my grandmother, the martins, the city of stanford and america that i am sorry that this happened. i hate to think that because of this incident, because of my actions it's polarized and divided america and i'm truly sorry. >> greta is next. thank you for being with us. we will see you tomorrow night. tonight gov. mitt romney is slamming president obama, accusing him of working on keeping his own job and not carrying about your job. here is gov. romney today in ohio. >> when something is in trouble, when people need good jobs, you would think the president would focus all. his energy and his passion on helping people get jobs. but you know what he's been doing over the last six months? yeah, in the last six months he has held 100 fundraisers. and guess how many meetings he's had with his jobs council? none. zero.

zero in the last six months so it makes it very clear where his priorities are. his priority is not creating jobs for you, his priority is trying to keep his own job and that's why he's going to lose it. >> so what is the story? why hasn't president obama held a jobs council meeting in months? white house spokesperson jay carney answered in part, there's no specific reason except the president has obviously got a lot on his plate, but he continues to solicit and receive advice from numerous folks outside the administration about the economy. karl rove was author of the book "courage and confidence" ask karl rove joins us. great to see you. >> great to see you. >> i think he could have done a little better defending his boss than that, or he could have tried. >> he could have tried. the 100 fundraisers says it all. the most precious thing about the presidency is time. the most precious asset a president has is the images a a strong leader but the most

precious commodity within the west wing is the time, the president's time. when you do as many fundraisers as he has it eats into your time to do other things and that includes doing things like meeting with the jobs council. it also means it cuts back on your time to do the day job with meeting with the legislative leaders. the president has met twice with the so called bipartisan leadership of both houses, only twice this year. >> the thing i find the most stunning right now is there's so many important issues that are coming up for the house and the senate to resolve, and nothing is being done to move them forward. and many things that senator harry reid, i think the president should have him on the phone and get him to start a dialogue and get him to stop the recess in august and get these things done about taxes or whatever. i don't see any connection between the president and his party as to at least trying to

move the debate and the discussion. >> right. and look, or even do the business of the government. we once again are coming up to september, the end of september is the end of the fiscal year. october 1 is the beginning of the new fiscal year. the house has passed i think the majority of the budget bills. they are in a position to pass most of the rest. senate has yet to take up a single one of them. harry reid said we aren't going to take them off. and they said we can do this in a bipartisan fashion and if we arrive in the senate we can work with the house. and he put us on a course to begin the fiscal year without a budget and a battle over spending. >> is the senate in a position of just stopping the process? >> that's correct. >> that's the problem. and maybe the hypothetical the democrats have a lot of good ideas. but it's that one person, senator harry reid has stopped

everything and the president, rather than giving senator harry reid a good swift kick and telling him to at least move it forward, he's not there? >> i think he may want him to stop it. he may want these tough decisions about spending and so farther to be left until after the election believing that one way or another he will have more leverage then. whatever it is, it's a sign of how washington is broken and how the president has failed to lead. >> how long will it carry for gov. romney, the issue that the president isn't working but campaigning. >> it's not an issue that will resonate beyond a couple of days but secondly it transaction to the narrative the president is not doing the job and he's not the up to the job and he's not focused on the issue of getting the american economy moving. but this taken with his friday comment where he said basically if you start a business and it's successful, you know, you are not responsible for it. the government is. his comment earlier that the private sector was doing well

and what he was worried about was the government. all these things taken together with other commence i'm confident the president will make will add to the difficulty. and the third thing is i think tactically this is the most interesting thing. we saw something different on tuesday and wednesday out of the romney camp, and that is romney went out early in the day with an offensive message, delivered it so that it got into the news cycle and began to grab control of the day. last week, particularly toward the end of last week, it was gov. romney waiting until president obama's team had set the message for the day and he was in the position of responding. but the last two years he's gone out and taken things the president has said or done and gone after him on it. >> two things, i don't understand the president, the very issues you named, it would be very easy. they have said the campaign is taken out of context but i have not heard him step up and explain them. he's had many opportunities which i don't understand. i would think he would want to do that. if it's taken out of context, the whole thing, he's the one to

