good morning, i'm thomas roberts. right now on msnbc live, flooding. severe storms and snow? winter holds on this memorial day weekend. and those same areas are now bracing for 90-degree heat. our bill karins will break it down for us in a minute. open for business. clouds break over the jersey shore, business owners are hoping to break even. we are live along the boardwalk in seaside heights this morning. plus hangover versus the fast and the furious. who is going to win the battle of the hollywood heavyweights at the box office this weekend? we will talk about all of that. millions of americans are packing up their cars morning ready to hit the highway and trying to beat traffic and some

parts of the country are feeling the effects of extreme weather. three people were killed in san antonio over the weekend. some americans are digging out from a spring snowfall. msnbc bill karins joins us now this morning for what we can expect this memorial day. really a mixed bag. >> a lot of extremes out there and we learned the hard way flash flooding is a huge tlit and kills a lot of people. a life here or there and what happened in san antonio. what is going on? we woke up this morning to violent weather in omaha, nebraska. that is heading south. a line of severe thunderstorms not tornadoes, but this is a line of storms with dangerous winds and all it takes it one tree to go down on a house and can you have injuries and fatalities with this too. if you're?

st. joseph. now 1200 lightning strikes an hour and hopefully a sign the storms are weaken. those areas of red counties in north central illinois still under flash flood warnings and heavy rain the last couple of days that continued last night. thankfully the rain is tapering off in the flooded areas but heavy rain showers over the peoria area and light rain over indiana and ohio. as we go throughout this memorial day the cool air you saw delivered that snow to new england is its way out and rye placed by the warm air and your typical clash of air masses is going to spark additional strong storms later today and i think a chance for a few tornadoes. maybe even one or two strong tornadoes. southern nebraska and northern portions of kansas. mostly over rural areas. that is where we hope to keep them but there are some small towns out there that we have to keep a close on late this afternoon and throughout this evening and eventually the storms will work towards kansas

city and topeka and wichita. a severe weather threat lasts throughout the week. the east coast warm and humid. the middle of the nation stormy day after stormy day continuing out until friday. it doesn't look like a lot of big tornado outbreaks but watch out for the rivers. even the mississippi river close to major flood stage from the end of this week from repeated bouts of heavy rain. >> insult to injury for the people in moore and oklahoma city as they try to clean up because they need the nice weather to try to get some traction under their feet to get ahead of what could be coming through the summer. >> these storms won't last all day thankfully for those areas but probably one to two a day they have to duck and cover. >> the serious storms are heading towards oklahoma this week. as the residents of moore are struggling to recover from the devastating tornado that struck one week ago today, 2,000 people packed the first baptist church last night for an interfaith

memorial service to honor the 24 victims of the tornado that decimated moore last monday and two victims of a tornado that slammed through shawnee the day before. earlier on sunday, president obama paid an emotional damage in moore. telling everyone affected that we have got your back. >> we know moore is going to come back stronger from this tragedy. your mayor said that you're already printing new street signs. >> yes, sir. >> and i want folks affected throughout oklahoma to know that we're going to be with you every step of the way. >> nbc charles hadlock joins us live from moore, oklahoma. charles, explain what we are going to see today? obviously, with weather conditions potentially worsens through the week, time is of the essence to continue cleaning up their properties. >> exactly. as bill mentioned severe weather is expected perhaps on wednesday in this area of oklahoma. today is memorial day, but it's

a working holiday for thousands of people here in moore, oklahoma, as they continue the massive cleanup. yesterday, they got a moral boost from president obama who came to town to see the damage firsthand and to comfort the victims of this storm. he met with some of the victims right in front of the elementary school that was leveled by the storm. he also met with first responders and thanked them for their first and fast response that saved so many lives. and at the end of his trip at the airport, at tinker air force base, he thanked the weather forecasters. the severe storm all about tore is ten miles down the road in norman, oklahoma. they pricked there would be stormy weather last monday. they held a conference call with officials and talking about the timing of the severe weather at the time of school dismissal at 3:30. that was an hour off as it turns out. the storm hit at about 2:30,

2:30 to 3:00 as it moved across this part of oklahoma. the cleanup does continue. you were here last week, thomas. you know exactly what it looks like here. it hasn't changed much. the roads are now open. people can easily get around the area. there is no debris in the roads. but they still have a lot of cleanup to do on their personal property. >> so many great people there in moore that i got to meet so hopefully, they have good days ahead before any more severe weather comes their way. nbc charles hadlock for us in moore, oklahoma, thank you. back in washington, d.c. the president and first lady host a closed break fast for service members who have been killed in action and later in the this morning president obama will lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns at arlington national cemetery and speak at a memorial day smoceremony. former senate mnt leader bob

dole says the party of lincoln isn't the part of reagan any more. dole a world war ii vet and 1996 presidential nominee says he doesn't think he could make it into today's republican party. >> i think they ought to put a sign on the national committee door that says closed for repairs. >> could you make it in today's republican party? >> i doubt it. and i doubted reagan could have made it. certainly nixon couldn't have made it because he had ideas. >> man, some tough words there. joining me is a former counsel to the house judicial committee, julian. dole said it's time for the party to rethink its direction and work on a positive agenda in his words. somebody come down with harsh language. >> that's right. the joke inside the republican

party has been is that even ronald reagan would be primaried in today's republican party. i think the primary reason for this, at the core of this, is the gerrymandering in which republican leaders and state legislatures in such a way they lost the actual house of representatives because of the way the districts were drawn. two, they are drawn in such partisan ways that most republicans don't feel like they have got any incentive, any reason, any political calculus for working with the president and that has made things unbelievably partisan. the president has signed 2 electrical worth of deficit now. the sdraegsary spending is -- discretionary spending. they don't want to work with the president on this legislation. if you look at where the

president has been on, say, terrorism, the president has taken a very hard line on terrorism. his speech on drones last week is a very hard line that creates a lot of angst for the president even inside his democratic party. where is the republicans? you would expect them to be supporting them given that they have had historically been taking such a hard line on national security issues. they are criticizing the president from the left now. you look at issues like health care, for example. this is an issue that the president won, the supreme court validated. this republican congress has looked to repeal this legislation something like 38 times right now. so quite extraordinary. >> they keep letting the logic being the freshmen want to get their voices heard on that so they allow these votes to go up and basically just waste time. jud julian, as we look at what bob dole is talking about, if he wanted to be a time-out for republicans to regroup, now is a really good time for them because the white house certainly has its own issues.

president obama has his own problems right now. the big one nationally is the irs scandal. do you expect the attention to be on the administration or lower levels with the cincinnati employees? basically that office of the irs in cincinnati that was targeting tea party groups? >> look. we would all agree that any kind of targeting by the irs of any group, any particular ideology is wrong. there is just no question about that. on the other hand, notwithstanding what the many republicans have said during the hearings and other context last week, there is no evidence that anybody outside the irs knew that this activity was going on. there is no evidence that the department of treasury knew this was going on or condoned it or directed it in any way. no evidence the white house knew about it and no evidence that the president's political operation knew about it. my questions is that you will see at the end of the day these are civil service employees who are improperly supervised.

lois lerner learned there in 2011 and june of 2011 didn't take the steps to correct it and probably not candid with congress about this when they briefed them in 2012. that's where it stops. the question is gets into the white house this isn't a lot of evidence of that and the snrp general found the opposite as did the bush pied head of the irs. with respect to ben ghazi, again, i think that is another issue that just goes nowhere. this is an issue where at the ends of the day, it was the cia and the fbi that did not want to reference the particular terrorist group that may have been responsible because they thought that would have interfered with the investigation. >> should the americans expect a firewall around the white house and should they expect the president to be notified about certain investigations or issues of, say, the cincinnati office of the irs targeting tea party groups by the newspaper? should our president have such a guarded infrastructure around him where these things rnting

getting up to him? >> with due respect i disagree with the premise. i think it's important for the president to know. there are millions of employees in the federal government. it's impossible for the president to know everything about what every employee is doing at any time and whether there is a rogue operation. they are not done doing. this idea, this controversy has gotten kind of comes down to this point where the president said he didn't know and then the white house was saying well, he knew there was an investigation. the fact is everybody knew that there was an investigation going on in the irs because that investigation was public. if the president or the white house had tried to get into the details of the inspector general investigation while it was under way, everyone would have said the president was interfering with it. i think the president acted appropriately in that case. i don't think anybody -- i think the president's argument on the ben ghazi talking points and the white house's argument on ben ghazi talking points vr bony on. this was a cia and fbi decision

on the end of the day. i think on the a.p. issue another issue that has had a lot of criticism. remember, the whole authority to give the justice department administrative subpoenas whether on journalists or others comes out of the 1990s, particularly 1996 terriforism laws where republicans to a hard line and conservative pro law enforcement position that gave the justice department this kind of authority and while we may not like the justice department doing that, they followed the letter of the law when they looked at what was perhaps one of the most serious classified information leak stories. we are talking that context is the case where you've got a double agent inside al qaeda who foiled a lot to blow up an airline across the medicine terrain yum. we are talking about criticism i think is pretty misplaced. when you look at the details of it, i think, one, these issues lack any kind of -- what you

need in these scandals which is some kind of mised wrong doing. none of them have any of those elements. i think when you look at them closely you'll see that the president and the administration pretty much followed the rules in each of the instances where the possible exception of the low level employees of civil servants inside the irs. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. also happening right now a search will continue for a third straight day for a brain cancer patient who is aboard a medical flight that crashed in upstate new york. 64-year-old frank amorosa is presumed dead and the other two people on the flight have been recovered. it was returning to utica, new york, from the boston area where frank had undergone cancer treatment. the pilot did not issue a stress call. an oregon teen is charged

with murder after authorities say he planned to blow up his school in an attack modeled by the column buy shooting. the boy will be arraigned on tuesday and charged. he allegedly had written plans and checklists to carry out the attack. police checked the school but found no explosives. so it is a big weekend and we mean big for the jersey shores comeback after hurricane sandy and president obama heads there tomorrow. we are going take you there first for a live report. you'll get a sneak peek. weeks after angelina jolie's surprising news that she had a double mastectomy, more news rocks her world. too little? until we got miracle-gro moisture control. it does what basic soils don't by absorbing more water, so it's there when plants need it.

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looking pretty nice there, right? for the first time since superstorm sandy, many people are getting their first glimpse at the jersey shore this weekend and that includes president obama who heads to that area tomorrow. meanwhile, governor chris christie has been out this holiday weekend shaking hands and making appearances in towns up and down the shore line. yesterday, it was asbury park where the governor walked the boardwalk and talked to business owners still concerned about the economic impact of hurricane sandy. >> literally i spend hours every day doing paper work to go back to work and i really need to be in my restaurant training people and hiring people and feeding people. >> still a long road. nbc stephanie goss is live in

seaside heights. it looks gorgeous so far. >> it's beautiful. there isn't any wind. this weekend has been a little rough on the jersey shore but don't be fooled how quiet it is right here this morning. 7:00 a.m. is a little early for the people of seaside heights. it's going to be packed here later on today. we were here in the days following sandy and hard to reconcile what this boardwalk looks like now to the images we saw in those immediately days after the storm. some of the iconic images of destruction came from this area where i'm standing and everyone remembers that roller coaster that flew off the pier and sat in the ocean and it was there for months. they just recently took it down and there was a huge push after the storm to get boardwalks like the one here at seaside heights and many others back up and running for memorial day and the start of summer. these boardwalks really are the economic livelihood for the jersey shore and they are also the psychological health of the jersey shore. people here, when you talk to

them, they talk lovingly about their summers here as kids and their summers bringing their children here. so getting this back up and running has been really important for just the recovery effort even just emotionally for people in this area. but it doesn't actually tell you the entire story of the recovery. although this was rebuilt very quickly, there are large parts of the shore that still need a lot of help and a lot of those are the privately owned homes. there are thousands of people still struggling to rebuild their houses and get the money they need to do that rebuilding. thomas? >> you make a great point about the psychological recovery for so many families. this is part of their tradition to take their kids there and meet other family and friends there. when we talk about the entertainment aspect and the fact they just removed that roller coaster that sat so long in the ocean, how have they gotten back what people can find there in the shops and the restaurants and the rides for

kids, the entertainment? >> reporter: every single business on this boardwalk was either damaged or destroyed and there are leach them that a there are a lot of them back up and running. the rides that suffered so badly, those will come back slowly and they don't know if the roller coaster is going to be rebuilt. the flavor of the boardwalk is really back. . there are the games, the beach is open. all of that same kind of food that people know here and not very good for you but it's all available. you'll see later on today, as people fill up here doing the things they have done here, really for generations and why it was so important for this weekend, memorial day weekend to get this back up and running. >> stephanie gosk, thank you so much. enjoy the weather out there. >> i will. ten fans were injured when the cable and the ropes fell from an overhead tv camera at the indianapolis 500. minor cuts and scrapes.

lead car damaging another and causing a half hor delay in that race. the largest program is set to begin in new york city. however, it doesn't come without controversy. mayor bloomberg will launch the bike program privately funded by citibank and there will be an initial 6,000 bikes at docking stations over in manhattan and brooklyn. residents of some buildings complain that the docking stations are right outside the doors of their building and that the bikes are taking up those difficult to find parking spots in the city. another controversy to talk about today. this one at rutgers university. just months after the abuse scandal that rocked its basketball program, now the school's new athletic director is facing some fresh questions about her own past. [ ice freezing ] [ wind howling ] [ engine revving ]

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welcome back. later this morning, president obama is going to pay tribute to the american service members who gave the ultimate sacrifice to our country and to the families living that with loss. a live there at arlington national cemetery. our kristin wellker is at the white house. break it down for us. >> reporter: president obama will start this day bhoist ago breakfast here at the white house for families who have lost lofeds ones in combat. he then heads to arlington national sem marry where -- cem where he will lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown. in addition to paying tribute to those who have served and made the ultimate sacrifice, the president made the point in his weekly address that it is critical that the country help veterans who come back from serving, help them get back on sound footing, help them get

jobs. help make sure that they are getting the emotional and financial support that they need. so i expect that he will make remarks similar to that today when he does give his memorial day address. now, of course, thomas, this comes after that speech that he gave last thursday in which he talked about the fact that america needs to essentially end its perpetual war so we might hear those type of things when the president later on today. you know, this administration has been had controversy in recent weeks during the irs and the department of justice and ben ghazi. the president is trying to divert the conversation away from those controversies. today, memorial day will do that. temporarily at least. i don't think we will hear a whole lot from republicans or a whole lot about politics. this is one of the rare days that politics is put on the back

burner. >> and mother nature looks like she is shining nicely for memorial day. >> it is a beautiful day here, that is right. >> kristen, thanks so much. new jersey governor chris christie wants to make sure that those elected to clean up the rutgers athletic department is right person to do that job. the university of tennessee is where she coached 16 years ago. former tennessee assistant coaches and staff members at her previous job at the university of louisville have recently come to hermann's defense. she was appointed in the wake of this viral video showing former basketball coach mike rice hurling profanities and even basketballs at his players. sad news for hollywood star angelina jolie. her aunt died of breast cancer. she had a double mastectomy

because she has the brach i. jolie's mom passed away of breast cancer in 2007. furloughs begin for hundreds of thousands of workers at the pentagon. will this compromise the mission at the defense department? plus on this memorial day we honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. medal honor recipient colonel jack jacobs joins me next. if you're seeing spots before your eyes, it's time for aveeno® positively radiant face moisturizer. [ female announcer ] aveeno® with soy helps reduce the look of brown spots in 4 weeks. for healthy radiant skin. aveeno®. naturally beautiful results.

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russigrandeur seas boat. a report in the coming hour and reportedly everybody is okay on board the ship. this summer is a tough time for the defense department and the civilian workers that will take the toughest hit. tomorrow, furlough notices are going out for 680,000 civilian employees, 90% of the d.o.d. civilian work force. chuck hagel last week said no other way to deal with the sequester without compromising the mission. so civilians will have to take 11 furlough days in july, august and september. >> we got to a point where i could not responsibly go any deeper into cutting or jeopardizing our core missions on readiness and training and i just couldn't do any more. >> joining me is politico defense reporter juana summers. good news out of this. chuck hagel got leeway to implement these cuts and warned

that civilians might have have to take 22 furlough days and it's cut in half to 11. spra explain what is the impact going to be? >> certainly a lot of the pentagon's crucial mission elements are done by civilian workers. for example, civilian workers are in charge of many sexual assault response and prevention efforts something the pentagon is focusing on. to say this has a huge impact on the pentagon is an understatement. you saw that earlier this week when the department announced the sexual assault response and prevention workers about 5,000 of those will be exempt from the 11 day furloughs. they are trying to have flexibility how these are undertaken going forward. >> let's go more into the flexibility. you look at the people that are being targeted here. not every civilian employee is going to get furloughed and workers at shipyards are exempt and so are intelligence workers and mostly cia working overseas as well. so how hard are they benchmarking who is essential and who is not?

