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 insurance company ceos.

now they're scrambling to restore plans that were supposed to be canceled. what does this mean for the future of the law? we're live at the white house. also, i'll talk live with former congressman, barney frank. i just shot somebody on my front porch with a shotgun banging on my door. >> murder or self-defense? a man is charged with killing a michigan woman. being compared to the trayvon martin case. why her parents do not want race to be a factor. plus, blood electronics. what's really inside our digital devices and what it takes to get it. and this -- >> this is not medical marijuana. this is the entirely opposite. >> they're going from not walking, not talking and not eating to playing on the beach and going on hikes. >> cannabis for kids? not the smoke but the oil. the new fight to help children facing a deadly disease. lots to get to on this saturday

morning. we start at the white house today where team obama is in full force damage control as complaints about the new health care law continue to mount. nbc's kristen welker is live for us there. kristen, we know the president met with insurance companies yesterday to promote his proposal that would allow millions of americans who received those cancellation notices to keep their plans for one more year. what's next for the president? >> reporter: well, craig, i anticipate that president obama is going to continue to explain this fix to the american people, to work with insurance companies, to actually implement this plan. we know that on monday he is going to join in a conference call with some of his supporters to flesh out how he hopes this will all work. but i've been speaking to officials within the insurance industry. they are skeptical about the practicality of all of this for a couple of reasons, craig. one, the timing. the enrollment deadline comes up in a month. and remember insurance companies

spent about a year calculating these insurance plans in the first place. so there's a lot of questions about how they're going to be able to backtrack so quickly and recalculate these plans. and then of course there's the impact on the marketplace. a lot of industry insiders saying that ultimately this could lead to premiums going up in 2015. i've been talking to some experts who also say, listen, folks who are policyholders should give the insurance industry about a week to sort through this and then start placing phone calls. what's happening right now is there are a flood of phone calls coming in and there are still a lot of questions about how this is actually going to work. administration officials say this is a good time to go onto the website, look at all of the options that exist, look to see if there's a plan that actually has a lower premium than some of the plans that are out there that have been canceled, a plan that might better serve an individual. so that is the administration's stance at this point.

remember, craig, there's also the issue with the website. administration officials saying every day it is getting better and they're still aiming to have it operating smoothly for the vast majority of americans by the end of the month. >> kristen welker from 1600 pennsylvania avenue for us, kristen, thank you. with more now on obama care's future and how we got to this point, joined live now by former democratic congressman barney frank. congressman, always good to see you, sir. thanks for being with me. >> thank you. you're welcome. >> if you were in the president's ear, congressman, what advice would you be giving him right now? >> well, first, it would have been what he's done, which is to apologize. and let me stress one particular point. there are policy questions here. but there's one absolute. the people who voted for the bill -- and that included me -- were part of an effort that said, if this bill passes, your policy won't change. and we ran for reelection on that basis.

this is a democracy where you make a pledge to people and you are morally bound by it. so at the least, there has to be an honoring of that promise. it would obviously have been better if it hadn't have been made. but it was made. and therefore anybody who had the policy and wants to keep it, you have to find a way for them to be able to do that. secondly, i am leaning more and more to the view -- and i will be honest with you. my two years when this was going on were focused mostly on the financial reform bill. i learned a lot more about derivatives and collateralized debt obligations than i ever wanted to know. and i'm working very successfully to forget. i was a voter for the bill. i don't run away from responsibility. but i was not familiar with the detailed. but as i -- >> you voted on the bill but you weren't familiar with the details? >> with all the details, not the

specific extent to which -- i was familiar with the financial reform bill. i say that because you asked me how i would propose to fix it. i knew what was in it. but when you are talking about a significant alteration, i wouldn't make any recommendation until i had studied it much more closely. but it does seem to me now that the time has come to put off some of the deadlines. not all of them. by the way, there is one very important piece of that bill that's of great national significance, which is the extension of medicaid to people who weren't having it. that should not be -- >> which deadlines would you put off specifically, congressman? >> well, i was trying to finish a sentence there because it does seem to me we should give both the positive and the negative. i think the medicaid decision should not be put off. and that's a great national boon. i would put off the decision -- as i said, i'm leaning that way.

i don't know enough about it in detail -- to say that the requirement that you sign up for a new policy be put off. that is, i don't think we are ready to put that into effect, probably because of the delay in the website. but even more because there is this question about what are the implications of letting people keep their policy. i believe this can be resolved and this will still be a great national boon. but working against a self-imposed, arbitrary deadline -- all deadlines are arbitrary in this regard -- doesn't make sense. i would say let's put it off for three months. there's nothing sacred about january 1st. there are some complications. let's try to work them out and put the deadline off. >> congressman, back in 2012, while you were still in office, you had some somewhat harsh words for the president about obama care. you told "new york" magazine, quote, i think we paid a terrible price for health care, i would not have pushed it as shard. i would have started with financial reform. but certainly not health care. just yesterday of course you know this, jpmorgan reaching

another settlement. this one for $4.5 billion over shaky mortgage-backed securities that led to -- helped lead to the financial collapse in 2008. do you feel that any progress has really been made in controlling the banking industry over the past few years? >> oh, without question. very good article in "the new york times" today by one of the best columnists about the great transformation that's taken place with regard to derivatives. gary gentzler has done a great job. there is a very significant improvement in the extent to which derivatives are now openly traded. moody's, big rating agency of which i've been critical, just said they were going to downgrade the rating of four of the largest financial institutions because they are now convinced that the legislation we adopted means they are not getting any taxpayer funds if they get any trouble. there will be no bailout to keep them alive. if they get to the point where

if they owe more than they can pay, they will be dissolved. another significant thing is this. the biggest single cause of that crisis were people who were given mortgages who shouldn't have gotten them. the process was you gave them the mortgage and sold the mortgage and didn't care if they repaid them. in the consumer financial protection bureau, which was part of the law and is working well, those mortgages were outlawed. we've seen a great deal of progress. there's more to be done in preventing the kind of abuses that led to the crisis. >> going back to health care quickly, we heard yesterday from mitt romney. he spent some time talking about the rollout in massachusetts. of course, obama care has been compared to that health care plan since its inception. how accurate of a picture was governor romney painting in terms of the rollout there in massachusetts? >> well, among the things i am not paying close attention to in retirement is governor romney.

so i can't tell you because i don't know what he said. i will say this and this is one of the problems. in fairness to the administration -- and they clearly have much to apologize for -- the problems with the website, it was never anticipated that the federal website was going to have to do most of the country. people did not see the election of republicans in 2010 in many states who would then refuse to participate. and at the same time with the republican house refuse to provide the funding. so part of the problem with the website is that it was given a job that nobody anticipated it would have because of the unfortunate obstructionist attitude of some of the new republican governors. >> congressman barney frank, always enjoy you, thank you. >> you're welcome. are you carrying a blood phone? many digital devices are built from minerals fueling deadly conflict in the congo. now conscious consumers are pushing the industry to clean up its act. we'll talk about that. plus, the coach's cabana.

what barry switzer does on saturday and why it's revolutionizing television. i'll talk to him. and bat kid. thousands packed city streets just to help one boy's wish come true. the mini cape crusader who fought some crime and stole some hearts. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is claira. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for her, she's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with her all day to see how it goes. [ claira ] after the deliveries, i was okay. now the ciabatta is done and the pain is starting again. more pills? seriously? seriously. [ groans ] all these stops to take more pills can be a pain. can i get my aleve back? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap.

