oil industry. on the campaign trail, a new endorsement for mitt romney. a florida connection help him win the race for the republican nomination. new video of the man say shot and killed trayvon martin. it shows george zimmerman hours after the shooting and it's raidsing a lot of questions. hiring our heroes, what is being done to help those who gave so much, find a way to make it work once they come back home. ♪ >> that is some good picking. that is earl scruggs, the passing of a legend, one of the kings of blue grass, mr. scruggs died at the age of 88. he picked up the banjo at the age of 4 and founded the foggy

mountain boys and write the theme song to the beverly hillbillies, he is survived by two sons and five grand children and five great grand children. good day. live in washington hosting today for andrea mitchell. let's turn to our daily fix, the president tried to get out ahead of one political vulnerability, high gas prices. calling on congress to end tax subsidies for big oil. that failed in the snaxt but the white house insists there are no contingency plans for dealing with another huge potential political problem -- the real possibility that the supreme court could strike down obama's signature domestic achievement, health care reform. the more liberal justices argue even if the court throws out the insurance mandate it should be up to congress to decide what else to keep. >> what's wrong with leaving it in the hands of the people who should be fixing this, not us. >> why shouldn't we say it's a

choice between a wrecking operation which is what you are requesting, or a salvage job, and the more conservative approach would be salvage rather than throwing out everything. >> nbc news chief white house correspondent and director and my friend chuck todd, he joins us now. other side of the table. >> nothing wrong with that. come on, buddy. >> what's fascinating about when you listen to the liberals on the court. it feels a little bit like damage control. which is okay, let's say the individual mandate goes out, well, there's still ways we can preserve it. how bad we're now one day removed from the three days of organize argument. how bad did this go for the white house as it relates to the affordable care act. >> they were panicked. they are cautiously not happy but optimistic, they feel like you know, as bad as it feels they have been through this before, particularly the one in the d.c. circuit they keep talking about hey, our guy got

beaten up there too and we got an opinion in our favor that upheld the entire thing so it was constitutional and it was a strong opinion so. they still think it's 5-4, 6-3. chief justice roberts is in play and the theory of the case is that kennedy is so uncomfortable with the idea that he believes you have to throw the whole thing out, it makes him uncomfortable that maybe he ends up siding with the four liberals. so but it has been -- it was interesting over the three days, the four liberal justices throwing life lines almost. >> on tuesday it was striking. they interrupt the solicitor general to try to make his argument because they see it -- >> he wasn't doing a good job. the other thing about this issue of do you sever it or not, we played that sound. how about scalia playing political pundit. that can't get through the senate. is that his job. >> not at all. remarkable. >> yes, he's acknowledging the polarization but is that -- >> that's not the point. that's where they are --

>> right. >> i want to play something because the white house and you noted this. the white house is changing its line a little bit about the individual -- it's 103. >> three years later. >> amazing. >> let's play the sound and come back and talk about it. >> individual provision, individual responsibility provision that you cite was originally a republican idea. individual responsibility provision was something that was conceived of by the heritage foundation. >> individual mandate, no, individual responsibility provision, words matter. people think we're nitpicking but words matter. >> apparently this phrase was focus grouped in 2009, was recommended to democrats to use it, actually part of the language of itself in the bill, and somehow you know, it was noted that one of romney's successful ways of selling the mandate was talking about free riders, talking about personal responsibility. so this was done, the groups that support the mandate and

supported the president were pushing, the white house never picked up on the phraseology. the white house is not campaigned on behalf of their bill. >> no. >> now they are trying the day after the mandate gets hack sawed. >> i think the cake is baked but we'll find out. let's talk about rubio, marco rubio, florida senator, who endorsed mitt romney last night. i think we both agree that this is kind of in some ways a so what. marco rubio is a big figure but who else is he going to endorse. i thought it was interesting, the lack of passion with which he endorsed him. he essentially told the senate reporter for nbc basically that well, we didn't want to have a floor fight at the convention. >> and he's going to win the primary. >> it's like i don't like him that much but he's going to win. >> this is a pattern with the more conservative guy who is think 2016 is a possibility in

