mind putin. it's really anybody's guess as to what is going happen. to be a counter weight to the european union. the plans are not going well.

>> the rebranding continues. >> president obama used world aids day to remind people of some of the progress the affordable care act has made.

>> thanks to the affordable care act, millions of insured americans will be able to get tested free of charge. now have access to affordable health care coverage and no american will be again denied health insurance because of their hiv status. >> the obama administration now claims that it has met the december 1 deadline that it set for itself to fix the website. a status report released yesterday said while we strive to improve our systems we believe we have met the goal of having a system that will move smoothly. today the white house said there were more than 750,000 visitors before 6:00 p.m. eastern. the "new york times" reports the

white house is hoping that 7 million people will obtain insurance through the federal and state exchanges by the end of march. but, the affordable care act will have at least one new customer. >> has the president signed up for affordable care? >> i don't have an update. i know that he will. the white house has said that he will. >> do you know what he is waiting for and when he does do that will you make it open press? >> i will get back to you. >> joining me now columnists for the washington post. governor, what is your assessment.

it's odd when an administration is doing its own report on how it's doing on something this controversial. what is your assessment of where things stand tonight. >> look, we're not going to really know until about march. and i just -- i was on some of the weekend shows. the carrying of the republican side, this is just about politics. what has to happen is the site has to work more than 90% of the time. people have to sign up and they have to get good insurance. and actually all three of those things are now happening. much to the dismay of the republicans because they have got nothing to say for themselves. i'm trying to figure out when the last time i heard any republican say anything positive about anything. >> what is your political assessment of where the story is now? it seems as if we have turned some kind of corner in terms of

the pressure on the white house and administration. >> i think we have turned something of a corner. i think they have a problem right out even now. if the launch had gone smoothly then the smaller problems that came up all along the way wouldn't be considered that great. but now every little glitch is going to be seen as bigger than it is. i do think there is a chance to turn the issue to where it should have been all along. it will be better for most people. anybody saying they are sure this issue will play big in the 2014 elections i just think is making it up. i don't think we have any idea

how this issue is going play in the 2014 elections. >> david made a big prediction this weekend. let's listen to this. >> there is a huge interest out there. by the end of march, most people think you could have six, seven, eight million people registered for health care. >> only if there is a rapid increase. >> but you see the interest out there. people want health care. they're going to be able to get health care. if the website is working. and to your question, we live in a social world right now. people will tell their siblings or talk to their brothers and sisters. i think what you're beginning to see is it is an easy experience. >> was that an evidence based statement? >> there is some evidence behind it. if you look at every past expansion like this one,

medicare part d, which is the prescription drug benefit. there was very weak enrollment in the beginning. so they have got everybody in towards the end. it's a different program and different features. the natural spur would normally be the individual mandate. the question is whether the program is working well enough and whether the administration feels safe enough to publicize the mandate. >> it is largely symbolic event since he has doctors in residence at all times and never ever actually has to go anywhere

and show an insurance card to anyone. what do you think the political significance of it is that the president will be enrolling? >> i think everybody on capital hill should have been enrolled. this is not a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination. we have a lot of ways to go. one of the things we have not talked about is medicaid. republican governors are struggling to now sign up where they refused to in the beginning. sit a huge hit to their budget not to do it. michigan, the republican governor wanted to do it. it's going to cost them $70 million because they have not done it. we have not talked about it yet. many people taking insurance through obama care but another 7 or 8 million or more will get it through medicaid expansion and

that's important. >> the republicans do seem to be standing down on the repeal obama care or not fund the government. they are now pubically making it very clear there is no chance of another government shut down over this issue. >> well, if you come close to committing political suicide once, most parties usually learn something from that experience. and i think they know perfectly well if they tried to shut down the government over obama care, they would take all of the attention away from the problems of obama care and put it on them. they fell way behind in all of the polls so i would be stunned. i have never been fully surprised by anything that happens on the hill but i would be really stunned if they tried to go through that again. it just wouldn't help them. >> there is a big problem in the numbers that we are hearing reported.

