1st. consumers are checking health care off their christmas list. the chief concern for the administration and insurance companies, who is enrolling. >> if we don't get those young healthy people into the system, that could cause problems for everybody else buying insurance. >> political prognosis, success or failure of the health care law will have ripple effects sure to be felt on capitol hill. >> do you think that obama care will be a major factor in determining the success of democrats in 2014. >> i'm very close to our democrats who are up right now. even the republicans who are my friends. they are using that. they think that's a great advantage they have. the democrats right now are feeling the weight of it. >> surveillance stalemate. lawmakers are split on what changes need to be made to nsa programs ahead of the president's january announcement. we'll talk to congressman peter

king and adam shift about what comes next. americans evacuated. we're following the latest developments in south sudan where political divide sparked deadly violence all across the nation. and a very good monday to you. i'm kristen welker live in new york, in today for andrea mitchell. happy holidays to all of you. this is deadline day for everyone signing up to get health care coverage by the first of the year. the obama administration is making every effort to allow people who may wait until the last minute to get involved. nbc news white house correspondent peter alexander is live in honolulu traveling with the president. peter, we're just getting breaking news about the deadline. they might be tweaking it a little bit. what's the latest here? >> tweaking is a pretty decent way to describe this, kristen. days the deadline for everybody

to sign up for coverage they want january 1st. we're just getting information from the administration, they made the point right now they are seeing high demand. the fact consumers may be enrolling in multiple time zones they are telling us they are taking steps to select a plan through tomorrow, through tuesday, christmas eve, will get coverage for january 1st. lets put this up on the screen right now. this is from a senior administration official who told us within the last half hour or so, we have programmed our systems to support january 1 coverage for those that complete enrollment through the end of the day tomorrow proactively recognizing we need to be prepared for heavy online traffic or other technical issues. we've taken this step in consultation with issuers in order to best serve consumers. this is a similar concept as election day the administration official tells us. if you are in line when the polls are closed you still get to vote. be clear today they still intend to have as their deadline day, they are trying to make this

exception acknowledging a lot of people stuck in line or may not be able to get through because of problems they have over the course of the day, kristen. we've already experienced make of those, calling into beefed up call centers around the country. one, for example, washington, d.c. exchange. one we called yesterday the wait time was more than two hours. at one point we called back today, 75 minutes. we called other locations as well. those sites we received a message on some occasions saying try back at a better time, kristen. >> still long wait times. all right. peter alexander in hawaii, thank you for that update. we appreciate it. joining me now here in our studio new york republican congressman peter king, member of house intelligence and security committees. thank you for joining us in the studio this afternoon. let me get your reaction to the latest development. the administration seems to be saying again they will tweak the enrollment deadline. people have through tomorrow to sign up. what's your reaction? >> one tweak after another. this is the least of the tweaks

they have done. administration not ready for prime time. problem after problem. back to early on, definitely a political issue in 2014. again, i expect more so-called tweaks as we go into the weeks and months ahead. >> congressman, republicans have been quite critical of this rollout. a lot calling for a repeal of the law. looking toward 2014 do republicans need to do more than criticize? does the party need their own plan for how to improve this law and health care instead of just slamming the health care law that exists now? >> i think we have to. definitely there's a health care issue in the country. i think it's gone much too far what the obama administration is doing. we're going to have to show constructively what we need to do. whether we go into every detail is another story. we have to do more than be against obama care. >> do you think they are starting to do that, lawmakersoon your side of the aisle are starting to hammer out their own version of the law, at least improvements to it?

>> we do have people coming together. some differences among them. bottom line you're going to see basic principles going forward and different members are going to have different ideas going forward. >> i want to switch to the nsa. as you know, president obama said he is going to be announcing what, if any, changes he will make to that program in the wake of a panel coming out and saying he needs to make about 46 changes to the nsa. i'm going to play something mark udall had to say and get your reaction on the other side. >> it's hard for me to believe and hard for lots of americans to believe with whom i talk that these general warrants, if you will, and orders to collect every day tens of millions of americans' phone records is somehow constitutional. it doesn't fit the standard in the fourth amendment of unreasonable search and seizure. >> doesn't fit the standard of the fourth amendment. what's your reaction? is he right? does he have a point? >> no, he doesn't. i know mark udall, a congressman with me. he's a great guy but i strongly disagree on this. you're not taking the person's