>> so i think one of the big they are trying to look at as they go through this process is what is absolutely essential, what can't we change? for example, with ship builders, they have said if we don't do this work now, this could be very softly down the road in terms of readiness and maintenance costs could build up and that could be unsurmountable for the department. intelligence is a growing need if you look at the pentagon's budget the next couple of years they are ratching up the work they do there and feel things you can't lose. the department has tried to do this in the smartest way possible and underscoring the fact there is sequestration hanging over the department they have to cut spending and have an impact on day-to-day operations. >> chuck hagel has been been handed this bag walking into this new position. take this hot potato style in dealing with sequestration. it will have a ripple effect how he is viewed and effectively doing his position. >> absolutely. you're hearing lao talk about

that on capitol hill remembering he's been on the job a few short months now. obviously, handed a pretty broad mandate to deal with new conflicts in the world and deal with the crisis his department is currently facing but doing that with having budget cuts hanging overhead which he would argue and many would argue hit the pentagon as opposed to other agencies. not an easy task for anyone definitely. >> thank you for being here. appreciate it. >> thank you. i want to shift the focus to the reason we have the holiday memorial day to pay tribute to the brave americans who gave their lives in service to our country. medal of honor recipient, colonel jack jacobs joins me now. there is the military families that are currently living without their loved once right now and then the service members that are taking time to remember their colleagues, their comrades who were lost in battle. >> yeah. it hits disproportionately the whole emotional part of it hits

disproportionately in the military community. unlike the second world war when just about everybody served. every household had somebody involved in defense of the country, we have an all-volunteer force and a very small force and it almost feels among the military community that memorial day is almost -- sadly, theirs alone, especially for military families who have loved ones who are deployed yaev overseas. we have the notion we are out of iraq and getting out of afghanistan but that's surely the case but we still have 66,000 people in afghanistan. we have very large portion of our military service members employed overseas. the threats don't stop just because of sequestration or withdrawal from iraq and afghanistan. those families still have people overseas. >> you make a good point that not every family is touched by this. my dad and father-in-law both

vietnam vets and i know they struggle at times when this day comes around and they talk about what they went through and why they did make it and why their friends did not make it but it doesn't touch all families the way it used to in this country in terms of the military service and the connective tissue that we all used to have. the basic responsibility of service. >> this dgets worse. when you get older and more decrepit and think on the days of your friends who didn't make it you sometimes get quite angry the burden has not been shared equally and that nobody cares any more. we have to keep in mind that every day is memorial day for those who have served. >> let's talk about what we can do now for the men and women we have coming home. as we honor the lives of those that we have lost in military service, i want to show these numbers to everybody.

in april a national pace of one suicide every 18 hours among active duty troops, reservists and national guard members. leads at the pentagon are well aware of this problem but to think about that, that these men and women are surviving the experience of war, but then coming back and because of ptsd or other issues and choosing to that their own lives. are we seeing enough responsibility from higher up's from military service organizations and private groups to help transition our service members back into civilian life? >> i think there are always lots of reasons for any phenomena and part of it, of course, up until now, there has not been sufficient resources thrown at the problem. but there are a lot of reasons for it. one of them is when one we already discussed, that service members feel like they are carrying the entire burden of defense on their soldiers, on their shoulders and is insef burden on everybody else, but

there are other problems as well. the kind of war we're fighting. the wide gap that has opened up between the people who are serving and those who are served. on top of that is the unemployment problem. unemployment is dramatically higher among veterans. in a situation for the people who are still in the service like we have today, where the size of the service is getting smaller and smaller, and the threats are not decreasing, the burden on soldiers and sailors and marines who are still serving is going to get heavier and i think the probe will increase not decrease over time. the chain of command is doing what it can but at the end of the day, you're talking to somebody who believes in national service, a shared burden is the only way everybody will feel good about this. >> for people who may not have a family member or loved one involved, there are great organizations line the intrepid fallen heroes fund and the mission continues, make it visible. all of these great organizations are helping people transition

through private organizations so if there are people out there hit google and check it out today and maybe vets is the way you can give back. >> the best way you can help a veteran is to give them a job and we are not talking about charity. these are the best people in the united states can produce. they have had authority and responsibility at a very early app age and the people who benefit from hiring veterans are employs in the country. >> great to see you. thank you. many of americans are heading home from their long holiday weekend so means the airports and roads will be jammed up. mark potter joins us in key biscayne, florida. >> it's not a bad place to be. the weather is just fine down here today. we are expecting a lot of people to come to this beach on key biscayne to enjoy the holiday. later in the day they will head back home and joining millions of other americans and doing the

same thing nationwide. according to the aaa, some 35 million americans are traveling over this holiday period. most of them by car, 89% and that is down slightly from this time last year. according to surveys, that is being blamed on the economy, not so much on gas prices. as for those prices, national, the average price of gasoline right now for a gallon of unleaded regular is $3.63. that supp. 13 cents from a month ago but down slightly from this time last year. the energy department actually says that those gas prices are expected to decline now steadily into the summer for the july fourth holiday. aaa says a significant drop in air traffic this holiday down 8% and blamed on the fees and fares and half of air travel these days. elsewhere around the country,

impediments. the bridge collapse in washington state and efforts under way and plans to put up a replacement bridge there and the highway overpass collapse in missouri and weather problems too. late winter storm in the northeast and upstate new york and in vermont and some flooding in austin but to bring this full circle back here to florida, all is well here. it's a nice day. a bit windy and worried about rip currents in the atlantic but other than that a lot of people are expected to come out and enjoy the last day of the holiday weekend. >> mark potter, thank you, sir. keep it locked in right here. we are going to be back. you're watching msnbc this memorial day monday and we have a lot more coming up next.

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♪ >> oh! ♪ >> yeah. ! >> was that a clip of a hard hour of the movie there? "fast and furious 6" sped past the competition. three day box office estimates put this debut at more than $89 million and ahead of the "hang overpart 3." and animated feature "epic." with the summer movie theater launching what can we look

forward to i'm joined by kim with "it -- "in touch weekly." the theaters and big movie studios are going to look at to see how they can launch these forwards. if we get a hangover four after this, i don't think we are. "hangover 3" opened this weekend. this is the sixth "fast and furious," it's totally working. >> it is totally working. "fast and furious 6" did really well. it's a good movie. you showed that clip. even critics like this movie. action movie and people like to see that on memorial day. >> critically acclaimed. >> i think that may be too strong. people were worried about the two opening on the same weekend because both are male-driven movies. but clearly memorial day weekend

people want to see movies. hangover did okay but it's the same story. it's the third time around. it is the final one. >> they made 50 million? >> about 53 million i think for the take the whole weekend. certainly not as big as the previous two. "fast & furious 6", this is the one to see, for sure. >> as we look ahead to superhero movies coming out, you see "superman," the reboot, "man of steel." it looks dark. people are thinking one thing as they go in and thinking, whoa, that was not what i thought? >> i have to say, i think this is going to be the movie that everyone wants to see this summer. this is the superman reboot. amy adams is lois lane, russell crowe and diane lane, kevin costner. you have a lot of other big names in this movie. there's a lot of buzz. people have been talking about

this for a long time. >> is it going to be too dark? >> weem li >> people like dark movies. when is the last time we had a superman reboot? >> let's talk about for the kids out there. summer would not be complete without the animated movies. what do parents need to listen for? >> there's a lot of good animated movies. we should talk about "despicable me 2." steve carall and monster university, billy crystal, john good man. it's a pixar movie and it takes place during their college years. >> animated prequells? >> i think this might be the first animated prequel. they do it with live action.

they've got to do it with animated. >> kim serafin, thanks so much for the update. >> thank you so much. these days there's also a summer tv season to talk about. we'll have kim back with a preview of what to expect to see over the summer. you think may sweep comes and all of your favorite shows go away. it's not like that now. we'll be mack with more after this. this, won't take long will? no, not at all. how many of these can we do on our budget? more than you think. didn't take very long, did it? summer's here, so are the savings. that's nice. post it. already did. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. get memorial day savings, like 4 bags of miracle-gro® garden soil for just $10. ♪

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we enter into the 8:00 eastern hour. our affiliate is live from riviera beach, florida. >> reporter: good morning. we're talking about the grandeur of the seas cruise ship. this cruise ship left baltimore or friday and headed for cococay, bahamas. a fire broke out and the crew members were able to contain the fire. there are firewalls on board a ship just for reasons like this. a fire can't spread throughout the entire cruise ship. passengers -- 2200 passengers were moved to assembly stations to keep them safe throughout the

course of the response to this fire. it was contained to this one particular deck and it was out by 5:17. so, again, the fire starting just before 3:00 and not out until just after 5:00. so far, we've been keeping in touch with the u.s. coast guard. no reports of injuries or casualties. a carnival cruise ship was put on standby but no evacuations. this should be in shreveport within the next two to three hours. if anybody on board was actually injured during the course of the fire. thomas, back to you. >> katie johnson, thank you. appreciate it. moore, oklahoma residence are trying to find normalcy. president obama turns to the men and women who sacrificed their lives to serve our country. it's a full plate for the president and the first family.

>> reporter: quite a full plate this memorial day. that's absolutely right. the president starts off his day by hosting a breakfast for gold star families. those are families who have lust loved ones to combat. then he heads to arlington national cemetery where he lays a wreath at the tomorrow of tb unknowns. in his weekly address, he talked about the nation rallying around our nation's veterans, helping them once they return. this has been a big issue for the first lady and jill biden, which is aimed at giving veterans the help that they need, making sure that they have jobs when they come home. there's high suicide rates, unemployment rates. those are some of the issues that this administration has tried to tackle over the past several years. i expect that president obama will touch on a number of those

issues. of course, this white house has been royaled by a number of controversies as of late pertaining to benghazi, the irs, the justice department. as of right now for the day i expect the controversies to be put on hold but also the nation pauses to serve those who made the ultimate sacrifice. thomas in. >> kristen welker at the white house, thank you. this could be the start of a long, hot summer for president obama. we're not talking about the weather. the president has been busy with what is going on at the white house and tomorrow he heads to the jersey shore to check in on the rebuilding effort since hurricane sandy. i want to bring in "the washington post" ed o'keefe. it's good to see you. >> good to see you? the president is turning the pain on this talking about the

storms but one of the comparison that has been made is the resources to rebuild from oak cha ho c oklahoma. i want to play a clip. >> i'm confident that resources will be forthcoming when it comes to rebuilding. remember, it's also the ongoing training and equipment that we're making sure that those things are placed. we can't short change that kind of ongoing disaster response. we can't just wait until the disaster happens. >> was that a settle jab at the gop and congress? we see tom cole standing to his left there as he's talking. >> tom cole voted for the sandy relief. i think that was a little bit of a subtle jab. certainly there's enough money in the disaster relief fund, the fema account that pays out money

to various disasters across the country. usually that starts to deplete come the end of the fiscal year, beginning of the next one, because you go from summer tornadoes to fall hurricanes. for now it looks as though things are all right and officials in oklahoma have made clear, we may not need supplemental service from the government. but this has been recurring problem since the republicans took control of the house. there's an understanding on capitol hill you may vote against this now but at some point in the future it's going to be your district or home state that gets hit and you may face this criticism. >> yeah. you face yourself and these are breaking news problems and emergency issues that the president was dealing with in rer

reference to oklahoma. the president also explained and got in to what is almost a sand trap about gitmo and wanting to close that and also the narrow focus currently of this administration's drone program. i want to play a response from lindsey graham. >> at the end of the day, this is the most tone-deaf president i can ever manuaimagine. >> what do you think, are either of the president's plan -- let's remind you that lindsey graham has become very clear about how he feels about the drone program. >> all republican critics of his administration, kelly ayotte, lindsey graham, we will work with you if you come up with a detailed plan. it's not physically closing

guantanamo bay. it's where do you put them. if you put them in the united states, how are they charged and how are they tried? and saxby chambliss said maybe we should try them at guantanamo bay and determine what to do with them and get that process over with. li lindsey graham said, have a detailed plan about how to do it. we're just a few weeks after the boston marathon and the middle east still has conflict. they are worried about it spilling over to jordan or other parts of the middle east. al qaeda is on the run and things are improving when clearly not only the united states but allies continue to face threats around the world. lindsey graham, john mccain will talk about immigration, eager to strike a budget bill but when it comes to foreign policy are very critical about what the president is doing.

>> and the irs issue and benghazi, those stories are truly not slowing down so much. benghazi maybe a little but the irs issue is heating up. when we learned that the white house released hundreds of e-mails detailing what went on with that, republicans seem to be able to sink their teeth into more red meat? >> this is red meat for the most ardent republicans. they feel there's genuine concern about what occurred and how the administration handled it. this demonstrates this is how official washington works. when you're dealing with a situation like this, there's some debate, back and forth about what exactly you should say. the white house didn't meddle in these conversations as much as

the republicans initially thought. this isn't going away any time soon. it doesn't mean that they will hold public hearings but they will keep trying to get to the bottom of it. i've been at events where just saying the word benghazi causes great applause from the crowd. a desire to keep going with it and symbolizes so many the failures of the obama administration. as you mentioned, you're right, you now have the irs, the situation with the justice department, plenty of other things that will continue to feed the beast, if you will, through the summer as various congressional committees look into this. >> won't be the summer duldrums. >> not at all. jersey shore is trying to come back in full force for 2013. we'll check in on the memorial day forecast. that's next.

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so businesses along the jersey shore are hoping that the good weather will be a harbinger. this is a scene after hurricane sandy of what they were left with. they have gotten ready for a new summer and they are hoping that tourists are not afraid to visit. >> it's a celebration of the start of summer. even if it's not prime weather conditions, it's a primetime to come down. >> the beach is being replenished. it's a nice day. >> the area is going to get a

special visitor tomorrow. president obama is going to tour recovery efforts along with chris christie. joining many he is a democrat from new jersey, frank palone. it started out a little wet, a little cold. it's supposed to be 75 and sunny today. the signs are good. what does it look like to you? you've witnessed the recovery and what happened after sandy. how does it look to you today? >> it's amazing how much we have come back. if you look at the boardwalk, it's completely renovated. businesses are open and i want to wish everyone a happy memorial day. obviously we have to honor our veterans and then we want you to come down here for the day and enjoy the jersey shore. we're opened for business. >> that's a lot of good news for people down there. they are close to being normal but there's still significant damage in towns.