case romney loses who seem to want to protect themselves. they don't want to get caught -- they don't want to get caught the way santorum has gotten caught. when santorum endorsed romney he full throated did an event saying he's the conservative and called him that. actually i do think that hit from the romney folks hurts santorum. so i think when you look at jeb and mark, it's about protecting their own brand. >> let me play quickly, andrea mitchell talked to rubio yesterday about the v.p. stuff. let's play that. >> you are on everyone's short list for vice president. what about the prospects of you joining the ticket, whoever's ticket it is, most likely mitt romney. >> it's not going to happen but i'm obviously flattered by people that would think about me that way. there are things i'd like to get done in the u.s. senate. >> you would have a lot more power as vice president potentially. >> you think so? well, i don't know.

i think that's debatable. >> get some of those things done. >> let's put aside the denial which they all make. should marco rubio, you mentioned preserving your 2016 prospects. is being vice president a good thing, the nominee a good thing? >> no, not if you lose. and the question is when your political capital appears to be greater than the capital of the actual nominee, that is sort of the -- that's the decision here. and when you see times that that's happened, arguably palin/mccain. in that brief period. you can sit here, it is be careful there. >> it's not 100%. >> it's not 100% and it doesn't necessarily help you in the long run and help you four years later. look at the losing nominees. what did it do for lieberman, palin, what did it do for jack kemp. none of them able to capitalize. john edwards.

none of them able to capitalize and become the party's standard bearer. >> we'll have another three months to talk about -- >> his book comes out in three months. that's marco rubio plan. >> thank you. the president spent part of his flight back from south korea earlier this week reading a summary of supreme court arguments on the health care case. how is the administration preparing for what's next? dan pfeiffer is white house communications director and joins me now. thanks for coming on. >> absolutely. >> i'm interested to know, we know that the president read up on the oral arguments on the flight back from south korea. this is a guy who is a constitutional lawyer. how closely is he following it and how is heing briefed, when does that happen? and will it continue beyond the oral arguments being over? >> well, you are correct he is a constitutional professor, he has obvious interest and experience in these issues, he has been kept up to date what was happening. we were flying back during the organize arguments on tuesday, he was briefed on it.

he'll continue to stay apprised. we have a lot on our plate. this is one, it's obviously very important to the president. >> i know that you guys have focused on there is no plan b here, but given the oral arguments and i'm not going to prejudge the supreme court justices because i don't think that's smart but there seems to be a level of pessimism that exists. is there the possibility that some of the more -- let's say it's some of the more popular provisions of the law, people under 26 being covered, disabilities and no pre-existing conditions, is it possible those kind of things can pass through a congress that is as we've seen, both recently and the last couple years, so divided? >> i would say a couple things. first, we believe strongly that the affordable care act is constitutional. that's not just the opinion of the white house and the lawyers, that's the opinion of some of the prominent legal scholars and judges in the country. we remain confident.

i think it's important to take a step back and recognize what the consequences would be if the affordable care act were to go away either through this process or being repealed by as many of the -- the potential republican nominees would like to do. and that would mean that people with pre-existing conditions will no longer have access to health care, that young people will not get access to health care if they don't have health care as part of their job and seniors will get less help with prescription drugs. >> does the president push on those issues, though, dan? does he say congress, you have to do these things because to your point, they have real life implications on people's lives. this is not about an election, about doing the right thing. >> look, i'm not going to speculate what happens after a supreme court decision. our focus is implementing the law to ensure all of the decisions making a difference in people as lives are implemented correctly. >> dan, one quick thing. you guys have argued from the beginning that once these

provisions began to be implemented, people learned more about the bill not just what the two sides were saying, it would become more popular, people would like it more. polling suggests that the numbers are relatively stable with low 40% approving it. what explains that? >> well, i think that obviously we're in a polarized country, you have the hard core republicans adamantly opposed to it. you have democrats supporting it. you have in many cases ipds split down the middle. but you also have to look at the question do people want it repealed. in most polling i've seen, you know, significant majorities oppose repealing the law. so this is a law that hasn't gone fully into effect and people are beginning to experience the benefits of it and the more people experience the benefits the more they understand why it was the right thing to do and why it's an important contribution to making our country stronger. >> dan, one other thing.