do it. i don't understand that. and then turning to the issue of gov. romney's tax returns. and he keeps saying no. the more you say know about tax returns, it's reasonable to say, well, what are you hiding? it's not unreasonable to be suspicious. >> two things i would say. one is, why is the president saying these things? he's saying these things i think in part because he's exhausted. look, being president is a pretty demanding job. running for president is a pretty demanding job. and you take as much time out of the president's schedule as he had, but you have 100 fund razors, think about it, he's had more fundraisers than his predecessor. his predecessor's predecessor and his predecessor's predecessor combined. it means he's running around the country, like yesterday in texas during four fundraisers and rushing back to washington to do his job. and you have that pressure, the

white house saying you have to raise money, you have to raise money and then you have responsibilities as president and you are going to get tired. we are 111 days i think it is, maybe 112 days from the election, and the president is already starting to make these kind of mistakes because he's tired. >> even if he's tired, i got it, but he himself doesn't say what i meant, and y'all are taking it out of context. >> no, no. >> and the fact he doesn't -- >> never explain. this white house believes just plow on through, after a day or two the media will stop asking questions and just plow on through. look at the attacks on gov. romney. he said he's shipping jobs overseas. the washington post ran an editorial today calling it bunk. they had earlier run two articles saying there's no evidence at all that gov. romney shipped jobs out of the states while head of bain. and theaves rated the claim of the obama campaign but the obama

campaign never went out to defend and spent $30 million on that ad. >> i think it's deplorable when you get your facts wrong and you don't step up and apologize. but i actually think with this other issue on the business thing is if it was taken out of the context and he didn't mean the government is really the reason why you are successful, i'm actually short circuiting a little bit, i would have said, you know what, y'all are taking it so out of context, it's so unfair, this is what i meant, you all knew it. but he hasn't so it's safe to assume he meant the government. >> in a moment of candor, in a moment of being exhausted and letting the curtain down, we saw him. remember, these are unscripted moments. it was not in a text when he said the private sector is doing fine, i'm worried about the government workers. and we saw him. there were moments of candor we get when there's moments of spoken takenty and these are spontaneous moment. >> it's interesting because it

makes it clear to the american voter has a choice of which direction. >> absolutely. >> what about the tax returns? should he release them, do you think? >> i think they have to make a big decision if they are going to continue to press it on through and ignore it or whether they are going to do something different. it's a close call because let's be honest. he could issue ten years of tax returns and they would ask for twelve. he could issue four and they would ask for six. and, you know, what are we going to find in there, that he's a rich guy? >> and maybe that's what they find out, he's a rich guy and then he can laugh at them and say, see, there's nothing in there. but the problem is he makes you suspicious because he won't release them. so compromise and maybe four years. >> wait a minute. what are we talking about in these tax returns that the obama campaign is focused on? foreign investments. point one, the foreign investments were made by a trustee, not by romney. but foreign investments are wrong, and i have this in my column tomorrow morning in the

wall street journal , but do you know there are five millionaires on the white house staff who filed a form called their 278, it's their financial disclosure, and in there they indicated they had foreign investments. >> there's nothing wrong with foreign investments. >> but president obama suggests that there is. he suggests it's other disqualifier for him to be president. well, if it is, then valerie jarrett, dan piper, david -- >> but he -- >> christopher lou and jay carney ought to be kicked out of the white house because all of them have foreign investments. >> if that's what it is, release them and say you are petty at the white house. look at this. we have foreign investments and you guys have foreign investments but the fact that he doesn't release them, i mean, he's given -- >> let me ask you a question. how many does he need to release to end the issue? >> you know how i would do it? i would say i think it's a stupid thing but i want to end the issue, i'll release four years, that's it. and you can ask me all the more you want or five years or whatever it is but that's what i would do. i would give them a little bait

and stop it there or end it there but right now he's given them an issue they are running on. >> was this an issue in 2008? no. do you know how many years returns john mccain produced? two. this is a phony issue. >> it may be a phoney issue but it's created an issue for him. >> i understand. do you know how you supersize something? we are microsizing the campaign. we are devoting valuable days out of the time that we've got for a national dialogue about whether mitt romney ought to issue more than two years of tax returns. >> i will say i've gotten a million -- not a million, but i've got any lot of! males from viewers that want his, the president's record. we are going to have the records battle back and forth. that is clear. they want to know about his college records, what it said. whatever. >> maybe that's the answer, four years of college records for four years of tax returns. >> anyway, the records, that will probably continue for some time. let me ask you about your