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but actually you get so much more. when you shop at these small local businesses, you support all the things that make your community great. the money you spend here, stays here. in this place you call your neighborhood. small business saturday is november 30th. get out and shop small. i don't have to leave my the holidays can be an especially difficult time. everything's different now. sometimes i feel all alone. christmas used to be my favorite. i just don't expect anything. what if santa can't find me? to help, sleep train is holding a secret santa toy drive. bring your gift to any sleep train,

and help keep the spirit of the holidays alive. not everyone can be a foster parent, but anyone can help a foster child. topping the saturday headlines, six people have been killed and 22 others hurt in a car bombing in kabul, afghanistan. the attack happened close to the meeting of leaders. princeton university is looking to europe to stop the outbreak of meningitis on campus. government health officials have given the school the green light to import a vaccine not approved

for use here in the united states. that's because the outbreak at princeton involves meningitis b, a strain not covered by the current u.s. vaccine. seven students have been infected since march. and jonathan martin spent seven hours meeting with nfl officials friday over the bullying scandal that's rocked the league. he talked about the case publicly for the first time after that meeting. >> although i spent -- went into great deal with mr. ted welch and his team, i do not intend to discuss this matter publicly at this point. i do, however, look forward to speaking directly with the dolphins organization at the appropriate time. this is the right way to handle the matter. beyond that, i look forward to working through the process and resuming my career in the national football league. >> next time you make a call, look at your phone. you know what model it is. but do you know what's inside your phone or where those minerals come from?

the bits and pieces of your phone mostly come from the politically unstable democratic republic of congo. they are called conflict metals and they include the so-called three ts, tin, tantalum and tungsten. what makes these items, these items that so many of us have in our phones, what makes them conflict minerals? >> well, in the eastern region of the democratic republic of congo, a very weak state, a series -- dozens of armed groups compete for control of mining areas. it's where they can funnel unhundreds of millions of dollars a year to maintain control of their areas. so in the simplest since, it's the hundreds of millions of collars these groups are reaping off the mineral areas. >> how exactly is that they contribute to the exploitation as well in that region?

>> well, women and girls are really bearing the brunt of this conflict. the armed groups as a tactic to control mineral areas attack women in their homes, attack them on the roads when they're walking to get supplies. an example of some of the solutions that are giving us hope is my good friend and fellow congolese leader recently built the peace market in his hometown so women didn't have to travel long distances. with recent engagement, which i hope we get to get to, we're starting to see a turn in the tide on these armed groups. >> is this a problem that's existed for some time? is this a problem that right now it's as bad as it's ever been? characterize that for me. >> really we've seen a couple of decades of pretty constant conflict. and the people of eastern congo are not, unfortunately, new to

conflict. they suffered under one of the most brutal colonial regimes. and then for the last few decades ending in the '90s, they suffered under one of the most brutal dictators in all of africa. over the last couple of decades, they have suffered from basically a lawless state. so we're really seeing folks struggling these last couple of decades with the people coming in to try to fill that vacuum. that's the armed groups we're talking about. >> there's now a rule requiring companies to disclose whether their materials are conflict-free. but it does not block companies from using conflict materials, conflict minerals. some tech companies are taking their own initiative to deal with the crisis in congo. what more can you tell us about these initiatives, about that effort? >> i've been really proud and inspired by some of the best in american leadership and innovation. two companies come to mind. first off, my organization ranks all the major tech companies.

i think when you're heading out this black friday to purchase electronics, go ahead and take a look at our rankings to let you know what your favorite tech company is doing to address conflict minerals and their products. motorola went into congo and started a pilot project where they're producing certified minerals to help rebuild communities that have been destroyed for decades. and intel is leading the way by making the pledge to have the first fully conflict-free product made with congo minerals coming out some time this winter. we're seeing great examples of leadership. >> j.d., thank you so much. i appreciate you. >> thanks, craig. every piece of ivory, every piece of ivory represents a slaughtered elephant. that's why this week, the united states fisher and wildlife service destroyed more than six tons of america's blood ivory stockpile in denver.

ivory tusks, carvings collected over the last 25 years were put in a rock crusher and pulverized. u.s. officials wanted other countries to follow suit to curb the illegal trade. last year alone, proechers killed 30,000 elephants in africa for their ivory. [ female announcer ] arms were made for hugging. hands for holding. feet, kicking. better things than the joint pain and swelling of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. if you're trying to manage your ra, now may be the time to ask about xeljanz. xeljanz (tofacitinib) is a small pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers have happened in patients taking xeljanz. don't start taking xeljanz if you have any kind of infection, unless ok with your doctor. tears in the stomach or intestines,

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♪ and if was a tree growing tall and green ♪ ♪ all i'd want is you to shade me and be my leaves ♪ grown in america. picked & packed at the peak of ripeness. the same essential nutrients as fresh. del monte. bursting with life™. today "the san francisco chronicle" is out with a special edition honoring one pint-sized hero. friday, the city by the bay transformed into gotham city, all to make a wish come true for a 5-year-old boy recovering from leukemia. to the surprise of millions, he got full support from complete strangers. thousands of them, even the president. joe is live for us in los angeles. this is a really cool kid. >> yeah. an amazing kid. some pretty cool parents as well. they were in on this all along.

and even they were overwhelmed by what happened yesterday. a lot of people don't realize this. but miles and his family, they're not from san francisco. they're from about six hours away, a farm town in northern california. so it was definitely something to see what happened on the streets of san francisco yesterday. certainly a day they'll never forget. 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. >> can i be batman? >> you get to be batman? 5-year-old miles spent the majority of his young life battling a villain named leukemia. >> he's 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.

so on friday, the make-a-wish foundation made that dream come true. >> it just makes me so happy that he gets to go and be the hero that he is. >> i'm batman! >> reporter: riding shotgun in a lamborghini-turned-bat mobile, police escorts guide miles through a downtown now transformed into gotham city. first bat kid is rushed to help a damsel in distress tied to cable car tracks. with an assist from his mentor, batman, miles saves the day to everyone's delight. >> he's so cute. >> reporter: but there's no time to rest. the riddler is robbing a bank and bat kid is called to foil those dastardly 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. he's actually getting to do.

which is pretty awesome. >> reporter: even the president had a message for bat kid. >> way to go, miles, way to save goth gotham. >> reporter: and the paper printed a special edition showing how miles defeated the enemy and got a key to the city. here is that special edition. this was printed before the event yesterday an handed out. today they printed an updated version and they updated some of these photos with actual images from the event yesterday. a great keepsake for everyone who took part in a day that was certainly quite memorable. craig? >> joe fryer in los angeles, thank you for sharing bat kid with us. appreciate that. we'll be right back. ♪ if a small company became big business overnight? ♪ like, really big...

