stopped. >> i was thinking, well, this is the end, i'm going to die. >> there are new satellite images that show 300 objects in the indian ocean, but bad weather is stopping the search yet again. good morning. i'm chris jansing. two huge global stars, pope francis and president obama in a historic and highly anticipated meeting this morning, their first. with it comes some high expectations that the leaders, who differ so much on social issues like abortion and gay marriage, can find important common ground in their shared fight against economic inequality. on the surface we saw all the pomp and tradition of the vatican, the president's walk through the has of the appear stoutic, into the ornate papal library. >> wonderful to meet you. thank you so much. >> presidents and popes have been meeting since wood row wilson. while we're still waiting for --

this seems to be the photo everyone is talking about, after the pope presented a copy of his book "the joy of the gospel" the president said he would need it when he needed a lift. e.j. dionne and kate childs-graham, good morning. e.j., the president told the pope he's a great admirer, they do have a philosophical common ground over improving conditions for the poor around the world, but in the end is this a glorified photo op or could something come of it. >> i think it's certainly a great photo op given the fights he's had with some of the more conservative bishops, to see the big smiles is a very good thing. we should thank you for being up all morning. we should call you cardinal chris. >> i wouldn't be anywhere else. >> you could be a cardinal. you dont have to be a priest to be a cardinal, but i think more broadly what they clearly have in common is a concern for the

poor. if anything, the pope is far more radical than president obama, you know, people have been quoting all morning he wants a poor church for the poor. he's a critic of consumerism, materialism, and so i think there is that in common. i think -- i would be surprised if the pope didn't in this communique bow some to the more conservative american bishops, perhaps just talk a bit about abortion or the contraception mandate, but these are not at the heart of pope francis' mission. i think that barack obama is somebody whose first salary was paid for by the catholic campaign for human development, actually relates very much to the catholicism that pope francis represents. >> this is nothing new, you know, we mentioned that presidents have been meeting with the pope leaders of the world since charlemagne met with the pope, but one defining

moment came between president reagan and pope john paul ii. their conversations have a huge influence on the fall of communism. if the issue as the president said, of our time is economic inequality, that the pope has spoken about throughout his time as a priest, do you think this meeting could matter? >> absolutely. i think this meeting matters. i do want to say that i joined young catholics across the country in being a bit disappointed there wasn't a selfie today, but this meeting was -- didn't come with a lot of surprises or anything really unexpect unexpected but still exciting. when pope benedict and president obama met, we kind of all imagine imagined maybe at best an

awkward conversation, at worst a stern lecture. we are hoping that the meeting, and it was a long meeting at 52 minutes, was a real meeting of the minds. these two men who have been driven by a passion for economic justice throughout their lives and careers, we're hoping testify a deep spiritual and i hope strategic meeting about how to really alleviate poverty and bring about economic equality across the world. >> these are huge global figures, both, for lack of a better term, cover guys. they appeared on the cover of "rolling stone" "time," many other magazines. the pope has his own monthly now. when you look at the latest poll numbers, pope francis is tremendously popular. 76% of americans view him favorably, 20 points higher than when we first came into office,

and so, e.j., is this a trip where -- that these pictures can help with catholic voters in the midterms. would it be fair to say there's more for the president to gain here? >> i think there is more for the president to game. for one thing, the pope does not have to stand for reelection. the president on the other hand faces -- he's not running for reelection either, but faces these tests in the mid terms. by the way on the selfie, the only person who could get away with taking one would be the pope. the president was not about to do that after the last selfie experience. but, you know, michael weir, who had done work for president obama, had a really good suggestions, which is after this meeting, it would be very intriguing if the president called in some of the bishops, including some of the bishops

critical to him, had a meeting saying look, we've been fighting over a lot of things, where on a lot of other issues we have a lot in common. we have a lot in common on the social justice issues. we have a great deal in common on immigration. maybe my initial hhs rule on contraception went too far, but i've been trying to compromise with you guys. let's try to start over. i think this visit gives the president an interesting opportunity to reach out again to the catholic leadership and see if a somewhat better relationship can be established in the final years in office. >> do you see that, kate? we've said this many times, the pope has not changed its stand, things like abortion. certainly they disagree on the contraception mandate, gale marriage, but do you think there's an opening somewhere? >> absolutely.

