and where there are failures, we will correct them. we owe the victims, their families, and all our people nothing less. >> aaron alexis' mother breaks her silence today, apologizing to the victims of monday's rampage. >> to the families of the victims, i am so, so very sorry that this has happened. my heart is broken. >> and families of the victims paint a picture of the 12 lives they lost in monday's rampage. >> such a tragedy because he didn't know sylvia. if he talked to sylvia that morning, sylvia would have been his greatest ally. she would have listened. he never gave her that

opportunity. and good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. leaders at the pentagon are under fire today for obvious lapses in security clearances. not only at the navy yard shooting but also in the past cases of snowden and hasan. this as investigators are learning more about the deteriorating mental condition of aaron alexis. joining us now, nbc justice correspondent pete williams. pete, what do we know about alexis and what warnings signs there were? >> well, i think we have a pretty good idea of what those signs were, andrea, what the secretary is calling the red flags. first of all, there's his three brushes with the law that we know of. one in georgia where he's thrown out of a nightclub. one in seattle where he shoots the tires out of a car in a fit of anger, describing it to police as an anger-fueled blackout. that was before he got his security clearance. then again when he shot a firearm into an apartment

building, the apartment above his, the round penetrated into the room above his occupied by a woman that he'd been arguing with about noise. then, of course, we know he told the police in newport just about a month ago that he was hearing voices and he thought somebody was using a microwave device on him that was depriving him from sleeping. so the question is, should those have caused his security clearance in the first instance not to have been granted, or after he got it, should that have been reviewed and should it have been suspended or pulled? >> and mick, you were at the briefing with chuck hagel and martin dempsey and were asking those very questions. you've got so many people with security clearances, some of them last five to ten years, ten years in this case. chuck hagel said they are going to review it. >> the security review process to allow somebody to get a security clearance, even at the lowest level, they're going to

look into whether that's, in fact, rigorous enough. maybe they're not digging deeply enough. quite frankly, many officials who have gone through that process describe it as somewhat cursory. you know, names are put into a data bank. if nothing flashes back, it's almost an automatic stamp okay and they get their clearance. this is done by the office of personnel and management, which then turns over those results to dod. they review them, and then they decide here at dod whether this person should be given a clearance. but secretary hagel said he'd also look into the idea that some of these clearances last for ten years without a specific review unless something pops up in his record that obviously -- or something's record that would obviously raise a serious red flag and cause his security clearance to be revoked. hagel actually described that ten-year process as raising some amount of jeopardy in terms of being able to keep track of

somebody like an aaron alexis. in addition to those reviews, they're also going to review security installations. now, in this case, he had the necessary identification and clearance to get in not only to the navy yard but into that building itself. he simply swiped his access card to get into the building where he then went on that shooting rampage. >> let me take a step back, though, because i did some work on this. there was a hearing on the hill about a month ago after the snowden cases, and there are 4.6 million people who have military or national security clearances of secret or higher. this is the lower level secret that alexis had. 75% of those are done by private contractors, most of them by a spin-off from the office of personnel management. so it's a private contractor, and it's one of these deals where it's very much in their interest to rush the process through. it's called usis. to both of you, i know you dealt with this a lot as well with the

snowden case, pete, there's a big investigation. the ig had a report yesterday into whether usis is not doing its job. something like 50% of the cases involving national security subcontractors were not going back to a second round of review. >> right. that's involving people who were in a different category than aaron alexis, who did not have the hard pass. but members of congress are saying it points up the same lack of thoroughness in doing these background investigations. >> andrea, by the sheer number, you're talking at any given time there are 5 million or so people worldwide who have these security clearances. most of them the lower level security clearance. this is a massive undertaking, which is why they've contracted some of this research into background checks to private contractors. so they're going to have to come

to grips with the fact that if they really want to toughen this procedure, they're going to have to pay for it. in terms of the lower-level security clearances, according to officials here, almost anybody in uniform is required to have that lower-level security clearance because at some point in their career, they're going to run across some classified material at that level. and it also goes to the question of overclassification. there's just too much, according to officials it here, too much of the business of the military and the pentagon that is classified and much of that should not be. >> jim and pete, thank you both so much. montana senator chairs the homeland security subcommittee and join us from capitol hill. senator, this is one of those cases where you don't want to be able to say, i told you so, but you can say it because you and claire mccaskill were on in a month ago after the snowden case. you were calling the usis people