there is no definition of what it means to be enrolled. each state is reporting the numbers the way they see it. there is no uniform definition on what these numbers actually mean. has someone paid a premium? do they have an actual id number from an insurance company? a lot of what's being called enrollment, there is simply people going through the application process to a certain point but not actually effectuating it as some of the reports say. when will we know some sense of what real numbers are? >> we probably won't know numbers, really good numbers. if you simply put an insurance package into your shopping cart you count as enrolled. i own a lot of stuff. i currently have it sitting on my counter. it's going to fundamentally matter.

we will know. it's about that popping up on the dr when that happens there will be no number of reports. nor will there by in gop press releases. so one thing that i actually found comfortable is that for now it's a lot of noise. ultimately this is moved beyond political obstruction and whether or not it will effectively help real people get real insurance. >> here is how much the administration feels the numbers are actually kind of shakey. they are giving advice to people that if you think you have enrolled you had better do this.

>> consumers should absolutely call their selected plan, confirm that they have paid their first month's premium and that coverage would be available for them beginning january 1. we will also make a concerted effort to reach consumers who selectioned a plan over the course of the past several weeks so that they know what the next steps would be. >> howard, they sound a little nervous? >> yeah. this is complicated. and i always -- i can't resist. i just signed up for medicare. took me ten min knits. if only we had a public option. >> i'm with you there. absolutely. >> you know, i'm not surprised that they are worried about that. they seem to have fixed the front end going in. this best one, the problems they are having.

the big problems they are still having is the connection to the insurance companies. so if they want a lot of bad stories they would have people not check and discover they are uninsured. >> thank you all for joining tonight. >> thank you. >> coming up, florida releases marissa alexander, the woman sentenced for 25 years for firing a warning shot. why a florida judge did not allow her to stand her ground. the republican national committee competed that racism was ended. if racism had ended then why were three high school students arrested for waiting while black? waiting for their school bus. and a 13-year-old gives his bar mitzvah speech on what the torah has actually taught him about marriage equality.

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support a gop challenger could derail his chances to become president. christie already has a problem with many republicans refusing to forgive him because of his embrace of president obama and his socially liberal policies. but this bizarre behavior in suggesting he won't help a -- and a quomo could finish off his chances of becoming the party nominee. the "new york post" reported that governor christie was ready to back rob asterino. but q2 mow called and told him that that report was wrong.

>> our meeting was me and mary, path, rob and his wife asking us what it was leak to run for governor and to serve as governor with young children. that was the entirety of the conversation. he did not say he was going to run. he didn't seek support. and we didn't talk about politics much at all except how it related to the family. so that's why i was, you know, kind of stunned. when the governor called to discuss other matters, i told him exactly what he related. didn't say he was running for governor nor did i pledge any support. >> chris christie went on to explain how all of that is subject to change. >> we will elect republican governors in every state and once that is cleared up in new york as to who the republican candidate might be, then we will

make an assessment about the wordiness of investing in that race. but we have been pretty clear about not getting involved in primaries. >> i love so many things about this story. cuomo says that christie called me. they don't agree on that point. he is the albany guy. and governor chris tee now head of the republican the early front runner. he way conservative enough for other folks who end up voting?

this is something that chris christie does not need right now. >> it is all about suspicion. if he were a republican above suspicion they would have just said we get it. you can't endorse him because of the position you're in. we get that. this is one of those exhibits about how he is constantly going to be bumping into suspicion about is he really one of us. >> that shows the limits of his reelection results. he campaigned. he got 51% of the latino vote by telling activists that i will support the dream act. and then in a radio interview, flip-flopped on it. this is how chris christie is

going to try to convince people and i mean the far right conservative primary voters that he is one of them. >> the new challenger emerging now is governor scott walker. we we have got a new republican piece saying scott walker could be the guy who comes up being the front runner. appeals to more people than anyone else. >> what are the people? >> in the republican primary. >> that's the key. he can't get there because if you have a scott walk eric santorum and all of the other senators who might end up running they are all above suspicion compared to chris chris tee. >> as walker emerges he has to somehow get out of the heat of what he created.

he created chaos. >> yes, he created chaos. the first part of his term was spent fighting a recall and all of those folks crowding the state legislature trying to push for his recall but he won. he also went out and expressed contrition. all of that will work very well. but i'm not sure. let's say he did get the nomination. is that enough to have him win the general? probably not in the way that chris chris tee would? >> thank you very much. >> up next, the case of the florida woman who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot. an appeals court has ordered a new trial. >> and the spotlight tonight,

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>> and the spotlight tonight, marissa alexander is home for the holidays. >> a florida woman awaiting a new trial is free on bond. >> marissa alexander was granted a special pretrial release on thanksgiving eve after spending more than 1,000 days in jail. and barely seeing her youngest child who presently turned three. >> her family's most important piece is that she's home with her children.