records but records from the phone companies. there's no expectation of privacy once you turn your records over to another company. no one listening to anyone's phone because, reading e-mails, phone number to phone number. no identification, address, location. >> congressman, when you look at polls two-thirds of americans aren't comfortable with this program. they want changes. don't they need to listen. >> what they are concerned about, think we're listening to phone calls, reading e-mails, they are not. if they knew maybe 1/1,000% listened to at all, after court orders, justice department. what president would do is explain. stronger leadership. i agree with his policies. somehow hiding behind it, blaming nsa, no abuses but need reforms what reforms do you need? to me he's sending a very mixed message. >> let me ask you about

specifics. he seems to signal one of the reforms he's considering is having metadata stored by private companies. would you support at least that change to the program? >> i don't see how that is an improvement. rather than centralized in one location, spread out with different providers, three or four or five day delay from the time the inform is a is needed until they provide it. i don't know more secure, private companies with these records but the government centralized, court supervision. >> i want to shift to what's happening in south sudan, a deteriorating situation there. the state department tried to get some american citizens and personnel out. what is your reaction to the way obama administration handled this so far. seems like the president leaving open the possibility for further action in the future. >> i think the president is doing the right thing. the fact is we are using military to evacuate, state department trying to get people out. i don't see cause for partisan division here. the president is trying to save american lives. between president and military, efforts of state department i'm

standing with them, have to get it done. >> okay. now i want to ask you about your future. >> i've got to go. >> don't go anywhere. this is where it gets interesting. you've made five trips to new hampshire so far. you said in july you were thinking about running for president. hillary clinton said she's going to make her decision sometime next year. when are you going to make your decision. >> sometime next year. next year or the beginning of 2015. i've been up there five times. i am looking at it, talking to me. so far using it as a chance to find out what's happening on the ground, support other republicans. if i see the support is there i'll make that decision. >> how serious are you about this presidential run at this point in time. >> i think the presidential run itself is important whether it's me or somebody else. i don't want ted cruz, rand pauls taking over, i want blue-collar, ronald reagan, work with foreign policy, don't be apologizing for americans, don't be afraid about drones targeting

us in starbucks. >> if chris christie throws his hat spot ring, it would be an uphill battle for you. would you still consider if chris christie runs? >> i don't know if chris christie can beat me. i've known chris christie for a while. we'll see what happens. if he jumps in, that's one thing. that alone would not be enough to keep me out. chris christie and i get along. we share some views, others we don't. i wouldn't defer to somebody else. if i decide to go it's what i can do. >> you've gone to new hampshire, any plans to go to iowa. >> not yet. one way or the other i'll be in iowa. talk to other republicans to find out what direction the party should go in. new hampshire and iowa set the tone for the campaign and that sets the tone for the party and country. >> congressman peter king thank you so much and happy holidays. >> appreciate it. >> merry christmas to you. as the push to get people signed up for heck intensifies, politics intensifies. lets bring in senior editor mark

murray and "politico's" john allen. thanks to both of you for joining me. i just want to get your reaction, mark, and i'll start with you to obama administration's latest decision to essentially move this deadline a little bit until the end of tomorrow. is this significant or not significant? what do you think? >> the administration just insists this is for people who try to get in line today and somehow can't get that insurance until tomorrow. they say it's not that big a deal. the downside for the administration it creates more confusion and chaos about the law. this is the latest delay or extension, just one after another. the good news for the administration is this allows more people to get signed up. they might have a very big number to show by the end of december on americans who actually signed up for health insurance after december we might have already 1 million per the president have signed up. will that number be 1.5 million, de los 2 million by the end of the month, we don't know but they might have a pretty good number to show. >> jonathan, how important is

this deadline politically. what are you going to be watching for over the next 48 hours and through january 1st? what needs to happen for the administration to turn this around? >> i think the big political question is the larger issue how obama care goes. the rollout has been a massive public relations disaster. i can't think of any other government program rolled out in a worse fashion. this particular extension of the deadline, though, simply allows people to make sure they are covered january 1st. it's hard to see how that's a bad thing for kurls. a lot of whom are experiencing call time waits. it's like if walmart gave you another couple of hours to go christmas shopping when you realized you did not get something for your sister or brother or kid. this particularly deadline extension isn't a bad thing and doesn't disrupt the program. on a more holistic approach, obviously continued deadline extensions as mark says, create more confusion. >> i want to shift topics and talk to the other big headline that came out of last week and

