for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen. breaking news right now on "andrea mitchell reports" -- william and kate on the move. they're in the car but where are they going? we're on the royal baby watch. does anybody think it is okay to have 40-year-old trees growing through the roofs of dlab taed houses? does anybody think our children

should walk home in the dark in october? does anybody think they should be able to call the police and they not be out on time because of the calls? >> busted. detroit becomes the largest city in u.s. history to file for bankruptcy. how long has this gone on and people had not stopped to say stop kicking the can down the road and do something? we are doing something. >> account once booming motor city come back from the brink? public workers there are depending on it. >> my husband and i have no source of income coming in because we're both retired police from the city of detroit. we would lose everything. from rock star cover to fugitive on the run. in a response to that controversial "rolling stone" cover, a massachusetts police sergeant releases dramatic new pictures of the boston bombing s expect in his final moments as a fugitive. a wrestler from azerbaijan

gets groovy after beating his russian opponent. >> good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. we begin with breaking news. we are on the royal baby watch. we think william and kate are on the move but are they on the way to the hospital? nbc's keir simmons is live for us in london. what do we know? >> reporter: well, we understand that kate and william have left where kate has been for the last few days with her mother. that's her family home that they have left there and that they appear to be heading towards london. we don't know where exactly they are heading for. this we think is around about the due date, mid-july. we heard from camilla that she hinted that perhaps the baby might be due by the end of this week. of course we also heard from the queen suggesting she'd like to see the baby born by the end of next week. so this appears to be around

about the time but what we don't know is where kate and william are heading to. are they heading to the hospital or are they heading to kensington palace where it has been widely believed they will spend the last few days waiting for kate to go into labor. those two places are very close to each other. where they are coming from now, it is about an hour from london. if they are going to kensington palace, perhaps to be closer to the hospital, just a ten-minute drive away and preparing for this baby to be born. >> thanks so much keir simmons. as all expectant parents know there is no way of predicting. thanks again, we'll stay on top of all this. in detroit, michigan, once the heart of the nation's industrial revolution, it has of course fallen into financial ruin after a long, slow decline. the city has now filed for chapter 9 marking the largest municipal bankruptcy in u.s. history. joining me now from detroit, cnbc's brian sullivan. brian, what are the roots of this? this is long in coming. was there any way to forestall

this or is this really the best option left for detroit? >> well, it's going to have a natural forestall period any way. there is a 30 to 90-day petition. it has been filed. whether or not that's accepted by the courts does have a brief period. but the roots of this problem, to your question, are years of decline. a lot of people moving out. tax base is strong. costs have gone up. it is a pretty simple formula. here's detroit by the numbers. there are so many numbers so i just plucked out a couple i thought most poignant. $18 billion, maybe even $20 billion in obligations. a deficit of over $300 million a year. over 100,000 creditors, people owed money by the city of detroit. those are organizations, entities, people, et cetera, that are on the books. tax revenue is not being collected. over 76,000 abandoned structures and that, i am told, is a low estimate. instead of just talking about the numbers the last couple hours we went out by ourselves,

went into the brightmore section, one of the hardest hit. used to be vibrant, blue collar middle class suburb build on the back of the auto industry. the scenes are shocking. we walked around streets where homes were abandoned. next door there would be a family living there. homes are being torn down to try to clear out some blight which leads to crime. it is a very dangerous situation for those folks still there. we got to talk with a couple of people there. nobody wanted to be on camera but they put their chins up and said, hey, detroit's been in drubl for a while. we're a tough city, we'll come through this. hopefully you can see the scenes in detroit, probably worse than you might expect. i had to bring them to your show and to america because i think everybody across america deserves to see that this city has been struggling for a while. needs some help. >> we're showing your pictures now. it is truly shocking. i've spent a lot of time in detroit over the years, in and out of detroit for stories but

