president obama, secretary of state kerry, and the rest of the american team i assume are giving this one all they've got. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. have a safe and happy fourth of july. coming up next, "msnbc live." happy birthday, america. it's the fourth of july, 7:00 a.m. on the east coast, 4:00 a.m. out west. i'm alex witt. thanks for joining us. a very busy morning already. egyptians welcoming their interim leader after the military ousted president mohamed morsi. is this the next phase of the arab spring? a major delay in implementing the president's health care law and a push for immigration reform faces an uncertain future in the house. what happens now? and before tonight's fireworks another fourth of july tradition the nathan's hot dog eating contest. live this hour, one of this year's mustard belt contenders. but first, repeating the revolution for the second time in just over two years, egyptians have ousted their

leader and once again the country finds itself at a political crossroads. this time, it was islamist president mohamed morsi elected to office a year ago pushed to the brink by massive anti-government protests before being removed by the egyptian military wednesday. egypt's former chief justice was sworn in as an interim president this morning. millions of egyptians responded to this change by throwing an all-night, nationwide celebration. but there was also bloodshed. clashes broke out between morsi supporters and opponents, raising the specter of more violence down the road. nbc's ayman mohyeldin is live in cairo as he has been much throughout this revolution. with a good day to you, what happens now? >> well, right now the task of forming a government begins and that really falls chiefly on the shoulders of the new interim president, adly mansour, as you mentioned, former chief justice of egypt's supreme justice constitutional court, tasked with appointing a prime minister and cabinet to run the

day-to-day affairs of the country and that is going to be the most pressing thing he has to face, in addition to trying to restore law and order and more importantly, trying to make sure that the tensions that have been building up over the past few days do not spill over into the kind of violence that we saw last night. those are going to be some of the immediate challenges. without a doubt, the mid to long-term challenges are going to be to try to rebuild egypt's democracy or fragile democracy, get up a new constitution, prepare the country for a new round of parliamentary elections, new presidential elections. no given time frame on those, but you can imagine those are going to be the things he will have to start consulting with various members of the opposition, political parties, including the muslim brotherhood that had their president ousted last night. >> yep. amman, we were watching you throughout the day yesterday, which extended certainly well into the night there in cairo. i know in terms of violence there was a lot of violence, well over a dozen deaths in cairo university. how about there in tahrir square, was there anything that violent that went on? >> no.

tahrir square was relatively peaceful in the sense there were no kind of large-scale confrontations between the supporters of president morsi and opponents of president morsi. that's been the deadliest type of violence we've seen at places like you mentioned cairo university and elsewhere. there's no doubt when you have hundreds of thousands of people in the square, it's an incident of -- it's a place of tremendous chaos so there's definitely cases of sexual harassment as we've seen over the past several days, crime, but nothing on the scale that led to the type of confrontations that led to the killing of people. >> okay. nbc's ayman mohyeldin on duty after a short break to catch a few hours sleep. joel ruben, director of policy and government affairs, an expert on foreign policy and national security and joins me now. with a thank you and happy fourth to you. >> happy fourth, alex. >> what has happened in this last year? he was a democratically elected president, mohamed morsi. what happened then to now? >> what happened from then to

now is that we've seen egyptian society really respond negatively to the leadership of mohamed morsi. this is an internal egyptian matter, but it does have major external ramifications and for the united states, folks in the administration certainly must be breathing easier this morning, but the keyword is caution. as amman pointed out, caution in cairo as well. what comes next, how does this transition, these are questions they thought they dealt with a year, year and a half ago, but clearly they have not and they need to in a sense hit the re-start button. >> you can say that united states is breathing a little more easily, simply because they do have an interim president now who's been sworn in, but that said, if in the spaeight of a year the egyptian people can overthrow what was a democratically elected president, what will keep it from happening again, joel? by the way, way tonight let everyone know people are gathering once again there in tahrir square. it's about 1:00 in the afternoon shortly thereafter, so people

are coming out to express their support. again, the question, joel, what will prevent this from happening again? >> that's right. and one doesn't want to see a situation where the army is called in periodically every six months, every year, to intervene in failing democratic processes. they need to get a sustainable path forward. what could prevent it from happening again in the future, is if at the front end, this time, as opposed to a couple years ago, there's an inclusive political process design that has all the key players and it would have to include the muslim brotherhood as well. it has to be inclusive. it has to ensure that all voices are sure and that process is bought into by the full spectrum of egyptian society. that seemed to be where they were heading a year, year and a half ago. that isn't how mohamed morsi ran the country. also, there are historic tensions between the military and the brotherhood that have played out as well, but clearly they're going to have to design

this process differently at the front end. >> okay. the egyptian military was in control for about 16 months in that period between hosni mubarak's ouster and mohamed morsi being elected last year in june. what did we learn about how the military handles this kind of power? because while we have somebody in power now, you've got to believe that the military is helping at least secure this fragile government? >> the military does not do well when it's out in front running the politics of egyptian society. it didn't do a very effective job by any means when it ran the country for that 16-month period. it didn't like being in the limelight. and its reputation, which had been at a very high point after the revolution in 2011, its reputation sunk to bottom levels. it's back in terms of reputation. the military is a proud institution. it wants to keep that reputation. it's going to need to get out of the way and provide the kind of

support of security support and service to the people of egypt, rather than politically leadership. that's where they're most comfortable and that's when they keep their reputation intact as well. >> joel ruben, thank you so much for your time. i appreciate it. >> thank you. to the white house now be, where president obama convened his national security team in the situation room to address morsi's ouster and egypt's uncertain future. joining me now, nbc white house correspondent peter alexander, and with a good morning to you, peter, two years ago we had the president calling for hosni mubarak to at least step down. this situation, how is the white house addressing the situation with morsi? >> it's a good question, alex, and over the course of the last 24 hours and certainly the several days that even preceded that, we saw the white house, this administration, proceeding very cautiously, very gingerly as they moved forward. then late yesterday, after the events became official, it was clear that mohamed morsi had been pushed out of power, we received this statement from the white house, from the president

specifically. i want to put it up on the screen and let you read with me. here's some of the most important part, the nuggets in there that i think will strike you. the president wrote, the future of egypt can only be determined by the egyptian people. nevertheless we are deeply concerned by the decision of the egyptian armed forces to remove president morsi and suspend the egyptian constitution. i now call on the egyptian military to move quickly and responsibly to return full authority back to a democratically elected civilian government as soon as possible through an inclusive and transparent process. there was another note that we saw in the statement from the president that i think is important. the president also directed the relevant agencies and departments in this country to look into the implications, alex, of aid that the u.s. gives to egypt. $1.6 billion in total. to see how that would be impacted by what's happened overseas. >> if it is deemed to be a military coup. >> as it is the fourth of july, does the first family have plans? >> they do have plans. i just walked past the

eisenhower executive office building nearby, properly draped with flags in anticipation of today's festivities around the capital. the first lady will join the president and their children today as they welcome military heros here to the white house. they have a barbecue, a concert, the whole shebang going on, on the south lawn. starts at about 6:00 tonight. we expect to hear some remarks from the president as well. alex, the view on the south lawn is a good one. they stare right down at the entire mall and they will have a spectacular shot for those folks who join them as the fireworks go off this evening. >> i think it's worth even you extending your time at the white house, you need to stick around for that. thank you. we're just getting started on this fourth of july morning. coming up, the obama administration gives employers more time to implement the obama health care mandates and republican leaders call for individuals to get the same treatment while they call for full repel yet again. you're watching msnbc on america's birthday. stay tuned. more secure.

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republican leaders in the house are renewing their call to repeal obama care after the administration announced a one-year delay in the haels care play, the employer mandate. house leaders say, quote, the president owes the american people an answer. why does he think businesses deserve a one year delay but middle-class families and hard working americans don't. it's time to put people first, repeal this law and start over with patient-centered reforms that protect families, improve our health care system and restore personal freedom. let's bring in our reporters.

sun, with a good morning to both of you, let's get to all of this. sun, first to you, with the house judiciary committee chair bob goodlatte he piled on, let's take a listen to this. >> i think it's good that they're delaying the train wreck, but i think this bill needs to be repelled and if the employer mandate is being delayed, the individual mandate which i felt before and still feel, notwithstanding the supreme court decision is unconstitutional, it also should be delayed. >> how big of a setback is this for the obama administration, which has been fending off republican charges that health care law just is not ready for prime time, not ready to be implemented? >> substancely the mandate is not the biggest part of president obama's health care law. most big businesses offer health care coverage to their employers. politically this is a setback for them. it does give evidence this law, this chief accomplishment of his first term, is not ready to go.

it gives ammunition to republicans on capitol hill who hate this law to keep attacking it, keep calling for its repear, go for investigations into it and it's not good for the obama administration. >> so wanda, do you see a potential impact here on the 2014 mid terms? one side you see which benefits from the obama care delays, republicans or democrats? >> there's no chance this is not a huge issue in 2014. you have republicans on the house energy and commerce committee saying the obama administration has delayed this employer mandate until 2015 after the midterm elections to give democrats cover from not having to defend his health care law on the stump. look for republicans and competitive districts to bring this up. it's going to be a huge issue and huge boon for republicans to use this to say obama care isn't defensible, it's not working and i bet you will see more votes in the house to repeal the law. >> let's take a switch and talk

about immigration. the immigration overhaul passed in the senate but as we know that does not necessarily mean success in the house. it is considering its own approach. where do you see this being headed? >> that's right. the house republican leaders and their rank and file have made it repeatedly clear the senate bill, which got a pretty good vote in the senate last month, is not going anywhere in the house. all eyes are on this meeting on july 10th, the wednesday that congress returns back from its current recess, where the house republicans will meet to chart out a way forward on immigration reform. right now, they're taking a lot of different approaches, but they haven't really struck on one way forward yet. there's a lot of pieces that are going through the house judiciary committee that democrats don't support. there is a bill coming -- forthcoming from a bipartisan group that may have a better shot but it depends on what house republicans think. it's all eyes on that july 10th meeting. >> yeah. wanda, in terms of house republicans being won out a

report from the house budget office, could cut the rate of illegal immigration by half, how do republicans react to that, do you think? >> what's interesting when you look at house republicans how they're likely to be swayed here, you look at the demographics of many of their districts you can see how they don't have a lot of impetus to buy into the immigration reform bills coming through. two-thirds of house republicans don't support -- have districts that don't have more than one tenth latino membership. i think it's going to be a hard sell in the house. house leadership does not seem to have the impetus to put forth the legislation we saw until senate and gop leaders looking back to that autopsy in november say that if the party does not do something drastic they are doing so at their own peril when it comes to latino voters looking toward the mid terms and the presidential election in 2016. >> ladies, thank you so much for joining me on the fourth of july. i appreciate it. >> thank you. after the break with court in recess where things stand in the george zimmerman trial. first, a special salute from the people who make us all proud with their service and

sacrifice. our soldiers overseas. >> hello. i am lieutenant colonel hintton and my wife,nd we want to wish all our family back in culpepper, virginia, a happy fourth of july. >> happy fourth of july. e does', cheryl burke is cha-cha-ing in depend silhouette briefs for charity, to prove that with soft fabric and waistband, the best protection looks, fits, and feels just like underwear. get a free sample and try for yourself. "that starts with one of the world's most advancedy," distribution systems," "and one of the most efficient trucking networks," "with safe, experienced drivers." "we work directly with manufacturers," "eliminating costly markups," "and buy directly from local farmers in every region of the country." "when you see our low prices, remember the wheels turning behind the scenes, delivering for millions of americans, everyday. "dedication: that's the real walmart"

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when warfarin is well managed. no routine blood monitoring means bob can spend his extra time however he likes. new zealand! xarelto® is just one pill a day, taken with the evening meal. and with no dietary restrictions, bob can eat the healthy foods he likes. do not stop taking xarelto® rivaroxaban without talking to the doctor who prescribes it for you. stopping may increase your risk of having a stroke. get medical help right away if you develop any signs or symptoms of bleeding, like unusual bruising or tingling. you may have a higher risk of bleeding if you take xarelto® with aspirin products, nsaids or blood thinners. talk to your doctor before taking xarelto® if you currently have abnormal bleeding. xarelto® can cause bleeding, which can be serious, and rarely may lead to death. you are likely to bruise more easily on xarelto®, and it may take longer for bleeding to stop. tell your doctors you are taking xarelto® before any planned medical or dental procedures. culpepper, virginia, a happy o®, tell your doctor about any conditions, such as kidney, liver

or bleeding problems. ready to change your routine? ask your doctor about once-a-day xarelto®. for more information including cost support options, call 1-888-xarelto or visit goxarelto.com. culpepper, virginia, a happy nelson mandela's family confirms the former president is in per lus condition and has been breathing with the help of machines. on wednesday south africa's last apartheid era leader and the man that freed mandela from prison said the 94-year-old's legacy will be remembered long after he is gone. >> mr. mandela's passing away will result in the revival of a focus on his legacy, on the values which he and i and others wrote into the constitution on his philosophy of the necessity for reconciliation and i think

his legacy will become much more alive again and it can only be good for south africa. >> very poignant words from former south african president f.w. de clerk. so, ron, bring us up to date. it's been a long month. lots of people standing vigil since nelson mandela was admitted to hospital on june 8th. >> indeed, alex, and that vigil continues and you can perhaps behind me see some of the people that have gathered. a group singing songs and hymns, offering support for nelson mandela and his family. today we understand that president of the country jacob zuma has arrived at the hospital. he hasn't been here for about a week. when he arrives he usually makes a statement at some point afterwards which perhaps will give us more official information about the condition of mr. mandela. at this point he is still listed as critical but stable. it's been that way about a week

or so. we heard from mr. mandela's wife, graca, she's here at the hospital by his bedside constantly but attended an event in johannesburg today, attended by a group of government ministers and others in the sporting community here, and she said and i'll read part of the quote, she said, i want to take this opportunity to thank you for the outpouring and humbling demonstration of love, the care, and the support of hope that she said. we have taken it into our hearts every single day. it is important to find the occasion to tell every person that humbled himself to pray for us, that god is listening, but we are also taking note. so again, very unusual to hear from her. i don't think she's made many public comments about mr. mandela during this month-long problem, issue. she also said that he is uncomfortable, he is sometimes in pain, but he is fine. that seems to be the bottom line right now at this hour. alex? >> okay. ron allen with that update live from pretoria, thank you. let's turn now to the george zimmerman trial in sanford, florida, where the state may be close to wrapping up its case.