this weekend, which is, of course, the nsa. you heard from president obama at his end of the year news conference. he really seemed to be signaling that he was seriously considering some changes to the nsa. mark, what was your takeaway from that and what can we be expecting? >> i agree with you. i think we're going to see significant changes. it might not be as much as the recommendations he ended up receiving. it does seem the status quo is going to end. he might be able to take executive actions. congress might have to do other things. it's important to note we're 10 years removed from september 11th. that's an issue that shaped so many people. you heard representative king right before us talk about how important this system is. there are a lot of people who continue to believe this is a very big program. the longer and further that we've gotten away from september 11th, 2001, the public doesn't seem to be as supportive of some of these things, particularly the leaks and information that come out from all of it.

you know, you could have the case that the technology the united states has had since 2001 that kind of outpaced our laws. president obama might see it as his agenda to get those things in sync. >> jonathan, let me pick up on that point that mark raises, which the public is weighing in, weighing in heavily and there's a lot of scepticism about this. is the president feeling pressure to do something because of that alone? is that what's motivating this? >> absolutely. i think you heard that at his press conference. i think you've heard that from white house officials. i know i have. basically the appearance of this and public perception of this is as important as the information they are gleaning. as an example you've got foreign leaders who now have difficulty trusting the united states, making angry phone calls to the white house about their information collected. domestically if you have a public uncertain about it, they live in a democracy, the government has to be responsive to the public's interest and public's will. i think what you've got is a basic tension between government's desire and need to

collect more information about americans than many americans feel comfortable with. whether information is housed with the government or housed with private companies i think generally speaking the public is a little uncomfortable with how much information of that individual's is stored by various, lets say, authorities, whether it's big companies or the white house. >> finally i just want to look to the future a little bit. 2014 and 2016 you heard congressman king say he's considering running for president. are we going to be seeing 2016 candidates stumping in the 2014 election? of course there are very close races in part because of the health care law in 2014. mark and then jonathan. >> of course. that's what ends up happening. i remember 2006 then senator barack obama was one of the biggest surrogates in the midterm cycle, helped catapult his bid. hillary clinton for democrats, republican chris christie. has he that role as head of the

republican governors association. he'll be playing a big midterm role. anyone with high name ids, a lot of support within that political party, big advocates for both political parties in the midterm elections. >> jonathan. >> all the horses lining up to the gate, kristen, sizing each other up. it's fun to watch an open seat presidential election and i'm sure 2016 is going to be just around the corner. >> just very quickly from both of you, could this botched rollout of the president's health care law threaten the democrats' hold of the senate. jonathan? >> absolutely. i think it's number one issue for moderate democratic senators defending themselves. i think it's a problem for open seat democrats and for democrats trying to win republican seats. we will be talking about this for the next 10, 11 months. >> mark, what's your take, yes or no? >> kristen in short-term, huge political win for republicans. long-term we have a long way to go until the 2014 midterms but republicans made a lot of hay on

it, remains to be seen. one thing the map, alaska, arkansas, those states really benefit them when you look at the 2014 map. >> mark and jonathan, thank you for insights and joining us this afternoon. we appreciate it. >> take care, kristen. happy holidays. >> you, too. happy holidays. latest went storm moving away. expect plenty of cold in the northeast with temperatures at or below freezing. it's a better story at the airports today but you should still expect a little wait. flight aware.com puts total u.s. cancelations at just over 200 right now but there have been over 1,000 delays reported. we'll be right back. stay with us. [ male announcer ] here's a question for you: where does the united states get most of its energy? is it africa? the middle east? canada? or the u.s.? the answer is... the u.s. ♪ most of america's energy comes from right here at home.

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well, the government says systems are running smoothly on

healthcare.gov as more than 1 million visitors flooded the site this weekend. with the healthcare.gov glitches fixed will that be enough for people to sign up? joining me now california congressman senior manager of proposings committee. thank you so much for joining me this afternoon, congressman. >> great to be with you. >> let me get your initial reaction to this latest development, the administration announced people now have through the end of the day tomorrow to sign up. is that wise or does it add to the optics that this rollout has been botched and confused? >> i think it really is probably both. it is wise because there are long wait times as people try to sign up on this last day of enrollment. at the same time when the administration has to continue making these changes, it does signal there are still problems they are working through. i think the reality is that process they are working through, those problems and reform of this magnitude is going to take weeks and months ahead. so we're not through probably

