. good morning, i'm chris jansing and let's get right to it. a blowout jobs report and a sign of a spring thaw for the job market. take a look at the new numbers out this morning. 288,000 jobs were added in april and the best month since january 2012 shattering expectations of 210,000 more jobs. the unemployment rate fell four notches to 6.3% which is the lowest in 5 1/2 years. this is sure to put an extra spring in president obama's step when he holds a joint news conference next hour with chancellor angela merkel at the

rose garden. let me bring in jason furman of the council of economic adviser s. good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> better than expected for sure, but are you satisfied? >> well, we are never satisfied, until we get the unemployment rate to the point where everybody who wants a job can find one. but we are making progress toward tas goal as you said. we try not to look month to month, because things are bouncing around, but over the past year, we have been adding 200,000 jobs per month which is steady, and that is consistent with the unemployment rate to fall by more than one point per year, and there is strengthening of the numbers. >> and you know what the pushback is, you can push it back with the 4.5% gdp growth, and how do you get to the next leve level? >> well, we are getting there. the unemployment rate has come down a point in the last year,

and that is as fast as we have lowered it in recovering from the recession. the great recession was a deep hole, and taking a while to get out of it, but we certainly want to get out of it faster. if we invest in the infrastructure, and extended the unemployment uninsured which happened in a bipartisan way in the senate, and we'd like to see the house pass it. and raising the minimum wage which would help the economy in the short run, and all of the steps would help to build and tre strengthen what has been done to improve the economy. >> one thing that we have been watching from the analysis of the report is that the earnings have made no gain, and that is said to have been an indicator that the economy is producing too many low-paying jobs. are they right? >> well, you saw three straight months of gains from april and you saw the consolidation of the gain, and obviously, would like

to build on them, but we have seen the wages rise by 1.9%, and we would like to see more wage growth in that, and a strengthening economy will help to create more pressure on the jobs and raising the minimum wages would help to do that. >> thank you sh, jason furman. always good to have you on the program. i want to bring in david gregory, moderator of "meet the bresz" and david, republicans are going to point to the concerns of the job economy, and the job market, and the headlines are better than expected job report, and bigger than normal drop in unmome unemployment, and what does this mean for the president at a time when his popularly is still being jeopardized. >> well, as jason said, you have volatility month to month, and better than expected, but they are looking for the sustained path. the president is going to be able to use this and say, we are adding jobs, and things like the

raising of the minimum wage and we can't get it through because of the republicans blocking it. so why don't we focus on the jobs picture before we deal with the wage picture, when it could cost jobs. so the president is trying to use it to their advantage as to whether there are opportunities to grow the economy and the opportunities to take the credit on it. >> and yes, you cannot take it outside of the midterm thes, and the democrats trying to hold on to the senate, and we know the message from the democrats and the republicans, about inequ inequali inequality, and the raising of the minimum wage, and does this in any way tweak the message on the campaign trail, and does it help any of the candidates in tough races? >> well, it could, but other size of it is health care and the impact on the economy which is uncertain, because the impact is ultimately uncertain. there are certain ly some good things about the health care

reform that people are starting to feel, but there are unintended consequences all of which we don't know yet, and that is going to be a drag on vulnerable democrats in t s is states. and so they are going to try to drive in the economic issues, and they want to have the pocketbook issues which is a a key one, getting back to work. you look at the obama recovery, a, and there is going to be certainly arguments about the weakness, the slow growth. everybody i talk to in the business community is feeling like the economy is improving, but it is not unleashed because of the regulatory environment or the still unknown impacts of the health care reform. so that is going to be a struggle for a lot of the democrats around the country. >> is and one of things that we heard from jason furman that we heard from the democrats is that the democrats have, and the white house has plans to create

