marathon swim from havana to the florida keys. get this, all without a shark cage. hi, happy monday morning, i'm thomas roberts and we get straight to breaking news. downgrade slapped on our credit rating sending shock waves. on wall street, look at, this the dow jones down by 341 point. the s&p down by 43. and the nasdaq down by almost 95. exchanges from europe to asia fell through the early hours of the morning. many more than 2%. overall during a sell-off caused by a drop in investor confidence after this downgrade. treasury secretary tim geithner echoed the frustration over s&p's decision. >> i think s&p has shown really terrible judgment and handled themselves very poorly and showed a stunning lack of knowledge about u.s. fiscal budget math. i think they drew exactly the wrong conclusion from this budget agreement. >> joining me now is cnbc senior

economic reporter steve liesman and jarod burnstein, former chief economist to vice president biden. good morning. steve, the immediate worries people need to have when they hear about this and they're coming back after a weekend off and hearing the news this monday morning. what does the downgrade mean for the american people right now? >> i think it means go back on vacation. it's certainly a better place than what's happening right now on wall street. skip the good and bad and go right to the ugly. we're down, you showed the numbers, i'll give you percentages, between 3% and 4% all the way up to the nasdaq. essentially, i think the concerns are what happens to your stock portfolios. there's another concern that's a little more controversial about interest rates. when you look at what's happened to u.s. government debt, remember, that's the thing that was downgraded. those yields have fallen. interest rates have declined there as you have essentially a flight to safety. so, despite the s&p downgrade, the united states debt is still seen as a place for safety. you also see, by the way, the

dollar rallying. we don't know how this is going to affect mortgage interest rates or credit card interest rates. there is some chance it might mean somewhat higher rates on those ends, even while the u.s. government continues to borrow at better and better rates. >> i'm just getting this handed to me the president is going to be delivering a statement to the press coming up at 1:00 from the state dining room. obviously, reaction to what we're seeing today in the markets. obviously, we averted a default guaranteeing we are still going to pay all of our debt. but what are the white house's options now to regain former standing with the s&p? >> well, right now the white house is doing what i think makes sense, which is trying to explain to the world that s&p made a pretty big mistake. i'm not just talking about that $2 trillion error. though that's certainly not trivial. but that, in fact, their judgment about the creditworthiness of the u.s. government as a u.s. borrower, as steve mentioned, being discredited by market movement itself.

the other thing i think the president will probably talk about, you mentioned, what do people have to be concerned about? one of the things is that once again, what are we talking about? we're talking about the stock market. we're talking about debt. we're talking about the debt deal. we're talking about bond yields. what do people care most about? jobs and paychecks. as long as -- and it's understandable, of course, we're discussing markets at a time when they're in disarray, but i think the president needs to bring this back to what matters most to people, which is the economy and jobs. >> steve, what's the anticipation, though, is it the stock market as we're watching it go down, as long as we stay above that psychological 10,000 mark, is that a banner place where we can stay positive? >> you know, a lot of guys are talking right now about where what they call the support levels are in the market. and i have to say, nobody's really quite clear. what we do know is that what happens in the stock market has an effect on the economy. obviously, flusher portfolios

mean people have more money in their pockets to spend and psychologically more willing to spend. what's happening now, the concern from an economic standpoint, is that the decline in the market creates a self-fulfilling reality of poorer economic outcomes. 10,000 is a number that a lot of guys talk about, but right now when you have the kind of selling on heavy volume, which you have right now, nobody's quite clear where those support levels are. >> gentlemen, take a listen, which is what one top s&p official had to say about the downgrade yesterday. >> in this country, both congress and administration are jointly responsible for the conduct of fiscal policy. so this is really not about either political party. it's about the difficulty of all sides in finding, you know, a consensus around fiscal policy choices. >> break that down. how much damage is done globally and explain how much is done to itself. i'm talking about the s&p. how much damage is done to it

internally? >> well, i think s&p has to be looking at the reaction of bond yield, interest rates on treasury bills actually going lower this morning. it's as if s&p told everybody, don't eat that food over there and everyone asked for another helping. that's another kind of slap at them. remember, these were the folks that served us so poorly during the mortgage meltdown by giving high grades to those bonds. so, you know, but all that said, all that said, s&p, and obviously i think they were wrong, made some important points about our political dysfunctionalty, about the importance of revenue in the system. we don't look to s&p to make long-term judgments about how politicians are going to work this stuff out. by the way, at the end of the day, as you mentioned earlier, we did avoid default. but they're right. we've got to take these deficit matters in hand. and that's well within our scope to do, by the way. we just have to -- we have to get revenues -- >> it's worth pointing out there

