captions paid for by nbc-universal television this morning, romney versus obama. and what i consider to be two questions at the heart of this week and this race. who exactly is mitt romney? what did his victory speech this week tell us about how he's going to run? >> it's still about the economy. and we're not stupid. >> to the deciders in this election. one key group i can tell you is women. the big question is still, how will they be won over? i'm going to discuss it this morning with two campaign insiders. the senior adviser to mitt romney ed gillespie and robert

gibbs, senior adviser to president obama's campaign. also, after the firestorm. she started by going after ann romney. democratic strategist hilary rosen is back, and only here, with a few more things to say. >> also here this morning, msnbc's rachel maddow. republican strategist alex castellanos. and vice chairman of the house republican congress, congresswoman kathy mcmorris-rodgers. plus, it's the morning after. a big night here in washington. the washington correspondence dinner adds a little glitz. it gives the president a chance to use some comedy as a political weapon. >> it's great to be here this evening in the vast, magnificent hilton ballroom. or what mitt romney would call a little fixer-upper. from nbc news in washington, "meet the press with david gregory". >> we're going to get you caught up on a big weekend in washington with the white house correspondents dinner a little bit later in the hour. kind of like the prom in

washington, d.c. we'll get to the comedy a bit later on. also my colleague brian williams will be here to preview a special hour inside the situation room. an exclusive interview with president obama and his national security team going through the decision making one year ago on that raid killing osama bin laden. we'll talk to him about that. big week in politics. it was romney this week claiming victory. his speech was significant. that's where i want to start. robert gibbs, senior adviser to president obama's campaign. ed gillespie, senior adviser to governor romney's campaign. let me start with the romney campaign. you are no stranger to presidential politics. former head of the party. counselor to president bush. a senior adviser to mitt romney in a new role. as you settle in, here is the obama campaign going on the offensive. i mentioned bin laden one year later.

they are using that issue against governor romney. here was the vice president on thursday. >> thanks to president obama, bin laden is dead and general motors is alive. you have to ask yourself, had governor romney been president, could he have used the same slogan in reverse? >> the argument's clear. governor romney would not have made killing bin laden a priority. >> this is one of the reasons president obama has become one of the most divisive presidents in american history. he's managed to turn it into a divisive, partisan, political attack that former defense secretary frank carlucci for president reagan called sad. john mccain called shameful. i think most american wills see

it as a sign of a desperate campaign. >> it's interesting if you compare it to the president you worked for, president bush, the same sort of tactics that were used in a lot of people's eyes. here's an example back in 2004 of an ad he ran. he was running for re-election. let me show it to you. >> i'm george w. bush and i approve this message. >> the last few years have tested america in many ways. some challenges we've seen before. and some were like no others. >> using images from the world trade center. a lot of people see that as the very same thing, is it not? focusing on leadership moments of a president. >> i think there's a little bit of a distinction here, david. i think if president obama had said even though he said we shouldn't spike the football at the time of this momentous occasion regarding osama bin laden, had said, you know, i'm proud of this, i think he would have said he should be proud of this. we're proud of the country that this happened.

it's the attack that governor romney wouldn't have done. i can't envision, having served in the white house, any president having been told, we have him, he's here, should we go in, saying, no, we shouldn't. the difference here is you don't see -- you see in the bush ad saying, you know, he's a strong leader. you don't see him saying, and that guy, you know, would have done something different. i think that's -- >> i count the 2004 campaign, vice president cheney made it very clear america's defenses would be down and vulnerable to a terrorist attack if john kerry had been elected president. so is it any different? >> david, what we talked about and we can go back and talk about -- what's that, eight years ago? the record of senator kerry, which is what i remember talking about on this show a number of times was the record. this is an attack on something that might have not happened. it's a bridge too far. again, i think the american people will see through it. and i think that secretary carlucci when he said it's sad and senator mccain said it's

shameful i suspect most americans will look at those comments and probably not disagree with those assessments. >> is america safer because of president obama's leadership? >> i think america is not as strong as we should be. i think if you look at the perceptions of america across the country, look at our relationship, the reset button with russia and telling -- please tell putin we'll be more flexible later, our relationships with israel, i don't think that president obama -- under president obama america is as strong as it should be or will be under a president romney. >> my question, is america safer under president obama's leadership? >> we maybe -- i think we're safe. we haven't been subject to attack. i'm not sure -- i don't know enough in terms of the intelligence. i used to know that. i don't believe that president obama -- under president obama we are as strong as we should be as a nation or -- and i believe that under a president romney we would be stronger.