jobs from infrastructure, and then of course, the battles that we have talked about extending the unemployment benefits and the minimum wage. is there sort of a priority list that the white house has, particularly with the eye to what has any chance of getting done? >> well, look, i don't think that there is a great deal of hope of what is going to be done here for the rest of the year, and especially with the election in november. they want immigration reform done, and we have seen some aspects of it having a pulse. the conservatives will have to get over any pathway to the legal status, and the question is what can you do beyond the executive order for the democrats, and on the economy, i don't see the common ground of what the government should be doing to help the economy along, and to help grow the economy. again, this h is going to be a fight for the economic fight in many ways is going to be about the health care fight as the

republicans make certain that it is going to be a drag on the economy. >> and david, what have you got coming up on "meet the press." >> talking about the issues and a big political week, and governor rick perry will have a few things to say about the obama economy, and the fallout of the sterling issues as well. and kevin johnson who is a former nba player, and now the mayor of seattle will join us. >> and thank you both for joining me this morning, dan gross and peter morici. we saw retails, and restaurants showing the sig nnificant gains but when you listen to the white house, and what david gregory has to say, there is a long term picture to be focused on, and what are you seeing here? >> well, the long-term picture is looking very good, and the consumers are doing quite well with 2.2 million jobs added as well.

and it with tuz sequester, and the default, and the government shutdown, and obamacare, and the higher taxes, and the feds raising the rates were supposed to choke off the economic growth, and help job creation, but none of them have, and that leads me to believe that something is going on in the economy to produce jobs a tt a decent clip, regardless of what happens at the polls. >> and peter, this is a strong report, but it is not enough which is the same thing that we with have heard, and lot of people, and obviously, the pushback, if that is the right word and i was listening to cnbc when the numbers came out, and jim cramer said, with the economy that we had, you don't go zero to 60, but this is about more zero to 20 or 30. is this the right track peter more re morici? >> you know, ronald reagan's

recovery peaked at 8.2%, and so we are having almost double, so there is that. one thing that is bother smeg that the unemployment rate fell b i t-- but the participation rate is still very high. 1 of 25 men are still unemployed and this is showing that the economy is growing in a range of 3%, and we have bounced out of the bad winter quarter, and that should be celebrated, but the question is how do we go to the next level, and as we have said, there is a lot of disagreement of how to get there. >> and talk about the big picture for the people who have a job, and you know, putting the money in the stock market, and trying to save for retirement when we look at what the numbers mean in terms of the overall economy, peter. we should say there were some bright spots, the consumer spending, and the retail sales, and auto sales, and stock market in record territory up 50 points

on word of the numbers, and not insignificant for anybody investing in the retirt. any word for the average american, small investors? >> well, if we were able to grow the stock market with the valuations of 2.0 or 2.5% growth with the better growth, we should sew see the stock market valuations improve substantia y substantially. since 2000, the corporate profits are up 450%, and the stock market values are up 22%, which tells me that there is a lot of room to grow. the other side is that people will see the iras and the 401 keoughs grow. the consolidation is a slight apology, and we need job growth to start raising the wages, and the investors are going to be feeling better, but the average guy on the street, when the

first george bush lost the reaek shun, he was creating jobs, but people were disturbed that the wages were not growing, and it made bill clinton president. >> and another thing on the street is this is a time in the spring when people buy and sell houses, and making the move, and we have been seeing the disappointing number with mortgage rates higher than they have been, and homeownership is down, and sales are down, and what does it take for it to go down? >> well, the weak numbers are a positive sign, because the housing prices have been rising 30% and 40% in the rekrecent ye, and people's incomes have not risen that level. when housing prices got away from the income level, then the credit got creative and said, we

will get you in there no matter how much you have to borrow, and we are seeing anned a vus -- seeing an adjustment on the type of supply of the cheaper houses being built, and it is going to take a while, because it is a housing one or two-year plan for the construction. >> and both of you v a great weekend. >> thank you. >> take care. and now checking the newsfeed this morning, the "new york post" is reporting that disgraced los angeles clipper owner donald steriling is battling prostate cancer, and the move comes as a vote is coming to force the 80-year-old to sell the team. he is being forced to resign after comments he made. and now a new report issued