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a detroit area man is out on bond facing second-degree murder charges in a case that's drawn national attention. police say 54-year-old theodore weaver shot and killed 19-year-old renisha mcbride when she came to his house possibly looking for help after a car accident. here's nbc's kevin tibbles. >> reporter: the funeral of a detroit teenager killed after being shot in the face in the middle of the night on the front steps of a home in suburban deerborn heights. >> 911 call from a male. thinks he just shot someone on his porch. >> reporter: police were on the scene at 4:46 a.m. >> somebody died on the porch. >> reporter: the man who lived in that home, 54-year-old theodore wafer was in court, charged with her murder. according to police, mcbride, who worked at ford, smashed into another vehicle with her car at 12:57 a.m. witnesses say she wandered away from the scene.

nearly four hours later, dead from a shotgun wound four blocks away. protesters gathered comparing her death to the trayvon martin case. her family said mcbride was likely seeking help. >> i can't imagine in my wildest dreams what that man feared from her to shoot her in her face . h >> reporter: a toxicology report shows mcbride was nearly three times over the legal limit for driving and that she had traces of marijuana in her blood. while michigan doesn't have the same "stand your ground" law used in the trayvon martin case, theodore wafer could claim self-defense. >> he has to show that he was in fear, that she was a danger to him and his home. >> reporter: in detroit, one community activist said mcbride's family does not want her death to become a matter of race. >> any 19-year-old girl might be in a similar situation.

that should bring us together as a community to demand justice and not separate us at all. >> reporter: kevin tibbles, nbc news, chicago. >> alexis stachia has been covering this. i want to pick up where we left off. at this point, is it too early to conclude that any of this is about race? >> essentially, many people do believe it's about race. but the wayne county prosecutor, kim worthy, stated she's not considering race in the filing of the charges. she's not considering race in the charges, which are now manslaughter, second-degree murder and a felony weapons possession charge. and the family of mcbride said they don't want race to be an issue. aside from them, activists in detroit and around the country are comparing it to trayvon martin and they believe that mcbride was racially profiled by theodore wafer. >> this is at snippet from the news conference that renisha

mcbride's parents held. take a listen. >> this was a case of human profiling. you think about any one of your children, any one of your relatives, no matter who they were that night, this could have happened to them. >> do we know anything about that four-hour gap at this point? that four hours between when this accident happened and when she was shot in the face on that man's porch? >> that four-hour gap, that nearly four-hour period of time between the point where her car hit another car, she hit a car that was parked, when she was actually shot, it's shrouded in mystery. neighbors were on hand at the time her car hit the parked car. and those neighbors said she was bleeding. she left the accident, stumbled away bleeding saying over and over again that she just wanted to go home. people tried to attend to her and wanted to comfort her. and the police were called but they did not actually dispatch to the scene of the car accident. the reason they said it wasn't a high enough priority.

there were other instances going on at the same time. they didn't send a car to the scene. at that point, she wandered off. >> before prosecutors announced those charges against theodore wafer, the medical examiner's office releases this toxicology report indicating that mcbride had alcohol levels nearly three times the legal limit. also traces of marijuana in her system as well. how real of a concern is it at this point that mcbride is going to be the subject of the same type of character assassination that we saw in the trayvon martin case, which you also covered so closely? >> there's a big concern. this is a big concern for people who are watching this case and comparing it not only to trayvon martin but to the case of jonathan ferrell, the young man killed in north carolina by police in a parallel case. he was in an accident, he was disoriented. a lot of people, regardless of whether drugs and alcohol are in

their system, a lot of the symptoms that you might exhibit might be related to that. but people are going to say it was because she was intoxicated that maybe she was frightening to theodore wafer in this case. i know the prosecutor is not considering that. but it's not clear whether the press and whether people who are on wafer's side are going to consider that and try to character assassinate her. >> alexis, i know you'll stay on top of this. >> yes. >> want to make sure we get you back on to update us on the details of this case. we're watching very closely. thank you. for a lot of football fans, watching from their man cave, their couch or bar stool is a weekly ritual. but one concept is taking that to a whole new level giving fans a unique perspective while cheering an their favorite teams. it's called coaches' cabana featuring 14 former coaches who provide some, shall we say, colorful commentary on their old teams' games. barry switzer is a co-founder of coaches' cabana.

i talked to him recently about how this idea took shape. >> it started in actually 1978 when billy sims won the heisman. a gentleman came do me and we did a magazine back then. he came two years ago, mike henry did and said, we can't do magazines anymore. let's go to do the internet. and i said, what do you want to do? let's do coachescabana.com. you do a show where you do second screening of ou football games. we'll do it at your house. it's like asking someone to come to your home to watch the game with you. we'll bet a web camera on you. and it's actually having the reality show at your house watching the ball game as you do color and make comments about the game. >> have you caught any flak at all from the ncaa? >> never have because we don't show any of the game footage or any of their audio. i sit at my home and have a web

camera on me and i'm talking about the game as it's played in real time. i have my ex-players. i have brian bosworth walk in, joe washington, billy sims. i had greg pruitt and thomas slot who was my quarterback back in the '70s. i have a professional host. we all sit there, four or five guys on camera and we just sit there and shoot the bull and talk about our experiences but talk about the game as it progresses. so it's kind of entertaining. we tell stories. we bring up anything that happens or whatever anyone says. it's a bull session as you're watching the game. it's actually what it would be like to have a camera hidden while you're watching the game in my home but actually it's not hidden. we know it's there and we have sponsors. we have affinity sponsors like anheuser-bus anheuser-busch, coca-cola. >> i've seen that. >> anyway, it's caught on. the tweets -- we had the most

tweets we had was 4,800 one game. we had about 30,000 people watch jackie sherrill and i do the orange bowl from jerry's world. we went to dallas, got a box in the stadium. we sat there and watched the game on television in the box. and jackie sherrill and i did the texas a&m cotton bowl with oklahoma playing who johnny manziel -- johnny football put about 600 yards on and won the game big-time. it's called a second screening. when people have smart televisions, they can have half their screen internet where they can pull up a second screening, pull us up and they can have the network or cable on the other half of the screen, they can see the game and us on one side and they don't have to listen to the talking heads. >> you have to think you have some folks at tv networks and some folks at espn who probably aren't thrilled by this concept at all. >> well, i don't work for them. they don't pay me.