to account. i don't know if you've gotten any answers yet. >> well, we haven't. the bottom line is what happened earlier this week was a terrible tragedy. as with the snowden case earlier, look, i think corners are being cut through the security clearance process. there has to be some oversight. what i'm working on right now, andrea, is making sure that the office of personnel management, ig, that does the investigations, has access to some administrative money to be able to take a look at these companies that are doing these background checks and make sure they're doing them properly. i think without that kind of oversight, we're going to see this continue over and over and over again until we get oversight and accountability into this process. that's what we're hoping on. hopefully we can get this bill through the process quickly. maybe as early as next week. >> but isn't it true that these

companies, or mainly one company, makes money the less work they do. i mean, if they clear people through quickly and don't go back and do these secondary checks, it's less cost for them. >> part of the problem is, andrea, is we don't know. we don't know how thorough these checks are. we don't know if they're making a bunch of money just by rubber stamping a bunch of security clearances. and that's why we need the oversight. as soon as we find out from a good ig investigation, and this can only happen if we get access to some dollars because of sequestration and cuts, once we get their report back, then we can take some proactive measures to fix it in the right way. obviously, the system is broken. there's no debate about that. we need to step it up and figure out how to fix it. the first step is allowing the inspector generals to do their work and give them the funds to do it. >> now, isn't it true that they could come back to you and say, look, there was no felony

committed, mental health issues are private, medical issues. there's no system right now in place where these earlier red flags would have stopped him from holding on to his security clearance. >> i'm not entirely sure about that. i think that if what i'm hearing that the flags are out there, somebody screwed up. truth is, if what i've heard is true that this person did and his security clearance wasn't at least checked into, then we've got big problems. >> and what about the fact that it the rhode island police sent a report to the naval institute there saying that he had been hallucinating and hearing voices and was obviously exhibiting what the layman would call paranoia? >> it shows you the system is broken. it really does show you things aren't working the way they should be working. the fact is in hindsight there was a bunch of red flags. this is such an important issue that we can't have 20/20

hindsight. we have to have 20/20 foresight on this so when the people get the security clearances, some 5 million of them, that they're actually worthy of getting that security clearance. right now a lot of this work is being done if tn the dark. there's no sunlight shining on it. we can fix that pretty darn quick. >> on a very different subject, i want to ask you about the situation at the fed because you were one of the key members of the committee that signaled to the white house that you could not support larry summers. what do you now expect to happen? what do you think of the way the white house has handled this so far? >> i think what i expect to happen is we'll get a person nominated that is a consensus builder and somebody that will lead the country in the right direction through monetary policy. that's the bottom line. nothing personal against mr. summers. i just don't think he had the right qualities to be in that position and be successful. >> and what about the way the

white house handled this? this became very politicized. do you think the senate is somewhat to blame for jumping into this? this is supposed to be a nonpolitical position. >> yeah, i know. well, last week i will just say that i was asked about him, and i told folks what i thought. i certainly was firm in my belief, but i don't know that the white house did anything wrong. they could have maybe tried to rush him through or something like that, but that's not good policy. that's not the way to run things. he needed to be thoroughly vetted. i let my opinion be known and things happened, they unfolded the way they unfolded. >> senator jon tester, thank you so much for being with us today. and on a much lighter note, the astros jonathan villara is now the butt of jokes today after this slide into second base. yes, we have all the angles covered to show you the cheeky action as he slid into the cincinnati infielder brandon

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welcome back. so who's going to blink first, the president and the house speaker in a game of chicken over whether republicans are going to hold obama care hostage to funding the government. >> what we now have is an ideological fight that's been mounted in the house of representatives that says we're in the going to pass a budget and we will threaten a government shutdown unless we repeal the affordable care act. so that's right now the primary roadblock to resolving the

budget. >> there should be no conversation about shutting the government down. that's not the goal here. our goal here is to cut spending and to protect the american people from obama care. it's as simple as that. we have no interest on our part in shutting the government down. >> joining me now, ruth marcus, writer for "the washington post," and chris cillizza. chris, what's going on here? this is the usual september, october showdown. two weeks to go before the government runs out of money. no one on either side wants this to really happen, but is it going to happen? >> andrea, i think it's certainly more likely today after john boehner and eric cantor unveiled their proposal, which would essentially force the continuing resolution in the budget to keep the government open back to the house if the obama care provisions --