>> let me ask you, you mentioned russia. does governor romney believe that russia or as some of his advisers still call it, the soviet union, is the number one threat facing america today? >> i believe that governor romney believes that russia has not been conducive in terms of trying to contain iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. they've undermined the u.n. security council efforts to stop that. the fact is, i think, that, you know, when you heard president obama say we're going to have a reset with russia, i don't think that he is -- actually his policy toward russia has been an improvement for the united states. and i believe that we need to understand that russia is not helping us relative to containing iran. that's probably one of the most important priorities we have as a nation right now. >> let me move to the economy. as i said at the outset, i watched governor romney's speech very carefully this week. there were parts of it that got people thinking about the sort of campaign he's going to run

and what the major messages will be. he went on the offense talking about the president's record. let me play one portion of that. >> he's asking us to accept that washington knows best and can provide all. we've already seen where that path leads. it erodes freedom. it deadens the entrepreneurial spirit. and it hurts the very people it's supposed to help. those who promise to spread the wealth around only ever succeed in spreading poverty around. >> let me focus on freedom as he uses it in that particular portion of the speech. we know that taxes is going to be a huge issue in the fall campaign. will freedom be eroded for wealthier americans if they resume paying tax rates that they paid under president clinton, a time of low unemployment and high economic growth for the country? >> well, david, any time you take from someone by virtue of taxation, there's an erosion of

freedom. any time you impose excessive regulations, there's an erosion of freedom. any time you impose a government mandate there's an erosion of freedom. what you have in a government-centered economy like president obama has put forward are fewer jobs, stagnant incomes, higher prices for gas and electricity. what you have under a president romney in a pro-growth economic agenda would be more jobs, rising incomes and lower prices for gas and electricity. the fact is we have 23 million americans today who are either underemployed or unemployed as a result of president obama's policies. you just saw that the gdp rate for the first quarter of this year was 2.2%. very disappointing. we would have a much more vigorous recovery. most americans, it's not surprising, don't even believe we're in a recovery right now because of this president's policies. >> when you had the bush tax cuts over a course of eight years, you're saying --

>> there were 52 months of uninterrupted job creation under president bush as the result of those tax cuts. that's the longest actually in american history. longest period of uninterrupted job creation. under this president what we're seeing is the cycling effect of excessive government regulation, constant call for raising taxes, a tax on businesses and major employers. and that's the reason that we're not able to actually generate job creation in this country today is because of this excessive government intervention in our economy that we would be better off with a little more freedom and there would be a lot more growth. >> i asked the question who is mitt romney really when it comes to how he's going to present his case to the american people. you are an insider in terms of your experience in washington. now you've come to this campaign as an outsider watching a hard fought primary. what damage from the primary to governor romney do you think has to be undone as he tries to center himself in the general election? >> there's kind of a difference in the terms of a whole approach to a general election versus a primary campaign. he's gone through a primary campaign with four pretty

vigorous contenders along the way. somebody said he's had five octobers already in this primary. you know, in a primary like that inside your party you're magnifying -- trying to magnify minor differences between the candidates. there are major differences between president obama and governor romney in the direction we would go with the nation and policies that would be put in place. highlighting those major differences and the impact they have on the american people is actually in so many ways a lot easier to do than -- than to do in a primary campaign with people of your own party. >> but is it hard when he described himself as a severe conservative on the one hand and then an adviser talking about that etch-a-sketch moment you sort of reset for the general? does he have to define for the american people who he is? >> i think you saw in his speech in new hampshire who he is and what he believes. and he believes that we'll have a better america if we have a more prosperous economy. and that more prosperous economy that creates jobs and raises incomes and brings down the cost of gas and electricity will result from policies that free

up entrepreneurship in this country. don't stifle it. allow for people to have more choices in terms of how they invest their money and spend their money rather than have people in washington, d.c., make those decisions. the american people are going to have a very clear choice in november. and if they want to continue down a path that we've seen with this president where the government is making decisions on our health care and on the kind of cars we can drive, the kind of energy we can use, the investments in solyndra and that kind of thing and the wasteful spending we're seeing now and higher taxes, i don't believe most americans think that is going to result, actually, in economic growth. i think they think it'll continue what we have now which is a pretty stifled economy that's limping along and we need to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit and allow for job creation and rising incomes in this country. >> finally i want to ask you about the deciders. the key group being women in a fight over which party is best going to represent the interests of women in this campaign, issues that they're caring

