right now on "andrea mitchell reports", presidential pep rally on the hill. >> what's the message you're bringing to the hill today? >> jobs, middle class, growth. obama takes a trip down pennsylvania avenue to you night democrats before they go back home before the august break. republicans, meanwhile, have their own message. >> if i had poll numbers as low as his, i would probably be out doing the same thing as him. family feud spills over to the senate floor today after chris christie and rand paul squabble over spending. now it's mccain versus rand paul on foreign aid. >> isn't the question here is whether the senator from kentucky knows what's better for israel or israel knows what's better for israel? on the carpet, senate

judiciary chairman pat leahy wants to know why no one has been fired for letting edward snowden fall through the cracks. >> who double checked mr. snowden? >> there were checks at multiple levels. there are checks at what any individual might be doing. >> you obviously failed. >> in this case i think we can say they failed but we don't yet know where. >> you think you can say they failed. he's sitting over at the airport in russia with millions of items. weaner won't quit. despite another scandal, this time his press secretary's expletive undeleted rage against a former intern. put in a new web video, weiner says he's not going away. >> sometimes people say to me, you know, this campaign is pretty rough. you may want to quit. i know that there are newspaper editors, other politicians that say, boy, i wish that guy weiner would quit. they don't know new york. they certainly don't know me. quit isn't the way we roll in new york city.

good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president obama held pep rallies with house and senate democrats today before they go off for their august break and the president heads to martha's vineyard. there's the continuing saga of that mayor's race in new york city. joining me now for our daily fix, msnbc contribute who are "new york times" reporter and capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell. first to you, chris. the president -- first, actually, chris, hang on just a second. i should go to kelly first. the president is up on the hill. i want to hear what the feedback is after the democrats met with him on the house and senate side today. kel? >> reporter: andrea, this was a happy occasion. there was not some of the grumbling we heard in the past. it was an opportunity for members of congress on the

democratic side to have face-to-face time with the president. that's always a major bit of currency that they can now take home into their districts and states and be try to talk about the issues. the headline is about trying to emphasize the middle class. that's not a surprise but it's a reemphasis of a bunch of the domestic issues the president is trying to shine more light on. he is telling members that he will be out around the country making speeches on various topics that are part of his agenda. he hopes that members will match some of that. and it is a way to try to spread that message. there's also been some discussion about trying to get some help from the president when it comes around to the 2014 election cycle. there will certainly be all the house members on the ballot and a number of democrats. a bit of politics but a lot of this was an opportunity for the president to be on their turf. that doesn't happen very often. it always makes for an important day and what we've been hearing so far is that the meeting went well on each side and no real headlines. it really was a way to sort of

kick off this big break for the five weeks that they're home in their home state when they will be facing voters and they can say they just spent some time with the preds. andrea? >> jackie caan, when we talk about the president and his economic message, he'll give economic speeches during the recess as well and this new corporate tax cut that he's been talking about. does that have support, any support among republicans, traditional businesses? where do you see this playing out? >> well, it's hard to see it playing out in terms of becoming law, but it's going to, as he hopes it will, set the stage for the budget battles and debates in the fall. clearly kelly mentioned that the president was fairly well received with some exceptions, but that's because the democrats really like his message now. the emphasis on the middle class and they want the same things he wants. the corporate tax cut, overhaul of the corporate tax code that would by getting rid of a lot of

loopholes and tax breaks allow enough revenues to come in that you could bring down the corporate rate from the current 35% to 28% is popular with both parties as long as you do get rid of some of those breaks, but the republicans would like to go lower. they would like to go lower even in the absence of getting rid of the breaks but putting those two together, they want that -- they do not want the rest of the president's agenda. they call it a new spending program, a new stimulus even though he's proposed that revenues would offset that. >> and nbc announced that the president will be on with jay leno on the "tonight show" on tuesday talking about jobs and the economy. he's going to the country with that as well before he takes his own august break. and the best for last, chris. you can't make it up. weiner watch? i mean, the latest scandal involves the press secretary.

