community. the fbi is joining the search for a suspect. and it's an unbelievable story in tampa, where two young women renting a summer getaway apartment made a startling discovery. what they thought were smoke alarms turned out to be hidden video cameras. we'll have more on that this morning. great to be with you, i'm thomas roberts and i would say tgif if it weren't for what's going on in washington, d.c., right now. it's frenetic and let's talk about it, time is nearly up for the congress to reach a compromise. john boehner is trying to make changes to the bill and have a vote as early as this afternoon. we're following the fast-moving developments on capitol hill and at the white house as well as on wall street. this is where investors get a very dismal report on the gdp, and we're going to get into that in a moment and also take a look at what the boards are doing across the markets. but, first, here's president obama addressing the crisis just moments ago --

>> any solution to avoid default must be bipartisan. today i urge democrats and republicans in the senate to find common ground on a plan they can get support -- that can get support from both parties in the house, a plan that i can sign by tuesday. the time for compromise on behalf of the american people is now. and i'm confident that we can solve this problem. i'm confident that we will solve this problem. >> that was in the last hour. now, the president could possibly address the debt crisis once again. here he is speaking on fuel efficiency in washington. we're going to monitor that, see if anything comes up. but nbc's mike viqueira live for us at the white house, also luke russert is following every twist and turn on capitol hill. luke, i want to start with you, because i know it's been a long night, early morning for you and today is another critical test of leadership for speaker john boehner. he is toast, if he can't secure this deal, how long does he have? >> reporter: well, news that just came out of the house gop conference, thomas, was the bill

was going to be altered, the boehner debt bill. there will now be a portion of the bill with a balanced budget amendment attached that basically says, look, there will be an immediate $900 billion increase to the debt ceiling with $917 billion in cuts. but then six months from now after the commission comes up with some sort of idea of how to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion, in order for that to occur, the trigger would be the states would have to ratify a balanced budget amendment. something that was a centerpiece of the house gop's cut, cap and balance legislation. now, what's significant about this, thomas? well, it will garner the needed votes from the tea party-backed republicans and the conservative house republicans that have been there for a long time, but it make the bill almost radioactive in the united states senate, harry reid, the president, have all said they will not vote for a balanced budget amendment, which it needs to be ratified by state constitutions around the united states to become an amendment which is a very difficult thing to happen. it doesn't occur overnight.

so, for that to be attached to the legislation, makes this sort of as one democrat told me laughable, because it won't move at all. the original strategy of the house gop was for it to be sort of the last thing standing to try to jam the president on and then he would reluctantly have to support this. there is no way the democrats are going to allow a balanced budget amendment to be contingent upon raising the debt ceiling. that's just a nonstarter. so, it allows speaker boehner to preserve his conference and the bill to go forward in the house. but the real question mark becomes, thomas, with the ticking time clock, the real thing now is uncertainty. nobody really knows what's going to move forward. it's got to be some sort of compromise. you heard president obama is trying to chide it along. but if you speak to business people, the markets are going down. >> right? >> reporter: we now see if you have this in another six months, who is going to hire when they are worried about this coming back in six months. that's the message now starting to come on capitol hill and it

will will be interesting to see how they react. what becomes the next vehicle to passage, it's very unclear, and now you are starting to have huge ramifications on wall street. >> luke russert on capitol hill, we'll check back with you later if there are developments. if congress fails to reach a deal on the debt, if that doesn't happen on tuesday and the government goes into default, it could be up to the president to decide who gets paid and doesn't, nbc's mike viqueira is live at the white house for us. this is the first we've heard from the president in three days, the brief statement he made in the 10:00 hour. so, what's going to happen now behind the scenes? will the white house actually step in and make this come to fruition? >> reporter: well, do you know what, we saw over the course of the last weekend after house republicans pulled the plug for the second time on the so-called grand bargain, i mean, thep. we house involvement in this has waxed and waned.