i've never seen anything quite as devastated as what you are showing. just the decline of this once great city. what about future options? we've seen stories, very positive stories about the high-tech industry trying to get a foothold and change it, the way pittsburgh an or industrial rust belt cities have changed and transformed themselves can new industry coming in, the medical community in pittsburgh in particular. >> it is hard probably to see. there is a company back there called galaxy solutions a couple blocks down. they actually just closed up their call center in india and are moving back back here. they're hiring downtown because it's become now less expensive for them to do business here than in india because the rents are basically so cheap. the plan -- listen. i was shocked talking to everybody on the street. they welcome the bankruptcy, for the most part. now pensions will be the problem. nobody wants their pensions cut and nobody deserves to have their pensions cut. but the people here know the structural problems, the deficits they face with such a

declining population are not going to be fixed organically. you just aren't going to get the number of people to move back here. this is the fourth biggest city in america 60 years ago. population's declined by more than half. with that the tax base. by some measures an average of one home on every block in a 77-block area. this is a physically very large city -- is paying taxes. the people you talk to say why aren't you paying taxes? they say i'm not getting services. they're not getting services because they're not paying any taxes so you have this downward spiral. one of the most powerful and sad stats i can garner from this is that the average call time, andrea, if you dial 911 in most cities, average call time for the police is 11 minutes. in detroit, the average call file is 58 minutes. average age after firestation here is 80 years old. i talk to the fire department today. even if you had the money to buy

a new truck, most of them wouldn't fit in the stations because they're too old and they're too small. the city's got a lot of challenges ahead. it is going to go to the courts and this is going to be a big story for a long, long time. >> brian sullivan, thank you so much for your reporting. david axelrod is an nbc news and msnbc seen dwror little bni analyst. david, thank you very much. this is a tragedy, an american tragedy. i think of detroit and i think of the whole southern migration north and the opportunity in the auto industry obviously. and what detroit meant to all of us. we know how this happened but what's the fix and what is the role of the federal government? >> first, as i listened to brian's report i thought about my own experience back in the early '90s. i work with dennis archer who was the mayor of detroit.

bhe when he was running for that office in 1993 we drove around the city and i saw all these abandoned homes and all these signs of blight. i said do you really want this job? because already these signs were very alarming. and the fact, andrea -- and you spoke to it -- the boom of detroit wag built around one industry -- the auto industry. even when the industry was doing well, productivity set in. it takes one worker to do what ten workers used to do in an auto plant today. so the auto industry is coming back but they need fewer workers to do it, certainly fewer blue collar workers. even the workers there need more training to run these robotics in these factories so the town really bore the brunt. population decrease and tax base decreases. one thing, there is a kind of revival in downtown detroit. 90% occupancy.

a lot of young people moving down there. there is a spark, a core that is hopeful but they have a monstrously difficult problem ahead of them in terms of unwinding their financial morass. now in certain ways that doesn't cripple city services or deal a crippling blow sglp the biggest problem with detroit are those ploetd pensions. you have the aging population, auto workers, retired auto workers and o retired public sector workers. think about new orleans and think about the devastation there, lack of infrastructure, police, schools. they had mitch landrieu and other great elected officials in the comeback for new orleans. the civic community like walter isaacson and others who not together and rolled up their sleeves and figured out a twir bring new orleans back stronger and better than ever.

you never say die but detroit really is a huge challenge. >> new orleans got a lot of help. i have great admiration for mitch landrieu. i think he is one of the greatest public officials in the country. i have great admiration for the people of new orleans. the civic community. also got a lot of help because they were pummelled by a natural disaster. detroit's been pummelled by an economic disaster and the hope hasn't been forthcoming for detroit so that's a difference. other thing is new orleans has a great tourist industry. that wasn't truth detroit. as you pointed out to brian, cities need to diversify and bring new industry in. that's going to be the challenge for detroit. they can't be a one-industry town. certainly not the auto industry. >> just a memory of things past, remember the super bowl ad with clint eastwood about detroit and chrysler and the whole notion that we were going to see a revival. and we did see a revival in the auto industry but as you point