court is in recess today for the fourth of july holiday. on wednesday, jurors heard testimony from zimmerman's former college professors about classes that he took on florida's self-defense and the stand your ground laws as well as evidence about his application to the prince william county, virginia, police department. joining me now, former new york assistant d.a., with a welcome and happy fourth to you. >> happy fourth, alex. >> the state, how is the case going so far? do you think they've done a good job of proving it? >> i do not think they've done a good job of proving it and i hate to monday morning quarterback the prosecution, but people are scared that zimmerman is not going to be convicted and here is one of the biggest glaring mishaps in the prosecution's case. they put in zimmerman's prior statements. the video statements, the statements to media. they did not have to do that. i think the general public does not understand that when a defendant makes a statement, that's self-serving, makes you

look good and that's exculpatory, makes you look not guilty, the prosecution usually does not put that into evidence. so what does this do in practicality? it forces the defendant's hand. the d.a.'s could have forced zimmerman to testify and then he would have been subject to vigorous cross-examination. >> right. >> and then -- >> this may be it. >> right. and so the issue is, if he testified, then he said things that are inconsistent to those prior interviews, those prior statements, he could have been confronted with them and then impeached. so i have no idea, this is what's so perplexing, why did they put those statements in, that all make him look good? >> and do you think that he gets put on the stand by the defense? i mean do you -- >> i don't think they will, because to get the self-defense charge, okay, it's a written charge, the jury charge, to get that to the jury, all you need is evidence, sufficient evidence in the record, as the foundation. it's like the bricks that build the house. they have that. they have everything as the

foundation laid to submit the self-defense. >> yeah. what's interesting is we did hear from george zimmerman's former professors yesterday, which seemed to contradict what he had said in public statements. >> huge. >> let's just pay play a little bit of that and see that back and forth. . >> prior to this night, this incident, had you even heard stand your ground? >> no, sir. >> never heard about it before? >> no. >> did you discuss specifically self-defense and stand your ground laws in the connection of violent crimes such as murder? >> yes. it's not one of those things that you're just going to whisk through in a day or after you teach it, you're going to neglect from bringing it back into the classroom. so it was something that i constantly iterated. >> so, how damming is that testimony? >> extreme -- >> he did so well in these classes. >> it's an out and out lie,

alex. number one, most of us in this country have heard of self-defense. if you have no experience with law enforcement or criminal justice. now you're talking about someone who has been educated in that field, he's been trained in that field, and then he just blatantly lies that he does not know what stand your ground is. this is a huge inconsistency. sometimes we make mistakes in life, right? we said, i wore blue instead of i wore red today. but this is a lie. and the jury is going to be so visceral in their reaction towards him. >> all right. well, we're going to have more to watch tomorrow. starts about a half earlier than usual tomorrow. thanks so much. up next on this independence day, egypt's military ousts the country's first freely elected president and a new leader is already in power. we're live for you in cairo after the break. ♪ you and me ain't that america something to see ♪

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we are following developing news out of egypt. the country's once again in unchartered political waters after the military pushed president mohamed morsi out of power on wednesday. egypt's chief justice was sworn in as their interim leader this morning. joining me by phone jamie rubin former assistant secretary of state for public affairs under president clinton, with a good morning and happy fourth to you, let's get to what -- >> thank you. >> what president obama said. he said that goal for egypt must be an honest, capable and presentative government. so the last 24 hours did it move egypt closer to that in your opinion? >> well, i'm sorry to say that i think it did. i think that for a variety of reasons president morsi, the

muslim brotherhood president who was elected, was not succeeding in becoming a legitimate and representative of his leader. he had lost the legitimacy of a huge, if not overwhelming majority of the people of egypt, with people coming out in the streets in unheard of numbers and many of whom voted for him, many of whom really in the past have not wanted to see the military get involved, but decided that the military was a lesser of two evils. and so i think we are in a revolutionary phase in egypt. they've never had a democratic system and the first round of elections didn't really work as it should in terms of giving a wide variety of choices because the muslim brotherhood was the only party really able to organize over the years. it's an unfortunate thing.

i think cue day ta is a word thrown around. i would say it's a military-supported takeover but it's one that has a large degree of legitimacy. >> jamie, by your description, would this then be something that would be expected? it's a spectacular fall from grace in one short year, albeit mohamed morsi being elected a year ago by just over a 50% majority, you talk about these are growing pains, i mean this is the first free democratic election, so was this to be expected or did something happen in the last 12 months, do you think, that would say that's what predicated all this? >> well, i don't think one can have expectations about a country as large and as old a society as egypt is to enter its first democratic phase. it's all new territory.

it's all fresh ground. i think what happened, and most people i think did not predict this, is that having won the election very narrowly, president morsi really found himself unable, unwilling, to be the president of all egyptians. he really was a leader just of the muslim brotherhood faction who had waited so long to come out of the shadows, come out of prison, get their chance to run the place, and he forget that in a democracy if you expect to succeed, you're going to have to represent all the people. he represented a narrow faction. he rammed through constitutional changes that were designed to appeal only to his faction, the muslim brotherhood. he, frankly, promised that he and his party would never run for president, and then he did. obviously he had no success in reviving egypt's economy or its

sense of well being. so he lost the goodwill that a huge junk of the egyptian population had given him by his own actions. >> all right. jamie rubin, thank you very much for that sage assessment of things. i appreciate that. enjoy your fourth. as we move from there to richard engel, nbc's chief correspondent there following all this from cairo. with a good morning our time to you, you heard jamie rubin talking there. talk about the implications now for the muslim brotherhood and for fundamentalism, islamic fundamentalism in general now? >> i think the implications for the muslim brotherhood are very bad, not just here in egypt but across the region. the muslim brotherhood isn't the only group involved in political islam. it's the most organized. it's a fully international organization, and it has roots in many of the countries that are let's call them the new arab

spring democracies. they could take a big hit. if you look at the reactions that have come out to what happened here in egypt, the countries that supported the muslim brotherhood, that are of a similar islamist line are calling it a military coup. the ones that didn't like the military -- the ones that didn't like the muslim brotherhood are welcoming it. tunisia, for example, which had a -- which was the first group, the first country that started this whole movement after all, has a muslim brotherhood sympathetic government in power and now there is a movement under way to try to emulate what happened here. hamas, in gaza, hamas is an offshoot of the muslim brotherhood. they hate what has happened here. they think it is a totally illegitimate coup. turkey, which has not quite a ert muslim brotherhood but muslim brotherhood friendly prime minister, does not like what happened here, calling it an illegitimate coup. the gulf states, saudi arabia, an islamist government, but not one that is friendly to the

muslim brotherhood has quietly been celebrating. this is a blow to the muslim brotherhood, a blow to countries that are sympathetic to the organization are nervous about. >> yeah. but with all these different interpretations of what has happened there, richard, you've got to be concerned overall about stability in the region and looking at egypt being the largest country in the region, the greatest population in terms of number, and then you have them being an ally of both the united states and israel, talk about the concerns there and if this goes to further unrest, what could happen? >> well, if you look at the region in general and talk about stability in the region, i think you have to accept as a baseline, there is no stability in the middle east right now. the whole region is in a period of flux. it has been for the last two and a half years, since events in tunisia and in egypt. in the immediate term, let's talk about over the next days,

weeks, months, there are concerns you could see a spiral of violence in this country as some of the extremist groups offshoot members of the muslim brotherhood decide to carry out vendetta attacks against churches, against foreign tourists, against the media, against egyptian television stations. that could happen. we haven't seen much of it so far, but that could be just because the muslim brotherhood took such a shock yesterday that they are now sitting back and assessing the situation. i suspect that there is going to be some violence here. hopefully it won't be wide scale, but there will be a violent response in this country, not clear exactly when or how big it's going to be. >> okay. nbc's richard engel, many thanks for that live report from cairo. back here in the states americans are waking up to celebrate this nation's birthday. with thousands of fireworks displays getting ready across the country today, how is the weather looking? dylan is here with the forecast. good morning, dylan. >> good morning, alex. you know it's one of those

holidays the weather is so important. everyone wants to be outside for the barbecues, for the pool parties, the fireworks displays and the good news is most of the country will be able to do all of that. it's really in the southeast where we have our heaviest rain and it's not really going to let up today. across the florida pan handle into atlanta and also eastern kentucky and tennessee, where that heaviest rain is falling. it's streaming in off the gulf of mexico, so once you get these heavier downpours they really dump a lot of rain because there is a lot of moisture to work with. it looks like areas across especially the panhandle of florida up near atlanta into western north and south carolina, even into kentucky and tennessee, we could end up with 3 to 5 inches of rain during the course of the next 48 hours. but in the northeast, we are looking actually for really nice day. temperatures should top out in the lower 90s. it's that humidity, actually, that is going to affect the fireworks in a way, there's no wind to blow away the smoke when the first fireworks go off so it

makes it harder to see all the following fireworks, if that makes sense. i've seen it happen. that will probably be the only problem in the northeast. >> okay. except the stickiness, not a fan of that, but hey, it's july, what are you going to do? thank you, dylan. coming up the jersey shore is stronger than the storm. we've heard it many times. how communities there are fighting back and moving forward just eight months after superstorm sandy. plus, it's a rite of passage on the fourth. the nathan's famous hot dog eating contest on coney island. the doggy bag is here. hoping to bring home the coveted mustard belt. don't forget the relish. bob, a regular guy with an irregular heartbeat. the usual, bob? not today. [ male announcer ] bob has afib: atrial fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, a condition that puts him at greater risk for a stroke. [ gps ] turn left. i don't think so. [ male announcer ] for years, bob took warfarin, and made a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but not anymore.

bob's doctor recommended a different option: once-a-day xarelto®. xarelto® is the first and only once-a-day prescription blood thinner for patients with afib not caused by a heart valve problem, that doesn't require routine blood monitoring. like warfarin, xarelto® is proven effective to reduce the risk of an afib-related stroke. there is limited data on how these drugs compare when warfarin is well managed. no routine blood monitoring means bob can spend his extra time however he likes. new zealand! xarelto® is just one pill a day, taken with the evening meal. and with no dietary restrictions, bob can eat the healthy foods he likes. do not stop taking xarelto® rivaroxaban without talking to the doctor who prescribes it for you. stopping may increase your risk of having a stroke. get medical help right away if you develop any signs or symptoms of bleeding, like unusual bruising or tingling. you may have a higher risk of bleeding if you take xarelto® with aspirin products, nsaids or blood thinners. talk to your doctor before taking xarelto®

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when you experience something great, you want to share it. with everyone. that's why more customers recommend verizon, america's largest 4g lte network. beautiful, right? more than eight months after superstorm sandy closed her doors to the tired, poor, huddle masses yearning to breathe free, lady liberty reopens today. sandy caused nearly $59 million in damage to the statue's 12-acre home. crews from the national park

service have worked tirelessly since then to restore the property and new york mayor michael bloomberg will be speaking at the official reopening ceremony later on this morning. welcome back. lady liberty wasn't the only tourist destination ravaged by sandy. the jersey shore saw the rest of it. thousands will flock to what was the eye of the storm for their first post-sandy weekend down the shore. joining me now by phone the mayor of cape may, new jersey, edward ma haney and hello to you, sir, and we're so glad to welcome you here because it's pretty good news. before we get to the day right now, i know that sandy cost the state of new jersey $37 billion in damage, so talk about the recovery. are you where you want to be, or do you have a ways to go nyet? >> good morning, alex, and happy independence day. cape may city is where we want to be at this particular point. our staff and our citizens have worked very well in a united fashion to bring us back to where we're fully functional for

the 2013 summer season. what we're using is this storm as an opportunity to continue our sustainability plan to ensure the preventative measures need to be in place for any future storms. we start on that about three years ago and this storm has really convinced any skeptics that we need to move ahead. >> and when you think about cape may, i mean, people may not know, it is older, in fact, than this country whose birthday we're celebrating today. it was established in 1692. are there records of this kind of damage at cape may prior to sandy or was sandy the worst? >> no. the worst damage was done in the storm of 1944 and also the storm of 1962. had sandy come in as projected by the weather forecasters and given cape may a direct hit, we would have probably unfortunately duplicated those two storms.