>> it's interesting this meeting took place during lent, a time of great reflection for christians and catholics around the world. i think each man could give the other something to reflect about. pope francis could certainly challenge president obama to do more on economic justice, and president obama could challenge the pope to take a similar journey the president took on, you know, accepting gay marriage. in e.j.'s column this morning in "the washington post," he said, you know maybe the president should ask the pope, how do i deal with these, or how do i build relationships with the u.s. bishops. i think the pope might want to ask the president the same thing, too. the u.s. bishops i imagine have been a bit of a this morning in the side of both leaders, pope francis, because he's trying to build a more balanced church while the u.s. bishops continue this myopic focus on antigale, antiwomen causes.

and the other thing i would say, why the polls, you know pope francis may have doubled the polling numbers of president obama, pope francis probably has quadrupled the polls numbers of governor tom corbett, who met with the pope this week as well with a delegation to invite the pope to philly in 2015, which i would be psyched about. but it's interesting, because tom corbett, you know, has slashed education funding in the state. he has tried to tear apart unions, driven economic inequality by giving tax breakses and corps loophopes to the ultra-wealthy, so if we are hoping for a convergent experience this week, i would hope that, you know, in that short meeting governor corbett had with pope francis, the pope took time to ask governor corbett to reflect and repent on some of those policies he is pushing. >> a quick point. >> really quick.

>> michael sean winters makes the point that the bishops most cry watch of obama have also been the most resistant to pope francis. you wonder if they talked about that and how do we deal with those folks. >> thanks to both of you. i want to bring in the host of "the busted halo" radio show. good to see both of you. i'm going to put you in the awkward position of wading into that difficult intra-church intrigue, but there is some, i think it is fair to say that the u.s. conference of catholic bishops. while very influential within the vatican don't see 100% eye to eye with the pope on everything. i don't see that's different from previous popes necessarily, but how does all of that play into it? >> we do tend to be somewhat myopic here in the united

states. >> we think it's all about us. the pope has a big church to run. >> and in fact probably most significantly along the lines we've been talking about, within the last 24 hours, the pope accepted the resignation of the guy called the bishop of bling, the archbishop of lindburg, germany, who spend $40 million on a renovation. that's probably more significant in terms of the pope's global vision in income equality and the poor than say some of the morissette cal or moral issues that the u.s. bishops tend to tackle. >> there is a lot of interesting things they brought up. father john, let me ask you, they brought up the point when barack obama was a 25-year-old community organizer in chicago, he worked out of the holy names cathedral. he had a lot of discussions with church leaders there, so i don't think as we're waiting maybe to hear from the president, because he's going to have this press conference after the bilateral meeting he has with the prime minister, we may hear what they

talked about. it wouldn't surprise me if there was some level of intellectual/theological context about these issues. >> sure. tess foundation of this is two believers, the pope a spiritual leader, barack obama is a religious man, he attends church. he's spoken about his own faith. he's talked about the influence of catholic social doctrine on his own formation as a an activist. the vice president is a catholic. his chief of staff is a catholic whose brother is a catholic priest. seven justices on the supreme court are catholic. 25% of the nation is catholic. so, yeah, that has had an influence on him in his development of his person on his sense of social justice. that's something where the president and the pope share a very common things, but they also share that belief in jesus christ, and that's where the -- the gift that the president gave to the pope was a highly

symbolic gift, the wood made from the first basilica, built by jefferson trobe. it had the first bishop that sat in that cathedral was a jesuit priest, and there were seeds in that box. you have to wonder was the president draws on the parable of the sower and the seed, the seeds will root and grow and new fruit between the president of the united states and the church. >> when they exchange gifts, i just want to say that the president officially invited the pope to come to the united states, and he apparently responded some version of, why not? this is when i would not want to be in the vatican planning office, every diocese, you guys will want the pope to come, but that could be sort of the next big thing, right? >> it's fairly likely. i think a lot of americans going into today's meeting probably