are countries that have higher debt to gdp ratio that have a higher grait grade than the united states with much smaller markets, less per capita income. there are many, many curious anomalies in how s&p has chosen to grade this country. it's almost like when you read it, they prefer we have a dictatorship because then the dictator could mandate the debts be paid. >> steve, can i make one point off that? >> sure, go ahead. >> listen to this. one thing s&p emphasizes is that basically have you to start cutting entitlements. all those other countries, advanced economies steve just mentioned, they have much deeper, more generous entitlements than we do and a more aging demographic, and those entitlements are on a much better fiscal stance because they understand that that's part of what government does, they raise the revenue to do so. and they've got aaas. so, steve's right. it's a very misguided look at things. >> what has to be kicked what has toe be sold to have the aa

to invest in? >> as far as we can fell, there's no mechanical or forced selling as a result of this downgrade. what seems to be happening, is that some of the lesser credits, the higher yield bonds, the junk bonds of corporations, they seem to be taking a hit as people are selling that and going into, guess where, u.s. treasuries. >> gentlemen, thanks so much. good to see you this morning, steve liesman and jared burnstein. both sides of the aisle are talking about who deserves the blame for this downgrade. take a listen. >> i believe this is, without question, the tea party downgrade. this is the tea party downgrade because a minority of people in the house of representatives countered even the will of many republicans in the united states senate. >> both political parties are responsible for the mess we have right now. this is not a republican or democrat only problem. this is both parties got us to where we are. i would argue, though, that over the last couple of years, we've gone deeply in the wrong direction.

>> we'll bring in our panel now, tara, democratic strategist and liz, conservative blogger. liz, i'll start with you. the tea party supported members of congress. we're all about the inability here to compromise, which basically took us down to this deadline. that's a big fear for standard & poor's going forward. shouldn't a big share of the blame fall on them? >> i think the blame can be shared amongst pretty much everybody. i think if we want to look at who to wlam in this instance, the answer is politicians, really. there are plenty of people who are going to identify the tea party was being intransgince. you'll find plenty of people saying democrats were being. everybody knew we need aid certain amount of deficit reduction. republicans look at this and say, democrats weren't interested in doing much on entitlements issue. conservatives are going to look at this and say, well, we could have done cut, cap and balance but you didn't want it. that's a lot of what you're seeing from conservative commentators today. >> the word we heard all along

was rekacalcitrant but how the president needs to respond to critics, how does he do that? >> this president is in a very difficult situation. i think even though people are saying this is a blame game and blame is to be had all around, i think this is legitimate criticism to be leveled at the tea party in this instance. the president has got to call people out when they are barriers to progress. remember, the president showed a very big willingness to compromise and he needs to remind people of that. $4 trillion is what he offered in his grand bargain. that included revenues, which were actually less, and massive spending cut. spending cuts his own party was not comfortable with. i think the president needs to, a, call people out when they're blocking progress, and i think he needs to pivot and to continue to shift and focus on jobs. >> well, we can't continue to starve the government and continue to spend as we are. thanks so much for joining me today. appreciate it.

on another note, we are learning more about the tragic helicopter crash in afghanistan. this is the deadliest since the war actually began. 30 american service members died, including 22 navy s.e.a.l.s. most of whom were from the elite team 6. kevin houston was among the fallen, a s.e.a.l. from cape cod on his fourth tour in afghanistan. he was known to keep an american flag tucked in his body armor next to his heart. and aaron vaughn from tennessee was a s.e.a.l. who asked to return to combat six weeks ago. kimberly vaughn, aaron's wife, spoke on the "today" show this morning about their 2-year-old son and newborn daughter. >> i'm proud that i will get to carry on his legacy through our children, who will take away his strength and his love for this country. and they will know what an amazing man he is. was. >> nbc's atia is live in kabul for us. do we know more about the mission that these troops were on?

