there was real potential there that my son wasn't coming back to me. the last thing i said to him when i saw him was, come home to me. >> let's go. >> they set out to do what no one had ever done, rowing a new route across the atlantic and maybe into history. the leader, the surfer, the rookie, the dad. >> hey, jefferson, it's your dad here. >> with a pregnant wife at home. >> they weren't doing this on a whim. >> the boat, a techie's dream,

cameras, satellite, the latest scientific instruments designed to capture each moment, each movement, what they didn't capture was the moment of disaster. >> there has been three beacons activated. >> but there are four people. >> correct. >> capsized at sea. >> my heart was racing. >> right away, you have a moment of panic. >> frantic on land. >> who did i lose? >> no, this can't be happening. >> you're there on their incredible journey as they fight the odds and the elements. >> we got hit by a pretty big wave, and it snapped an oar in two. >> i'm lester holt, and this is dateline. here's keith morrison. the ocean almost never gives back what it claims, but then there are these images. it's amazing that this video exists at all, having once been

lost to the capricious will of the say, and yet, here it is to tell frame by frame its harrowing story of the four young men who imagined they could best the wind and waves and unpredictable elements to cross the atlantic, all the way, in a row boat. there was jordan, the captain, adam, the olympic gold medal winner, marcus the adventurer, and patrick, the rookie rower. now this video can only tell their story because it was retrieved after what happened to them from the very ocean waters they had the audacity to explore. >> 7:30 saturday morning, nobody called, and i saw that i had 11 missed phone calls. and i knew. >> a mother sat and worried for weeks before she got the dreaded phone call. >> and the world stopped.

every fear i had had come to fruition. my son was gone. he was swallowed up by that ocean. >> her agony, shared by three other families. >> everything in me said that this isn't okay what's happening. we can't tell how many people are in the raft. >> none of them knew who lived or died. what's that feeling like? these are friends of yours. >> if there are only three beacons going off, why isn't there a fourth in who did i lose? >> the story begins in the winter of 2013 when four young men from the u.s. and canada set out to become the first people ever to row across the atlantic from africa to north america. more than 3500 miles. this footage was shot while the crew was getting ready to leave

africa. >> everybody is just choosing to do this. so the only authority that i'm really granted is my experience from rowing across the ocean the first time. >> 30 year old jordan hansen had already rowed across the north atlantic. his craft was named for his father who died of asthma when jordan was 3, the james robert hansen. >> we will be fighting to stay north a little bit the whole time. >> the trip had taken jordan three years to plan, sponsored by the canadian wildlife federation, the crew would provide lessons for hundreds of students and investigate the climate change. >> scientific education is the goal. >> 32-year-old adam creek won the limb pick gold in rowing in

beiji beijing. he was the father of a 2-year-old boy jefferson and his wife was pregnant with their second child by the time the expedition set off. >> they weren't doing this on a whim. they were planning very well. >> people would say in spite of that, it's still a crazy thing to do. >> i know. >> and maybe irresponsible for a young father. >> for me, the difference was he wasn't doing this because he thought, you know, it's going to be so fun. i'm going to row across the ocean for kicks. this was a partnering with the canadian wildlife association. raising awareness. educating youth. >> marcus was a surfer and paddleboarder. he'd already rowed around vancouver island. he was single, both parents dead, but his sister and brother-in-law and two nieces were following very closely. marcus helped plot the course. >> what would be wrong with cutting north. >> then there was 29 year old

patrick fleming, an expert skier and college rower. they called him a rookie because he'd never rowed in the ocean, but his thrill seeking was matched by a kpul shon to be prepared for the worst. >> there's not going to be this riveting edge of your seat excitement, but we're still rowing and moving, but there's going to be sheer terror that pumps us up. >> patrick's parents hated the whole idea. >> he said to me very calmly, he's an adult. i can't tell him what to do. but don't worry, he'll never go through with this. put it in the back burner, take it out of your head. famous last words. >> by january 23, 2013, the james robert hansen and its crew pushed off on their journey to miami. with good weather, they thought the trip would take about two

months. >> the last thing i said to him when i saw him was "come home to me." >> the crew members planned to work in shifts. two would row while the other two tried to sleep below deck. >> i was up, september an e-mail to all the parents saying they're o call me any time. the expedition has begun. let's go. >> their friend rowed in 2006. this time, he became a one-man mission control in washington state, keeping track of them best he could from his base on land. >> right out of the gate, though, you could see something was just a bit off in terms of their progress. >> the crew was supposed to be able to contact him by phone or e-mail. they also had three cameras on board to record video diaries. but they were plagued by power problems. so the satellite phone and internet service was very dicey.