>> well, i would say the main thing is the homeowners. a lot of homeowners are not back in many of the towns. i was up in union beach over the weekend and the majority of people are probably not back there. we need to do a lot of work to help homeowners, certainly. >> when you talk about that, where is the effort on the local -- on the state, on the regional, on the federal level? i know we've heard that a lot of time is spent filling out paperwork. >> it is. >> it's one of the burdens for people trying to jump back. >> absolutely. i mean, the problem is that the funding through the legislation, you know, was delayed about three months because, as you know, we got a lot of opposition from republicans in the south and in the west and some of the tea party types. so now we have community development block grants available, up to 150,000 for homeowners.

a lot of people haven't gotten their flood insurance claims processed and now they are trying to get this block grant which we're helping them with. it is taking some time. and so there's a lot of bureaucratic snafus that are out there and we're working with people to get them more help so they can repair and rebuild. >> you talk about bureaucratic snafus. the president is going to be in the area tomorrow visiting the shore. what do you want to say to him to help realize to the people trying to get back to normal? >> well, i think that both the federal and the state government have to do more to eliminate the red tape. in other words, you know, some people still haven't gotten their flood insurance claims done. there's money available through the federal government and state government for buyouts to repair their homes, to also lift your homes up on pilings to prevent flood damage in the future.

but as you say, typically what i find is someone will apply for the block grant program and they'll be told that they have to -- that their flood insurance money is subtracted from that. and some have been told that if they have already spent money to repair their home, that that will count, and then they won't get the full $150,000. so i think the problem here is that people really need cash, if you will, in order to get the repairs made or to raise the home up on pilings and it takes a while for that to happen. in my office we work on it on a daily basis but i think the agencies could do more to help. >> your work continues. congressman frank perfoallone. have a great memorial day. >> thank you. we're seeing blue skies in seaside heights but that's not the case everywhere today.

kill karens, it look looks like we're headed to the southwest? >> yes. this is a big camping weekend and unfortunately in iowa it's come to an abrupt holt. they've evacuated state park there. this is springbrooke state park, 118 camp sites. that's underneath the weather.com. the three counties highlighted, that's where the flash flooding is occurring. they have evacuated the camp sites because of the storms that have rolled through the last two hours. the rain has stopped in iowa, eastern iowa, central portions of illinois where we've had flash floods. the next troubling area is kansas city. you can see the bright reds and yellows. these are torrential rains coming down from st. joseph over to leavenworth. stay indoors. for that matter, if you're in

the kansas city area, stay inside for another hour or two before you start your memorial day plans. it's not tornadic or anything like that. strong, gusty winds. we could get flash flooding out of that. even the topeka area. as far as what else we are dealing with, we're going to be watching the storms now and then more storms later on today. that's the horrible part. same areas. we're getting more and more flooding concerns for the mississippi river over the next five days that goes into moderate flood stage. so here's the setup. the cool air remains to the north, warm air to the south. it's a clash of air mass. areas of yellow, severe weather once again. mostly large hail and damaging winds but there's a chance of tornadoes out there, especially northern kansas, southern portions of nebraska. that's where all of the storm

chasers are heading today. that's where they would occur. it's mostly rural areas but there are some small towns out there. they head towards omaha and kansas city later today. notice the oklahoma city area, strong storms to the west of town but much of the city will avoid severe weather. this continues all week in the midwest. the east coast, areas that saw snow this weekend will jump up into the mid- and upper 80s. all of the severe weather is stuck in the middle of the country. >> just to the northeast, new york in the 50s. by the end of the week, in the 90s? >> humid and 90. >> all right. get the shorts out. appreciate it. washington state officials saying they will have two temporary bridges in place by mid-june. this temporary bridge is going to be build off site and then will be installed to avoid

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before investing. for a current prospectus, visit etrade.com/mutualfunds. all right. jammed roads and busy airports for you. ron pot ser joining us from florida. it sounds like a beautiful spot. it looks like a beautiful spot. minus the wind. but people have to deal with the fact that they've got to come home. >> reporter: yeah. that's going to be at the end of the day. right now the busyness is going to be when all of these people come in to this beautiful park on key biscane it's estimated that the same number will come here at the end of the day. they will all be heading home and joining millions of americans doing the same thing nationwide. according to aaa, some 35 million americans are traveling

over this holiday period. most by car. 89% by car. that's down slightly this time by last year. the reason for the downturn, just the slight downturn, is more the economy than gas prices. nationally, the average price of gasoline right now for a gallon of unleaded is $3.63. that's up 13 cents from last month. down slightly from this time last year. gasoline prices will start to go down now into the summer. certainly in time for the july 4th holiday. the aaa says that there has been a significant drop in air travel or is predicting that there would be a significant drop in air travel, about 8% this year, blaming higher fares and fees and the general hassle of air traffic. there have been impediments but

to bring it full circumstance kill here, everything is fine here in south florida. we've got the wind causing rip currents but that's not affecting the traffic and it's a nice day to go out and enjoy the holidays here. thomas? >> mark potter, thank you. this weekend marking the beginning of the summer travel season but there's going to be a lot more in store as we enter these hot summer months. nancy has a look at what folks are traveling. it's great to look at this. are people planning -- the trends, what are they showing? are people going to take short burst trips from home? >> well, our survey shows that people are going to be taking more economical trip this is summer but they will be hitting the road and our survey also found that folks are going to be taking multigenerational trips, bringing along not only their kids but perhaps the grandparents as well. >> that's how we do it.

everyone comes alive, maybe not with their limbs but they come alive. are people going to take longer or shorter vacations? is there information pointing to what people prefer to do right now? >> what we saw for memorial day travel or at least what people have intended to do is travel a little further. memorial day weekend, distance is up about 50 miles and even with the reduction in airline travelers, those folks traveling by air were traveling a little further, even going internationally. >> let's talk about that. with gas prices, as mark potter says right now, the average being $3.63, that's going to fluctuate as we get through the summer months. when it comes to airline costs and the hotel prices that go along with that, our families going to be able to find better deals than they did? >> families are going to have to be very careful.

everyone is feeling the pinch of the end of the payroll tax holiday which came about earlier this year. everyone is looking to ec economize. unfortunately, with airfares being up this year and travelers with unexpected fees from baggage fees to cancellation fees, it will be interesting to see what happens this summer when it comes to air travel. >> so as an insider, nancy, what are some of your travel plans? >> we are heading out to destinations in western maryland, trying to take it local. >> almost a staycation, which a lot of people like to do. nancy, thanks. >> thanks. >> straight ahead, tragedy averted. a oregon bomb plot and a 17-year-old is in custody. angelina jolie's family loses another family member to

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an oregon teen is in custody accused of plotting to blow up his school. the 17-year-old attended west albany. investigators found secrexplosi into a secret compartment hidden into his bedroom. >> bombs awere found. this is not a case of someone who contains explosives. this is a case where a person possessed several different types of bombs as part of a larger plan to carry out a deadly assault. >> let's talk more about the intent of this. eamon, explain what they know

about and how they got tipped off in the first place. >> we'll certainly learn more details when he appears in court on tuesday morning. that's when he's expected to be charged as an adult. what they do know now, according to the police and officials that we've talked to, they were tipped off by a 911 caller, someone who had knowledge of the secret compartment. when they went to the mother's house, that's when they allegedly found these bombs and plans and links and diagrams. what really gave them a moment of pause is the amount of planning that went in to what they were alleging was going to be an attack on a school. they say that it was supposed to be modeled after the columbine shooting in 1999 but on a much larger scale and they had very detailed plans. over the weekend they went to his high school, bomb units, k-9 units, they went to that school to make sure as a precautionary measure no explosives were

planted there. but very disturbing evidence gathered. >> aftthank you, eamon. about 200 people packed a church in moore for a memorial service that came to honor the 24 victims of that tornado that decimated last monday and the two victims of a tornado that slammed through shawnee, oklahoma, a day earlier. on sunday, president obama paid this emotional visit to moore, touring the damage and meeting with officials and first responders telling everyone, effectively, we've got your back. >> we know that moore is going to come back stronger from this tragedy. your may more said that you're already printing new street signs and i want folks affected

throughout oklahoma to know that we're going to be with you every step of the way. >> charles hadlock is joining us from moore, oklahoma. it's been almost one week after this happened. weather has hampered efforts for people to get in and clean up. >> reporter: yeah, it's rain a couple of times since this storm came through. today is a national holiday, of course, a working holiday here in moore as people continue the task of cleaning up after this massive storm. as you recall, about 1200 homes were flattened and another 12,000 were damaged in the storm. yesterday, president obama came to town to offer moral support. he met with victims of the family. he also toured the elementary school, what is left of it, in this neighborhood. he also talked with first responders and thanked them for their fast and rapid response for saving lives in the minutes

and hours after the storm. also, last night there was a memorial service, as you mentioned, at the first baptist church. it was an inner-faith service. people got on buses because a lot of people don't have cars anymore. they were wrecked in the tornado. so buses took them to the church service that was hosted by the governor of oklahoma. >> charles, thanks so much. i appreciate it. and while the president was in oklahoma, republicans took to the sunday talk show airwaves launching an all-out attack on the president. >> i think the constellation of these three scandals ongoing really takes away from the president's moral authority to lead the nation. >> i think the president has basically told some of his supporters, you know, the best way to get back at somebody is to win, sort of talking about

revenge. >> first amendment rights and the freedom of the pris in this court and the intimidation that it is going forward, we need to separate it from the authority of the attorney general. >> joining me is chris kofinas and watkins. appreciate you taking time for me. these controversies have certainly faded with the crisis in oklahoma but they are going to reemerge. it doesn't take much. shiny object, small little things to distract people in washington, d.c. as we talk about republican overreach, should we rep back in 1998, what happened then and the backlash that occurred? >> bill clinton's legacy is very much in tact as president ronald reagan's was.

he went to iran-contra. people thought that was going to undo him. he went on to be elected the presidency. i worked in his white house staff. sometimes these things get a little overblown. sometimes the party not in power will seize on weakness. at the end of the day, i don't think the sky is falling here. >> the controversy that has the most politically dangerous t tenacles for the administration, singling out karl rove. take a look. >> karl rove was making these boasts and saying that he was going to raise so much money, millions of dollars. i knew if they wanted to investigate this group, every other group would be put on notice. i've also said there is no basis for targeting within the irs. >> so chris, do democrats really need to walk a fine line here of

not trying to overplay their hand as they come out seeking facts first for what happened with the irs and figuring out, again, targeting -- it's such a pajorative term, figuring out what the tea party was as groups were being evaluated. >> i think the play here for democrats is a very simple one. i think you have to be a very aggressive and very vocal in terms of the -- we have to get to the bottom of what happened and make sure it never happens again. holding the irs accountable for this is a no-brainer politically speaking. i think the challenge is going to be -- it will become and already has become very political. when you see the republicans going out there as you did on the weekend sunday shows and already going over board in terms of the rhetoric and attack of the administration, without everybody knowing what the facts are. i think thankfully the democrats have republicans to contend with. otherwise, we'd be in real trouble. the reality here is very simple.

we need to be very aggressive, very vocal, and i would say almost go even stronger than the republicans in terms of going after the irs and making sure that the mistakes that are happening are corrected. >> on the issue of benghazi, it's a more difficult issue, chris, because four americans lost their lives and there it's not so much as they don't want to hear a lot of spin from democrats, they want to hear what the facts are so we can figure out how to fix it so americans put in harm's way are not in harm's way the way they have been. >> no one disagrees with that, joe. but republicans already mentioning impeachment and nobody knows what the facts are. >> that's premature. >> premature? >> the rnc chairman said talking about impeachment is very premature. it ought not be on the table. this ought not be about a witch

hunt. it's, how do we find the facts about what happened in benghazi and how do we fix it so the americans don't lose their lives? and the families deserve to know. >> president bush didn't get impeach over iraq. i highly doubt that the president is going to get impeached over benghazi, especially since they have released 100 e-mails showing the dialogue going back and forth and it was an internal struggle between the state and cia. one thing, chris, that i want to get you on the record is establishing whether or not these firewalls for the white house and president obama, his administration, are a good thing, especially when the american people want to know that the president is informed on these matters, rather than learning about them by newspapers as he's saying that he's doing. are firewalls, in many cases, a good thing where the president can say this is at arm length. but to the american people, are they willing to buy that as acceptable? >> you know, there's a reality in washington and there's a reality in the american public.

the president is in charge no matter what the moment is, no matter how he finds out about it. so i think these firewalls are sometimes created by staff and others, and understandably so, in order to make sure that the president isn't overwhelmed. at the end of the day, when you're talking about something like this, the irs scandal in particular, the other ones are to a secondary status a.p. is still relatively serious. i'm not sure sometimes the staff understand that those firewalls are not going to play well outside of washington and it makes -- it make it is more difficult, i think, for democrats in the situation. but i understand the logic of having it. nonetheless, it doesn't necessarily play very well. >> joe, what do you think? do you agree with the firewall issue? >> it's hard for presidents to know everything. i would doubt seriously that president obama was talking with people in the irs about what they were going to be doing to

conservatives. that's not likely. i worked in the white house for the president. the government is big. i mean, there are so many agencies, so many people that work in these agencies. when one person in an agency somewhere acts up, you can't blame the president for it. the president did the right thing in this case. he took the right steps once he figured out what happened. he fired people. he said, we won't have this happen again. we are outraged that this happened and we're going to stop it from happening and investigation is the right thing to do. at the end of the day, i don't think the president gets the blame. >> the biggest is lois lerner. gentlemen, thank you so much for your time. coming up next, angelina jolie is back in the headlines today. we're going to tell you why. a very personal story for her once again. the best speeches for yoube visit this summer. ♪

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so just two weeks after angelina jolie made the stunning announcement that she had a mastectomy, her aunt has passed away from breast cancer. it may be clear why she made these decisions now. >> this is the crux of it. angelina jolie cited a family history of cancer. we knew about her mom's cancer and now sadly cancer has claimed another member of her family. >> debbie martin passed away early sunday morning after a battle with breast cancer. >> my best friend, the most beautiful woman i knew. >> she was a beautiful woman. we're going to miss her dearly. >> it was the sister of jolie's mother who passed away in 2007 after her decade-long struggle

with ovarian cancer. earlier this month, in a new york times op-ed, jolie reported that she had an 80% chance of breast cancer and 50% of ovarian cancer, due to her family carrying the high-risk gene. with a preventive mastectomy, that risk is about 5%. >> because she has the mutation, she's at increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer. it is a very smart decision on her part to have her breasts removed. >> angelina has decided it's far more important for her to be there for her children, to live a long and healthily life and to enjoy that life with her children. >> she elected to have her oef rees removed after her death in 207 and was very proud of her nieces recent decision. >> it gave her a lot of

gratitude that she could have -- that angelina now saved her own life. >> and while jolie hasn't publicly talked about her health since that op-ed, other women have talked more and how her going public may affect others choosing to have the test. >> certainly in your report you talk about the fact that while it does eliminate most of the risk, it doesn't eliminate all of it. this is still something she has to consider medically moving forward. >> exactly. she'll always know that she has the chance and it's down to a 5% chance now and there's some talk that there are reports that she's deciding to have her oef re ovaries removed at some point to prevent that. >> thank you. we'll be back after this. maste. doris taerbaum finished her first marathon at 50. not everyone peaks in their twenties.

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all right. so for most americans, memorial day marks the start of the beach season. we're taking a look at the best

beaches for you around the country. i'm joined now by wendy sacks, travel expert by trip adviser. >> great to be here. >> i think people's ears will perk up to see if they have made the right travel plans. let's talk about the criteria that trip advisor uses. >> we service millions of americans and they base it on reviews that travelers actually like. people come here to review hotels from restaurants to beaches. so with that list they came up with the best beaches from around the world, including the united states. >> let's start with number five, a beach in hawaii, lanikai. >> it's in maui. it's a beautiful beach.

it's a luxury beach to visit. >> anything hawaii i think would be up there. >> that's true. >> then we get back here in the east, down south, fort de soto park, florida? >> there's birds, beautiful water. also very calm waves for younger children and more exciting waves for the older children also. there's really something for everyone there. >> that means there's not a lot of condos or homes around there that will get that type of foot traffic residentially? >> that's right. it's a beautiful, calm area for people to envoy the beach and the park. >> we have golf islands national seashore in pensacola. >> it's known for pink sands. it stretches from the mississippi down to the santa rosa island in florida. it's 150 miles of beautiful

beach. >> this is another one taken care of because it's a reserve. it's well-preserved in the fact that it doesn't have condos nearby and residential traffic, too. >> that's right. this is a gem of florida. it's beloved by anyone who visits florida. >> we stay in florida and go to one of the keys. siesta key in sarasota, florida. >> that's right. it's great for families and it's free. florida is known for its beaches and it's a great beach to visit, sarasota. >> number five takes us back to where we started, back to hawaii. i'm going to let you say this. >> number 1 is kanapali in maui. it's a great place to relax, swim, water activities. maui and florida top the list of places to visit.

you can definitely check out the visit on tripadvisor.com. it looks like the skies are clearing up and the weather is going to be warmer. >> as we see here, the top five being generated between hawaii and florida, are there any other personal favorites that come to mind for you that maybe have not made the top five? >> i'm sitting in new york city so you have to give a plug to jersey shore. i think everyone is rallying behind visiting the jersey shore. >> i think everybody can go down there. for so many people, psychologically as we look at seaside and seeing people come out, it does look great and it looks gorgeous. psychologically, it's nice to know that they can go to the summer retreats. while going off to hawaii, that's going to be a one off trip. >> that's right.

that's a splurge vacation but keeping it around the east coast and certainly anywhere from the jersey shore on down south is definitely the right thoiing to do. >> all right. wendy, thank you for being here. >> thank you so much. we've got a lot more ahead in the next hour. are you tired of seeing the same old reruns? well, summer now actually provides us with a whole lot of new television. new tv shows to check out. we're going to tell you what is not and what is not. plus, the weather has been all over the map. we're going to get a check of the weather and see how the roads are shaping up as well. this morning president obama will head to arlington national cemetery. we're going to bring that to you live when it happens. stick around. this is msnbc. ing to dreamam about t that steaka. i'i'm going toto dream about thatat tiramisu.u. whwhat a nightht, huh? but, u um, can thehe test drivie be over nonow? head b back to the d dealership?p? [ mamale announcncer ] it's praractically y yours.