the press secretary, barbara morgan, who went ballistic over this daily news front page yesterday with a former intern, olivia nutsey. well, what can we say that's okay to say on television, cable or broadcast. we can't say what barbara morgan said about this intern going public but she's apologized. >> andrea, we've talked about this and for a bunch of days, you and i, and when anthony weiner said he was going to run and his campaign, there was a spectacle but it was intriguing. they said he was possibly going to make the runoff of one of the top two vote getters. i'm always the first to have a laugh at politics but this is just bad. this whole thing, him not getting out, him saying everybody tried to push me out,

that's not how we rolled. the whole barbara morgan situation. it's just sad. for someone like me who spends all of my time at work and not at work sort of thinking about politics and -- it's just a sad statement that this is what a lot of people take politics to mean in this day and age. i don't want to be a downer here, but i'm sort of -- i've run out of things to say about it other than it's sad for politics. it's even more sad for his family and young son. it's like a joke that's gone on way, way, way, way too long. >> at the risk of lowering the conversation even lower, this was sydneyl leathers discussing her interactions with weiner. >> i think i was flattered that he trusted me enough in the moment and also completely baffled, someone so book smart

could be so stupid in life. >> so enough about that. that's just to show what this was all about in the first place. jackie, what about this republican fight, chris christie, rand paul. it's erupted on the senate floor today over aid to egypt and rand paul was slapped down by john mccain and others. this really does look like a preview of the divide on the 2016 race coming up on the republican side, two waves of the party. >> it does in terms of the national security argument. it's interesting. although john mccain presumably won't be a major figure in the 2016 race to make that argument and, you know, he was the nominee in 2012 and, you know, he's now clearly seeming to be remaking his career in the senate as a force to be reckoned with. you know, rand paul definitely has very different ideas, more

libertarian isolationist view. he has his hands full when, you know, taking on john mccain. it's going to provide endless entertainment. and unlike, you know. >> the weiner scandal you were just talking about, it's at least a substantive one. you know, it serves to -- it's a debate worth having. >> and i think when the new republic questioned john mccain about who he would support in 2016, hillary clinton versus rand paul, he said something about how he'd have to think about it or make up his mind. so that's a pretty strong statement. thanks very much, jackie. good to see you and chris cillizza and of course our own kelly o'donnell. sleeping on the job and special treatment for family members, that's a few examples of misconduct investigating the transportation security administration. today a house subcommittee questioned tsa administrators. nbc justice correspondent pete williams joins me now. pete, obviously the tsa not the most popular agency among most

travelers although they've been trying to be a little bit more consumer friendly. this is pretty appalling, the kinds of security lapses that were detailed in this igo report. >> reporter: this is fundamentally not a report about security lapses, andrea, although they do mention a couple of them. the whole point of this was a report by the gao which says the tsa lacks a uniform system for deciding how to handle discipline and then tracking how the disciplinary system is working and making sure, for example, that if an agent goes from one airport to another his disciplinary record goes with him so that if there are further problems they can be dealt with. they do have some examples here. they note a 27% increase. 9722 cases 2 -- 9622 total cas. they say in here that a screener

was running the conveyor belt that goes through the metal detectors and just letting things go right through without stopping to look at each item. that person was suspended for 30 days. but then there's another example in here of a security officer who was helping his family members, was on the job, left his post to help a family member get a bag through security. took the bag around the screening then gave it back to the family member. another screener saw it, said, wait a minute, you can't do that. according to the gao the bag was found to contain what were said to be prohibited items. it says that person was suspended for seven days. some other examples from the report, andrea, says when a worker is accused of sleeping on the job, half of those found to have done so get less than the lowest penalty that is called for in the tsa's own standards. now tsa says it has a zero

tolerance for misconduct, bad performance, that it's tracking these very closely and that it's doing a very good job, andrea. >> pete williams, thank you very much. >> you bet. coming up next, more about anthony weiner's latest woes. last night kristin chen know paid him a musical tribute ♪ ♪ popular. zip your fly, you won't be that guy with the camera down his pants ♪ ♪ i'll teach you what sweets to treat. we'll make sure you get your chance to be popular ♪ ♪ the right kind of popular ♪ so thank you they come so they see your gums, now you'll play a different song ♪. 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