greg didn't hear from them for several days. but according to their gps tracking device, they were moving far too slowly. >> well, looking at the wind, it's coming out of the north. they're going west. so they're just getting hit from the beam. and it's probably terrible. and sure enough, i got the first phone call from jordan about a couple days after they left, and he sounded miserable. >> that's because all four crew members were seasick in the extreme. but adam, the olympic gold medalist sitting behind jordan didn't let it get him down. >> seasickness. it's like a slimy lizard climbing from a bulging pit in your stomach up the back of your throat. it feels fantastic. >> back home in british columbia, rebecca, six months pregnant was taking care of their two year old son jefferson

who liked to pretend he was rowing too. >> row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily -- >> you never had any worries that catastrophe would befall them. >> i did initially. this is a dinghy in the middle of the atlantic. it could flip. i was always told by all the guys that was a very unfounded concern. >> that's what the rowers thought. but the ocean never makes guarantees. >> the crew and their families were about to learn that almost nothing on this journey would go as planned. when we come back tensions grow on board. >> you won't get it in your head. >> and trouble grows at sea. >> it's a lot more difficult tor me than i thought it was going to be. >> we got hit by a pretty big

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in the winter of 2013, two americans and two canadians were attempting to be the first adventurers ever to row from africa to north america, but the weather was worse, much worse, than they expected. crew member adam creek, an olympic gold medalist filed this

report early on. >> the last days have been really awful. we've h we' we've had snotty water. seasickness. >> sometimes daylight turned to pitch-black. the living conditions beyond uncomfortable. adam gave a tour below decks. >> i'm in our main sleeping cabin that's 8 feet by 5 feet. normally two of us had sleep here at any given time. also within the cabin we have our electrical panel. and below the deck we've got a bunch of scientific instrumentation where we measure a lot of parameters of the ocean. >> then four days out, they were shaken by their first real crisis. >> we got hit by a pretty big wave today, and it snapped an oar in two. it [ bleep ]ed us.

>> if any more broke, this could be a big problem. on top of the weather, the power supply was malfunctioning. so their ability to communicate back to land was also threatened. >> i think my, my primary concern is safety. it's really important that we stay grounded and we recognize that we are in a very serious situation. >> but if there was a life-threatening situation, they had a back up plan. they were each equipped with emergency locater beacons. patrick had showed them off back on land. >> it's basically an emergency device. you turn it on, and you can track us wherever we are. >> family and friends were monitoring their progress on maps and websites and could see it was slow going. >> did you have a way of expressing your worries? >> yes, yes. greg and i would talk most days. and i'd see his number pop up on my phone. i'd panic. >> how okay were the families

about what was or wasn't happening? did you get a lot of stress and distress from them? >> i did. >> at sea, by day 25, patrick fleming, the novice on the crew was having second thoughts about the whole expedition. >> it's a lot more difficult for me than i thought it would be. a lot different than any other adventures that i've chosen to partake in. it's very draining, and, you know, mover often than not, i find myself wishing i was back on dry land. >> but the spotty e-mail and phone service, communication was difficult. but back on land, patrick's mother diana was having a textbook episode of mother's intuition. >> and i think that he was having second thoughts about it. in a very big way. >> and then, on day 29, another oar broke. >> we just got nailed by another

big wave and broke another oar. >> they now had no backups. if any more oars broke they'd have to give up on making miami and aim for the nearest land, and that would be very difficult with just three oars >> in any direction. >> the constant anxiety might have been getting to the crew. >> i also had a dream -- this is a tough one. another big wave came and completely flipped the boat over. >> a groggy marcus woke up after a bad dream about being on some other row boat. and it might have foretold disaster. but against all odds, as the days went by, the crew continued to plug away, one stroke at a time. and each day, if the communications were working, they'd file a lesson for the students following their voyage at schools across the united states and canada. >> the best part of this rowing

trip so far is all the wildlife we've been able to see. it's been absolutely drink credible. >> they'd see dolphin, marlin, sea turtles. what kids weren't hearing about was the tension on board. but the video shows it. the disagreements about the food supply, the day to day annoyances about life in cramped quarters. >> we're going to be eating a little bit less. >> oh, we are? >> you think? >> i've been telling you for the past 40 days, jordan. you won't get it in your head. >> on a whole, though, it appeared the four rowers were getting through it. sometimes in the black of night they'd break into song. ♪ row, row your boat >> on day 47, their skipper jordan was able to take some pride in how it was all working out. >> if anybody's going to be