those changes, but i think it did make a lot of sense. people affirmatively trying to get coverage. they shouldn't be penalized because it's still hard to get on and long wait times. i think it makes a lot of sense. >> congressman, forgetting about the politics, on a practical level do you worry this just further adds to confusion among consumers. >> it does add a little to confusion but only talking about a one-day extension. i think that's something that consumers can pretty easily grasp and will be thankful they have, as you were analogizing earlier, like having an extra day to get the shopping you didn't get done. the importance here, so much greater, means you'll have coverage january 1st or not. i do think there's definite costs and benefits here but makes a lot of sense at the end of the day. >> when you look at the polls, one poll just released today shows that a vast majority of americans are opposed to this

health care law. what does the administration need to do to start to turn this narrative around and within that context how important, then, is this deadline? >> well, i think the proof is going to be in the pudding. the proof will be in terms of what these health plans offer, what exchanges ultimately deliver. that's going to be more important than the administration's rhetoric. they do need to have a consistent line about this and talk about how they are expanding coverage to people and containing health care costs. there are a lot of good points to make. i think you get a lot of sense of that when you look at the fact whether they ask people they approve of what's in the reform, approve of extending coverage to those with pre-existing conditions or keeping kids on their policy until they are 26 or providing better prescription drug coverage for seniors, people want everything that's in it. when you ask them do they like obama care they say, no, they don't. if you ask them do you like the affordable act more like obama care even though it's the same

thing. clearly there's a big communications job ahead of the administration. ultimately it will be judged on whether it delivers. much less a communication problem and more substantive policy issue. >> congressman, how concerned are you that democrats could lose control of the senate because of those really close races that we're seeing in part because of obama care? >> you know, i think obama care is going to be an issue in the midterms clearly. it changes so rapidly to what degree it will be determined is still hard to say. if you think about what the issue was two months ago, it was all about the shutdown, gop shutdown of the house and fiscal cliff. if you look at what the issue was a month before that, it was all about syria. none of us would have thought the issue of the day would be the aca right now. so whether it will still be that a year from now, i think it will still play a roll. will it be as dominant as today, who can say? i have a great deal of

confidence, frankly, in the leemp leadership of harry reid, one of the shrewdist there is, i have confidence it will stay in democratic hands. >> we're running out of time. let me just get your reaction to president obama's comments on friday. he seemed to signal he's seriously considering changes to the nsa. i know you have advocated that there are changes. what was your reaction to what you've heard from the president, have you had any communication with the white house to verify that? >> i'm encouraged by what the president said. i've not had a chance to confirm that. i don't think the white house is sharing much of their cards yet about the kind of changes the president wants to make. for quite a long time i've been urging restructuring of metadata program precisely along the lines the president's own task force recommend. i read into the president's comments about there being more than one way to skin a cat, he's looking at that restructure seriously. particularly the conclusion that task force reached there's nothing we can't get in a post

restructured metadata program in terms of meeting the nation's security needs that we get now. there's nothing we can't get with that restructure. that's pretty compelling in favor of allowing the telecommunications companies to hold onto their own data. there's no need for the government to get all that information. >> a lot of debate about that final point. congressman schiff, thank you for joining us this afternoon. we appreciate it. today the russian government freed two members of the punk rock band pussy riot jailed in 2012 for protest inside a russian orthodox church. both women quick to slam the man responsible for their release. jim maceda spoke with one of the artists. she called president vladimir putin weak and said she would be moving to the realm of politics. stay with us. we'll have more after a quick break. open to ambition. open to bold ideas. that's why new york has a new plan -- dozens of tax free zones all across the state.

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we have breaking news out of utah. a hearing over request by the

state to put a hold on same sex marines just wrapped up. lets bring in nbc news justice correspondent pete williams who has the very latest. pete, what can you tell us? >> this is the third time the judge in utah declined to stop same-sex marriages. the judge issued a ruling finding the state's ban in utah on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. oftentimes judges who issue orders like that will on their own put a stay on their ruling to give the state time to appeal. the judge didn't do that. then after he ruled, the state had a conference call with him and lawyers on the other side asking if he would accept a motion to stay. he said new york city, i want to see thing in writing. they filed briefs. today he held a hearing. for the third time the judge declined to issue a stay. now the state will appeal to the 10th circuit of appeal in denver and ask that court to put a hold on things while will state appeals the ruling. same-sex marriage started almost

