Face in the News: State of the Union preview, Maryland mall shooting and more

(CBS News) -- It was a busy week for news, which meant a jam-packed edition of “Face The Nation” on Sunday.

President Barack Obama will deliver his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said on the show Sunday that the president should use the nationally televised speech to formally apologize to the American people.

"If President Obama wants to give an honest, candid State of the Union address this week, he'll address the fact that his economic policies are not working and that they're exacerbating income inequality," Cruz said. "They are hurting the people who are struggling the most."

Cruz also said Obama should apologize to the Americans who have lost their health insurance as a result of the Affordable Care Act rollout. His comments were covered by the Associated Press, UPI, National Review, The Hill, the New York Daily News, the Dallas Morning News and The Daily Caller.

Later in the interview, Cruz pushed back over who was at fault for the federal government shutdown in October. Cruz blamed Obama and Democrats, but Schieffer pointed out that it was the Texas senator who filibustered the government funding deal and eventually voted against it.

The spat was covered by the Washington Post, MSNBC, Slate, Mediaite, the Orlando Sentinel, PolitiFact and Examiner.com. Many of the outlets concluded that Cruz tried to obfuscate his role in the shutdown.

Another possible showdown is on the horizon. The U.S. will reach the debt ceiling, a statutory borrowing limit, in early February. Obama wants Congress to raise the limit without hesitation, but Cruz said Sunday that Republicans “shouldn't just write a blank check” and instead should demand something in return. His comments were picked up in The New York Times Monday.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., delivered a sharp rebuke of Cruz during his appearance on the show.

“A lot of it is sort of Alice in Wonderland,” the top-ranking Democrat said. “He says the president's policies haven't worked, but he hasn't let them go in to affect. He's blocked just about everyone.”

Schumer’s comments were picked up by Politico, The Hill, Real Clear Politics and Mediaite.

Looking ahead to the Olympic games next month, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Michael McCaul said the Sochi terror threat was the greatest he’d seen. The Texas Republican, who just got back from a trip to the region, pointed to the proximity of the terrorists to the Olympic village as a great concern.

McCaul also reacted to the shooting at a Columbia, Md., mall that left three dead over the weekend. 

“It does highlight the vulnerability of shopping malls to shootings, soft targets like we saw in the Kenya shopping mall case, and that's the kind of scenario we do not want to see happen in the United States,” McCaul said.

McCaul’s comments were covered by Reuters, Politico, The Hill, Newsmax and the New York Daily News.

Finally, looking toward the 2016 presidential race, Schieffer asked Cruz if he was going to run. Cruz wouldn’t give a yes-or-no answer but he did say the scandals swirling around New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were “unfortunate.” Christie, a Republican, is also considered a likely presidential hopeful to succeed Obama. USA Today, Politico and the Newark Star-Ledger covered this part of the conversation.