>> well, thankfully you didn't do that, because this was bad enough. how many people are you expecting this holiday weekend for the fourth of july? >> our year-round population of 3800, alex, skyrockets to 45,000 during holidays such as this. >> okay. well, we wish you the best of luck through this holiday weekend. we know it's all going to be good for cape may and the mayor of cape may, new jersey, edward mahaney, thank you so much. >> thank you. enjoy your holiday. >> you too. >> this next thing takes years of training, tremendous stan stam my na, dogged determination to reach the highest levels in this sport. not talking about a marathon, not an iron man, the annual nathan's famous hot dog eating competition where contestants can potentially eat more than 60 hot dogs and buns all in less than ten minutes. joining me now is one who is competing in this year's contest in just hours. how many calories will you consume today? >> somewhere between 9,000 to

10,000 calories. >> wow. >> okay. let's talk about where you are in thing rankings here, ranked like 19th. >> that's right. >> in the major league competition like this. >> yeah. >> so do you expect that you can surpass your competitors and if you do, what's it going to take to do that? >> so, my strategy this year is to just build upon my success from last year and just kind of increase the number. just like in running or in triathlons you need to kind of incrementally build on like your performance. so my number this year is to just kind of break the 30 hot dog and bun mark. and i'll be okay with that. >> okay. and you mentioned marathons and iron man and you know that because you compete in these categories which begs the is question, how do you do that with such discipline and, you know, training your body to handle that and then training your body to handle the sodium? >> that's right. believe it or not there's a lot of similarities between the two. they're both very rigorous in terms of what it does to your body and the recovery after it, but you know, there are a lot of benefits to both.

i'm going to have a lot of fun today. i'm going to enjoy, you know, just being up there with all the best eaters in the world. similarly, when i'm finished with a triathlon, i just feel accomplished that i did something really great. >> yeah. and so -- but real quick, you talk about a marathon and you're always wiped after something like that. >> yeah. >> describe how you're wiped out after eating these hot dogs? >> right. i mean, let's be honest, there are a lot of calories here, so, you know, between 9,000 and 10,000 calories i am taking in so i feel obviously really full, but there's a lot of sodium in here as well so i have to make sure that i kind of take care of that. i drink a lot of water to kind of like counteract that. for the next few days or so, i'm trying to make sure that i work out all those extra calories with extra runs and swims and biking. the sodium just kind of goes away after like two, three days. i'm a little bloated, but that kind of takes care of itself. >> we know that joey chestnut is a guy that's done well with getting the mustard belt. is he the favorite today? is he the one you have to go

after? >> yeah. he definitely is the favorite. he's head and shoulders above all of us but we're all trying to get there. i believe he's -- i believe he can -- he might be able to hit the 70 mark today. >> 70 mark. oh, my goodness. as you look at all this, are you eager to get down to this contest looking at these, going yes, or thinking ew? >> i'm looking at it just like, you know, it's just another thing that is on my schedule for today. >> just another thing on the schedule. okay. . we wish you the very best of luck in this thing and i would say i would take a bite but i'm a vegetarian. that's not going to work for me. you're welcome to practice up if you want to. good luck. thanks. from hot dogs to po boys, we're live in new orleans for the essence festival. beyonce is going and we have a preview for you when you get back with us. ♪ humans. even when we cross our t's and dot our i's,

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well, nothrone throws a par

like new orleans and this week, no party like the annual essence festival. three days of giving, culture and the first time, msnbc will be there for all of it. joining me from new orleans is nbc's mara half is vo campo. a happy fourth to you, my friend. i know it has to be the place to be when the party gets started, but what's up? what's on tap? >> reporter: happy fourth to you. tens of thousands of people will be coming to town, they like to call it a party with a purpose. they offer a number of panels on everything from really serious issues in the community like gun violence, health, jobs to things a little bit lighter. for example, alex, a panel called channeling your inner naughty girl.

i might stop in on that one, but just for research purposes only. then by night, the party starts. that's when you have performances from a number of musical acts. this year, it includes performances from people like ll cool j, jill scott, maxwell, new edition and men. ed queen of them all, best friend in my head, carter and beyonce knowles. essence has been doing this for 20 years. started out as a celebration of their 25th anniversary. they are expecting about 90,000 people to come to town. you know, it's not just black women but it's black men, it's families. for example, this year, they are doing a family reunion day and it brings a lot of much-needed revenue for the city of new orleans. in 2009, it was estimated it brought about $90 million. the reason i say much needed is because this is the traditionally slow period for tourism in louisiana 'cause it's hot, it's humid, it's muggy. that dissuades a lot of people from coming.

fortunately, does not dissuade the essence festival aten dis. extra special treat, msnbc is taking over. right now, at the blueberry pie cafe, reverend al's blueberry pie cafe, you that famous ad he did for msnbca number of anchors will be coming here and doing our shows. you can see we have the set set up behind us here everyone from reverend al, melissa harris-perry, tamron hall, people here anchoring our shows and interacting with our viewers, we will be here, set up, around, saying hello to people. offers a unique experience for them and giving back. yesterday, msnbc partnered with a free and charitable health clinic organization to offer a day-long health event, because louisiana is one of the states not going to accept medicaid expansion. party with a purpose, alex. >> absolutely. what a great party and purpose. i love that health care clinic. hear more on that next time we talk to you. enjoy the empty studio now. you know is going to fill up.

>> exactly. >> mara mentioned it msnbc does have special coverage of the essence festival start tomorrow, run throughout the weekend. make sure you tune with it. stick with us this hour, a whole lot more. after the break, how the obama white house is reacting to egypt's new leader. lady liberty makes her grand entrance in time for today's celebration. you are watching msnbc on this independence day. mine was earned in djibouti, africa. 2004. vietnam in 1972. [ all ] fort benning, georgia in 1999. [ male announcer ] usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaa's commitment to serve military members, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve.

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♪ honey, is he too into this car thing? [ mumbling ] definitely the quattro. ♪ honey? huh? a5. what? [ sighs ] did you say something? ♪ happy birthday, america. it is the fourth of july. 8 a.m. on the east coast, 5 a.m. out west. i'm alex witt. thanks for joining us. power shift in egypt, a new acting head of state is sworn n is this a victory for democrat snail we are live for you in tahrir square. ready to wrap up the evidence in the george zimmerman trial, soerngt his school studies as zimmerman's defense

team gets ready for their turn. welcome bang. the statue of liberty is ready to greet visitors again for the first time since superstorm sandy. but there is a new acting president in egypt and that means major policy questions for the white house. after meeting with his national security team in the situation room, president obama issued a statement last night saying that the united states does not support particular parties but rather the democratic process. joining me now you nbc's white house correspondent, peter alexander. and peter with a good day to you again. this has to be very carefully worded. how is the white house interpreting all this? 'cause calling it a coup could have some major policy effects, right? >> reporter: white house particularly careful in its handling of this crisis yesterday, certainly in the statement the president put out late in the day, saying that the future of egypt, alex can only be determined by the egyptian people, underscoring that point that this administration made clear, the president made clear to mohamed morsi a couple days ago that the u.s.' commitment is

to the democratic process before it's to any one individual or political party. the president did, in his statement yesterday, indicate that the u.s. was deeply concerned, to use his language, by the decision of the egyptian armed forces to take over in the course of this process. we know there is now a transition taking place. the white house has said that it wants to make sure that that civilian government that the civilian government is put back in power through a democratically -- democratic process as soon as possible. >> peter, has there been any communication so far with mr.ed aly manso-- adly mansour, the n pointed a president of the country? is there a conversation with the white house. >> reporter: good question. we are reaching out. not heard any new comment from the white house today. the u.s. has long had a much closer relationship really with the military in egypt than with the civilian governments in that country. refer specifically to some conversations actually within the last week.

we know that the secretary of defense in this country, chuck hagel, has spoken multiple times to his counterpart in egypt, general martin different circumstance the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff has had conversations, at least one conversation, with his counter part in that country as well. whether there have been any conversations with the new leadership at this point, we don't know. we will hear from the president tonight, doubt he will speak to this in particular. vel some remarks as he welcomes military heroes to the white house. >> peter alexander at the white house. thanks so much. the crowds are starting to build in tahrir square once again, this after millions of people took to the streets last night to celebrate the end of mohammad morsi's time in power. ayman mohyeldin is joining us from cairo. if we look to what happened preceded this the military informs charge in the period between mubarak and morsi, about a 16-month period. they have this mr. mansour, put into place as the newly interim president, we will call him.

is he in charge or is the military in charge? >> reporter: well, that's really good question. no he will certainly be in charge of someday-to-day adares of the country. he will probably oversee a lot of the transitional policies of the government, but there's no doubt that egypt's military will cast a very big shadow, will certainly weigh in on a lot of the things that are happening, because at the end of the day this is their road map. so they will want to ensure that all of the vision that they laid out for the country would still be somewhat implemented. now, they are trying to put a civilian face on this they say they don't want anything to do with their country's politicsing, they want to go back to their barracks and run the security and their country's borders. there is no doubt that egypt's military, as it has demonstrated in the past year, still has a voice to be said and want it is to be heard when it comes to their country's big picture policies, issues of foreign policy, national security. you can rest assured even though

adly monsieur is now the face of the government and more importantly oversee the transition in the course of the next several months, egypt's military will certainly leave its fingerprint on what happens over the next couple of months. >> you know, the military saying they don't want to stay in charge, are there assurances they have given the president or secretary of state john kerry making inquiries saying we really don't want to be in charge and here's how we can guarantee that? >> reporter: well, right now, based on the past two years, many of the people in tahrir square that i have been speak to human rights activists, democracy activists, members of the opposition, while on one hand, they are welcoming what happened late last night, they are approaching this with a tremendous amount of cautious optimism. they know that egypt's military is engrained in this society. they ruled this country for the better part of 60 years in one shape or the other. they are not yet ready to give up their interests. a third of egypt's economy is really run by egyptian military

industry. so, there's a very important component here that makes it difficult for people to believe the military is simply going to leave the political arena. but at the same time, the current leadership of the military is different than the one that ruled two years ago. it is a new set of core officers that are running the military around they, themselves, have expressed some disappointment with what happened over the course of the last several years. so there are some indications that they learned from their mistakes of trying to run the country, but at the same time, the fact that they were able to oust president morsi really does suggest that they still have a large shadow cast over egyptian politics. >> nbc's ayman mohyeldin above tahrir square. mark begins berg severed as a deputy advisory for foreign policy, u.s. ambassador to mock rocco under president clinton and welcome you on this fourth of july. thanks for joining us. >> good to be with you as well, alex. >> look at what's happening here

this penchant for democracy and push over the past year with mohamed morsi being elected democracy as president, what just has been happening in the last 72 hours, is that a victory for democracy is that evidence of mob rule? >> gosh, it's a tough call. i mean, i have been wrestling with this myself. after all, mr. morsi did get democratically elected but it was barely 51% of the vote. the problem has been is that there were no checks and balances in the system. the muslim brotherhood adopted a policy. we won, we won and we take all the mar belts off the table because they are now ours. it left everybody who had been -- who had lost out in the cold so to speak, so theds no voice, no say in future direction of the country. not only that, it's one thing to take all the mar bells off the table, alex, as you know. it's another thing to run the country into the ground as a

result of taking all those mar bells off the table. by take all the power and by, in affect, creating havoc among egypt. 's economic well being, ruening the tourist industry, creating fuel lines that went miles long, undermining the sense of purpose that egyptians have as a country, it really undermined morsi's ability to argue that he was, in effect, ruling you with the best interest of egypt at heart. >> richard engel, who has been there gave us his assessment in the last hour that he said he believes it's only a matter of time before there are violent outbreaks. he said right now the muslim brotherhood must be reeling as a result of what has happened. and we know that morsi supporters are already threatening an insurgency. so, do you believe, mark that the military can keep them in check? or if they do that does that just suppress something that lynn he have vitt tabably come out in some sort of a wave down the road? >> i defer to richard who is

fantastically well attuned to what is going on in the streets there. i think all of us who watch this and well aware that this type of situation has occurred 30 years ago or 20 years ago in algeria, where there was an leeks and the army stepped in to overturn the election. look, let's face it the muslim brotherhood, while playing in the underground for so many years, really feels that its power now has been taken away from it just when it won the only democratic election in egypt. and morsi's speech on the eve of his departure was so defiant and so many calls among the leaders of the brother today stand up to the military. while the military may have arrested the leadership, you have to understand, it's not just the brotherhood at this point in time that has lost power. there are extremist elements within egyptian society to the ultraright of the brotherhood who also feel that as a result that they lost power. and there's a history in egypt,

as you know, of radicalism taking to the streets with violence soon occurring as a result. and that's our fear. remember, there are supporters and opponents that have taken to the streets in many of egypt's cities, other than cairo. we are focusing on tahrir square, alex. but in the suez canal cities of isla mia, suez and port sayyid, there have been violence and deaths already. >> talk about the suez canal so many millions and millions of barrels run through that you have to worry about stab bill wit oil and gasoline prices but that's whole other conversation. quickly, mark, nbc news has confirmed that prosecutors have order the arrest of the muslim brotherhood leader, also, a deputy at least. what do you think will be the backlash as a result of that? >> it all depends on whether the military and the new leadership of the country under mr. mansour or justice monsieur bring these people back into some power-sharing arrangement and these going to be the key. if this was nothing more than

turning power over to a divided, secular opposition, this isn't going to work. they have to bring in elements of the muslim brotherhood into some reintegrated power sharing arrangement or else, i'm afraid, as richard reported, things may go from bad to worse. >> okay. former ambassador to more rock coker mark ginsburg, thanks so much and have a happy fourth. >> same to you, alex. all are all system goes for immigration reform in the house? plus, finding a fix for the student loan conversation. my conversation with congressman john yarmouth of kentucky, next.

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now that the senate has approved a sweeping immigration overhaul bill, the house is expected to introduce its version when lawmakers return from their july 4th recess next week. kentucky democrat john jar mouth is a member of the house gang of seven,s what i been working on this bill. so we welcome you, as we always do on this fourth of july. nice to see you. >> nice to see you, alex. >> so all systemless go? are all system goes? will you be introducing this bill next week? >> we hope it will be next week. it could string over into the next week. we are reviewing you the bill line by line. it's 500 pages, to make sure that it reflect the agreement that we reached in principle. but we met right before we left last friday, the seven of us, everybody was full steam ahead, very much committed to the process and very optimistic that ultimately, the product that we produce will be something that cannot only solve many of our immigration problems but also pass both houses.