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it's really not about the campaign and not about the candidates and this isn't about me. this is about helping new yorkers because they understand this is about them. and this campaign has reminded me of that again and again in all kinds of ways. if someone wants to come out with something embarrassing about you in your private life, you've got to talk about that for a little while. >> anthony weiner, seemingly undaunted by the latest wave of scandal that has washed over his campaign. what could possibly be going through the mind of a disgraced politician putting himself through a wave of scrutiny brought on by himself. both of you have been out on the campaign, have interviewed the principles. mark, you interviewed anthony weiner and also hum a abedin before the scandal. what do you think about his assertions to you, that he had fessed up to her, that it was all out there at the time? >> well, i mean, i can't -- i'm

a journalist, not a mind reader. exactly what anthony weiner has in his head, i've known the man for many years and, actually, i interviewed him during the period of time, early 2012, and if you would have 20etold me at that point he was continuing to do this, i wouldn't have believed you. what he talks about with his wife is hard for me to figure, but i do think that the juice in the story is like the idea that she might be complicit or just sort of the strange -- i mean, i call it a love story. it just seems to be a confounding arrangement between the two of them and people -- people scratch their head. i'm trying to figure out whether this is a tragic comedy or, you know, a comic tragedy. it's one or the other. i'm not sure it's 50-50.

>> and what about the mood out on the campaign trail? you've been out there. you've seen barbara morgan. the press spokeswoman. how could this happen, this latest outburst against an intern who had gone public in the "new york daily news" with not a terribly embarrassing story? >> well, you have to really feel for the people who are working on the campaign at this point. the campaign manager already left and clearly barbara morgan is under strain. she says that this latest rant was intended to be off the record but even off the record the kind of words that she used are not words that you would expect any person to use about a young woman who had been working for the campaign so i think that really we're starting to see a campaign in meltdown. >> kate, in recent days is there anything that you can pick up from being out there about why he is still in this race? >> well, i mean, you just have

to look at his affect. i mean, last night, you know, you showed a clip of the video that he put out and it was a very subdued video. he seemed to be trying to look for sympathy, show that he's been beaten down by the scandal, but last night he was at a civic meeting in the bronx where he shouted down his critics. some man said when is enough enough? and he said, look, you know, people have always wanted me to get out of this race. why do you want me to get out of this race? you should be listening to my ideas and judging me on my ideas, not on my personal life. in the end he seems to have actually have converted a few people at the meeting. he's still going out with this enormous energy, defines, this really very characteristic of him. >> and there is another race going on out there, mark. i mean, you've got the other candidates. thompson was on "morning joe" and christine quinn. they are going to end up in the runoff and anthony weiner

probably not, correct? >> probably not. you have to go back to the stone age of this story, i mean, back to april, which seems like eons ago. back in april one of the things that was really -- one of the things that enabled anthony weiner's entry into this campaign was the general complete lack of enthusiasm for any of the candidates that are running. i went to these mayoral forums back in april and christine quinn was continually being booed. thompson was inert as he always is. bill diblasio wasn't getting any traction. john lieu was considered to be not a winner. people were saying i came into this room thinking anything but -- anybody but quinnipi andw i'm for anybody but any of them. when weiner showed up he was considered to be -- you know, put all of this juice into the race. and people tend to forget that now because i think we wouldn't -- if he never entered

you're looking at five or six months ever really kind of dreary reporting. so the news media has anthony weiner to thank for that. >> thanks to you, mark and kate. thanks for your perspectives on a race where the hits keep coming. thank you both very much. up next, the republican feud here in washington heating up on the senate floor today. stay with us on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. time for the your business entrepreneur of the week. malanie barrett seemed to have it all for her custom designed rug company, malanieb. customer, press, international relationships. somehow revenues weren't increasing. learn how sitting down and simply creating a plan for growth changed everything. that's on "your business" sunday morning at 7:30 on msnbc. >> announcer: brought to you by american express open. and i'm working every day. ♪ ♪ i'm a hard, hard worker and i'm saving all my pay. ♪