there's no question that the white house has remained involvement to a certain extent. but i think what you saw the president do today was to sort of get above the fray, thomas, calling, again, for a bipartisan bill. they're looking at what's going on in congress. clearly john boehner has been wounded. certainly this legislation has been wounded, and as luke describes it, the way they've tweaked this to try to jam it through the house, after all the convulsions and all the historienihistory histrionics with members walking in and out, going into the chapel off the house rotunda to pray, ordering pizza and all-night arm-twisting is exes a sessions and so forth, it really removes any doubt right now about where this is going and it's going absolutely no where. the strategy on the part of republicans all along with the vote that's out of the house, count on senate inertia and then when we get to tuesday, that would be the only thing

standing, and the president would be more or less forced to sign it. the senate would be more or less forced to bring it up. that was a long shot to begin with. that doesn't seem like lly righ now. so, really we're seeing the back-and-forth in the senate, we're seeing the arms being twisted. we'll probably see the bill come to the floor as luke has reported later today. but it's really up to the senate now. will mitch mcconnell stand by john boehner or will he work a deal behind the scenes with democrats. that's the question. >> why is the president asking people to flood twitter and social media sites and call their congressmen -- >> reporter: calling for bipartisanship. >> instead of stepping in and picking everybody up by the scruff of their necks saying this needs to get done. >> reporter: this is an echo of the argument that we heard over the course of the spring for the health care debate, for the president to get his lbj on, if you'll excuse the expression, and bruting people around. it doesn't work the way the congress is composed right now after the 2010 election certainly, and if the house

republican leadership can't get their people in line, the president isn't going to be able to do it. it's high-stakes drama and i said it yesterday and we've been saying it for the last several days, no one knows how it ends and the deadline is tuesday night at midnight. >> you covered capitol for a long time, should americans take out of this that we have now divided into a three-party system? >> reporter: it's starting to appear that way. one of the ironies we're starting to see here, we've seen this kind of gridlock have dramatic effect. we saw it in the t.a.r.p. debate. i'll never forget the date, september 29th, the stock market crashes 70 points and we saw all this going on, the strained -- the high emotion, this partisanship going on in the health care debate, the irony is a lot of what we're seeing now is a result of all of that. and, thomas, i don't know how it's going to work out, how this is all going to shake out and who will be left standing and what kind of wreckage they're going to be able to sift through at this point to get a deal in time by tuesday. everything is up in the air,

thomas, i can't emphasize that enough. >> mike viqueira for us at the white house this morning, thank you. >> reporter: okay. some very critical economic data is out today, the recession turning out to be worse than we thought. the u.s. economy grew at a rate of 1.3% during the last quarter and revising the first quarter down sharply. the investors don't want to hear this as they watch the debt crisis head down to the wire in congress. take a look. here's how the markets are responding so far to the dow now down roughly by about 30 points. we are seeing some green from the nasdaq up only three. the s&p is right there as you can see, just down almost under a point. but we're going to watch this. we've seen such fluctuation, the dow jones was down over 100 points just over an hour ago, we'll continue to watch to see how they close out the week. we want to get to the major players and what's at stake for

the american people. ezra klein is a columnist for "the washington post," and we've got the author of "renegade, the making of a president." ezra, i'll start with you, the new york "daily news" reflecting what people are thinking, it tells washington leaders to grow up. is speaker boehner reasserting his authority and what does the balanced budget amendment mean for the tense, terse negotiations going forward? >> quite the opposite. this is showing how little authority he actually has. to pass his own republicans in the house, boehner's having to rewrite the bill so it can never pass the senate or the president or anywhere else. the anallgy i would use, remember when that nancy pelosi in quite a striking act of leadership and show of authority among her members got the house to support a health care bill that did not include a public option, that included lower subsidies that included all things that the house did not want to vote for, but she was able to use her respect to pass

it. what boehner was doing as if she had gone rewritten it to single payer and whatever the senate does is done. boehner is trying to salvage a vote but he won't get his bill moved. >> when you are saying he's not legislating, it's a victory for the tea party, but as you point out and we've been discussing, it will be a failure when it gets to the senate. what's the point? why waste the time? >> it's very unclear. what boehner needs to do right now, this has long been his problem, he needs to salvage his speakership. boehner's always had two different incentives in this whole fight. he's had on the one hand, make sure he survives as leader of house republicans and on the hand actually get this job done. when we get down to the deals, we saw that when we got down to the end of the boehner/obama negotiations and as we get down to the vote in the house, baber's need to protect his leadership tends to come in front of his ability to cut a deal, and that keeps happening, it's unclear how he can get out of the negotiations with a bill

that will actually raise the debt ceiling and be something the president can sign. >> richard, we see president obama asserting and reasserting his leadership with a statement he gave today, but are these strong words really enough? and is this really going to look bad on both sides, republicans, democrats this is not something that people can talk about when it comes to the election season and talk about it strongly enough that anybody did the right thing? >> well, i think it's a given that all sides look bad here, and yet we don't know how the end game is going to play out, because we don't know if we're really going to bust through this deadline or not, and if they do get through that deadline and there is no debt ceiling raised, well, then, parts of the government are going to shut down. how does the administration play that, how does it play with the american people. it's too early to say how this works through the election, but what the president did is two new things just this morning, he said first of all, it's time for the senate to move. whatever goes on in the house is a sideshow, it's meaningless, the senate needs to take this up now and get this going.