>> reporter: hello, thomas. we are hearing from nature foe officials who are confirming what exactly happened saturday during the overnight raid. they're saying this helicopter carrying the men were actually a part of a reinforcement team going in to help u.s. army rangers who were pinned down in a fire fight in the tanji valley in wardak province. when their chinook helicopter was coming down, that's when the tal boone decided to fire a rocket-propelled grenade, bringing the helicopter down and killing everyone on board. 30 americans and 8 afghans were aboard that chinook helicopter. what's interesting is the fact that we've actually heard this story before, from the taliban. they're the ones who told us that this is the occurrence that happened in wardak saturday night. what's odd is the taliban tend to exaggerate, but obviously they knew what was happening on the ground. they kept an eye on the aftermath. what we're hearing from nato is that the investigation is still ongoing. they've secured the area. they were recovered all the

bodily remain. right now they're efforting to recover remains of the helicopter. >> in 200519 special ops members were killed when their helicopter was shot down. how are troops reacting to this news on the ground? >> reporter: this is saddening news for the men and women in afghanistan, especially those who worked with these other men in the special operations unit, the ones who died. it's a tearful time for them. a heart-breaking time for them. it's still their job. they have a job to do here in afghanistan. they don't have time to take a day off. they still have a war to fight. so, although many people are upset and very saddened by these deaths and heart broken, they still know they have a job to complete while here in afghanistan. >> atia in kabul, thank you. we know the statistic, 14 million americans are currently out of work. 4.4 million of those have been out of work for longer than a year. and black unemployment is nearly

twice the national average. the congressional black caucus is hosting a jobs fair across this country with real employment opportunities, for getting americans back to work. we'll talk with one of the lawmakers behind that initiative, live and how it really can help. ♪ yes! ha ha! [ clicking ] ♪ what happened? power went out, want a hot dog? [ female announcer ] oscar mayer selects are made with 100% beef and have no artificial preservatives. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry !

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[ man ] so i used mine to get a whole new perspective. ♪ [ male announcer ] the new citi thankyou premier card gives you more ways to earn points. what's your story? citi can help you write it. welcome back, everybody. keeping a close eye on the dow this morning, which opened sharply lower. plunged over 00 points earlier this hour. now we see the dow jones at almost down by 252. on the heims of the u.s. credit rating downgraded by the s&p. president obama we got news will speak with reporters and address the downgrade as well as this deadly helicopter crash in afghanistan coming up at 1:00. joining me is assistant minority leader and member of the congressional black caucus, jim clyburn. we've been talking about the

downgrade and we also want to talk about the convention taking place across the country, trying to get americans back to work. first, your reaction to the downgrade and how the government can restore confidence in its ability to govern. >> well, first of all, thank you for having me, thomas. well, let me begin by saying, this is very unfortunate. i think it's undeserved. but i don't think it was unexpected. i think that those of us who have been watching this, the s&p, finch, as well as moody's, had the feeling that s&p might do something like this. i don't believe it's deserved at all. i think if you look at their reasoning, it didn't seem to focus as much on economics as it did on the political activities that were going on in washington. i don't know what our political debate has to do with the

economic stability or economic ability that the country may have to pay its debts. but they seemed to focus on the debate that was going on in washington, which i think is so unfortunate. i also think a lot has to do -- i'm sorry? >> no, no, i was going to say, but globally your reaction, doesn't this make us look weak? >> yes, that's what i'm saying. i think a lot has to do with what's going on in europe. as much as what's going on in the united states of america. and i think that s&p has begun to play quite a bit in europe. and because it makes them look better in the european markets when they are sort of chiding us here in the united states. it's a good deal for them. but, you know, we'll get through this. i don't think this is as serious as it could be, if the other two

rating agencies are, had downgraded. the fact they did not, and that s&p even admitted to making a $2 trillion error. if you make a $2 trillion error, and you said that we should be -- should have done another $1.5 trillion in our overall debt relief program, that made us 500 billion to the good. so, if you said we should have done $1.5 trillion more, and you made a $2 trillion error, then what's the deal here? so, i think that this is unfortunate. as i said, it's undeserved. and for the reason i just mentioned, not quite unexpected. >> congressman, i want to talk more about what's taking place in the country right now with the congressional black caucuses' efforts kicking off job initiative. five different cities, five different job fairs starting with the event today in cleveland. explain to everybody the goals