i'm out trying to do my thing in this world we do today. there are other people like comcast who has an organization called front row. and they do about 40,000 second screenings. we could do nascar, basketball, we could do any sport. we could do x-games. there's a lot of things we could do. but we wanted to stay with college football. we could do the nfl. but we want to do college football first. i want to get the top programs in the country, get the legendary coaches that coached at these programs and them get a professional host, get some affinity sponsors in their local markets. one day, we'll have a national sponsor. i'd like to have anheuser-busch as our national sponsor or coca-co coca-cola, ford or whoever. but we have the local market and we have a national market. >> what's it been like

commentating on your former team? do you hold back any criticism? >> no, i tell bob stoops -- i went to bob and told him what i was going to do. i can say things the head football coach can't say. i can be a little more critical of their play. i can tell people more about what their problems are than bob can. bob has problems on the defensive line, the lack of talent. i can talk about that. he's got to play with these guys. he can't say they're not any good. i can say they're not any good at certain positions. not like they've been in the past. they struggle now, that's the lack of talent. i can talk about the pluses and minuses and be very candid. i'm not trying to be negative toward the program at all but i give a perspective that's honest and opinionated. 50 years in coaching, coached at oklahoma for 25 years, i think i know something about the program and i live 600 yards from the stadium. so i feel pretty good about what

i have to say has some value that people like to listen to, comment on. >> barry switzer, coaches' cabana, coach, thanks for your time. good luck to you. >> thank you, melvin. >> that's my last name. seems the holiday spirit has made its way to texas and the nfl. dallas cowboys wide receiver dez bryant surprising customers at a local walmart. they were waiting in line for thursday's midnight release of the playstation 4. dez picks up one for himself. then he buys ps4s for all customers waiting in line. that's a generous cowboy. ♪ my asthma's under control. i get out a lot... except when it's too cold. like the last three weekends. asthma doesn't affect my job... you missed the meeting again last week! it doesn't affect my family. your coughing woke me up again. i wish you'd take me to the park. i don't use my rescue inhaler a lot... depends on what you mean by a lot. coping with asthma isn't controlling it.

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and we'll replace stolen or destroyed items with brand-new versions. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ it's been a week now since super typhoon haiyan wreaked havoc on the philippines. now some areas are starting to get the aid they desperately need. this as the death toll stands at more than 3,600 now. more than 12,000 were hurt.

more than 2 million are homeless. nbc's chief medical editor, dr. nancy snyderman is on the ground in the philippines with more of the relief effort. >> reporter: the world has descended on cebu and this tarmac behind me. planes from saudi arabia, united arab emirates, singapore, australia and the united states have all come in bringing aid. of course the big, tough problem has been getting people out and the aid in. overall, it's been a very complicated week. 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 for the hundreds of thousands left homeless, finally some hope. today u.s. navy helicopters from the "uss george washington" are dropping food and water supplys to isolated communities desperate for any help. the mission, finding a way to

save those who survived the storm. sadly the search for the missing on the back burner. not all aid and assistance are reaching those who need it most. only a trickle of food and relief goods are getting to other areas that were ravaged by the typhoon. on this remote islands, residents say they haven't received enough local aid and have yet to see any international relief from agencies. >> we need help. we need your help. water, especially, food, first aid, medicine, clothes. some of us only one clothes. >> reporter: the water system in the village was destroyed by the storm. now residents are getting water from a well and they boil the water before drinking. in other areas as hunger sets in, some have turned to looting warehouses, abandoned shops and even ships blown 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 important to recognize that

as easy as it has been to criticize everyone, this is a very complicated nation. with over 7,000 islands, getting gear from this tarmac to an island a few hundred miles away is not so easy. americans have good reason tonight to be very proud of the u.s. military. things wouldn't be going as smoothly as they are today if it weren't for the u.s. navy, the air force and the marines. back to you. >> dr. nancy snyderman on the ground in the philippines. for more information on how you can help, you can head to msnbc.com. time now to flash back to this day in 2010. that's when president barack obama presented the medal of honor to army staff sergeant salvatore gunta. he bravely ran headlong into enemy fire to rescue two wounded americans in afghanistan. he is the first living recipient of the medal of honor for action in afghanistan. >> there's no way i can wear the medal of honor for myself.

i can't. it's too big for me. i can't bear that myself. it's not for me. if i'm going to be the one that's up there and gets it, that's fine. but by no means is that mine. i'm just the one there at that time. it's for all these people, from iraq and afghanistan. all these unsung heroes. my name is lee kaufman. married to morty kaufman. [ lee ] now that i'm getting older some things are harder to do. this is not a safe thing to do. be careful babe. there should be some way to make it easier [ doorbell rings ] let's open it up and see what's cookin'.

oh i like that. look at this it's got a handle on it. i don't have to climb up. this yellow part up here really catches a lot of the dust. did you notice how clean it looks? morty are you listening? morty? [ morty ] i'm listening! i want you to know

parents promoting pot. it may sound extreme but some in utah are pushing for their severely sick children to be able to be treated with cannabis oil. next wednesday, they'll meet with utah's health and human services community to try to push a bill legalizing the marijuana extract in their state. state representative gabe froer crafted the bill that outlawed marijuana in utah but feels this is different. >> this gives us an opportunity in the state of utah to really be proactive especially when it comes to the health of our citizens and what we can do to help our children.

>> jennifer and cameron may are two of the parents leading the charge to legalize cannabis oil in utah. and we also have a doctor out in utah. your son is 11 years old, he has been battling epilepsy since birth. you say he suffers up to 30 seizures a day sometimes and you've tried more than 25 different treatments for him. why do you think that cannabis oil might help him? >> cannabis oil is -- this is actually not marijuana. it is a form of cannabis that falls in line under hemp it has such a small amount of, thehc. but the cannabis oil in the product works on the system in our body. it works on a different system from what typical anti-epileptic drugs do. there's hope this would be more

effective for children. it's a different option from the ones they've already tried. >> dr. getty, does cannabis oil have any of the properties of marijuana that it could make a child high? >> it has a small amount of the element that could make kids high, so small that in combination with the much greater amount of the cbd, they work together to be able to stop seizures in kids without making them high. >> i want to clear up something else. advocates say this would be helpful for children with severe epilepsy. can you qualify what that means? can you explain that? >> certainly. in the most severe cases, children have multiple seizures per day or per week that take over the child's whole brain. so generalized seizures that also often from a lot of motor involvement where the children can fall and hurt themselves and go into convulsions. so children who have that severe type of epilepsy are a great

focus of learning what this oil can do, although this oil also helps less severe cases. >> dr. getty, pot is legal in colorado. so you've seen kids from across the country come to your state for cannabis-related treatment. do you think there's any danger here in making these treatments more widely available across the country? >> it's important with any medical treatment to compare it to what is available to the patient and weigh your pros and cons and the risks and benefits. so absolutely in the context of these very severe cases when you're looking at medications that themselves have severe psychoacti psychoactivity, either sedating or excitability in children, it needs to be weighed against the crack record of cannabis and the oil which is very safe, which literally can't kill a person and doesn't cause organ damage

and that appears to be able to stop seizures in some of these very severe cases. this needs to be weighed and the possible side effects and issues examined and always in the context of what are the options available, many of which have severe side effects. >> cameron, stockton has never actually tried cannabis oil. are you worried about making such a public push for something that you don't really have proof would actually work on your son? >> no, we haven't tried it on stockton. and i'm not worried, though, about making a public push because we have seen tremendous reports coming out of colorado. dr. gedde has been a firsthand witness of that. charlotte was the first child treated with this oil. she's been going for two years now. before she was being treated with the oil, she was having 300 seizures a week.