immediately in utah on friday. there were roughly 100 of them in utah. there are other county clerks, though, who said they would not issue same-sex marriage licenses. things have been in a bit of a turmoil, to say the least, where this issue remains very controversial. i think you can expect the state to file a motion to the 10th circuit by the end of the day. it's possible they will respond to that i haven't the slightest idea what they will do, whether they will let marriages go ahead while the state prepares its appeal or whether they will block them to give time for the state to appeal. i think it's unsurprising, kristen, for the third time this judge has said no, marriages can continue. the ban must -- the effective ruling must remain in effect. >> pete williams with those breaking developments. thanks for track thanksgiving story. we appreciate it. we want to turn back to health care with the health care moment deadline approaching. we've been focused on people and

politics involved in health care reform but what about the insurance side. last minute policy change. defining hardship is getting heavy criticism. i'm joined by a critic. i want to say off the top we've gotten breaking news on that front. president obama has signed up for health care. he signed up over the weekend. so with that piece of news, i want to get you to respond to what the administration announced just moments ago, really, which is now folks have until the end of tomorrow to enroll in health care. what's your reaction to this? >> whenever anyone's politics or whether they support obama care or not, there are lots of people in this country that need health insurance. there are lots of people desperate to get coverage now that pre-existing conditions aren't allowed any longer. another day isn't going to make a big administrative deal. lets just get everybody signed up.

>> bob you expressed concern about an announcement the administration made last week, folks that received canceled policies will enroll in catastrophic plans or forego all together. you expressed concerns? what are they? did the president allay concerns when he came out and spoke friday. >> the people who got canceled are finding themselves in a tough spot. many aren't finding coverage to replace what they had. the good news is the president said if you can't find affordable coverage, we're not going to fine you. that's a positive thing. it gets down to the fact a lot of people are getting their policies canceled. in california 800,000 policies are being canceled as of january 1st, so there are lots of people who need health insurance. the fundamental problem with what the president did is he's changing the rules again. if we're going to make this work, when the government runs a canadian-style system or the insurance companies run the system, we've got to get everybody in the same pool. we can't have a situation where

people get exemptions, you do exemption for this, exemption for that. the exemption last week was a political exemption because he was under a lot of pressure from senators up for re-election to do that particular exemption. if we're going to keep having exemptions we won't have any healthy people left in the pool. >> one of the chief concerns to your final point, this could ultimately disrupt the marketplace. the president said, look, this is a small pool of people. is that still a big concern for you, ultimately they could wind up -- >> he's correct. the size of the pool is correct. what people are concerned about we're starting to get political exemptions for individuals for obama care. if every time a democratic senator is threatened he wants exemptions for his people, again, you've got to get everybody in the same pool. >> when you look at the pace of enrollments, they have certainly picked up over the past several weeks but they are still far from where the administration had hoped. they wanted about 3 million people. right now they have a little over a million.

so what do you make of the pace of enrollments? does it worry you. >> yeah. >> or do you think they will pick up closer to march. >> i'm very worried. context is important. it's natural to spin enrollment numbers. we literally do have hundreds of thousands of people enrolling this week. that's terrific. we've got to get everybody covered. context, context, context. there are 20 million people uninsured in the united states and eligible for the exchanges. it looks to me like we're going to have less than 0% signed up by january 1st. at this rate probably less than 15% signed up in march. if you go to california, which is a state everyone says is doing a terrific job, and there are hundreds of thousands of people, tens of thousands getting signed up every day, california has 800,000 policy cancellations january 1. it looks like california is going to come in between 4 and 500,000 enrollments by the end of the year. for pete sakes they canceled 800,000 policies.

of the 800,000 canceled, 300,000 are subsidy eligible. the only place they can get an insurance plan with the subsidy is within the exchange. if they come in at 4 to 500,000, that's a very small percentage of the uninsured there and it's certainly we have to ask the question what happened to all those people who had their policy canceled. >> bob, thanks for joining us. we'll stay in touch on this point. developing news from afghanistan, an american service member killed in southern afghanistan. forces face fire from enemy forces. we'll bring more details as we get them and we'll be right back.