out, there's just fewer people needed. want to ask you about chicago. shawn had a downgrade and layoffs. city employees and more than 1,000 teachers apparently as well sp well. so chicago has its challenges. >> a lot of that is the same issue with, public pensions. irresponsible politicians made irresponsible commitments and didn't fund them and now the due bills are coming. the chicago schools face i think it is a $600 billion liability, maybe more and the rating agencies were responding to both the cities -- to the various city pension problems. we have a state legislature that's deadlocked on how to deal with it and it's created a problem. there are a lot of great things going on in chicago. our economy is picking up. we are attracting new businesses and city. but obviously this structural

problem has to be dealt with and i know rahm emanuel, the mayor, is working on that problem and may have to take some draconian steps to try to deal with them if the legislature isn't willing to do what needs to be done. >> when rom eman aahm emanuel i working on civic problems, he's going to events like the taste of chicago. last weekend he was seen as sort of getting into the mood. this is a mayor for all seasons. we do know that he was a dancer before he was in politics -- a real dancer. >> yes, he was. that's where he learned the leg kick and it generally is in someone's midsection but he was a dancer. >> just very quickly wanted to ask you about joe biden and hillary clinton. i interviewed nancy pelosi and we showed yesterday that nancy pelosi was all in basically with hillary clinton. we need a woman, she's the best

qualified. joe biden in his comments to "gq," one of the other things he said was, if you come in to the office i have two portraits hanging. one of jefferson, one of adams, both vice presidents who became presidents. he likes to look at their very satisfied expressions. i joke to myself, i wondered what their portraits look like when this he were vice presidents. >> it is a pretty tough path for joe biden though. with hillary clinton taking up all the oxygen out there, what do you think? >> i think it is very, very unlikely that the two of them would run against each other. biden's play is to wait and see what hillary does. i think if she doesn't run he's got a real shot at that nomination. and he -- but she's holding the cards right now as far as i'm concerned. there's a broad consensus within the democratic party that she -- if she wants to run, that she'll and very strong candidate and likely the nominee. biden must jund understaunderst

well but it is not a guarantee to run so he's smart to keep his options open here because there may be a play. >> david axelrod who's seen it all, including rahm dancing. we'll be right back. g? having some fiber! with new phillips' fiber good gummies. they're fruity delicious! just two gummies have 4 grams of fiber! to help support regularity! i want some... [ woman ] hop on over! [ marge ] fiber the fun way, from phillips'. what makes a sleep number store different? what makes a sleep number you walk into a conventional mattress store, it's really not about you. they say, "well, if you wanted a firm bed you can lie on one of those. if you want a soft bed you can lie on one of those." we provide the exact individualization that your body needs. this is your body there. you can see a little more pressure in the shoulders

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from virginia to iowa and all the way west to wyoming, we have a lot of politics today in our friday round-up. joining me now for our "daily fix," chris cillizza and susan page. susan, first to you. you've been out with the candidates in virginia and you you've got -- could not and greater contrast. tell us what you saw on the campaign trail. >> both campaigns are convinced that the other guy is fatally flawed and couldn't possibly win

an election. we'll see a really negative election. their first debate tomorrow. i assume all of america will be watching. 11:00 a.m. tomorrow, their first debate at the homestead. but i think this is going to be a tough race. it is going to attract a lot of money and it is going to be largely negative. >> not surprising there. speak of largely negative, iowa already. iowa, rand paul, ted cruz arriving in iowa today meeting with republicans and pastors there. what's the play? is that ted cruz emerging now as a potential 2016 candidate? >> i think absolutely, andrea. he is -- we've seen some inklings that he and his people are beginning to look at it. from what i see and hear of the visit thus far, he's gotten what amounts to a rock star re exception there. ted cruz is a charismatic guy. he's someone ideologically who's