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right now with this footage just feeding in of angela merkel and president obama, and they will meet for a joint conference in the rose garden. the stakes are high, and the conflict in eastern ukraine is escalating and new e-mails showing the portrayal of the benghazi attack, and this is the fir first time that angela merkel has visited the white house since it was revealed that the nsa spied on her. and now joining us is steve clemones, and no doubt, one of the subjects is going to be the crisis in ukraine. what is expected to come out of the meeting? >> well, it is for angela merkel to come out of the russian misbehavior in eastern ukraine to look like, and people don't want to talk about it, but there

is significant distance in not only the disgust, but how they have postured now what to put on the table and how to try to coax russia back with the on ramp that gets it back into the civil, the world of civilized nations, and merkel is resonant to look at that economy. >> well, germany gets a third of the natural gas from rush sharks and 350,000 german workers depend on russian trade, and the difficu difficulty is that what are the chances that the europeans and the german s wis will make the ongoing sectorial sanctions? >> well, the dilemma is that the white house is going to make the going after putin and the cronies and the institutions

with them to affect the course of the nation that i think that is, it is in the midst of a natural greatness campaign and wanting to feel a restoration of the pride and dignify in the world, and if you want to sanction the individuals, that is not going to necessarily give you the correction of the courses, and it is sort of like if you have the u.s. trying to sanction david koch and george soro soros, and hoping that the united states would go a different direction and many people have said that unless the sanctions are sectorial which involves pain for us, and pain for europe, russia will not take them seriously. and so it is the question of trying to deter russia on the cheap or trying to do something on the much more consequential and substantial and that is the gap between merkel and obama. >> or do you have to wait for the situation to evolve further, because we have seen what is happening in the last 24 hours or so, and government troops with a siege there with reports of people dead, and two helicopter gunships shot down by

the rebels with surface-to-air missiles, and how volatile is the situation on the ground? >> well, state a fact. russia has invaded ukraineb and they have special unit forces destabilizing ukraine, and those things are fact, and it is not the full-scale invasion that plays well for tv, but it is a situation in which ukraine is in a vice, and it is going to be in a vice for a long time. and one of the things that i'm hoping to hear from the merkel/obama meeting is to whatever degree they suggest to have longevity and resilience over time, because putin's patience of keeping ukraine in a trap may be far greater than any of the ep sottic sanctions that we may want to apply, and that is what the credibility of the political marketplace in this foreign policy challenge is going to be testing. >> and as we say, we are waiting for the news conference, and just four questions, what else do you think is coming up? benghazi, nsa? >> well, the nsa and the president has been trying to release, and trying to show the

american public, and the world that he is putting in blocks and trying to treat things like big data and treat national security potential information that private sector companies hold with greater care and trying to change those rules in a way that says that the united states is not going to be a rampant investigator into everyone's privacy and to allow that very, very flamboyant capacity to continue. this is a huge issue between germany and the united states, and it is one of the items that really began to change, and angela merkel challenged recently, and used it in elections recently, and it was successful so a question on that front is going to bh critical in the german and the european prez. >> steve clemons, thank you so much. >> thank you, chris. and what went wrong inside of that oklahoma prison?

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and get a quote now. i spoke with the warden and i knew how much drugs had gone into him h, and it was my decision to stop the execution. the inmate suffered what was a massive heart attack the and passed away. that is it. that is all of my statement. that is all of the information that i have at this time. >> and that is the oklahoma department of corrections director robert patton reporting moments after the execution of clayton lockett went terribly wro wrong. and he has more to say that mary fallon should indefinitely delay any executions while the state's execution procedure is completely review.