election map, karl rove.com. tell me what is the status of it in this election? >> rove.com, and you can sign up and we will send this to you every two weeks, in the last two weeks since the last version of this map, two states have changed status. michigan and new hampshire, which were both lean obama states, the new polling in those states have moved them into the tossup category. that's a total of 20 electoral votes. no other change in status b six states moved more toward romney and four states moved -- excuse me, 8 states moved more toward romney and six states moved more toward obama but none of them changed status except those two. that leaves the race at 237 obama, either 194 obama and 43 lean obama to 172 romney or lean romney, and 129 tossup. now, i will say this. remember this map is done on the

basis of policy in the last 30 days. the last poll that we have in south carolina is december, and it shows it's a tossup state. the last poll we have in texas, some number of months ago, the last poll in kentucky, tennessee and south dakota. so what we would like to do is implore a media organization, a reputable media organization in those states, particularly south carolina, spend the money on the poll and tell us what is really happening. but i think the map will actually show the race is a little bit closer, that it's probably about 110 electoral votes are up for grabs and it's roughly 237 to 190. >> let's me turn to the vice president. i'm not going to ask you who it is, i don't know if you would know it, but when would you recommend that he announce his vice presidential nominee and why? >> there are several options. i think the best one would be to wait until after the olympics so you are roughly two weeks out from the national convention,

two or three weeks out. you know, i think you make the vice presidential nod before the olympics and you are going to get lost in the excitement that may or may not sweep the country. the olympics are unpredictable. who could have thought the u.s. hockey team would beat the russians in 1980? there may be something that happens there that sort of galvanize's the americans attention. >> thank you. >> you bet. >> and jim demint is here. is romney listening to the tea party and will they have a loud voice at the republican national convention? that's next. and a murder mystery. a prominent plastic surgery accused of ordering a hit on a fellow doctor. you will hear the chilling call coming up. and a baseball bats and guns at an internet cafe. as bad as it was you will not believe who saved everyone. i am see it coming up.

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america's beverage companies are delivering. >> what about the tea party? will and should the republican party give a tea party representative a prime time speaking slot at the convention? we went to the u.s. capitol to ask senator jim demint. >> nice to see you. >> good to be back. >> is gov. romney paying attention to the tea party and

is the tea party going to have a big voice in the election? >> keep in mind that the tea parties are just kind of one visual element of a very active citizenry across america today. we are seeing in a lot of the primaries for the senate, for instance, a great old senator like ruger losing because i think the tea party as well, all common sense americans are getting engaged. the tea party is there, it's grown, it's better organized and only a small part of it goes under the umbrella of tea party, they all go under the umbrella of let's save america. >> it tends to be more republican than democrats and i'm curious if you think gov. romney sees it as an important element and is he speaking directly to the concerns of the tea party? >> i think he is. a lot of republicans have seen we need to embrace these ideas, part of the platform, limited government, less spending, less

debt. certainly romney is talking about that. but that's what brings the tea party together. they are a diverse groups of conservatives, libertarians, and a group that's coming together. >> there's enough of a group that the tea party caucuses in the senate. it's not a group without definition, that is group. >> that is group but it gives us the opportunity to have the big tent republican party. because while the tea party may be small in size as far as those who label themselves tea party, they represent a large majorities of american that are concern about the need to balance our budget, the debt and spending and growth of government. this is an opportunity for republicans to be that inclusive big party but around our issues. we don't have to water down what we believe in order to attract the tea party that. is basic limited thought, which is the foundation of the republican party. >> what do you expect or do you want the tea party to have a

prime time speaking position or some representative of the tea party at the republican national convention? would this be important to the tea party members? >> yes, it is. but they will be there. >> it's a big difference between attending and having the levy lefting and saying the voice i'm here on behalf of the tea party. >> i would love to see sarah palin have a big slot as far as speaking because there's known still in america that i think excites the base of conservatives and even libertarians as she does. she can draw a crowd more than any other republican and i think has more influence in primaries than any other endorsement right now. but we need to have some new republicans like marco rubio, pat, mike lee, some of the folks that changed the face of the senate and real heroes in the house like jim jordan, i would love to have them have prime speaking slots at the convention. >> let me turn to another