>> i will tell you yourks mean to be skeptical, but get federal government the seven of you in this gang of seven together, reaching a consensus is one thing, but extending that through the house, when you hear all the republicans who have criticized the senate bill that got approved, saying the path to citizenship is nothing more than amnesty, what do you do to overcome that opposition? >> well, first of all, the three republicans now, there were four, who helped negotiate this bill, are subject to the same kind of criticisms and they are very confident that when our proposal is actually revealed, that it's going to be very, very difficult, if not impossible to characterize it as amnesty. the steps that undocumented immigrants will have to take to become legalized are very, very strenuous, they involve some fairly heavy fines and some probationary period he is. a lot of undocumented we don't think will take the step because it's going to be so arduous. but, you know exagain, there are a lot of republicans who are

working in good faith. paul ryan is a very, very strong supporter of what we are doing and is helping and, yeah, we are going to have some opposition to anything we do and anything we do is going to be called amnesty, but ultimately, i think we can get 100 or so republican votes in the house. >> but with the increase in border patrol and all the money that's being put toward that, that's been suggest it had could stem the tide of illegal immigrants coming across the border by about 50%some that something that you think the republicans will sign on to and say, okay, that's there so we could vote for that? >> i think that's the first element of any immigration reform that we have to get and that's convince the american people that we are committed to securing the borders. it's not just about deporting people. we are deporting people at a rate of about 400,000 a year, far more than have ever been deported in the history of this country. so, we actually have a net negative illegal immigration flow now, but the american people are first and foremost concerned about making sure we know who is coming into this country and that people are

coming in legally. so, everybody's committed to that and again, i think the package that we've come up with will be comforting in that area. >> mm-hmm. okay. we are going to switch to the student loan situation, because we have a situation going on there we have congress, which failed to prevent rates from doubling for the subsidized stafford loans. are you confident at all that congress is going to be able to fix this retroactively? >> well, i think so. and again, we -- it doesn't have to be retroactively. we still have some time before people are actually taking out loans or should be for the next school year. but i'm on the education county and we reported out a bill that was, you know, so close to what the administration has proposed. this should be a really easy thing to compromise. both proposals were tied to the treasury -- ten-year treasury note. the difference was whether there's a cap on what the interest rate can be and whether the interest rate is set for the term of the loan. the republicans wanted to make the loan readjust every year

which i think causes too much uncertainty for recent graduates and college -- college-able people. but these are things that are easy to compromise and i'm -- i'm hopeful that we can do that i think we can. >> okay. that's good. what about the kentucky senate race? i want to ask you about that. of course, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell now has his democratic challenger, who has some luminaries backing her to include the clintons, how much of an uphill bat does she have? we know the mcconnell campaign will be very well financed. >> they are showing it now and also showing how much fear they have about this race, because our airways are already crammed with negative ads against allison. we know he is scared to death. an independent poll a month or so ago had the race tied at 45-45. even mcconnell's own pollster had the race within five points. he knows he is in for one heck of a fight. and allison is a very energetic,

terrific retail politician. you mentioned the clintons. i'm sure they will be very active in that campaign and very popular in kentucky. so it's going to be an exciting race. >> i bet she has the clintons and john jar mouth behind her. >> i will be there, too. >> good to see you and happy fourth. >> same to you you alex, thanks. the prosecution could be about to wrap up its case in the george zimmerman trial. we will break down where things stand, coming up next. hi! i'm sandy, and i know savings. this metal frame pool on rollback, you save $80! and this 4 burner grill on rollback, you save $11. get more summer for your money at walmart's super summer savings event.

and walmart's super summer savings event is here. this 5-piece dining set on clearance, save over $49! how bout all these bikes on rollback? like this mongoose adult bike, you save over $20! get more summer for your money at walmart's super summer savings event. turning now to the george zimmerman trial in sanford, florida where the state may be close to wrapping up its case. court is in recess today for the fourth of july holiday, but on wednesday, jurors heard testimony from zimmerman's former college professors about classes he took on florida's self-defense and the stand your ground laws, as well as evidence about his application to the prince william county virginia police department. joining me now from miami is former u.s. attorney kendall

coffey, whom we welcome and you wish you a happy fourth and thanks for being here. >> hey, good morning. >> so give me your assessment of the state's case so far. i had on seem ire last hour, who you have debated this case. she thinks they have done a poor job defending itself or presenting its case. what do you think? >> i think the prosecution has done a good job with what was never an easy case and what has been undercut by the dpangt that prosecution witnesses have brought out on cross-examination gave aren't points for the defense. i think what the prosecution has establish sod far, two things that are important, one is that it was zimmerman who was pursuing trayvon martin. perhaps even profiling in the sense that he thought he was a suspicious guy and they always get away. the other thing that prosecution has establish sod far is that zimmerman's injure police probably not serious and zimmerman may have overstated them by saying his head was repeatedly smashed into

concrete. >> yeah. okay. let's talk about what we heard in court relative to the dna evidence that was prevented. this witness -- let's listen to this witness and hear what was said. >> did you then also examine fingernail scrapings from trayvon martin taken at the medical examiner's office? >> there were no dna foreign to him on that sample. >> in other words, from the right fingernail scrapings of trayvon martin, you did not find any of george zimmerman's dna, is that correct? >> no, there was nothing foreign to trayvon martin. >> so, george zimmerman having said that trayvon martin was attacking him, what does that do to that? >> well, it raises a real question about it. now the defense's challenged whether the dna was properly preserve and raised those kind of issues. if the jury sense the premise that there was no evidence that trayvon martin was actually grabbing, smashing, jamming his hands into george zimmerman, these significant, because the

details of the violent encounter are murky. and the more the state can show that zimmerman was misstating, being untruthful about what happened, the more it will become perhaps apparent to the jury if he was being untruthful, maybe he was guilty of a crime. >> so then, kendall, to that end, does mark o'mara put george zimmerman on the stand? >> i think the defense thinks they are ahead. and because of that they know if they put zimmerman on the stand, it becomes a one-witness trial. the jury's going to forget about everything else that's happened, including some of the points the defense has scored. do you want to roll the dice and make everything in this trial about whether or not george zimmerman was believable on the stand? i don't know if they want to make that chance but they will make that decision after the state finishes their case, including watching the jury reaction to the testimony -- expected testimony of trayvon martin's mother. >> okay, kendall coffey i many thanks as always foss your assessment of things. >> thanks, alex. nelson mandela remains in

critical condition in a south africa hospital but details have been difficult to come by. for the latest of what we do know about the south african leader, i'm joined by ron allen joining us live from pretoria what do we know about his condition? >> reporter: the leader here, jacob zuma, said mr. mandela is in critical but stable condition and been the case now for close to two weeks, perhaps. mandela's wife made public comments for the first time. she was thanking the nation and the world for prayers and support, saying that he sometimes is uncomfortable, sometimes in pain, but generally, she said, he is fine. so, that's where we are now almost a month later. alex? >> okay. ron, can you tell me quickly, and this is complicated though, about this family feud that is under way? i mean it has been the headlines in the newspaper, mandela versus mandela? >> reporter: basically, it is about burial grounds. nelson mandela also said he

wants to be buried with his children in a village where he grew up. he has a grandson, the heir, oldest grandson, the chief of a nearby village that grandson removed the remains of three of mandela's deceased children to this other cemetery because he wants mandela and the children buried there. now, the rest of the family objected in court. now, a judge has ordered the grandson to move the remaines back to kunu where mandela wants to be buried that process is happening now. an ugly, unseemly dispute that couldn't be happening at a worst time it is significant. the family is preparing for the possible end of mandela's life they want to make sure all these issues are settled. >> to allow him to live out his life in dignity. ron allen, many thanks. >> reporter: and peace. drama in the sky in the edward snowden saga. we are live for you in moscow, next. (girl) what does that say?

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the snowden saga is deepening today it the asylum options for the asylum seeker is dwindling and evo morales is back today but the grounding and search of his plane was an abduction, they say and they are going to complain to the united nations. joining me from moscow with the latest is nbc news' jim mass said d.a. jim, a good day to you. edward snowden's status in russia is what today? >> reporter: hi, alex. well, snowden, it turns out, was not on board either the bolivian or that venezuelan president's jet following the energy summit in moscow. he is by lived toth in airport transit zone, living there 12 days, trying to figure out where he can go and how he will get there without a u.s. passport, ie, a travel document.

his options are clearly narrowing, we can see this in the effect the strong behind-the-scenes u.s. pressure on these pro-snowden latin american countries, if you will, has had. ecuador was drive egg snowden's asylum process, now backed off, saying snowden will have to get to ecuador or to a border as quickly as possible. and then look at venezuela. nicolas maduro singing his praises here in moscow tuesday. now, ven necessary wail virginia backing off and saying that the request has not been made and that it might consider it but consider world reaction first. back to you. >> i think it is a pretty safe bet stuff going on behind the scenes. we will get more information on that down the road. jim maceda thank you very much from moscow. edward snowden is hardly the only crisis in president obama's foreign portfolio, with the upheaval in egypt forcing the white house to reassess its pollity? region.

-- releasing its pollity? region. was the u.s. never comfortable with more snail look at the margin he won the election, barely over 50%, in the 51% range. >> the united states was never comfortable with the situation in egypt period. a very young democracy and more she a lot of different constituents he has to play to and concerned about the strong islamic tilt that the government had been taking.

>> senator patrick leahy pointed out in his statement that u.s. law prohibits providing support after a military coup. so was this a military coup or the fact that they have put an interim president in place within some 24 hours here, is that a coup or is it not a coup? does the aid come to an end or does it stay in place? >> the million dollar question, if you will. on the face of it, it's a military coup, but the reality is it's very different than let's say the more historical military coups we have seen where it's a small group of individual military leaders who take over the country. this really was a popular revolt. you had the military leaders in egypt making clear that they are

going to pass on control of the country, you know, to a civilian authority and there is going to be elections. so i think the challenge for the administration is how fast does, you know, the new government, you know, transition to a point where they can have elections and re-establish a democratic order? that, i think, is going to determine what kind of complications they face when it comes to the question of aid. there's no question, this right now is a very difficult, you know, needle to thread policy-wise and politically wise, talking about whether it it's a coup or not. >> susan, overall in washington, do lawmakers look at this 1.6 billion in aid as a way to keep peace in that region, because without it, it might fall apart? i mean -- >> i think so >> continuing to give that aid? >> i think there is. because again, don't forget, egypt is one of the most critical pieces in the 1979 peace agreement with israel. so we must have them as stable as possible. i think, believe it or not, the

fact that the congress is out on recess right now is probably good thing so you don't have a lot of senators and congressmen with microphones talking about this. it gives the administration a few dies really come together. and yes, they are going to have to tap dance around the question whether this was a coup or not. since it was a popular revolt, i don't think they are going to get a lot of pushback from republicans or democrats on this >> chris, i was asking peter alexander, covering the white house for us today, whether or not president obama has reached out to the newly appointed president mansour there. he wasn't sure. they are still trying to find out. but if and when the white house does reach out, what should be the first step? what should be the first level of discussion? >> i think it's making it very clear that there has to be a relatively quick transition to a point where you can have elections, because this goes i think to the heart of what theed a minute station's policy has been in the middle east and what the american policy has been in the middle east, which is

obviously want democratic growth, we want freedom, we want the ability to have stable societies. i think they are going to be very clear that there has to be a point here where you do not see the military in charge. and they also don't want successive coups. the worst thing that could happen here is you have another authority come into place, you have another election and six months or a year down the road, you have another, you know, revolt, popular or not. this is the really complicated situation that the administration is facial. not hands off but very careful how they approach it. >> that is an important point chris brings up. the fact is a year from now, egypt's economy is not going to be better. their chief economic development is based on tourism. no one has been going there for the last two years. not going to likely see that inn

cease the next year or so with all the unrest, very hard, whoever the next president is, to come in and change things around that quickly where people aren't going to be revolting again. >> you make good points. can i ask both of you quickly about edward snowden, the fact the bolivian president called the grounding of his plane an abduction. how much blowback do you think for this? >> not much. a lot of rhetoric and him just coming out with something to say and making a few headlines. >> he goes and makes this complaint to the united nations. chris, do you agree or think something could come of this? >> i think it kind of goes nowhere. the question is it's pretty clear the administration decided to make mr. snowden a man without a country. and he is stuck right now and his options are getting very limited, to say the least. and you notice, you know, the terms of the country that decided no longer to even consider his asylum, i'm not sure where he goes from here. at some point, he may have to come back to the united states and kind of -- and face the legal consequences. >> i'm guess the moscow airport

is going to get really old really fast, okay? chris kofinis, susan dell percent yo, thanks so much. >> thank you. after the break, she is a symbol of our nation's freedom, lady liberty opens for our nation's birthday, eight months after superstorm sandy closed her doors because of damage. i want to make things more secure. [ whirring ] [ dog barks ] i want to treat more dogs. ♪

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today the statue of lint is open to visitors the first time since superstorm sandy barrelled through the northeast. it also closed lady lintberty's doors the past eight months. katy tur joins us, so glad to see you there, glad she is back up and running today. good morning. >> reporter: she is so glorious today. we will tell you that, alex. give you an idea where we are, in case you haven't been here before that's manhattan right there we are right across the harbor here on liberty island much as you said it has been closed for eight very long months since superstorm sandy hit, a lot of damage seen this-to-this island, tore up paving stones, tore up deck, there was flooding. luckily, no damage to the lady herself. she looks as glorious as she ever did. about 15,000 people are expected to come visit her today and the first boats should be arriving any minute, pretty exciting if you are the first one to come out to see her in eight months a

lot of damage though between liberty island and ellis island. ellis island is out in the distance there that is still closed. $59 million worth of dam between the two of them. they are hoping they are going to be able to reopen ellis island later today -- later this year, i should same come out and see one of these sights, lady liberty, come on, look at her, 126 years old. hasn't aged a single day. we have decided to deem her america's first miss america. alex what do you think? miss america? you like it? >> absolutely. that totally works. can i just tell you that i was right where you were the day that they opened lady liberty following the 9/11 attacks and i will never forget covering that day. it was exciting. it was thrilling. >> reporter: honestly, it's something -- >> wonderful. >> reporter: something tough see in person, like mount rushmore, looks good on camera but something you can't really appreciate until you see it up close and personal. >> you are absolutely right. >> you will this day as well. good to see you, happy fourth. we wouldn't be celebrating

independence day at all if not for generations of u.s. military men and women who fought for our freedom. among those are the military service members wounded in combat. army veteran mark lolly was injured while serving in iraq and received support in his recovery through the wounded warrior project. and mark with a welcome and a happy fourth of july to you and a thanks for your service, i would love for you to share with our viewers your story and your experience in iraq in the fall of 2007. >> okay. well to start off, i was -- i was not wounded in iraq, i was wounded in italy. i had done my year tour in baghdad and came home just safe and sound. i was actually hurt on a training mission in northern italy and it was one of those unfortunate things that happens with this career, happens with this line of work. but i have been able to -- years of rehab, i have been able to really regain much of what i had lost once before.

>> yeah. well, you know, mark, you make a very good point that just because you're not on a battlefield, i mean, those who serve in the army are constantly facing dangers because your training is so rigorous. talk about the wounded warrior project, mark, and how that has helped you. >> oh, yes, ma'am. the wounded warrior project has really opened so many doors to me that would have otherwise stayed closed. they have helped me with everything from handling my va claims and benefits to just getting out of the town, getting me doubt anything from hockey games to hunting trips and fishing trips to this other warriors to talk with and to share stories with. it's been -- >> yeah, and i'm sure there's so many, mark, who are watching right now that look at you and your experience and your sacrifice and would love to be involved with wounded warriors. do you know how people can do that? >> yes, ma'am.

they can -- the best way for them would be to visit our website at wounded warrior project.org and from there, they can see all -- whole different ways to donate their money, donate their time, donate their skills to help other warriors that might need it. >> yeah. and mark, we all are so grateful for the fourth of july, but i think it's easy for us sometimes to take our freedom for granted, for those who have never served in the military. so for someone who has served and done his time and also will carry with him for the rest of his life that time, tell me what fourth of july means to you. >> it is -- it's my favorite holiday of the entire year, but just the whole -- what makes this country -- what makes this country great are the whole -- being with your friends, being with your families, having barbecues, having fireworks, just enjoying the life and

enjoying your freedoms we have in this country. >> mark, i hope that you have good plans today. can you share with us anything that you've got fun on your agenda? >> i'm sorry, i don't think i heard your question. >> i'm wondering if you have some fun plans for this fourth of july today? >> actually, i do. we intend to go sightseeing here today. so, kind of go check out the town and go check out some fireworks and have -- enjoy it. >> well, i hope off wonderful fourth and thanks so much for your time with us. >> thank you, ma'am. hollywood dreams. will the summer blockbuster season be one for the record books? we have a preview next. what if we took all this produce from walmart and secretly served it up in the heart of peach country.