defunding obama care provisions are stripped out. i think what you have here, andrea, is there isn't really -- this has been the case for a while. john boehner is a speaker in name only in a lot of ways. there are 40 to 45 members of his conference -- we're calling them cast-iron conservatives at the moment to put them in a category -- who defunding obama care is what they believe to be the critical issue of our time. there's a number of those folks in the senate too. they will not budge. it just makes john boehner's job very hard because his choices are either sort of go forward for a government shutdown or pass some sort of resolution -- and this will come up later -- pass some sort of resolution with democratic support because you're going to lose at least 40 to 45 republicans. that could be the end of his speakership and he knows that. he's really in a very, very difficult spot. >> ruth marcus, at the same time, you have could we just say ineffectual leadership coming out of the white house. what about their legislative

strategy? >> well, ineffectual all around. chris is totally right about the position that the speaker finds himself in where he's got -- he doesn't want to see a shutdown. he's got a caucus he can't lead. the president is also in a weakened position, i think. democrats are not -- in the house, particularly eager to jump to speaker boehner's rescue. we have two things coming up almost simultaneously. first, the government running out of money. second, a few weeks after that, the time is not specific, the government running out of borrowing authority. so we can sustain economically a government shutdown. we've been there. it's bad for the politics it of the party that gets blamed. it's bad for the country but not disastrous. the debt ceiling, that's another story. and that's what i'm really focused on and hon lest i really worried about. >> at the same time, you've got

another shooting. chris, the newtown families are here and trying. they've been here for a couple days. mayor bloomberg today spoke out. here's this from the head of starbucks, howard schultz, his letter in terms of making starbucks gun free. we have chosen this approach, he wrote, because we believe our store partners should not be put in the uncomfortable position of requiring customers to disarm or leave our stores. we believe that gun policy should be addressed by government and law enforcement not by starbucks and our store partners. how about that for a novel idea? bloomberg today, let's have a listen to what he had to say at his news conference at noon. >> we do know what happened this week has happened before and sadly it looks like it will happen again until we get serious about the issue of just too many guns around. >> but chris, it was the mayors

against guns, and some said the money, the mike bloomberg money that helped lead to the recall of colorado state officials. so which member of congress is going to follow which leader, and where was the rallying cry from the president this week over guns? >> you know, andrea, this makes me sound politically cynical, but i think the political reality of the situation is if the deaths of 20 children in newtown, connecticut, and the massive attention that story drove the huge involvement of the white house to try to push some level of gun control or reform of gun laws through, a democratic majority controlled senate couldn't even get the votes there. i know this is hard for some people to grasp because they say everyone i talk to thinks there's a space for common sense gun laws. remember, gun views are some determined by geography. they're much less determined by partisanship. i would just say, there just is not a majority, certainly in the

house. i don't even think in the senate for any sort of broad scale measure. that was the case after newtown. we have the same congress, roughly the same congress now. that's the case now. michael bloomberg is right. there probably will be more of these incidents. i don't think that will change in the near term in terms of an incident equaling legislative changes related to gun laws. >> and there is sort of a hungering for leadership here on a lot of subjects from somebody on either side of pennsylvania avenue. >> well, i think there's a hungering for leadership, but i think even more than that t there's a hungering for a capacity that everyone wants but just hasn't been demonstrated to break this stalemate where you have majorities who are in favor of things like reasonable gun legislation and you can't even get it out of the senate. so people want leadership, but they also want just an end to this tragic gridlock. we're not seeing it. in fact, we're seeing the

opposite. how cheery is that? >> not cheery enough. ruth marcus and chris cillizza, thank you both very much. and this terrible accident in ottawa, canada. six people are dead. a passenger train collided with a double decker bus during the peak of rush shower. passengers were yelling at the driver to stop just before impact. several passengers on both the commuter train and the bus were injured in this crash. has it's ups and downs.