thought two things, the president is going to ask him please come to the united states in 2015, and probably they thought the pope would be chiding the president about the hhs mandate. those two things probably accounted for maybe a minute of their 52 minutes together, but he did say why not? pope francis says a lot of things like that, picks up the phone and calls people. >> he's going to come to the united states, don't you think? >> yeah. >> great to have both of you here. thank you so much. we just learned that president obama is officially changing the rules for how the nsa collects the data from your phone calls. the government will no longer hold onto the bulk metadata, instead phone companies will keep it. the president's goal is to give the public greater confidence that their privacy is important. a thai satellite has detected about 300 objects floating in the indian ocean near the search area. about 125 miles from where that french satellite spotted 122 objects on monday. bad weather has grounded the air search today, but ships in the

area are still out searching for debris. a moment of silence in boston for two heroic firefighters who are killed battling a fire in the back bay. colleagues of the firefighters stood outside engine 33 in honor. walsh had nine years of service, married with three children under the age of ten. kennedy was a marine and combat veteran with six years of service. >> citizens were saved. that's what we do. we sacrifice our lives for the citizens of the city of boston. that's what michael kennedy, firefighter michael kennedy and lt. eddie walsh did today. 13 other firefighters were hurt in that fire that the chief described as being like a blowtorch, fast moving and fueled by wind gusts up to 45 miles an hour. investigators believe it started in a basement apartment. they're still trying to figure out exactly what started it. many of the firefighters in engine 33 were the first responders to the boston

marathon bombing last april. coming up, take a look at new video of the president just moments ago with the italian prime minister. they'll hold a news conference later in the hour. but first live to washington state. 90 people still missing in that devastating mudslide. we'll have an update. [announcer] who could resist the call... ...of america's number-one puppy food brand... ...with dha and essential nutrients also found in mother's milk. purina puppy chow.

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the number is truly heartbreaking. authorities believe as many as 90 are still missing and unlikely to turn up alive. this is how "the seattle times" put it -- the enormity of the lots is coming into focus. 16 people dead. nine bodies authorities believe they have located, but not yet recovered. the governor says a review needs

to be done of the potential to catastrophic landslides. jeff mcclellan, a farmer, one of the first responders, along with his wife describes the toll. >> excuse es if he get emotional, because it's been hard sometimes. i'm an emotional person anyway, that's all. i may cry during the day through this whole thing. i don't keep counseled of it, but it's just something that we -- it's something we do to relieve stress. we may laugh to relieve stress, we just may hold people, but it's a hard situation to get through. >> jennifer bjorklund is in washington this morning. this does remaining extraordinarily challenging for everyone there.

these numbers keep moving. >> you heard his description about the emotional toll, the physical toll is an entirely different story, the slippery mud, heavy mud and the need to go through respectfully to clear through and be able to search for victims. the categorization is a complicated thing. earlier and for the last few days the death toll has been 16. we do expect that number to officially go up at the press briefing in a couple hours, but the missing list has been the one that's the most confounding. it was 176, now it's 90. they have whittled that down to 90 known people, not duplicates, 90 people who are missing or unaccounted for, and then 25 or 35 more that are most likely to have been in the area that maybe they don't know the last name, maybe somebody's girlfriend who's always over.

they don't know her last name. examples like that. they have that flexible list of 35, but then there's the 90 they know have been unaccounted for, so that's the very, very difficult number they are wrestling with this morning, and then of course as far as the recovered bodies, they are not officially listed as being deceased, officially the death toll until they're flown to the medical examiner's office and there's an autopsy. that's why that number has not changed in the last few days, chris. >> there are so many stories, the picture of the 4-year-old boy who was rescued by the helicopters, hi father and three siblings are still missing. billy stiller's brother flew in from scranton, pennsylvania to help with the search. >> hopefully the kids are still with him, curled up in a ball, waiting for us to find them. >> it has to be so incredibly difficult now. i mean, i think the headline in