about, issues particularly that have to do with their health and health care. the president talked about this as an event just on friday. here's a portion of what he said. >> now we've got governors and legislatures across the river in virginia, up the road in pennsylvania, all across the country saying that women can't be trusted to make your own decisions. the days of male politicians controlling the health care decisions of our wives and our mothers and our daughters and our sisters, that needs to come to an end. >> are republicans on the defensive here? >> you know, actually, david, when you look at the facts, there are 2.7 million more women without health insurance today than when barack obama took office. 858,000 fewer women working today than when president obama took office. we have actually now the highest number of single mother families living in poverty than at any time in recorded history. a 14% increase since president obama took office.

his former communications director that worked with your next guest said that the white house was a hostile workplace for women, unlike with governor romney, by the way, who when he was governor according to the center for women in government at the university of albany had the best record of all 50 governors in terms of hiring and putting senior women into his government. the fact is what we have now is the u.s. economy is a hostile workplace for women under president obama. because it's harder to get a job. and we have, like i say, single mother families at the highest level in poverty. people losing insurance and according to the pew research study, women are the only group who has -- that as a group have lagged their population growth in terms of their employment growth. so we look forward to this

debate as, to paraphrase the governor from the other night, it's still the economy and women aren't stupid. >> we'll be following this debate very closely. thanks so much for being here. i want to turn to former white house press secretary, senior adviser now to the president's election campaign, robert gibbs. robert, welcome back. >> good morning, david. thanks for having me. >> good to have you here. we've got a little bit of a delay which we'll work through as you're in detroit this morning. i want to talk about the politics of osama bin laden. one year later after he was killed at the direction by the raid by this president. here is a campaign ad that is being run that features former president clinton. here's a portion of it. >> it's one thing george bush said that was right. the president is the decider in chief. nobody can make that decision for you. look, he knew what would happen. suppose the navy s.e.a.l.s had gone in there and it hadn't been bin laden. suppose they'd been captured and killed. the downside would have been horrible for him. but he reasoned i cannot in good conscience do nothing.

he took the harder and the more honorable path. and the one that produced, in my opinion, the best result. >> so you've heard ed gillespie. you've seen senator john mccain saying this is over the line. >> well, certainly it's not over the line. look, just a few years ago president obama then a candidate said in a speech if we have actionable intelligence of a high valued target in pakistan we'd go in and get that high value target. mitt romney said that was foolish. he wouldn't do such a thing. that he wouldn't move heaven and earth to get osama bin laden. barack obama as our commander in chief asked our intelligence community to find him. he was brought actionable intelligence, directed the brave men and women in our military to go in and kill osama bin laden.

which is exactly what they did under extraordinary circumstances. and osama bin laden no longer walks on this planet today because of that brave decision and the brave actions by the men and women in our military. and quite frankly mitt romney said it was a foolish thing to do a few years ago. look, there's a difference in the roles they would play as commander in chief. i certainly think that's fair game. >> i want to be very clear about what the president believes. you're saying president obama believes that a president romney, if he was working with the same nonpartisan professionals in the counterterror realms of the government who came to him with intelligence saying we have an opportunity to capture and kill osama bin laden, you're saying president romney wouldn't take that shot? >> i don't think it's clear that he would. again, he criticized barack obama a few years ago when barack obama said if we have actionable intelligence about a high value target -- let's be clear. nobody was bigger. nobody was a more high value target than osama bin laden. david, do you have any doubt that if the mission had gone poorly as bill clinton said that

mitt romney wouldn't be out there attacking the president for it? look, maybe the comments he made a few years ago, he admits are wrong or he's flip-flopped on yet another issue. all i know is this. the president made a clear, brave decision, empowered the remarkable men and women in our military to go get and kill osama bin laden. look, joe biden's right. osama bin laden is, indeed, dead. gm is not just alive, it's the number one automaker in the world. i can assure you that, too, wouldn't have been the case had mitt romney been president of the united states. >> so it's a question, though, of whether president obama is being consistent about his belief about all of this. back in 2008, you were facing hillary clinton in a hard fought primary campaign. and she ran an ad that featured an image of osama bin laden. it was part of an ad questioning whether senator obama was prepared to be president.