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monday morning, may 27th. a strong surge of storms is moving through. and political clouds are forming in washington as republicans and democrats prep to do battle over relief funds for tornado victims. is your sunscreen really effective? we'll bring you fresh answers this hour. memorial day is get away day for millions of americans. it hasn't been all fun in the sun. we've seen flooding in texas and snow in the northeast. bill karins is joining us to tell us what to expect. >> today and then all week long. the worst is on i-70 through topeka, kansas city. it woke up a lot of people with heavy rain and lightning in

omaha, nebraska. the bright red is just torrential rain. flash flooding is concern, too. the lightning strikes have come down a little bit. overnight we were up to 4,000 an hour. if you're in the kansas city area, stay indoor, wait until the storms go by, it's going to be very heavy rain around the metro kansas city area. i give it two hours for the heavy rain by you and eventually some of this is going to push right through central missouri, too. you can see the storms that we were just looking at on the left hand side of your screen. rain overnight with flooding concerns around central illinois, northern illinois. not in the chicago area but between peoria and chicago. flash flood warnings. one state park was evacuated. 120 camp sites in iowa. as far as flash flooding goes, rivers are coming down. more storms on the way. by the way, all of the green

colored in counties are river flood warnings. we're expecting a significant flood. a lot of the small rivers that feed into the mississippi river and even a moderate flood event, north of st. louis as we go throughout the rest of the week. we have more rain on the way. we are just set up here for a hose of moisture spraying down the central plains each and every afternoon, given every 12 hours or so, thunderstorms dump torrential rain as the warm air is trying to move north and the cold temperatures of the great lakes is still in place over that area. today, one thing that has changed from the storm prediction center, we have a moderate risk of severe weather. there's three categories. slight, moderate, and high. the area in red is of greatest concern. maybe even strong tornadoes in the morning portion of kansas and nebraska, from lincoln, nebraska, that area could see a potential of tornadoes today.

this area is going to be as they say under the gun all week long for severe storms. it doesn't look like any huge tornado outbreak but we'll probably get five to ten each afternoon. >> it's a hot area to watch, bill. specifically to the temperatures, they are going to hit upper 80s in moore, oklahoma. that's where residence are taking their first step rebuilding. the moore community is sharing some of their pain on sunday and president expresses optimism that better days were ahead. >> this area has known more than its share of heartbreak but people here pride themselves on the oklahoma standard. you know, what governor fallon calls being able to work through disasters like this and come out stronger on the other side and that's what we've been seeing this week. >> charles hadlock is live for us in moore, oklahoma. explain what is happening for people on this holiday. these people have been working nonstop trying to clean up and

move on with their lives. >> reporter: yeah. and the work continues even though it's a holiday. the city will begin the task of cleaning up debris that people can move to the curb. if homeowners can move to the curb, the city will take care of it from there. also, the city will pass out forms to homeowners if there's nothing left on the property they can sign a release and the city will come on to that property and remove that debris for them. that's where the federal government comes in. somebody has got to pay for that and the federal government is going to help out. president obama was here and visited the devastated area. he visited plaza towers elementary school. he also thanked the first responders for their fast and steady work in the hours after the tornado and thanked members of the national weather service and severe storms laboratory just down the road in norman, oklahoma. he thanked them for their

service and warning people about this storm. thomas? >> charles hadlock reporting from moore, oklahoma. thank you so much. some in congress are talking about how they like to pay for it. mary fallon said on sunday that her state is in for a long period of rebuilding even though representatives in washington, like senator tom coburn says it's time for states to rely less. >> i need the ability to get the funds in here quickly and get the services that our citizens need to recover. >> we ought to have priorities about how we fund it instead of borrowing the money. >> we've created a predicate that you don't have to be responsible for what goes on in your state. >> joining me now is democratic strategist and republican strategist joe watkins. i just want to get in to this because i was in moore, oklahoma

last week and i had an opportunity to speak with governor fallon. she blasted the record of dysfunction, failed policies, and outrageous spending in washington. now she acknowledges that the state is really in need of the federal government at the time when the federal government is looking pretty dysfunctional on a lot of fronts and we have sequestration. does this put fallon back on her heels because she's in a position now where obviously she has a lot on her plate, to deal with a lot of her people that have been damaged by this storm, killed by this storm, and people that need help, businesses that need to be rebuilt and homes to be rebuilt when the president has said we've got your back, she said thank you, i appreciate that. so what does it mean for her politically to try to be able to shake the federal aid tree out of washington, d.c., and get it to those who need it most? >> i think she's doing the right thing. she's saying that they need help and at the end of the day, thomas, when you have natural disasters like this one, we

don't have republicans and democrats, we just have americans and the governor is responding to the fact that americans have been hurt and need aid right away and she's asking forth federal agencies to do that for which they were mandated to do, to provide that in a clear and quick way. she's doing all the right things. whatever pronouncement she made in the past is the past. as for right now, she needs the money. >> well, it sounds like that's a big catch 22, joe. emily, it's like the past is the past. i said, you shouldn't give away money to states but today i'm the one who needs it. >> i think this is a great day to be doing this, memorial day. we honor not only the veterans but the first responders and fema has been there from the day after it happened until today and they are working straight through. they've already signed up 4200 people in moore, oklahoma. they've signed up for fema for

disaster relief and have tons more to go. fema is going door by door to see what kinds of relief they need. something president obama has done, i think we actually don't talk about this enough, that fema, after hurricane katrina, was not in good shape. it was a big problem. fema under president obama has really been exceptional. the fema administrator -- you talk about the politics of this -- the fema administrator was appointed by jeb bush that stayed through charlie crist. i think it shows that we have someone nonpartisan in his role and is ready to execute. does not matter where mary fallon is a republican or a democrat. he deploys support at 100%. >> the governor said that she's very appreciative of the fact

that the president has shown such foot-first approach, saying that he supports the recovery efforts. also, the president in that speech from the other day, he made a point of noting where these federal funds go. i want to remind people what he meant by that. take a listen. >> i know everybody in congress cares deeply about what is happening and i'm confident that resources will be forthcoming when it comes to rebuilding but remember it's the ongoing training and equipment that we're making sure that those things are placed. we can't short change that kind of ongoing disaster response. we can't just wait until the disaster happens. >> what do you make out about that? especially how fema has pitted how it operates under the obama administration in comparison to what we saw in the katrina administration, being prepared?

>> i think it's great that an agency is prepared and it's great to hear that the agency is doing better than it has. i don't think there's anything bad to say about the president. unlike efr unlike everything that the president is doing, he's calling upon the agencies to get aid in a forthright and good way. especially on a day like this, it's important to remember to help americans in need. >> as we look forward to what is happening ahead, the political odd coupling of president obama and chris christie, these two men reunite their bromance. today's matt lauer asked christie if that appearance is going to be a political problem for the governor of new jersey. take a listen. >> do you ever worry that another visit and more images of you two walking along the boardwalk will cook your personal political goose? >> no. because i think what people in

my state want more than anything else is for me to do my job. the fact of the matter is, he's the president of the united states and wants to come here and see people of new jersey. i'm the governor. i'll be here to welcome him. >> joe, i'm going to start with you. what do you think? chris christie basically shoots from the hip. he welcomes the president coming there. they are not going to agree on everything but he's certainly not going to give him the heisman trophy and push him away. >> this is the stand-out moment for christie. it was the fact that he welcomed president obama just after hurricane sandy but told governor romney that he was not the sitting president and therefore did not need his time. i think it's a great move for him politically. >> joe, a lot of people, as christie profile, certainly has to have a lot of democrats or independents giving him a second look at what he's all about. >> i would think so. chris christie is managing to

transcend petty politics and i think that's a great thing. he cares about the people of new jersey. he's been an effective governor for them and i think his meeting with the president is a good thing. >> it is. thank you so much. joe watkins, emily, thank you. >> thanks so much. we're talking more about the jersey shore, hoping to come back strong with beach goers coming out this weekend. we'll take you live to seaside heights and take a look at the building post hurricane sandy. joining many he to check the record straight for the true meaning of memorial day, stick around. we're back with much more. . venus & olay -- gently exfoliates with 5 blades. plus olay moisture bars help renew goddess skin. only from venus & olay. that's not much, you think. except it's 2% every year. go to e-trade and find out how much our advice and guidance costs.

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>> coming up in just a few minutes this memorial day, president obama and the first lady will air a breakfast and then president obama will travel to the tomb of the unknowns. military analyst and medal of honor recipient, colonel jack jacobs is joining me. happy memorial day. good to see you, my friends. a lot of people in this country are going through a fresh, painful loss of someone that they have given up and sacrificed to our country. explain what memorial day means to those families, to americans who have lost a loved one. >> it's very much different than it is for everybody else. back in the second world war when every household had someone in service to this country, in contrast to that, we have a small percentage of americans who have served and who are

serving, the loss of a friend or relative is a wrenching one because, among other things, we don't have this shared sense of sacrifice. for a lot of families it feels that they are alone, alone they have sacrificed for the country. they are proud that they have been able to be in service to keep us free, keep everybody else free. but there's a wide golf between them and everybody else. most americans don't know somebody in uniform. i think it's a very dangerous situation. so in many respects, military families, particularly those who have lost a loved one, feel particularly alone at this time. >> is it harder on our vets on memorial day? >> yeah, sure it is. those of us who fought, particularly in the crucible of war, you get the notion that you don't just fight for the country, you don't just fight to accomplish the mission, you fight for each other. but when you're all alone and one of very few fighting for everybody else, you get a sense

of isolation. it's much tougher and it's tougher for the kids out there right now. we have a bunch of young american, men and women around the world defending the country of maybe 310, 320 million people. very small number of them are out there. we've got to keep them in mind. and we do have to keep them in mind every day, not just memorial day. >> certainly president obama is a strong supporter of our military but they have a strong friend with secretary of state chuck hagel. >> he's the first enlisted man. >> how does that enhance what our military community feels, knowing what hagel's background is and what his hopes are because of what he understands is military and how it operates? >> it's good news and bad news. he's a former enlisted man. he's been at the lower levels of

abstraction. this is very important to the military rank and file. his heart is in the right place. for the bad news, at the end of the day, that doesn't account for much on capitol hill or in washington. he has got to be not just the best enlisted man ever to be the secretary of defense. at these difficult times he's got to be the best secretary of defense he possibly can be and that means that he's got to be able to have sharp elbows and get in there with the congress and with the white house to make sure that our defense is the best defense we can get. >> well, i don't think he's ever been accused of not having sharp elbows. >> let's see what he can generate for the folks. >> look for the rips on the corner of his suits. colonel jack jacobs, thank you. >> you're welcome. in london, more arrests in the shocking murder of a british shoulder. we're going to tell you about

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an update on the fire on a cruise ship. flames broke out on "grandeur on the seas." it was quickly put out and everybody is reportedly okay. the ship started in baltimore, maryland, and it was headed for bahamas. we'll give you an update. the message from the jersey shore this holiday weekend is "open for business." president obama will see firsthand how far they've come since superstorm sandy and it was only six months ago that that area was devastated by the superstorm. last hour we talked to frank pallone that told us about what has been done and what is still left to do. >> it's amazing how much we have come back. i mean, if you look at the

boardwalk, it's been completely ren nated. businesses are opened. many of the obahomeowners are sl not back. >> stephanie gosk is live for us in seaside shores. you're in a different jacket. the weather has gotten warmer, and there are more people behind you. >> reporter: that's right. you have a really good eye, because there's been a wardrobe change. this weather has been tough weatherwise but the boardwalk is definitely opened for business. it's still early in the morning for them here but consider these numbers going back to when the storm hit about seven months ago, this state suffered about $38 billion worth of damage, 350,000 homes damaged or

destroyed, another 150,000 businesses that were damaged and destroyed and then you see this picture here today, seaside heights boardwalk is really one of the areas of auk sasuccess a the jersey shore. there's a lot of people with their homes that are struggling a bit to rebuild. they are stuck in this limbo where they are trying to figure out if they are going to get their insurance money, waiting for new maps to be redrawn when it comes to flooding. they may have to raise their homes. some people don't have the money to rebuild at all. so the story of recovery is complicated. but having said that, this place for sure is open for business and you're going to see this boardwalk fill up pretty quickly, chris. >> i don't know if you can look over to your left but people have set up for the day with their towels and umbrellas?

>> reporter: definitely. some of them for the last couple of hours. it will fill up here. for the people that have been coming here for generation, the atmosphere on this boardwalk is going to be more or less the same. there are going to be arcade games, food, deep-fried oreos. it's the same kind of scene. that's what they are hoping for. the economy here in a place like seaside heights is completely dependent on this summer season. it's about 65% of their economy. and that was one of the reasons why governor chris christie and officials along the shore pushed so hard to get the boardwalk up and ready and it was a huge effort. we came back over the course of the last seven months and you saw people working here around the clock trying to get the boardwalk ready for the weekend. they've done a remarkable job, if you consider the amount of work that they've had to do. some of the images after the storm, some of the worst that we saw in the first few days. >> yeah.

it's a big turn around. the cutest kid was giving us the wave. if you're talking about deep-fried oreos you're speaking my language. >> reporter: i have yet to try one. i might just try my first deep-fried oreo on television. >> i support you 1,000 percent. stephanie, thank you. appreciate it. still ahead, furlough notices are being sent out to hundreds of pentagon workers tomorrow. who's being the hardest hit. and then more on the brutal attack that has rocked london with possible ties to terror. ♪ and she forgot to pay her credit card bill on time. good thing she's got the citi simplicity card. it doesn't charge late fees or a penalty rate. ever. as in never ever. now about that parking ticket. [ grunting ] [ male announcer ] the citi simplicity card is the only card that never has late fees, a penalty rate, or an annual fee, ever.

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keir simmons is joining me. what more do we know about his connective tissue, his ties to terrorist groups? >> thomas, good morning. he was in ken y'all ya in 2010 arrested there for encouraging people to help people fight for a terrorist group in neighboring somalia, a group called al shabab. when he was a british national, he was handed over to the british and taken back here. people are asking, why wasn't the alarm raised enough for him to be prosecuted here. why was he left on the streets where he allegedly carried out this brutal murder. they try to regularly recruit people like agents. they famously, more recently,

helped to foil a potential attack on the u.s. a cargo bomb attack that, through intelligence, with an agent similar to this. so they are always making -- i'm not saying it's true in this case but they are making judgments on whether to leave somebody on the streets, whether or not they can ask them to help them. the question that people will be asking is whether or not the british intelligence security services made the wrong judgment in this case. and they have been questioned like this before in 2005 when there was an attack on the london underground. mi-5 was aware of the number of people involved in that attack and the same questions were asked them. >> keir simmons reporting from london, thank you so much. i appreciate it. this memorial day, hundreds of pentagon workers are bracing for the furloughs. tomorrow, furlough notices will go out to 90% of civilian

employees. chuck hagel apologized for it but said he had no other choice. >> difficult choice but we had to make it. and i tried everything. we did everything we could not to get to this day, this way. but that's it. that's where we are. >> so it's fallout from the sequester, the across the board cuts slowly taking effect. rachel is the managing editor for politico. we're talking in numbers here, 680,000 workers taking 11 furlough days between july and september. cost-wise, this is going to save $1.8 billion. but when we talk about the practical impact, what's not going to be getting done this time? >> thank you for having me. many things are not going to be getting done. you heard the president and democrats talking for quite a while now about the impact of the furloughs and the sequester.

it was hard to see right at the beginning because this really is a rolling effect but we're starting to see a lot of different federal workers out. many took a furlough on friday heading into the memorial day recess. the epa, for instance, the omb, irs, maybe not a sympathetic agency right now but does affect the business of the country. it really seems only when there's a lot of drama around the furloughs do they get specific attention as we saw from the air traffic controllers. >> all right. so we know that this is not going to impact the military. it is expected, though, to have an economic impact and we should all expect that it should. these are going to be people cutting back somewhere. if they are making less money, they are spending less money and then we have the trickle down effect how that is going to impact consumer confidence, the economy overall. >> absolutely. remember, this was never supposed to happen. neither party wanted the sequester to take effect. this was a last-ditch effort and

the idea was that the president and congress would find a solution. of course, we knew that didn't happen. if looks like something very surprising happening in the capital, this sequester is here to stay. >> others feeling it will be military families. alison of "the times" saying that civilian teachers are getting furloughed. military families have had to maintain two homes because transfers were delayed. chuck hagel said if you're worried about your family, if you think about that, if you're worried about your family having to live through this, the biggest problem is going to be, if you're already just making ends meet, what this means going forward. >> absolutely. and on this memorial day weekend we are beginning to see the effects and this will affect families.