secondly, he's ready to go for a trigger, as long as that trigger in this next round will include revenues. and that's an important mechanism for enforcement, but it's also an important statement about the taxes will come back into this debate at some point next year. that's -- those are two new elements we've got in here. but first of all -- first of all -- the senate, and that means mitch mcconnell, harry reid, need to figure something out rather than standing on the sidelines and letting the house mess it up. >> what kind of governing do we have in this country? >> we've got the tea party and that's not working, john boehner's biggest crisis isn't happening today, it will happen through the weekend when the senate moves and then he has to change his strategy completely which is to say i'm not trying to keep my republicans together, i'm actually going to have to get democratic votes in here. does his speakership survive working with democrats? because if it cannot, then you

cannot actually be the spooker of the whole house as he told the just this week. >> gentlemen, thank you, ezra, richard, we'll talk up shortly, next. thank you. where the two chambers stand now, much more on this, the showdown in washington. where is it going. i love that my daughter's part fish. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information.

everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

i really do think speaker boehner wants to do something great for our country, i really do. and i think he's one of those folks that candidly would be willing to lose his speakership over doing something great for the country. >> speaker boehner trying to regain leverage in the debt drama. harry reid said he'll move forward with his own bill, but republicans in the house still want to be a factor in the finished product. senators want to take action, though. but the weight on the house has

made communication difficult for both sides of the aisle. take a listen -- >> unfortunately we're not having the negotiations between republicans and democrats in the senate right now because the republicans don't want to confuse the issue when speaker boehner's package is being considered. so, they've shut off discussions, negotiations until they see what happens to speaker boehner's package. >> senator kay bailey hutchison is a member of the appropriations committee and she joins me now. senator, it's good to have you with us this morning. i want to get straight to it. what are you hearing as of the very latest from your leadership? is there a chance the senate can pull it off, put out a bipartisan plan? >> well, i do think the senate is working behind the scenes on something that would be acceptable to the house and also acceptable to the senate democrats. and i think they've been talking actually for several weeks. i think they're getting down now

close to the deadline, closer. so, i do think things are being done while the house is also trying to pass a bill and get it over to the senate so that we can get that part out of the way and then try to come up with something that both sides can agree on to send to the president. >> certainly there's a lot of accusations and also speculation of what's going on up there on the hill, and we heard from senator mccain a few days ago. he used the word bizzaro when discussing some of the freshmen members in the house. are they preventing republicans from negotiating in good faith and to reach the deals that contain real deficit reduction? >> thomas, honestly, i think what we have is a true divide in our philosophy of government, and it's coming to a head under a very tight and important deadline, and that's what is causing i think so much friction. i think that we now have to look at the deadline and start trying

to determine what we can actually do that will move the ball forward. and that is to raise the debt ceiling, to cut significantly the spending in a dollar-for-dollar agreement, and with no new taxes. and i think we have to do something short term and then look at the longer term in the time frame that is being provided in both the boehner bill and the reid/mcconnell bill. >> senator hutchison, we'll let you get back to work, we can hear the noise going on behind you. but thank you for taking the time oust yot of your day to ta us. >> marsha blackburn is a supporter of speaker boehner's bill and came out of the meeting with the gop conference. we're glad you're here. let's get straight to it. why is your leader having such a difficult time convincing more conservative house members that this is the good plan, the good start, for what kind of cuts this country needs? >> a couple of points there. i think, first of all, speaker

boehner is to be commended to looking at a plan that is, again, going to get most of our conference on that plan, if not all of our conference on that plan. as we did when we passed the provisions embodied in cuts, cap and balance. those principles are still at play. and what he's working to do is to add an amendment to his plan that will allow for a balanced budget amendment to move forward and have to be passed before that second tranche of debt ceiling lift could be given. and i think he's wise to do that, and i wouldn't say it's having trouble. i would say what he is doing is listening, and he is seeking to involve the conference. the reason is, what we're trying to do is solve the problem. not only for the near term, but for the long term. and as we -- >> how are you -- if we go into default, though, how does that solve the problem for the future? isn't that just going to put more strain on an already fragile recovery process for