the president earlier this morning spoke out on the need to repeal the tax breaks for oil and gas companies. the senate voted it down shortly after that. how do you, and one of the arguments put forward by those who oppose the repeal this is not the time to do it, it cost $50 to fill up a car at this point. what do you say to the critic who is say he needs to focus on gas prices, let's not worry about that, what does it say about the president and his political capital he speaks and minutes later it fails. >> it says a lot more about the republicans in congress who voted this down. who think for some reason thinks it makes sense to give tax breaks to some of the most profitable companies in the world when we should be investing in clean energy so we can break this cycle so we don't have gas price spikes hurting our economy and hurting middle class and working families. i think that this is one of those simple common sense things. oil companies, the three biggest

companies make $80 billion in profits last year yet getting tax subsidies unavailable to other industries. we should fix it in these tight fiscal times, take that and invest it in the clean energy of the future so we have american grown energy and reduce dependence on foreign oil. it's common sense and really is shocking that the republicans will be so opposed to this, and i think it's a good thing that they are now on record for the american people to see who is looking towards american grown energy in the future and who is siding with profitable oil companies. >> certainly not an issue that's going away between now and november. dan pfeiffer, thanks for taking the time. >> thank you. >> over two dozen democrats and republicans on capitol hill are coming together to help vets find jobs. but is that the only bipartisan issue left? later, with so many republican donors hitting their contribution ceilings can the gop raise the small dollars they need to take on the obama 2012 machine.

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a time when bipartisanship seems to abdirty word there is a bipartisan caucus focused on getting vets hired. joining me is west virginia senator joe manchin with republican senator mark kirk. thanks for joining us. tell me, it's an interesting thing. you have a lot of people, it only started six weeks ago, early february, you've got a lot of people involved already. is this a silver lining in the dark cloud of the lack of bipartisanship on capitol hill? >> chris, let me say my good friend mark kirk who will be coming back soon and by my side helping me and we started

talking about this a while back and said we've got to do something to raids awareness. we started the veterans caucus. and then the i hire a vet, we saw the disturbing numbers coming out with so many of our veterans unemployed, 777,000 over 12% unemployment with veterans. 18 to 23-year-olds, chris, is about 29 to 30%. those are unacceptable. our goal was to get 535 congressional people basically signed up and i want to make sure they are hiring vets. 29 of us have veterans working for us, they are some of our best employees, we recommend them highly. we're trying to connect it. that's going to be branded all over, i hire a vet. when we see that not only are you appreciative of what the veterans have done for us and the freedoms they have given us but you're putting your money where your mouth is and you're putting them back to work. >> senator, i want to talk a little bit, we're going to circle back around.

i want to talk about bipartisanship or the lack thereof. i was struck by olympia snowe, a moderate from maine gave president obama an f for his communication with her. i was struck f. there was anybody on the republican side that would commune with it was olympia snowe. you are from a state that has gone for republicans. is that a fair assessment, what's your personal experience when it comes to communication with the white house, do you feel like your voice as a moderate is heard? >> well, could be better. it could always be better. i haven't had that much communication. everybody has a different style. i'm not going to condemn the president's style. it's not my style. i like communications, i like to reach out and touch democrats, republicans, front row, back row. everybody has a different style. olympia snowe is a marvelous legislator, i enjoyed working

with her, i'm sorry to see olympia snowe lead, the people in the centrist of this country. >> senator manchin, you mentioned senator kirk hue founded the caucus with. he did suffer a stroke earlier this year. can you give us an update how his recovery is coming? >> yeah. i spoke to mark. mark's doing very well. he's rehabilitating, whatever they give him, you can bet on mark. it's going -- he will be back quicker, sooner, better. we're communicating and looking forward to him coming back. he is getting better and stronger working hard. mark kirk is truly a great american. he's a person that reaches out, he doesn't look at the r or the d, he looks at the job we have and as americans how we fix things, how he protects in illinois, we're both americans working for this great country. >> obviously we're all rooting for him to come back and get on the senate floor.