now she's only have two a month. she's gone from wheelchair-bound, fed through a tube, as our son is, now she's riding horses. it's really amazing stories. i see this as no risk for us. >> jennifer, what's been the response there in utah as you work your way through the legislature, as you talk to lawmakers, as you talk to folks who i assume support your idea and you also talk to folks who are adamantly opposed to it? what are you hearing from them? >> we have about 30 children that we're advocating for and our group of parents all together. our organization is called hope for children with epilepsy with the number 4. and so we have been trying to educate the public about what is going on here, what's happening. we have tremendous support from our communities, our physicians, our neurologists group up at primary children's hospital is in support of us. we haven't come up against any real pushback unless it's someone who has not heard our

story and who does not know what product we're actually talking about. >> cameron and jennifer may and dr. margaret gedde, thank you so much. good luck to you. please keep us posted. damage control, the president plans a fix to obama care. the house votes on a different fix. i'm going to talk live to a democratic congressman. and 33 million people will be shopping on turkey day. what gives? what happened to thanksgiving? [ male announcer ] if you suffer from a dry mouth then you'll know how uncomfortable it can be. [ crickets chirping ] but did you know that the lack of saliva can also lead to tooth decay and bad breath? [ exhales deeply ] [ male announcer ] well there is biotene. specially formulated with moisturizers and lubricants, biotene can provide soothing relief and it helps keep your mouth healthy, too. [ applause ] biotene -- for people who suffer from dry mouth.

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use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. it feels wonderful. i don't smoke. i don't smoke. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. i don't do any cleaning. i make dirt. ♪ very, very heavy. i'm not big enough or strong enough for this. there should be some way to make it easier. [ doorbell rings ] [ morty ] here's a box, babe. open it up. oh my goodness! what is a wetjet? some kind of a mopping device. there's a lot of dirt on here. morty, look at how easy it is. it's almost like dancing. [ both humming ] this is called the swiffer dance.

in the nation, what's precious to you is precious to us. ♪ love is strange so when coverage really counts, count on nationwide insurance. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ obama care in doubt. new questions today about the future of the president's signature law. good saturday afternoon. i'm craig melvin. you're watching msnbc. >> we fumbled the rollout on this health care law. we and i did not have enough awareness about the problems in the website. and, again, that's on us. which is why we're -- that's on me. ultimately, i'm the head of this

team. we did fumble the ball on it. and -- >> with his legacy on the line, president obama is trying to recover from a failed rollout and a broken promise. how he can right the ship? we'll talk about that. we'll also talk to the man who helped launch romney care in massachusetts. and we'll go behind the scenes of the white house with one of the president's key biographers, jonathan alter. it gets better. she's setting up a super pac for me. >> speaking of behind the scenes, jonathan will take us behind the cameras of his new series that follows four republican roommates in d.c. i'll also talk to one of the co-stars, mark consuelos. some fed-up employees are protesting. have we lost the meaning of the holiday altogether? and brocking cyberbullies from the classroom to the

workplace and the locker room now, a new tool to stop the hate. it's today's big idea. a lot to get to. but we start here with the possible split now between the white house and house democrats. 39 house democrats defected from their leadership friday and voted with republicans to pass a bill to fix obama care. the measure authored by republican congressman fred upton would allow health insurance providers to continue selling plans which otherwise would have been canceled until next year. democratic congressman steve cohen from tennessee voted no on that bill. congressman, good to see you. first of all, let me start with that vote, why did you vote no? >> because it basically took apart the heart of the affordable care act. it said all these subprime insurance policies that people had that they still want could be sold to new people who didn't have them. that guts the whole idea of keeping your children on your

insurance until they're 26, no co-pays for preventative carcare -- it eliminates all that stuff. basically it scratches it and goes back to fend for yourself medicine which is what the gop advocates. >> how much of this do you think is about a sincere desire to try and fix this thing and how much of this is about just continuing to try and repeal and replace it, trying to gut it? >> i think the republicans in the congress really are against the concept of the affordable care act and they have been against it ever since bob dole and mitt romney finished dealing with it and making it their plan. once it became somebody else's plan, they were against it. this is really a republican idea of using health insurance. but they're against the president. they want power. most of what's gone on in the 113th congress has been messaging to try to keep the republican majority for the 114th congress. all they want to do in the 113th is try to defeat progress,

defeat jobs bills, defeat environmental regulations, defeat the extension of health care and hurt this president every step they can and keep what i'd say is the ladders of opportunity presented to americans to move up -- those that had it before, if you like what you've got, you can keep it. if you don't like it, it puts the democrats on the spot. he didn't want democrats to vote for i. he wanted a talking point in november of 2014. might not have been fred. might have been the boehner team. >> earlier this week, you told nbc news that you were considering supporting the upton bill. that was before the president's mea culpa on thursday. did his speech -- did that news conference have an affect on how you voted yesterday? >> it has an effect. but i was never going to vote for the upton bill.

we needed something that there was going to be a change, some response. the people in california -- a lot of californians on the democratic side voted for the upton bill because they've had a lot of people whose insurance was canceled. when the president said, if you like it, you can keep it, he needed to make those words real. he did that the best he could with the fix. the mood in the caucus on wednesday was really rancorous. it wasn't a good scene. the rollout's been awful. but the website is going to be fixed. >> you sound very confident about that. you just said the website's going to be fixed. of course we know the white house has said it's going to be up and running for just about everyone in this country by november 30th. if that is not the case, if that website is not up and running by november 30th, then what? >> i'm not sure november 30th

it's going to be perfect. i doubt that it will be. and i've heard reservations. but we're the people -- we put a man on the moon. we can get a website done. >> one would think so. before i let you go -- >> where's werner von braun when we need him? >> you said, sometimes they take us for granted. we're out on the front lines fighting for this. where's been the communication between the white house and democrats, especially democrats in the house, as they try to find a way out of this mess? >> the relationship could be better. however, i don't think it affected any votes. >> when you say that the relationship could be better, how so? characterize the relationship. >> well, it's pretty distant. it's somewhat -- it's just not warm and fuzzy. people were used to bill

clinton, those who experienced him. i've known him for a long time. and clinton's all over you. he reaches out. the president has a different type of personality and a different perspective and a different way of dealing with issues. i read about the halpern book and its allegations about the cbc. i've heard cbc members make comments about their relationship. but nevertheless, the cbc's been 100% for the president's programs. but they haven't gone as far as some cbc members would like it to go. but with the republican majority in the house, there's only so far the president can go. i would encourage the president to use his power that there are a lot of people in prison who shouldn't be there for the minimums. we need to have massive amounts of communetations for justice.

there are certain things the president can do on his own. >> tennessee democratic congressman steve cohen, a wide-ranging conversation, thank you. do appreciate your time on a saturday afternoon. >> if wofford beats appalachian state, is that an earth-shaker -- >> you're doggone right it is. i'm impressed you follow terrier football. you have an open home here on saturday afternoons on msnbc. anytime you want. >> thank you, craig. >> thank you. how about that? a wofford football shoutout. from politics to the nuts and bolts of fixing the affordable care act, jonathan gruben is an economics professor at m.i.t. he is, dare i say, an expert on obama care. let's start with the president.