millions of americans? >> well, and what we're trying to do is to prevent that from happening. by involving, making certain that there are the provisions there that are going to be able to move forward in the senate, that are going to garner the most votes, that are going to send the right message to the markets, that are going to be there so that they have the support, not only of members of both chambers of congress, as you were just hearing, but also of the american people. it is going to take dealing with the spending problem first, all of the economists have told us that. they want to see a spending reduction plan. the ryan budget was a good step. the provisions we will take to the floor today would give us over 60 and just under 70% of the reductions in the ryan budget. that's a solid footing for moving forward for further and greater spending reductions. it would -- >> it sounds like you're talking about compromise, which is what the country is expecting from

everybody there on the hill. i want to get your insider take on the -- >> yeah, let me say to that, what we have done, we as house republicans are the ones that have had plans. we have been putting forward plans. they're all based solidly and founded solidly in principle, and they're respectful of the individuals that we represent. what has been missing is a plan from the president. we know that leader reid came out with a plan this week. but we've led the way in saying, let's put forward plans that are going to solve this problem. so, what we're doing is trying to make it workable and passable and stick to our principles so that we end this out-of-control spending. >> when we talk about tea party members, though, are they undercutting the leadership of speaker boehner? >> individuals represent their districts, and they have to come forward and represent the districts that have sent them there. and i respect that. there's always going to be

differences of opinions, and, you know, when i was in the state senate in tennessee, i led a four-year -- not day, week, month, but four-year fight against imposition of a state income tax. we did that by doing a lot of listening. we did that by building a strong -- the people of tennessee defeated the state income tax and our state today is stronger today because of it. but it made certain that representatives from around the state came to the capitol in nashville with those ideas. i think there are a lot of lessons in that for congress, and we can take that diversity and those ideas and come forward with a stronger plan that is going to, you know, that is going to honor the commitments that the american people have made to us to help us engage in the problem. >> do you have the votes? do you have the votes? does boehner have the votes? >> i think when we get our

amended bill in process today, that we will pass it and send it to the senate for their action. >> congresswoman blackburn, great to have you on this morning. i really appreciate your time. >> so good to be with you. thank you very much for your interest. a new hampshire town of 1,000 residents just got a mile from the canadian border -- just a mile from it, is now on high alert this morning as the search for a missing fifth grader is escalating. we'll bring you the details on the search. and, of course, we continue to follow the developments out of washington. it looks like it will be a really long weekend, folks.

naturals from delicious, real ingredients with no artificial flavors or preservatives. naturals from purina cat chow. share a better life.

an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement, available only from liberty mutual insurance, if your car's totaled, we give you the money to buy a car that's one model-year newer... with 15,000 fewer miles on it. there's no other auto insurance product like it. better car replacement, available only from liberty mutual. it's a better policy that gets you a better car. call... or visit one of our local offices today, and we'll provide the coverage you need at the right price.

liberty mutual auto insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy? by the end of the day, today, i must take action on the senate's compromise legislation. this is likely the last chance to save this nation from a default. i've invited senator mcconnell to sit down with me to negotiate in good faith knowing the clock is running down. i hope he'll accept my offer.

>> all right, there we have it, senator harry reid addressing this morning in a game of "let's make a deal" continuing on capitol hill. and speaker boehner just walking by our stakeout cameras on capitol hill, when asked if there's a deal, he said, i'm smiling. we're going to have to figure out what that means. we'll, of course, bring you the latest developments as the four-day deadline continuing to tick down, and they are certainly struggling to pull this one off in that time. some other news that we're following right now, dozens of investigators are working out of a school in a small new hampshire town where an 11-year-old girl went missing earlier this week. police say they plan to speak with every single one of the 800 residents living in stewartstown where a young celina cass was seen monday night on a computer on h at her family's home. in south texas they are getting ready for tropical storm don. the storm is packing some maximum sustained winds near 50 miles per hour now, but is not expected to strengthen very much