the furloughs will have an impact and that's true for our defense department, for civilian workers, and other agencies as well. they may not be the high drama that the president may lead some people to believe right at the beginning. >> this was the ugly choice that neither side wanted. it was so ugly that no one would pick it so they could figure out what to do ahead of it. now we are watching it in full effect. rachel, great to see you. >> thank you so much. this morning, president obama is going to pay tribute to the american service members who made the ultimate sacrifice as well as to the families living with that loss. kristen welker is at the white house. it's a busy schedule. >> it is a very busy schedule. in fact, president obama hosting a breakfast for gold star families. those are families that have lost loved ones to combat and then later on this morning he heads to national arlington cemetery where he will lay a

wreath at the tomb of the unknowns and then he will deliver a memorial day address. this will be a traditional address. it gives you an indication of some of the themes that he's going to touch on. i'll give you a piece of his weekly address to see what we might hear later today. they are heroes, each and every one. they gave america the most precious thing they had. because they did, we are who we are today a. free and prosperous nation, the greatest in the world. that's the tone that we expect to hear. i expect him to talk about the importance of caring for veterans, for family members, spouses of those who may have been left behind. of course, that is something that the first lady, dr. jill biden, has really focused on. they have a joining initiative. they challenged the private sector to hire 100,000 veterans

or their spouses and just a few months ago the first lady announced that they had, in fact, tripled that, hiring 290,000 veterans and spouses and now they have challenged the private sector to hire more than 400,000 over the next five years. so i think that you will hear the president touch on some of those themes and then, of course, tomorrow another busy day, thomas, as he heads to new jersey. he will be greeted by governor chris christie and will tour the shoreline there and view the recovery efforts. >> kristen welker reporting from the white house, thank you. >> thank you. after a personal admission of a double mastectomy, angelina jolie loses an aunt to breast cancer. we're back after this. ♪

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of one of angelina jolie's relatives. debbie martin, jolie's aunt, passed away early sunday morning. martin was the sister of jolie's mom. family members say jolie's aunt was very proud of her decision to get a double mastectomy. jolie and her aunt both have the gene. drama this weekend at the race in charlotte, north carolina. the cable in the ropes fell from an overhead tv camera. it caused a half hour delay in that race. all right. are you ready for this? the largest bike sharing program in the u.s. begins today in new york city. however, not without a little controversy. there will be an initial 6,000 bikes at docking stations in manhattan and brooklyn. some residents of certain buildings are complaining that the docking stations are right

outside their doors and that the bikes are taking up those very highly coveted, difficult to find parking spots here in new york city. another major milestone for the lgbt community. the first athlete to play in an american pro team took to the field this week. take a look. history in the making right there. you can hear the california crowd roaring as robby rogers took the field. the pro soccer player retired in february but you a announced over the weekend that he was making a comeback with the l.a. galaxy. he subbed and the 76th minute and said he will not ever forget. he came out after he retired but now he's back. the sun bathers will find new sunscreen labels designed to make them more effective and easier to use.

the ban terms "waterproof" is misleading and the sunscreen must filler out uva and uvb rays. that provided little protection against uva risk which is the greatest risk of skin cancer and wrinkles. joining me here in new york city, doctor, it's great to have you here. a lot to talk about as some people around the country can actually use sunscreen today because temperatures are nice enough. >> finally, yeah. >> but when we think about the status changes that the fda has wanted on "waterproof," explain why that change is necessary. >> i think it was a good change. i think that when you say something is waterproof it's misleading. you think you can apply it once at the beginning of the day, go swimming, play a sport, sweat,

you don't have to reapply. the new recommendations are for a label for the label to say water resilient and it's recommended that it's not only reapplied every two hours but certainly after drying off and sweating it should be reapplied. >> while a lot more people are cognizant, adults are aware of this, too. with the labels that carry an spf of 50 or greater, some people need to be more aware of that. that cannot be as effective as we all think they could be. >> right. some people said it very well the spf number is not a consumer friendly number. one might assume if you go from a 15 to a 30 you double the protection but that's not the case. once you get beyond an spf of 30 or 40, the protection increase is nominal. most dermatologists recommend an

spf of 30. that blocks about 97% of uva rays which is their recommendation the uva rays are the ones that are most linked to sun damage and wrinkles. both uvb and uva can cause skin cancer. >> what if you want a sweater to squeeze out of the bottle and you want to cover yourself so your good irish catholic skin doesn't burn. >> that's fun three. you want to apply it first half an hour before you go outside. you don't just splash it on and go out for the day. you want to reapply every two hours. you want to use an spf of 30 and reapply again after swimming and things like that. and then you should be good to go. you don't want to put an spf of 100 in the morning and not

reapply. >> some thinking high noon is the hottest sun of the day? is that no longer the case? >> that is when the sun is the strongest but you need to be wearing spf all year around. if you're you can walking around in the noonday sun in the middle of winter, you're still exposed. it's a falsehood to believe from memorial day to labor day you wear sunscreen and not for the rest of the day. >> when it comes to being concerned about skin cancer issues, talk about the degrees that most people need to be acutely aware of. >> certainly people with a family history. carcinomas, fair-skinned individuals, that's still considered a risk factor. those are really the main ones. everybody who has -- there are certain malignancies -- melanoma does not necessarily occur on the sun-exposed skin but the more you are, the more the risk.

those exposed as a child have a greater risk of melanoma. >> many parents make sure that their children are exposprotectd forget about themselves. should we be more considerate of our own skin and looking for funny changes and development in our own skin? >> our generation, we weren't so aware in the '70s and '80s, we put oil on to get more of a suntan. but children by the age of six months all newborns, young children, young babies are already the recommendation from pediatrics is to start putting sunscreen on them and for the rest of us, it's lifelong. do yourself first and then do your kids because you know they are going to run away from you as soon as you start lathering them up. >> dr. natalie azar, thank you. >> thank you. coming up, a sizzling new tv lineup.

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michael, what have you done? >> i did what i had to. >> i'm sorry. >> i haven't seen mike since last year. >> he disappeared. >> don't contact anybody. stay in the shadows. >> so the seventh and final season of usa's hit spy show "burn notice" kicks off in a couple weeks, one of the many high profile series saying good-bye. there are a number of highly anticipated new and returning shows with fresh episodes in time for summer. so let's take a look ahead joined by kim serafin, senior editor with "in touch weekly." i hate leeing off with saying good-bye but "burn notice" among be several other popular hit series giving their finales this summer. >> a bunch of huge shows saying

good-bye. "burn notice," usa show, great show, people love this show. really good ratings. michael sometimes is burn, not burn. he's back in with the cia. who knows, things change. also we're saying good-bye to "dexter" final season. this is going to be big. and also final season for "breaking bad." of course the high school chemistry teacher turned into drug lord, brutal drug lord, i should say. of course, brian canson has won emmys for this. these are huge shows with fan bases saying good-bye. >> highly thought of 37 one of the most anticipated news shows is called "radon know van." >> interesting on showtime, ray donovan described like the sopranos based in the world of hollywood. about an l.a. professional fixer who goes in when sports stars -- >> "entourage" meets olivia pope

from "scandal". >> celebrities, moguls get in trouble, he comes in and fixes it. it's set in the world of hollywood but has a little -- >> he's olivia pope. okay. "graceland" another one that's new? >> another usa network, darker than the shows like "psych" or "monk" but inspired by true events. these undercover agents are living in a beach house. their undercover world but then they're partying on the beach. inspired by true events. this actually took place. a beach house was seized from a drug lord and undercover agents used it as a safe house. really interesting. >> fan favorites we've got the "true bloods," "newsroom," what else? "the killing" coming back. a lot of people thought that was over, done with. they revived it through a deal with netflix. it takes place a year after the season ended with a new murder mystery, serial killer murder mystery. "true blood" huge fan favorite

coming back. there's a big divide between vampires and humans. the government all out declaring war on vampires. >> we'll have to see. >> and "newsroom," behind the scenes of a cable newsroom network. >> they sometimes get that stuff right. but then the show "miss stresses," some people are a little -- you know, the title says it all. >> exactly. based on a british series. it's very, you know, soap opera, sudsy, prime time soap opera. abc staring faces like alyssa milano. you get -- you know what you're coming to see. >> "honey boo boo" is coming back. >> "here comes honey boo boo" coming back. we know that last season their first season on the air, the spin offfrom "today hers and tyras" was averaging 2.3 million viewers. people will love this. you see behind the scenes of mama and sugar bear's wedding. the network has teased we'll have butter rolling, tap dancing

and wrestling. i mean what more could you ask for. >> speaking of butter rolling, how is mama june and her weight? >> we have to tune in to see. >> we'll all be tuning in, the millions of his, kim serafin, thanks so much. thanks for your time today. hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday. see you back here tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern. chris jansing picks things up after this quick break. for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjorn's small business earns double miles on every purchase every day. produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? ahh, oh! [ garth ] great businesses deserve unlimited rewards. here's your wake up call. [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one and earn unlimited rewards. choose double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase every day. what's in your wallet? [ crows ] now where's the snooze button?

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help. i want folks affected throughout oklahoma to know that we're going to be with you every step of the way. >> good day. i'm chris jansing, live in new york. the president spending his memorial day with members of our armed forces. this morning he and mrs. obama held a breakfast for gold star families and are soon heading to arlington national cemetery for a wreath laying ceremony after a busy weekend for the president traveling to moore, oklahoma, yesterday, where he met with victims of last week's tornado and toured the devastation. it included a stop at plaza towers elementary, where seven children were killed. he was also the target of republican critics this weekend who want to keep the focus on the irs and ap controversies as the house and senate are in another break. we will cover all those stories for you in the next hour and have those arlington ceremonies live. let's start with kristen welker, good morning. now the president, let's start with what he did yesterday in

moore, promising help, but also called on congress to provide funding. what else can you tell us about his message and his plan? >> he did. well clishgs hris, as you know, president obama took on the role of comforter in chief, an all too familiar role for this president when he headed to moore, oklahoma. we saw him wipe away a tear and he promised that the federal government would stand by moore as it recovers. it will undoubtedly be a long recovery process. as you point out he also called on congress to make sure that community gets the aid that it needs. now, as you recall in the wake of the sandy hurricane, there was a huge fight on congress about whether or not to approve aid for those recoverying from hurricane sandy. eventually it was approved, but not after really a bruising battle on capitol hill. so president obama saying let's not do that this time, let's

approve whatever aid is necessary. but i can tell you there are some lawmakers, including tom coburn of oklahoma, who says that any aid -- other spending. capitol hill would center on at this point, though, we should be clear there aren't any bills pending in congress. congress is on recess. this is something that i expect them to pick up when they come back and begin to debate. but president obama vowing to stand with the people of oklahoma. of course tomorrow he'll be traveling to new jersey to view the recovery efforts and to view the jersey shoreline which has made an incredible comeback in the wake of sandy. >> we'll be getting a live report from the jersey shore coming up. let me ask you about this hour as we said, the president heading to arlington national cemetery. there is always an opportunity for a president at this very solemn occasion to speak. what do we expect to hear from him today? >> well, he will make remarks today, chris, and i am told that they will be traditional memorial day remarks.

the president will talk about the importance of honoring those that gave the ultimate sacrifice. we got a little bit of a preview in his weekly address which we got on saturday. i'll read you just a little bit to give you a sense of the tone we might hear from this president. he said, quote, they are heros each and every one. they gave america the most precious thing they had, the last full measure of devotion and because they did, we are who we are today, a free and prosperous nation, the greatest in the world. that gives you a sense of the tone that we will likely hear from this president. i also expect him to talk about the importance of taking care of veterans and their family members once they return. as you know, chris, suicide rates are incredibly high among veterans. unemployment is a persistent problem. the first lady, dr. jill biden, have take on that issue thu the joining forces initiative. actually, encouraging businesses to hire veterans, and in the past several years they've hired

a hundred thousand veterans. the first lady challenged them to hire another 400,000. i should say actually they hired 290,000 veterans. so they are keeping up those efforts. i expect those are some of the themes we will hear ons this memorial day. >> that terrible back log and benefits for returning veterans. we'll talk about that later on in this hour. kristen welker, thank you. >> thanks. hundreds of volunteers spending this memorial day weekend helping with the massive cleanup in moore and across southwest oklahoma. last night, at a memorial service for the victims, there were songs and tributes led by governor mary fallin and this is a first grade teacher. take a listen. ♪ yes jesus loves me yes, jesus loves me ♪ >> we wanted to bring back one of our heros, a first grade teacher at priorwood, miss mays. >> i know i speak for all my

teacher friends, we're so glad to see all of them. this is why i choose to work for moore public schools. >> she distracted her students during the tornado by singing songs, including "jesus loves e me." joining us is charles hadlock amid the debris. day for remembrance across the country, but how are folks in moore, oklahoma, marking this memorial day? >> it is a national holiday but a working holiday here in moore, oklahoma. 12,000 homes were damaged, 1200 of them completely flattened. there is a lot of work here to do. the city this week will begin the arduous task of going around and picking up the debris from people's property. if they can move it to the curb today, they will pick it up, the city will pick it up and move it out of the way later in the week. but it's going to take weeks, months, perhaps more than a year to clean up all of this debris, chris. >> we saw the president there

yesterday and he met with the governor, met with congressman tom cole and we know as kristen welker just mentioned there may be some debate about whether or not the federal funds that go to places like moore should have to be offset with cuts elsewhere. what do we know about those conversations? >> well, we know that the president did offer the nation's support. in fact, he said, america has your back. and i think that's what the people here wanted to know, yes, we have a disaster here and the response was immediate by fema, even the governor said the response has been great, but everyone wonders how long will the federal government be around to help with this cleanup because as you saw firsthand, chris, it's very large. it's 17 miles long, a mile wide in places. there is a lot of mess to clean up. >> yeah. at the same time they're cleaning up, they're also trying to get back to some sort of normalcy. we saw some of the school kids at other elementary schools earlier this week and look at this graduation ceremony, southmoor high school. what's the total that we're

seeing there? i guess the school system itself, $45 million in damage? >> yeah. three schools, two elementary schools and a junior high school were heavily damaged. some destroyed by this storm. and speaking of those kids who graduated on saturday, they have been through seven tornadoes in their lifetime in moore alone. in fact, two of them were ef-5s. they were in the second grade when the storm back in 1999 hit moore and devastated part of this community. so tornadoes are a way of life here and they are trying to adjust to this one, one of the biggest ones in their lifetime. >> our thanks to charl hadlock who continues on the scene there in oklahoma. coming up, more on the president's trip to oklahoma sunday as we wait for the wreath laying ceremony on this memorial day at arlington national cemetery. ♪

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politics mostly set aside today as we honor those lost in battle. but one of america's top veterans who was also a presidential candidate expressing frustration with his own party. bob dole who was the gop nominee in 1996, says that in 2013, republicans lack a vision and are unable to strike deals with the other side. >> i think they ought to put a sign op the national committee

doors, closed for repairs. >> could you make it in today's republican party? >> i doubt it. reagan couldn't have made it. certainly nixon couldn't have made it. because he had ideas. >> joining us now from washington, lynn sweet, columnist and washington bureau chief for the "chicago sun times" and david yakkamore. good morning to both of you. >> good morning, chris. >> to say this is no longer the party of reagan, even nixon, because he had ideas, he couldn't get elected these days, pretty harsh words from bob dole. but not the only one saying them. certainly criticizing the republicans at this stage. >> well, what this shows, chris, is that the dysfunction in the sense of the republican party in order -- they have not found a way to accommodate dissent within their ranks without having it be rigorous for them. and that is the problem. democrats have a lot of disagreement within the family, but the family sticks together

and it's not recital and that is the problem with the republicans dole was talking about. if he doesn't think ronald reagan could be accommodated today that is a very telling comment. >> david, when you look at who really the rising stars of the party, they're tea party folks, it ted cruz, rand paul, marco rubio. they get the enthusiasm of the base and they go hard against the president. i guess the question that is being raised by people like bob dole and a lot of other folks who are concerned about it, you pull the party too far to the right it gets you far in the primaries but you don't win the white house with that. >> absolutely. you know, reince priebus, the head of the republican national convention did an autopsy and this was some of the findings. they have to get a bigger tent, appeal to minority voters, latinos, immigration reform. you mentioned some of these very

senators who are the young rising stars are not always willing to go along. you have, yes, marco rubio, sort of leading some of the republicans on immigration reform but you have ted cruz, another, you know, guy who people look at as a young sort of up and comer who is very much against a path to citizenship, a key part of this immigration reform effort. bob dole is not the only one to say these things. jeb bush during the presidential eleshgs, he himself looked at as a future presidential candidate said the same thing. said his own father george h.w. bush and ronald reagan would have trouble in today's republican party. there's no easy solution right now. >> bob dole talked about the partnersh partisanship that's been crippling to congress. let me play another clip from him. >> it seems almost unreal, that we can't get together on a budget or legislation. >> is the senate broken? >> it is bent pretty badly.

as howard baker said, running the senate is like herding cats. it takes leadership. somebody has to stand up and say, we're going to do this. >> he mentioned the budget, lynn, of course other legislation like immigration so important to the president and he's made a priority in his second term. if you want to us auto the example of ronald reagan who, of course, based iran-contra, he still was able to get things done in the second term. the question is, can this president do it, given the partisanship we see on capitol hill? >> well, it's hard in the senate. bob dole served between 1969 and 1996, stepped down when he ran for the presidency, and one of the reasons he could get more things done is that the senate rarely used the 60-vote rule they now have put on themselves where you need a super majority to get anything done. not only does obama have to, let's say in the case of immigration, that's turning in both houses, figure out a way to

accommodate the left, right and in between and very delicate balancing act but he has to know that this senate has to have this super majority to get it done. that's a lot different than the dole days. >> yeah. if you follow imhi gration, chances are you probably got whiplash by now, because it's a done deal, it's not, come together on an agreement, no, it's fallen apart. what are the chances? and if there is a chance for some big piece of the president's second term agenda to get through is it still immigration at this point? >> it is. the white house sees it that way. you've seen the president tread gently because he wants it badly but knows his best bet is to have the senate pass their comprehensive deal, marco rubio one of the eight in the bipartisan senate group, put this forward, gone through the committee and now it's going to be in june on the senate floor. what the real plan is for immigration proponents is to get a behind the senate bill and try to get well over 60 votes that lynn mentioned to avoid a

filibuster and move forward. if they can get up to 65 or 70 votes they can put pressure on the house. john boehner warned the house is doing their own thing, piecemeal or their own comprehensive deal to be more conservative and the two -- if both things get through at ultimately at the end of the summer there would be a conference. the house one day looks like they have a deal on a comprehensive approach, on the next day something falls apart. the house is still wrestling with this very much. all eyes for proponents are on the senate to get this moving. >> david knack ka murrah and lynn sweet, great to see you on this holiday. >> stay with us as we wait for the president. and a look at rolling thunder which rolled in tribute to the nation's capital last night. [ female announcer ] made just a little sweeter...