going to be in line with a lot of folks who make the decision in the early voting process. he and rand paul are sort of allies in the senate but could end up being opponents -- because gosh knows rand paul wants to run for president, too. see how much they work together in the senate and what that means as they go to iowa, south carolina and beyond. >> and kirsten gillibrand's amendment on chain of command, the prosecution taking those accused of sexual assaults out of the chain of command. finally, what about what he had rollins, former white house political director, long-time republican consultant had to say about liz cheney. >> really, a bored housewife? there are many things can you say about liz cheney. nae's not a bored housewife. she is a lawyer, she was a state department official. congratulations, andrea. you've won the prestigious for the state award from the national press club. i don't think this should show go off the air without me noting

it. >> thank you so much. >> how can i top that? >> the quote from ed rollins tops that. don't you think? i like liz. i've been a long-time friend of her fathers but they will be portrayed as they have been away for a language time a housewife, kind of bored from wyoming. you cannot call liz clean a bored housewife. she is an and the victivist, a i love ed rollins but he is -- >> the thing that i find sort of remarkable about all of this is people are saying well she's ambitious, that's why she's running. yeah, that's why all politicians run for office. this is not unique to her. i still think the fact that she did live in virginia for quite some time, returned to the state last year, that will be an issue but to your point, her resume in my opinion merits consideration. i think that mike enzi is a

favorite to win but she is a serious person who we all know will run a serious candidacicy and will be treated as much. >> deep roots to the carpet bagger allegation that go back into the 19th century. thank you all very much. >> congratulations! >> thank you. thanks, susan page. coming up next, we have michigan governor rick snyder and detroit's emergency manager both. we'll be right back. i have low testosterone. there, i said it.

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decline. joining me now, the two men leading the charge to reset detroit's economy, michigan's governor rick snyder and kevin orr. governor, what is the path back? how do you reset, get approval and get detroit back on the road to recovery? >> i really appreciate that question, andrea, because that's what this is all about. this is a last resort, something i would have preferred to avoid. but now that it is here, this is the way to solve the problem. this is about 60 years of decline. 60 years in many cases of kick being the can down the road, not being realistic to solve the major problem, which are debt. even more importantly than the debt question, there is an opportunity now to say how do we get better services to citizens? they deserve it. there's 58-minute response times

on police calls. that's absolutely unacceptable. in the big picture there are a lot of wonderful things going none detroit in terms of the business community, young people moving in to detroit. being excite things going on outside of city government. we need to resolve this issue with city government and detroit. that's the last obstacle to saying now we can grow detroit. we can get back to being the great city it deserves to be again and that's critically important to making michigan a great state again. >> kevin orr, is there any way to do this without addressing the pension issue, the unfunded liabilities and all of though pensions to retirees and to those who are city workers and others who have a huge investment in this and are afraid about their future? >> well, andrea, we want to do this one time. this has been a long time coming. pensions have been at the forefront more acutely in the past eight years when we

borrowed $1.5 billion supposedly to fix the pension issue in 2005. what we've done under the doctrine in bankruptcy of secured parties an unsecured is say we're going to treat both classes of creditors completely, secured gets paid in full, but unfortunately because of the dire circumstances and magnitude of the debt we simply can't treat all unsecured as being paid in full. they'll all have to participate in some form of adjustment and that includes pensions. that's only though for the unfunded portion of those pension funds. these two pension funds, general services an police and fire, have assets. we are just talking about the unfunded portion. >> but that still means people are going to have to take a haircut. >> it may. some of the pension funds may be better funded than others so i may have disparity in terms of the magnitude of the haircut but we have to address these issues, andrea. we can't keep borrowing, kicking the can down the road, deferring our pay. we deferred over $100 million this year in payments to the pensions that we were supposed