>> she's a survivor of domestic violence and here she is, i'd say being revictimized, being treated as the aggressor when she was merely trying to defend herself. >> the woman was hospitalized in 2009 after being shoved in a bathtub and hitting her head. she's a victim. a woman whose estranged husband admitted to hitting other women. >> he was bound to sentence her to 20 years in prison after she was con vicked of aggravated assault with a deadly woman. >> when that woman that victim who was just recently given birth fires a warning shot near the man who has cornered her in her home, she's a victim who feel she has no other recourse. >> a new trial has been set for next year. >> we do know this is temporary joy. the batlogical be won in court.

>> joining me now is contributor of the former prosecutor, author of killer ambition. what was the legal turning point in the appeal? it seems the jury instructions in the trial placed too much of a burden on the defendant. >> that's right. the burden is never on the defense. at most they can be required to show by a preponderance but never proof beyond a reasonable doubt. in most states all the defense has to do is raise a reasonable doubt. it's for the prosecution to show that it was not self-defense. that is their burdenen and not the defense.

and placing the burden on the defense created a very critical error which is why the case has now been reversed. >> we all started talking about this case during the trayvon martin case. a black woman could not seem to achieve the same rights under this law as a white man could. >> exactly. i think in this case one of the things we need to always think about is she was going to the garage to get a licensed handgun. she had been to the firing range. she knew how to use the gun. she was trying to defend herself. she was in her own home and she was not afforded the same treatment. in the second trial they will not be talking about stand your ground. >> and the prosecution is the same. let's listen to her making the

announcement of the charges. >> cord we filed an information charging george zimmerman with murder in the second degree. i think that after meeting with trayvon's parents that first monday night, he was there. the first thing we did is open our meeting with prayer. we did not promise them anything. >> marsha clark, that was an emotional day. i remember that announcement. it's just flawed to most observers out there to see that the prosecutor with those sensibilities is the same prosecutor in this case. >> in a way, not so surprising. she has to take a consistently hard line against anyone who is

firing a gun and because she prosecuted zimmerman, almost feels like she has to prosecute this woman as well because she -- if you want to equate it that way these are people who are claiming self-defense but firing a gun in the process. i can't form an opinion. but i do -- i can see why the prosecutor would think she has to hold the line and appear to be consistent. >> whatever this was, is it 20 years in prison? let's the consider something the prosecutor did know before trial. and this is the statement in his pretrial deposition. this is the person marissa alexander fired a warning shot. he said if my kids weren't there

i knew i would probably have tried to take the gun from her. you know, i just don't know what would have happened. if my kids wouldn't have been there i probably would have put my hand on her. >> what do you men you would have put your hand on her? probably hit her. i got five baby mommas and i put my hands on every last one of them except for one. there is such a thick as discretion. you may think you have a certain kind of case but when this person says this to you. >> that was not evidence allowed in the first trial. >> but the evidence about his previous history was not allowed in the first trial.

i think that they would have considered his history when thinking what was marissa's state of mind? did she think she was in danger of serious bodily harm? i think these issues are issues that a jury should have considered and they didn't get the chance to hear that evidence. >> quickly on this question of prosecutal discretion which includes prosecutal anticipation of what a sentence might be at the end of a certain trial? >> the evidence that we're talking about here is something that in california is alwaysed a midded. it goes to the defendant's state of mind. it goes to explain her conduct. and if her mind set is such that he has hit me before and tried to strangle me before and when

he came at me i reasonably believed that that had to do with her state of mind. people are different. situations are different. i agree this should be taken into account. the evidence that she has been through should come into evidence. >> thanks for writing a great piece. coming up in the rewrite, three high school students in rochester new york are arrested while waiting for their school bus. their offense? waiting while black.