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from boulder to jamestown, the commute used to take 20 minutes. now, three hours. today the roads don't just end, they vanish. >> this road is completely impassable. half of it has just been completely washed out. in the thin mountain air, the only way in is to hike. this road actually goes into jamestown. it's a complete disaster. jamestown has been washed away,

a third of it gone. what's left is eerily quiet, except for that thunderous roar, the james creek cuts this town in half. what it didn't swallow it now divides. >> and that was nbc's miguel almaguer reporting from colorado on 580 people still unaccounted for after last week' historic rainfall and flooding. improved conditions have allowed the focus to shift today to finding the victims. officials are tallying washed out roads, destroyed bridges and twisted rail lines that may take years and hundreds of millions of dollars to repair. now we go to georgia, where a press conference is being held right now by officials on that missing teenager who was kidnapped during a home invasion. >> you all should know our chief of police gregory porter, his deputy chiefs chris butler and

gina hawkins, chairman of the board of commissioners jeff turner. we have robert andrews from homeland security investigations. we also have rick maxwell from the fbi. and we have a couple of special agents from the gbi, jesse wilson and debby loving. we have representatives from our dictatorsh district attorneys office. and now i will introduce chief gregory porter, clinton county police. >> good evening. this is a good day. this is a good day for the

family, the perez family, but more importantly for ayvani. she is safe. she is safe. i want to thank the community as a whole for supporting the clayton county police department and all the collaboration between the agencies, federal, state, and local, throughout this ordeal. she's been reunified with her family. we currently have two suspects in custody. we're looking at some other suspects, and i'll let the fbi talk about that later. she was recovered at a location in conyers, georgia. the investigation is still active and we're still receiving phone calls as we speak. again, special thanks to the fbi, gbi, hsi, apd, clayton county district attorneys office, and u.s. attorneys office.

folks, this is a prime example of community policing, a prime example of collaboration through a situation where it affected not only clayton county community but the metro area. i'll entertain any questions at this time. >> how did you find her? >> through hard core law enforcement work. boots to the ground. again, the people who i just mentioned worked tireless hours to make sure this young lady was safe. >> what specifically, though, led you to her? >> i'll let the fbi touch on that. again, we're going to limit certain questions about the investigation. we do not want to compromise the integrity of the investigation. >> earlier you said there was no connection between the family and these alleged kidnappers. is that still the case? is there a relationship between the mother and the kidnappers that you can share with us? >> again, i'll let the fbi touch

on that. >> someone will be able to address that for us? >> yes. >> was she injured at all? >> no, she's in good health. she's being evaluated as we speak. she's been reunified with her family. >> have you been able to get a sense of why she was taken, a motive? >> again, it started off as a home invasion and probably lingered over into the abduction of this young lady. >> was she harmed in any way? >> she's being evaluated. >> any injuries? >> not at this point, that we know of. >> can we say that she wasn't scratched? >> she still is being evaluated at this point. >> was this targeted or random? >> we don't know at this point. it initially started off as a home invasion and lingered to the abduction of this particular young lady. >> was she dropped off? can you tell us where in conyers? >> the address in conyers -- do

we have the address? >> we do have the address. we will get that address for you. >> so can you just give us the narrative of how she was dropped off, how that happened? >> i'll let the fbi touch on that. i'll let them -- any other questions for me? >> suspects names? >> we have two people in custody. again, fbi will provide that information shortly. >> chief, how much man power went into finding her? >> we had, like i said, over 150 people -- persons involved -- personnel involved. many man hours, like i said. again, i want to thank the people i mentioned along with the hard working men and women at the clayton county police department. >> what about the ransom money? was that true? >> there was a mention about that, but i don't want to get into the specifics of it. again, folks, we're still

wrapping up this investigation. we're still in the preliminary stages. i think what is important at this point is she's safe. >> before you turn this over to the fbi hoping to answer more of these other questions, were you there, present, for the reunification? >> no, sir. >> any of you present for that? >> no, not to my knowledge. >> are you all saying she's now at a hospital? where is she being evaluated? >> she's nearby. due to the confidentiality of this young lady, the age and so on and so forth, we're limited in what we can say. >> what can you say about how the two suspects were captured? >> through hard core police work. boots to the ground. >> no narrative about how they were caught? >> was it an easy capture? was there any violence? >> we worked tireless hours trying to bring this situation to a closure. again, i think what's important at this point is she's safe. she's with her family. we need to -- again, i want to thank the media for y'all's help.

>> was there in i confrontation, violence? >> i wasn't there. i'll let the fbi speak on that. >> what can you tell us about where she's been these 30-something hours? at somebody's home? >> she's been in the metro area. we'll say that. >> so you think she was riding around in a car the whole time? >> we're still interviewing an evaluating her health at this point. >> who from the fbi can talk to us right now? >> i'd be remissed if i did not recognize chairman turner, chairman of the clayton county commission board. i want him to say a couple words and i'll give him the opportunity to say something. >> good afternoon. as the chief said, first of all, i'm chairman jeff turner, chairman of the clayton county board of commissioners. as the chief said, it's a great day for law enforcement, great day for -- >> very good news for ayvani perez, the 14-year-old girl was taken from her family's home 30 hours ago. we understood her mother tried

to hide the children and the family dog. the two men suspected of invading the house shot the dog, took the girl, and were gone. she was apparently found in clayton county, georgia -- in conyers, georgia, some 20 miles away from where she was taken. she's now being evaluated in a hospital and has been reunited with her family. she's alive. she's being evaluated for her health. at least it's good news. they say they have arrested the two suspects through hard police work, what the police chief said was boots on the ground. and now overseas. iran's new president rouhani is coming to new york next week to speak for the first time at the united nations amid signs of a possible opening to the united states. in an address to iran's revolutionary guard on tuesday, the iran supreme leader called for his country to, quote, embrace diplomacy over militarism. under that setting, our own nbc's ann curry in tehran has just completed the first broadcast interview with the new iranian leader.

ann is joining me now by phone. ann, congratulations, first of all. tell me your impressions. i know you'll have a lot to report tonight on "nbc nightly news." >> that's right, andrea. in fact, we just left iran's presidential compound here in tehran where we conducted an exclusive interview with iran's new president rouhani. it's his first interview in years. andrea, under questioning, he made a categorical statement. he said, iran will, quote, never develop nuclear weapons under any circumstances and that he has, quote, full authority to make a nuclear deal with the west. he was, of course, clearly stating that he has the complete support of iran's supreme leader who is in charge of iran's nuclear program. iran's president also said that everything, andrea, is on the nuclear negotiating table. it was a wide-ranging interview. he made news on a number of topics. he also said -- it was also a

very different kind of interview from former president ahmadinejad, who we both have interviewed. it was less bombastic, more conciliatory and it was also clear that president rouhani and his team see that his trip to the united nations in new york next week will be a major opportunity for improving relations with the west. andrea? >> ann curry, this is extraordinary. we know, you and i, you particularly, how tense past interviews have been at that presidential palace. tell me, with this signal, certainly, we can expect that the white house is going to pick this up. i've been told as recently as today and last night that top officials in the national security team say that the president does want to see, to test very quickly whether this really is an opening. they think that maybe this is self-interest, but they think that the american sanctions have created such economic pressure that iran is really ready to make a deal.

>> it's difficult for iran to admit that the economy in iran has been affected by the sanctions, but there is no doubt that it has been affected by the sanctions. there is something like a 40% inflation rate, something like a 30% youth unemployment rate. president rouhani has made it very clear he wants sanctions to end. and it is also important to know he has sent several signals before our interview even saying that the time is short, there won't be a lot of time to reach a nuclear deal. we asked him if that meant weeks, months, or years. he did not answer that question directly, but there is no doubt from talking to his team that they see that the time is now. clearly, i think, andrea, what you're also intimating, which is a very important point, is that there's a political risk for him just as there's a political risk for president obama to step too far into this ring without an

assurance that the other is also in the ring with them. i think both sides would have to have a certain amount of political courage to actually make a deal, but there is no question at all, based on every signal that we've seen from iran and president rouhani since his election, that there is an effort to create a new opportunity that did not exist under president ahmadinejad's presidency here in iran. >> ann curry, extraordinary. we can't wait to see this interview on "nbc nightly news" with brian williams tonight. all eyes will be on that and on watching him at the united nations, where of course ahmadinejad in the past showed the sort of tough fist of iran. this is going to be a very different diplomatic initiative at the u.n. general assembly next week. ann curry, congratulations, and we look forward to all of your reporting. in an interview yesterday, president obama responded to the

potential shift in the dynamic between iran and the united states. >> i think it's clear that iran is under a whole host of international sanctions precisely because the entire international community believes that we can't see a nuclear arms race triggered in the most volatile part of the world. there is an opportunity here for diplomacy. i hope the iranians take advantage of it. there are indications that rouhani, the new president, is somebody who is looking to open dialogue with the west and with the united states in a way that we hadn't seen in the past. so we should test it. >> test it, they will. you were listening to ann curry. this is pretty exciting stuff. we don't know how real it is, but i was told that the president does want to test it, as he just said.

the opportunity will be when they meet at the united nations. here's the challenge. they do, as ann was suggesting, they do have to hold hands and jump off the cliff at the same time. any overture to iran will be immediately seen as a threat to israel, to the saudis and others in the gulf. our own very close allies on syria and other big issues are also looking at iran as the aggressor in propping up assad and as a nuclear threat to, they claim, the israelis. >> that's right, andrea. it is significant. we went from the worst of the iranian regime to the very best of the iranian regime with president rouhani. in particular, his foreign minister, who has spent many years in the u.s. >> he was the u.n. ambassador. he's someone we all know very well. the fact that rouhani, as one of his first acts, was able to make him foreign minister, not one of the hard liners, obviously with the approval of the ayatollah. that's a very big deal.

>> it is. there's a lot of data points like this we haven't seen before. i think the irony for the white house is that, you know, three, four years ago it looked like we were potentially going to war against iran over the nuclear program. now, given everything that's taken place in the middle east, iran is one of the few sources of hope for the obama administration to reach some type of a diplomatic accommodation. >> what about the fact that iran and hezbollah, talking about 10,000 fighters now in syria. at the same time as we see hope on this diplomatic front, they are involved militarily, propping up the assad regime, as is russia. >> i think there's certain strategic principles that the iranian regime has, whether that's resistance against america or rejection of israel's existence, support for the assad regime in syria, which is going to be very difficult for anyone to change, even president rouhani. the question is whether the u.s. and iran can kind of overcome

those differences on syria and israel in order to reach not a reproachment between the two countries but essentially a nuclear accommodation. >> in 2009 i was in geneva where the u.s. and iran negotiated their enriched uranium from the tehran medical reactor would be shipped out and, you know, cleaned up in russia and then sent back for use in the medical reactor, which would reassure the world they were not doing, you know, illegal nuclear program. what nobody knew at the time was they did have an illegal program underground. number two, the ayatollah said, i never said you could give up the nuclear program. that's what we were all told. he has the final say over this. >> he does. he has to sign off. in the past, he's been someone who's been i would describe as heroically inflexible. yesterday he gave a speech to it the revolutionary guards calling

for heroic flexibility. i think there's a variety of factors that play in, certainly the tremendous political and economic pressure iran is facing. we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. the two countries have a three-decade long history of mistrust. i would say between president obama in washington and president rouhani in tehran, this is the best opportunity we've had for a diplomatic breakthrough, at least for 15 years. >> or at least since it got all messed up. >> that's right. >> thank you very much. >> any time. >> and the pakistani girl shot by the taliban because of her fight for women's rights received a special honor yesterday. she was named an amnesty international ambassador of conscious. bono honored her with the award. >> it's like she's running the united nations already. she had complete command of the crowd. she waves as if she's waving to

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and today we are hearing from the mother of the man responsible for carrying out monday's massacre at the washington navy yard in an emotional off-camera meeting with reporters today. kathleen alexis shared her grief for the families of the 12 victims. >> our son aaron alexis has murdered 12 people and wounded several others. his actions have had a profound and everlasting effect on the families of the victims. i don't know why he did what he did, and i'll never be able to ask him why. aaron is now in a place where he can no longer do harm to anyone, and for that i am glad. to the families of the victims, i am so, so very sorry that this has happened. my heart is broken. >> nbc news correspondent rahema

ellis joins me from brooklyn. this is heartbreaking on is many levels. what are your impressions? the pastor spoke. the mother spoke. how can they even express the grief and the guilt they must be feeling for not understanding what was happening with this man? >> reporter: well, you voice it precisely, andrea. they can't. the pastor who was with her as she made the statement says that she is emotionally distraught over what has happened. she doesn't want any attention to be placed on her. she's so concerned about the families of those victims who were killed or injured in the attack at the navy yard. and she said she would not offer any personal details about her son, whether she had seen him recently or when was the last time she had seen him. none of that was offered today. what she did want to do was offer her condolences to the families of the victims and to let everyone know that, as she said, her heart is broken behind

all of this. >> and he seemed to be a wanderer of sorts. we know that he had friends in bangkok and thai friends in texas but was pretty much estranged. even the brother-in-law who had spoken about him had never met him. that marriage had taken place within the last four years and he had not been home. >> reporter: exactly. what we're sensing from the brother-in-law is he said he's been married to aaron alexis' sister some time, but he's never met him. i should point out this. according to the bishop who was in the room while she recorded the statement in her home, he said, according to her, many of the things we are hearing in the media she says are not true. but she would not offer any clarification of what is true or what is correct and what is incorrect. so maybe some of those details will come out in the days to come, but she was just very concerned about some of the information coming out about her son as far as she, his mother, is concerned is not totally

correct. >> rehema ellis, sad duty today. this tragedy inexplicable. thank you so much for your reporting. we will be right back. my customers can shop around-- see who does good work and compare costs. it doesn't usually work that way with health care. but with unitedhealthcare, i get information on quality rated doctors, treatment options and estimates for how much i'll pay. that helps me, and my guys, make better decisions. i don't like guesses with my business, and definitely not with our health. innovations that work for you. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

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in the next 24 hours, chris is back with us. the fed will make an announcement by 2:00 on interest rate policy and whether or not they are tapering. and we'll hear from ben bernanke in the news conference in the next half hour. that's something that got the market's attention for sure. >> one other thing fed related news, chuck schumer, powerful senator said if not larry summers who had taken his name out for the next -- and janet yell inz, chuck schumer doesn't say things that private will he he doesn't think will happen. both worth noting, when we talk about who the next chairman of the fed might be.

i'd add, the president's fate on the economy is very tied into how the fed handles interests rates going forward. >> the economy is more important but what's more important than the economy right now? we have a pennant race. >> still believing. doubleheader yesterday, i agree, by the way, i just used we for a time i'm not a part of. we have pennant fever and i feel the spring and summer were hugely disappointed but i hope it's not too late for the nats. >> it's been quite a run and we've got now two against the braves, the third coming up and let's hope that cincinnati begins to falter. >> cincinnati lose a few out there, dusty baker. >> okay. >> thanks to you, chris, we'll be watching it all. that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us online and on twitter. my colleague tamron hall has a

look at what's next on "news nation." >> thank you very much. in our hour, security failure, new information on the series of red flags that were missed leading to the mass shooting at the navy yard. plus, we're hearing from the gunman's mother for the first time. we'll play her strong remarks on her son and that tragedy. plus, risky business, house republicans move forward with a plan that could shut down the government over obama care. tea party pressure, speaker boehner said we'll do everything we can to repeal the law. plus, within the last hour, georgia officials announce the teenage girl kidnapped from her bed has been found alive. the alleged abductors arrested. what's the back story here? we'll get a live report on "news nation." ♪ don't you ♪ don't you wanna, wanna ♪ don't you ♪ don't you want to see me flaunt what i got? ♪ oh.

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developing now, a georgia teenager snatched from her family's home has been found alive. the latest on the suspects who took her. ceo activists, heads of panera bread and starbucks sending a message to their customers on two highly controversial political debates in the country right now. i'm tamron hall. we're following a series of red flags leading to new calls for an overhaul of the military background check system. today at the pentagon, secretary of defense chuck hagel ordered a review of security and access at military facilities. >> where there are gaps we will close it. where there are inadequacies, we will address it.

and where there are failures, we will correct them. >> president obama ordered an even broader review of standards for all federal employees and contractors. all of this after revelations that aaron alexis received and kept his security clearance despite a history of arrests and recent events, including telling police he was hearing voices, suggesting he was losing grip on realty. the contractor that hired alexis confirmed the defense department cleared alexis twice and they would not have hired him if they few about his arrests. a report released by the pentagon confirms the navy's screening program has widespread problems and found over the last nine months, 52 convicted felons received routine unauthorized access to navy installations and we're hearing for first time from aaron alexis's mother who issued this statement on the shootings. >> my son, aaron