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it is not officially summer until the big blockbusters hit the screens and the fourth of july weekend kicks off a month of major movies. this weekend "the lone ranger" and sequel to "despicable me" "despicable me 2" comes out. >> how are you? >> i'm fine. soup ex-excited about "lone ranger," what do you think? >> july 4th weekend is big, this weekend, "lone ranger" and "despicable me 2," who do you think will win? >> i'm huge army hammer fan. >> it made $540 worldwide, expecting this to be a huge success again not saying much about the plot. doesn't matter, all about the minions now, little creatures. >> everywhere, by the way. on buses. >> every where. actually getting their own movie spinoff. so interesting, studios loft

international box office. "the lone ranger" will do fairly well, cost 190 million, 215 million to make. westerns, any kind of western theme does not usually do well overseas. >> interesting. even "lone ranger"? iconic. >> banking on familiarity. cowboys and aliens original idea, that didn't do well. generally speaking, westerns internationally don't do well. people are wondering if johnny depp, not delivering as much as he used to. granted a great actor, top billing right now, tonto, but watching army hammer closely. we will see about that. the blockbusters keep coming. used to bes this was the only weekend, keep coming. the following week "pacific rim" a hotly anticipated film. >> is that transformersesque? >> it starts out with these larger-than-life monsters emerging from the earth, the pacific rim part of the earth, actually, two lead characters control these massive robots to fight them to the death.

and it is visually spectacular. again, about $190 million to make. this will do well domestically and international late. lot of anticipation about this film saying it is literally visually spectacular to watch, even if you are not into the robots fighting. but "transformers" did well. this is banking on that success as well. >> any under-the-radar movies we should look for or not pay off to be subtle at this time of year? >> you don't see a lot of romantic comedies that much anymore, different countries what is romantic in another country isn't romantic here necessarily, vice versa. always some. i will say "the conjuring" is one to watch, the following week, a suspense thriller, paranormal story, based on a true story, at least according to the people that experienced it. this is getting really great buzz and reviews. you see lot of movie these days, jump scarce, completely jump scarce, something jumping out at you you not horror movies, startle movies, this has a

suspenseful plot, well filmed, people are giving it a lot of great advanced buzz. even though that is not what you would traditionally call a blockbuster, i think it will get blockbuster box office. >> you mentioned something interesting, how much goes through the minds of hollywood execs, they think about a film they want overseas in >> entirely. used to be dvd sales, half the revenues of films, nobody buys dvds anymore. they all are about russia and china overseas are second and third biggest box office draws for these films. they have relationships with the government in china to make sure that these are going to be ones that will do well there film offices there it is a big deal. >> okay. >> international all the way, why you see a lot of 3-d and recognizable characters, comic books. >> what are you going to see? >> i want to see "the lone ranger" and "des speckable me 2." >> let's make a day. i will come with you. from pop goes the week, brian. history in egypt and

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usaa. we know what it means to serve. good morning, everyone, happy fourth of july. people across the country are gearing up for today's independence day celebration. what you need to know before your family heads out to today's parades and fireworks. crowds are building in cairo's tahrir square as prosecutors order the arrest of ousted president morsi and his top deputy. it is the new wave of the arab spring. and new gop calls to repeal obama care. and you thought congress was enjoying the long fourth of july weekend off. hello, everyone, i'm alex witt. thanks so much for joining us this hour. there is a new leader in egypt. adly monsieur was sworn in as interim president less than 24 hours after the military removed mohammed more cism he is now under house arrest. nbc news confirmed egyptian prosecutors ordered the arrest of the leader of the muslim brotherhood and his top deputy.

the deputy director of the women in foreign policy program with the council on foreign relations, zbalt author of "the dressmaker of kirikana." a welcome tour let's talk about what's happening with regard to the u.s., which seems to be playing catch up right now with all these developments in egypt. do you see the u.s. as having a role in what happens next in egypt and if it does, what is the role? >> i think that is such an excellent question the one thing that all sides can agree on when you talk to folks on the ground is that they mistrust the u.s. right now. people feel on one side that the u.s. supported the brotherhood for too long and on the other, that they didn't support them enough. and i think right now the question what is the u.s. role and will there be an american presence that makes a difference? quite honestly, right now the answer is no. there is a role to play and there has been, but the u.s. has not been ahead of developments

here on the ground and the question what comes next? as you all have been talking about, the u.s. said it was deeply concerned about what happened and that has reallying an eared lot of the young people who have led this protest and i think it does make it somewhat more complicated going forward. >> you say the u.s. has not been ahead of the developments there on the ground. in fact, how could it have been? here, you have the president who was elected democratically, fairly, a year ago, granted, by a slim margins, only 51% of the population voting for him, but that was a democratic election. who could have foreseen the spectacular fall from grace in 12 short months? >> that is so interesting, because odd democratic election followed by decidedly undemocratic institution and you have had a lot of expressions of american concern about that when it comes to civil society, when it comes to freedom of expression, when it came to the constitution and who was writing it, who had voices. it's funny, i interviewed secretary clinton two years ago for a "newsweek" story and even

then, she was saying the question is who is going to be at the table and what happens next in egypt snail think there has been american concern from the beginning that without inclusivity, which is a word we have been hearing, inclusiveness in the last 24 hours, would you not have long-term stability. so i think there are and have been warning signs in terms of who actually is getting a voice. >> do you see anything, gail, that leads to you believe that it will be more open going forward or are we just going to transfer one dominant voice to another dominant voice?

>> you ask the question of what comes next and you have to get more ask you, more people at the table. and off government now ruled by the army and you see the rise of the technocrats. the question is whether the new president and mohammed elbaradei make a difference in bringing all kinds of voices to the table. i read recently people were talking about nelson mandela and this need for a leader who could transcend politics and really unify all sides. if you have that, i think you have an incredible shot at what happens in the future. but what comes next, who the leaders are, what kind of elections happen, when do they happen? and does the rise of the technocrats mean that the egyptian economy, which has really been sputtering for more than 12 months, right? you have unemployment up four percentage points since just the last several months, will that all change with the rise of the

technocrats and with the question about free and fair elections coming soon? >> you have to be concerned about retribution out on the streets for those who supported mohammed more sand the muslim brotherhood, as we now have confirmed the arrests have been ordered for the leader of the muslim brotherhood and one of his top deputies. once that happens, what do you most fear? >> the question right now, will it be algeria or turkey in the future? all right test of the next egyptian government be passed? what all right treatment be of people who opposed the government and what will the treatment be of the muslim brotherhood? human rights watch egypt was actually tweeting about this last night, as so much of this has happened on facebook and twitter, as you all have been covering, a key test of the next government of egypt, how it treats the muslim brotherhood. the muslim brotherhood knows how

to operate when it has to go underground and the question is will it what have to? will it be, as you were saying before, one of the key parties at the table? i think it has to be if you're going to talk about a really durable and lasting stab bill that allows the egyptian economy to return and allows young people to get a little bit happier with their government rather than taking to the streets. >> right. looking representation from all factions. gala mond, thank you for your time on this fourth of july. appreciate it. >> thanks. nbc's ayman mohyeldin is joining us live from cairo, covering all the unrest the wee hours of the morning. give us an assessment of the ground, the level of people gathering in tahrir square and where things stand. >> reporter: officially, a lot of the organizations that were behind the civil protests over the past several days have already called off their sit-in demonstrations that were scheduled to last for as long as it needed to get president morsi

out of office. the numbers are less than we have seen outside the palace and in the square there is no drought is a sense of celebration there in the square. people are still there, but not in the kind of numbers we have seen. to some extent, things are getting back to normal here in cairo. say say that very cautiously, because normally, egypt has been very different from day to day in the past several months. what i mean is that stores are opening, shops are opening. businesses picking up. the stock market is back in business so to speak. in reality, there is a sense of normalcy here as the new egyptian president has been sworn in. now, a lot of the political maneuvering unfolding behind the scenes in terms of what he plans on doing a very busy schedule ahead of him in terms of formulating a new cabinet. receiving calls of congress graduations from other arab leader he is. the security situation is going to be on top of his agenda as well as that of the military now kind of de facto keeping an eye

on the security situation across the country. >> yeah you know, ayman, you mentioned the stock market is back up and running which brings to mind the question of the economy which is faltering, sputtering at best. without getting that fixed, can there be any hope for peace and unanimity, different factions, different leaders, bringing them back to the table? >> reporter: that was one of the issues used sharply to criticize president mohammed more circumstance he came into off, his preoccupation was not with fixing the day to day issues of the egyptian state, including the economy, unemployment, san takes, health, education, he was much more preoccupied with larger issues about politics and usurping control. that's what the critics of mohamed morsi was saying. is there a chance to get egypt's economy back up and running? in the short term that would be difficult for anybody. egypt has major structural problems, economically speaking,

that it has to address. but one of the reasons people say now is an opportunity to address that is because you can have political consensus to make tough economic decision. that was something morsi couldn't do couldn't get everybody to agree on way forward to get the economy revived. alex? >> nbc's amman mohyeldin, thank you very much from cairo. from there to the white house where president obama con rain issed his national security team to discuss the situation in egypt. both the president and the state department said the developments run settling. >> we are clearly concerned about the violence on the ground. we are concern shad dense and fast-moving situation. >> joining me now, nbc white house peter alexander. the president called for hosni mubarak to step down a couple years ago. shout white house addressing this situation now with morsi?

>> reporter: susan rice just took over as the president's national security adviser on july 1st so this is really the first crisis management situation for this national security team right now. we heard from the white house yesterday, it was muted, but as events began to truly unfold into the evening, we heard from the white house where the president expressed deep concern over, in his words, the decision of the egyptian armed forces to remove president morsi and suspend the egyptian constitution. really, the biggest concern here is that the military would take over and then govern there the president indicated he wants as fast, as soon as possible for a civilian government, a democratically elected civilian government, to be put back in power. the white house has insisted, as the president did in conversations with mohamed morsi just a few days ago that the u.s.'s commitment is to the democratic process, not to any specific group, to any party or

any individual. at this point, it appears the u.s. is really trying to look like it's siding with the people of egypt. alex? >> on a much lighter note, since the people here in this country are celebrating the holiday, i imagine that extends to the president and the first family? >> reporter: they have a celebration tonight as they like to do every year. the president put out his weekly address ready, watched it on youtube, nice things to say about the country, speaking about its 237th anniversary, its birthday today. he will be welcoming military heroes here with the first lady and the first daughters, barbecue, concert around pretty good fire works show they have every year. >> sounds like a great lineup, thanks very much, peter alexander. coming up, how to keep your family safe at tonight's fireworks. but first, a salute from our soldiers overseas. you're watching msnbc on this america's birthday. >> hi, my name is first lieutenant calvin forter here in afghanistan. i want to wish my family a happy fourth of july. i love you, monique and the

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that is a beautiful sight right there lady lint reopened after superstorm sandy. look at the weather and see what weather they will have. last weekend, saw record high heat throughout the western united states but a heat wave shaping up for this holiday weekend.

>> looks like a heat wave in the northeast, three straight days of highs, 90 degrees and above. looks like we could get that in -- during this holiday weekend. right now, we are keeping an eye on the excessive heat warnings in the southwest. the good news for that area, the whole region of the heat warning is diminishing right now. even though we still do have several warnings, temperatures are coming down a few degrees each day. it's getting closer to average, still 115 in vegas and 112 in phoenix, but we are seeing improvements. in the northeast, we actually have heat advisories in affect in and around new york city southern new england, temperatures will feel like they are up around 100 degrees, you factor in all of that humanity. as for rain, off the gulf of mexico, see showers today and heavy rain at that down through the southeast, the panhandle of florida could end up with three to five inches of rain that could extend up into atlanta as well. it does look like we will see some of those heavier pockets of

rain through kentucky and tennessee, too. overall forecast, most areas will be dry, thunderstorms in washington, d.c. should really affect the area late in the day and they would be scattered at best. alex? >> okay. thank you very much, dylan. people across this country will be celebrating the fourth at parades and fireworks displays today. unfortunately, the boston marathon bombing just three months ago has made it all too clear that celebrations can become targets. so how are america's cities preparing this time around? joining me now philadelphia mayor michael nutter. mr. mayor, a happy fourth to you. wonderful to see you. >> thank you, so to you, alex. >> yes, glad to have you here. it does not get much better than philadelphia for the fourth of july. so what kind of plans do you have for the city today? >> philadelphia is the place to celebrate the fourth of july. a big shoutout, of course to all the cities and states across america, but philly celebrates it best on the fourth. this is the birthplace of

freedom, lint and democracy. liberty hall, the liberty biell. one of the great cities of the world. hundreds of people out at multiple events, we celebrate about a week, fourth of july, welcome america celebration with all kinds of festivities, a ceremony this morning. a pops concert right here, the same place last night. fourth of july philly jam later on this evening. the roots, philly's house band, jill scott, largest free outdoor concert in the united states of america. >> a week to get through that i can see why you have the celebrations so long. a more serious note, as you well know, because of the boston marathon bombs three months ago that means security has been beefed up all over the place. you mentioned places like the liberty bell, have you taken

extra precaution particularly around that? >> our protocol generally is there is a significant level of security in this area always. this is the most historic square mile in the united states of america. but certainly for big holidays, fourth of july, labor day, memorial day, any of those major holidays we do add the extra security you c security. as i say some things you will see some you won't see. interagency task force, local, state and federal partners engaged and actively paying attention to what's going on. the number one concern is always safety. we strike that proper balance. don't do anything that will get yourself in trouble. if necessary, ready to jump into action. >> curiously, i know since 9/11, we have had to have tremendous security at events like this did you have to step it up even further after the boston

incident? >> did take extra steps after the boston marathon, in philadelphia. two weeks after that event, we had our own broad street run. certainly, we looked at some of the things that happened in boston. in touch with the folks there we additional security and told the public that we did going to do that everyone understood, the event went off flawlessly, you learn from each of these incidents take the necessary steps, tough strike a good balance between folks wanting to come out and have a good time and make sure everyone is safe stlachl place to make sure you do it well and right. everybody wants to be safe and have a fun time. >> a somber negotiate the situation with school closings in chicago grabbed a lot of national headlines, philadelphia not immune to it dozens of schools closed there, 20% of the district staff laid off. 304 million dollar deficit. how did it get to this point?