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>> do you think you're gaining and making the world a better place by sending more f-16s, tanks, tear gas to egypt. do you think that's somehow making the world a safer place? the people by the millions are arriving in cairo, by the hundreds of thousands in tahrir square. they're not riding for american aid, they're riding for us to quit different aid to the despots that rule them. >> rand paul lost that fight 86-13. only 13 votes to cut off aid. this comes a day after the peace talks. we want to talk to diplomatic analyst jeffrey ross and a columnist for bloomberg view. we saw kerry yesterday with israelis and palestinians trying to restart what fell apart three years ago. dennis, you've been there and done that for more than a decade under democrats and republicans at the white house in the state department. this is a very heavy lift, but

could times possibly be more precious? is there a self-interest in israel right now? >> well, i think there is. the prime minister of israel has on a number of different occasions talked about his ensuring that israel is not going to become a binational state. that takes account of the demographic trends. it's something that many within his own party aren't prepared to face up to. when you say that, almost by definition it means you have to do something. >> palestinians are going to out number the israeli jews by 2020 unless israel does something about a two-state solution? >> if you're going to remain a jewish democratic state, which is the essence of the designer stream, then you have to do something. obviously you can't do it only by yourself. you need the palestinians as well. the question is does president abass see value in doing this. it's weakened hamas and

strengthened him. that gives him more political strength. there's a broad irony. given all the turmoil in the region, it creates a preoccupation for everybody else on every issue but this, and that allows both the prime minister and abass to in a sense have some greater political space to do something. is that enough to produce an agreement? i don't know. it creates a possibility and clearly secretary kerry is investing a lot of energy in it. >> jeffrey, i know you're skeptical about the success of this. that would be a smart view given the history of the middle east. >> if. >> let's just face the fact that right now israel looks to egypt's disaster, syria chaos. jordan could be overwhelmed by radical influences and refugee flow and collapsing economy. it's not inconceivable. it is a worry at the state department. it looks to the west bank and it sees relative peace and anxiety over the economic future and both the europeans and united states willing to say we're

going to put some money into this if you show some leg. >> 4 billion bucks. >> that's a lot of dough and it could reset the agenda in ramallah which was extraordinarily entrepreneurial before the second an at ttifatt. this still controls gaza which is the second half of the palestinian state. abass is negotiating on half of his adversarieadversaries. the prime minister of israel is sitting on top of the prosettler cabinet in history. all i'm saying is it's wonderful to come out as the secretary did and say in nine months we'll reach a final status agreement. i'm sitting next to a guy who tried to push this boulder up a hill for would you say more than a decade. substantially more than a decade

and so i just think we can't be over optimistic. we also have to be careful of over promising because what you don't want to have happen out of negotiations is despair when the negotiations don't work. then the west bank that is now stable will become unstable. >> after six trips kerry gets them to sit down together. he now has martin, a former colleague of yours. we know how energetic he can be in this advocacy. that frees up kerry to today arrive in pakistan within the hour. he is now in islamabad dealing with another big trouble spot. we have tape of him arriving just about 20 minutes ago in islamabad en route, senior official telling the press core acknowledging this has been a tumultuous relationship with pakistan. he has his hands full. and then one other hot spot, iran. possible signs of progress there? you have rahani who will be inaugurated as the new president

and now the talks of the former u.n. ambassador educating the united states, fairly moderate if you can declare anyone moderate, very well versed in the u.s. is going to be the foreign min bester. >> well, if, in fact, he becomes a foreign minister and if, in fact, he's empowered, you have somebody who knows how to do business not only with the united states but with the europeans. you have somebody who was largely responsible for previous efforts they made, including to suspend, and in a proposal that was made in 2003 that would have been quite far reaching which the bush administration decided not to pursue. the point is that he does represent somebody who's prepared to do business. what we don't know is is he in a position to act on his readiness to do business. this is a signal on the one hand. let's bear in mind as opposed to a signal their nuclear program is concrete. not a signal, it's a fact. something has to happen. >> they need to take an affirmative step. the ayatollah has to signal

back. >> there's two quick points. the first is, a, the supreme leader of iran is the supreme leader. he sets the policy. the president is not nearly as important as the supreme leader. what he thinks is fairly clear from the evidence. he's moving towards a nuclear weaponization. the second point is is that while the signals might be good, while they're putting in smoother people, people who can talk to the west in power, it all depends on what they ultimately want to say. they had a president before, ahmadinejad who was a clown and did not advance the cause of nuclearizati nuclearization. >> this could be smart politics. >> it could but you should test it. you don't know it, you should test it. if they're really serious about trying to do business, then one of the things that has to happen is, a, they should be prepared to talk to us on a bilateral basis. obama administration from the very beginning was ready and open to bilateral communication and they were never willing to do it. that would be another reason they're trying to find a way out