the disturbing report of what went wrong in that chamber. i want to bring in a reporter who was there at the execution, ziva branstetter. >> thank you. >> it took 51 minutes for them to find a vein, and give us the details of the report. >> yes, it was the first time that we really got to see what had happened before, during, after the execution. the other parts that we didn't see, and my colleague and i were very interested to see this, because we had been there. so they did have to tase him to get him to come out of the cell at 35:00 a.m. that day, and then they discovered that he had a self-inflicted wound on the arm. they determined that he did not need stitches for the wound, and then he was sort of observed through the rest of the day that he was still, you know, not ip juring himself, and the mental condition, and checked, part of the process. and then when they took him to

the execution chamber, and placed him on the gurney, they found that they could not get a vein in either arm to insert the i.v.s and so they chose to use a vein in the leg. >> and you talked about the point that they were having difficulty and brought down shades so that you could no longer see into the execution room, and oklahoma's execution rules call for the medical personnel to immediately give emergency aid if a stay is granted while legal ththal drus issued, and it did not say what happened between the time of the execution, and being pronounced dead. do you know what happened in that time? any insights of what happened in that time? >> well, they started the execution at 6:23 and took six minutes to declare inmate unconscious, and then witnessed three minutes of no activity and then three minutes of violent k

activity where the inmate looked like he wanted to get up off of the gurney, and that is when he was not unconscious obviously. they turned off the mic, and the interesting thing about the time line is that it makes no mention of the 3:00 period. so after that, es sen thally, the director robert patton called, was called and he asked the doctor inside of the chamber where they had enough drugs to complete the execution, and whether they could find a vein, and the answer to both of the questions was no. so according to the time line, the execution was halted, but the inmate still had a heart beet, heartpeat, and the inmate then died in the execution chamber. >> and all eyes are on this, and the headlines across europe about what happened here, and what are the chances that the governor will hear from the execution chief and put the

executions op ho s on hold inde. >> and she said that she had a 60-day stay, and that is reasonable, but it is up to the prosecuting general who has prosecuted the cases. the next execution is scheduled may 13th, so there is a clock ticking, and the question is, are will it be the courts or the executive branch, and how long will it be, and just this execution or all? so there is a lot of issues that e remain to be worked out. >> i know that you will be watching them closely as we will. a and ziva branstetter, thank you. >> thank you. and we will have a report from crew yan next. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry, but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach.

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on each side. moment moments ago, russia called for a meeting of the u.n. security council, and right now president obama is in that high stakes meeting with german chancellor angela merkel at the white house, and a little more than a hour, they will hold a joint press conference. and joining us is congressman engle who has just returned from that trip to ukraine. you have called for sanctions, and how long do you believe it will take for the european allies to sign on? >> well, that is the key. i am glad that president obama is meeting with chancellor merkel now, and you know, that germany gets one-third of the energy needs from russia, and that is the case of a number of countries in europe, and they are more e reluctant than we are to impose the sanctions on russia. my view is that the sanctions on russia need to be improved and the president has improved some, but they need to be ratcheted it up, because i think that what putin is doing now is disgraceful. >> and the eu, and the

unemployment rate is 11.8%, and obviously, the concern is that some of the sanctions will hurt their own economy which is not already in great shape. >> well, yeah, that is a concern, but they have to balance the concern, because putin cannot be allowed to invade another country with impunity. he kind of knows that the countries of europe need his energy, and therefore, i think that is cause can ining him to the calculation to continue what he is doing. but there is no place for the changes of borders by force in europe, and certainly not in europe or anywhere at this this time, and i think that putin needs to be told that this is not something that will be accepted. >> this is not the only hot spot, and talk about syria where the activists talk about a air strike hit a market in aleppo this morning killing as many as 40 people. there were some devastating pictures of the young children, and this is following the strike

on the school in aleppo that killed at least 18 people. and then you have the unconfirmed report of the chlorine bomb attack, and where does that leave us of what needs to be done? is. >> well, the problem right now is that there are no good choices in syria. i have always favored arming the free syrian army, the rebels, but the problem is that there are so many rebels, and jihadists, and al qaeda, and you don't want the wep papons in th wrong hands, but assad is a terrible player, and using starvation as a tool of war and starving and murdering his own people, and they have barrel bomb bombs that put nails into people's skins, and the world, i think that they cannot continue to stand idly by to allow it to happen. we have children, and civilians, all being killed and the murderous rampage has to stop, and the problem is that there are no good choice, and in my opinion, we should have been arm arming the free syrian army for a couple of years, but it is better late than never, and there is time to do so and that is what i would do.