and how these job fairs are going to be different than others. >> well, what we're trying to do with this, and i want to thank the chair of the caucus, emanuel cleaver, for pushing this idea. he and miss fudge of ohio, have been talking about this a long time. getting us out of washington and around the country, trying to bring people and jobs together. i think that if you look at the statistics, you know that so many of the people who are no longer being counted, people who have given up, dropped out of the process, so they're not being factored anymore. we want to bring those people back online, get those people back into the process because we want the numbers to be realistic and we also want to get people once again focused on an attitude of really looking for work and getting them together with people who can provide the

work. so, i think this thing has a two-fold reason highlighting the unemployment, and also getting people back in our psyche, so to speak. we don't want them on the sidelines, out in the shadow, not actively looking for work. we want them back in the process. i think this is a good way to do it. now, i do believe that we've got to focus on main street. i think we have to look at little job creations. that's why i've been pushing so hard for my rural energy savings program because that will allow jobs to be created in little communities, rural communities and will allow sales to tick up, lowe's and home depot and other places where you can put people back to work, have insulators doing work, have heating and air

conditioning people doing work, carpenters and bricklayers, all of those. these are the kind of people we are to get back into the work force and get money churning in local communities again. >> i think you're talking about the blue collar fabric of this country. do you think president obama has done enough to support this effort? >> i don't think congress has either. and i have been talking to the white house about this. i've been talking to members of congress about this. i have pushed legislation. by the way, it is bipartisan legislation. democrats and republicans working together, saying, we've got to look for these kinds of jobs. the program he put forward will allow $9,000 a year -- income -- 9,000 job creator per home where people can borrow up to $9,000, retro fit their homes, put in

savings on energy will more than pay for the notes and we do that through the co-ops. we're already doing that in south carolina. we know it can work. we want to nationalize that program. if we were to do that all over this country, we would have people going back to work. you would have all kinds of economic activity taking place in rural and urban communities all over this country. that's the kind of stuff. stop focusing on whether or not you're going to get another big automobile, electric cars and all that kind of stuff. i want them, too, but let's focus on small community, these kind of jobs. that's what puts main street back to work. that's what puts money churning in local communities. that's what will have sales going up again at suppliers all over the country. >> congressman jim clyburn, good to see you. i want to point out f they want to learn more about this, they

can go to thegrio.com for a live stream of today's town hall for the people's jobs initiative. question for you, why teaching french or german or even mandarin may be the best thing you could do for your child's brain? we'll talk about that. us your thoughts via twitter. you name it. i've tried it. but nothing's helped me beat my back pain. then i tried this. it's salonpas. this is the relief i've been looking for. salonpas has 2 powerful pain fighting ingredients that work for up to 12 hours. and my pharmacist told me it's the only otc pain patch approved for sale using the same rigorous clinical testing that's required for prescription pain medications. proven. powerful. safe. salonpas.

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school testing requirements. the administration argues that forcing districts into a one size fits all solution doesn't work. and is looking for more flexibility for schools nationwide. all this week msnbc will focus on education, leading up to our two-hour special on sunday called "making the grade." as we explore how our kids can start early and aim high, we're learning language could be a key in all of this. in fact, being bilingual is like feeding super food to the brain. this is according to a new article in the latest issue of "newsweek," the author, casey schwartz, joins us to talk more about this. good morning. >> good morning. >> this is really exciting because in this article you talk about bilingualism being a super food for our kids' brains. explain how the research supports that. >> well, it turns out that being able to speak more than one language at a really high level and on a regular basis is like constantly flexing a muscle in your brain. and it carries over into all kind of skills beyond those of

actually speaking a language. >> this is fantastic. i wish i was -- i wish i was a little better at a second language, but this is something that has grown in the u.s. over the past decade. take a look at this. according to the u.s. census in 1980 only 11% of americans lived in homes where language other than english was spoken. in 2007 that doubled to 20%. any lng languages better suited for the american culture to learn? >> right now there are about 440 bilingual schools in the u.s. the most popular language being offered in those schools is spanish. surprisingly, mandarin is a close second with french a distant third. >> so, french, row romance language, falling behind mandarin, which would be the business language. >> yes, it would. >> when we talk about the success rate of kids actually retaining this, any research that says how well kids retain this? you say it needs to be something