thank you for your time. >> chris, thank you for helping us. >> and from the senator from west virginia to the man who recorded the ballad the last public hanging in virginia, earl scruggs as we mentioned, he died today at his home in nashville at the age of 88. he is playing us out of this and we'll be right back. ♪ there's another way to help eliminate litter box dust: purina tidy cats. tidy cats premium line of litters now works harder on dust. and our improved formulas neutralize odors better than ever in multiple-cat homes. so it's easier to keep your house smelling just the way you want it. purina tidy cats. keep your home smelling like home.

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persuadable for them. '08 was a boon for democrats, you had all of the money and the energy pouring into the primary between hillary clinton and barack obama. where are republicans on this and can they hope to catch up? >> sure. thank you for having me. my colleague ken vogel reports on the republican side by the republican national committee and outside groups to try to catch up. they are very far behind as you said but it's about how you mine various forms of data, how you mine specific information about voters so you know who you are going after so you can bring out your voters. there are going to be new applications unveiled i believe it's this week, that are going to help the republicans with a more enhanced digital platform. this is again an area where the democrats are well ahead. they start out with a much deeper voter file, a more developed voter file. >> you mentioned competing

between the republican national committee, one of the other groups competing is the koch brothers. i would admit my ignorance but most focus on how much they spend on ads but this may be as much if not more important where they spend their money. >> absolutely. this goes to ground game, an area where the republicans are behind and now trying to catch up. we had a story last week that they are not waiting for a nominee, they are starting to build out in early states because they made a mistake on this in 2008, the mccain campaign wanted to wait, they are not waiting now. this is another area, though, that really helps them target. it's not just enough to open up offices and have phones on the ground. you need to be working and mining social media in this day and age. >> super pacs aren't just for tv ads. maggie haberman, thank you. >> we're about an hour away from the first of two key budget votes today. we'll get a view from capitol hill with nbc's luke russert and

allison schwartz of pennsylvania. plus, new video of george zimmerman raises questions. why was the chief of the sanford police department on the scene after trayvon martin was killed. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. like a ramen noodle- every-night budget. she thought allstate car insurance was out of her reach. until she heard about the value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate.

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♪ clearing customs like that hurry up no time flat that's logistics. ♪ ♪ all new technology ups brings to me, that's logistics. ♪ >> topping the headlines, the airline captain who came unhinged aboard a jetblue flight has been charged with interfering with a flight crew. a federal charge that could bring 20 years in prison. clayton osbon is accused of acting erratically, yelling about jesus, al qaeda, and a possible bomb on board. osbon is being medically evaluated at a hospital in texas. >> that was some very intense video from inside the deadly colorado wild fire as one family

escaped the flames. the blaze began as a controlled burn meant to thin dry vegetation. the colorado fire service has since apologized. the fire killed one couple and destroyed 27 homes southwest of denver. and all it takes is a dollar and a dream. and yeah, a lot of luck. scores of people all over the country are lining up to buy a shot at the mega millions jackpot estimated at $540 million. the largest in that game's history. the drawing is tomorrow night at 11:00 p.m. eastern. buy your tickets early and often. >> in an hour from now, the house is expected to vote on the democratic version of the budget. an hour after that the house will vote on the republican version of the budget. the version championed by wisconsin congressman paul ryan. the democratic budget is expected to fail along party lines, the gop budget is expected to pass along party lines.