of it. >> thank you, dennis ross. thank you, jeffrey goldberg. coming up, we'll hear from two virginia lawmakers who want to skip that virginia vacation. first, here's stephen colbert on why congress can't get anything done. >> in the latest phone survey about congress it ranked below having your dinner interrupted by a phone survey about congress. these numbers have nothing to do with the job that lawmakers are doing because they are not doing it. halfway through 2013 just 15 bills passed by congress had become law. they almost passed a 16th bill but obama refused to sign hr 2904, the this is not another repeal of obama care we swear but don't look inside it, just sign it act. when you don't use pam, this is what you get. residue. [ female announcer ] bargain brand cooking spray leaves annoying residue. that's why there's pam.

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great. the government is operating under sequester and that debt ceiling deadline looming ahead in the fall. a senator and congress member from virginia both have a bipartisan solution to all of this. joining me mark warner and republican congressman scott rigel. thank you both very much. first -- >> thank you. >> thank you. >> congressman rigel. excuse me for that from the norfolk area, virginia beach area. senator, first of all, why no recess? don't they need to meet with the voters and regenerate themselves and go to the town hall meetings and get yelled at? >> andrea, you just went through the litany of why no recess. we've got -- we haven't got a budget deal. we don't have appropriations bills for the next fiscal year. we've got this crazy word called sequestration which i know scott and i feel is dramatically hurting people's lives all across the country, particularly in virginia where we have a lot of if i had rfederal workers.

they're getting no kind of august sequestration discount on their day care payments or rent payments or student loan payments so we ought to stay here and do our work. >> congressman, what reaction have you had from your caucus about staying? i mean, you're in charge. the house republicans could make this happen for the house side. >> you're exactly right. i've made clear to leadership and our conference that our work is not done. we've only passed 4 of the 12 appropriations bills to fund the federal government. this is entirely within the control of the house of representatives. and i think maybe perhaps the reason the senator and i are here and we feel this way is that we have a background in business. i really can't process this idea of going back to the district for five -- it's not four weeks, it's five. our work is not done and as important as it is to be in the district, we go home every weekend, i do, we need to pass these bills. that gives us the moral foundation upon which to critique others.

absent us doing our work, i don't see how we can critique the other body. >> senator warren, you saw the president today. what was his message to the caucus? >> i think his message was that he wants to make sure that we've also got a plan on how we can create more jobs, get the economy jump started. he laid out corporate tax reform and how we can link back to infrastructure investments. i have a number of republicans i'm working with on that issue. i think though and i'm still -- i've got some internal optomists. i'm not sure we're going to get any of this done until we have some kind of grander bargain, both around how we generate the revenue and how we do entitlements. that means the republicans have to make some compromises, democrats have to make some compromises on entitlements. scott and i may not agree on everything but scott has shown a willingness to sit down and discuss the items. candidly there's a lot more in

both parties than most folks would think. >> i agree with that. there is common ground. it's not easy to find. we cannot stay on this path. so the time is now for us to respect one another, search for common ground. there can be a path forward but we've got to lean into it. that requires staying and engaging one another and then frankly not recessing for five weeks. >> and let me just say during this recess from virginia there is a hot topic in virginia where you have a governor's race going on with the governor. here's bob mcdonnell -- governor mcdonnell on wtop radio yesterday about repaying those loans. >> governor cain reported $200,000 worth of gifts during his time. governor warner about $135,000. many other legislators to the tens and tens of thousands. so i'm just saying it has been part of what has been permissible. >> is that an excuse?

i mean, governor warner, he referred to you. you were the governor of virginia, very successful governor of virginia. just the way that things are done in virginia that you can take the gifts? >> andrea, i have stayed out of this. there's a federal investigation going on. i think we ought to wait for all of the facts to get out before i weigh in. i know this is a right subject. a lot of folks are talking about it, but i'm going to hold my own counsel until all of the facts get out and until the final investigation is over. >> we will because he seems to be using you and senator cain, former governor cain, as an excuse for his own practice. so it is certainly a topic to be discussed. we wants to thank both of you. some of your colleagues may suggest that you're suggesting no recess because you guys can get back and forth. you're within commuting distance, at least one of you is from northern virginia.