you flex constantly so you're using it almost as you would your first language. >> absolutely. the absolute rule of thumb is, you know, practice, practice, practice, practice with use. with disuse languaging tend to fade from mind. >> -- since this is a growing trend, what is the sustainability of schools continuing this. you mention there's 440 elementary schools teaching this multilingual educational courses. >> by that i mean total immersion multilingual, bilingual curriculum where the class is taught completely in a foreign language. >> can that trend be sustained as we go forward? do you think it will grow in popularity? >> i think the larger question is, can it afford not to? >> that's a great question. i told you, i'm going to spain. all i know is el bano and -- >> that's wonderful. >> i'll study on the plane. thank you. great to see you. be sure to join msnbc on sunday, august 14th at noon for a

special two-hour program "a stronger america: making the grade" live from detroit. it will be and je johnson. tune in. th online conversation. all yohave to do iso to facebook.com/stronger america and at twitter. both political parties are accusing ooch other of making the historic downgrade to our credit rating. forget about wash, democrats, republicans, the s&p, forget about the blame game. what does it mean for you, your 401(k), mortgage, car loan? will you find yourself even more strapped for cash than you were before? we talk about that. i couldn't conceive this as a heart attack. the doctor leaned over and said to me, "you just beat the widow-maker."

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back and forth. at the beginning of the hour we were down over 300 point and they seemed to bounce back a little bit. we're showing you the white house. the president will be speaking coming up at 1:00 to address the country's downgrade as well as the tragic helicopter crash in afghanistan over the weekend where we lost 30 of our troops. the big question so many of you are asking at home right now is how will the first u.s. credit rating downgrade affect you over the long haul? so, from 401(k)s to your mortgages to car loans, we've got your downgrade survival guide. joining me is personal finance expert carmen wong ulrich. it's a concern for everyone trying to figure out how this will trickle down to me at home. when we talk about our 401(k)s, home loans, car loans, student loans, when will we feel it? >> that will determine a lot of it. right now what we're feeling with the markets last week, with the markets today and probably going forward for a little bit is a lot of volatility and a lot of loss. what we're hearing from folks is, do i just run? do i get out? first of all, anything you do in

a panic is not going to be a good move, so don't function on that. ask yourself a couple questions. first of all, how anxious are you? how far are you from retirement? if you're within five, ten years of retirement and you have more than 60% of your money in the market, you want to take a look at that, and do you know where your assets actually are? if i ask people in the 401(k), where are you invested? you probably don't know. call up your 401(k) administrator and ask them to meet with a financial adviser. most plans have that. let's bring it down to interest rates and when will people feel the difference when it comes to their credit card or their car loans? >> this will be down the road. the thing with credit cards, when interest rates are low, doesn't matter as much because it depends on the market in terms of spending as well. here's the thing, we'll probably see rates go up, with mortgages what happened today, with fannie and freddie, we'll see mortgage rates go up, but that would happen anyway. there's no place to go but up. where's the confidence in the housing market? who is going to buy? this is a confidence place. you see consumers are saying, i

don't feel comfortable buying. i'm worried rates are going to go up, so we're not going to see a lot of home buying. that's what i'm worried about. a million foreclosures last year, a million this year. >> what about those that feel they to want buy, should feel confident, is there anything they could take out of this, any silver lining they feel they can move ahead with their -- >> interest rates, incredibly historic lows. if you are any good position to buy and stay, because you'll have to stay if you want to see any return on that home. we'll have a flat market or down market in a while, you're staying there for ten years, great, you locked in at a tremendously low interest rate. interest rates will trickle back up. if you're looking to refi, do that something soon. >> as we talk about the different in ratings, with steve liesman i was asking him about the fact that we go from aaa to aa-plus, what gets kicked that has to be sold where that security issue? >> the flight to treasury bonds,

a lot of americans are doing that, a lot of individual americans are doing that. here's the thing, it boils down to what are the markets doing with your retirement money and how comfortable are you with it? get professional advice. sit down with someone and do a lot of research on your own so you're not just flying into a metal, for example. you want to make some smart decisions because as we saw with the last dip, this is going to recover eventually. >> i think that education is key in this. >> absolutely. >> a lot of people tuning in could get scared looking at the downward -- >> education is power when it comes to money. >> great. thanks so much. straight ahead, 1 p.m., president obama will address this devastating helicopter crash that we're talking about this morning. it killed 30 american service members and comes at a time when nato causalitieses have been decreasing. while civilian deaths are up 15% over the past year, before this incident, nature dough deaths were down 16% in the last six months. joining me is barry mccaffrey,