democracy. luke russert joins us. this is complicated, this is a lot of posturing and politics. walk us through how this is going to play out. >> well, essentially what you're going to have is two votes, the ones you mentioned, chris, 2:30 a budget championed by democrats written by chris van hollen which is different from the one we heard from paul ryan. on the democratic budget puts more onus on taxing the wealthy in order the pay on the deficit, provide for programs, where the republican budget is more about entitlement reformation that you see in paul ryan's plan that has been criticized by a lot of democrats as being radical. those are the two things. what you're seeing is two votes that will come up around our favorite season which is the election commercial time. saying that so and so supported this budget which -- on the republican side which democrats are saying is the ryan romney budget and republican ads saying the democrats support this because it's more of the same of president ob's failed policies. both of them have no chance of

becoming law because they would not get through the united states senate. what they allow is for both parties to posture and say what they are for. interesting thing to look at, though, for political junkies like you and i, the last time around the republican budget was almost passed universally by house republicans. this time around they may have some defections. one guy to keep an eye on who voted against it last time, denny rayberg in montana, what will he do today. will he be on board with what democrats call the romney ryan budget or independent again. that's one to keep an eye on for 2012. >> luke, politics affecting policy. i can't think of it. yeah. the other thing i would say is i want to get you quickly on this, luke, which is simpson-bowles, the deficit reduction panel, brought up for a vote. 38 people, 38 members of the house, that's out of 435, voted for it. what is the scuttlebutt on capitol hill about that.

does that mean that super commit es and bipartisan reduction panels don't work? >> it's an amazing, i think -- if you want to think about this, it's literal sense, chris, look at what we saw all summer between barack obama and john boehner, trying to work toward this bargain. this vote shows that a grand bargain looks to be impossible to pass through the house. nancy pelosi said earlier she would accepted the original simpson-bowles provision, that's not what was on the floor last time. there was tinkering to it. there is less in tax revenue but all that being said you only have 38 votes on something which is the most bipartisan of these bills, it shows where we are as a country and how divided we are, chris. >> here to talk about that and a bunch of other things representative shore from pennsylvania who can characterize the democratic argument better than i could. what's going on on the house floor? >> luke russert, the king of

segues. what doesn't he do. thank you for joining us. thank you for standing next to luke for so long. luke and i obviously you heard us talking about this. first of all, let me properly introduce you, pennsylvania congresswoman, a member of the house budget committee, i do want to talk and we can talk about the democratic and the republican budget but i want to talk about this simpson-bowles. you were one of the 38 people who voted for, in support of this bipartisan budget modeled on the simpson-bowles. we've got the screen, scrolling through the names. 38 is not a lot of people. what does that say about the nature of bipartisan compromise in congress? >> first of all that 38, while a small number was bipartisan. 22 democrats and -- get my numbers right, republicans, it was a pretty good support from both republicans and democrats so it was bipartisan. and interestingly, we came from

a broad spectrum of both sides of the aisle. so it did demonstrate bipartisan support for looking really big at how we solve the major challenges in this country, going to do some tough things about revenue and around spending that we really need to look at a bigger picture. i support that. >> 38 is still 38 out of 435. >> absolutely. i think for a lot of pebs they want to know it's real before they voted for it. my own position was i wanted to put myself forward to say i'm open to having that kind of serious debate about the challenges facing this nation. i should also certainly remind everyone that the democratic budget and the president has taken seriously a lot of aspects of the bowl-simpson commission and one of the things they made clear to the republicans by and large rejected is the fact that you cannot tackle the major financial challenges in this country, the deficit in particular, without a balanced

approach. what that basically means it's got to come from spending cuts and revenue and economic growth. it cannot be done by spending cuts alone. >> congresswoman, let me ask you quickly. did the president make a mistake by not coming out fully supportive of the simpson-bowles submission f. his support was noted early on would have have changed a vote like last night? >> let me tell you the republicans in charge in the house, i don't think they were about to bring up the bowle-simpson report. look at the republican budget it does not include new revenues and protects millionaires over our seniors and strengthening medicare. so it's a big ideological divide. whether you protect millionaires or medicare, that's what the debate is about right now. >> congresswoman, i have a feeling this will not be the last we hear of this debate.