to make to use that money to run city services. we can't engage in these practices any longer. >> one of the problems, governor, one of the big problems is the erosion of the tax base. you have a city that was 2 million people. down to 700,000. you've got vacant homes. we saw brian sullivan brought back footage that he had shot this morning. street after street of vacant homes and non-tax pay iing properties. how do you restore the tax base? >> well, that's how you do that. let's solve this debt question, get better services so people see value in investing in detroit. dan gilbert's made a huge investment, buying additional real estate in detroit. there is a new hockey arena in detroit. there is a lot of positive investment but because of the city service issue people are hesitant to come into the city. going through bankruptcy process will give us the strength to say we'll give you better services

that encourages growth and we can get out of this 60-year cycle of spiraling decline. if you asked what would happen if we didn't do bankruptcy, detroit would just get worse day after day. where does that lead to anyone, including retirees. again, we empathize with them. they are on a fixed income. we need to be as far as possible but focus on the citizens, services and a growing detroit. >> mr. orr, you are an attorney. tell me what the legal status is now is. you need bankruptcy court approval of all of this. what steps have to be taken and how likely is it? >> well first, we filed yesterday so the automatic stay applies which means claims against us should be stayed. an eligibility determination has to be made. with the papers we filed yesterday and again some more this morning, we've asked a court to set out a schedule to be do that. we want to be very proactive in this process and give everybody an opportunity to bring their objections or even those that are in support at a very early

stage to resolve this so we can move this as quickly as possible. we've also asked for the court to impanel a retiree committee so that the people hot current unions have declined to represent -- we asked them to, they said they wouldn't -- we'll have a forum for them to participate in this process and a group for us to negotiate with. we'll be very proactive, open and try to continue the efforts, even in this process to reach agreements on a consensual basis. >> governor, joe biden was just asked about this and said that there was a meeting at the white house yesterday, they don't know what their role is yet. is there a role that you are seeking from the federal government? >> yeah. what i would say is the goal here is not to have either the state or federal government do a bailout but there are specific investments we can make that can make a tremendous difference in the city of detroit to help the citizens. one of the things we already have been working on in partnership with the federal government is blight removal. we were able to obtain 100 ml

for the city of droimt that we hope to start implementing in the next days to take some of these blightened structured down. that's already begun in the toughest area in detroit, clearing the land and ground so we can be ready to go as quickly as possible. >> governor and mr. orr, thank you both very much. we hope to continue to talk to you and right now the president is in the briefing room, i'm told. let's go to the briefing room. >> jay, is this the kind of respect that you get? you know, on television it usually looks like you're addressing a full room. i gotcha. all right. sorry about that. you think anybody else is showing up? good. well, i wanted to come out here

first of all to tell you that jay is prepared for all your questions and is very much looking forward to the session. second thing, i want to let you know that over the next couple of weeks there will and whole range of issue us, immigration, economics, et cetera. we'll try to arrange a fuller press conference to address your questions. the reason i actually wanted to come out today is not to take questions but to speak to an issue that obviously has gotten a lot of attention over the course the last week, the issue of the trayvon martin ruling. i gave a preliminary statement right after the ruling on sunday but watching the debate over the course of last week, i thought it might be useful for me to expand on my thoughts a little bit. first of all, i want to make sure that once again i send my

thoughts and prayers, as well as michelle's, to the family of trayvon martin and to remark on the incredible grace and dignity with which they've dealt with the entire situation. i can only imagine what they are going through and it is remarkable how they've handled it. the second thing i want to say is to reiterate what i said on sunday. which is, there will be a lot of arguments about the legal issues in the case. i'll let all the legal analysts and talking heads address those issues. the judge conducted the trial in a professional manner. the prosecution and the defense made their arguments. the jurors were properly instructed that in a case such as this, reasonable doubt was

relevant and they rendered a ved. and once the jury's spoken, that's how our system works. but you did want to just talk about context and how people have responded to it and how people are feeling. you know, when trayvon martin was first shot, i said that this could have been my son. another way of saying that is, trayvon martin could have been me 35 years ago. and when you think about why in the african-american community at least there is a lot of pain around what happened here, i think it is important to recognize that the african-american community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history