he admitted the administration dropped the ball in the rollout. let's look forward here, jonathan. how does the president -- how does the white house go about getting the system back on track in the simplest of terms? >> i'm not an i.t. expert. but it's all about getting the website working. we knew all along this website was going to create many more winners than losers. but those winners haven't seen their winnings yet. once the website is up and they can go on and see the deals they can get, people are going to be excited about the law, just as they are in massachusetts. >> jonathan, let me ask you about another point that i heard earlier this week. some of the states are starting to report that the type of people that are signing up for the health care exchanges are in many cases, they're older, they are sicker, perhaps. we all knew from the beginning that this was -- the way this

was going to work was to have young people, healthy people essentially foot the bill by and large for older americans. is that happening? >> it's really too early to say. once again, we can look to the experience of massachusetts here. if you look over our first year, the mandate ended at the end of 2007. people could start signing up in february 2007. young and healthy people came right in at the end of the year. it was really a big rush at the end. so the parallel date here now is march 31st. you'll see a lot of the young and healthy waiting till close to that date. >> the president thursday changing that position on the key provision of the plan. people whose plans were going away now will be offered the chance to keep those plans. how much is that going to affect the marketplace or is it also too early to tell? >> too early to tell. i think it's a shame the president had to do this. i think it's a shame that we couldn't convey the message effectively that millions and millions of americans will benefit from nondiscriminatory

fair insurance markets -- >> how do you think that happened? how was that messaging -- how dud it get lost? how did it get so convoluted? >> i think it's really the double whammy of the website glitch. you don't have the winners you can point to to offset these stories of the much smaller number. ultimately the number of people who are seeing cancellations and higher prices will be a fraction. we haven't seen it yet because of the website glitch. >> insurers and state regulators complaining the president's fix is going to create new problems. washington state's insurance commissioner telling "the new york times" in part, i do not believe his proposal is a good deal for the state of washington. in the interest of keeping the consumer protections we have enacted and ensuring we keep health insurance costs down for all consumers, we are staying the course. how big a problem does the change -- does that present for the individual states where the exchanges had already put in

place? >> it would have been better if the president didn't have to do anything. the truth is, this effect of some people having to buy up to more generous policies is a natural consequence of the discriminatory insurance market that existed beforehand. unfortunately due to the toxic politics around the topic and because we don't have the winners to point to, the president had to move in this area. i think he made a sensible decision. i can see the position of the insurance commissioner who says the law was working well as designed, why mess with it? but the truth is politically, the alternative which is like the horrific upton bill is much worse. >> moving forward, just to make sure i understand here, get the website working and what else? >> keep calm and carry on. we've got time. we are overreacting to small bits of data on very short time frame. it's going to take months and years till we see how this law works. we need to just emphasize to citizens to understand the law, be calm. once the website is up, people are going to see big benefits

from it. >> jonathan gruber, thank you, so much for breaking it down for us. >> my pleasure. hold the turkey and hit the stores. more businesses are opening their doors on thanksgiving. have we completely lost the meaning of the holiday? also, what about the workers? they now have little to no choice about giving up their day. plus -- >> it's a great educational opportunity for all of us to learn about the history of the mascot and the name and the pride that all of our alums feel about the school. >> historic or hurtful? controversy brews over a california high school's arab mascot, the new efforts to find a compromise. plus, getting real, where you'll see even more of the crack-smoking, lewd and outrageous toronto mayor next. welcome back. how is everything? there's nothing like being your own boss! and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. fedex one rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order.

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the holiday season is kicking off even earlier this year. many of the nation's retailers want you walking through their doors thanksgiving day instead of sitting on the couch, digesting that holiday meal. walmart, target, k-mart, macy's, best buy, all of them among those stores not waiting for black friday. k-mart will be opening its doors at 6:00 a.m. on thanksgiving day. but not everyone's on board with giving up their holiday so customers can cash in on doorbusting deals. mike elk is a reporter and richard wilson is an employee. how do you feel about having to work on thanksgiving day? >> actually my schedule is not up yet. but i'm actually very excited

for the workers that can work to provide extra for their family. but this is the real issue right here. walmart needs to pay its employees a wage of $25,000 a year minimum. they need to stop the retaliation against workers who speak about against it. and we need to end the retaliation that walmart workers, like myself, face every day around the country for speaking out against the company. >> mike, let me come to you. i did a story last year, i think the year before that, on these stores that are opening earlier and earlier. now it's early thanksgiving morning. what gives? what are retailers saying about their motivations behind all of this? is it purely the bottom line? >> first, let me start off by saying what an honor it is to be on television with a gentleman

from chicago to speak about this. it's really bad. walmart basically thinks in this situation they're going to sell more stuff if they're open on thanksgiving day. but what does it say about this country, that we're just not going to have holidays anymore? i think that's a really problematic thing for most workers and most folks. the u.s. has the least holidays of any industrialized countries. on average, most americans only have nine paid vacation days. in france, they have six weeks. an article my buddy mark ames wrote, half of vacation time goes unused because workers are afraid of asking their boss for vacation time. it says something about our culture that it's so consumer driven that we're now asking workers to work on holidays and workers like the gentleman from chicago are having to risk their jobs to speak up about this. >> richard, let me play devil's advocate for a second. walmart, we should note, we reached out. this is what they've said in the past.

that thanksgiving day workers receive some perks. including a free meal, additional pay and also 25% discount on purchases. what do you say to that, richard? >> this is what i say. i say that those sound great. those are gimmicks. that sounds great. but the real issue at hand is this right here, how come walmart cannot pay workers a livable wage of $25,000? and respect in the workplace? >> i think it's a legitimate question. one that lots of folks have been asking in this country for some time. mike, before i let you both get out of here, last year, 30,000 people, more than 30,000 protested walmart's early opening decision at stores across the country. this year, tens of thousands have signed online petitions against the holiday openings. how have these protests -- how have they affected the retailers? or have they? >> it's unclear how it's affected the retailers yet and

what the path forward is for organizing the low-wage industries. i had a colleague who wrote a piece about it where he outlined what a big uphill fight it is about walmart and the internal strategy. but it's still very, very difficult. but i think it is having an effect. people like richard are speaking out and taking incredible risk of losing their jobs. that's remarkable. we're seeing it at fast-food places and walmarts across the country. folks getting up and saying, we are not going to take this anymore. we are going to risk everything, our financial livelihood, the risk of losing their homes and stand up and say something. that's a courageous moment we're at. we didn't see that in the past few years. i think the labor movement is starting to see new courage come in. >> mike elk, richard wilson, thank you both for your time. can't get enough, rob ford. the embattled toronto mayor who

is still in office this afternoon, despite admitting to smoking crack and being stripped of some of his political powers. then there was that bizarre news conference other day that we can't even show you a clip from. rob ford soon going to be co-hosting a talk show with his brother. "ford nation" as it's being called premieres monday night in canada. but fear not, i have a pretty good feeling that we will find a way to get some glimpses of it over here to you as well. you are watching msnbc. across america people are taking charge