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[ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap. president obama paid his first visit to oklahoma on sunday to inspect the damage from that deadly tornado meeting with oklahoma's governor as well as the congressman that represents the affected area. of course he also met with many of the families whose lives have been turned upside down over the past seven days. joining us now ashley of k 4 television. good to see you, ashley. what's been the reaction to the president's visit? >> you know, a lot of people are just asking for support and that was one of the main messages the president talked about, saying we're not alone and is encouraging the country to lend a hand. we've been seeing that a lot. i got a huge envelope of gift cards from nashville, tennessee, of people wanting to help out. i got $250 from walgreens, $500

to home depot. people are coming together to lend a hand and that's all these people need right now. there's a lot of people that are already out here early morning hours, going through their properties, still sifting through the damage, trying to save everything they can. right now a lot of the oklahomans do need support and it looks like that's what we are getting. >> also know from the time that i was there, that already people were coming in to physically help and i know hundreds of volunteers have come to that area over the weekend. when will they start being able to do the clearing? i know people are finishing up looking for what may be left in their homes and then tomorrow, will they start taking away some of the debris? >> i'm not sure exactly the timeline. there's still a lot to do here, so i don't think the debris is going to be getting out of the area that much. i have seen lots of piles of debris and damage put aside which makes it easier for people to come by and clear the area. they're still giving families

plenty of time to sift through the damage and get their belongings out as well. >> ashley cringen thank you so much. president obama as we've been saying met with residents of moore and also oklahoma city where folks are still grappling with the tornado's heavy toll, 24 dead, 370 injured, as many as 13,000 homes destroyed. here's part of what the president had to say during his visit. >> this area has known more than its share of heartbreak but people who pride themselves on the oklahoma standard, what governor fallin called being able to work through disasters like this and being able to come out stronger on the other side, that's what we've been seeing this week. >> joining us mayor of oklahoma city, mr. mayor, it's good to see you. i know you met with the president yesterday, had a chance to talk to him. what was your message and what did he tell you? >> well, the president had a nice visit. he visited the elementary school

where the seven children died and visited with teachers and administrators inside the school when the storm hit. he also met with first responders and thanksed each and every one of them gathered at the moore firehouse. that was a touching visit. he explained as we knew the federal process so that many of our citizens could start the process of rebuilding if they needed federal assistance and all in all he wanted to see it for himself and express his concern and support. nice to see him in oklahoma. he doesn't come very often. >> we saw that in the early days when the hurricane hit already, fema was on scene, some going door to door with their i pads starting the process. have you been encouraged? are you satisfied at this point with what you've seen from the federal response? >> yes. fema was here on the ground very, very quickly, through a couple hailstorms the last few years we've had some very significant weather events and

so unfortunately, we're kind of used to seeing fema and the federal process from the city level. you know, the first call that almost anyone affect bade storm like this makes should be to their insurance company. most of the homeowners, 98, 99% will have insurance and that's going to be the, you know, first step and the much larger part of putting their lives back together. but there are perhaps renters or other people who don't have insurance, federal assistance and loans that might be made available, small business loans that might be made available and that will be very helpful. >> when i saw what happened with this tornado, i said this many times when i was in oklahoma, it's difficult to show people on television the devastation. i mean it's truly, it boggles the mind. it almost leaves you speechless, 17 miles long, almost a mile and a half wide. look, unfortunately, you do have experience with this. we were reporting that the students who graduated over the

weekend, have seen seven tornadoes in their lifetime. so what's the next step? i mean obviously beyond the private insurance, beyond fema, what are we facing and what's a kind of timeline or is it too early to even say? >> well, you talk about the rebuilding process? >> yes. obviously we've just really begun the cleanup. i mean they have to start going through neighborhoods getting rid of some of the debris and that's just the start. >> yeah. we've not had a significant tornado in oklahoma city in ten years. and, you know, from memory serves, it takes generally a year or so for, you know, the neighborhood to, you know, get some semblance of reorder and rebuilding. and so i think you'll see some, you know, construction going back into some of these neighborhoods later in the month. this is not this particular part of our metro area for its first tornado. they had one in '99 and then in

'03 but as i mentioned it's been ten years since we've had anything in our city limits of significance and, you know, when it happened again in '03 it seemed like a coincidence. now that it's happened three times in this one corridor it seems less of a coincidence and i don't know if there is some sort of natural phenomena that can be explained by science or not. it does seem beyond coincidence this particular part of the city is going to keep getting hit. >> the conversations i had with some of the moore officials, state legislatures, even members of congress, some of it focused on storm shelters, funding for storm shelters, whether or not to require storm shelters. we certainly saw that in moore, for example, lives were saved because people had a place to go. have you talked through that with other elected officials and what are your thoughts early on about if, indeed, you know, you're going to live in a place like this, how money should be apportioned and what do you do going forward to make sure you're as prepared as you can in

the future? >> i think it's worthy of a conversation. i have a task force in the making so we in oklahoma city can look at all of the questions coming forward. we -- how was our public safety response, how did our public works crews gret out and clean up the affected area. we want to examine everything we've done in this horrific tornado and part of that does look at safe rooms and the type of construction that you're talking about. we have been building safe rooms in the new schools that we've been building in oklahoma city. still, it's a pretty slow transition because most of the stock in the school district are decades old and do you want to stop right now and start building safe rooms? i will remind you, chris, that having a tornado during school hours is extremely rare. i don't ever remember a school in the city of oklahoma city being hit by a tornado because simply on the rare occurrence when one does hit the city limits they happen after the sun goes down or in the evening.

that's by far the most likely scenario. to have one during the daytime is very, very unusual, and it's something new that we're having to consider here. >> our thanks, mayor core net, of oklahoma city, i'm sure you haven't been getting a whole lot of sleep and kind of you to take time out of your holiday to spend time with us. >> it's been a rough week. thanks. >> next a look at the forecast and the travel conditions on this holiday weekend. again, we will take you live to arlington national cemetery, the president preparing to mark this solemn day of honor. [ male announcer ] erica had a rough day. there was this and this. she got a parking ticket... ♪ and she forgot to pay her credit card bill on time. good thing she's got the citi simplicity card. it doesn't charge late fees or a penalty rate. ever. as in never ever. now about that parking ticket. [ grunting ] [ male announcer ] the citi simplicity card is the only card that never has late fees, a penalty rate,

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time for a check of your memorial day weather forecast. some rough conditions out there in certain parts of the country. especially for folks facing flooding and if you can believe it, snow. yes, snow. joining us now, meteorologist bill karins. >> we're done with the snow. that's it. >> are you kidding me? >> said this six weeks now,

we're done with the snow. >> you lied apparently. >> many times. >> start with the flooding if we can. this is serious stuff in san antonio. three people have been killed in this flooding already. what's going on down there if that it's flash flooding. thunderstorm complex over the week sat there and rained over the san antonio area. about a foot of rain. all the rivers have crested and now come way down. flash flooding is like that. comes in and out. they had some areas that were literally dry and then went up to about 12 feet high. cars just got caught and people just had never seen anything like this in the area. that's where we got the fatalities. you know, you hear it over and over again, but, you know, turn around. don't drive through the water or you'll drown is how the saying goes. what's going on this morning, flash flooding a problem in illinois and iowa and now watching the kansas city area. i-70 from the topeka, kansas area, to kansas city, east of kansas city now, just a horrendous drive. we have two clusters of thunderstorms, one went through

kansas city, the other one back towards topeka and looks like instead of traveling south traveling more to the southeast. that may clip kansas city again. notice the lightning strikes now. lightning can be deadly too. a lot of people outside today heading to whatever their picnics or family outings. be careful in the midwest and the central plains. the east coast by the way, that storm that brought the snow, is now exiting up there to the north outside of maine. can you believe we had almost 2 1/2 feet of snow on white face mountain in upstate new york. they're still skiing right now as i speak on killington mountain. they offered free lift tickets to anyone that wants to head up there. crazy conditions. this was a video from the top of the mountain at white face. that's heavy, wet snow. those trees are really, really struggling. at one point in vermont about 9,000 people without power because of the heavy weight of the snow on the trees did bring down a few power lines. who's at risk today? snow, we're done with you. thankfully. now we have to worry about more severe weather. this is probably the greatest tornado threat today ever since

the moore tornado. not saying we're going to get another ef-5 or ef-4 put the potential for strong tornadoes, the area of yellow is a slight risk, the area of red a moderate risk of severe weather. the greatest concern looks to be mostly in rural areas. beatrice, nebraska, just south of the lincoln, nebraska, area and a good chunk of north, central kansas where interstate 70 and i-35 meet. this is a lot of rural area, small towns, but again takes one big one to go through a small town and we could have a catastrophe. between about 5:00 and 10:00 p.m. is the danger time out there the storm chasers will be out there and get one on the ground we'll get pictures of it and give people a good head's up of who's at risk. tomorrow another severe weather risk. this includes the chicago area to detroit. not so much tornadoes for you, more like wind damage will be a problem for your -- get back to work tuesday. from omaha to wichita, you have a chance there of more additional tornadoes.

so chris, we're in the time of year, you know, people keep asking me is this normal. we're in may and june we do get tornado outbreaks, probably about once every two weeks. that's what you can expect. >> bill karins, bearer of great news on this holiday weekend. >> the east coast is fantastic by the way. we have best day by far in a week. >> a lot of folks traveling in that part of the country. americans also gearing up to hit the road because they have to get back to work, heading back from their holiday weekend. gas prices are down, sort of. a whopping 2 cents lower than this time last year at $3.63 a gallon for regular. although as always depends where you live because, for example, in the upper midwest, prices have soared by as much as 68 cents a gallon in the past two weeks. nbc's mark potter joins me from a place that looks just about like paradise, key biscayne, florida. and mark, what should travelers expect on their trip home today if they have to go home today? >> yeah. eventually all these people will

have to go home and what they can expect and people can expect around the country, are crowded roads today all around the place, lots of troopers out there too, especially, as the day progresses. aaa says some 38 million people will be traveling 50 miles or more from home over this holiday season. most of them by car. that's about 31 million people going out by car. so we can expect to see lots of crowded conditions on the major highways. also, locally, there could be traffic jams. this park behind me, on key biscayne, is expected to have some 15,000 people here today as it did yesterday and when the sun goes down and they will have to go home then, we could have lots of crowds and lots of problems getting people back into the city of miami and other nearby towns. now the national safety council is urging extreme caution today as people get on the roads. they had predicted before this holiday that some 400 people would die in traffic accidents and another 43,000 would be

injured to the degree where they required medical care as a result of traffic accidents. what they are recommending is, that drivers get on the road soon as they can to get home safely without having to speed. give yourself time. of course, wear your seat belts. stay off the cell phones and don't drink and drive. a lot of people out there that will be even more as the day goes on, increasing the chances of accidents, so drivers are urged to be cautious and drive defensively and one more bit of good news, related to driving and you mentioned it earlier, gas prices are down a little bit and the report from the energy department is that they will continue to creep downward ever so slowly, a little bit at a time, as the summer progresses as we head now to the july 4th holiday. chris? >> i guess part of what's to blame for the crowd cod roads are people have had it with airlines? the high prices and all those extra fees? >> that's exactly right. airline traffic is down this

holiday, at least it was predicted to be so, by about 8% and according to surveys taken by aaa, the reasons for that, the reasons for that are high prices, too many fees, and just the hassle of going to the airport. so more and more people are choosing to go by car because it's easier and cheaper. >> yeah. mark potter, who doesn't have a bad gig if you have to work on memorial day, thank you so much, mark. good to see you. >> you're welcome. somebody has to do it. >> might as well be him. the jersey shore is back in business. officially kicking off the summer reopening a lot of its board walks and beaches after superstorm sandy devastated that coastline. president obama will head there tomorrow. in the meantime governor chris christie has been out all holiday weekend shaking hands, making appearances in towns up and down the shore. yesterday it was asbury park where he walked the boardwalk and talked to business owners concerned about the economic impact of hurricane sandy.

>> literally, i spent hours every day doing paperwork to go back to work. and i really need to be in my restaurant training people and hiring people and feeding people. >> nbc's stephanie gosk is live in seaside heights, new jersey. the weather looks nice there. has it been a good weekend? how's business? >> it hasn't been a good weekend actually and this is really the first, warm sunny day they've had and people are coming out in droves. this almost looks like a typical memorial day at seaside heights but this is not what we saw seven months ago just after sandy. this place was one of the worst hit places in the storm. remember those iconic images of the roller coaster thrown into the water. there wasn't a single board on this boardwalk that wasn't ripped off. they rebuilt the entire thing, 16 blocks. the businesses themselves all of them were damaged and are now rebuilt. it's an amazing success story here on the boardwalk that they've got it open and people

are telling me last night it was completely packed, tens of thousands of people, but the recovery story in new jersey is actually a bit more complicated than that. you had 350,000 or so homes that were damaged and destroyed and thousands of people are stick in this rebuilding limbo, waiting for insurance money or new regulations on how they should rebuild their homes or some people simply don't have any money at all to rebuild. it's a complicated story but certainly the story of success. i'm told by the people who own the beach, who allowed us to stand out here, the best way to mark memorial day on seaside heights is to try a deep fried oreo which i haven't tried before but i'm going to give it a shot. wow. that's pretty good. >> yeah? >> we don't want do a collalori count, fat content, any of that stuff. it is a holiday and holiday calories don't count. >> exactly.

that's how i feel about it. if there's anyone out there that doesn't think you can improve on an oreo, you got to try this. >> deep fried. and as long as you have a mouth full of food i have to ask you another question, which, what do we know about -- feel free to bring some of those back here. there's a microwave here. >> sure. >> what are we expecting from the president tomorrow? >> well, the president's coming here. this is his second trip as many people know. he was here in the first days after the storm. he's going to check in on the recovery and as i said, he's going to get a mixed sense of what that is. the businesses and the board walks are back up and running 22 out of 23 of them are open this weekend, but you do still have this struggle with people kind of trying to get through the r bureaucracy of a recovery after a storm as large as this one. that includes grants from fema, from the state. they also have to figure out what the new regulations are going to be when it comes to flooding. this storm set a new precedent

on the dangers of living on this costline and people are waiting to hear how they will rebuild their homes, where they will be able to rebuild them and sure to hear that when he visits. >> i'm sure a lot of emotion there obviously. stephanie gosk with her very large helping of deep fried oreos. >> the president ought it to try a couple of these, it's worth the trip for that alone. >> thank you, stephanie. enjoy. stay with us. when we come back we will welcome a pair of veterans as we wait to hear from the president live at arlington national cemetery. ♪ there's a new way to fight litter box odor. introducing tidy cats with glade tough odor solutions. two trusted names, one amazing product.