an msnbc military analyst. nice to see you this morning. i want to you explain to all of us the impact this type of news has on the armed forces of this country. >> well, it's a huge impact. these special operations troops, particularly the so-called army, navy, air force in this elite counterterrorism unit, that level of loss in one blow is a huge impact. now, it won't affect in any significant way our ability to fight going forward. but it clearly was a moral blow in that tight-knit community. >> for all of us at home this is such a sad reminder for so many of us who are had family and friends who have fought and some we've lost over the years in the war on terrorism. 15 helicopters have crashed or experienced forced landings in afghanistan this year, only two involved enemy fire. when we talk about this latest incident, does it indicate we

could see more nato aircraft attacks or is this just a case of, they got lucky? >> we've got to remind ourselves, thomas, there are 15,000 u.s. killed and wounded in afghanistan to date in the war. so, you know, there's a dip in the u.s. casualties this first six months of this year, but there is a major fight going on in afghanistan. it's not going to end soon. it's incredibly dangerous flying environment. these aircraft helicopters in particular, army and marine corps, are flying at night in mountainous terrain at low level and fast. and they're taking people into assaults where on the ground you've got taliban barrage firing rpg rockets at them. and having heavy machine guns. so, it's a very perilous environment. fortunately, they're so competent, our casualties are remarkably low given the level 6

intensity of conflict. >> when we look at what the drawdown is looking like in the future, sir, we have 100,000 troops in afghanistan now. all of the 30,000 surge troops are going to be removed by 2012. combat troops out by 2014. do you think an incident like this changes the timeline, how people are trying to put things forth within the military, out of washington, d.c.? >> no, i don't think so. i think the president's working under a political imperative to draw down. this is a $10 billion a month war. the casualties running several hundred killed and wounded a month. the american people, two-thirds of them don't support it. we've got to start coming out. and i think the first 33,000 are definitely coming out. in theory, we're largely out by 2014. the real question, thomas, is what will happen next? can we leave an afghan army and a police force and an operative government that will hold this thing together or will it turn into endless civil war again in a place -- a sanctuary for

international terrorism? the jury's out on that question. >> i want to point out, there was a pew research center pole, 56% said troops should be brought home while 39 pshs said they supported keeping troops there until that situation is stabilized. as you point out, no one knows when that could be. sir, it's great to see you today. general, thanks for your time. >> 61-year-old american woman is attempting to break records by swimming from havana to the florida keys through shark-infested waters. it's her second try at 103-mile journey which is expected to take 60 hours. she first tried it at the age of 28, but sea kurnlgts forcurrent to stop then. if she makes it, she'll be the first to make it without the aid of a shark cage. [ male announcer ] where'd you get that idea?

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republican presidential candidate are seizing the downgrade as an opportunity to direct new criticism toward president obama.

this morning mitt romney slammed the president on his handling at a town hall in new hampshire. >> during the last 2 1/2 years, this president is primarily responsible for the failure of this economy to reignite and for his own failure to take the action, which is so obviously needed, to restore our balance sheet. >> msnbc news deputy political editor mark murray joins us from washington, d.c. with more. so, mark, are these candidates walking a really fine line, blaming the white house when so many voices out there are blaming the tea party? even mitt romney himself got a lot of criticism for coming out a day late and a dollar short? >> well, thomas, even president obama's overall solution to this was actually what s&p seemed to suggest they wanted. some time of $4 trillion deal that was a combination of increased revenues along with entitlement reforms. that's kind of the obama plan. it was john boehner, congressional republicans who walked away from that. the most important thing to understand whether it's mitt romney's criticism or tim

pawlenty's criticism orme chel bachmann's criticism, they are all trying to get the republican presidential nomination and that involves having tough rhetoric aimed at president obama, so you probably will see this as a general election issue the republican nominee, whoever that is, would end up saying president obama, whether it was his fault or not, actually oversaw the nation's first downgrade. >> mark, a lot of eyes turning to iowa and michele bachmann was ahead of the straw poll speaking at church services in in on sunday. we'll talk on the other side. >> this is a time when we do need to be encouraged, not discouraged, encouraged. so i think -- >> all right, very straightforward comments from bachmann but it was the sermon that followed getting attention from that, isn't it true, mark? >> absolutely. our campaign reporter reported that during the sermon, it actually contained the denunciation of homosexuality

and also included a videotape testimonial from once proclaimed to be gay but has since been transformed, married with a woman who's now pregnant. of course, michele bachmann's husband, marcus, got caught in some controversy when someone with an undercover videotape and camera found that his clinic, marcus bachmann's clinic, was trying to encourage people to transform from being gay to straight. this is just one more development. >> offering reparative therapy. governor rick perry has not declared, so to speak, but he held as much anticipated day of prayer in texas. take a listen. >> our heart breaks for america. as a nation, we have forgotten who made us, who protects us, who blesses us. and for that we cry out for your forgiveness.