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i got this. [thinking] is it that time? the son picks up the check? [thinking] i'm still working. he's retired. i hope he's saving. i hope he saved enough. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. whether you're just starting your 401(k) or you are ready for retirement, we'll help you get there. months after that horrific injury, louisville guard kevin ware is back on the hardwood. he saw his first regular season action last night. boy, did he make the most of it. ware scored five points, snagged two rebounds in 13 minutes. louisville ended up beating cornell last night. ware shattered his leg during last season's ncaa tournament. i'm craig melvin.

here's a look at the top stories making news. a second florida home damaged by a massive sinkhole is expected to be torn down today. the huge sinkhole opened thursday prompting fire officials to evacuate a total of seven homes in the area. crews filled the sinkhole if about 5,200 cubic yards of dirt. miami police say they may have found the body of a florida man who fell from a private plane into the waters off south florida. officials say they presume the body is that of 42-year-old girarde girardeau nolles. police say there's no evidence of foul play. human remains found in the mojave desert are those of a san diego family that went missing back in 2010. they were discovered by a passerby there. their two young children are also believed to be buried in shallow graves nearby. they vanished from their

southern california home in 2010. there were no signs of a struggle. their car was found days later near the mexico border. when it comes to american teenagers and cyberbullying, 88% say they have witnessed it. 15% say they have been the target of it. stopping these attacks before they reach their intended target. that's today's big idea. it comes from a project known as hackers against cyberbullies. joining me live, the founder. ahmed, good to see you. of the large number of people who experience cyberbullying, we have seen tragic cases where teenagers have been driven to suicide. tyler clementi, rebecca sedgwick. what are you trying to do to stop cyberbullying in its tracks? >> thank you for having me to talk about this. the solution that we are

bringing to the table adds to the need of education and brings some real i.t. tools to regular families so that they can detect cyberbullying as it's happening both for targets of cyberbullying, so victims, but also for aggressors. usually we find among teenagers and children, it's children against children who are actually the aggressors. we're bringing the i.t. community together and bring tools to detect cyberbullying as it's happening on social media which is the primary source of bullying and bullying messages from aggressors to victims. >> let's talk about social media for a second. what more should social media sites themselves be doing? what more should they be doing

to stop cyberbullying? >> they should actually definitely do, for example, language analysis. and it is possible to create tools that can actually figure out whether an individual is being bullied by doing analysis of the information that's being posted on, let's say, facebook or twitter. we can actually figure out what's actually being said and whether it goes over a particular threshold to determine whether somebody's kidding around or whether they're actually bullying someone. and one of the things that we are producing is to actually gather those tools together and build something that can be made available that you can use in your home to monitor your own facebook, your own twitter, your own smss, e-mails, as a solution

to detect if one of your children is being bullied or whether they are actually bullying someone else so you can intervene and tell them what is wrong, what's wrong, what's kidding around, what's a joke and what's actually going over that line, crossing that line. >> is this going to be done at the expense of sacrificing some personal freedoms? it sounds like -- >> no, not really, because for example, the solution that we are proposing will actually still be very private. for instance, for your own children, if you wanted to monitor what was going on with them, it's all within your own realm. you can actually then decide whether or not you want to take some action about it. now, just like you have a spam filter, there would be a bullying filter on your social media account for yourself. you don't need to necessarily see a message that's actually belligerent towards you. because the message is targeted

towards you, you're still not actually violating somebody's privacy rights or privacy rules because it's attached to your account and you're taking that decision in your own hand. and there's no third party involved. that's why we wanted to create this tool that gave the users the power rather than, for example, an entity like a social media site like facebook deciding what is sib bucyberbul or isn't. >> ahmed masud, thank you. do you have a big idea that's making a difference? you can tell us about it by e-mailing us. there's the e-mail address right there on your screen. bigidea.msnbc@nbcuni.com. a california high school is feeling the heat over what's being dubbed a racially offensive mascot. the coachello valley arabs have

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>> an insightful look at d.c. politicos? i recently talked to mark consuelos about his role in the show. andy guzman is the name of your character on the ow. a young gun, florida conservative with latin roots. >> my character is recently divorced, not much of a family man. >> he's also a bit of a womanizer, too, i understand it. >> a ladies' man. how about that? >> compromise. >> okay. >> the show itself, the premise is based on a real house in d.c. shared by many politicians. did you go to that house for any inspiration? >> i didn't. but the creators did and they fashioned it after that house. we did have chuck schumer stop

by the set and the sound stage to look at it. he was blown away. he said there was probably a little more fun being had on our set than back at his house. >> is this a show about politics? is that a fair characterization? >> it's a show that it take place in the political world. but it's a show about four guys living together. i think it humanizes these guys that we sometimes put on a pedestal or not put on a pedestal, whichever way you look at it. but it's a show about four guys trying to make it in a really, really tough world during a tough time in a job field that has a lot of land mines and you could go either way any day. >> msnbc analyst jonathan alter is also the executive producer of -- one of the executive producers of "alpha house." who knew? we mentioned a moment ago that there are a few democratic lawmakers in washington who really do share a house. >> yeah. >> why make this one about republicans?

>> the creator of this, gary, who's done other things, he's believed at the beginning of the process that republicans are more interesting right now. and our senators are -- three of the four of them are facing tea party challenges from the right. so they're kind of squeezed between the kind of congressmen, senators they were when they got to washington and what's going on now inside the republican party. that predicament is more interesting and funnier than democrats. he did democrats in a show called "tanner 88" some years ago. so he's an equal opportunity sat i satirist. >> netflix has been wildly successful with their streaming shows. "house of cards," wildly popular. is this the future of television? is that what we're watching unfold before our eyes?

>> it very well might be. i think that's one of the things that's made it exciting for those of us who are in this. it's a little bit like being in network television in the early 1950s or cable television in the early 1980s. we feel like we're part of something new. we don't know where it's going to go. netflix was kind of first out of the gate. now "alpha house" is amazon's first offering. i think there's going to be a lot more of online tv. and i'd hazard a prediction that at a certain point just because the business model kind of favors it, you'll see most of television streamed. >> i want to switch gears now to real politics if we can. you know the players in the obama administration better than most. what's going on behind the scenes right now as republicans continue their revolt and some democrats are starting their revolt against obama care? >> well, there's a tremendous amount of frustration inside the white house. you heard the president say this

week that it's on us, it's on me. they know they messed up. it's really painful for anybody in any endeavor if they have unforced errors. and this website disaster was an unforced error. they're under such pressure from the republicans. they did not need this. this has set them back a lot. now they have a bunch of nervous democrats -- >> you mentioned the website. what about the president's broken promise? >> and actually there's an awful lot of democrats now, it's coming out, who said the same thing. they were looking to the part of the law that grandfathered in -- what's called a grandfather clause. people who had existing policies before march of 2010 when health care was signed. they didn't deal with the people who got new policies in the last three years. and it was a huge mistake. it makes the president look like he was misleading the public.

he's suffering for it. and he's got a hole that he's in. the first rule of holes is stop digging. so he apologized and he's going to try to get this website right and hope that the other things that the bill does provide for the american people, all the people that it helps, it helps a lot more people than it hurts. eventually that will kick in and he'll go on to have a successful implementation. there is a history of bumps in the road on major social legislation in the past. >> hold that thought. i'll have you stick around and join us for the brain trust. we're going to peel back the curtain, so to speak, on the white house and talk about what's really going on with the president's inner circle. we have folks who follow this white house very closely on the other side of the break. so i deserve a small business credit card with amazing rewards.