that doesn't go away there are very few african-american in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. that includes me. there are probably very few african-american men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. that happens to me, at least before i was a senator. there are very few african-americans who haven't had the experience of guesting on an elevator are and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. that happens often. and i don't want to exaggerate

this, but those sets of experiences inform how the african-american community interprets what happened one night in florida. and it is inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear. the african-american community is also knowledgeable that there is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws, everything from the death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws, and that ends up having an impact in terms of how people interpret the case. now this isn't to say that the african-american community is naive about the fact that aft african-american young men are

disproportionally involved in the criminal justice system, they're disproportionally both victims of violence. black folks determine the reasons for that in a historical context. they understand that some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in this country, and that the poverty and distunysfunction that we se those communities can be traced to a very difficult history. and so the fact sometimes that's unacknowledged adds to the frustration. and the fact that a lot of african-american boys are painted with a broad brush and

the excuse is given, well, there are these statistics out there that show that african-american boys are more violent. using that as an excuse to then s seasons treated differently causes pain. i think the african-american's also not naive in understanding that statistically somebody like trayvon martin was probably statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else. so folks understand the challenges that exist for african-american boys. but they get frustrated i think if they feel that there is no context for it. and that context is being denied. and that all contributes, i

think, to a sense that if a white male teen was involved in the same kind of scenario that from top. to bottom both the outcome and the aftermath might have been differe different. n now, the question for me at least -- and i think for a lot of folks is -- where do we take this? how do we learn some lessons from this and move in a positive direction? i think it is understandable that there have been demonstrations and vigils and protests and some of that stuff is just going to have to work its way through as long as it remains non-violent. if i see any violence, then i will remind folks that that dishonors what happened to

trayvon martin and his family. but beyond protests or vigils, the question is are there come concrete things that we might be able to do. i know that eric holder is reviewing what happened down there, but i think it is important for people to have some clear expectations here. traditionally these are issues of state and local government. the criminal code and law enforcement is traditionally done at the state and local levels. not at the federal levels. that doesn't mean though that as a nation we can't do some things that i think would be productive. so let me just give a couple of specifics that i'm still bouncing around with my staff so we're not rolling out some five-point plan but some areas where i think all of us could potentially focus. number one, precisely because

law enforcement is often determined at the state and local level. i think it would be productive for the justice department, governors, mayors, to work with law enforcement about training at the state and local levels in order to reduce the kind of mistrust in the system that sometimes currently exists. when i was in illinois, i passed racial profiling legislation and it actually did just two simple things. one, it collected data on traffic stops and the race of the person who was stopped. but the other thing was it resourced us training police departments across the state on how to think about potential racial bias and ways to further professionalize what they were

doing. and initially the police departments across the state were resistant, but actually they came to recognize that if it was done in a fair, straightforward way that two allow them to do their jobs better and communities would have more confidence in them and in turn be more helpful in and plying the law. obviously law enforcement's got a very tough job. so that's one area where i think there are a lot of resources and best practices that could be brought to bear if state and locale governments are receptive. and i think a lot of them would be and let's figure out are there ways for us to push out that kind of training. along the same lines i think it would be useful for us to examine some state and local laws to see if they are designed in such a way that they may

encourage the kinds of altercations and confrontations and tragedies that we saw in the florida case rather than diffuse potential altercations. i know that there's been commentary about the fact that the stand your ground laws in florida were not used as a defense in the case. on the other hand, if we're sending a message as a society in our communities that someone who is armed potentially has the right to use those firearms, even if there is a way for them to exit from a situation. is that really going to be contributing to the kind of peace and security and order that we'd like to see. >> for those who resist that idea that we should think about something like these stand your ground laws, i just ask people