picture. everybody in the house and senate takes off the month of august and apparently you are not crazy about with all the problems, all the issues left to be decided and the fact that a lot of it may be left to the lame duck session? >> greta, this is like groundhog day for me because it's all being choreographed to push the important issues into the lame duck after the threat of a government shut down when we have to deal with the increases and taxes and cuts in military spending and a lot of things like medicare payments to doctors. there are just dozens and dozens. issues that expire at the end of the year, and i think clearly harry reid does not want to deal with those issues right now. the best thing we can do for our economy is extend the current tax rates at least a year until pressroom has a chance to reform the tax code and make it more business friendly. >> how does anyone justify in the senate, with all those very important issues going on, how does anyone justify taking the month of august off, a recess?

they say they will talk to their constituents but it's a month away from washington which puts all these important decisions farther away to making decision so people can't predict what to do with their jobs or whatever. and putting it in a lame duck where people who may be voted out of officer going to have a role. how do they justify that here? >> i don't think we can. particularly what we are doing now, not only are we going to take a break in august, but we aren't doing anything now and when we come back to september it's three weeks before the government shut down. so harry reid has in the brought one funding bill to the floor of the senate to pass so we have not funded the government for next year, and that begins on october 1st. so the first thing we are going to do when we come back from this recess is to start fighting over a government shut down. we are trying to stop that, a number of us in the house and senate have sent speaker boehner and mcconnell a letter saying we want a funding bill that funds or government into the next year, into the next administration so people of america don't have to live under

this panicked chaos of a government shut down. >> when i was a grade school if you didn't do your homework, you stayed in during recess and did your homework. so i don't quite understand the concept of all these people elected in office going into recess in august with these profoundly important decisions coming up. i mean, they actually should be decided now. >> they should be. but we aren't dealing with them this week, we aren't trying to pass anything this week, and we shouldn't go on recess until we get the tax issue fixed because our businesses, the people we want to hire, folks all across the country don't know what their tax rates are going to be or what their healthcare costs, and we are just doing everything, it seems, to hurt job development in our country at a time when we need to do completely the opposite. >> it isn't even which way are you going to vote. it's a question why not stay here and do the work. whether you vote for it or against any of these issues. >> we aren't bringing it up and even the president has said we need to extend the current tax rates but, greta, we know what he's trying to do.

he wants to increase tax on those -- >> but that's a whole different issue. you can fight it out but if you are in a recess you can. if you are in recess you aren't even like working on it. >> but they are choreographing a government shut down in september to try to push some things, and then they will pass or try to pass a two-month funding mechanism so we end up in a lame duck trying to make all these decisions after the election with people who haven't been re-elected. we are fighting that, and we are pushing, again, speaker boehner to pass a funding bill now. that will help us get to the tax issue. and if we can convince them to stay here in august and solve our problems, i would be here with them. >> thank you, sir. >> thank you, greta. >> coming up, a prominent plastic surgeon accused in the murder of a fellow doctor. you have to hear this alleged murder-for-hire plot and hear the 911 call. you will. that's next. and first the dis and then the kiss. people can't stop talking about the obama's caught on kiss cam.

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do you regret getting out of the car to follow trayvon that night? >> no, sir. >> do you regret that you had a gun that night? >> no, sir. >> do you feel you wouldn't be here for this interview if you didn't have that gun? >> no, sir. >> you feel you would not be here? >> i feel that it was all god's plan and for me to second guess it or judge it -- >> is there anything you might do differently in retrospect now that time has passed a little bit? >> no, sir. >> you know, the detectives said that you had -- detective singleton quoted you as saying that the bad guys always get away. you also said that on the 911 tape. did you have a feeling that there were a lot of people that do get away with crimes? in other words, were you sort of predisposed in your mind in some way to think that criminals get away too often? >> not in general. i think in our neighborhood

there's geographic advantages for burglaries. >> do you have any idea -- why do you think trayvon would have confronted you the way he did? i made a comment on the air one day and i got beaten up pretty bad for saying this could have all just been a terrible misunderstanding or mistake. do you think maybe, is there any possibility he thought you were after him and you thought he was after you and there was some misunderstanding in any way? >> i have wrestled with that for a long time, but i can't -- one of my biggest issues through this ordeal has been the media conjecture, and i can't assume or make believe. >> right now zimmerman is out on bail in florida awaiting trial. he has pleaded not guilty. and now to texas with a well-known plastic surgeon is accused in the murder of a fellow doctor. police say the plastic surgeon