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[ ding ] cheese plate? cheese plate. no, i made something better. you used the oven? boom. [ male announcer ] pillsbury crescents. make the holidays pop. ♪ again, there is breaking news from the obama administration that president obama enrolled in a health care plan over the weekend. jennifer palmieri is the director of white house communications and she joins me now live.

thanks, jenna, appreciate your being here. >> happy to be with you, kristen. >> i want to talk about this latest wrinkle, if you will. you have announced you're going to extend the deadline through the end of tomorrow. are you concerned this adds to the perception that this law that you're changing it as you go along and not ready for prime time. do you worry about that? >> no, i'm not worried about that. we're just trying to make sure everyone who wants to get enrolled to be covered by january 1 is able to do that. what we've seen this morning is we've had record amounts of traffic coming to healthcare.gov. so that's higher numbers of visitors that we've had any day through starting from october 1. because we had such a big crush of visitors, we wanted to make sure people who wanted to sign up today were able to do it and get covered by january 1 errand add a cushion on the back end so that if someone tries to enroll today and aren't successful and not able to do that, will have

another 24 hours so we can process those people. but people shouldn't think -- people should not think they can get on the website tomorrow for the first time and try to enroll. that's -- that would be a dangerous thing to do. what we're trying to do is encourage everyone to continue to go to the website today. if you're not able to complete it, we'll work with you to ensure you're able to get covered by january 1, but people should really be doing this today. >> i want to pick up on that point. we called in over the weekend, 175 minute wait. are you concerned people won't be able to sign up by the end of tomorrow? they might try over the next 48 hours and still not be able to sign up? >> this is why we've -- why we're saying you try to do, not able to complete, make sure you get coverage by january 1. so we think that with an extra

24 hours we can handle that kind of volume, but people again we're really encouraging everyone to go to the website today. you should not wait and go tomorrow. this is not -- we still consider the end of the deadline to be today but we're going to accommodate people who try to get done today but weren't able to complete it to make sure they are able to get coverage by january 1. >> jen, i want to talk about your announcement friday, folks who received cancellation notices can sign up for catastrophic coverage, forego coverage if they want. i want to play what an insurance official said and get your reaction on the other side. take a listen. >> what this decision does is allow people to buy policies outside the marketplace never designed for them or be able to opt out entirely. if a significant number of people do that, that could really cause disruption in the marketplace and ultimately lead to higher health care cost for consumers. >> so jen, could this disrupt the marketplace? is he right?

>> we don't believe so. what we announced on friday was not a change of policy, just a clarification. it's true -- it has always been true, although the question hasn't quite been posed that way, people who got canceled plans, for whatever reason they found that the coverage they were able to get once their plan was canceled was too high of a cost for them. buying a catastrophic plan had always been an option. this is not a new policy. we merely clarified with a letter by senators who asked the question on behalf of constituents. that option had been there. perhaps people hadn't gotten a lot of attention. we actually don't think in reality very many people will avail themselves of this option. remember, the people who have plans canceled, these are people who have health care now. they have relatively good coverage. we assume they are going to want to get good coverage, the kind of coverage available on the marketplace. we don't expect a lot of them will buy catastrophic plans.

they don't provide as many benefits as you would see elsewhere. but we want to make sure people know they have this option so everyone who wants to get covered by january 1, whether catastrophic or, you know, hopefully one of the better plans on the marketplace, we want to make sure there's not any gap in coverage, everyone has a place to go. >> jen, can you guarantee if people enroll today, tomorrow, and pay their premiums by january 10th i believe it is, that they will have coverage by the 1st? they won't be turned away from a doctor's appointment. they will actually be able to get medical coverage by the 1st. >> that's certainly our goal. we're making every effort -- that's what we're making every effort to do. we can guarantee health and human services and the insurers are doing all they can to make sure that that comes to fruition. i'm sure that as happens once we

get to the private market, and this is a relationship between the insurers and enrollees, there may be -- i wouldn't be priced if on the first day there are people who had problems. but you know, that's doing to happen. that happens now in the private market with insurance. we're doing everything we can to make sure that everyone who wants to be covered is covered on january 1. >> and jen, i just finally want to get your reaction to the developments out of south sudan. obviously the state department tried to evacuate americans over the weekend. >> yes. >> president obama left the option open for further action in the future. where does that stand and what is the latest out of south sudan. >> we had our special envoy for sudan visit there this morning. obviously monitoring very closely, working to secure the release of american citizens. as you know, have been doing that over the weekend. the president is being apprised.