to consider if trayvon martin was of able and armed could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? and do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting mr. zimmerman who had followed him in a car because he felt threatened. and if the answer to that question is at least ambiguous, then it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws. number three. this is a long-term project. we need to spend some time think how do we bolster and reinforce our african-american boys. this is something michelle and i talk a lot about. there are a lot of kids out there who need help who are

getting a lot of negative reinforcement and is there more to do that we can give them a sense that their country cares about them and values them and is willing to invest in them. i'm not naive about the prospects of some grand new federal program. i'm not sure that that's what we're talking about here but i do recognize as president that i've got some convening power. there are a lot of good programs being done across the country on this front and for us to be able to gather together business leaders and local elected officials an clergy and celebrities and athletes and figure out how are we doing a better job helping young african-american men feel that they are a full part of this society and that they've got

pathways and avenues to succeed. i think that would be a pretty good outcome from what was obviously a tragic situation. we're going to spend some time working on that and thinking about that. and then finally, i think it is going to be important for all of us to do some soul searching. there has been talk about should we convene a conversation on race. i haven't seen that be particularly productive when politicians try to organize conversations. they end up being stilted and politicized and folks are locked in to the positions they already have. on the other hand, families and churches and workplaces, there is a possibility that people are a little bit more honest and at least you ask yourself your own

questions about am i ringing as much bias out of myself as i can, am i judging people as much as i can based on, not the color of their skin, but the content of their character. that would i think be an appropriate exercise in the wake of this tragedy. and let me just leave you with a final thought, that as difficult and challenging as this whole episode has been for a lot of people, i don't want us to lose sight that things are getting better. each successive generation seems to be making progress in changing attitudes when it comes to race. doesn't mean we're in a post-racial society. it doesn't mean that racism is

eliminated. but, you know, when i talk to malia and sasha, and i listen to their friends and i see them interact, they're better than we are. they're better than we were on these issues. that's true in every community that i've visited all across the country. and so we have to be vigilant and we have to work on these issues and those of us in authority should be doing everything we can to encourage the better angels of our nature as opposed to using those episodes to heighten divisions. but, we should also have confidence that kids these days i think have more sense than we did back then, and certainly more than our parents did or our

grandparents did, and that along this long, difficult journey, we're becoming becoming a more perfect union. not a perfect union but a more perfect union. all right? thank you, guys. >> and that was extraordinary. unannounced, the president walking into the briefing room and talking about race, talking about trayvon martin, and concluding by saying that we should have a conversation on race but that he doesn't want one that is stilted and that, in fact, in listening to his daughters, he realizes, and we shouldn't forget that things are getting better. he says there is a role for the federal government, that there are questions that need to be asked about stand your ground laws. i thought kristen welker, who is

standing by at the white house, and toure in new york at 30 rock, one of the moments where e he said, what if trayvon martin had been armed? this has obviously been percolating for a while. there were a lot of suggestions we needed to hear from the president. what is the back story here as to why he decided to come out today and now? >> reporter: well, look, andrea, all week long the white house has been fielding questions about why president obama hasn't come out and actually spoken on camera about the george zimmerman verdict. we have heard from attorney general eric holder. he sort of seemed to be the spokesperson when it came to the white house and the obama administration's response to this. of course, the only thing we had gotten to date was a written statement from president obama. so he certainly has fielded a lot of questions. you'll remember in the days after trayvon martin was initially shot he came out and said trayvon martin could have

been my son. so that was -- we knew that he was paying attention to this. i think that's why there were so many questions why we hadn't heard from him. today he decided to come out, i think, and answer some of those questions, some of the debate that has been swirling, as you point out certainly about stand your ground laws. i thought one stunning moment, andrea, was when he said trayvon martin could have been me. i found that to be one of the most personal and compelling moments about what the president just said. >> and melissa harris-perry, you have been so passionate and so focused on this since the verdict saturday night and throughout these days. what about the president saying that trayvon martin could have been me 35 years ago, that no one, including myself, no african-american male hasn't felt the pain of having someone in a department store or a woman in an elevator grab their purse or hear the clicking locks of a car door when you walk down the street. >> you know, i think it's tough