>> as you can imagine it happens over time. recession had the impact and variety of cuts made from the state funding source, we tried to step up our game at the city level, the recession hit all of us hard. my hope the course of the next couple of days, we will have further action taken at the state level that would help to stabilize the innocence of tour schools and at the same time, we need to make some significant savings on the labor cost side, put all of that together. the city has given, the state will have given, citizens clearly given, i have raised taxes twice here in the last two years for our school children and then we need shared sacrifice with our labor community, the teachers and administrators and others. if everyone puts it in on behalf of the children, then we will be able to have a quality education for them when they come back in september. >> right. well, education secretary arne duncan certainly calling for the state to step in some sort of emergency package.

we hope that happens and the kids can get back to school after they enjoy the fourth with you. mayor michael nutter, good to see you. have a good one. thank you. >> thanks, alex, you, too. after the break, a case that focuses on one of the freedoms our founders fought for, the right to free speech. now the supreme court says it will hear arguments against a massachusetts law keeping protesters away from clinics where abortions are performed. up next, the state lawmaker who says let the law stand. you are watching msnbc. is like hammering.

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were on holiday in portugal. her parents, kate and jerry mccann, have been committed to finding her or finding out what happened to her. madeleine would be now 10 years old. this is certainly encouraging news that scotland yard believes she may still be alive. we will keep you up to date as we get more information here on msnbc. now to one of the supreme court decisions that got lost amid last week's landmark rulings on same-sex marriage and voting rights, the court agreed to consider a challenge to a massachusetts law which keeps protesters at least 35 feet away from women's health clinics, including ones where abortions are performed. joining me now democratic state representative charles shart tino helped write the 2007 law and running to succeed ed markey as a congressman from the bay state a congressman and happy fourth of july to you. >> good morning, alex. >> let's talk about the argument that the law, which you helped put into place in 2007 prevents people from "communicating with

women going to the clinic and therefore, violates the right to free speech." this 35-foot boundary, talk about that and your thoughts. >> sure. this law came after a 1994 murder of two workers in brookline, massachusetts. o you have a right to free speech but you don't have the right to block the path of women seeking access to health care. swim a right to choose, to access health care. people entering these clinics, both staff, workers and women, could be accessing abortion services but also accessing any kind of services, birth controlled when a flow are people in this country who are literally trying to turn back the clock not only on roe v wade but abortion and birth control. we are looking at war on women and this is another front on this war. >> i want to be clear this

35 it does not prevent anyone from holding up signs or placards, does not prevent anyone who may be opposed to activities going on in these women's health care clinics from shouting or from trying to make contact in some way, correct? there's no silence there's no repression of any sort of speech or expression, right? >> a very strong balance between the right to free speech and the right to access health care for women. 35 feet not that large a distance and fully able to be heard, hold signs, anything want to do at the clinic entrance, you can't block the path of women trying to access the door. we have seen over the years some people that would like to sit on the sidewalk and pray and protest peacefully, they can continue to do so but you don't have the right to get in front of the women to block their path and to harass them as they enter the clinic. this is a reasonable approach to balancing those interests. in fact, we based it on a 1994 rhenquist supreme court decision, rhenquist wrote the

majority in 1994 and florida case where that place, it was a 36-foot buffer zone and the court upheld the right of the government to say that a 36-foot distance from the entrance to the clinic is a reasonable restriction to keep public safety to keep protecting women's right to health care and people can still be heard at 36 feet. >> we should say not only covers the entrance to the clinic bus also the driveways because you see people trying to block even cars from get nothing say parking lots ajoyce sent to then as you well know they is not the first time this law has been challenged. an earlier version was held -- upheld, rather, twice, the version you worked on was upheld in 2009 what do you think of the prospects of it being upheld again? >> we did base it on strong precedent, given the rhenquist design in 1994 by live it is constitutional and made sure we'd fair wool balance between the right to free speech and women's access to health care.

if protesters can block the entrances, we have more to do to protect women's right to health care. >> democratic state representative from massachusetts, charles short tino. the u.s. is pulling embassy staff out of cairo as egypt puts a new leader in charge. wait a sec! i found our colors. we've made a decision. great, let's go get you set up... we need brushes. you should check out our workshops... push your color boundaries while staying well within your budget walls.

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ouster of mohammad morsi but supporters are vowing to fight back against what they say was a military coup to steal power from a democratically ecollelec leader. the head of the muslim brotherhood has now been arrested. mark ginsburgself as president carter's deputy senior adviser for middle east policy and worked on the camp david accords and served as you had ambassador to more rock row under president clinton. mr. ambassador, welcome back. i want to know how concerned you are that we are head forward period of insurgency and political instability that could make the situation there worse and not better. >> will the muslim brotherhood revert back to violence after the coup against their president? that will further egypt's instability and undermine its

economic well being and almost destroy the economy, which you have heard from many of your other guests this morning so dependent on tourism? i would say the chances are greater than 50/50. why? the streets of other cities there is other violence we are not reporting right now. >> mark, i'm curious, what's happening here, was this a response to mohammed more circumstance a response to the islamic principles of the brothered? is this the kind of thing that permeates people's minds and lives? or a response to economic instability you tourism is dramatically down. the country is in a crisis? >> let me answer that ton on two levels, one, a failure of islamic politics that will reverberate and ricochet across the middle east.

you saw what happened in prime minister erdough began in turkey because of his testimonically elected government. it came down to the day in and day out misery of the lives of average egyptians. there was terrorism in the streets, vigilanteism, crime running rampant, huge lines for fuel, a sense that morsi was incompetent, the people he put in place couldn't run any ministry effectively. they had just gone out and aredd non-governmental organization democracy supporters, including the former -- the son of the former transportation secretary, ray lahood. supporters, includi former -- the son of the former transportation secretary, ray lahood.

mr. morsi deserve a lot of credit for running an incompetent government and why we are seeing that. >> former ambassador mark ginsburg, thank you for that. >> sure. the white house is responding very carefully to the upheaval in egypt. in a statement i the president said "we are deeply concerned by the decision of the egyptian armed forces to remove president morsi and suspend the egyptian constitution. i now call on the egyptian military to move quickly and responsibly to return full authority back to a democratically elected civilian government as soon as possible." let's bring in politico reporter rachel bade and mother jones reporter andrew croel to talk about this. andy, it seems like the president really trying to thread the needle here in his response. why so cautious? >> the president and the white house are obviously cautious because the facts on the ground, the events in egypt are so combustible now you so unpredictable, don't know what

the newly installed president or the military regime in charge right now is going to do. heck, we don't know anything about the newly installed president of the country, judicial leader, barely knew anything about his biography. the white house trying to act, change by the minute, by the hour, it is also chasing had the news on the ground hind the curve on keeping track of egypt and reacting to it stay on top of the issue, thus the carefully worded statement and the watchful eyes. >> what is the next move for the administration responding to the military ouster of mohamed morsi? must they be entirely reactive moves? >> you will see the white house completely reactive rather than

proactive. there is a lot of unanswered questions about who these people are who is going to be in power, what are they going to do with the country, i think it is mostly waiting and taking, see egg what's happening. the question left unanswered, what does this mean foreign aid to egypt in the u.s. gives egypt about $1.5 billion of foreign aid every year and a part in the law that say it is a coup takes a country, foreign aid probably would be suspended. on capitol hill, although members are not there, they are talking about from their districts is this a coup, u.s. suspend foreign stayed in senator leahy out of vermont, heads the judiciary committee says dramatic effects for aid

which could very well impact egypt, a part of this revolt was because people were hungry, some of the economic aid given to egypt from the u.s. goes the military, some of it also goes to the people. so, if aid is withdrawn, what sort of effect will this have and how will that make the united states look in egypt's eyes? >> certainly have some sort of effect, to the tune of $1.6 billion every year. let's shift stories right here. the delay of the employer mandate under obama care. republicans jumping all over this one. here is house judiciary chairman bob goodlatte. >> i think it's good that they are delaying the train wreck but i think this bill needs to be repealed and if its employer mandate is being delayed, the individual mandate which i felt before and still feel, notwithstanding the supreme court decision is unconstitutional it also should be delayed.

>> does the setback give republicans new ammunition come midterms next year? >> there's no doubt. absolute late. big win for both business and republicans. if you think about it, obama care is basically held on this principle of shared responsibility between three different pillars, the individuals who, according to the law you will have to buy insurance or pay a penalty, the government steps in and helps people that can't afford to pay the insurance and then this responsibilities that you companies pick up, businesses, companies that have more than 50 employees, they have to give them affordable health care if they work more than 30 hours. this delay lets the third pillar off the hook, see republicans the next few weeks and months seeing how far they can push this. this is a delay for one year. if you give a mouse a cookie, they are gonna want more. >> the democrats said we want

you guys to own obama care, head into the 2014 elections. how much does this change that equation? >> doesn't look like an attempt to take ownership from obama care and shake it from a political lie by in the a political advantage. they have eventually pushed this employer mandate into 2015, which is past the 2014 congressional election its. just the very act of moving the mandate does seem to open them up to more political tax, hearing the repeal and replace talking point from republicans again and the next month or two, hearing about that then as the individual mandate piece of this starts to come into play in 2014 then you're going to see a whole new round of fight and point and counter point coming up. doesn't look like the democrats are taking full ownership as they said they wanted to >> andy croel, rachel bay, thank you for spending part of your holiday with us.

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swiffer gives cleaning a whole new meaning. ♪ lovely lady court is in recess in the george zimmerman case for the fourth of july holiday. wednesday, jurors heard testimony from zimmerman's college professor with classes he took on florida's self-defense and stand your ground laws as well as evidence about his application to the prince william county, virginia, police department. joining me now, legal analyst lisa green, welcome on this holiday, thanks for joining me, my friend. glad you're here. the state's case have they done a good job of proving it thus far or a ways to go? >> there's a school of thought that says the state's case was at its very strongest during opening arguments, what we have seen since then is almost a dual purpose prosecution case in which so many witnesses were able to make point for the defense. we saw that yesterday,

zimmerman's instructor telling the jury on cross-examination what self-defense slaw all about not necessarily what the prosecution wants to accomplish. >> okay. we heard from george zimmerman in his own words, that testimony to what those on the stand saying he was a good student, understood stand your ground laws with the grades he was getting. >> the prosecution was trying to undercut his credibility. he gave a television interview said he hadn't heard of the law you instructor said taught the law and this was my a student. there's a credibility issue there the other hand, the defense has very little work to do in presenting zimmerman's side of the story, so much of it came out during the case in chief. >> but does the defense -- the fact that they sort of rocked his credibility, the testimony this week does the defense have no option but to put on the stand in what do you think? >> little to no chance we will see zimmerman on the stand. some of the witnesses, the

prosecution witnesses, particularly one neighbor, who said i saw zimmerman underneath trayvon marten in what looked like a fight did a lot to help defense's case which, of course is based on self-defense. >> so he doesn't need then to be put on the stand you think or could a crisis come forth? >> i think it's fair to say we won't see zimmerman on the stand what we likely will see on friday though, emotional testimony from trayvon martin's mother, so the prosecution ends its case with an appeal to this all-women jury. >> that a very powerful. does that leave for the defense to start its case on monday? >> the defense may decide to count we are george zimmerman's father, no in fact the voice on that tape is my son. you have got mothers and fathers, high emotion for the jury. >> lisa green, thanks for your assessment. we appreciate that. there has been precious little information about the condition of ailing south african leader, nelson mandela, today, his wife took a moment to thank south africans for their support. >> demonstrations of love, of

care, of support, of hope i take them to heart every single day. >> nbc's ron allen is live outside the hospital there in pretoria, south africa, for us. so ron, i understand there have been visitors and would include president zplum marks he also visited nelson mandela today? >> reporter: it is day 27 of this hospital stay for mandela. you can hear the concern in her voice, eat motion in her voice. she has spent every day by his bedside here at the hospital. and this is the first time that we know that she's actually left and gone to make a public appearance and has spoken and

answered questions about how he is doing. she said at times he is uncomfortable, at times in pain, but he is fine, those were her words, the information we have gotten about nelson mandela. president zuma was here and released a statement saying mandela is critical but stable. that is unclear what that means, where he has been at a week or more. his condition downgraded to that. but one point, family members saying he had improved from stable but critical but those are the words that we continue to hear. we believe that he is on life support, at least as far as his breathing is concerned. that's the underlying -- the main problem he has is a respiratory infection. we do know that. and the vigil, as you can see behind me and across the country and aroundal around the world continues. >> we thank you for your vij jones on this story, ron allen

in pretoria for us. the essence festival is kicking off in new orleans. this year, more about music and parties. we have a look inside the free clinic reaching people without health care. that's up next. 18 percent? 20? new purina one true instinct has 30. active dogs crave nutrient-dense food. so we made purina one true instinct. learn more at purinaone.com where over seventy-five percent of store management started as i'm the next american success story. working for a company hourly associates. there's opportunity here. i can use walmart's education benefits to get a degree, maybe work in it, or be an engineer, helping walmart conserve energy. even today, when our store does well, i earn quarterly bonuses. when people look at me, i hope they see someone working their way up. vo: opportunity, that's the real walmart.