and at the time, the spokesman for the obama campaign, bill burton, said the following about that ad. quote, it's ironic that she -- meaning hillary clinton -- would borrow the president's tactics in her own campaign and invoke bin laden to score political points. we already have a president that plays the politics of fear and we don't need another. is president obama being hypocritical with this ad today? >> this isn't the politics of fear. this is the politics of brave decision making. that's what commander in chief is all about. look, i would love to go through about half of -- half of what ed said. because i think he had temporary amnesia when it comes to being commander in chief for foreign policy. let's take our relationship with russia. ed knows this because ed was in the white house when they couldn't get russia to go along with crippling sanctions as it dealt with iran. this president came in, changed that. now we have the most severe, most crippling sanctions on the regime in iran that we've ever had. that wasn't possible when ed walked in the white house or ed walked out of the white house. it was possible because this

president knows clearly what he wants to do as commander in chief and is exercising a strong foreign policy for this country. >> the question of who is mitt romney is on my mind throughout this program today. and i asked ed gillespie about that, the kind of campaign he would run. whether he would just focus on the president's record or would he be a guy that focused big solutions to the big challenges that the country faces. i guess the same question is also applicable to president obama. will he spend his time simply tearing down governor romney as an alternative, or is he going to run on a big idea for his second term? >> well, look. the biggest idea that we're running on is to continue moving in the right direction of fixing this economy. look, the last six months of the bush administration we lost 3.5 million jobs. and we know this about mitt romney. he's not a job creator. when he was governor of massachusetts, they were 47th out of 50 in job creation.

his experience is in downsizing and outsourcing jobs and bankrupting companies and walking away with a lot of money for himself. his economic ideas are the failed economic ideas that we tried for eight years. tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires and letting wall street going back to writing the rules all over again. that's -- that is the policies that got us into this mess. this president wants to build on 25 consecutive months of private sector job growth, 4.1 million jobs. and to really institute some strong values of fairness and responsibility. build an economy that lasts. invest in our children and in their college education. make this country strong. make this economy vibrant. and continue on the path to adding jobs in it. >> the question of the deciders and the women's vote. you heard ed gillespie. we've heard governor romney saying this is squarely going to be an issue of the economy and how women in this economy if you want to focus on that particular

voting group, how they are fairing. you heard ed gillespie go through his version of the record for president obama when it comes to women. as he said, women are not stupid and they are going to still vote on the economy. how do you respond to that? >> well, i think sometimes you listen to the romney campaign, and they do think a lot of people in this country are stupid. because, david, their message is, you didn't clean up our mess fast enough. okay? as i said, we've had 11 consecutive months of positive economic growth. 25 consecutive months of positive private sector job growth. the republicans, again, they want to return to the policies -- not of strengthening the middle class, but instead of giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires, they want to make health care and contraceptive decisions. they want to put those decisions in the hands of the boss that women work for. i don't think we want to go back either to eight years ago or, quite frankly, 30 or 40 years

ago. whether it's the economic decisions that women have to make or the health care decisions that women have to make. i think there's a clear contrast. we're in a make or break moment for the middle class here in america. let me tell you, mitt romney would be nothing short of devastating for middle-class americans on a whole host of issues. >> the issue of comedy came up a lot this weekend. you had the president making some jokes last night at the correspondents dinner. jimmy kimmel as well. he brought up an issue that also uses satire as a weapon to raise a serious question about president obama's leadership. let me show you that clip. >> mr. president, you remember -- you remember when the country rallied around you in hopes of a better tomorrow? that was hilarious. >> if some of that hope and enthusiasm surrounding president obama has abated four years into his first term, why does he deserve another four years? >> well, he deserves another four years because the direction

this country is moving is in the path toward a stronger country, a safer country, and a better economy. as i said before, we have -- we inherited the biggest economic mess and the worst economic times of our lifetime. we're making progress and turning that corner. we've added -- give you an example. in the so-called bush economic recovery, we lost 1.5 million manufacturing jobs. again, i sit in detroit this morning where we've added 230,000 manufacturing jobs to this economy. the first manufacturing jobs that we've added since the late to mid-1990s. those are significant steps that we're taking. now is quite frankly not the time to turn back. time to turn back is somebody whose experience is in downsizing and outsourcing and bankruptcy. it's a make or break moment for them. >> robert gibbs, thanks very much for being here. we'll continue to follow the debate.