before it reaches the texas coastline friday or early saturday. regulators say 11 offshore oil platforms have been shut down because of the storm, cutting off 7% of normal gulf oil production. new jersey governor chris christie released from the hospital last night, this following that emergency treatment that he needed for his asthma. he's back to work today. governor christie said he's experienced shortness of breath and lightheadedness on his way to a bill passing and was taken to the hospital after an inhaler failed to stop the symptoms. speaking just after his release, christie joked about the incident. >> i think you got the tip that i was okay when mary left, that meant i was either fine or dead, one or the other. you know, you would have heard about the latter. >> all right, the governor said all the tests came back normal and they've ruled out anything more serious in his health condition. all right, coming up next hour, the 21-year-old army private who admitted plotting an attack on his fellow soldiers

outside ft. hood will appear in court. authorities say a stockpile of explosives was found in the hotel room of private naser abdo, it's the same base where 13 people died in a 2009 shooting massacre. nbc justice correspondent pete williams has been following this and joins us from d.c. authorities say abdo condemned the '09 ft. hood shootings in a letter he wrote less than a year ago. and he was found with this stockpile of wechapons. what else have been we been able to learn since he's come into the news? >> he will appear in court and we'll probably learn more about what he said when he was in custody. but, you're right, that is basically the story here. he starts out getting into the army. then he applies for conscientious objective status, saying that fighting in the military, fighting in iraq and afghanistan, is inconsistent with his muslim beliefs. at first the military wasn't buying the argument, but

ultimately the pentagon said he's right, he should be discharged from the military and he was just about to leave when authorities say they found several items of child pornography on his computer. so that stopped his discharge. he was almost out of the army, but when they found evidence of a crime, they kept him in the military so that they can prosecute him in the military justice system, and that's what put a hold on his discharge. he'd had a hearing. he went awol, wound up in texas. went to the gun store where he bought smokeless powder which is gunpowder basically, a component in bombs, and authorities say when they went to his motel room in ft. hood, texas, they found the makings of basically two time bombs, smokeless powder. they say he was in the process of taking shotgun shells apart to get the shot out. the little metal pellets, which apparently he was going to use as shrapnel in the two bombs that he would have built in pressure cookers. so, instead of being pipe bombs,

they would be pot bombs. and then his plan was to place these at where soldiers gathered outside ft. hood. it was quite a change of position for him. but the authorities say today they're still going through all of his past writings, looking at his potential contacts with others, that this investigation is a long way from over, thomas. >> as you say, we'll find out more coming up in the next hour when he's in court. nbc's pete williams. thanks. >> you bet. the debate over what to do next with the debt ceiling comes down to the wire on capitol hill, there are some that say president obama should step in more decisively. according to some he could invoke section four of the 14th amendment. now, that states that the validity of the public debt shall not be questioned. in practical terms what it means, some interpret that to mean, that he could raise the debt ceiling without congressional approval. joining me in the studio to discuss this msnbc contributor melissa harris perry, who is a columnist for "the nation" as well as a breaking news magnet

what she does from time to time on msnbc. it's nice to see you this morning. i know you are keeping late-night hours. let's get right to it. steny hoyer speaking about losing the 14th amendment on "the ed show." take a listen and we'll talk to it on the other side. >> quite frankly if it came down to looking default in the eye on tuesday or taking this action, as president clinton said, better to take the action and find out later that perhaps he went beyond his authority, but at least protected the creditworthiness of the united states of america. >> all right, so what do you think about this? one of my favorite phrases in my own personal life is better to ask forgiveness than permission. but how do we institute that professionally? >> look, this is really tough. you can tell that every time the president is addressing the nation, that part of what he's trying to do is keep the markets as calm as possible through the other side of this crisis. so, i think he's not wanting to say, listen, i'm just going to go ahead and invoke this kind of

unilateral capacity, because what that will tell the markets and what that will tell, by the way, all of the credit rating agencies is we are so broken that at this point i basically have to go back to a set of powers that emerged after the civil war, for goodness sake, right? i'm going to have to go -- it's so bad, we've broken so much. the thing about that if he were to do it and use the 14th amendment, he would protect us from default. he will not protect us from a credit downgrade, because you've got to assume that s&p and moody's will look at that as washington being fundamentally broken. >> guys, can we go ahead and put up the board so we can see what action is going on. we've been watching melissa, the back and forth, red and green, consistently all red earlier, and now we're seeing where we are with the dow jones, down by 32. s&p almost there right in the center, nasdaq up by five. we were watching this morning, dow jones was down over 100 points. do you think in washington there is the backroom consensus that