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you hear criticism on the hill that you and your white house team are too insulated. is that how this mess came to be? >> the president's health care turnabout has raised many questions about the president's management style. let's get to the brain trust. julia, michael and back with us, jonathan alter. julia, let me start with you. there was a big mea culpa from the white house on thursday as the president acknowledged the botched rollout has created a trust issue between the american people and himself. take a listen. >> i think it's legitimate for them to expect me to have to win back some credibility on this health care law in particular and on a whole range of these issues in general. that's on me. we fumbled the rollout on this health care law.

>> is the president's credibility with the american people gone for a second term? is it something that can be gotten again or is that it? >> i think certainly he can win it back and that's what he's going to try to do. but there's no question he's taken a hit. what we saw in the 2012 election is that americans did trust him, saw him as someone who was working on their behalf. and with this botched rollout, many people are questioning that. so i think he's going to have to work hard if he's going to regain the faith of the american people. >> michael, you've looked into the workings of this white house, the president surrounded by advisers, surrounded by cabinet heads. why aren't they telling him what he needs to know? >> it raises the question of whether this would have happened if rahm emanuel had still been around. would rahm's sort of relationship with the president and his willingness to push things and to fight and to give the president a hard time on important issues have made a

difference here? seems like the president is a bystander and sort of reacting and not being proactive to things. you have to wonder whether there needs to be a shake-up around him to bring in people who would make it more difficult -- push him and sort of try and find -- help him find better ways to move this stuff forward so he's not reacting to all of it. >> i want to play something that steve cohen said to me earlier in this broadcast, democrat from tennessee, talking about this president's relationship with house democrats. listen to what he said. >> the relationship could be better. however, i don't think it affected any votes. >> when you say that the relationship could be better, how so? characterize the relationship. >> well, it's pretty distant. and it's somewhat -- it's just not warm and fuzzy. >> he went on to say, jonathan, that they long for the days of the relationship they had with bill clinton. you've watched this president

very closely. you wrote a successful book on the early days of his administration. what did you learn about the way that president obama operates an how that's affected the way that he has handled the health care rollout? >> well, in my book that came out this year, i have a chapter called "missing the schmooze gene." by that, he's not a back-slapper. you can say, that's good. too many politicians act that way. but it means that he's leaving a tool in the toolbox. and while it wouldn't have affected his relationship with republicans, i don't think, it would have affected his relationship with democrats if he was more of a relationship guy, if he spent time with them, if he understood their neediness. and also he's lacking a culture of management in the white house. he does not surround himself with people who have managed any kind of large enterprise -- >> why is that? is that a deliberate thing?

>> from the beginning he's been more comfortable with people who have government experience, people with experience in academia, lawyers like himself. the guy fixing the mess now is basically the only guy around him who's truly met a payroll. he claims that valerie jarrett has. but she was only a ceo for a very short time. he doesn't have people who understand the problems in large organizations in his immediate circle. >> juliet, you wrote in "the post" that almost from the outset, the president's economic team and his health policy team were at odds over the insurance exchanges. in the end, the economic team never had a chance. the president had already made up his mind. how big of a role do you think the political considerations played in the build-up and rollout, juliet? >> i think they definitely had an impact. as we alluded to in that article, just the idea that he didn't bring in someone from the outside with management experience and with business experience to kind of look at

what it means to start up what is in many ways a market-based operation. so i think those things coupled with these political considerations which intimidated some lower-ranking officials intimidated some who didn't send the signals that would have been great about how badly things were going, the con inflation of those two factors explain where we are today. >> i want to continue this ko s conversation. quick break. well, there's hannah, maddie, jen, sara m., sara b., sa -- whoa, whoa. hold on. (under his breath) here it comes... we can't forget about your older sister! thank you, thank you, thank you! seriously? what? i get 2x the thankyou points on each ticket. can i come? yep. the citi thankyou preferred card. now earn 2x the points on entertainment and dining out, with no annual fee. to apply, go to citi.com/thankyoucards

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the brain trust is back. i want to pick up on something that jonathan and i were talking about during the break here. the idea here being perhaps when's happened is that in the president's first term he'd surrounded himself with, you know, with an a-team of sorts and he's lost a number of people. is what we're witnessing right now perhaps the direct result of losing some of the best talent at the white house? >> i don't know. i think it probably has more to do with the fact that the

president sort of more cerebral and doesn't have the bill clinton-like fight in him and doesn't really want to go out and sell things in the way that clinton did. if you look at where the president is now, he's probably going to have to spend the next three years out there continuing to sell this health care plan. he's probably not going to get a lot done on immigration or gun control and just doing this all the time. i don't think that's a natural thing for him in the way that clinton sort of liked to go out as glad-handing and such and i think the president finds himself in a place to use sort of skills that he doesn't really enjoy using that much. >> juliet, what are you hearing there in your nation's capital from democrats and republicans, alike, about the way forward, the path forward? are you hearing they're convinced a lot of this can be fixed using the executive pen or are you hearing that this is going to require some legislative fixes that's going

to consume our nation's capital for several years? >> well, i think there's no question that both democrats and republicans at this point are generally pushing for a legislative fix. while, you know, the majority of house democrats stood with the white house, you did have defections there and moving to the senate you will be seeing a push for something to be done legislateively in a way that an administrative fix isn't enough but we'll see this be an issue in 2014 and i think how that ends upturning out and also how many people ultimately get the insurance through the online enrollment system, that will determine whether there's further legislative action or not. >> how much of an impact on the midterms? >> it's too soon to tell. you know, the republicans are smelling blood right now but only six weeks ago when you had the disastrous shutdown it was the democrats who thought they had the advantage. but legislativive ly efforts ne

to be done in the house to gut obama care and good-faith efforts to fix obama care and improve it, and all prior major pieces of social legislation and the social security act of 1935, which the checks didn't start to arrive until 1941, took a long time to roll that out, social security all of the social programs, they have gone back for fixes. bill clinton -- >> medicare. george w. bush, what he did with -- >> sure. that wasn't the first time. >> right. >> and clinton had to fix welfare reform so it can be fixed. the president does have the veto pen so the bill that passed t e house yesterday will not be signed into law. >> juliet, michael, and also jonathan, a big thanks to all of

you for spending some of your saturday afternoon with us. i'll be back tomorrow 3:00 eastern. i'll be talking with author mitch al bum about his latest book that delves into the afterlife. that and more tomorrow. first, though, "disrupt." but once a week i let her play sheriff so i can wash it. i use tide to get out those week old stains and downy to get it fresh and soft. you are free to go. [ dad ] tide and downy together. ♪ [ male announcer ] 1.21 gigawatts. today, that's easy. ge is revolutionizing power. supercharging turbines with advanced hardware and innovative software. using data predictively to help power entire cities. so the turbines of today... will power us all... into the future. ♪

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