>> david, thank you. coming up here, more on the start of this general election. i know it's been going for a while. but i want to focus on who's really going to decide this election. and the role that women play came up again in this student loan fight this week. also, hilary rosen. a woman who ignited a controversy with her comment about ann romney is back on our round table along with the vice chair of house republican conference, cathy mcmorris-rodgers, alex castellanos and rachel maddow. later, brian williams will be here to discuss his interview with president obama in the white house situation room one year after the death of osama bin laden. "meet the press" is brought to you by the boeing company. d if you made a list of countries from around the world... d ...with the best math scores. ...the united states would be on that list. in 25th place. let's raise academic standards across the nation.

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this is the latest this is the latest plank in the so-called war on women. entirely created, entirely created by my colleagues across the aisle for political gain. >> that was house speaker john

boehner on the house floor on friday talking about the student loan debate and how it gets paid for, which brought in some of these questions about health services and taking it out of the health care bill which is ultimately what the house bill has in it which has rekindled some of this debate about, again, what the deciders in this race, women, are going to be voting on when it comes to the fall. hilary rosen, here you are. this issue is not going away. and neither are you. you're back. >> thank you. >> i do want to remind people about your comments about ann romney that started quite a debate. watch. >> what you have is -- is mitt romney running around the country saying, well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues. and when i listen to my wife, that's what i'm hearing. guess what? his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. she's never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids? how do we send them to school and how do we worry -- why do we

worry about their future? >> how much damage did that do? >> you know, i apologized to mrs. romney. because i don't believe her life is the life that voters should judge. you know, this debate took a wrong turn and i'm sorry if i was the cause of that. this debate is not about the choices that moms make. 95% of the women in this country have economic struggles, whether they are the ones bringing home the paycheck or whether they're the ones trying to stretch that paycheck to take care of their families. and mitt romney's policies are what we should be debating. you know, that is, you know, in my view still a woeful, woeful record. >> you're a political pro. you know politics. and in the political debate over women voters, this had an effect. the president of the united states, everybody that you know very well within the democratic party, people associated with this president's re-election campaign wasted no time running immediately in the other direction.

the president even said that was an ill-advised statement by somebody on television. were you surprised by how quickly they distanced themselves from you? >> no. that was politics. what i was surprised about, and this is something we should always learn and i'll always know, people don't know you. so really this isn't about me. this is about that debate that, again, i caused taking the wrong turn. the economic issues that mitt romney has to face and how it affects women are absolutely fair game in this debate. that's where i intended to keep going. i think that's really where american people want it to go. >> but in your judgment ann romney has the standing to evaluate what women want? what women need as they're looking for a president? >> i'll leave that to mitt romney to decide who he talks to. i'm not going to go there. where i'm going to go is does mitt romney understand that when he's out there complaining that 40% of the people in this country don't pay taxes, what he's really talking about are poor working people.

mostly women who get away from paying taxes because of the earned income tax credit he wants to take away while he gives his rich friends a tax cut. that's the debate i'm going to engage in. >> let me widen this discussion. political strategist, republican alex castellanos is here. our own msnbc's rachel maddow. also congressman cathy mcmorris-rodgers. this is a wider conversation about how to win the women's vote. what women will care about. the kind of conversation ultimately that they're having as they evaluate this campaign. where are we after hilary's remarks and the debate that ensued? >> well, hilary apologized. i think we've all made statements that we later regret. the reason that it caused such a controversy, though, is that it exposed that the war on women is really a myth. that it has been created by the democrats in an effort to distract americans once again from the real issues. democrats know that the republicans won the women's vote

in 2010. it was the first time since reagan that the republicans won the women's vote. and it resulted in the republicans taking the majority in the house. 87 new freshmen. a record number of new women, republican women elected to the house. and it has -- could be argued that it was the american women that really voted out, fired, the first woman speaker of the house because they didn't like the direction the country was taking. they didn't like the direction the policies promoted by this administration, by the democrat majority at that time, whether it was the massive debt, record debt, $5 trillion now, whether it was the health care bill that women opposed, they wanted a different direction. >> how, rachel, should this conversation actually be framed? i made the comment when i've done this topic before, in a lot of ways men bringing up this question, it's almost a condescending question. what is it women want? what is the right way to be framing this conversation in this debate which is a very serious debate because we're talking about the real deciders in the race? >> policy. it should be about policy. all our best debates are about policy. it should be about policy that affects women specifically. the romney campaign wants to