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affairs is under fire. for almost 1 million veterans waiting to get care or compensation. joining me is jason, an iraq war veteran, and senior program manager for help with iraq and afghanistan, veterans of america. with us retired army colonel, jack jacobs, msnbc analyst. thank you for being here and thank you both for your service. jason, let me start with you. it is shocking when people look at the numbers, 900,000 to 1 million people in this backlog. some of them waiting hundreds of days, some of them well over a year, what's going on? >> you know, it's a system that's overwhelmed right now. this is over years and years that this system and people have been filing claims and they're just not working fast enough to get the claims done and they just keep piling up. we have about 500,000 claims over 120 days which is a nightmare for those vets that are waiting. >> give us some specific examples, an idea of how this is

affecting them on a day-to-day basis. >> take, for instance, you plenty of vets seeking 100% compensation for a range of issues, ptsd or a physical injury, that's money they're waiting on to pay their bills, to pay their rent, utilities, to support their families. this is affecting people in a very big way. >> last thursday we saw the head of the va, secretary shinseki, who you know, jack, a student of yours, called for a closer meeting of the house committee. we are aggressively activating a plan to fix this decade's old program and eliminate the backlog as we have indicated in 2015. if you're waiting to feed your family or put a roof over your head, pay your rent, that's a pretty long time, jack. how bad is this problem? >> it's very bad. it's not actually getting better. the irony is that a large proportion of this problem is as the result of general shinseki

trying to do the wide thing. he wisely increased the franchise by making people who suffer pts and those veterans who were exposed to agent orange and who now have illnesses, making that franchise available to them. that's the good news. the bad news, is that the department of veterans affairs was not administratively or logistically ready to take care of those applications. they were -- >> you don't see this as a problem of the people who work there, they just got overwhelmed? >> yeah. i mean they were not really efficient to start with. on top of that, it's now worse because so many people are making applications and it's -- to be honest with you, the department of veterans affairs, administratively is in the 17th century. the department of veterans affairs machines, computers, can't even talk to the defense department's machines and i mean you can't have -- you can't run a government like that. >> the problem is obviously those are things that don't get fixed overnight but what can they do, if you were put in

charge of this or going to write a position paper and say, look, here's what we can do right now, what is it? >> you know, there's a couple things they can do and they've started some of it. mandatory overtime for the claims processor and looking at those claims that are over two years old. but what they can also do is i think change some of the ways that the department operates, especially in rewarding those who are processing claims the quickest and most accurately. i think those are things that the administration can do right now to make sure that this problem gets fixed. >> also soundses from what you said, jack, they need a serious tech upgrade. besides that, what else? >> continued leadership and they need lots more money. it is not enough that the department of veterans affairs has not been subject to the sequester. as a matter of fact, the va has gotten an increase in its budget, still isn't enough. we want to take care of these veterans or we don't and if we do we better start throwing money at it. >> i'm curious what you think about having the defense

secretary chuck hagel, he is the first enlisted combat veteran to serve in that position, he has a sense of what went on in war, what goes on after war, is he likely to help make this better? >> i think he is. i mean as a former enlisted person myself i think it's very encouraging to have him, especially having that on the ground lower enlisted mentality. i think that's going to be a huge help to him trying to get things fixed in the dod and hopefully working better with the va to get some of the big issues solved for returning vets. >> but good intentions, as good as they are, don't count for much in washington. in the end, hagel is going to have to be able to put his pressure to bear on all the departments, on the white house and most of all on the congress, to get things done. if he can't get in there with sharp elbows it's not going to get done. >> is that who has to go in with sharp elbows. who else might have influence here, jack? >> the president of the united states. things happen when the boss says they're going to happen and

follows up to make sure they happen. if lots of emphasis doesn't come from the white house, doesn't matter what hagel or shinseki wants to do, the president has to go to the other end of pennsylvania avenue and beat people up. >> we will hear from the president and chuck hagel coming up in the next hour at this ceremony. do they need to talk about this? do they need to lay out a battle plan? would that be the best way to honor the fallen. >> >> you know, i'm concerned about happening specifically today. i think they should focus on remembering the fallen and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice. we'd love to hear from the president take some leadership over this issue and kind of drive home the importance of veterans issues, especially disability backlog. >> but one other thing we're going to hear today that is a little concerting. it is all about remembering the people who have given us our liberty but a widening gap between those who have served and are serving on the one hand and everybody else on the other. platitudes aren't going to count for much when you have lots of

young people out there, far flung corners of the world, trying to protect 310 million -- >> you may have seen it, sebastian younger, the war correspondent, wrote about that thing. let's take a break and talk more about that disconnect. when we come back, colonel jack jacobs, and jason hanson will stick around and we will have more live from arlington national cemetery right after this. you hurt my feelings, todd. i did? when visa signature asked everybody what upgraded experiences really mattered... you suggested luxury car service instead of "strength training with patrick willis." come on todd! flap them chicken wings. [ grunts ] well, i travel a lot and umm... [ male announcer ] at visa signature, every upgraded experience comes from listening to our cardholders. visa signature. your idea of what a card should be. visa signature. you know this walmart breakfast is less than a dollar. no way. if your family of four switches from fast food breakfast just once a week... you can save over $650 a year.

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we are expecting the president to arrive any moment now as we've been watching the events at arlington national cemetery. the formal program is going to begin shortly, including a wreath laying ceremony and comments from the president. we will have it for you live as it happens right here on msnbc. ? then you'll love lactose-free lactaid® it's 100% real milk that's easy to digest so you can fully enjoy the dairy you love. lactaid®. for 25 years, easy to digest. easy to love. for 25 years, given way to sleeping. tossing and turning have

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i spent 23 years as a deputy united states marshal and i've been pretty well banged up but the worst pain i've experienced was when i had shingles. when i went to the clinic, the nurse told me that it was a result of having had chickenpox. i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i've got to take more pills. ♪ yup. another pill stop.

can i get my aleve back yet? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. ♪ [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap. how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. and that's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed much is the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪ good morning. i'm chris jansing. we are waiting for the president's arrival at arlington national cemetery, events are already underway. you see the crowds that are there. we know the president and first lady have hosted a breakfast for

gold star military families and when they arrive there at arlington, the president will lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns and he will have his remarks. we have been talking with jason hanson and colonel jack jacobs and talking about the disconnect sometimes between the country and people that served it. sebastian younger wrote smartly and poignantly today about this in the "washington post," a couple points. let me read one bit for you. soldiers face challenges when they return home but one of the most destructive is their country doesn't quite realize that it, and not just the soldier, went to war. the country approved finance and justified war, and sent the soldiers to fight it. this is important because it returns the moral burden of war to its rightful place, with the entire nation. is he spot on with that, jack? >> he's a little off. no doubt about the fact that the country went to war, but the burden of fighting fell on a small number of brave young men and women who volunteered to go

do it. it was easy for people to say, let's go ahead and do it. as long as they didn't have to do it. >> which is his point, you can't have them come back and say you did this, you did that. the country made that decision. >> the country has a responsibility, surely, but i'm very much concerned about the notion that says if we can square that disconnect between the small number of people who go out and fight the war and the countries that -- that finance it and makes the decisions to go do it we're going to be okay, that's the implication. i hope it's not. because that's a bad implication. in the end, you know, we really love -- we see a lot of we love the troops, we love the troops, we love the troops because we don't have to be the troops. as long as that's the case, it's going to be easy to send troops off to war and make difficult decisions and place them on the backs of somebody else. >> let me read a little bit more which puts it in a bigger context that when we talk about

the war and we have ceremonies like we have today which are beautiful and it's right to honor those who have fallen, it doesn't address the epidemic of post dramatic tress disorder, the suicide, alcoholism, ta tall car accidents and incarceration are higher for veterans than most in the civilian population. one study predicted in the next decade 400 to 5,000,000 veterans will have criminal cases in the court. our collective avoidance of this problem is unjust and hypocritical. civilians tend to do things that make them, not the veterans feel better. yellow ribbons and parades do little to help with the emotional aftermath of combat. >> today especially is one of the days we see this fundamental disconnect between the civilian population and veterans. a day like memorial day when we spend our time at ceremonies like arlington or cemeteries or remembering -- >> as we see i want to interrupt, the first lady and the defense secretary aliving. >> yeah.

i mean this is a day that we have spend at cemeteries and the rest of the american population spend at barbecues or outdoors enjoying the summer weather. this is one of the days we see the disconnect the most. >> and young has that part to be spot on for sure. we as a country do things to make us feel better. as long as we feel better we think everything is okay, but there's a vast swath of american populace who serve are not feeling better and we need to fix that. >> what do you think -- as we reflect on this today because there are people, you know, who want to do the right thing and maybe just don't know what that right thing is, bob dole, for example, wrote about a lot of people want to do what they can financially and write a check and he suggests you check out what the veterans group is because there are some out there that are unscrupulous, unfortunately, who would collect money on behalf of veterans but what is it the average person should think about doing today, put pressure on congress to deal with some of these problems? what would you say? >> i'm not a fan of single

factor analysis. there are lots of things people can do -- >> the president arrives, scheduled to speak, lay the wreath at -- we're told in about five or six minutes. go ahead. >> writing a check is important. organizing -- organization to assist veterans, talking to congressmen and so on. one of the things we can do as a nation is to make sure that we employ veterans. we're not doing that enough. we got to -- we have to do that. >> let's talk a little bit about this ceremony we're about to see and this is a long history, anyone who has been to the tomb of the unknowns knows what a moving place it is. let's listen for a second. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[ drum roll ]

>> and we are seeing people process after the laying of the wreath by president obama, who will then speak along with the defense secretary we will hear with later on this memorial day. there's an editorial today, jack, speaking with jack jacobs, colonel jack jacobs, about the silence, ate the difficulty, the grief that is so difficult for

those who have been to war, to talk about it, that in some ways we let our ceremonies speak for us. >> yeah. that's well said. we do let our ceremonies speak for us because sometimes it's extremely difficult to chat about it. my father served in the second world war in new guinea in the philippines, didn't talk about the war and nowadays if you talk to anybody who's older that served in combat, even if he said nothing at all about it for first 80 years of his life, he'll start talking about it now as his days get shorter. when we think back about it, we try to remember the good things, but on a day like today, in particular on a day like today, it's extremely difficult to avoid thinking about the friends you lost. now especially when you get older and remember these people when they were 19 and 20 years old and they never got a day older in your mind. >> and just in the sheer numbers and you multiply this by the

friends and the families who feel the loss to this day, in world war i, 116,516 u.s. service members lost their lives. in world war ii, more than 405,000. 54,000 plus in the korean war. jack in the war you served in vietnam, 90,220. desert storm, desert shield, 1948. ""operation iraqi freedom,"" 4,422. it goes on. operation enduring freedom, 2220. your thoughts as you're watching the ceremony, jason, about the people with whom you served? >> yeah. i do remember all the funerals, the memorial services i went to in iraq and i remember the people that also lost the battle after they came home. a good friend of mine lost his battle in 2011 to a suicide and took his life, and these are the people that we're honoring

today. most just lost their lives in combat, but lost their lives as a result of combat when they've gotten home and struggling with these very deep issues and emotions. >> and you and i have talked a lot, jack, about how much since you served, for example, what we do on the battlefield medically in order to save soldiers, has improved. it's gone up exponentially the services available to them immediately after they're injured. but as we've been discussing in the last half hour, the rest of it necessarily hasn't kept up. >> it's true. that if you are alive when you get to a medical facility f you're still alive nowadays, you have a 98% chance of survival no matter what's happened to you. but it doesn't change what happens afterwards. at the end of the second world war, millions of men and women came home, a lot went to school, and the country went about its business as it had just before the war, but the large majority of people in the work force has

spent time in uniform and those who hadn't been in uniform, worked behind the scenes in making the machines of war and helping out. so everybody was involved in the war effort. this is not the case today and i think that one of the -- one of the causes, not the only one, but one of the causes of the disassociation that many veterans feel is the fact that they have gone to war on their own, no matter what sebastian younger says about the countries going to war, the fact is that veterans feel they went by themselves. and they come back to an inhospitable situation. they can't get jobs. they come back at a particularly difficult time clieconomically. the irony is the veterans are the best people you can find anywhere. authority and responsibility at an early age. and the people really do well hiring veteran. but there is this disconnect because the country didn't go to work and i think the soldiers,

sailors, airmen and marines that served in combat, served when everybody was at home, feel there's a gap -- there's an intellectual emotional gap between your generation and the rest of this country. >> and i think you're right. part of the issue is 2.5 veterans served in iraq or afghanistan. that's less than one half of 1% of the american population. it's easy for the rest of the nation to feel completely disconnected from this war or these wars because so few people have served and it's very likely that they don't have anyone in their life that's a vet or that was even touched by this war at all. >> and that is always the criticism, is it not, of so many members of congress or people who are in positions of power, that they have not understood and it is difficult to understand. how do you make someone understand if it's difficult to talk about and they never have served themselves? >> it's really, really tough. a very small percentage of the congress has served. when i first came into the service, almost everybody in congress was a veteran.

almost everybody in congress was a veteran. and now it's down around 20%. i think that's an uptick from -- since the last mid term election. the only way you're going to get people's attention is through leadership. and it takes somebody to get down to congress and get their attention or takes congress to get the president's attention. i remember back in the mid-60s when the social legislation transformed this country was passed and i'm old enough to remember what this country was like when it was segregated. think about how hard it was to get the congress to pass the legislation that gave us the social legislation we have today. how did it get done? lyndon johnson personally went down pennsylvania avenue, took individual congressmen and senators into rooms and threatened them with bodily harm if they didn't vote for this program. i'm not saying this president needs to go down and do that, but at the end of the day, the only way you're going to get anything done is through leadership.

the people who understand that are the people in the military where you have a chain of command, the buck stops there and all that. it's going to take leadership. imploring congress and the white house to do the right thing ain't enough. it takes leadership. >> and we see the podium where the president will make his remarks in just a short period of time. i'm hear with colonel jack jacobs, retired u.s. army who served in vietnam, medal of honor resip dwrents. jason hanson who serves the company as well as a senior program manager for help. people will walk up to veterans today and i did it to the two of you when you both came in and said thank you for your service. but does it ring hallow? i won't take it as a personal affront if you say that. >> i don't think it rings hallow. i think on day like today, it might be missed. on a day like today it's not about my service, it's about the service of those who gave that ultimate sacrifice. that's one of the reasons why

calling on the nation at 12:01 today to do a moment of silence and reflect on the sacrifices and the ultimate sacrifices that soldiers, sailors and airmen and marines have made and reflect on it and take it in, even if you're at a barbecue on the beach, take that moment to reflect on what this thing means or this holiday means to america. >> over the course of the years, i've had the great privilege of meeting with a lot of people, jack, who have helped families of those who have lost their lives, started scholarship programs, for example, for the children of those who have fallen in the wars in iraq and afghanistan. people who have started mentorship programs for young boys who no longer have their fathers because they died on the battlefield, we talked a lot this morning about what is out there for those who have come back, but what about for the families of those who have not, jack? >> it's -- the military establishment has changed. when i first -- when i first went to war, you got orders to

go, you had 28 days to vacate your quarters and find a place for your family to go and you were on your own. now we have a more tightly knit community for military families and so, though they're not completely taken care of like they should be, we do have a tendency to band together and take care of each other. for those families who are not in the military fold, who have lost loved ones but they're not -- the families themselves are not in the military, i think individual communities have a lot to do, local communities have a lot to do to reach out and take care of these people emotionally and sometimes, sometimes economically. >> are they doing that, jason, to some extent. >> i think to some extent communities are kind of stepping up and doing things at the local level to soothe military families and honor their sa sacrifice they made on a day like today. great organizations at arlington like right now like the tragedy of the assistance programs for

survivors, doing amazing work with the families that have lost someone in combat. >> we are speaking with our guests jason hanson, colonel jack jacobs, now at arlington national cemetery, the chaplin, colonel michael braynard, of the u.s. army military, district of washington, has just finished giving the innovation and now our national anthem. >> senior master sergeant robert harrelson will sing our national anthem. ♪ o say, can you see by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? ♪ ♪ whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight ♪

♪ o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? ♪ ♪ and the rockets' red glare the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪ ♪ oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ o'er the land of the free ♪ ♪ and the home of the brave? ♪ >> and the welcome now in this

ceremony to be given by general martin dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. >> ladies and gentlemen, general dempsey. >> mr. president, secretary hagel, secretary shinseki, members of congress, distinguished guests, veterans, fellow americans, and most especially, the families of our missing and fallen warriors, welcome. 150 years ago this november, at the soldiers national cemetery in gettysburg, pennsylvania, president abraham lincoln delivered one of the most monumental and enduring speeches in american history. in his gettysburg address, delivered at a ceremony not unlike this one, to an audience much like you, lincoln eloquently memmalized those who gave their lives so future generations of americans might live in freedom. he also reiterated the principles of our democracy. but lincoln did something more in his 272-word address.

he challenged the audience, the nation, to honor the memory of the fallen by recommitting themselves to the virtues for which they fought and died. after humbling miscalculating the lasting nature of his words lincoln urged and i, quote, for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause which they gave, the last full measure of devotion. how powerful. how poetic and how proper. we stand here today in this cemetery, arlington, created during the war of which lincoln spoke. now it's home to our nation's fallen, from all of its wars. we stand here, thankful stewards of the blessings that these fallen have passed to us. but we do not stand alone. today across our great nation, in crowded cities or in country

towns, grateful citizens will bow their heads in honor of our fallen heros. that's devotion. whether gathered at a picnic or in a parade, a baseball game or a solemn cemetery like this one, americans will remember. they will remember that the peace and the liberty we enjoy each and every day were made possible by the devotion and sacrifice of a long line of brave men and women in uniform. and that line, my friends, has continued to grow. today america's uniformed sons and daughters are on patrol in afghanistan and on many other places on the frontiers of freedom throughout the world. our young men and women are serving as honorably and as bravely today as their forefathers did. when the nation called them to duty, they came. i'm inspired each and every day by their sense of purpose, their personal courage, their character, and their competence. they are the best led, the best trained, and the best equipped force on the face of the earth

and as a nation, we must ensure that they remain so. so today, i join everyone here and across this great land in honoring those who have willingly sacrificed while donning the cloth of our nation. so, too, we honor their loved ones who nobly carry on. today i ask all of us to reflect on this great nation founded on service and sacrifice. let us renew and rededicate ourselves to the best of america, its freedom, its responsibility, and its promise. and may peace be our ultimate cause. may god bless our fallen, our missing, our veterans and their families. we may we be forever grateful and may god bless america. thank you. [ applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, listen now as techenicle sergeant daniel anderson of the united states air force performance "america the beautiful."