anybody's best friend, we'll all be a good team. everybody's very compassionate and very much cares about everybody else, and that makes me very, very happy. >> yet, the danger ahead was never far from their minds. thunderstorms that came out of nowhere, the eerie feeling that they'd be rammed by a big ship in the middle of the night. there was always reason to be wary, but now, though, it was time to sleep. >> coming up. >> i feel like they're going to be in dangerous waters. >> an ominous message is received on land. >> there have been three beacons activated. here's a little secret, voice control is the future.

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the crew of the tiny 29-foot row boat, the james robert hansen had been fighting the elements for weeks on end. there were storms, broken oars, power problems. all seem to be conspiring against the four rowers. >> this is adam calling from the ocean. >> and in these recovered videos, it's clear that on the way from africa to north america, the journey was proving tougher than any of them had imagined. remember adam creek was missing

his pregnant wife and young son. >> i yearn for land more than i thought i would out here. and i'm going to be excited to get to land. i'm more excited to see becca and jefferson and get on with my life. i find myself thinking a whole lot about what's going to happen after this. >> and then one day back home in british columbia, his wife received a happy surprise on her computer. >> it's this awesome video that adam was able to spend near the end speaking to jefferson. hi, jefferson, it's daddy. and jefferson would watch it over and over again and say i went to day care. >> have you been to the park lately? >> have you been spending lots of time outside? >> the father and son separated by thousands of miles.

>> i'm looking forward to hearing back from you. hope you're doing really well. i'm going to give you a big squeeze when i see you in miami. then we're going to see the elephants at the miami zoo. love you a ton. >> back on the ocean, the rowers continued to battle the high winds and high seas. >> we're now to four oars. that's serious. that's nothing to shake a stickal. >> and it wasn't just the oars that put the expedition at risk. >> hey, gregory, hope you're doing well. we had a little bit of a power crisis on board today. >> the power problems got worse when their wind driven turbine malfunctioned. if they completely lost power they had allose the ability to run the desalination system. and they'd totally lose the ability to communicate. >> thought we destroyed all the electronics. >> an expert back on land gave the crew crucial advice to help solve the problems.

coordinator greg still thought the crew was safe. for him, no news was good news. >> every night i'd sleep with the phone by my bed. the phone is always at my side. i'm the emergency contact for the u.s. coast guard. so if anything were to happen and the beacons were activated i got the phone call. >> we're always going to be struggling request the power. i hope we won't be struggling that much with the food >> as tough as it was for the men on the sea, it was in some ways worse for the families at home. greg tried to soothe rattled nerves, but it seemed to be taking so long. even marcus' niece is getting and the antsy. >> 57 days? >> by march, things began looking up.

>> go team! >> yay! >> the crew was finally making good time. adam and patrick were obviously happy. >> we just finished probably our fastest four days on the water maybe. >> it's amazing how fast water and fast conditions really raise your spirits out here. >> jordan's family was encouraged by the progress too. it looked like they'd make miami by the end of april. >> we've been plotting their position day by day as they come across. and as of last night, they were right there headed for here. >> and then strange omen. the boat was about 900 miles off miami. patrick's mother diana was overwhelmed with dark thoughts. >> it was an ominous feeling. when i should be thinking they're home free, i feel like they're going to be in dangerous waters so to speak. >> and then on the night of

april 3, day 71, marcus posted what now seems an eerie blog entry. he wrote he had, quote, a complete lack of fear for death. this probably stems from the death of my mom when i was 5. and how i eventually came to accept it. all just coincidence, perhaps. but jordan, the captain noticed the weather wasn't quite what he expected. >> the forecast estimated that we would have 1.5 to 2 meter waves, and these waves were not all of them, but there were definitely a few that were up to 4 meters. >> a few weeks later, the crew came upon the thick seaweed of the sargasso sea, and these would be the last moments recorded above the james robert hansen. a few hours later back on land, it was the early morning of saturday, april 6, day 73. >> and my heart was racing, and

i was trying to talk to him. and my voice was fluttering. i could feel my whole body shaking. >> greg spooner, more than 4,000 miles away in washington state was awakened by a phone call by the u.s. coast card in san juan port rico. >> and he says there have been three beacons activated aboard the james robert hansen. >> but there are four people on the james robert hansen. >> correct. >> the news only got worse. >> coming up. >> who did i lose? >> that was exactly the explosive, emotional question for everyone. >> you know, right away you have a panic. >> every fear i had, had come to fruition. it just couldn't be my son. i always wanted to design a bike that honored those who