"the seattle times" said the enormity as a loss is setting in. after all these days, certainly not much hope. >> reporter: that's right, but they still have to hold on toed possibility, like you heard him say. that's why relatives are coming in from all over the country to try to look for the loved ones they want antses even if the answer is not what they were hoping for. there's one man we've been following all week, deign brenner, who's been searching for his sister, finally found her body last night. >> we're looking at the donations that have come into the area, which is some americans do in situations like this. they're incredibly generous. jennifer, thank you for the update. it looks like congress is timely so the same page after a major duty-up to help ukraine. we'll talk to senator ben cardin on that, and a possible vote on unemployment benefits, next. ♪

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a long-awaited vote on aid to ukraine is expected as soon as this afternoon, but in a pattern all too familiar, the details became a source of partisan bickering between the house and senate, largely over a provision that would reform the structure of the international monetary fund. joining me to talk about it democratic senator ben cardin of maryland, senior member of the senate foreign relations committee. good to see you again. it's a pleasure to see you again. >> it's always a pleasure. >> the imf pledging loans now, the eu another $15 billion in said, tell us why you think this vote is important? >> first, congress is together. this vote will be in overwhelming sport for the people of ukraine. it will make it clear to russia that we are united in congress, the house, the senate, the administration, the congress,

that we will help the ukraine people, help them with economic assistance, and also imposing sanctions against those responsible for the invasion of ukraine. as you pointed out the international man monetary fund package was controversial, but it doesn't diminish the support for the ukrainian people. it's reconciling sanctions between the house and senate. where do you see that going? >> i don't think it will be different at all. there are minor differences. we think that will be reconciled quickly. the big news is we are imposing sanctions, working with europe, those responsible will be denied. the ability to travel to our countries, to use our banking system. that is absolutely clear, and we are going to continue to strengthen the sanctions. is the message to russia is clear. you continue down the paths, the sanctioning will get better.

>> president putin sent the message back, those sanctioning will backfire on those who impose them. statement the u.s. and its european allies are at least seeming to stand firm against putin in any further russian aggression. i want to play what the president said to european leaders yesterday. >> russia's violation many international law, it's a assau assault must be meant with condemnation. not because we're trying to keep russia down, but the principles that have meant so much to the world must be lifted up. >> of course the concern now, senator is the possibility moscow may invade eastern ukraine, possibly southern ukraine. what's your sense of this? is putin finished? is he stopping at crimea, or will there be more land grabs. >> i don't think he's finished at all.

i think east ukraine, they have to be very concerned. is the border with mold dova is issued. i don't think they're done. what mr. popu putin is doing is violating numerous international commitment. president obama is correct, we must make it clear, not only us, but europe and we hope other partners, that this is not acceptable, certainly not acceptable today, and that we will stand strong. it doesn't mean that we can stop them militarily from what they're doing, but we can make them pay a heavy price for their actions. >> let me ask you about something that's going on here at home. it's been months since congress has taken any action that expired for 1.3 million people on december 28th, but as i understand it, the senate could vote as soon as today to at least start debate on a bill to extend those benefits. realistically, what are the chances that something could finally get done? >> to me this is just

outrageous. people through no fault of their own are unemployed. we paid into a fund in the past to make sure they had money during tough times. unemployment rates are still at a level when they benefits should be provided. these are fellow americans. it not only helps them, but helps or economy, helps us get out of the slowness in the growth of our economy. it is the right thing to do, we should have done it immediately. i think, though, we're very close in the united states senate to reaching a consensus between the democrats and republicans to extend the benefits. so i think we'll pass it in the united states senate. i can't tell you what's going to happen in the houptsds. speaker boehner has had pretty tough words against extending the benefits. i hope he'll change his mind. i think most americans agree these benefits should be extended. >> senator cardin, thank you for being on the program. and the details of the president's visit with the pope. we'll have them after the break. g this much fun, why quit? and new bounty has no quit in it either.