people would like to get this type of black mark on obama's presidency? >> maybe. but what this really is the moment when statesmanship should be overwhelming partisanship. i know it feels like that can't possibly, you know, happen, but i still really believe, and this is a nutty thing for me to say, but, look, i really still believe that the leaders of the republican party, i really do think that neither boehner or mcconnell nor mccain apparently, none of them want to see it happen in this way. they certainly want what they want in terms of cuts, but they don't want to see us default and they certainly know that downgrade is no better for their constituents than it is for president obama's base. >> and we've got four days to go. it's great to see you, melissa harris perry, you're doing a great job, we're watching you tonight in my household. you're filling in for raich che maddow, and you'll be on again tonight. rest your voice. thanks, melissa. we want to talk about

whether or not speaker boehner gave a coy indication of whether there may be a deal. he walked by our stakeout cameras on capitol hill moments ago, and when asked about it, he said, i'm smiling. we'll have much more ahead.

somewhere in america, a city comes to life. it moves effortlessly, breathes easily. it flows with clean water. it makes its skyline greener and its population healthier. all to become the kind of city people want to live and work in. somewhere in america,

we've already answered some of the nation's toughest questions. and the over sixty thousand people of siemens are ready to do it again. siemens. answers. why take a chance with something as important as our national economy, so therefore i think most of us are willing to accept a good deal less than we'd like to see as part of a beginning to alter our debt course in america. >> all right, there we have senator jeff sessions with word of caution on the debt crisis playing out on capitol hill. we're waiting to see if house speaker john boehner has somehow eked out a deal. he walked by our cameras just moments ago and said i'm smiling when asked on the fly about what's taking place. but look at the markets. we've been watching what's taking place today and we're seeing a mixed bag across the board. the nasdaq is the only one really in green. but we want to find out exactly what this is doing. the conversation that's taking place in d.c. is doing to our

markets. so, we're going to have much more from capitol hill in just a few moments, but right now we'll also give you other headlines that we're following in the news now. starting with it's the worst storm to hit south korea in a century, a landslide near seoul with severe flooding leaving at least 50 people dead. crews are searching for north korean land mines that washed down a swollen river into south korea. and take a look at this, a teen driver rammed his car right into a 7-eleven convenience store, he said his brakes failed on him. police think it was just youthful inexperience. maybe he thought it was a drive hef throughdrive-through, but n hurt. it was the third car, yeah, the third one, to crash into a store in aurora, colorado, in 24 hours' time. an investigation is under way in florida after two female foreign exchange students found surveillance equipment in their rental apartment. now, this equipment, it was disguised as smoke alarms and

motion detectors. police are looking in to who installed these cameras and how the images were used. residents in ann arbor, michigan, are passing out wanted posters following six different attacks on women in this month alone. earlier this week police released this composite sketch of the men or the sketches of the men that they suspect of carrying out these attacks. in each case, women walking alone were targeted late at night or early in the morning. two of those attacks included rapes. our ron allen has more for us from ann arbor. >> reporter: this is a very disturbing situation here in ann arbor, michigan, on the edge of the campus of the university of michigan, a very prominent, well-known university. it is freshmen orientation week, so you have thousands of new students and their parents here trying to understand what's going on at this place. there have been six attacks during the past 12 days. sexual assaults. a woman sexually assaulted in a parking garage. a couple of women groped as they were walking down the street,

some were students and others were women from the community, all between the ages of 18 and 22. all of the incidents happening between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. when the women were alone. police are investigating. they have a composite sketch of a man who they think is responsible, but they're not sure, it may be more than one man responsible for the incidents. university officials have declined requests for interviews, they are distributing information to the community about how people are better protect themselves as people try to catch this man or men who they are calling a predator. thomas, back to you. >> ron allen, thanks so much. and stay with us. much more ahead right here on msnbc. congressman luis gutierrez will join me. [ cat ] i am beautiful... [ vet ] your turn max. [ cat ] inside and out. and i'm not the only one who thinks so...right doc? [ female announcer ] vets agree, a healthy check up starts inside. our breakthrough iams premium protection formula is developed with vets... ...with cutting edge ingredients for the lifelong health of your pet.