>> yeah. i will acknowledge i've got it a little easier than most. i guess one of the things i want to make a point is as folks contact my office, i think we were talking off camera to scott as well, they're not blaming the house or blaming the senate or blaming the red shirts or blaming the blue shirts, they're blaming us all. >> we talk about the virginia way. i think this is the virginia way. listening to one another. it's not capitulation or finding a mushy middle. there is a wise path forward. pretty elusive but we can find it. >> thank you very much. congressman ridell and senator warren. this may be the most anticipated pregnancy since william and kate's royal pregnancy. there are great expectations at the national zoo today where one of d.c.'s most famous couples could be pregnant. false pregnancies are common. they might not get their confirmation until birth.

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pop in. stand out. the house caught fire and we were out on the streets. [ whispering ] shhh. it's only a dream. and we have home insurance. but if we made a claim, our rate would go up... [ whispering ] shhh. you did it right. you have allstate claim rate guard so your rates won't go up just because of a claim. [ whispering ] are we still in a dream? no, you're in an allstate commercial. so get allstate home insurance with claim rate guard... [ whispering ] goodnight. there are so many people in our bedroom. [ dennis ] talk to an allstate agent... [ doorbell rings ] ...and let the good life in. for most people the care giving of a loved one as they approach the end of life is intensely private. this week a popular host made his extremely popular. nbc's kevin tibbles sat down with simon a few days ago and has more on the story.

>> hi. i'm scott simon of npr. >> reporter: for millions of listeners, scott simon is the saturday morning voice of national public radio, but in recent days he's been at his mother's bedside at chicago's northwestern memorial hospital. >> looking i don't want to say just death in the eye but looking life in the face. >> reporter: with her permission, he took to social media tweeting updates to his 1.2 million followers. >> i love holding my mother's hand. haven't held it like this since i was 9. why did i stop? i thought it unman bely? what crap. >> reporter: simon interviewed her for npr. >> simon newman gilband. >> way to go. >> what a monogram that is. >> reporter: in her day she was an unconventional mother, a model and a show girl who appeared at chicago's chez paris

nightclub, twice married, once to scott's father, a comedian. >> if you say anything that is remotely funny, people say, oh, that's your dad talking. actually -- >> reporter: it was your mom? >> it was my mother. >> reporter: simon remembers a woman who never forgot a name and always sent a thank you note. reaction to his tweets has been overwhelming and mixed. is it weird to tweet from your mother's death bed? no, it's real and moving and lovely. thank you npr scott simon for sharing your love. some things are best left untweeted. i love scott simon but i disagree with him tweeting during his mother's death. >> reporter: perhaps your mother's helping to teach us we shouldn't be so afraid of it. >> somewhere my mother has always said, there is a message. i am getting a life's lesson about grace from my mother in the icu. we never stop learning from our mothers, do we. >> reporter: a lifetime of memories and a painful process shared in such a public and

poetic way. >> kevin tibbles joins me now. kevin, there has been a big conversation going on here behind the scenes about your report, about what scott did. our condolences to scott because his mother died the night before last while you were in the midst of preparing this story. so what is your take away? he did talk to her and got her permission is what he told you before he shared all of this publicly. >> yes. he told me a few stories, some of them quite funny. i think that there's a lot of humor in the simon family. he said that he explained to his mother what he was going to do and told her what he was doing and then, of course, he said, but of course my mother doesn't really understand what twitter is. she has no idea why anyone would be interested at all anyway. but i think as anyone in scott's position and i'm referring to myself here, anyone who has a

parent entering that stage of life, anyone who is starting to think how they're going to deal with it, andrea, this is the sort of thing that people used to do in private around the dinner table with your immediate family. >> right. >> the fact that scott has decided to share this with everyone who cares to tune in to it i think is new, different, and i think as you've alluded to, perhaps controversial because i think a lot of people also are saying why do we need to hear this. >> certainly thought provoking and, again, our condolences to him and our thanks to you, kevin. beautifully told. thanks for being with us. >> and congratulations to you, andrea, on this day. >> thank you very much. and which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next right here on and a "andrea mitchell reports." with 23 vitamins and minerals. purina dog chow. help keep him strong. dog chow strong.