because this is just happening, but my sense is that we're going to look back on this moment of the president of the united states standing and making the statements he did in a couple of critically important ways. the first is that this president has now done in many ways what jfk did after the childrens campaign in birmingham, alabama, where bull connor turned dogs and fire hoses on the children of children who were marching for their civil rights. that was the moment when jfk finally said, i'm going to be for a civil rights act. he didn't ever have the opportunity to pass that legislation himself, but it was this moment when the president was finally called to peace because the children of a nation were suffering. we've also seen this president have to do the same thing, for example, after the newtown shootings. that's part of the sort of presidential history around what happens when children are at stake. but the part that is completely unique, the part that has never happened before and the part that i'm not even sure we can

fully capture how important it is, is that the president of the united states, who is an african-american man, who is both of those things at the same time, african-american man and president of the united states, stood there at the podium with the official insignia of the white house behind him and said the history and the pain and the contemporary experiences of black people in this country matter, they shape how they experience something like the zimmerman verdict, and we, if we are going to move forward as a nation, must acknowledge the realities of those experiences. just that recognition of the humanity in the history of black people from the president of the united states is absolutely historic. >> and david gregory is here with me now, host of "meet the press." david, just having him say that we have to acknowledge not a big federal program, but we have to acknowledge that african-american youth, young males, need to know that their country values them. this is one of those moments

that sort of gives you chills to realize what melissa harris-perry is saying about the significance of what we just heard. >> and to have our first african-american say that and shine a spotlight on it has so much more resonance than a white president saying it. that's where some of the criticism has been over this past week or two looking for the president to find that voice, to be freer to talk about some of these issues. this was a remarkable presidential moment made even more so by the fact that this is an african-american president talking about the plight of african-american males, particularly around the country. and i think it spoke to a desire that we go back to the philadelphia speech during the campaign to contextualize, to say there's a context for this disappointment, anger. he's in a position to be able to do that. but also to have this reluctance about him. to say, i'm not charging forward

and passing a civil rights law. there's a lot of good that's been done, he said. there's a lot of black-on-black crime that has to be dealt with, as he acknowledged. but there has to be an emphasis that he can put on the plight of young, black boys. >> before we close the show, toure is also with us in new york. this is the uniqueness of having an african-american president. no matter what one thinks of this president or any other president, when we talk about the value of having diversity, it was right there in front of us. >> no, absolutely. i've been thinking lately, do we actually have a black president or a president who happens to be black? there have been very few moments and very few, if any, policies that have made a difference that you might hope for a black president to do. this moment was like, wow, we really do have a black president who will come out and lay it all out on the line. everybody's been really nailing it today in sort of analyzing it. but i mean, a nuanced discussion

of what it means to be black, not holding back from this notion that blacks don't feel a full part of society, a really incredible historical moment. >> toure, thanks to you. thanks to kristen welker, to melissa harris-perry, to david gregory. we've all just experienced something. i need to absorb it. so do you. we'll watch it, we'll reread it. we'll look at it. thanks for being with us. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." "news nation" with tamron hall is next.

if you've got it, you know how hard it can be to breathe and man, you know how that feels. copd includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. spiriva is a once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that helps open my obstructed airways for a full 24 hours. you know, spiriva helps me breathe easier. spiriva handihaler tiotropium bromide inhalation powder does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help

if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. nothing can reverse copd. spiriva helps me breathe better. does breathing with copd weigh you down? don't wait to ask your doctor about spiriva. i'm tamron hall. it's been an incredible 30 minutes to say the least. the news nation is following the big breaking news. only moments ago president obama, this nation's first african-american president, addressed on camera for the first time the not guilty verdict of george zimmerman. the president addressed race, stand your ground, his own personal story, and also addressed the martin family. take a listen. >>