[ cat ] what a surprise... straight as again! [ female announcer ] iams premium protection. our most advanced iams nutrition. ever. [ cat ] oh, i'm not in your way, am i doc? i...[yawns] am an iams cat. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. just don't feel like they used to.

are you one of them? remember when you had more energy for 18 holes with your buddies. more passion for the one ya love. more fun with your family and friends. it could be a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. come on, stop living in the shadows. you've got a life to live. [ male announcer ] so don't blame it on aging. talk to your doctor and go to isitlowt.com to find out more.

there are plenty of ways out of this mess. but we are almost out of time. we need to reach a compromise by tuesday so that our country will

have the ability to pay its bills on time, as we always have. >> all right, president obama just moments ago weighing in in the last hour pressing congress to pass a bill that can actually make it to his desk. as the president points out, there are just four days to go before the u.s. government is required to raise its debt ceiling and speaker boehner may have an amended bill that can pass through the house. congressman luis gutierrez, a member of the house financial services committee, joins me now. sir, it's nice to have you on. i want to get down to the hard facts when it boils down to the american consumer. what will it mean if the federal government fails to raise the debt ceiling and defaults on our national debt? >> first of all, there's at least half of the government we won't be able to provide money for we'll have to make decisions on half tuesday about who is going to get money, who will get paid, health care, social security. there's that part. on the other hand, i mean, it's like saying on tuesday, guess what, i don't want to pay the mortgage on my house, and then

on wednesday, going back to the same bank and saying, would you lend me money for a car or for something else. it's not going to happen, because number one, you just -- it's been destructive to our credit rating and our credibility. and, you know, what's astonishing is that we have seen this happen in greece. we've seen this happen in ireland and portugal. but here it's kind of contrived because people still want to buy american debt and lend us the money we need. at the same time, if the economy crashes, if people are unemployed, if interest rates go up, won't there be fewer revenues coming in so that we can settle what we should settle, which is the longstanding debt. >> sir, what do you think of the balanced budget amendment that was added to the boehner bill? >> well, i think it's a little fantasy. last time i checked it takes two-thirds. look, you're not going to get two-thirds of the house and you're not going to get two-thirds of the senate to vote. it's just political opposition. so, you know, they can't even get two-thirds of -- if every

republican voted for it, you wouldn't get two-thirds in the house and you're not going to get it. and, plus, what are we going to do, get three-fifths of the states to get it approved? look, let's face it it's good politics for them back at home, but it's going to be poor public policy and i hope -- because there's a sense of how, how would i say it, it's almost giddiness from the new tea party members that they don't understand that playing with fire you can get burned and even if it's just about you, others can also get hurt. >> congressman, while we have you, i have to talk about your arrest that happened in front of the white house, you were there for a pro-immigration rally. it's not the first time you've been arrested, so what kind of statement are you hoping or trying to make here when as a lawmaker you are arrested? >> here's my point. there's an immorality to the public policy. the president of the united states, had he meant discretionary powers and when i see on the one hand ordering a

young soldier to go to afghanistan, to fight for our country, and the next day that same family receives an order of deportation for the wife, there's something fundamentally, morally wrong with our broken immigration system. so i was there to say, mr. president, use your discretionary power against those immigrants that aren't criminals, against those criminals -- against those immigrants in this country that you know need your help. when you see a marriage and there's an american citizen, help them out. when you see young students who came here when they were 3, 4, 5 years old and they are 18 or 19 and in school and doing well, say you'll defer action. what we want to do is have a balanced approach. 1 million deportations, he made a commitment to the immigrant nation that he would allow people to come out of the shadows. that it was wrong to rip a child from a mother's arms, that's what he said when he received the nomination in denver. >> do you feel the same thing

with same-sex marriages when they are facing immigration? >> yes. when i went to denver on the family tour, we had a and had a wonderful binational couple. i think it's important that we don't have this contradiction. i think it's marvelous and wonderful to see new york and washington, d.c., but you know what, what if you go and one part of the american government says we respect that bond and that love that you have and we're going to confer marriage. you know, to be strengthen and cement that bond. marriage. but then you can't get them a visa. you can't get them a green card to stay here in this country. i think if we're going to do it at the state level, we need to make sure. the congress isn't going to approve that law, but guess who can make it on a case by case decision, the president of the united states. we want him to make those kinds of decisions. i'm happy you brought it up. >> congressman, we're going to let you get back to work.

>> thank you. much more on the debt showdown. speaker boehner may have an amended bill that may pass the house again. when answered if he had the votes, he answered i'm smieming. votes, he answered i'm smieming. we'rese me? my grandfather was born in this village. [ automated voice speaks fo back right after s the same language. ♪ in here, forklifts drive themselves. no, he doesn't have it. yeah, we'll look on that. [ male announcer ] in here, friends leave you messages written in the air. that's it right there. [ male announcer ] it's the at&t network. and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say.

♪ let me make you smile ♪ let me do a few tricks ♪ some old and then some new tricks ♪ ♪ i'm very versatile ♪ so let me entertain you ♪ and we'll have a real good time ♪ [ male announcer ] with beats audio and flash, you can experience richer music and download movies straight to the new hp touchpad with webos.

i don't think that's what the american people sent us to do. i don't think they said to democrats, come to washington, but don't speak to republicans or to republicans come to washington and don't speak to democrats. the bottom line is democrats and republicans notwithstanding we're all americans and we all have responsibility. >> that was senator durbin earlier this hour calling for bipartisanship in the next four days to avert default and other looming economic crises that can come the country's way when august 2nd comes. we're learning interestingly enough that house telephones they're jammed once again to near capacity. lots of people getting busy signals heading off obama's call

last hour. you'll note that the president told people to call the house. call and let them know what you think. let your representative know. also urging people to tweet. there we have our camera waiting to see if senator harry reid is coming out to make a statement on what's taking place earlier and another stake out camera we have speaker boehner walked by and asked do you have a deal, he said i'm smiling. not sure if we can read the tea leaves on that one, but we're trying. that's going to do it for me today. i'm going to see you back here at 11:00 eastern time on monday. i'm filling in on "news night." i'll see you at 2:00 this afternoon. keep it right here on msnbc for continuing developments on the debt showdown. this deadlock in washington, d.c., fast moving developments and contessa brewer she's going to be here picking things up in the next hour. don't go anywhere. [ male announcer ] get ready for the left lane. the volkswagen autobahn for all event is back.

right now, get a great deal on new volkswagen models, including the jetta, awarded a top safety pick by the iihs. that's the power of german engineering. hurry in and lease the jetta s for just $179 a month. ♪ visit vwdealer.com today. morning starts with arthritis pain... that's two pills before the first bell. [ bell rings ] it's time for recess... and more pills. afternoon art starts and so does her knee pain, that's two more pills. almost done, but hang on... her doctor recommended aleve because it can relieve pain all day with just two pills. this is lisa... who switched to aleve and fewer pills for a day free of pain. and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels.

for a day free of pain. somewhere in america, a city comes to life. it moves effortlessly, breathes easily. it flows with clean water. it makes its skyline greener and its population healthier. all to become the kind of city people want to live and work in. somewhere in america, we've already answered some of the nation's toughest questions. and the over sixty thousand people of siemens are ready to do it again. siemens. answers. that's how it is with alzheimer's disease. she needs help from me. and her medication. the exelon patch -- it releases medication continuously for twenty-four hours. she uses one exelon patch daily for the treatment of mild to moderate alzheimer's symptoms. [ female announcer ] it cannot change the course of the disease. hospitalization and rarely death have been reported in patients who wore more than one patch at a time. the most common side effects of exelon patch are nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

the likelihood and severity of these side effects may increase as the dose increases. patients may experience loss of appetite or weight. patients who weigh less than 110 pounds may experience more side effects. people at risk for stomach ulcers who take certain other medicines should talk to their doctor because serious stomach problems such as bleeding may worsen. people with certain heart conditions may experience slow heart rate. [ woman ] whenever i needed her, she was there for me. now i'm here for her. [ female announcer ] ask the doctor about your loved one trying the exelon patch. visit exelonpatch.com to learn more. he needs some gellin'. yeahhhhhhh. gellin' is like having a teeny tiny foot masseuse in your shoe. you like ? nice ! dr. scholl's massaging gel insoles. outrageous comfort, all-day long. good friday, everybody, i'm contessa brewer. the big story we're watching

right now, fast moving developments in the showdown other the debt. there are now just four days until the nation goes to the august 2nd debt deadline. this morning president obama pushed congress to find some sort of compromise. >> what's clear now is that any solution to avoid default must be bipartisan. it must have the support of both parties that were sent here to represent the american people. >> right now house speaker john boehner's frantically trying to tweet his stalled bill to get support from conservatives to get it through the house. >> time is presently short and that is an understatement. >> senator majority leader harry reid's tired of waiting. >> i would ask my friends, my republican friends break away from this thing going on in the house of representatives. >> so today reid's going it alone moving forward with his debt plan. it cuts more than $2 trillion in federal spending and extends the