Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as a possible candidate for the job, and Republicans have said he would have a smoother run.

"I think John Kerry would be an excellent appointment and would be easily confirmed by his colleagues," Collins said last month.

Rice, 48, has been the United States’ permanent representative to the United Nations since 2009, after serving as a senior advisor to the Obama campaign, working at the Brookings Institution and holding other diplomatic and national security positions dating back to 1993.

By Jessica Hopper
Rock Center

UPDATED 6:50PM EST -- In the midst of 48 hours of non-stop campaigning in crucial swing states, President Barack Obama said that the tightening of the race between him and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney doesn’t surprise him.

NBC's Williams with President Barack Obama in Davenport, IA. (Photo Credit: Neal Carter/NBC News)

In an exclusive interview with NBC News’ Brian Williams, during a campaign stop in Davenport, Iowa, the president said that he never believed that the excitement surrounding his historic election four years ago and the achievement of taking out al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden would inflate his likelihood of re-election.

“You guys have some short memories. Folks in your business were writing me off a year ago, saying there's no way I would win,” President Obama said. “These things go in ebbs and flows and, you know, the one thing I've tried to always be is just steady in terms of what I believe in, who I'm fighting for, and, you know, I think that one of the qualities I bring to bear in this campaign is, people see, what did I say I was going to do in 2008?  And what have I delivered?  And they can have some confidence that the things I say, I mean.”

Both the president and former Massachusetts Governor Romney are fiercely campaigning, criss-crossing the country in the final 13 days of the campaign.

“We always knew this was going to be a close race from the start.  And what we have right now is a lead that we’ve maintained throughout the campaign and we are going to just continue to drive home the message that there are two fundamentally different choices in this election about where we take the country,” the president said.  

After speaking to the crowd in Davenport, the president’s first stop in an eight-state campaign blitz, Obama sat down with Williams and discussed his relationship with Romney, his lackluster performance in the election’s first presidential debate and his administration’s handling of the crisis in Libya.

Obama defended his campaign’s release of a 20-page document detailing his plan for the next four years. The document was released the day after the final presidential debate and left pundits questioning whether its release was a late move made by a campaign that believes its opponent might be gaining momentum. 

“I don’t know why you say that this is late in the game.  This is exactly what I laid out at my convention,” the president told Williams.  “Every point that’s in there is what we said when I accepted the Democratic nomination, is what we do to build up the middle class in this country and it’s been on our website for weeks and I hope that everybody takes an opportunity to read it, because as folks now narrow their focus on the election, in fact people here in Iowa are voting. You know, the more informed voters are and the more engaged they are about how big the stakes are, the better I think we’re going to do.”

When asked about the dynamic between he and Gov. Romney, the president said that his feelings towards Romney are no different than the feelings other presidential candidates have had before.

“I don’t think anybody would say that while you were in the middle of a campaign that you felt deep affection for the other guy, because, you know, look, you’re fighting for competing visions,” President Obama said.

From Iowa, the president traveled to Colorado and Nevada for campaign events before flying overnight to Florida to continue the second day of his battleground swing.

NBC News cameras have been granted wide-ranging access to the president as he embarks on his multi-state journey in the all-out push to appeal to voters. Clips from the president’s interview will be aired Wednesday evening on NBC Nightly News and Thursday morning on Today, with a complete behind-the-scenes profile airing Thursday night at 10pm/9c on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams.