>> what's next in the health care fight? could the latest moves by the gop damage the president's signature law? update next. >> more scandal at the secret service. how did one agent leave a bullet behind in a hotel room? in toronto it's not just about the mayor but the attention he's getting around the world. a look at that. the golden gate city, it takes the top spot in today's list of number ones but it's not necessarily for the best reason. >> hello, everyone. welcome to weekends with alex

witt. here's what is happening. a new bill within the democratic party threaten to alt ter the health care law. it's sponsored by fred upton and would allow insurers to continue offering plans cancelled tund the affordable care act. it sailed through the house with 39 democrats breaking rank to help it through. some democrats stayed true to the signature program, fighting on the floor until the gavel came down. both sides were passionate. >> it's particularly disappointing to come to the floor today to see a bill that says to the affordable care act and all of these people with their stories we are going to unravel this. we are going to unravel all of the good things. >> it is important that we take this action today on h.r. 33-50 because we have heard from the american people from coast to coast, from coast to coast, that

they do not want -- they do not want the president's health care law. >> the president is vowing to block the so called keep your plan bill which is unlikely to actually make it to his desk. in the meantime the president is on a mission to rehab the health care launch. obama met with insurance company executives to brainstorm. the white house is looking for options to ensure fewer americans face cancelled poli polici policies. nbc's kristen welker is live at the white house. the president said he wants to make sure people know exactly what their options are so just what are their options? >> reporter: insiders say it could be days before insurance companies know how to proceed. in the meantime they're urging policy holders to be patient but

proactive. debra is one of the millions of americans who got a letter from a insurance company cancelling her health care plan because it doesn't meet the requirements. >> i nearly fell out of the chair. it was a huge shock. >> reporter: while she welcomed president obama's announcement that he will allow insurance companies to renew old plans for a year she's skeptical. >> to me a fix would be if you like your plan, you can keep your plan, period. >> reporter: many insurance companies are fuming, saying the president passed a political hot potato onto them. on friday insurance ceos met with the president at the white house to figure out how to make the fix work. >> we're going to brainstorm on how do we make sure that everybody understands what their options are. >> reporter: after two hours of discussion the ceos struck a positive tone. but privately many are still at a loss about how they'll change

course so quickly with enrollment deadlines a month away and industry experts warn some premiums could still go up. >> which do you choose as a ceo? a logistical nightmare or do you so no to the policy holders and be the bad guy? >> reporter: the advice for consumers, be proactive. >> wait one week for the insurance commissioners and the companies to make decisions on what they're going to do. then i would call the insurance company. >> debra says she plans to do that but she wants washington to act, too. >> i would say please fix this. i mean really fix this. >> reporter: now, some states including washington and arkansas have already said they're not going to go along with the president's fix. further underscoring the president's political problem as you pointed out at the top 39 democrats broke with the president in voting for a

legislative fix. of course the stakes couldn't be higher, the president's legacy riding on all of this. >> thanks such kristen. earlier today i spoke to joe cesstack. he said president obama could have used a few of the lessons he learned in the navy. >> i learned inspect what you expect. the president should have been down there demanding input to see that a botched implementation didn't occur. when 60,000 pennsylvanians were losing their health care every year, before the affordable care act was passed, that's the equivalent of the entire population of harris burg, our capital in 44 weeks. that means this is a major step forward. this website has got to be fixed. i think the president had to keep his promise. >> coming up, congressman peter welch of vermont.

i'll ask him what is in the bill that could affect the affordable care act. turning now to the philippines where hunger and frustration are reaching their peek. the death toll just above 3600. hundreds of international aid workers have set up makeshift hospitals to treat those who have been turned away from hospitals or can't get to them. humanitarian aid is finally starting to trickle in. we're in tacloban with more on the relief efforts. >> reporter: the aid operation is very much under way and growing by the day. at the moment it could be described as patchy and some people would say too little too late. a lot of aid is being brought in by the u.s. military. the aircraft carrier the uss george washington is mored off shore and officers there are telling us that they brought in more than 28,000 tons of aid so

far as well as 1200 aid workers and medics so they're really putting in the effort trying to change the situation on the ground here for the many hundreds of thousands of people who have been effected. the american military is very much in the lead but you've got planes from all over the world landing at the airport here now bringing in supplies. it really is something to witness up there. but all that aid is being piled up next to the runway. boxes and boxes of u.s. aid branded food and water and it's the difficulty of getting it from runway to ruin that faces the next stage of this recovery and relief operation. it doesn't appear as though there are enough trucks to get that aid out to some of the more remote areas and outlying areas. i did see aid being delivered to the center of tacloban yesterday, a truck of aid from the philippines government. there was a stampede when this truck was spotted, and within seconds there was a cue of

hundreds and hundreds of people cueing up to get a small carrier bag with some goodies from the supermarket inside of it. one official said to me the tactic would be to overwhelm people with food. it's taken days and days for people to actually get some of that aid. a lot of people have lost faith in their own government here in the philippines to look after them. part of the city are starting to change. a lot of people have left. those who can are leaving. those with the money and the means are leaving and those left behind are those with very little who need so much. back to you. >> if you would like to donate to recovery efforts in the philippines, visit redcross.org.ph. to an unprecedented move by the government to stop a meningitis outbreak at princeton university. a vaccine that has not been approved by the fda, the drug has been approved in europe and

australia. 7 princeton students have been infected since march, the latest case just this week. authorities say this particular strain which can be fatal goes after the brain and spinal cord and the school and students are considering the new drug. >> you never think it's going to happen to you but especially when you don't have the protection that you normally have. >> would you take the vaccine? >> i would. if they do good research on the side effects, i would take the vaccine. >> in the meantime, princeton students are being told to wash hands and not share cups. if the vaccine does arrive in the u.s. it will only be used on campus. a small connecticut town is on the verge of bankruptcy and schools shuttered after an 'em bezelment scandal. they say their finance director siphoned $2 million to finance his double life with a mistress. we have the details on this story. >> reporter: win steady,

connecticut, on the surface the is it stuff of new england dreams. residents say they are living a nightmare after henry, the town's long time finance director was accused of 'em bezeling more than $2 million to help finance a double life with a mistress in florida. >> you can't steal $2 million and get away with it. >> i can't understand how about somebody can do that to children. >> reporter: the town is teetering on bankruptcy and their schools in changer of closing within weeks if something isn't done. >> i can't conceive of that happening but if we don't have money to pay stuff, how do we operate a school? we can't ask employees to come to work for nothing. >> reporter: on friday he pleaded not guilty. his attorney had no comment but prosecutors said thez are serious charges. >> we're giving it a good deal of attention. >> he was the town's finance director for more than 30 years, but an affidavit obtained reveals allegations of a secret life, an alleged mistress in

florida who told police he told her he made all that money on google stock and selling land to disney until she showed up at the home he shared with his wife. now the 59-year-old is held on $100,000 bond facing five counts of larceny. residents are considering borrow money to fund the schools. >> we've put ourselves in this position and that's where we have to go. >> reporter: for the town's children there is only one concern, what's next for them. >> i would say you better hurry the heck up because i don't want to go to a different school. >> reporter: as they wait to see if their schools can be saved. >> the poles close tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern. the superintendent is hopeful that they'll get enough votes to keep their schools open. turning now to weather and the snowstorm out west. in oregon heavy snow is making

roads treacherous but some of the drivers say they don't mind it. >> i'm loving it. i'm loving the snow. it's nice to have. it's nice to come out here on breaks and have a little fun. you don't get so bored at work. who doesn't like a complete whiteout? >> there is the most snow as there is right here but i've never skidded on the road. >> here in new york the temperatures are a lot milder than that as workers get the christmas tree ready at rockefeller plaza. it's beginning to look a lot like criminal. >> but not feeling like it. we had rain showers this morning and the temperatures are warming up in the northeast and through the plain states where temperatures will be about 20 degrees above normal for this time of year. going back to that snow in the northwest it's mainly the higher elevations at this point and we will see snow throughout the entire day but it will fade away as we go into tonight and tomorrow. look at some of the highest elevations picking up a foot of snow. we're going to see this through

the rockies. areas like denver will deal with high winds as well, the winds and a snow always a bad combination. we're keeping a close eye on this front right now. it's moving through central missouri. it does have some rain and isolated thunderstorms with it but over the course of the day today, especially tonight, we've got a clash of really warm air ahead of this and cold air behind it so we could end up with thunderstorms. we could see very strong storms later this evening into tonight. hail is a possibility along with damaging wind gusts. watch what happens tomorrow. that front moves eastward and we could see a severe weather outbreak tomorrow morning and early tomorrow afternoon. in red from michigan down to northern kentucky, that's the area where we could end up with isolated tornados and widespread damaging wind gusts. in yellow from new york state right down into mississippi and alabama, that's where we're going to see the chance of strong thunderstorms.

things are going to get busy tomorrow back behind that front though it cools down. we go from almost 70 into the lower 40s by monday. >> and then it will start to feel like christmas. thanks so much. number ones with the city that's seen the big influx of young americans. and the circus surrounding the toronto mayor. he's promising a new fight after getting stripped of some powers. [ passenger ] airport, please. what airline? united. [ indian accent ] which airline, sir? [ passenger ] united. whoa taxi! [ british accent ] what airline, then? [ passenger ] united. all right. [ spanish ] what airline? [ passenger ] united. ♪ [ mandarin ] which airline? [ passenger ] united. [ arabic ] which airline? [ passenger ] united. [ italian ] where are we going? [ passenger ] united. [ male announcer ] more destinations than any other airline. [ thai ] which airline do you fly? [ passenger ] united. [ male announcer ] that's great, big world friendly. ♪

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>> back to washington now and the latest in the health care drama. the president had a face to face meeting with insurance ceos late friday in the hopes of reversing cancellations of thousands of policies. so just what came of that meeting? joining me now is white house reporter for the "washington post" and anna palmer.

thank you for your time. what are you hearing about what happened and what if any changes could follow? >> these group represents some of the biggest health care companies. they have concerns and i think they still have concerns. the president made a major fix to his original rollout of his plan the other day in saying that those folks who have had their insurance cancelled on the individual marketplace can now keep those plans for one more year. this is a big surprise to the industry which had been preparing all along for the original rollout which was that they would have to enroll people on the new insurance market and those people would not be able to keep these plans. now they're trying to scramble to see how they might deal with it in the individual states. some state regulators are saying that's not going to happen. some states are split so it's caused more headaches as the president tries to fix the confidence of the public. >> one suggestion that's reportedly being considered is

to allow consumers to sign up for plans directly with the insurers. do you think that's a good idea and what is the likelihood that that could happen? >> it depends on whether the insurers want to do this. certainly it takes the heat off the politics of the website not working. so a lot of the heat on obama and where a lot of criticism has been is that this website does not work, they're having a hard time signing people up so they can punt to the insurers saying you can go directly through them instead of this website. it could be a win if the insurers go along with it. >> david, as you know, the bill that just passed in the house would make a big dent in the foundation of obama care. i want to listen to the way that congressman mcgovern described it on the house floor. >> so if you want to go back to a system where insurance companies could turn people away because they're sick, by all means vote for this bill. >> what do you make of that statement? is that fair? is it taking us back to some of the things that the president is

trying to take us away from? >> this is going to do that indefinitely and i think this would create another problem with this marketplace that the white house does not want to see happen. the problem i think for the white house is not so much that this house plan has any chance in the senate which it doesn't but simply that the senate democrats and house democrats are proposing their own fixing, some of which are similar to the white house's but saying we need more time. there is talk among some senate democrats of extending the enrollment period, things the white house said they don't want to do. the white house continues to put the message even in this private meeting, their number one priority is fixing the website at the end of this month and hoping this will go away. >> the president is facing heat for telling people they could keep their plans. now the administration is promising that the website will work on november 30th.

what are the consequences for the president if the site is not, in fact, working in time and he again looks like he's breaking another promise? >> i think they're severe. certainly the obama administration put this deadline in and any time you have a deadline and say this is the marker for when this has to work, if it does not and it's unclear whether they will actually be able to meet this deadline what does he say next? the credibility in terms of his future health care law is really up for grabs. >> david, we've heard a lot about the problems with the federally run website but in many cases the states running their own exchange are doing just fine. some have opted out of medicaid expansion. are we getting into a situation where we could see double standards of care from state to state? >> the white house has praised those states who have adopted their own models and are working well. those who are not taking advantage of the extended medicaid rules, the white house

is trying to put pressure on them. the president himself has gone to texas to put pressure on rick perry directly, saying you're leaving hundreds of thousands of people off of potential medicaid benefits by not choosing to expand this program even as you complain about this website not working on the federal level. so i think individual states have taken different approaches and some are working quital. >> anna, if things don't get better, do you expect the divisions in the democratic party will get worse or yu night. >> it was a win for the obama administration. there was thought that maybe 100 democrats could have strayed. so if this website doesn't work, if they aren't able to move forward, i think you're going to see more and more democrats peeling off and saying we're

going to propose some legislation because they're very nervous about what this means for 2014. they're already seeing ads attacking them on obama care. so certainly if they're looking at whether or not they're going to be re-elected or not, you're going to have people proposing new things to try to get a fix in there. >> david, you wrote a piece about a secret service agent leaving behind a bullet in there and that agent and another supervisor were sending e-mails to a lower level worker. >> the secret service took action last year in the wake of the scandal in colombia where a number of agents were cited. they've tightened rules there. an inspector general report is

due out talking about the broader culture review. they might have been in touch with the agency about changes that have been made, others that might be made. there will be potential changes. you have the first female director in the agency's history was appointed 7 months ago. she's dealing with a lot of other things but this is something they need a handle on. each time this happens, they say it's not related but it does appear to have a cultural problem inside the agency that's had this boys' club reputation. it's not good for not just the image of the agency but the security of the president. >> your piece enters a key question which is how does one leave a bullet in the hotel room. people can check your piece out in the "washington post." thank you both for your time this morning. a wish comes true as san francisco turns into gotham city for a young cancer survivor. office politics for thomas roberts. who is big dan and why did he

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welcome back to weekends with alex witt. it's time for headlines at the half. the los angeles police department is investigating reports that the tsa officer wounded in a shooting attack at los angeles international airport waited 33 minutes for aid. a spokesman says attention was delayed by another officer told first responders that the victim was dead. it took 200 firefighters two hours to get a massive fire under control in chicago. fire officials say a roofing crew using propane torches sparked the flames. no injuries were reported. fewer american high school students are smoking cigarettes but more are smoking cigars, e cigarettes and hookahs. over all 23 percent of high school students said they had recently used a tobacco product

at the time the survey was taken. now to fix the problematic launch of obama care. the president meeting friday with ceos from the nation's biggest insurance carriers to hash out a remedy. that coming one day after the president acknowledged the problems are bogging down his signature legislation. >> i understand why folks are frustrated. i would be, too. ultimately i'm the president of the united states and they expect me to do something about it. that's on me. i mean, we fumbleed the rollout. we and i did not have enough awareness about the problems in the website. during me now is congressman peter welsh. why do you think 39 of your democratic colleagues voted for upton bill? >> it's what the president just said. he fumbled the rollout. he said if people had insurance that they liked they could keep it.

i think they wanted to error on the side of saying that they wanted the president to keep his promise. the fact is the president laid out another proposal that will allow him to keep his promise. i think it was a political decision by the president and also by many of the members in those votes. >> but then doesn't that undermine one of the key goals of the affordable care act which is not just to make sure that more people are covered but they have more quality coverage and some of these plans as determined by the aca are substanda substandard. >> that's why it's a year long program. when the president spoke about allowing people to keep their health care, the number of people relative to the overall number of americans was going to be relatively small. obviously it's very important to them and it's not, quote, perfect policy to allow those plans to continue. on the other hand when you are making a major change it makes sense on a practical level to have transition steps to get you from here to there.

it can't be abrupt. yes, it's not perfect policy but the makes sense for fairness and implementation. >> is there a certain that legislation like this could chip away at a lot of the key goals of legislation? >> when it's to fix for transition reasons i don't think so. if you totally unravel the individual mandate which was what the republicans were holding out for when they shut the government down and threatened to default that would have unraveled the design of it. if we were in a more functional congress, now that health care is the law, both sides would be saying let's make this adjustment in order to allow it to work and we would be making practical adjustments just like bipartisan members of congress did when we were doing medicare, prescription drug part d, we lack that cooperation now. the republicans have had essentially a fight for failure against obama care and it's been

a pitch battle without retreat and unrelenting. so that makes it difficult to just have cooperation on implementation issues which would make things better for all americans, even if you are somebody who doesn't support the health care bill. >> this week the president said that insurers should temporarily restore cancelled plans but he said that without talking to the insurance companies first, just the latest gaffe. what do you think the white house needs to do right now from this point moving forward to get this thing on the right track? >> let me say this, insurance companies are big winners in this. this is essentially a republican designed plan. it was modelled after what governor romney did in massachusetts. there were a lot of democrats who didn't particularly like that, me among them. the insurance companies are going to get 30 to 40 million new customers. if the president makes a suggestion that might help us in

the transition, i think it's fair for the insurance companies to remember that they're the big winners in this and do their part. >> what else do you think the white house needs to do moving forward to get this on the right track? admittedly they've made gaffe after gaffe here? >> this is all about good implementati implementation. the reason a lot of democrats are so upset is because we supported the law and since we support the law we know in order for it to work it has to be implemented well. of course that's an exec tif function. this is about smoothing out the wrinkles, acknowledging when there is an implementation issue and then taking on the responsibility energetically to fix it asap. >> we're showing the healthcare.gov website and the president has said people can

sign up on the phone or in person. now you're hearing that they can go directly to insurance companies. how key do you think the website working properly is to the successful implementation of this law? does it hinge on the website or are there plan bs and cs to make this work? >> we can't succeed without a functional website and then we want supplemental opportunities for folks who don't like to go on the internet and that's a lot of older americans but we have to have a website that's functional. we have a social security website that really works. so it can be done. so, no, we've got to get that website functioning. >> congressman peter welsh, thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> in today's office politics, thomas roberts fresh off his trip to moscow co-hosting the miss universe pageant, he talked about the message they wanted to send in the face of lgbt

propaganda laws and answers the big dan mystery. >> going to russia with patrick was a big deal. obviously there has been so much concern over the propaganda laws that exists in russia. this was a big message to people not just in russia but internationally that we're just like everybody else. we're just a regular old married couple, boring as the day is long. there is nothing to be afraid of. there is nothing wrong with kids knowing that you can grow up to be a successful, happy person. so i thought it was important to go and i'm really glad i did. people aren't asking for -- we're not asking for anything special. we're just asking for equal respect and in this situation in russia, this is such a vague law and such a psychological head game against a marginalized community that this aggravates it that much more and it condones that hype of homophobia that exists not just in russia, had are in our own country,

internationally homophobia is an issue and will continue to need to be properly addressed for hopefully -- hopefully it won't take two more generations. hopefully your kids, my nieces and nephews, that younger set will continue to push ahead and recognize that equality is important. we're in this together no matter what country you come from. as human beings we're all in this together. but they in russia anyway, culturally they're a few decades behind us on that front. >> i'm curious about the security presence that you may have experienced. when you accompanied by security all the time? >> we had a security presence. now, this is something that as far as i know the miss universe people normally have. >> so it wasn't russian police? >> no, we didn't have any type

of russian police authorities or anything like that. these were regular private security people. we had a guy that worked with us that we called big dan who is a really big dude, big dan. didn't speak english or at least didn't act like he spoke english. he was assigned to us. you're either with the current miss universe with nick jonas on her arm. that was interesting. or you're with these 86 women from around the world and people are trying to get into the hall where it was. so there was a constant presence of security around but nothing that they ever jumped into action for. >> so you never felt unsafe, never felt threatened, anything like that? >> it's in your mind or you're thinking about that and what am i going to run into while i'm

here. >> you know we all call you mr. universe around here, right? >> that was in my contract. so you think that you came up with that on your own. >> because of all this going on. >> it's a forced thing. >> glad to comply. >> thank you. >> mr. universe is as sweet as he is handsome. tomorrow thomas gives us a behind of scenes peek of the miss universe pageants. outrage over a controversial high school mascot coming up. (little girl) no! saw her first day of school. (little girl) bye bye! made a best friend forever. the back seat of my subaru is where she grew up. what? (announcer) the subaru forester. (girl) what? (announcer) motor trend's two thousand fourteen sport utility of the year. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. wears off.

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>> reporter: three years ago he was diagnosed with leukemia. his cancer is in remission. you could say yesterday he was at the center of a city wide celebration. it looked like a giant parade but to fully understand why thousands filled the streets of san francisco you must take a step back. and listen to the story of a boy with superhero strength. >> going to be batman. >> you get to be batman? >> reporter: five-year-old miles scott spent the majority of his young life battling a villain named leukemia. >> he has beat an awful disease. so that makes him a hero to me. >> reporter: typically shy, the young cancer survivor comes alive wearing his batman costume. >> he's my favorite superhero. >> reporter: in fact, he always dreamed of becoming the caped crusader. on friday the make awish foundation made that dream come true. >> it makes me so happy that he

dpets gets to be the hero that he is. >> reporter: riding shotgun in a bat mobile, police escorts guide miles into a town transformed into gotham city. he's rushed to help a dam sell in distress. with an assist from batman, miles saves the day to everyone's delight. >> he's so cute! >> reporter: there is no time to rest. the riddler is robbing a bank and bat kid is called to coil those plans. >> i closed the door on him. >> reporter: every step of the way huge crowds greet bat kid. some 13,000 complete strangers all packed into downtown san francisco thanks to social media. >> when i was a kid i wanted to do this and he's getting to do it which is pretty awesome. >> reporter: even the president had a message. >> way to go miles, way to save

gotham. >> the san francisco chronicle printed a special edition highlighting how miles saved a mascot from the clutches of the penguin. >> he's batman. batman always wins. >> reporter: this story really did go viral. miles' story shined a rather large spotlight on the make a wish foundation. in fact, yesterday at one point that organization's website was overwhelmed by all the traffic. >> that's terrific. it's a story that makes you feel so good and hearing that makes me feel even better. thank you so much for that. oprah winfrey's theory about why she thinks president obama is being disrespected by some in washington. that's coming up in our next hour. with 0-calorie monk fruit in the raw. ♪ welcome back [ male announcer ] it's made with the natural, vine-ripened sweetness of fruit, so you can serve up deliciously sweet treats without all the sugar.

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transport's embattled mayor is losing power. the city council yesterday stripped rob ford of some of his authority and hopes to remove

his remaining power on monday. ford told the city council that he's hired an attorney to fight the move. >> this will cost taxpayers thousands of dollars, and i understand their frustration, but i just don't want to see the taxpayers hurt. >> in other developments, because of revelations about ford's drug and alcohol abuse and his angry outbursts, the head of toronto's santa parade is asking the mayor not to mark tomorrow. as of now, he is still scheduled to take part. the mayor and his brother will start a new tv show called "s for nation" after their popular weekly radio show has been canceled. >> all trips to city hall have been canceled citing an unsafe environment. joining me is ian austin covering the toronto mayor's scandal. thanks so much for being here this afternoon. >> hi, mara. i want to start, before we get to the city council's decision, i want to start with a question

a lot of people are thinking about right now. how does this guy get elected? what do you know about his political background? >> he was always the lone wolf of toronto's city council. he and his brother doug are kind of creation of an amalgamation that happened late 1990s. a whole bunch of suburbs, including the one they're from were stuck onto the traditional city of toronto. and they're not a good fit with toronto. toronto's this kind of ecoconscious anti-car city, and they're classic suburbs that depend on cars. and ford went with a kind of anti-tax platform. it's a bit like the tea party although making that analogy in canada is not a good comparison. >> even throughout the scandal, his approval numbers have remained pretty steady considering what's been happening there. how do you explain that? >> well, i think one of the things, i mean, the one thing the polls clearly show people want him out. like overwhelmingly, those polls on his approval numbers are call

polls with fairly small samples. they are pillows, somebody said, people who pick up the phone when they don't recognize the phone number. yet, he certainly has this core constituency in the suburbs, but i'm not really, you know, if the election was tomorrow, i don't think we would see him as mayor. >> that have explanation of the poll numbers makes sense. the city council vote, how does it affect ford's authority? >> well, canadian mayors aren't as powerful as american mayors, which i guess in this scenario might be a good thing. what they did yesterday was most of his power is appointing people into committee positions, and they took that away from him. on monday, they're going to take away the budget for his office. they're going to take away all his staff. so he'll just be like a mayor in name only. he'll still be mayor but mayor in name only. under the law here, there's no way for the council to actually turf him out of office.

the province of ontario, which has a lot of control over cities, however, said if the council needs more powers, it would consider legislation. >> and is that the only way to consider removing him from office is legislatively, or are there other ways they could get him out? right now they're stripping him of his powers but is there a way to actually remove him from office? >> no, there is no way. i mean the consensus here is that the province isn't going to wade into throwing an elected official, another elected official out of office. they'll just isolate him, humiliate him and let him go around and bluster until the elections next year. i think he's still going to be around. >> now, here down south, we, of course, have our fair share of train wreck politician. i'm curious, how is this playing out of canada with canadians? >> you know, it's really interesting. a couple weeks ago they were all up in arms about this petty scandal in canada's appointed senate involving people's

expenses. everybody's forgotten that now. the country's seized with the story. i think there was a time when rob ford was as he is in the united statesity now seen as sort of a joke figure in canada. it's become a kind of darker story now. the toronto star is suggesting today that the police had evidence that rob ford abused his wife, among other things. it's i mean, you know, his bluster, his incredibly boarish manner, sometimes it's funny but there are very, very dark undercurrents in all of this, including at least one murder so far. >> wow, very interesting stuff. thank you so much for your time. we appreciate it. >> thanks very much, mara. >> controversy over a california high school's arab amass could the. some say it's offensive. so why is the school defending it? trade and invest their own way. with scottrade's smart text, i can quickly understand my charts, and spend more time trading. their quick trade bar lets my account follow me online so i can react in real-time.

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president? it's a high school mascot stirring outrage. why are critics calling it demeaning and offensive? and legacy of paper, the unseen victims of america at war. good afternoon. and welcome to "weekends with alex witt." i'm mara schiavo cam poe. it's 1:00 p.m. out east. the obama administration continues its efforts to get the health care plan back on track. insurance companies this weekend are trying to figure out how to move forward with the president's proposed fix, which will allow millions of americans who had received cancellation notices to keep their plans one more year. kristen welker is live at the white house with the latest. good afternoon. >> hey, good afternoon, mara. you know, there's still a lot of questions about how this is going to work out. industry insiders say it could be days before insurance companies know exactly how they are going to proceed with the president's proposed fix.

president obama organized a meeting with 15 health insurance ceos on friday to try to discuss next steps. here's a little bit of what president obama had to say at the top of that meet. take a listen. >> there's going to be a collaborative process. we want to make sure we get this done so that in the years to come, every american is going to have the kind of affordable health care that they all deserve. >> reporter: now, after that meeting, the ceos said it had been productive, but privately, they said there's still a lot of questions and concerns about the practicality of implementing this, particularly the timeline. remember, the enrollment deadline comes up in about a month. so they're wondering how they're going to reverse course so quickly. also, in the context of the larger marketplace, how will that be impacted? some insurance companies saying that ultimately, premiums will have to go up in 2015.

further compounding the problem, you have some state regulators saying they're not going to go along with the president's fix. states including washington and arkansas already saying that they are going to take a different course. and then you had 39 democrats on friday breaking with president obama to vote with the house republicans to approve a legislative fix to all of this. and then, of course, there's the issue of the website, mara, the administration continues to insist they will have it running smoothly by the end of this month. that is going to be a key dead lynn for the obama administration if they do have it up and running smoothly for a majority of americans, it could help to stop the bleeding of what has been a rocky rollout. mara. >> a lot of people might be confused right now given they may have trouble signing up on the website. are there resources to find out exactly what the state of things is right now? >> reporter: well, it's a great question. i have spoken to a number of people about that question. on the one hand, you have

insurance officials saying look, give us a week to figure out exactly what we're going to do, and then start placing calls. so they say policyholders should be proactive. you should definitely be calling your insurance companies but you should do so in about a week so that they can figure out what they're going to do, and then secondly, if you talk to administration officials, they say look, go on to healthcare.gov. you'll get a sense of what the options are in terms of other health plans that might be less expensive than their canceled policies. they also say you can call into the call centers to figure out how to proceed. there are people out there who can be help policyholders are navigate this. but it's going to be a few weeks before all of this is sorted out. there are still a lot of outstand questions. >> still some time time to fix all of this. thanks so much for that. joining me for more, elise from the hill newspaper and aaron blake, political reporter from

the "washington post." thank you both for your time this afternoon. >> elise, you reported this week on the number of those who have enrolled for coverage under the new act. 106,000, 185 enrolled last month. 25% of them used the healthcare.gov website. the rest signed up on state exchanges. do you think that was in part for the president's meeting with insurers last night? were these numbers a wake-up call for them. >> certainly they knew the numbers before we did. they were not positive numbers for the administration and they underscored the problems facing healthcare.gov. a system that serves 36 states. there's no excuse for the fact that 25% of current enrollees only came through healthcare.gov. the rest came from states like california which have been doing much better. i think the administration knew they needed to propose something to stop the bleeding. the news has really been leading them. they've been very unaware of some of the problems facing the website. and this whole idea of the cancellation firestorm seemed to

much ca them off gard. i think under pressure from congressional democrats who would have voted in greater numbers for this republican plan we saw on friday, the white house came and they really knew that they needed to offer something different. >> and erin, as we reported earlier, the upton bill passed the house yesterday. now the congressman that first proposed told cnn initially a lot more democrats than the 39 who supported it, initially a lot more were supporting. let's listen to what he had to say. >> we had at least 100 democrats that i think were willing to vote with our bill. so we would have had over 300 votes for this. and that's family prompted the white house then yesterday afternoon to announce this administrative change that they're trying to do. >> as time goes on, do you think we'll see more and more defections from within the democratic party or will they start to coalesce around certain policy fixes that they can all get on board with? >> you know, it's clear that the democrats know that they own

this law to some degree. a lot of these members who voted for the upton by voted for obama care, of course. so they want this law to work in some fashion. i think that's why you saw a lot of them voting for the upton bill. i think they want, you know, they may not trust the administration as much as they once did to actually get this law working and to the extent that they can actually make it work and do something that the administration maybe has failed to do, i think they finally see kind of a mandate for them to get involved kind of take up the effort and do things that maybe the administration is not prepared to do at this point. >> i want to quickly listen to what house minority leader nancy pelosi had to say on the floor yesterday. we'll talk after that. about the so-called keep your plan today. >> it's disappointing to see a bill to say we are going to unravel this. we are going to unravel all of the good things. >> so elise, this particular bill is considered doa in the

senate. what are some of the other legislative proposals floating around that may have a better chance in getting through both chambers? >> it's unlikely that the chambers will agree on much of anything right now, but certainly two proposals in the senate are currently gaining steam. one is from senator mary landrieu a democrat from louisiana which would require insurance companies to continue selling canceled policies indefinitely as long as people are paying premiums. republicans would be put on the spot by that proposal because they refuse to create an insurance mandate to fix these problems. the other one is from senator mark udall who would actually require the same things as the landrieu package, but only for two years. and so i think that we're going to see more and more democrats in the senate sign on to these bills. many already have and many of those people are facing tough re-election battles. but it's unlikely we'll see a measure on the floor in the senate. i think harry reid is unlikely to bring that forward, but you you never know. >> erin let's talk about

potential political implications. ron brownstein wrote a column for the national journal that says the tough rollout of the affordable care act could affect democratic priorities for years to come. do you think that's fair or is that an exaggeration? >> look, this is the president's biggest legislative accomplishment, his signature piece of legislation, the biggest thing he has done, that most presidents have done is trying to reform health care. presidents have been trying to do this for a long time. the fact he finally got a bill he wanted, the implementation has been years in the making. if the administration cannot pull something like this off, you have to wonder whether the american people and more specifically congress are going to give them the keys to pursue other legislative goals be it immigration reform or anything else that might be kind of more difficult to plept. i think you know, we always talk about a second term president being a lame duck. that's true following a really difficult thing like hurricane katrina or something like that.

i don't know if those parallels are perfect in this case, but certainly once the president failed to implement something properly, you know, the rest of his term becomes much more difficult to navigate, even more difficult than it has been given republicans have not been willing to go along with a lot of the democrats' proposals. >> aaron blake and oo lease we beck, thanks for your time this afternoon. i'll speak with congressman, a senior member of the appropriations committee and met with the white house leaders about a health care remedy. turning now to the philippines where residents left homeless are scrambling to get the resources they need just so five. relief efforts are under way. residents in isolated parts are still struggling to get their hands on aid slowly starting to pour in. nancy snyderman has this report on the challenges to getting people the resources that they need. >> international relief aid is pouring in today in the hardest hit area of tacloban.

eight days after a devastating typhoon slammed into the philippines. after the initial days of chaos when aid was nowhere to be found, the hundreds of thousands left homeless finally some hope. today, u.s. navy helicopters from the "uss george washington" are dropping food and water supplies to isolated communities desperate for any help. the mission, finding a way to save those who survived the storm. sadly, the certainly for the missing on the back burner. not all aid and assistance are reaching those who need it most. only an electrical of food and relief goods are getting to other areas ravaged by the typhoon. on the remote island of bantion residents say they have the yet to see relief aid from international agencies. >> we need help. we need your help. water, food, first aid, medicine, because some of us only one. >> the water system in the village was destroyed by the

storm and now residents are getting water from a well and they boil the water before drinking. in other areas, some have turned to looting warehouses, abandoned shops and ships ashore when the typhoon struck. the survivors now facing a long struggle to rebuild their shattered lives salvaging what they can amid the devastation. it's been a very complicated week, mara, because geographically this is a very complicated country. over 7,000 islands. while it's very easy to criticize how the aid gets from the tarmac behind me to an island hundreds of miles away, it's a logistical nightmare. i can say americans have great reason to be proud of the u.s. military. u.s. navy, u.s. air force, marines have done an extraordinary job. mara? >> dr. nans sneiderma in the file means. thanks. if you'd like to donate to the recovery efforts in the philippines, visit redcross.org.ph. is it a tribute or down right

offensive? a southern california's high school pass could the is coming under fire this morning. craig melvin has the latest on the story. what's this all about? >> i'll show you what it's about. here it is, the fight it over this. this is the cochella valley high school arab one civil rights group is calling it an intolerable stereotype. last night, members from the school and the community got together to talk about it. >> the mascot itself looks like a villain, like an angry arab with the hooked nose and a beard. >> it's not like we're saying anything to denigrate but it was actually to honor. >> the arab mascot is suddenly under the bright lights. the school board held an emergency meeting in california last night, discussing whether the mascot is a hurtful stereotype or a time-honored representative of the school's history and pride. >> some might say it's offensive. then we should listen. >> our students are very proud of who we are.

>> earlier this month, the american arab anti-discrimination committee sent the school district a letter of protest saying it was appalled by the mascot. >> you could have individuals that probably never meet an arab or an arab-american. and an their only exposure to arab is what they see on this billboard or in a certain film or a certain tv show. >> from disney's aladdin to "back to the future," mideast scholars and critics have complained of a long history of negative arab stereotypes in popular culture. the same issue is playing out on the national stage over the name of washington's pro football team. cochella's high school's arab mascot goes back to the 1930s and supporters say it fits with the social and economic history of the valley. >> we were always very proud to use the mascot as our arab. we've changed it two other times. >> the anti-discrimination committee understands that. >> we do respect the history of the area. we do respect the ties to the

region. >> no decision was reached last night but compromise seems to be in the air. >> the fact that the name has been taken off the table. we're going to keep the name. everyone agrees that the mascot may need a facelift. >> any changes could be decided as soon as a news conference tuesday. that's when the officials plan to meet again. >> you have to wonder how this debate might impact the debate happening on a much larger scale over the washington redskins. there's a direct parallel there. >> there is. there are other schools, other universities, other colleges right now that are taking a look at their mascots, taking a look at the names in some cases, the name of the mace could thes, as well. this is probably something we'll continue to see unfold over the next few months in this country. >> maybe it's time. >> undeniably. >> craig melvin, thanks so much. nuclear talks with iran resume in just days. could this be the last chance for the west to defuse iran's nuclear ambitions? more traveling. and along with it, more identity theft.

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philippines. iran's nuclear negotiations will resume wednesday in geneva. a senior u.s. official tells nbc news they are getting close to a first step towards a comprehensive agreement. now a book titled "nuclear nightmare" takes a look to secure nuclear weapons around the world before it's too late. joining me now is the author, president of the plow shares fund, a member of secretary kerry's international security advisory board and a former staff member of the armed services committee. >> thanks for having me. >> let's talk about the iran negotiations. despite the setbacks in the last round, is a deal still likely. >> i think we're very close to a deal. every president since jimmy carter has tried to negotiate a deal with the islamic republic. none have succeeded. we are closer now than we've

ever been. we just ran out of time last weekend when secretary kerry was there. now the negotiators are getting back together on wednesday and thursday in geneva trying to hammer out the last few differences. all the sips are positive. all the indications are we are going to be able to get a deal that will cap iran's program in in exchange for very modest sanctions relief, increase the inspections on the program and pave the way towards a resolution ultimately of this very, very difficult nuclear nightmare. >> and why do you think this is something that iran would want to agree to right now? >> well, iran's new president hassan rouhani was laeked with an overwhelming mandate to fix the economy. the iranian elite are agreed they've got to fix the economy. the only way to do that is to end the sanctions that the u.s. and the united nations have put on. and the only way to do that is to make a deal on the nuclear program. frankly, at this point, the nuclear program is a less urgent strategic priority for the iranian administration than

fixing the economy, than preserving the viability of their regime. so and we have a pragmatist now in place, hassan rouhani, not the ideologue, the holocaust denier that president ahmadinejad was. this is a guy that knows how to make a deal. he was the negotiator back in 2003, 2004 when we also came close to a deal. he's back giving it another try. i think the signs are positive if we can just keep the u.s. team together, if we can stop congress from imposing new sanctions that could wreck this negotiating opportunity, i think we'll be able to lamer something out next week. >> israel recently has expressed skepticism over iran's trustworthiness. what do you think that the international community's response to a deal like that would be? >> well, israel is very nervous about strategic shift in the region. they're nervous not just about the nuclear deal but whether this means a new or u.s.

reproachment with iran. that's why secretary kerry has been spending so much time reassuring prime minister been been and the other states in the region assuring them any benefit won't be at their expense. that's why the deal is set to go in phases. steps, two, three, and four will increase the caps, increase the controls and lead to starting to roll back that agreement in exchange for eventually lifting the sanctions. but all of this will take six or nine months. this is just phase one. >> you certainly sound very positive right now, but the title of your booking is "nuclear nightmare." what's the scenario that keeps you up at night? >> pakistan actually. the most dangerous country on earth right now is pakistan. 100 nuclear weapons, an unstable government, a collapsing economy, al qaeda operating inside pakistan. a border with india which has

also nuclear weapons. these are some of the concerns that we need to spend more time on, but iran in some ways has been soaking up all the energy, all the attention. we also have threats from the existing stockpile of 17,000 nuclear weapons. some of which could be used by accident or miscalculation. people tend to think that these are things that are gone, that are you know, cold war problems that have disappeared. but they're still here. they sti threaten us as a nation, as a society, as a planet. they need more attention. if we can succeed with iran, we can demonstrate the efficacy of diplomacy in negotiating solutions to this and open the gateway to the broader nuclear policy agenda. >> thanks so much for your perspective this afternoon. >> thanks for having me on. >> some birds hope president obama does not break from tradition coming up next. (vo) you are a business pro.

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there are the turkeys. he's preparing his most prized bird for a trip to the white house, he's chosen a happenedful of what he considers his top turkeys as national turkey federation chairman duties include selecting a turkey to give to the white house. he'll take two when he goes to washington and the president only has one of them, will choose one of them as national thanksgiving turkey. just how is he getting them ready? >> a lot of music in the background. a lot of extra lighting and om flashbulb ms. flashing in his face so he gets used to that. >> media training. according to custom, president obama will pardon the birds but for their an bird brethren back home, sadly, their goose is cooked. president obama's one-year health insurance extension, what is better and what are republicans offering? i'll speak with jim moran of the house appropriations committee

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." i'm mar ral schiavocampo. here are your fast five headlines. in a move to stop the outbreak of meningitis at princeton university, the cbc is allowing health officials to use a vaccine from europe the fda has not approved. since last spring, seven students have died from a repair strain that is not covered by the current vaccine. a second home in florida is expected to be torn down today after it was heavily damaged by a sinkhole that will opened on thursday. another house was taken down yesterday. in all, seven homes were evacuated. it the postal service has racked up a seventh straight year of losses. new figures show the post office lost $5 billion even though revenue went up for the first time in five years. a new gallup poll about the assassination of president kennedy shows 61% of americans still believe in a conspiracy. but that's the lowest figure

since the mid '60s. and amid rising concern of concussions suffered by football players, brett favre told matt lauer if he had a son he would be leery of letting him play football. favre said he recently suffered memory loss. and those are your fast five headlines. in the 12 years of war in afghanistan and iraq, almost 7,000 u.s. troops have died in service. while they made the ultimate sacrifice, their families know the children they leave behind also pay a great price. a new documentary looks at nearly 5,000 unseen victims of wars, the so-called gold star children. >> running through the house saying no, no, no, no not daddy. not my daddy. because she knew what two soldiers dressed in dress greens at your door meant. >> when a man dies for his country, everybody says he paid the last full measure, that's

not the truth. children keep on paying. >> joining me now is the director of "gold star children," minnie griffiths mirror. thanks so much for being here this afternoon. >> thank you for shining a light on this special narrative. >> this is a really unique way to approach this particular loss. it's so moving and touching. you're seeing it through the eyes of these children. what made you want to cover the subject? >> well, this is also a personal story. i too am a gold star child. i'm one of like you see in the film, you meet jennifer denard whose father was killed in vietnam. i'm one of the 20,000 estimated children who lost a parent to the vietnam war. it would be years later. we understand the circumstance of the country post vietnam, the resources just weren't in place, children got the message that you know, you just didn't talk about your father who died in

vietnam for many reasons. there was that great silence. so 569/11 and sadly, know, there were so many children now an estimated 5,000 who have lost a parent to iraq and afghanistan, some of the children from the vietnam era are now reaching and mep toring today's children through many organizations, one included called t. a. p. i was at a d.c. meeting and was also mentoring a child who lost a parent in iraq. and i thought that i really wanted to capture the story. and to show the contrast between the two generations and just like we've seen with our veterans, the lessons learned as we pay it forward and hope to empower these kids by allowing this em to tell their story. >> sierra becker is one of the main subjects of your documentary, i believe 7 years old in the film. she may be older now. she's such amazing child because she articulates her feelings so

well. this is a very unique circumstance. what is the unique experience like for children who lose their parents in war? >> you're exactly right. it is different for military children because yes, you have the loss of the parent, but you also have the secondary loss. and so for children like sierra who is so articulate and amazing in this film, this journey takes you from the knock on the door to what happens next. and what happens next today is, military families have up to a year to move off the base for the child, often times, that means changing schools. you know, having a different community and often in some cases feeling like they have an entire new identity. so finding community for these children is imperative. so that they know that they're not the only ones. and also, the death of a parent in the military tends to be a very public death. when someone dies on the battlefield, it's every american's responsibility to know about that.

and so that child also, we have a collective responsibility to simply know what a gold star child is. >> one of the things that eera said in the film which i thought was oh touching is that she missed seeing soldiers because they had to move off the base. she had been comforted by seeing the presence of people in uniform all the time and that was gone from her life. as someone who has been through this and now has so much perspective on the time i'm that's passed, does some form of pride come at some point that your father or mother died in service of their country? >> absolutely. and i think that when an can antive duty service person dies for those children to be able to honor their parent is so important. and yes, feel good about it, feel proud about it it through these organizations, these forums like i just mentioned t.a.p.s. where they bring the together, vietnam era kids, we're sharing but we didn't know

that we could honor the fact that they had served. and i think it's wonderful how america is a country, we're moving in the right direction and that politics aside, you support the troops. you support the families left behind and certainly the gold star children who are now left to rebuild their lives. >> mindy, thank you so much. really touching film about a very important subject we don't hear enough about. thanks so much for your time this afternoon. >> thank you. and i would just say, please support this by going to gold star children.org. >> absolutely. and that's also where our audience can download the whole film. it's gold star children.org. to washington now and president obama's meeting with the ceos of 15 of the nation's largest health insurance providers late friday. they discussed his surprise proposal on thursday that you wrangled some in the industry. americans with canceled plans can now extend them for a year. >> my expectation was that for

9% of the american people, either of it yinlly wouldn't change at all or they'd be pleasantply surprised with the options in the marketplace. and that the grandfather clause would cover the rest. that proved not to be the case. and that's on me. >> joining me now is democratic congressman, jim moran, a senior member of the house appropriations committee. thank you so much for your time this afternoon. >> nice to be with you, mara. >> you were part of a group of congressman who met with the white house chief of staff and senior advisors on thursday. what questions did you have for them and did you feel they were answered? >> well, i don't think it's really up to us to be asking them questions. they know what they center to do. they have to fix this. they have to make it work. and frankly, from a larger in a larger context, the president's not running for re-election. he now has to show that

government can work. that's his job. but it's our job to defend the affordable care act and to explain it. we own it. it won't have passed if the democrats and the congress had not insisted upon it. and it was virtually unanimous. so now it has to work. and it should work. there are a lot of people whose lives are dependent upon it working. you know, i actually read an e-mail during the democratic caucus, mara. if i could just take a moment, i'll share it with you. >> please. >> after telling them that you know, explaining we do understand that we own this, this it is from a woman. my district in northern virginia. she sent an e-mail saying that my husband died in february of 2012 at the age of 49 after 14 months battle with pancreatic cancer. she had two children. she got her cobra policy for one year until february of this

year. but eight months later, she was diagnosed with cancer herself. she knew because she was self-employed, she can't get a policy because she has a pre-existing condition. she got one anyways. not telling the insurance company. it covered her and her two children. $1485 a month but she knew as soon as the insurance company finds out she has cancer, she won't have any coverage. she went to the web site the healthcare.gov and she found a plan that costs her only $725 a month. and it covers her dental care, as well, which she didn't have. and so it's dropped over 50%. and she says i am a widow on a fixed income with two high school children that were heading for college. i am so grateful for the affordable care act because it allows me to care for my children and now that i'm their only remaining parent for

myself, as well, thank you for your support of the affordable care act. those situations are in every district around the country. we have to find them and explain to the american people, that's why we passed the affordable care act. >> sir, you're highlighting a situation where someone had a positive experience. we're not hearing enough of those stories because a lot of people can't get through the website to have the end result that this person had. so is that a big concern of yours, if we don't hear more positive stories like this, it's going to outweigh all the news about the problems with this rollout? >> i don't know that it's going to outweigh it, but clearly the negative is outweighing the positive right now. you know, we don't tend to be quite as good on the pr front. it is we very two problems. one is that the system is off to an awfully rocky start. but secondly, there are people who have a vested interest in it not working. it's political. it's economic. we do have a best interest in it

working but more polish, the american people do. so we have to find those stories and explain them. as soon as the administration gets this working, there's going to be tens of thousands of stories like that because that's why we passed the law and knew it was the right thing to do, mara. >> you say as soon as the administration gets this working. are you confident that all of these things will be resolved and at some point we'll be back on track? >> well, you know, confident. i do expect that the program is going to work. not only much better than it's working now, but as it was supposed to work. bear in mind, there are only a relative handful of people that will have signed up for what was called romney care in the state of massachusetts at this point in time. but now it's working. nobody wants to give it up. whether they be republican or democrat. in that state. we had spectacular problems with medicare. we had problems with medicare part d more recently. these things take glitches.

now, these things are going to encounter glitches. i wish the administration had explained that, frankly. but i think when they do explain that this is much like medicare and social security. the young and healthy contribute a little more so that we can cover the older and the ill. but that's what has defined much of our social policy and defines this country. we look out for the old and ill. the young and healthy are willing to contribute to the next -- to the last generation so that the next generation can live in a compassionate and progressive society. but i don't think we've made our case adequately. i do think things are going to get better. but it's up to the legislative branch to explain why we did this. it's up to the executive branch, frankly, not to make any more promises but to make it work to show that government can work

because if they don't, there's not going to be much more that we can do over the next 2 1/2 years. >> congressman, jim moran, thanks so much for your time this afternoon. oprah winfrey comes to the defense of president obama, but does he really need her help in the big three is coming up next. on the table by not choosing the right medicare d plan. no one could have left this much money here. whoo-hoo-hoo! yet many seniors who compare medicare d plans realize they can save hundreds of dollars. cvs/pharmacy wants to help you save on medicare expenses. talk to your cvs pharmacist, call, or go to cvs.com/compare to get your free, personalized plan comparison today. call, go online, or visit your local store today. wears off. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. eucerin professional repair moisturizes while actually repairing very dry skin. the end of trial and error has arrived. try a free sample at eucerinus.com. the end of trial and error has arrived.

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time for the big three and "today's topic"s, benghazi again. race and the president and best week, worst week. let's bring in my big three panel, msnbc contributor goldie taylor who is column breaking black is featured on the grio, susan del%io and contributor for thegrio.com, zer lena maxwell. zer rena, i want to start with you. oprah winfrey gave an interview to the bbc yesterday. let's take a listen. >> just a level of disrespect when the senator yelled out

you're a liar, remember that? yeah, i think there's a level of disrespect for the office that occurs. and that occurs in some cases and maybe even many cases because he's african-american. >> what do you make of of that. >> i think she's absolutely correct. i think that oprah like the rest of us has eyes and can observe that the racial rhetoric directed at this president bringing confederate flags to the white house to protest obama karat the tea party or yelling out you lie as joe wilson did, but also the context is if you can remember a few years back when president obama finally reach released his long form birth certificate. he went on oprah that day. she was a part of that developing story and i think she's speaking the truth but what many of us had already known in the past five years. >> susan, i'm curious what your take is. every president gets criticized.

in this case, there's a level directed at him directly. jan brewer, remember the photo her putting her finger in his face. joe wilson shouting out you liar during an address. what do you think it's racially motivated? >> oprah was right about one thing. there are people in this country who not vote for an african-american president or won't vote for a woman or jewish american president. that exists. but when she talks about disrespect to the office, i agree. it certainly existed when george w. bush was in office. i didn't hear her screaming at that point with all of the comments that were horrible and you know, no one would tolerate. i think overall, there is a greater disrespect for the office of the president over the last 10, 1 years. >> and goldie, i want to touch upon the birth certificate. i remember when he presented his long form birth certificate. you wrote a piece about one of

your relatives being asked to show his papers at a different point in history. do you think the whole birther thing is also racially motivateded? >> i do thing specifically is racially motivated. that story was about my great-great grandfather in 1899. the same thing seemed to be true for this president in 2009. this president is taking more heat primarily because he is african-american. but he's also taking more heat because we have more ways to do it with anonymity. we've got the rise of social networks where people can say and do what they want pretty much at will about this presidency. so not only are there more voices in the discourse, there are more anonymous voices in the discourse that really drive this stuff. but something that our colleague said is true. no matter how much you vilify this president, it will not redeem the president of george walker bush. but no matter how much you

vilify this president, it would not bring ronald reagan back to life and won't make him the president that you want to make us believe that he was. >> let's turn to benghazi, quickly change topics. we haven't heard much from republicans after cbs news yanked its benghazi report last week. susan, what do you make of that given that republicans touted this report so strongly coming out and then afterwards, we haven't heard much about it at all. >> what the republicans, specifically lindsey graham's been on is they want to speak to the american survivors of the benghazi attack. yes, there was a lot of problems with cbs. but that's not at the core of the issue for the republicans right now. even this week, the director of the fbi said he saw no problem with letting the members of congress speak to these survivors. i think that's a very valid point and that they should continue down that track. this is an ongoing investigation. and they should be allowed to speak to these folks. >> what do you think the republicans' investigation of benghazi goes from here?

>> i think benghazi is a tragedy. but it's a fake, phony scandal. i think they're probably just going to stroke -- really just divisiveness and try to continue this witch hunt which is what it's been. to susan's point about the information that they want from the families. the families themselves have said, we've been cooperating all along. and so lindsey graham is using benghazi as an excuse to -- >> but if it's a fake, phony witch hunt why is the u.s. government, the state department offering a $10 million reward for those who can provide information about the people who started this? it's not phony. it's a very real thing. >> it was a tragedy. but the scandal -- the fact that it might have been a cover-up is pho phony. >> there was an action -- a terrorist action taken against americans. there's no doubting that. the state department. >> i agree with you. >> now that we have agreement, let's take that opportunity to take a break. courageous little super hero makes the week's best and worst.

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back to the big three. goldie, best and worst this week? >> my best of the week is bat kid who took over gotham and issued entitlements for the riddler and the joker. i'll be his bat girl anytime. thank you to make-a-wish foundation. my loser of the week is every single journalist, pundit, reporter, opinion writer who compared this aca rollout to hurricane katrina and that disaster. >> susan? >> best week goes to president bill clinton. he really proved that he can take the lead of the democratic party. when he came out against what's happened with the affordable care act saying people should be able to keep their insurance, it really led the drive for other democrats to step up to it which led to the worst week which was president obama, having to fight the democrats on top of the republicans when it comes to this disastrous rollout is

problematic. >> best of the week is democrats in virginia and black women and latino women who showed up for the governor's race last week. i think that shows that democrats in the future can rely on these demographic groups in the 2014. losers. 39 democrats that voted against obama care. >> that wraps it up for me. craig melvin is up next. have a good weekend. and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order. good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. wears off. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. eucerin professional repair moisturizes while actually repairing very dry skin.

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hurry, this offer ends december 2nd. for details, visit vwdealer.com today what we're going to be doing is brainstorming on how do we make sure that everybody understands what their options are. there's going to be a collaborative process that we get this done. >> president obama's so-called apology was as fraudulent as his marketing of obama care. it's like telling someone you're sorry their dog died or refusing to ran over the dog. >> president obama looking to fix obama care. but will it work? good sad afternoon to you. i'm craig melvin. you're watching msnbc. obama care confusion. president obama met with