talk about women and the economy. women in this country still make 77 cents on the dollar for what men make. women don't make less than men? >> actually, if you start looking at the numbers, rachel, there are lots of reasons for that. >> wait, wait, wait. don't tell me the reasons. do women make less than men? >> actually, no. >> for the same work -- >> wow! okay. we're working from different -- >> men work an average of 44 hours a week. women work 41 hours a week. men go into professions like engineering, science and math that earn more. >> listen, this is not a math is hard conversation. >> yes, it is. actually. >> no, it isn't. >> let rachel frame it the way -- >> right now women are making 77 cents on the dollar for what men are making. >> that's not true. >> all right. let rachel make her point. >> every greedy businessman in america would hire only women, save 25% and be hugely prosperous. >> it's weird that you're interrupting me and not letting me make my point because we get along so well. let me make my point. >> i will. >> the interruption is important, i think. now we know at least from both of your perspective that women

are not faring worse than men in the economy. women aren't getting paid less for equal work. i think that's a serious basis -- a difference in factual understanding of the world. given that some of us believe that women are getting paid less than men for doing the same work, there is something called the fair pay act. there was a court ruling that said the statute of limitations, if you're getting paid less than a man, the subject of discrimination starts before you know that discrimination is happening, effectively cutting off your recourse to the courts. you didn't know you were discriminated against, you can't go. the first law passed by this administration is the fair pay act to remedy that. the mitt romney campaign put you out as a surrogate to shore up people's feelings about this issue after they could not say whether or not mitt romney would have signed that bill. you're supposed to make us feel better about it. you voted against the fair pay act. it's not about having a female surrogate. it's about policy and whether or not you want to fix some of those -- the structural discrimination that women really do face that republicans don't believe is happening. >> it's policy is the argument. >> it's policy. and i love how passionate you are. i wish you were as right about

what you're saying as you are passionate about it. i really do. >> that's really condescending. this is a stylistic issue. >> i'll tell you what -- >> my passion on this issue is -- >> may i share one fact with you? >> my passion on this issue is actually me making a factual argument on it. >> may i share one fact with you. >> sure. >> when you look at, for example, single women working in america today between the ages of i think 40 and 64, who makes more? men or women? on average? men make $40,000 a year. women make 47. when you take out the marriage factor, look at some economics. my point here is that we're manufacturing a political crisis to get away from what this election really wants to be about. >> all right. let me -- >> that's the obama strategy in this election. >> no -- >> i want to pick up on this point. which is as a policy matter, the romney campaign would like to make this strictly about the economy. how women fair in the economy. as opposed to what a lot of democrats, the president and others, you heard him make the

point, i brought this up with ed gillespie, this idea of turning the clock back on settled issues the republicans bring up. that got to the health care fight. the access to contraception. >> i think the economic issues matter a lot obviously to everybody. we're going to talk about whether tax cuts affect women more and men more and how women are faring and the facts rachel talked about. let's look at this other place. what did men do with all that power women helped elect them to in 2010? over 1,000 bills were introduced in state legislatures and congress across this country since then to take away women's health -- reproductive health. there's just no question that whether the republicans want to call it a war and i don't particularly love that word, there's a concerted effort to change settled policy in the area of contraceptive rights, in the area of health care rights. when men have medical issues, they're medical. when women have medical issues, they're political. that is going to be a huge issue in this campaign. >> congresswoman. >> these are all distractions from the real issue. let's look at the policy. let's look at the real issues that face all americans including women. and it is. it's the economy. women make the majority of the

purchasing decisions. they're out there. they understand the price of gas right now. it has doubled under this administration. they understand when food prices go up. they make 85% of the health care decisions in this country for themselves, for their family, for their parents, for their children. they do not like the president's health care bill. it was signed into law two years ago and the opposition has actually increased. and it is more women than men even oppose this bill because they are frightened by the idea of the federal government coming in and taking away their ability to make those decisions that are -- >> if those are the priorities, why is it in the republican controlled legislatures in iowa and south carolina what they did this week was they started working on the very difficult problem of rape victims and people who become pregnant through rape or incest being exempted from some of the anti-abortion laws in those states. why are the republican legislatures in those states prioritizing, cracking down not on rape but on the rape victims? if the priorities are as you

say, why haven't we had more anti-abortion legislation in the last year than we have since roe versus wade? what you're saying and doing as a party are two very different -- >> congresswoman -- >> when you highlight a few out of the thousands of bills introduced any time at the state legislative level, you're picking or choosing. i could pick out some bills on the left. >> hr-3 in this congress was on anti-abortion bill. the third bill you introduced. >> it passed the house to require abortions be included in every health care plan moving forward. so you can't -- it doesn't reflect the priorities of the party. it doesn't reflect the priorities of the majority in congress. we have been focused on the economy, on bills that will get americans back to work. >> there are more anti-abortion bills now than at any time since roe versus wade were passed. >> if i may though -- >> i'm not focused on that in a disproportionate -- it's become the priority of the party. that's what i don't understand. >> alex? >> this is how far the democrats, obama and rachel have to go to try to win this election.