masterminded a ghastly murder-for-hire plot. his alleged motive, a love triangle. he hired a hit man to murder a pathologist. the victim was dating dixon's ex-girlfriend and he paid the alleged hit man in silver bars worth $9,000. now we are hearing the 91 is 111 call from the scene of the crime. >> 911. >> 460,321st. someone has bullets and doors broken into. it's a house i work at. >> a door is broken or you said something about a bullet? >> somebody has broken a window in the back and the doctor did not show up for work today. there's a bullet that was laying on the ground. >> okay. was it an actual bullet or had it already been fired. >> i don't know. i didn't pick it up. somebody else walked in. i'm not going in. >> for the latest on the

investigation, the captain from the lubbock police joins us. nice to talk to you, sir. >> nicks to talk to you. >> i understand you have two people charged, the doctor and the alleged hit man; is that correct? >> that is correct. both of them are under arrest and in custody at this time. both of sitting in jail and are being held on $10 million bond a piece. >> is either one talking? because now i suppose what the prosecutor is going to think of doing is to divide and conquer, so to speak or perhaps go to the hit man and work out some deal with him against the doctor, assuming everybody is guilty. i don't know that either one is. has cooperated just yet. very quickly after their arrest they both invoked their right to remain silent and, of course, we respect that and so they have not given us a statement at this time. >> all right. the ex-girlfriend, is she cooperating with the prosecution? >> so far, yes. she has been very cooperative. certainly she's been traumatized by all of this, as well.

we do not suspect her at this time in the murder-for-hire plot. she's been very cooperative so far. >> is there any way to tie david ship pardon, the man accused of being the hit man, to the $9,000 in silver? >> we believe so. we are working on all the details of that now. we do believe we are developing the evidence and the facts to back up our probable cause and will be able to tie mr. ship pardon to these three silver bars for payment. >> doctor thomas dixon is a well-known plastic surgeon in your area? >> he is. he's been on television shows and billboards in the amarillo area so he's publicized and well-known in this area. >> does he have is a stormy relationship with his ex-girlfriend and has ever made threats to the pathologist? >> we don't have threats to the pathologist. there's seems to be some

hockeyness since the relationship between him and his girlfriend has end sewed that seems to be an case why it has gone so wrong. >> is the doctor able to make the $10 million bond? is he likely to make bond? >> i don't know. he has not yet that i'm aware of. the last information i have he is still sitting in the luck book county jail. >> indeed that's a very high bond so i wonder if he will be out at all pending trial. captain, thank you, sir. >> thank you, greta. have a good one. >> up next, senator john thune, new warnings that we are headed over the fiscal cliff. how bad is it and is there any hope? he goes on the record next. and in a few minutes it looks like a scene out of the wild west. bullets fly in an internet cafe but then the odd park. wait until you see what's caught on tape. that's just a few minutes away.

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the day. two teenagers storm in and wave guns and bats at the customers. the attorneys were trying to rob the place. surveillance video shows one pointing a gun at customers. the other swing a baseball bat but in steps an elderly man. he says not so bad. he swings into action, jumping up from a computer in the corner of the cafe and pulling out his own handgun. firing shots at both the suspects. they dive for cover and out the door. no customers were hurt and a short time later both suspects were caught. they were both wounded but not seriously hurt. the man had a permit for carrying a gun and probably will not be hurt. what do you think? did he do the right thing by opening fire in the cafe? go to gretawire.com and tell us. we are back in two. why not make lunch more than just lunch?