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these video images retrieved from the ocean were among the last the four rowers took on board the james robert hansen. in the early morning hours of april 6, 2013, day 73 of the expedition, land based coordinator, greg spooner, got a call from the coast guard station. officials had received signals from three emergency beacons off the port reuerto reeken coast. >> he knew the beacons had to be operated manually and the crew would only do so in a dire emergency. but no one had any idea exactly ha happened out there. >> what's that feeling like? these are friends of yours. >> if there are only three

beacons going off, why isn't there a fourth? who did i lose? i found myself in the decision of -- >> who's it going to be. >> yeah. run through every single guy on board. >> there was jordan, the captain, greg's best friend and rowing mate on a 2006 expedition. there was adam, the olympic gold medal winner who had a 2-year-old son and pregnant wife back home. there was patrick, the rookie, whose mother had worried every moment of the journey. and there was marcus who had just days before written a blog entry saying he had no fear of death. within a few moments, the coast guard called back. >> officer harper informed me that they weren't able to raise the guys on thsatellite phones and it was time to make a decision on whether or not to deploy an aircraft. >> the coast guard dispatched a search plane from florida to look for the crew. that flight would take about four hours.

in the meantime, greg began calling the families. patrick's mother diana. >> and the world stopped. every fear i had had come to fruition. i told him not to do it. he wouldn't listen to me. and now my son's dead. >> patrick's mother wasn't the only one to believe the worst. even greg who'd always been so optimistic about the expetition. >> there are three beacons. >> that doesn't mean there are three people alive, either. >> exactly. there could be one person alive who tripped all those beacons. or there could be two people or three people. >> finally, greg had to inform adam's wife rebecca. >> he said, okay, i got a call from the u.s. coast guard, and, you know, right away you have a moment of panic, but then we talked about, okay, what could this be.

so let's not just jump to they've capsized. that's the worst case and that's not going to happen. >> at this point, rebecca was actually among the more optimistic of the family members. but in those hours the search plane was trying to find the crew, there wasn't a shred of new information. the families tried to hang on. but for patrick's mother, it proved impossible. >> i lost my son. there was real potential there that my son wasn't coming back to me. >> and then four hours into the search, the coast guard had news, big news. their plane had spotted the rowers and the boat. >> the aircraft has made visual contact with the overturned ocean row boat, capsized officially at that point. the life raft was deployed. and they have confirmed visual contact with two people. >> two people. the james robert hansen had capsized. and the coast guard could only

see two survivors, not three. not four. >> and so i had to call all the families again and say they've made visual contact, two people confirmed. >> so two people had to be dead. and which two was it going to be? and i just, it just couldn't be my son. >> and near their home in british columbia, adam's wife rebecca got greg's call on the beach where she took jefferson out for a watch. >> i'm seven months pregnant. your emotions are all over the place. i got on the ground, and i just lost it. >> here she was, perhaps a widow, and all she had just then was a video adam had recorded just days earlier about a letter she had asked him to write. >> hey, jefferson, it's your dad

here. before i left from senegal, your mom asked me to write you a letter, a letter that is pretty serious in case i died on this adventure. and that's a serious, that's something that has serious consequences of going into the wild and the great unknown is that you do face death. >> that video and that letter now seemed eerily fresh ent as three families waited for word, any word. >> emergency. a plane drops a life-saving box of supplies. >> didn't open it. >> didn't open it. >> the fact that they didn't open it made me think, okay, somebody's dying. >> when dateline continues. [ woman ] fluffy,