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today we remember rosa park's bold stand and her role in ending racism. yes, ending racism. you didn't know that racism was ended? it turns out a few hours later after the republican party was informed by like a million reply tweets that rosa parks did not actually end racism in america and that no one has actually managed to end racism in america, the republican party rewrote this tweet this way. previous tweet should have road we remember rosa park's bold stand and her role in fighting to end racism. if the republican party's first tweet were right and racism had been ended in america, perhaps these three kids would not have been arrested last week while committing the crime of waiting while black. they were waiting for their school bus. they are members of the edison tech high school basketball team who were waiting for their school bus to take them to a scrimmage basketball game on wednesday morning.

at 8:43 a.m. they were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for obstructing pedestrian traffic on this sidewalk. they told their story to rochester's nbc affiliate. >> you just downtown and next thing you know anything can happen. >> we tried to tell them we was waiting for the bus but we was not catching a city bus but a yellow bus. he didn't care. >> their basketball coach arrived on the scene and explained the situation to the arresting officer but that wasn't enough to stop the police from arresting three kids waiting for their school bus. coach was threatened with arrest, too. >> it's a catastrophe. these young men were doing nothing wrong. nothing wrong. they did exactly what they were supposed to do. and still and yet they get arrested.

>> one member of the school board is as outraged by the arrests as the kids and their parents are. >> i'm very concerned about a pattern of young people especially young people of color being abused by police authority and to me this seems like a clear case, part of a pattern. >> joining me now, dan french, former u.s. attorney for upstate new york. dan, you were u.s. attorney for the northern district which does include rochester? >> correct. >> but, you know this area very well. let's start with disorderly. i mean, everybody in law enforcement knows that disorderly is the junk charge that every cop has in their back pocket when there is no crime going on. i have walked the streets enough to know that i believe it is virtually impossible to obstruct pedestrian traffic in rochester, new york, downtown at 8:43 a.m.

>> i live in syracuse, new york. it's a similar community. i would think 8:30 the day before thanksgiving would be a quiet time on those streets. >> interesting, maybing phone calls up there, we have a police source now in the rochester department who is saying it didn't actually happen in front of 220 east main street as the police report indicates. we have a picture of that address. it actually happened further down the street at 236 and in our google mapping photos of that, we don't even see a business that could possibly have been complaining about that. the police say there is is a business there that has been complaining about loitering and outside of the business. but still any previous complaints have nothing to do with what these kids were actually doing there. >> i think in these cases the

problem is that people are prepared to give law enforcement the benefit of the doubt. but you need facts to do that. and there is at least two or three facts that are very troubling. one the students were asked why they were there. they told their story. their coach came up and told their story. there has been some information that a super visor arrived on the scene and arrests were effectuated. there have been waits in the second circuit that have gone a lot further on a lot less facts than that. >> the civil action that arrestees in cases like this is a federal civil rights complaint under section 1983. do you see the elements of that kind of case here? >> i really do. whether or not you can prevail, it's a long road to prevail but in these cases where you have police officers acting under color of authority with clear information that should indicate that the people that they are about to arrest have not

committed a crime it's when you cross that barrier of judgment that the courts have taken a dim view of that kind of police conduct. if the students and coach told the police officers and then they effectuated an arrest, those are facts that can prevail in civil right cases in federal courts. >> in a case like this, is it the coach who would have more credibility than the students or is it the combination of what you can prove to be the actual truth of the students' position which is that they are waiting if a bus which is scheduled and it's a school bus. the combination of the credibility factors there, how would you weigh them? >> you would hope that the students' statements in and of themselves would be enough. it's 8:30 in the morning on the day before thanksgiving on a quiet street. their statements should be enough.

you add in their coach. that's a troubling case. if i was a law enforcement in rochester i would be thinking about issuing apologies and dismissing charges. >> thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> thank you. >> coming up, a 13-year-old gives a speech about marriage equality and he does it at his bar mitzvah.