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senator john thune is here in 60 seconds. first the headlines. >> israel pointing a finger at iran for a bus bombing that killed at least seven israeli tour efforts in bulgaria. dozens more are injured. the attacks against the bus filled mostly with teenagers happening earlier today near the airport. the israeli prime minister calling it an attack and calling for revenge. the white house vying to find out who is responsible. >> and nine men tied to a prostitution scandal in columbia will not face charges. it happened last april just before a visit by president obama. the associated press reports the 7 army soldiers and two marines will receive administrative punishments as well. they were in columbia supporting secret service agents and some lost their jobs because of the scandal. now back to greta. thanks for watching. >> you've heard the warnings, we could be headed over the

so-called fiscal cliff. so what is congress planning to do, burn the midnight oil? well, not exactly. try this one, going on vacation. that's right. next month both the house and senate will take a one-month recess. they will put off dealing with tax rates and spending cuts until after the election. so do lawmakers have any other plans to actually fix the budget? senator john thune is on the budget and finance committees. we spoke with him a short time ago. >> nice to see you, sir. >> not to see you. >> this week the chairman ben bernanke was up here and said we are in deep run and need action. what are you going to do with it? >> i think there are two things we need to do to avoid going over the fiscal cliff. one is to extend the tax rates that are set to expire at the end of this year, which would result in a massive tax increase on people, americans all over the board next year. and secondly, to do something that would avert the defense cuts that are going to just

devastate our national security priorities and replace those with cuts elsewhere in the budget. those are two things we could do. right now the fiscal cliff, as it's been described, consist of really those two elements. and the concern is, according to the congressional budget office, if we don't take steps to address that, then in the first six months of next year it could cost our economy 1.3% in economic growth which according to the cvo would probably result in a recession. >> this is troubling, at least i think it's a bit troubling, is that last november the supercommittee couldn't come up with anything to handle the sequestration, the budget cuts. and after they couldn't do it it seems like everybody gave up. all what anyone did was talk about it and it still isn't fix. now they are saying how important it is to move fast and do something about it. even though nothing has been done since november on either side. coming up in august there's a recess. everybody goes out, nobody is doing anything about it. and the first time we are really going to hear anything about it

is when the heat is put on all of you after the election, the lame duck, when people are making decisions who have been voted out of office. that's a problem. >> which is a bad time to make that decision. the house of representatives is going to act next week. they are going to extend the rates and pass legislation to extend the existing tax rates for a year so you don't have the big tax increase on january 1st. i think the thing that's concerning, though, you saw it perhaps and senator murray made a speech earlier this week and there was a story in the washington post over the weekend which said that the democrats threatening to go over the fiscal cliff if republicans won't raise taxes. and i think it's terribly alarming and irresponsible on their part to suggest that they would throw the economy into a recession, risk higher unemployment than we already have simply to make a point about raising taxes on the people who create jobs in this country. so we want to do something about t we want to do something now has opposed to after the election you get into the cloud of a lame duck session. that's not a good time in which to legs late and not a good time

to get good fiscal policy. >> and the grenades are fired back and forth between the republicans and the democrats. and in the meantime the business community is just sort of sitting there saying what are you going to do? we don't know what to do. we don't know if taxes are going up or down and we don't even know how to run our businesses. they are all put on the sideline waiting, at least they have been since last november, waiting for an answer, are they going up or down. and it's stifled the economy by the fact there's been inactivity here. >> right. and i think that's the problem. you have too many people in this country, too many businesses who are making decisions predicated upon what's happening in washington d.c. and we need to eliminate that. we need to eliminate the uncertainty by providing at least a year of certainty with regard to tax rates and then we ought to get into a debate next year about how to reform the tax code and make it more simple, more clear, more fair, lower the rates and broaden the tax base. until that time businesses need certainty, and that's why i believe that the senate ought to do what the house is going to do

next week and that is to extend the rates for a full year. we are saying we can't already to go over a fiscal cliff. it's too dangerous to the economy. the economy is fragile. we've seen sluggish growth this year. the president said two years ago when we had over 3% growth that it would strike to blow to the economy to raise taxes. today the economic growth is considerably less than that, it's about 2% or a little under and now all of a sudden he wants to have this tax increase. it's a mistake to raise taxes when you've got the kind of economy we are dealing with today. republicans want to do something about that. the house republicans will next week and i hope the senate will follow suit but it will require some democrats to be willing to work with us on that. >> that's a substantive argument, that's the position, but we don't even get to that because there is so much time where nobody does anything. i mean, the fact that the supercommittee last year, when it didn't meet it's deadline, there was nothing to stop them from continuing to meet. there was absolutely nothing. >> right. >> they could have met in