♪ ♪ oh beautiful for spacious skies ♪ ♪ for amber waves of grain ♪ ♪ for purple mountains' majesty above the fruited plain ♪ ♪ america america ♪ ♪ god shed his grace

on thee ♪ ♪ and crown thy good with brotherhood ♪ ♪ from sea to shining sea ♪ ♪ o beautiful for pilgrim feet ♪ ♪ that sees beyond

♪ america ♪ god shed his grace on thee ♪ and crown thy good with brotherhood ♪ ♪ from sea to shining sea ♪ ♪ and crown thy good with brotherhood ♪ from sea to shining sea ♪ [ applause ]

[ applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, secretary hagel. [ applause ] >> mr. president, mrs. obama, secretary shinseki, general dempsey, federal veterans, service members, and distinguished guests, we are greatly honored to be here with all of you today as we observe memorial day. together we gather to remember america's sons and daughters who did everything to defend our nation. for generations americans have set aside this day to honor

those who have fought and died to keep our nation safe. civil war veteran, supreme court justice oliver wendell holmes once said, every year in the full tide of spring at the height of the symphony of flowers and love and life there comes a pause and through the silence we hear the lonely pipe of death. every memorial day america is reminded of these selfless individuals, america's quiet heros. we also think of america's new generation of defenders, protecting the nation's interests at every corner of the globe. preserving our freedoms and our way of life. they work for a more peaceful and hopeful world. as general douglas mcarthur said, the soldier above all other people, prays for peace. for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. the memories of america's heros laid to rest here at arlington and at american socemeteries

around the world are kept alive by communities across this great land. we honor families who are heros left behind. we honor them in appreciation for the sacrifices they have endured. we also honor the perseverance and resilience of our military families today, for they are dealing with all of the challenges of life. america thanks you. all of us in positions of trust and responsibility must always make decisions that are worthy of the sacrifices of those who serve our country. on this sacred day, as we recall the words of president lincoln, when he referred to the mystic bonds and chords of memory, we honor america's fallen patriots by striving to be worthy of their great sacrifices as we all work toward making a better future for all mankind. it is my honor to introduce

someone who has shown unwavering commitment to our service men and women and their families and leads our nation today with great strength and wisdom, ladies and gentlemen, help me welcome, our commander in chief, the president of the united states of america. [ applause ] >> thank you. thank you. please be seated. thank you very much. good morning, everybody. >> good morning. >> i want to thank secretary chuck hagel, not only for the introduction, but chuck, for your lifetime of service. from sergeant in the army to secretary of defense, but always a man who carries with you the memory of friends and fallen heros from vietnam. we're grateful to you. i want to thank general dempsey,

major general linnington, kathryn condon who has served arlington with extraordinary dedication and grace and who will be leaving us, but we are so grateful for the work that she's done, for chaplain brainard, secretary shinseki, all our guests and most of all, the members of our armed services and our veterans, the families and friends of the fallen who we honor today, who americans from all across the country who have come to pay your respects, i have to say it is always a great honor to spend this memorial day with you at this sacred place where we honor our fallen heros, those who we remember fondly in our memories, and those known only to god.

beyond these quiet hills beyond that special bridge is a city of monuments dedicated to visionary leaders and singular moments in the life of our republic. but it is here, on this hallowed ground, where we choose to build a monument to a constant thread in the american character. the proof that our nation endures because it has always been home to men and women who are willing to give their all and lay down their lives, to preserve and protect this land that we love. that character, that selflessness, beats in the hearts of the very first patriots who died for a democracy they had never known and would never see. it lived on in the men and women

who fought to hold our union together and those who fought to defend it abroad, from the beaches of europe, to the mountains and jungles of asia. this year, as we mark the 60th anniversary of the end of fighting in korea, we offer a special salute to all those who served and gave their lives in the korean war. and over the last decade, we've seen the character of our country again, in the nearly 7,000 americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice on battlefields and city streets half a world away. last memorial day i stood here and spoke about how for the first time in nine years, americans were no longer fighting and dying in iraq. today, that transition is under way in afghanistan and our troops are coming home. fewer americans are making the ultimate sacrifice in

afghanistan and that's progress for which we are profoundly grateful. this time next year, we will mark the final memorial day of our war in afghanistan. and so as i said last week, america stands at a crossroads. but even as we turn a page on a decade of conflict, even as we look forward, let us never forget as we gather here today, that our nation is still at war. this should be self-evident. and in generations past, it was. during world war ii, millions of americans contributed to the war effort, soldiers like my own grandfather, women like my grandmother, who worked the assembly lines. during the vietnam war, just about everybody knew somebody, a brother, a son, a friend, who served in harm's way.

today, it's different. perhaps it's a tribute to our remarkable all-volunteer force made up of men and women who step forward to serve and do so with extraordinary skill and valor, perhaps it's a testament to our advanced technologies which allow smaller numbers of troops to weald greater and greater power, but regardless of reason this truth cannot be ignored that today most americans are not directly touched by war. as a consequence, not all americans may always see or fully grasp the depths of sacrifice. the profound costs that are made in our name, right now, as we speak every day. our troops and our military

families understand this and they mentioned to me their concern about whether the country fully appreciates what's happening. i think about a letter i received from a naval officer, a reservist who had just returned from a deployment to afghanistan, and he wrote me, i'm concerned that our work in afghanistan is fading from memory. he went on to ask that we do more to keep this conflict alive and focused in the hearts and minds of our own people. he's right. as we gather here today at this very moment, more than 60,000 of our fellow americans still serve far from home in afghanistan. they're still going out on patrol, still living in spartan forward operating bases, still risking their lives to carry out their mission. and when they give their lives,

they are still being laid to rest in cemeteries in the quiet corners across our country, including here in arlington. captain sarah cullen had a smile that could light up a room and a love of country that led her to west point, and after graduation sarah became a blackhawk pilot and married a former black hawk pilot. she was 27 years old when she and four others were killed in a helicopter crash in a training mission near kandahar. this past april, sarah was laid to rest here in section 60. today sarah is remembered by her mother, lynn, who says she is proud of her daughter's life, proud of her faith and proud of her service to our country. [ applause ]

staff sergeant frankie phillips came from a military family and was as tough as they come. a combat medic, frankie was on patrol in afghanistan three weeks ago when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. he was so humble that his parents never knew how many lives he had saved until soldiers started showing up at his funeral from thousands of miles away. last week, frankie was laid to rest just a few rows over from sarah. staff sergeant eric christian was a born leader, a member of the marine corps special operating command. eric had served five tours of duty but kept going back because he felt responsible for his teammates and was determined to finish the mission. on may 4th eric gave his life after escorting a high-ranking u.s. official to meet with afghan leaders. later, his family got a letter from a marine who had served two

tours with eric. in it the marine wrote, there were people who measured their success based on how many enemies they killed or missions they led to conquer a foe. eric based his success on how many of his friends he brought home, and he brought home many, including me. eric was laid to rest here at arlington just six days ago. [ applause ] so today, we remember their service. today, just steps from where these brave americans lie in eternal peace, we declare as a proud and grateful nation that their sacrifice will never be forgotten. and just as we honor them, we hold their families close

because for the parents who lose a child, for the husbands and wives who lose a partner, for the children who lose a parent, every loss is devastating. and for those of us who bear the solemn responsibility of sending these men and women into harm's way, we know the consequences all too well. i feel that every time i meet a wounded warrior, every time i visit walter reed, and every time i grieve with a gold star family. and that's why on this day, we remember our sacred obligation to those who laid down their lives so we could live ours, finish the job these men and women started by keeping our promise to those who wear america's uniform, to give our troops the resources they need to keep faith with our veterans now and always, never stopped searching for those who have gone missing or held as

prisoners of war, but on a more basic level, every american can do something even simpler. as we go about our daily lives, we must remember that our countrymen are still serving, still fighting, still putting their lives on the line for all of us. last fall i received a letter from candy averet of charlotte, north carolina. both of her sons are marines. her oldest served two tours in iraq. our youngest was in afghanistan at the time. he was in her words, 100% devoted to his deployment and wouldn't have had it any other way. reading candy's letter it was clear she was extraordinarily proud of the life her boys had chosen. but she also had a request on behalf of all the mothers just like her, she said, please don't forget about my child and every

other marine and soldier over there who proudly choose to defend their country. a mother's plea. please don't forget. on this memorial day and every day, let us be true and meet that promise. let it be our task every single one of us to honor the strength and the resolve and the love these brave americans felt for each other and for our country. let us never forget to always remember to be worthy of the sacrifice they make in our name. may god bless the fallen and all those who serve and may god continue to bless the united states of america. [ applause ]

ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing for the playing of "taps" and the benediction. [ playing "taps" ]

>> let us now join together one last time in prayer on these hallowed grounds for our service. let us pray. all mighty god, continue to endow our president and all our leaders with energy and insight, and send us all on our way with strength for the journey that lay ahead. let each and every day remind us to pray for the safety of our brothers and sisters in arms who stand at the tip of the sphere for our nation this day, for our freedom. continue to bless this nation,

our friends and the flag we serve. now may the spirit of god be near you to defend you, within you to refresh you, before you to guide you, behind you to justify you, and above you to bless you forever more. go in peace, brothers and sisters, amen. >> ladies and gentlemen, please remain in place until the president has departed and the colors are retired. >> on this day of remembrance at arlington national cemetery, a place directly across the potomac from the lincoln memorial, where more than 300,000 of those who have served this nation are laid to rest, an additional 28 burials each

weekday at arlington's 6900 a year, as we saw an aerial shot, what you would see, besides those iconic crosses, 220,000 flags that are planted there on memorial day by the u.s. army infantry regiment, also known as the old guard. i am joined once again by jack jacobs, colonel, who served in the war in vietnam, jason hanson, iraq war veteran. when you go to arlington, colonel, what do you think? what goes through your mind? >> a couple things. i first go to -- go to this gravesite to people i've known and who i knew 45 years ago, who have fought in combat, were buried at arlington. i go to the wall, vietnam wall, across the potomac in washington, d.c. -- it took me a long, long long time -- as a matter of fact, it had been erected for years -- and i lived

in washington, before i ever had the fortitude to go over to the wall and i go there once a year, but no more than that, because the names of friends of mine whom i miss. but i think about arlington all the time and i think about it more frequently just on memorial day, because as the president says, i think i'm obligated to it and i can't help myself, from thinking every day of the same thing i think of on memorial day and that as -- those are my friends that didn't come back. >> and those who we will never know, but who -- whose families have been affected, not even necessarily those from the wars in iraq and afghanistan, but the legacy, parents, grandparents, who never knew their grandchildren or their children. and you said before, jason, you, too, have far too many friends you remember going to their

funerals. >> yeah. >> have you spent time at arlington? >> i have. i actually have spent the last three memorial days out in washington, d.c., two of them at arlington and it's incredibly moving place to be, especially on memorial day, and going down to section 60 where a lot of the families that have, you know, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters buried in section 60 are there all day to spend some time with their loved ones that gave that ultimate sacrifice. >> i want to bring in kristen welker, who is at the white house. we heard from the president talking about some of those veterans who did not make it back, who were buried in section 60 just in the last few weeks, and telling very poignantly their stories on this day, a day that so far, kristen, he has dedicated to members of the military. >> that's right, chris. this day has been dedicated exclusively to members of the military. the president, the first lady,

started by hosting a breakfast here at the white house for family members who have lost loved ones to combat and then as you point out, he paid tribute to them in his remarks which just wrapped up. there was also a call to wrapp. there also was a call to action. he quoted a mother, her words, please don't forget about my child. a call to action to take care of those who do return from war, who have returned from war. high unemployment rate, high suicide rates. the department of veteran affairs has quite a large back-up of claims. 6,000 claims more for 125 days. that's something that veterans would like the president to tackle and to tackle quickly. it's also worth noting, chris, that the president pointed out that he has just announced a shift in his counterterrorism and foreign policy much what he refers to as a crossroads, has effectively declared the war on terror is over. that of course has been a

controversial statement. we heard over the weekend a number of republicans saying that they don't believe that's the right way to approach this. but the president announcing that there should be more limits to his drone program. calling for the closure of guantanamo bay. so this memorial day comes amidst that backdrop and serious challenges facing the military and veterans moving forward. chris? >> kristen welker at the white house for us. and one more thing that the president said and echoing what we were noelting on said and what jason had said a short time before. that the words spoken by the president, that today most americans are not directly touched by the war. that they cannot grasp the depth of the sacrifice. as we watch this day of remembrance at arlington, a chance for all of us to have a time of understanding about the great sacrifices that have been made. colonel jack jacobs, thank you as always, jason hansen and kristen welker at the white house, stay with us, we'll have more on this memorial day

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please don't forget, this memorial day and every day, let us be true and meet that promise. let it be our task every single one of us to honor the strength and the resolve and the love these brave americans felt for each other and for our country. >> president obama, just moments ago at arlington national cemetery. secretary of defense hagel and the first lady joined in the tribute to the men and women who have given their lives for our country. kristen welker joins us again from the white house. we've already spoken in this last hour or so, kristen, about the president obviously today with the breakfast this morning. and then the day of remembrance at arlington yesterday. he was remembering those who lost their lives in assuring those who have survived in oklahoma.

the terrible tornado. tomorrow he ventures to the jersey shore. what is on his agenda? >> right, well he will be greeted by governor chris christie and he's going to tour the recovery efforts there. a symbol of hope really to the people in oklahoma who are still in the process of rebuild hog are still grieving. the jersey shore of course has made incredible strides. it is not 100% back to normal. but certainly governor chris christie will be there to show the president that so much has been restored along the jersey shore. and i think you will hear both of the leaders talk about what can be accomplished when federal, state and local officials work together. the president has really taken on this role of comforter in chief in recent days because of the tragedy in oklahoma. so this will be a chance for him to take on the role of really working with governor christie, a show of bipartisanship and certainly what the two have accomplished. >> kristen welker at the white

house for us, thank you so much for being with us all throughout this morning. that's going to do it for me. i'm advice jansing. from all of us here at msnbc, thank you so much for joining us on this memorial day. we'll have news updates throughout the day here on msnbc. music ... music... i tthan probablycare moreanyone else.and we've had this farm for 30 years. we raise black and red angus cattle. we also produce natural gas. that's how we make our living and that's how we can pass the land and water back to future generations.

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