thanks for joining us. >> the attorney for trayvon martin's family says new video of george zimmerman directly and dramatically contradicts his claims of what happened the night he shot their son to death. ben crump insists there is no sign that zimmerman was attacked. zimmerman's attorney appeared on the "today" show and was ask whd the video backs up his client's self defense claim or contradicts it. >> i don't think it does either one. it's a grainy video, i do however if you watch you'll see one of the officers as he's walking in looking at something on the back of his head. the video is very grainy and i'm not sure it has as far as being able to see the injuries rece recently sustained and later cleaned up. >> joe ann read a msnbc contributor. let's start with you. i know watching this not from afar but from the sidelines a

little bit there are so many contradictory reports. can you give us a brief synopsis, what do we know underlying know, what do we know right now about this case and what are the things we're -- we think we'll find out in the next 24-48 hours. >> chris t only things we know for sure is george zimmerman admitted that he shot trayvon martin. that on the night of the incident the first officer to come there basically put him under something like arrest, in the back of a patrol car, officers came to the scene, they tried to revive trayvon martin. we know that george zimmerman was questioned at the police precinct you see in that video where he is taken in and we know he was treated for some sort of injuries, bleeding on the back of his head and on or from the nose at the scene. in the police report nothing was said about a broke be nose i. think what's happened here is that george zimmerman is in a sense a victim of the escalating story that his surrogates told. it started with he was confronted by or confranted

trayvon martin. by now it's this life and death struggle between the two of them as if he was being battered by trayvon martin. i think by telling that story they set themselves up because this video does not show that. there is no blood on him. this was a close range supposed gun shot but there is no blood on his clothing. his nose doesn't look broken or pleading so it's a problem. >> what about this report about the police, the sanford police chief being on the scene the night of trayvon martin's death. tell us more. >> see, that is also unusual. and this was the reporting this week that i was told initially, first it was confirmed to me by the police spokesman that the chief of police bill lee was on the scene, came to the scene of the shooting along with bob o'connor, the direct are of investigations. that seems unusual if it's a routine murder case what is the police chief doing there. then i was told by a source with knowledge of the investigation that the state attorney norman wolfinger, also talked directly

with the chief and the chief of investigations either at the scene or at the police station which ratchets up the unusual nature of this even more. why were the three top guys in law enforcement and law here in this county on the scene of this shooting if there were no police involved, no prominent citizen involved. well, the speculation is george zimmerman's dad is a retired judge, lives in nearby lake mary. that leaves question what is brought these senior level people to the scene. >> thank you, joy-ann. you sat down with trayvon martin's parents. let's play a little bit of what they told you and we'll come back and talk about it. >> zimmerman was able to unholster his weapon and fire one shot and trayvon fell back and said you got me. that's what the police initially told me. >> what was your reaction to that account? >> saying to myself no way.

at that point i knew there was something terribly wrong. >> that was tracy martin, trayvon's father. tell me more about the interview. sitting that close, obviously you can feel the kind of intensity and the passion and the hurt. tell me more about what you take from that interview with trayvon martin's father. >> well, you know chris, obviously they were very emotional when they came to "the washington post." what's important to understand is this story is playing out on three different stages. you've got the george zimmerman version, which was spoken about. that's being talked about on television, robert zimmerman spoke to florida television station and his lawyer has been on television. and then you've got the investigation which has not been concluded, on going. then you have trayvon's parents who are trying to get their version out. they have come to washington, they went to capitol hill, they came to "the washington post," they sat down with us, and what they are saying is this was the

account that the police gave them that night. which is a similar account to the one that robert zimmerman is talking about and george zimmerman's attorney and the leaked police report, they all sort of corroborate each other, coincide but he doesn't believe it. what the parents were saying to us at "the washington post" is they want an arrest, they want an arrest in this case and they're are not going to stop until they get that. >> i'm thankful, joy-ann read and sari horowitz two of the reporters informing us on what is just an amazing story with lots of questions remaining, i thank you both for spending time with me today. >> thank you, chris. >> after they come home and hang up their uniform, getting back to work isn't always as easy as it should be. coming up, how nbc news and the u.s. chamber of commerce are working to help american businesses hire our heroes. that's next on "andrea mitchell reports." first, he may be best known as