we're sitting here talking about the next president of the united states. i don't know if rachel knows this, but our nominee, this fellow is named mitt romney. he's actually running for president. you're talking about legislatures in iowa. >> i'm talking about what the republican party stands for. >> if republicans have declared war on women, we're losing half of republicans are women. some of us have even married them. it's manufacturing a crisis. but here's the political question for obama. when manipulating people becomes so obvious, you lose your political credibility. >> i'm manipulating people? >> no, no. the obama campaign, when people see the magician's hands, and this is such an obvious attempt to divide the country along every conceivable issue in access except the economy where he can't debate. we're seeing a debate rich versus poor, right? men versus women. employer versus employee. they're trying to divide the country everywhere because they can't litigate -- >> wait, wait. >> i'm going to get -- >> we end up talking about iowa legislatures instead of the economy. >> what are we supposed to talk

about? >> let me get in here. i want to get one more word from hilary. then i'm going to take a break. >> let's go back to where mitt romney is here. this is not about iowa. even though mitt romney has embraced every one of those state legislators and governors doing those activities. >> on that we agree. >> but let's look at congress. let's look at mitt romney and his alliance with congressman ryan. and when you look at the economic issues and when you look at the priorities. by the way, this is not a democrat/republican thing. kay bailey hutchison, other republican women have agreed that these attacks on women's reproductive health is bad for the party. it's bad for america. let's look at where ryan takes us and where romney goes. cutting day care. what do women depend on? they depend on -- working women. cutting education. what are women depending on to equalize this? >> that's not true. >> of course it's true. >> not what we're doing. >> mitt romney wants to decimate the department of education. paul ryan -- that's exactly where mitt romney's taking it. that's going to disproportionately affect women.

>> i'm going to curtail this part of the debate. i want to get a break in here. more from our round table coming up. we're also going to hear from my colleague brian williams who's going to talk about his exclusive interview with president obama this week to mark the one-year anniversary of the successful raid in the killing of osama bin laden. later, general election preview. on a lighter note, "saturday night live" style. it's all coming up. "meet the press" is sponsored by ge. imagination at work. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪

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we're back with our round table. we're going to go to new york now to brian williams, managing editor of "nightly news" who was kind enough to join us this morning to talk about a special hour, brian, you've got coming up on "rock center." your exclusive interview with the president, his national security team, going inside the situation room one year after the killing of osama bin laden. what did you take away from really going back one year later inside the decision making? >> well, we asked, david, and thank you for having me. we asked to recreate this picture. i carried this particular copy of the photograph around and handed it to all the people in the picture. we asked to talk to all of them about the anatomy of this military mission, destruct what you knew to be the chances, what you knew to be the risks, those last 48 hours once it was in motion, including the atmosphere in that room. we asked to go back into that room, and as you'll see as we

discovered, the photographer for the white house, pete souza who took the famous photo, followed us back in there. it was kind of a fascinating way to reconstruct what happened a year ago. >> that sets up exactly the clip that we've got. so we'll show that. >> there you are. >> here i am, sitting right here. >> that's -- that's an intense look on your face. >> yeah. >> and everyone is intently watching that screen. >> this is -- if i'm not mistaken, pete, this picture was taken right as the helicopter was having some problems. but you may not remember. >> i can't say for sure. >> yeah. that's what it feels like. because i remember hillary putting her hand over her mouth at that point. there's silence at this point inside the room. >> when you look at it -- >> yeah. >> -- what does it conjure up inside you? >> well, that's the way i usually look when my husband

drags me to an action movie. you know, what it conjures up is all of the emotions that were running through my and every other person in that small group. it was just an extraordinary experience and a great privilege to be part of. >> journalistically, brian, this is so much like other efforts in the past on anniversaries of 9/11 or ordering war in afghanistan or iraq to go back to the decision making, which is what makes your reporting on this so interesting. separate from that, there is the political context of how this re-election campaign is using the killing of osama bin laden against governor romney and the fallout from that. >> right. and i think everything, obviously, has to be viewed through the prism of election year politics. we made a request to do the deconstruction of a mission. the request was granted. we were given access -- first time in 50 years of it being there in the basement of the west wing television news cameras have been allowed in the

situation room. even when we pan to the other end of the room, the fact that we can see what they had been watching that day, we'll deconstruct that, go into a little more detail, is so valuable. so i'll let others talk about motivation. that was not our cause in going in there. obviously, we will note it along the way. we wanted to take apart this mission and look at what went into it, especially considering had it gone wrong, phone calls would have had to go out to 50 american families, two choppers full, who had come in over pakistani air space, dwelled on the target, and then successfully, of course, for all of us got out of there that night. >> our own brian williams. the special for "rock center" is called "inside the situation room." it airs wednesday at 9:00/8:00 central. brian, thanks a lot for doing this. >> thanks for having me.