december, january, and if they came up with something it could have come back to congress. now everybody gives up and waits for a horrible crisis, pushed up against some deadline. >> that's by and large true. they did deadlock and our folks were willing to put some revenues on the table in exchange for entitlement reform. that's something the democrats weren't willing to accept. the consequence of that now is we get these draconian cuts to our national security at a time when we can't afford that, and we've got a lot of concerns about how that is going to impact our ability to defend america's interests around the world, the defense secretary said the cuts would be devastating. so we need to do something about both. to replace those, to find the cuts elsewhere in the budget so we aren't taking a disproportionate amount out of the defense budget, and secondly to do something on the tax rates so there's certainty. those are the two issues that compose the fiscal cliff and that's when chairman bernanke

said yesterday. >> and i should add and make an admission that it's senator harry reid who can put the ball in play. >> sure. >> he's the one who can -- he's the one that runs the senate and can at least, whether or not you can agree, at least there would be some action if you put the ball in play. >> that's right. and right now most of what we are doing in the senate is all these political exercises, we are doing these sort of show boats that are designed to -- >> the senate right now has become an extension of the presidential campaign. >> that's the unfortunate thing for the american people. that's where the responsibility is for the leader, for senator harry reid, instead of playing the game and gaming everybody leading up to the election, underlying all of this are americans with real problems and want the issues to be resolved and right now the votes of shelfed. >> i think for them to say that we are willing to go over the fiscal cliff, again, that's terribly reckless, in my opinion. that's what some of the leaders on the democrat side have said. so far the president has not walked them back from that. i think in order to get this

fiscal cliff addressed, it's going to take leadership from the white house as well. and i hope we will get that. but right now we are getting show boats on the floor of the united states senate and aren't dealing with the problems and challenges that face our economy and the job creators and the american people. >> so the president can make the call to senator harry reid, gets get action and get away from the show boats? >> absolutely. i think if that happened to you hadup you would see action probably tomorrow. >> senator, thank you. >> thanks, greta. >> straight ahead you can't miss the best of the rest tonight because we have incredible video that all of your friends will be talking about tomorrow. it's our vote for the absolute best slam-dunk of the summer. we will show you that and see if you agree. that amazing video and so much more is next. yes it's true. how is this possible? proper tire inflation, by using proper grades of oil, your car runs more efficiently, saves gas. you could be doing this right now? yes i could, mike. i'm slowing you down? yes you are. my bad. the works fuel saver package. just $29.95 or less after rebate.

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>> you have seen eurotop stories but here's the best of the rest. a diver gets a scare of his life. he was diving in the clear waters of the bahamas, and he was a blue hooked marlin but under a clear blue a giant shark appears from behind. it buzzes right over the diver's shoulder. the diver is considered a shark expert but even he couldn't stay calm when it surprised him. the shark was about ten feet long and weighed about 600 pounds. and this is being call the best slam-dunk of the summer.

a college basketball player made the amazing shot. he did it during a game in richmond," virginia. the 6'4" junior plays for elizabeth city state university and the dunker got a standing ovation from the stands. the college player had never pulled off that move before, but he is known for his high-flying dunks. and here's a first. the state of washington will become the first state to offer voter registration on facebook. the new myvote app could be launched next week. they will find it on the secretary of state's facebook page. so why is the state using facebook to get out the vote? election officials say they are not only targeting young people, they want to get all voters access to crucial election information and they think facebook is the way to do it. and mrs. gingrich, is she a jersey shores fan? it seems they are both appearing on jay leno's store. she was tweeting this photo from

the studio. she also tweeted enjoyed meeting snooki at the studio today. it appears everyone got along pretty well. perhaps she'll make a cameo next season. i wouldn't hold my breath, though. >> one last call before we turn down the lights. it's not over yet. and the first couple's appearance on the kiss cam. that's next. [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's four course seafood feast,

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>> greta: 11:00 is almost here, flash studio lights it's time for last call. you saw here last night. president and first lady learning the fine art of the kiss cam. but can the president learn something else in the experience? here is jimmy fallon. >> curing last night's game, president obama gave michelle a kiss when shown on the kiss cam. it was cute e plaining why everybody was like quick put him on the fix the economy cam. see what happens. >> greta: that is your last call.