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♪ well, the music proves it. no one throws a party like new orleans. this week the biggest party will be at the annual essence festival. it's not all about the big names and concerts. this is about giving back. joining me from new orleans is nbc's mara sciavacampo. can we talk about the health care clinic under way servicing so many who aren't getting proper care? >> reporter: they refer to it as a party with a purpose. we are in new orleans for fourth of july week. you have fun events going on. msnbc partnered with the health care organization to give back.

for the first time this year msnbc is the official broadcast partner for essence. a lot of our shows will be broadcast from here. we are putting finishing touches on that. msnbc had a day-long free health clinic with the association of free and charitable clinics. that was a day long event where people could come get the care they needed. that is important anywhere. but it carries extra weight in a state like louisiana. you know, a lot of the health care infrastructure here was damaged in hurricane katrina. they are still getting back up to speed in the wake of that disaster. louisiana is one of a number of states that will be rejecting medicaid expansion under obama care. it is estimated 23% of adults here are unsured compared to 18% nationally. it was a challenge to fill the

need. to the rest of the event you can see there is construction going on. you might be able to hear that. they are still getting things finished and ready to go. the official kick off is tomorrow. it is estimated 90,000 people will come to new orleans for the party with a purpose during the day. what they describe as an empowerment experience. panels, serious issues like gun violence, health, jobs and the like. at night it's time for the party. you have performances from a number of artists including jill scott, maxwell, new edition and the one i'm most looking forward to, mrs. carter, the queen b of them all, beyonce. you have a lot going on. it's important from a tourism perspective. in 2009 it was estimated the city got 90 million dollars worth of oh tourism money here. it is important this time of year because this is a traditionally slow period with the weather, heat and humidity in july discourages people from coming but fortunately not the essence festival attendees.

>> i think you and beyonce would make a dynamic duo. come together, be best friendses and tell us about it. >> i have my leotard ready. >> thanks. msnbc has special coverage tomorrow and throughout the weekend. tune in for that. stick with us today. we have a lot more for you this morning. we'll have a live report from egypt where supporters of the ousted president vow to fight back and the search for snowden. his options for asylum are running out oh. . want younger looking eyes that say wow? with olay, here's how. new regenerist eye and lash duo. the cream smooths the look of lids... softens the look of lines. the serum instantly thickens the look of lashes. see wow! eyes in just one week with olay.

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wait a sec! i found our colors. we've made a decision. great, let's go get you set up... we need brushes. you should check out our workshops... push your color boundaries while staying well within your budget walls. i want to paint something else. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the the home depot. right now get $5 off one-gallon cans and $20 off five-gallon buckets of select paints and stains hey, happy birthday, america. it's the fourth of july. today i'm on the east coast. 7:00 a.m. on the west coast. our top story is about the power shift in egypt. a new acting head of state is sworn in. is this a victory for democracy? we take you live to tahrir square. ready to wrap up? the latest evidence from prosecutors in george zimmerman's trial centers on his school studies as the defense

team gets ready for their turn. and welcome back. the statue of liberty ready to greet visitors again for the first time since super storm sandy. we begin in egypt. the new interim president was sworn in and the arrest of the top two leaders in the muslim brotherhood has been ordered. here's the latest. >> reporter: the news that the prosecutor here in kay row ordered the arrest of the top two leaders will get a lot of people anxious though the release announced was specific to the incident that took place on sunday outside the headquarters of the muslim brotherhood in which at least eight people were killed. because of that incident that's what led the cairo prosecutor to issue the arrest warrant. given the climate of anxiety

that gripped moor morsi and the brotherhood many think this is the crack down many don't want to see against the muslim brotherhood. but the whereabouts of them has not been made clear at this point. two others have already been arrested on charges that are separate from the political developments that unfolded here last night. all of this is building the atmosphere of anxiety we were talking about. things are getting back to normal in tahrir and the palace protests have subsided in the last couple of hours as protesters felt their demands last night had been met. >> as we look at images now from egypt earlier and tahrir square images it's much more desolate now than it wases as we get a wider shot coming in of the protesters that have now gone back to their lives.

what do we know about the appointment, what the military is going to do about is structure that's necessary to move forward to allow people once again to go to the polls to elect someone. >> the road map has not necessarily stipulated the time frame of elections. we know now they have suspended the constitution. it's a very controversial constitution there. they have also effectively allowed for the desolution of oh parliament. what we expect to happen in the next couple of months the is the new interim president sworn in this morning will have two major responsibilities. one create a caretaker government and satisfy the opposition as well as the muslim brotherhood but, two, put in place the mechanism that would pave the way for new elections, both parliamentary and presidential. before even getting to the elections, they have to amend the constitution and that's going to be done by a group of

experts, as we understand it, that would design new naemt amendmentses to the constitution, one that all the parties can agree on. that will take time. keep in mind the military will have an influence and a watchful eye on the developments. >> all right. thank you, sir. appreciate it. joining me now, ambassador dennis ross, former special assistant to president obama and counselor with the institute for near east policy and being an analyst. also the director -- deputy director of the women in foreign policy program at the council on foreign relations. she's the author of the dress maker of khair khana. we know the situation has been certainly fluid over the last 24 hours. the muslim brotherhood leaders are being sought. is the military trying to get to these guys now so there is not any type of insurgency bid born out of this?

>> i think what's going on is they are trying to create a level of control to make it difficult for leaders of the muslim brotherhood to create a violent reaction. we have to the see what happens over the next days and weeks. this is a shock for the muslim brotherhood. they were in opposition for 80 years, come to power. they were inseptember because they sought control more than governance and now have either. it's going to produce a strong impulse for them to do something and now the military, i think, will try to control that while also trying to create an air of normalcy by appointing an interim president, no doubt having an interim cabinet emerge soon. i think it is very much in the military interest to get a date certain pick for when elections will take place. that together with the draftsing of the constitution could show a serious effort to produce political transition. >> what we are watching out of this democracy process is

basically buyers' re morse. now we start from scratch for egyptian people. one problem -- not only did they find morsi or the muslim brotherhood not to include a secular vision for the country but they really didn't provide the road map to an economic stability. so explain where we are with the egyptian economy. that's what people are really fed up about. they have no future in terms of relying on finding work and building a life in their country. >> that is absolutely the question. if you have generation frustration now, you have a country where unemployment is up 4% since the revolution to 13%. three-quarters of the unemployed are young people. it takes three years for young people to find a job. even then so many young people have to go overseas to get a job

that pays them a living wage. young people trying to get married find prices rising against them. gas is hard to find. the currency is dpreech y depreciating. you have a dream of oh a life in at that timers. people are going to the streets, talking about wanting something different, wanting to be part of leading change. they have led folks back to tahrir square not once but twice. >> now that we look at the ambassador and the fact that people are using their voices again to effect change how can a future leaderer of egypt govern effectively knowing there is a kill switch in the voices of the egyptian people. there is the possibility of a popular upridesing. the military comes in, take oefrs and they clean the decks. >> it's hard to escape the possibility that this is a precedent. on the other hand, we also need to take a step back.

you have had what amounts to an awakening of citizens. you have replaced old authoritarianism with new. people weren't prepared to have their voices silent. any new leadership realizes they have to dry to deliver the goods which won't be simple given the economic circumstances. if you start with the premise that there will be an inclusive approach to kbov nance and that means including islamists but not having them run everything, but a sense of inclusiveness where every segment of society is somehow involved or at least isn't excluded createses the possibility of at least a public feeling. all right, there is an effort made now to respond to us. what we have seen is not just that people go to the streets. but if people feel their voice isn't heard they are not shy about making certain that it will be. >> we are looking at tahrir square. we can see how much it emptied.

we were just getting used to morsi at least within the obama administration here. egypt certainly is a huge ally to the united states. pivotal to our security needs within the middle east. so what does this mean to what we get next? the policy implications moving forward for the middle east? >> it's interesting. egypt went from being a critical ally to the united states which it is to being a major foreign policy headache. an administration that's been trying to figure out what exactly to do about the war in syria as ambassador ross and i talked about previously. this is an administration that really wants to focus on nation building but it thoos focus on what comes next. this region is volatile. there are a number of ways this could go in a direction which would not help american interests. the question now is how do you use what little leverage the united states has in terms of

getting to a place where, as ambassador ross talked about elections, elections are called, you have a level of stability. can an american voice have an influence? that's an open question in terms of how much influence it can have. >> we have to look at this as a glass half full. ambassador, gail, thank you for being here. i appreciate your insights. straight now to the white house. joining me from there is peter alexander. certainly there are a lot of balls in the air for egypt. how is the president, the administration addressing the issues of what comes next? again in this burgeoning democracy that we have been witnessing it try to be born. now it's back to square one. >> we know the white house has been moving gingerly working through the process carefully. that includes the language, the statement put out by the white house late yesterday. on that, i want to focus on the information that was reported a moment ago, the egyptian prosecutor calling for the

arrests of some of the supreme leader of the muslim brotherhood and others who were arrested as well. the president's statement yesterday in addition to expressing deep concern about the egyptian military to remove president morsi from power and suspend the egyptian constitution the president called on the egyptian military to, quote, avoid arbitrary arrests of president morsi and his supporters right now. the biggest challenge for the white house is exactly what does now happen in this vacuum that exists there. they are hoping the military will as soon as possible transition to a democratically elected civilian government in that country. the entire issue raises other significant issues for the united states. more than 1.5 billion dollars. the president asked for the implications of that to be reviewed by the departments and

agencies in this country. if a coup takes place in a foreign country, by u.s. law, u.s. aid has to be suspended. if the u.s. doesn't call it a coup but it is viewed as such they would be in a tough position to shut it down. >> has anyone given direction of whether morsi is more sharmal sheikh bound or mubarak bound with the potential for being behind bars? >> that's a good question. we have heard very little about it. the u.s. has been so focused on the guy on his way out than whoever it will be on his way in. the u.s. relationship has been stronger with the military than the civilian government. the relationships go way back including over the course of the week. conversations between the u.s. secretary of defense chuck hagel and his counterpart. general martin dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff

having a conversation with his counterpart in egypt as well. what happens to morsi and what the u.s. says going forward, we have heard nothing on that. >> peter, happy fourth. >> and to you. >> misery loves company, working on holidays. >> good to see you, thomas. >> the prosecution, we'll talk about that. it could be wrapping up the case in the george zimmerman trial. we'll break that down and more next. vo: traveling you definitely end up meeting a lot more people but a friend under water is something completely different. i met a turtle friend today so, you don't get that very often. it seemed like it was more than happy to have us in his home. so beautiful. avo: more travel. more options. more personal. whatever you're looking for expedia has more ways to help you find yours. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms.

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we turn our attention now to the george zimmerman trial in sanford, florida, where the state may be close to wrapping up. court is in recess today but on wednesday jurors heard testimony from zimmerman's former college professors about classeses he took on florida's self-defense and stand your ground laws as well as evidence about his application to the prince william county, virginia, police

department. joining me now from miami is kendall kauffi. interesting week as we get a respite. do you think the state has done a good job proving the case and was that testimony almost a smoking gun of what zimmerman's knowledge was about florida law? >> i think the prosecution has accomplished three things. they have convinced the jury subject to the defense case that it was zimmerman following martin, rather than martin jumping out of the bush. zimmerer man probably exaggerated the injuries. they weren't really significant and the prosecution is scoring points on this theme of wannabe cop which suggested not only was zimmerman perhaps willing to take the law into his own hands but he learned the issues well enough to create a cover story

if he had to. the prug has done well. >> mark o'mara said he isn't sure if he'll put george zimmerman on the stand to testify. do you think he needs to at this point? we have seen george zimmerman at least in the video depositions, video interrogations, his voice has been heard. >> his voice has been heard and a stanford police officer said zimmerman's different accounts for credible. the judge structuinstructed theo ignore that he was truthful but the jury heard it. i don't think they want to put george zimmerman on the stand. everything they have accomplished disappears the moment george zimmerman takes the stand. it becomes a one witness trial. if the jury doesn't believe george zimmerman he's facing conviction. >> isn't it featherses to the wind? you can't get it back. the jury has heard what his opinion was about the testimony

or the story accounts of george zimmerman. why didn't the prosecution jump up that day to object to that as opposed to coming back the following day to then pose their objection oh to that testimony? >> i think they were surprised. i think they thought is he re that would put the pieces together to show zimmerman's discrepancies amounted to untruthfulness which amounted to a cover up. instead i think it was more helpful to the defense than the prosecution. they were caught off guard. whatever recovery they did the next day probably didn't undo the damage. >> when we think about the case of the prosecution wrapping up, we have not heard from the parents of trayvon martin. do you think that will be how the prosecution and if you were running the case would close it out? >> i think so. the prosecution wants to end on a strong point. they will put the medical examiner to bring back the dramatic gripping evidence of

fatal wounds to trayvon martin and what more emotional finale could there be than to put on the mother of trayvon martin. who will not only project a mother's ultimate grief but also say it was trayvon martin's voice crying for help and that 911 tape which the jury has heard and continues to think about. >> she's said all along that's her son's voice. we'll see how it plays out. thank you, sir. happy fourth. >> and to you. >> want to take you back to live pictures of tahrir square. much more upheaval in egypt is coming. while things remain calm now there are lots of big questions ahead as they lay out a road map for how to get democracy back on course. we are back after this. and i have a massive heart attack right in my driveway. the doctor put me on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. go talk to your doctor. you're not indestructible anymore. go talk to your doctor. southfork ranch in dallas for a cookout with world champion grill master brett galloway.