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>> we've been talking a lot here about nbc's initiative with the u.s. chamber of commerce called hiring our heroes. its chief goal is helping veterans find employment. hundreds of veterans came to a job fair, one of 100 such gatherings planned across the country as part of the effort. joining me is the head of the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america, and which him is jesse sang, a veteran of the iraq war. thank you both for joining me. paul, first to you. you're on capitol hill, i'm interested in this, compared to 40 or 50 years ago so many fewer members of congress have actually served in the military. does it make it harder for you to sell the importance of this given that fact? >> yes, chris. absolutely. it's really a historically low number of folks who serve in congress who have combat experience themselves. but it's historically low percentage of the american population that served as well.

less than one half of one percent, that's why this trip for us this week is so important. there are two dozen veterans down to washington as part of our annual storm the hill trip so we're meeting with members of both sides of the aisle. over 100 meetings, taking a group to the white house today and our main message is hire veterans. they are not a charity. they are an investment. they make incredible employees and will be a jenner agency of leaders. >> you know, jesse, i was struck by this number. i want to read it to you and we'll show it. of women 18-24, young female veterans, 36% of young female veterans were jobless in 2011 compared with 14.5% who had not served. 36%. one in three. you count yourself among them. how hard is it to find a job and i would say why is it so hard to

find a job? >> you know, i came back from iraq and i got accepted into uc santa barbara, i worked hard at school, graduated top 10% of i graduated top 10% of my class. i was unemployed for six months and i was only able to find a temporary job. it is just difficult. no one is hiring veterans. even with my education, with my military experience, i couldn't find anything. >> paul, i've now met jesse for 30 seconds but i've looked at her resume. this seem like someone veteran or not who should be hired. how do you get word out? obviously, nbc, the chamber of commerce is trying to get the word out. if the economy does pick up, that qualified veterans should be close to if not at the front of the line. what do you do with your organization that does a lot? what can you do? what more can you do? what can people watching, i would say, do to make sure that people like jesse do find jobs? >> well, jesse is an incredible

leader. she is advocating on behalf of the 2.4 million men and women who served in iraq and afghanistan. and the chamber of commerce has stepped up. we're pushing every member of congress to get behind the bills that we issued yesterday. it will protect the gi bill which we know is a critical path to successful employment. we want everybody in congress to sign that bill. we also introduced another bill that will improve the transition assistance program that veterans take coming home. we need everybody to get behind that. and everybody watching. get behind iava. there are only 26 of us on the hill and 16,000 lobbyists. we need the american people behind us. go to facebook, go to twitter and back these amazing veterans who are taking this powerful message to congress. we're on the front lines and we need you to be behind us. not just this week but behind the year to get that unemployment rate way down. >> thank you both. >> thank you. >> we appreciate it very much. >> sure. what political story will

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which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? i think i have a thought. he's going to help me with my thought. jonathan, we're just getting word now from nbc's chuck todd who was on the show earlier that he is confirming that there was a meeting between mitt romney and newt gingrich. i want to quote here. an aide to romney said it wasn't anything unusual. and the candidates meet from time to time. what do you make of it? >> that's rather interesting. the timing of this is very interesting as mitt romney is iraq up delegates to become the republican nominee and there are a lot of voices with the republican party and among conservatives calling on newt gingrich to get out of the race. the fact that gingrich and romney are meeting is significant. and i've seen some of the stories where they say that no

deal has been made. but if they are talking, and if they are talking about, you know, gingrich may be getting out of the race, we need to start at things like how will gingrich retire his debt? maybe even convention speaking role. this is all speculation on my part at the moment. we will definitely be about this tomorrow. >> this is what the end looks like. jonathan capehart, thanks. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." never fear, andrea is back tomorrow. tamron haus has a look at what's coming up. >> i'll talk with the video forensic experts about the surveillance video that shows george zimmerman at the police station right after he killed trayvon martin. what this video expert believes can be learned from the tape. and he's got some very big questions for the sanford police department regarding the quality. i'll also talk with former u.s. attorney in florida, kendall coffey about this key piece of evidence. what kind of pressure does it

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