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52-minute-long meeting between the pope and the president. the vatican says birth control, abortion, immigration reform, human trafficking were all discussed. at any moment we may get our first read from barack obama. he's been meeting with the italian prime minister. they'll take questions at a news conference that could start any time now. nbc white house correspond peter alexander is traveling with the president. peter, good morning. what else can you tell us about this morning's meeting between the president and the pope? >> reporter: chris we just got this readout from the holy see in the past few minutes. we'll wait sources what the white house's readout says. both sides trying to focus on the issues most dear to them. certainly on the white house they want to focus on the issues most important to the president domestically which includes the issue of income inequality. the vatican notes among the

items, i'll quote some of the language. the catholic church's objection to contraception. obama care specifically, it says about rights to religious freedom, life and consequence yes, sirrous objection. this is obviously a topic that creates tricky politics between these two men, the world's most powerful politician. obviously representing two very different communities. >> yeah, it was interesting, as i read this statement, and it's brief, just three paragraphs, there's no mention of what we know was high on the president's agenda, which was their area of agreement, which is income inequality. we'll see, as you want, the tale of the two statements. in the meantime he's meeting right now and we're expecting this news conference with the italian prime minister. what's the objective there? >> reporter: well, he's meeting right now, as you knowed with the prime minister. they met, more of a figurehead

role, just a short time ago, then he and the prime minister will have a set of remarks and then answer questions. of course that will be our first opportunity to hear from president obama himself as he is sure to address in complimentary terms his conversation earlier today with pope francis. that statement from the holy see, referred to the conversation as cordial. we expect the president will certainly refer to it in those terms and others as well. and likely some of the other topics that he was focusing on during the course of this trip. ukraine has obviously been a significant issue, but obviously giving his is one of the other items that the two are likely you have to discussed as well. >> while you're in italy, the president is making news here at home on the controversial nsa program. explain that decision for us. >> obviously the nsa, this is the deal with snooping and

telephone data which has been stored by the government obviously after the leak from edward snowden, it's call the a great city. president obama his to make a statement by now. he gave himself 90 days when he first addressed this. this is what he's come up with as his proposal. it will require congress to pass any new law, but the president put out the following statement. i'll read it for you -- i've decided the best path forward is the government should not collect or hold data in this bulk. instead the data should remain at the telephone companies for the length of time it currently does today. in addition to this, because there's a deadline that goes in effect tomorrow, basically, the department of justice, the obama administration will ask for another 90-day extension. so even though the president is suggesting this and there's tricky politics around this as well, in europe where there's a lot of concern about that data collection program, as some

european lead we realize were among those snooped on, whose nchblt was gathered, the belief system is they had to address this in the course of their visits here, but until congress does anything to change it, the program continues. nbc's peter alexander in rome with the president, thank you, peter. there are in potential clues in the search for missing malaysia airlines flight 370 today. they come from thailand, that government releasing new satellite images of what they say are 300 objects floating in the indians ocean. those images from the same area where other potential objects have been spotted. nbc's ian williams is in perth, australia. ian, i know there's been bad weather that halted some of the search today, but what is getting done? >> reporter: well, we now have, chris, multiple sightings from satellites of something down there in the southern indian ocean, but no confirmation of what those sightings are of, certainly no wreckage yet

records. the later satellite images come from thailand released in bangkok today, and appear to show more than 300 objects ranging in size from four or five feet up to 50 feet, but the thai authorities were cautioning that the resolution is not high. also, they're pointing out that these images were taken about 120, 130 miles away from where the french spotted some objects in the ocean. but the french photographs were the day before the thai photographs. it's difficult to imagine they can be of the same thing, because that's a long way to travel in just 24 hours. but certainly it's another lead, it's another clue. the people behind the search here in perth want every lead they can get their hands on. there's a lot of frustration out at pearce air force base where once again for the second time