we're concerned about the safety of american citizens. they are obviously concerned about the safety of the region and supporting regional efforts to secure peace. it's something that we're all watching closely and continue to work on. >> do you know how many american citizens are still in south sudan. >> that i do not know. >> jennifer palmieri, thanks for joining us this afternoon. we appreciate it. >> pleasure, kristen. >> american astronauts postponed and emergency space walk due to problems with a space suit. a water switch turned on during a weekend space walk compromised one of the suits. the astronauts are taking an extra day to get a spare suit prepared for their attempt to repair a leaking cooling line. i'm nathan and i quit smoking with chantix. when my son was born, i remember, you know,

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from politics to business to activism. women made a bold impact. financial times out with a

special issue honoring some of the most accomplished women of 2013 including activist malala yousafzai who they call the campaigner. joining me the editor sue met a methias. >> i'm editor of the weekend magazine. >> what made you choose to put malala on the featured cover? >> well, every year about this time we produce a special issue in which we honor and salute the achievements of women around the world. we're looking, in particular, for women to demonstrated by their actions that one woman can really make a difference. and i think that it was very clear to us, our team, in our magazine, that malala was really the standout candidate this year. >> one of the things that is so

incredible about her is not just her strength and her coverage but her age. she's so young and yet she's an inspiration to so many people. >> no, that's absolutely true. she's 16 years old. she was able to stand in front of the united nations and make very inspiring speech. she's a school girl and she still is doing her studies and living in the u.k. now as i'm sure viewers know and pursuing studies and her burning ambition is to become a politician. unless she goes into politics, she's not going to be able to help her whole country. so although she stands for education, in particular education for young women and girls, she believes that her path will be as a politician and i think many people believe that one day she may even lead her country. >> absolutely amazing. let's talk about the power, the ambassador, she of course, u.s.

ambassador to the u.n. incredibly outspoken in terms of denouncing what is happening in syria. she's also a mom. tell us about samantha power and that decision. >> well, she's 43 years old. she's the youngest person to hold the office of u.s. ambassador to the united nations. but i think also she represents something different. she's not a career politician. she comes from a completely different direction. she's more of an intellectual. but she's someone who i think has made her stand for humanitarian intervention as well as obviously she is enormously well informed. she's a pulleitzer winning journalist and i think that she

is -- been called in a way someone who represents the lehman generation, younger women in 30s and 40s pursuing careers and seeking influence in the world. but also managing at the same time to raise two young children. she's a very impressive person. >> we're almost out of time. but talk about gabby giffords. >> i'm sorry. >> no reason to apologize. gabby giffords, i covered that tragic moment when she was shot. she's made it her mission to fight for stiffer gun control laws. >> she has. she really has. she's an absolutely extraordinary story and i think this has been the year where despite still battling her injuries, she has become an outstanding campaigner on one of the most difficult issues facing

the united states. and also, she's approaching it from a very interesting perspective, which is that she says she's -- she represents -- she's every woman, recommendation the middle of the road. she's not a radical but knows that she believes that it's wrong for people to be able to possess guns who are not suitable to do so. >> sue, thank you for highlighting these incredible and inspiring women. we appreciate it. >> thank you very much, kristen. >> and we will be right back. side-by-side, so you get the same coverage, often for less. that's one smart board -- what else does it do, reverse gravity? [ laughs ] split atoms? [ flo chuckles ] [ whirring ] hey, how's that atom-splitting thing going? oh! a smarter way to shop around -- now that's progressive. call or click today.

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that does it for this edition of andrea mitchell reports. craig melvin has a look at what's next on "news nation." i hope you finished your shopping. >> i did not. thank you for making me feel bad about it. happy holidays to you. >> and to you. >> the obama administration quietly extending the deadline to sign up for health coverage

in the new year by a day. is this another 11th hour change for insurance companies to criticize? we'll talk about that. a federal judge who overturned utah's ban on same-sex marriage just denied the state's request to put his rule on hold making utah the first red state, first deeply red state as well to allow gay couples to marry. pete williams is standing by. and target hit with its first lawsuit since that massive data breach, the backlash may have also hurt the retailer's bottom line over this busy holiday shopping weekend. [ sneezes, coughs ]

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than any other behind the counter liquid gel. ♪ don't disguise bad behiodors in your trash.d gel. neutralize them and freshen. with glad odorshield with febreze. >> good monday, i'm craig melvin in for tamron hall. the obama administration extends the deadline for health care enrollment by one day. the white house quiet