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♪ [ male announcer ] great rates for great rides. geico motorcycle, see how much you could save. on april 6, 2013, a u.s. coast guard plane spotted the capsized row boat, the james robert hanson off puerto rico. two survivors were confirmed in a life raft. but there had been four rowers aboard. back home their families were frantic, awaiting word of their loved ones' fate. greg spooner was beside himself. all four were his friends. you get the word at that there

are three beacons. but that's all you know, right? >> yeah. >> and then you find out they only see two people in the life raft. >> mm-hm. >> so maybe two people are dead, but you can't know. is that fair? >> 100%. >> it had been more than five hours since the crew's emergency beacons first went off. about a half hour since the capsized craft was located and only two survivors confirmed. and then the news got worse. the coast guard called to say the plane had dropped a barrel containing emergency supplies and a radio, but whoever was in the life raft didn't open it. >> didn't open it. >> didn't open it. and when i got that phone call from officer harper telling me that that happened, that's when it really, really hit me that jordan's gone. everybody on that boat, you know, in any situation of duress, he was going to have the wherewithal to open that barrel,

no matter what. >> he was the guy who'd do that. >> he was going to do it. >> jordan hansen, the captain, greg's best friend, the man he'd rowed the ocean with himself, greg tried to hold himself together when he called the families with this latest bit of news. >> okay. this is very serious. somebody's dead or something terrible has happened. >> rebecca was already reeling and this sent her over the edge. >> because the fact that the guys wouldn't open a box dropped made me think someone's dying, someone's leg is severed. and there's more important things to do than open a koes guard box with a radio in it. >> without a radio, there was no way to communicate with whoever was in that life raft. but then the plane was running low and fuel-h and had to retur to florida. another plane was dispatched which would take more hours to get to the crew. >> so that created another

period where you're kind of -- >> waiting. >> rebecca's thoughts turn to that letter she'd asked her husband to write to their son jefferson. >> he wrote a letter. tell me about the letter. >> i want adam to explain this, his decision, why he's doing it. to the best of your ability as a 32-year-old can you share with jefferson as he's older, your thoughts on life, anything you'd want to tell him. >> having won an olympic gold medal, adam was well-known in canada. a lot of my adult life has been recorded in the media, he wrote jefferson. what you won't get in the image portray ♪ my raw self. he told him to avoid the seven deadly sins and live a good life. >> i didn't ask him to write this thinking he's going to die and i want this letter. i thought what a great thing to have in the future regardless. and it was of some comfort for me to have that. >> the patrick's mother diana

can have no come fofrmt all she could do was pray that her son was one of the survivors. >> it would be selfish only to think about your son. really? who was everybody else thinking about? they were thinking about their loved one out there and just praying that it wasn't their loved one that was dead. >> and just then she got a text from greg. >> and i looked at the text message just thinking he wouldn't text me that patrick's dead, he really wouldn't do that, would he? >> turns out there was a reason for that text. about ten minutes earlier, that second barrel containing a radio had been dropped to the survivors by a plane. an official called greg immediately. >> the second plane dropped the barrel. it was retrieved. >> it was retrieved. soon the families would learn who lived or died. >> coming up -- >> i spent the entire day

wondering who's parents i'm going to have to tell. terrible enoughs to. >> four men at sea. would four men

a coast guard plane had just dropped a second radio to the crew of the james robert hansen. and this time, the survivors made contact. greg spooner got the call from the coast guard, and it was the best news possible. the rower, all of them, were alive. after all the agony, it seemed like a miracle. >> and all four were confirmed alive and well, just a little beaten up. >> wow. the moment must have felt pretty damn good. >> huge. i spent the entire day wondering whose parent or whose spouse i was going to have to tell terrible news to. and all of a sudden it was gone. >> to get the word out as fast

as possible he texted the families. >> and it said all four alive and well. coast guard circling. >> and once that text went out, greg called adam's wife, rebecca, overcome with joy. >> i was like, yeah, i would say it's the best call that you can ever, yeah. >> talk about emotions flipping on their head. >> yeah. it was a crazy day, like i have never experienced anything like this roller coaster. >> a roller coaster ride none of them would ever forget. especially adam creek, marcus and patrick fleming and the captain jordan hansen. >> what happened was what happened. >> and here you are. >> and here i am. >> and able to tell the tale. >> i don't want to say that i've seen it all. that's a dangerous thing to say with the ocean. but we've definitely taken the boat through its paces. >> they'd been about three quarters of the way across the

atlantic, miami about 900 miles to the west. the last night was routine. and then just about sun rise, saturday, april 6, the waves grew larger, but it was nothing they hadn't gone through before. the rowers were just doing a shift change, so the hatches were open. >> and then a bunch of things start happening at once. i see two waves. they look different. >> two waves that seem to come out of nowhere. they were oddly shaped, said jordan, several feet high. >> they're very close together. >> the first wave hit them and pushed their 29-foot boat almost completely under water. >> and that's when the second wave hit. >> jordan and marcus were above deck. >> and then a second later i'm thrown in the ocean. and popped back up. and the boat's overturned and i see jordan on the other side of the boat, and i know that adam and pat are in that cabin trying to get out.