this week the operation was grounded because of bat weather. >> ian williams, thank you. today's tweet of the day today -- my family has to be with me on this journey. they have been very strong. pray for them. i would appreciate it. [ male announcer ] bob's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack, be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. if you've had a heart attack, be sure to talk to your doctor transferred money from his before larry instantly bank of america savings account to his merrill edge retirement account. before he opened his first hot chocolate stand calling winter an "underserved season". and before he quit his friend's leaf-raking business for "not offering a 401k." larry knew the importance of preparing for retirement. that's why when the time came he counted on merrill edge to streamline his investing and help him plan for the road ahead. that's the power of streamlined connections. that's merrill edge and bank of america.

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you told me he was good, dude. yeah he stinks at golf. but he was great at getting my claim paid fast. how fast? mine got paid in 4 days. wow. that's awesome. is that legal? big fat no. [ male announcer ] find out how fast aflac can pay you at aflac.com. today we're going to get our first look at a report that governor christie says cleared him. the investigation was done by a law firm hired by the new jersey governor. new jersey democrats say the report isn't complete, because it doesn't include interview with key people involved, including bridget kelly that sent the e-mail. christie was asked about this yesterday in a radio interview. >> i don't just come to the conclusions from interviews. there's lots and lots of

documents that involve all those people which have been part of the public record and will be becoming part of the public record as we go forward. you can discern a lot from that. >> christie says he thinks all of the important questions are going to be answered by this review. nbc national investigative correspondent michael isikoff has been looking into this. what are you learn about what will be in the report, specifically details about dawn zimmer? >> well, i can say that a focus the the report is going to be quite critical of mayor don -- dawn zimmer, dissecting her allegations that they threatened to cut off hurricane sandy funding, and that christie's lawyers have obtained e-mails from zimmer that will raise questions about her account,

particularly that she was still trying to -- saying quite favorable things about governor christie after the alleged threat, and even offered to welcome in when he came to hoboken in august of 2013, which is three months after she says she was threatened and then wrote in her diary that she turned over that governor christie was cut from the same corrupt cloth that i've been fighting over these years. >> so we are waiting for the release of this information. that will be dissected then. michael isikoff, thank you so much. >> thank you. breakfast is served at taco bell. cnbc's michelle caruso-cabrera is here with what's moving your money. i was shocked to learn fast food breakfast is a $50 billion instrument, so taco bell said we want a piece of it. >> i'm surprised they haven't gotten into it sooner.

they'll have waffles, tacos, things like that. what is interesting about this campaign is they took on the lead are of the space mcdonald's, which has 25% market share with an ad directed directly at mcdonald's. they found 400 guys named ronald mcdonald, narrowed it down to 25, and then created this ad. >> i love the new a.m. crunch wrap. >> i'm ronald mcdonnell, and i love taco bell's new breakfast. >> new breakfast anyone can love, even ronald mcdonald. >> so definitely take the gloves off. >> that's insane. can you imagine having the named ronald mcdonald? >> no. >> let's talk about mario batali, he has an empire really, huge food store in new york city, ea tistaly. the wine shop is in trouble.

>> a big fine, because of an antiquated liquor law, of which there are many. turns out he went into business with the wine shop with somebody who also manufactures wine. when they finally figured this out, they fined him. it's prohibited on tone a wine store while you also manage wine. why would you tell an oil company that they can't sell the gasoline they make. he's run afoul of one of those laws. >> new york has had fights about that as long as i've lived here which is, i don't know, 30 years. another saga. michelle caruso-cabrera, thank you. president obama has been hanging out with the italians, he'll get a chance to play tourist, tour the coal -- stay with us. oh hey, neill, how are you? [ male announcer ] ...you'd expect us to have a highly skilled call center. kevin, neill holley's on line one. ok, great.