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happy birthday! it's a painting easel! the tide's coming in! this is my favorite one. it's upside down. oh, sorry. (woman vo) it takes him places he's always wanted to go. that's why we bought a subaru. (announcer) love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. welcome back. the white house monitoring the fast-oh moving developmentses in egypt where a military coup ousted morsi. the president issued a carefully

crafted statement saying, quote, we are deeply concerned by the decision of the egyptian armed forces to remove president morsi and suspend the egyptian constitution. i now call on the egyptian military to move quickly and responsibly to move full authority back to a democratically elected civilian government as soon as possible. politico reporter byron tow and david nakamora join us. a lot of fast moving parts with what's happening in egypt and certainly with our coverage may have caught bepeople by surprise knowing it was coming to a head. the white house having more advanced reflections or indications, excuse me, of what's happening here. obviously if we reflect to what happened to get rid of mubarak it was similar to that. this happened quicker. is it fair to say, david, that the president is being cautious in his response because mainly we have known how the military operates because they had power

longer after mubarak was out than we have known morsi. >> i was on the africa trip. he was preoccupied with the situation. asked twice about what was going on in egypt as he was trying to focus attention in africa. he was behind the scenes. made a call to morsi a day before the intervention took place. the president tried to express concern that he include oh obviously more of the public concerns in some big gesture to put off any kind of military interjection. that didn't work. the next day this happened. i think the white house going forward, it is a big test. you showed a photo of the situation room. you have chuck hagel. you have other officials who this would be their first big test. what they are trying to do is not call it a coup. they are hoping, as peter alexander said, as quickly as possible the military will call for new elections and go with a

democratic process. the president doesn't necessarily support morsi but the democratic process. >> that's the interesting thing. the democratic process doesn't allow for buyers remorse. then the military intercedes. the vermont democrat patrick leahy heads up a senate subcommittee overseeing foreign aid saying the committee has to review the future aid. a lot of taxpayer dollars go to egypt. it's a huge ally of the u.s. if the u.s. government determines a coup happened that country is poised to lose aid. that's a fine line we saw the white house and administration walk yesterday. beg very cautious, calling the

situation fluid but not using the magic word that would trigger a loss of u.s. aid and something that would be economically crippling to egypt's delicate economy. >> when we talk about the next move for the administration, how do they respond to the ouster. you pointed out they want to be careful saying it is not a military coup, that this was the will of the people and the military responded to that. how do we define a timeline. >> they will have different agencieses review tole call off aid, suspend aid. if they decide the government is governing too long. that buys the administration time. there will be a lot of pressure for the president to sort of weigh in and make it clear to

military leaders if they have a temporary president in place that the military needs to move forward. behind the scenes you will see pressure to help them come up with new constitutional language and a structure to move forward with elections. >> obviously the foreign issue is front burner in washington, d.c. there have been bigger fish to fry. let's talk about the immigration overhaul. the delay in the fact that we have not gotten more movement from the house now that the senate has voted to move it over, what do you suspect will happen? >> they question strongly saying the senate bill isn't their bill and they will.

but there are major interests -- tech lobby, business groups. >> the other issue is the problem with what's going on with president obama's administration announcing they didn't announce the employer mandator for aca will be pushed back to 2015. is that a fair observation object this? >> you could probably look at it two ways. in a large way it is a set-back. there's been a lot of planning. the business lobby was saying, hey, this is a complex law. we need more time. we don't want to rush it. ultimately that's what the obama administration decided was

right. it may have in some ways if you look at it from the other point of view for the administration. that would be a bigger problem because of republicans a lot of ammunition to say we were right. this is not working. we need time to -- we need to try to find another way and roll it back which they have been saying for a long time. now you will buy more time. therefore, the administration could maybe work with the business groups to find a better way to implement this and save them the bigger headache going to the 2014 elections. >> does it also help out the health care exchanges for the ones that haven't been set up? it buys them more time. >> absolutely. this is a huge sweeping overhaul. >> president obama wants to enact this or get it in place for the long haul and get started.

of course it's an extremely -- 2000-page bill. you really have to work through it. we'll see as we go forward whether it can be one setback after another or whether it's five, six months it looks like it will be a better go a year from now. >> thanks for joining me. happy fourth to you. >> thank you. a striking new development in the search for a missing girl on vacation with her family in portugal. what scotland yard says about the case of madeleine mccann next. aren't healthy unless you actually eat them ♪ multigrain cheerios. also available in delicious peanut butter. healthy never tasted so sweet.

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i'm gonna have to ask you to power down your little word game. i think your friends will understand. oh...no, it's actually my geico app...see? ...i just uh paid my bill. did you really? from the plane? yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geico 24/7. sounds a little too good to be true sir. i'll believe that when pigs fly. ok, did she seriously just say that? geico. just a click away with our free mobile app. new developments this morning in the 2007 disappearance of oh 3-year-old madeleine mccann. a top investigator with scotland yard believes there ises a possibility that mccann may be alive. there are 38 potential suspectses in five downries. mccann's parents said in 2007 they left her asleep in the apartment in portugal when they

had dinner with friends. when they returned she was gone. want to bring in clint van zandt. let me read a statement on this. the investigator said we have new thinking, new theories, new evidence and new witnesses to pursue. it is a positive step in our hunt for madeleine that our understanding of the evidence has enabled us to shift from a review to an investigation. why is there new hope? >> scotland yard is one of the best investigative forces. they have almost 40 officers assigned to this. they have reviewed 30,000 documents. they are getting permission to come over to participate in a new investigation. almost 40 so-called persons of interest. those are good things.

the bad thing is this investigation was mishandled from day one. the evidence gathering, those who watch csi on television know how carefully you have to gather evidence. there are suggestions that perhaps some evidence when it was gathered at the scene days later that investigatorses may have smoking at the time and ashes from the cigarette fell into the bag with evidence. those things you can't fix. you can't replace. but the investigator is burning up shoe leather to identify the person or persons responsible. that investigation can still go forward. >> the parents have been ruled out as suspects here. kate and gerry mccann. >> yeah. >> for their emotional, psychological benefit how tough is this on parents? is this the hope they are looking for? this has been such a long process for the family. >> well, it has been.

until you get closure which becomes a dirty word if it doesn't bring about the return of the child. but as you suggest, it's been six years now. these parents have never given up hope. these parents have never given up hope they will get their child back. the best case scenario is some loving couple who couldn't have a child either themselves or paid somebody to kidnap her. and she's being held in a loving family situation. otherwise it's too terrible to think about. >> that would be the best case scenario. >> we'll continue it as new developments are helping to re emerge hope in the case. thank you, sir. i appreciate it. the search for edward snowden seems to get stranger by the day. the bolivian president is now back home after his plane was grounded amid suspicion he was

hiding snowden and ecuador and venezuela are backing away from asylum offers made. here's the latest from moscow. >> reporter: snowden wasn't on board either the bolivian or the venezuelan president's jet after officials left moscow following a two-day energy summit here. snowden is believed to be under guard in a specialized hotel wing in the transit zone of the airport. he's been there for 12 days now by our account, trying to figure out what he can do next, where he can go especially since he doesn't have a u.s. passport. his options have clearly been narrowed. ecuador just last week seemed to

be the driving force behind asylum for meanwhile the bolivian presidential plane that was diverted to vienna is back in bolivia and president morales lost no time in blaming the u.s. for the whole incident saying it was not only an attack on him but a, quote, provocation to all of latin america. today a group of south american nations are meeting to decide what they can do next. expertses are telling us that it's unlikely to change america's determination for one thing now.

one goal. that's to get snowden back to the u.s. to face justice. thomas? >> jim, thank you. the wife of nelson mandela said today the 94-year-old south african leader is sometimes uncomfortable but rarely in pain. mandela is in critical condition after being admitted to the hospital. ron allen is live for us in south africa. what more can you tell us about mandela 's condition. >> she said her husband is doing fine which is about as much detail as we have received over the past number of weeks that we have been here. it's unclear exactly what that really means.

sarnl with mandela, the government, his family, everyone involved are trying to handle this in as dignified a fashion as possible. the bottom line is it will be a month come july 8 he will have been in the hospital. he was raced to the hospital. he's been stable and critical. that's really all we know. it was the first time since the hospitalization began. it was unusual to be away. she said he's comfortable and fine and because she would leave suggest there was no urgency in the situation.

we seal' what happens here. the vigil continues. there are people offering prayers, support and waiting for word. >> we can see the crowd of well wishers. ron, thank you very much. appreciate it. specifically for your gas tax. how to weather the volatile market. suggestions coming up next. ♪ for a strong bag that grips the can... get glad forceflex. small change, big difference. wait a sec! i found our colors. we've made a decision. great, let's go get you set up... we need brushes. you should check out our workshops... push your color boundaries while staying well within your budget walls. i want to paint something else. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the the home depot. right now get $5 off one-gallon cans and $20 off five-gallon

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florida is an area we could end up with three to five inches of rain over the course of the next 48 hours. you see most of the heavy rain is from ohio into florida and the gulf coast. if the fireworks go off and the smoke gets stuck in the air it will almost ruin its own show as the smoke stays and lingers in place. also where we have the heat advisories and warnings in the southwest although this area is diminish i diminishing. with high pressure in control it will be very dry that way with isolated pop-up thunderstorms.

seattle should be comfortable. the southwest is still hot. the middle of the country is looking good from minneapolis into dallas where temperatures will be in the 80s and 90s. the rain will fall through ohio. heavy through kentucky and tennessee with three to five inches of rain possible. it will be hot and humid in the northeast but dry for fireworks later this evening. thomas? >> good news for me. the political turmoil sent the price of oil to over $100 a barrel. that's the high est after three straight weeks of decline. great to have you here. happy 4th. let's talk about this. right now as we look at gas prices, the average is $3.48 a gallon.

14 cents cheaper than a year ago. a lot of people, that adds up. they like it. we could see prices creep up though if oil prices get more volati volatile. >> basically according to the consumer spending index the consumers are usually spending 6 to 13% more during the summer months. the price of oil increases but an lis expect it to go up to $112 a barrel. maybe $120 if the political unrest continues in egypt. that's going to have a severe impact on our gasoline prices. so we can expect that if the unrest continues. but, you know, if things remain peaceful and elections happen in a peaceful way it may not really have the big impact on gasoline prices. >> most likely in the short term we don't have the road map figured out yet. any of the savingses we have

seen over the past three weeks could we see it evaporate by labor day? >> absolutely. it might be temporary. and the consumer can sustain it. if we have the long-term gas prices for months long and people won't go ahead. they will pull back and we'll see problems. >> let's look at wall street whiches has been jumpy since the fed announced the program. we had a strong june until the end there. now we have rebounded to the point of july. we are seeing volatility here. the cboe index. we saw it hit a low point in march. it went back up to 20.3, right around 16.3 now which is still high. this is what i'm telling people.

they should either buy bargains at this point because you are seeing the volatility with the job market. >> love bargains. >> or just ignore it which people tend to do because it's so -- >> don't look. >> right. those with a strong stomach could buy and sell. i told people to have cash reserves to make sure if a trade goes awry you can cover that. >> one thing to point out because certain people are skeptical about the stock market. there is a billionaire who is remaining bullish. came on cnbc to you can talk ab >> if you invest in the stock market we think you will double your money in ten years and double it again in ten years after that. we are thinking of the dow being 30,000 in ten years and 60,000 in 20 years. >> 60,000 in 20 years. psychologically we are at the point where we like to see it above 15,000. >> of course. everyone would. he might have a point here. he does run a fund that's over

$20 billion. he's one of the strongest investors out there. he takes a strategy that's similar to warren buffett but he es's holding onto stocks. if you see the trend of the stock market back in 2009 we were trading around 6,000. now we are around 15,000. considerably in 20 years we may see it go that high. this is a strategy for people that want to hang on to stocks and watch them grow. >> i like the way he thinks. tomorrow people anticipating the jobs numbers. by got an early advance prediction they could be above 180. >> the current number is 6.9% unemployment rate. people -- analysts expect that to go down to 7.5. the problem is interest rates that bernanke instilled. if unemployment drops interest

rates may pull back and go higher. this is a cause and effect situation here. if interest rates rise people won't want to spend more, go out and buy houses. so analysts are on oh the fence. yes, we want lower unemployment but we also don't want people not to go out and buy houses and spend. >> great to have you here. happy 4th. >> coming up she's a sill boll of the nation's freedom. lady liberty on our nation's birthday. eight months after super storm sandy came crashing ashore, closing the doors there. but happy to tell you lady liberty is re-opening. we'll take you over. duce from walmart and secretly served it up in the heart of peach country. it's a fresh-over. we want you to eat some peaches and tell us what you think. they're really juicy. it must have just come from the farm. this right here is ideal for me. walmart works directly with growers to get you the best quality produce they've ever had. what would you do if i told you all this produce is from walmart? wow! is it really?

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welcome back, everybody. there is mayor of new york city mike bloomberg talking about the ceremony today to commemorate the re-opening of the statue of liberty. lady liberty was injured during super storm sandy some eight months ago. but on july 4th america's birthday, we celebrate lady

liberty. she'll be re-opened to the public. nbc's katy tur known as lady liberty. it looks great. so many people out to celebrate. what a fantastic way to do it with the re-opening. >> such a perfect day to do it. the weather is nice. hot and muggy, but people are excited to be here. want to give you an idea. we are a hop, skip and a jump from manhattan. that's the skyline over the harbor. we are on liberty island. it was closed for eights months after sandy. just too much damage. torn up sidewalks, to the docks were messed up. there was flooding. luckily lady liberty was completely un-st. catharinesed looking as glorious as ever but ellis island in the distance over there is still heavily damaged. $59 million in damage between ellis and liberty island. ellis island is still closed, unfortunately. they hope to get it back up and running this year. about 15,000 people are expected

to come here to say hole lo to the gatekeeper of the united states. she's 126 years old. >> it's fun to see this re-opening after being closed for eights months. thank you very much. see you soon. history in egypt and now uncertainty about the future of the country. a live report from cairo on a new day and their new interim government. re. [ whirring ] [ dog barks ] i want to treat more dogs. ♪ our business needs more cases. [ male announcer ] where do you want to take your business? i need help selling art. [ male announcer ] from broadband to web hosting to mobile apps, small business solutions from at&t have the security you need to get you there. call us. we can show you how at&t solutions can help you do what you do... even better.

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inside the only 3 chamber laundry detergent. ♪ now, here you go, let it go ♪ ooh ♪ 'cause it's a bright light stain fighting, cleaning, and brightening... in tide pods. pop in. stand out. hi, everybody. good morning. we send a special happy birthday to america via this beauty shot of lay the di liberty. lady liberty and liberty island are re-opening to the public after being closed for eight months. it's great for people coming to the city that want to get there and celebrate on this fourth of

july holiday. it's 11:00 a.m. on the east coast. great to have you here. we start with the new beginning in egypt with the new acting head of state. was this a victory for democracy or mob rule? there are new questions about dna and the george zimmerman trial. does that help or hurt his self-defense claim? and they are a staple of any fourth of july celebration. before you head out to the fireworks we have to tell you about something first. major policy questions for the white house in . after meeting with his national security team in the situation room president obama issued a statement last night saying the u.s. doesn't support particular parties but rather the democratic process. joining me now is peter alexand alexander. how is the white house interpreting this? they don't want to send the wrong message that this was a military coup, especially since democracy