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corticosteroids, or medicines to decrease blood clotting. in a clinical study, over 80% of treated men had their t levels restored to normal. talk to your doctor about all your symptoms. get the blood tests. change your number. turn it up. androgel 1.62%. >> shalom. >> in my torah portion, jacob works for seven years to earn the right to marry his love, rachel. before marrying rachel, jacob is first tricked into marrying her older sister. >> that was duncan sennett at his bar mitzvah last month. the high point is when the 13-year-old makes a speech based on his or her study of the torah. in duncan's case, his study made him a stronger supporter of same sex marriage.

here is part of one of the best bar mitzvah boy speeches you will ever hear. >> back then they seemed to have a perfect definition of what traditional marriage meant for their time. when as time passes we have a completely different definition today. so the question is how has the definition change since the days of the torah. just looking at my torah portion i think it has changed a lot. leah and rachel had no say in marrying jacob. it was like a business deal. today in the united states, marriage is very different. no longer did the fathers arrange marriages and women can marry whomever they want. while studying my torah portion and comparing and contrasting marriage in the past and present i found it would be irresponsible to exclude the topic of gay marriage. i am a very, very strong supporter of equal rights and

the freedom of men and women to marry whomever they love. people who disagree with me like to quote the bible and say that traditional marriage should be between only one man and one woman but after seeing my torah portion that i have just read the definition of traditional marriage is nothing like what people think it is today. jacob mare married who sisters who were his first cousins. the definition of traditional marge has changed a lot since the days of the torah so why can't it change a little bit more so everybody can marry who they love. now that i'm a bar mitzvah, i will continue to support and encourage others to support equal marriage rights. shalom. >> joining me now is den can sennett and his rabi. how did you decide what you were going to talk about in the most important speech of your life so

far? >> well, i have always been a very strong supporter of equal rights and i just knew once i learned that it would fit with my torah portion that it was the right thing to do with my speech, so yeah. >> were you surprised in your torah study to discover the old testament in the torah were completely accepting of polygamy? >> i was. when i first learner that jacob married two sisters who were his first cousins it threw me off. i was baffled. it was crazy. >> yeah. marriage has had a very flexible definition over time and that was the point you were frying to make wasn't it? >> yeah. >> and rabbi, this is when you discovered that you were going to have a bar mitzvah boy stand up there and had you had anything like that happen before?

>> all of our kids do really amazing jobs but what duncan did was amazing. he spoke with such passion and conviction. this is clearly a subject he cared deeply about. i love that he found the source in the torah and really made it something that was connected to him and he spoke in a way that touched everybody in the room. >> let's listen to more of duncan's speech. it is so extraordinary and it contains some personal elements. let's listen to this. >> the domestic partnership law affords some of the same rights as marriage but still is not equal in name or benefits. while putting rights up to a vote is never fair, marriage equality will hopefully make it to the oregon ballot in 2014. this subject is not only interesting but it's also very personal. my family is very close friends

with many same-sex couples, especially joel and david and jeff and wade. they have influenced me to go to prop 8 rallies when i lived in california to support the freedom to marry and they are wonderful people, wonderful parents and wonderful couples. >> duncan, you have been with this subject for a while it sounds like? >> yeah. >> and what is it meant to know people who were actually not just engaged in this as a crusade and a cause but actually desiring marriage equality for themselves? >> well, i think they are really brave. everybody deserves equal rights. and yeah. >> rah -- rabbi duncan has set a high bar for all the boys and girls who will follow. do you have any advice for future orators next year?

>> well, all of our kids speak from the heart and i think that's what is rally meaningful. if you find something that you are passionate about, if the torah and the teachings really inspire you to connect to something that is meaningful, follow it. and it's great. struggle with the text. that is what we encourage people to do. duncan has done a fine job of it. >> the issue of marriage equality has had some people split from their religions. it seems as though it has strengthened your bond to judism? >> i really got to go into the subject and i found lots of ways to connect it. it just goes together really

well. >> duncan, thank you very much for joining us tonight. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> chris hayes is up next. full speed ahead for health care. let's play "hardball." ♪ good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. there ought to be a page for complainers, chronic sour pusses whose fantasy is to burp out a i told you this wouldn't work. today is not a good day for the complainers league.