>> adam and patrick were trapped below deck. seconds earlier, adam had jumped up from bed. >> we're in the cabin when we hear this wave trundling over us. it has this ominous sound. seconds later, the tiny cabin was already flooding. >> so you're in a 4 foot by 8 foot by 4 foot space rapidly filling with water. your lungs are out of air. and you're wondering is, am i going to make it. and i look up, and there's a pocket of air where the floor was. so i pop up and take a breath. i take another breath. and i dive down, and there's this blue light i pop up, and i see pat's on top of the boat. marcus is in the water. jordan's in the water, jordan's yelling everybody buddy up. the crew each activated their emergency beacons. their attempt to be the first crew to row from africa to north america was obviously ending in

disaster, their boat which was designed to right itself had capsized. they deployed their life raft but for nearly three hours they struggled in vain to right the james robert hansen. jordan wouldn't give up on the boat named for his late father. >> and jordan let out this sigh under his breath. come on, dad. and your heart just kind of goes o, right. >> and then they drifted in the high seas, hoping rescuers received their distress beacons. in fact, they did. even now, a year later, it's still unclear why at first there were reports of just three beacons. while out there waiting for help, adam, the proud canadian found his thoughts wandering back to the olympics. >> and the marijuaamericans hav chant u-s-a that everyone finds

tremendously annoying. and all of a sudden the coast guard shows up. pat, tear's are coming to his eyes, and he's like, we're going to be okay. and marcus and i look at each other, and we're like, u-s-a. the life raft was partially covered by a tarp so they could only see two rowers. they were afraid the barrel would puncture the raft. it said emergency supplies. it didn't say anything about a radio. >> we thought this has nothing that we immediately need so let's tie it up to the boat. >> not knowing the grief that decision caused their friends and family. it wasn't until hours later that a second plane could drop a

second barrel and a message. >> it's got open me written on it. >> open me? >> yeah. like six times. we bring it over, and it has a much more comprehensive list including a vhf radio. we start talking to the coast guard. >> the coast guard had already asked nearby ships to help. the rowers were finely picked up by a panamanian freighter and they arrived in san juan port rico. greg spooner had raced down to meet them as did their families. and to be sure, patrick's mother was lined up right at the dock. and then this happened. >> oh, oh, my god! >> wait a minute. he's safe! he's back. where is he? no, this can't be happening. >> right back in the water. >> patrick lost his glass and maybe a little dignity, but he

was okay and finally in his mother's arms. he seemed no worse for wear the night he finally arrived. >> when things went wrong and we had, you know, some bad luck, all our planning for all that bad stuff came into action, and we were able to come out of it within 12 hours. >> all the rowers were okay. >> we're healthy. >> but they were also desperate to find all that video and data they'd recorded aboard the james robert hansen. and after days of searching by air and studying drift patterns, incredibly, the craft was found, was hooked up to a tugboat and brought back to dry land where after weeks of effort, all of their experiments and most of their video was salvaged as well. jordan and marcus told us they're ready to go on another expedition. patrick plans to stay on land for the time being.

and back at home in british columb columbia, adam and rebecca are the parents of a new baby girl named victoria. >> no more ocean rowing for you? >> i don't think it would be fair to my children to die. >> the james robert hansen is now undergoing repair at a seattle shipyard, supervised by its grateful and living skipper. the ocean almost never gives back what it claims. but this time -- >> we were really lucky. there is no fairness with the sea. it doesn't have to give back anything. but we tried. in this case it did. >> that's all for now. i'm lester holt. thanks for joining us.

next on "meet the press," republican attempts to take down hk a hillary clinton are in full swing. will republicans stop at nothing to keep her from running in 2016? i'll be joined by reince priebus, the chair of the republican national committee, and claire mccaskill, democratic senator from missouri who has already endorsed clinton for president. plus, the high profile firing that has rekindled a national conversation about women, power, and leadership. as the debate rages over the dismissal of "new york times" editor jill abramson we'll ask are women in power positions held to a different standard than men. and new york shriver, carolyn ryan, and carly fiorina, former ceo of hewlett-packard are here to share their views. and the growing scandal of the va. is the government failing to give american veterans the care they were