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from president obama and italy's

prime minister in just minutes. a couple interesting things that you should know about this. first of all, the prime minister is pretty popular. he's on the cover of "vanity fair" in his own country, in italy, and we're also going to be watching about the competing statements. we told you we got the statement from the vatican. it talked about things like human trafficking and immigration, but what will the white house statement say? what will the president say? we assume he will be asked about this meeting, because it's very interesting what wasn't in the vatican statement. let me bring in "new york times" national correspondent and msnbc contributor josh farrow, and journalist ruhla jabraille. nothing is indicated about income inequality, the poor, high on the president's agenda. will this help with his domestic agenda? >> and also high on the pope's

agenda. so that's a bit surprising. and something very important, because the president has focused in large part on closes the gape. that's not really what the pope is focused on. he is very focused on abject poverty he saw in his time in argentina, often working in the poorest of the poor neighborhoods. >> maybe they think this is an opportunity to push the white house on issues, to pick up something they would like to see more focus on. that i assume was something the white house was looking to push as a message out of this meeting with a the pope. >> >> in this moment when the world is falling apart somehow, but i think what obama would achieve is appeal to the

catholics here in the u.s. and around the world. >> you think pictures of them -- that was a warm meeting? >> the president was always accused of being a muslim over and over. he never entered one mosque in the united states, unlike george w. bush and other presidents. this president is appealing for the first time in a strong way to everybody, especially to catholics and christians. you know, we are having a midterm election. this is a strong message. >> let's talk about this meeting that's going on right now, the italian prime minister, obviously a big part of this longers visit was about shoring up this relationship, which has sometimes been jittery. has he accomplished what he needed to do on this trip? >> well, i don't know. i think that remains to be seen. i think this is an opportunity for the president to shift -- the trip has been so focused on ukraine and this crisis with russia. we have all these other relation shultz with europe as well. italy is sort of this country on

the cusp where it's not in as deep economic trouble as greece or spain had been, but not as strong as germany, and they're sort of trying to fight some some way similar challenges. to the extent that -- >> let us not forget on the big meeting on the nuclear question. he made headlines when he talked about his was more concerned about a nuclear weapon in manhattan than about a security threat from russia. all these other things, the nuclear talks got overshadowed, but there was significance about that meeting. >> i don't think he will achieve anything from italy. i'm sorry to say that. listen, italy has 130% debt to its own gdp. this prime minister was not elected -- he might be popular

in "vanity fair" and other covers, because he's young, his's handsome, he appeals to younger crowd and women, but the bottom line, he doesn't control his parliament. he doesn't have the majority in the senate or even in the parliament. this guy can be overthrown very easily. he came in saying i would reform the economy. if obama what ask him to step in, he would get nowhere. he's trying to reform the market in italy and launch the economy, but that would be impossible. >> josh, ruhla, thanks to both of you. that's going to wrap up this hour. next on "newsnation" two news conferences. as we've been saying, the -- also, chris christie's attorneys releasing their internal review, so stay here on msnbc.

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good morning, everyone. i'm tamron hall. this is "newsnation." after his historic meeting with pope francis this morning, the two leaders greeting each other as cameras click loudly in the background. that took place just a short time ago. the vatican just released a statement on the meeting, including a note about religious freedom. we've dive more into that. the pope also referencing immigration reform as well. so we'll talk more about that in a minute. also within minutes, the president will hold a news conference with the prime minist minister. also governor chris yiie's attorneys are moments away from

releasing -- nbc has learned that it clears the governor and puts the responsibility on bridget steve kornacki will join us in a few minutes. another big story we are following out of the washington state. search and rescue crews are beginning the sixth date of what they are still calling a rescue operation. 16 people are confirmed dead. nine more bodies have been located, but not yet recovered, bringing the total number of deaths to 25 people. now, officials still expect that number to increase and say 09 people are still missing or unaccounted for this morning. for the families of the missing, as you can imagine, this is a heartbreaking wait for information. natasha lost her mother to the mudslide. her 4-month-old baby is also among those in the missing.