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so which story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? i think it's all about baseball. chris cillizza is back with us.

we're talking about a-rod, of course, and we're all waiting on this possible suspension, which could be a lifetime ban for alleged drug use, i guess that's what you'd call it, improper substances, which he has said through his lawyer, he is going to appeal. and then there's the question of whether others are involved. some 20 players might be involved. what do we expect might happen? >> andrea, look, as you point out, i think the a-rod story is a huge story, but it's not as big a story as i would like to call andrea mitchell's 35th anniversary at nbc news. i think there's someone on the line who wants to get in on that conversation. >> hey, andrea, it's brokaw. i'm out here in montana and i've been going through my calendar and i'm looking at the year 1978. my god, what a huge year that was. annie hall wins the oscar, larry flint is shot, but proposition 13 passes in california, pete rose gets 3,000 hits, sadat and

baygan sign the camp david accords, we have three popes die in the same year and we wound up with pope john paul ii, the first polish pope. in san francisco at the end of that year, there was a tragic moment. george moscone was shot and dianne feinstein became the mayor. and the biggest story of all, andrea mitchell joins nbc news and no one in public life is ever safe again. so, you know, even in montana, in a remote cabin where i'm sitting right now, that story is reverberating across america. a-rod goes into second place, andrea goes into first place. >> tom, you will always be in first place. tom brokaw, my friend, thank you so much. and tom, you're responsible, if not for you, i wouldn't be here today. >> well, it's been a great ride for both of us, and, you know, there are all those andrea exclusives and my friend, jim baker, who used to be the white house chief of staff during the reagan years, he said, no matter

what time of the day or what day of the week i went to the white house, there was andrea, looking for a story. and that sums up how you get to be a great reporter. congratulations, my friend. and i hope that crazy al will have a special dinner for you, planned for this evening. i'm sure he's home in the kitchen right now preparing it. >> cooking away. thank you so much, tom brokaw. and as i guess woody allen said, half of life is just showing up. so we've shown up. but with this wonderful team. i can't tell you what it means to me, the colleagues and friends, teammates at nbc news, from the very top, all the way through, around the world. thank you, chris cillizza, my friend, and that does it for us, for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." my colleague, my friend, tamron hall has a look at what's next on "news nation." take it away, tamron. >> andrea, hang on. one, two, three -- congratulations, andrea!

these are a few of our colleagues, a few others are pretending to work. 35 years, and it's amazing, because you're only 21. how do you do that? >> with a lot of help. >> we love you very much and your team loves you and we support you all the way. you're a hero and inspiration to all of us, especially us ladies. thank you, andrea. and we've got some breaking news coming up. a victory for o.j. simpson. my team is working on it. we'll have "news nation" right after this. okay, guys, get to work. ♪

i'm in my work van, having lunch, next minute i'm in the back of an ambulance having a heart attack. the emts gave me bayer aspirin. it helped save my life. i was in shape, fit. i did not see it coming. my doctor recommends i take bayer aspirin to help prevent another heart attack. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. i've lived through a massive heart attack. i don't take life for granted. see your doctor and get checked out. ♪ "news nation" is following breaking news. o.j. simpson has been granted parole on some of the charges stemming from his 2008 conviction. the nevada board of parole commissioners approved his request for leniency in his sentence on armed robbery and kidnapping charges. last week, simpson told the

board he was sorry for his actions and said he was only trial to retrieve property that already belonged to him. simpson has spent more than four years behind bars. jeff dornan is the capital bureau reporter for the nevada appeal. he join us now. jeff, so this does not mean, though, that o.j. simpson is walking out of the prison doors today? >> no, it does not. he will begin in october, serving the four deadly weapon enhancements that goes with those sentences. >> so what kind of time -- >> he has to serve at least -- >> go ahead. >> go ahead. >> what kind of reduction, though, is this on his sentence? >> oh, it's a big reduction. the maximum on these was 15 years. and he has served just about five. so, that takes ten years off the potential total that he was looking at, which at the time of sentencing, was more than 30 years behind bars. >> so essentially he was looking at dying behind bars. but now