>> he's still not official but what's the reaction from this event? >> well, he got a great reaction. in fact, it turned out to some 25,000, 30,000 people that ended up attending. if he runs for president, this is a great primary move. makes him the candidate with evangelical christians, would compete with bachmann for that position. it's a great primary strategy. general election, might be a little more problematic. as you saw, george w. bush use his faith very successfully in 2000 and 2004, but much more subtle than what we saw from rick perry over the weekend. >> we still wait for official announcements from the perry camp. we shall see. mark murray, appreciate it, sir. relatives of michael strange, an navy s.e.a.l. killed in the helicopter crash in afghanistan are remembering him this morning. the 25-year-old from philadelphia was described as a man who loved his family, friends, his country and loved making people laugh. one former navy s.e.a.l. insists the nation first must are time to grieve for michael and his fallen colleagues.

>> these young men are national treasures. they're irreplaceable. you don't find them everywhere.. so this is -- this was a tragedy for the entire country. snack on this. progressive's "name your price" tool showed me a range of coverages and i picked the one that worked for me. i saved hundreds. wow, that's dinner and a movie. [ dramatic soundtrack plays ] this picture stars you and savings. but mostly savings. out there with a better way. now, that's progressive.

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president obama will speak live on the u.s. credit downgrade at 1:00 p.m. eastern as we see the markets plunging once again hovering around the loss of 300 points this morning. triple digits there we're going to go and have live coverage of the president's comments here on msnbc. he will be speaking about the loss of 30 special op ration forces over the weekend. we are learning more today about those americans killed when their chopper was shot down in afghanistan. 22 were u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s. s.e.a.l.s endure some of the most rigorous, merciless training in the u.s. military. those who make the cut are among the best. chris, it's nice to see you this

morning. explain to all of us how does the elite unit like the s.e.a.l.s recover from such a devastating loss like this one? >> thomas, thank you for having me. it's a pleasure to be able to represent my community and all of special op rations command. the s.e.a.l.s are a tough bunch. this is a significant impact on the community. it's a bad one. s.e.a.l.s, we don't know how to quit. it's not in our dna. what we need to do right now is focus on getting the aid to these gentlemen's families. you can all do that by logging on to navysealfound.org, woundedwarriorproject.org. get the funding to these gentlemen's families. it doesn't matter if it's a dollar. donate now. s.e.a.l.s undergo 30 months of ard rouse training. by the time this man pins on this symbol he's a national

asset. there are guys raising their hands right now ready to fill spots. we do not quit and we won't quit. >> chris, as we take time to mourn the loss and if we can contribute to help the families out this is such a devastating loss, what can you tell us about the s.e.a.l.s and how they will comfort each other during this time to know they have suffered this loss. they never quit, there is still a mission at hand here. >> absolutely. they're going to honor their fallen brothers. they're going to have their own ceremonies, toasts will be had. like i said, these guys do not quit. we don't know how to quit. they're strapping their gear back on and taking the fight back to the enemy, back oto where it needs to be. rest assured that is happening right now. americans let's mourn this loss. let's contribute if we can. it's give whatever we can to those families through those foundations and keep our heads

held high. we're warriors. the best way that you can support us is by allowing us to be warriors and continue to do our jobs. >> former nayyy seal thank you for your time. >> until tomorrow you can follow me on twitter. contessa brewer is going to pick things up next on msnbc. don't go anywhere. n 1: send, the weekend. app grapgic: yeah dawg! man 2: allow me to crack...the bubbly! man 1: don't mind if i doozy. man 3: is a gentleman with a brostache invited over to this party? man 1: only if he's ready to rock! ♪ sfx: guitar and trumpet jam vo: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

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good monday, i'm contessa brewer covering big news from coast to coast the big story right now, credibility. here's what's happening on wall street. the first day of trading after the s&p cut america's stirling credit rating down to aa plus. look at that, the dow jones industrials off by almost 300 points. the s&p down 38. the nasdaq composite down 83 points. it's the first credit downgrade in u.s. history