>> appreciate it so much. we're going to get another break in here and come back with more from our round table, including previewing press pass. a look at my interview with "saturday night live's" jason sudeikis and fred armisen, otherwise known as romney and obama. that's coming up after this. [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. o0 c1 cuban ca jun raw seafood pizza parlor french fondue tex-mex fro-yo tapas puck chinese takeout taco truck free range chicken pancake stack baked alaska 5% cash back. right now, get 5% cash back at restaurants. it pays to discover.

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look at you and just see a policy. at aviva, we do things differently. our wellness for life program rewards you with savings just for getting a check-up, and it's only from aviva. high schools in six states enrolled in the national math and science initiative... ...which helped students and teachers get better results in ap courses. together, they raised ap test scores 138%. just imagine our potential... ...if the other states joined them. let's raise our scores. let's invest in our teachers and inspire our students. let's solve this. we are back, giving you a chance to preview press pass. i sat down with jason sudeikis and fred armisen who play governor romney and president obama on "saturday night live." i want to show you a portion of that conversation on this big comedy weekend. guys, thanks for having us here

and bringing out all the best interview for doing this interview. >> absolutely. >> it's from home. >> look where we are. this, to me, is cool. because i'm a washington guy. as we talked about, a place of great style and substance. >> absolutely. >> to be here in a show biz mecca is exciting. let's talk politics here. obama and romney. jason, start with you. is there any better fodder than politics this time of year? do you enjoy that? >> it is interesting. i would say that comedically what it helps is getting everybody on the same page. everybody's paying attention to the same things. then it feels like you're making a bunch of inside jokes or observations that maybe people share with one another or on the tip of their mind, tip of their tongue, if you will, we get to actually portray as a people. i would say that's where politics usually helps. >> what about the personalities? romney is not exactly lighting it up on the campaign trail to be an exciting figure. what does that do comedically? i think it makes it even kind of

-- >> even better? >> i don't know if it does make it better. i'd prefer that he did something scandalous or something incredibly stupid as opposed to just boring. to play boring is a little bit boring. we wouldn't want our president to be a wild man. he's like a buttered sandwich with unsalted butter and the crust cut off. >> you've been impersonating president obama now for some time, since he's come into office. >> it's a time to look forward and acknowledge the sacrifices we're all going to have to make. but before we do that, remember the election night? >> how has this developed for you? >> it's nice because it's, you know, i think that as the public discovers who he is and finds out more about him, i'm doing the same thing. and that's -- that's the kind of fun thing about it as all of that unfolds. >> the voice is key. give me just a little. little something. >> you know, the little -- that's hard to do because -- you

know, here's -- just like, little -- >> i don't want to put you on the spot. >> give one, like, little thing. >> sometimes when i'm getting ready, i like to say, hello. >> this is kind of silly. in just a few seconds, in character, sort of making the case for election, mr. president, can we start with you? >> yeah. first of all -- >> pretty good. he doesn't have to say much. the record speaks for itself. >> yeah. >> seems logical. >> governor romney? [ as romney ] >> this great nation of ours, i got to tell you, so i go across this country and i see so many, so many happy and unhappy, you know, men and women and grandmothers and granddaughters,

you know, sons. nephews. >> if i could interrupt for a moment. >> i guess you're going to do it. if he's going to do it, you've got to let him do it. >> let me take an applause break. thank you! thank you! thank you! >> they were good. good sports. you can see the full press pass conversation on our website. meetthepressnbc.com. thanks to all of you on the round table. there is so much more to get to today. the veepstakes, comparing romney and obama. unfortunately we won't be doing that on television. but you'll be on twitter. >> i'll be on twitter! >> if you run into folks on the street they'll be happy to talk to you about it. thank you all for being here very much. that's all for today. we'll be back next week. if it's sunday, it's "meet the if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com