>> and let me talk about what is going on domestically, because a good jobs report today, but other areas that we talked about earlier in the program, still of concern, and for xexample, interest rates and housing sales, and how do you view the overall report in terms of the strength and weakness? >> well, the report is growing, and the economy is growing, and everything is not a panacea just yet. my view is that the fed has to be careful before they raise the interest ratesing, because the housing market is taking off, and if you raise them too much, then you cannot have people affording to buy if the rates are up, and the interest rates are going up, and i hope that the feds don't rush to raise the interest rates any time soon, and the economy is fragile, and while unemployment is going down, and more people who are no long er looking for the work, and that is going to skew the statistic, and i would be careful if i were the fed. >> and let me ask you, because we have jason furman, the

chairman of the white house economic program, a nd he talke about the proposals out there from the white house on the democratic side and everything from the infrastructure, and the job creation plans, but realistically, what is the chance of anything getting done between now and november that is go ing to impact the job market? >> well, zero, frankly, in in my view, because the republicans who have the majority in the house don't want to do it, and they believe that stimulus is a dirty word, and they need to do more infrastructure to put people to work which is going to help the infrastructure which is crumbling, and a win-win situation, but just as the republicans won't do anything with the immigration reform or the unemployment insurance, and they won't do anything with it. and i would say zero the nil if anything, unfortunately. >> congressman, thank you for coming on. we are an hour away from the president's news conference with chancellor angela merkel, and we will of course have that for you live. the long time head honcho of taco bell is getting a report.

mandy drury is here with "moving your money." a lot of people don't know his name, but we do, because he was at the launch of the waffle taco, and the los doritos taco. >> and yes, he has led the taco bell chain since 2011 and replacing david novak of yum! starting the first of next year. novak is going to become a young executive. but they have more, pizza hut, and kfk, and he is getting the the job because he oversaw the innovation, and as you mentioned the doritos los tacos, and the breakfast menu of waffle tacos, and apparently over 1 billion of them have been sold, and extrapolating eaten since 2012,

and allowing taco bell to hire more people, and we like companies that take over. and it is important time for him to take over at yum! because the chinese operations are important, and they get half of the operations revenue there, and it is trying to rebuild there, and remember that the supplier was charged with el -- selling food with too many antibiotics. and we will see what he does. >> and maybe he will want to do wit a cocktail. this is a racy story. >> yes, the company called crawford taste out of indianapolis, and it is along the lines of booze box, and it is a rotating source of beauty sample samples for women every month, and so they are going to do this with cocktails at home. you will get a box of ingredients with syrups, and et cetera, and the subscription is going to cost you $100 for a

year, or $130 month to month, but what you will get this the kit are the necessary ingredients, and two recipes and makes two cocktails ash and the recipe of the month, and the classic cocktail, and the napkins and the food pairing suggestion, and again, if you like that thing, you might want to try it out. >> cnbc's mandy drury, and happy weekend to you. >> thank you. and a royal note prince harry and william there for the wed withing of a frie-- for the wedding of a former nightclub owner, and the friends say that the royals may make a visit to elvis' graceland. and my tweet of the day comes from tara lipinski. i have tried everything i could with three hats to go to the kentucky derby to be with my boy

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move over chris christie, because it seems that a certain ex-florida governor may be giving the current one a run for the money, literally and f figuratively, and reports are that jeb bush with the consideration of a 2016 run has major gop donors jumping the bridgegate-plagued christie ship. and now jeb bush's brother adds fuel to the fire. >> i hope that jeb runs, because he would be a great president. i have no clue what is on his mind, and we will talk when he is ready. i notice that he is moving around the kcountry quite a bit and -- >> doing well in the polls. >> yes, that is fine, but it don't mean anything for him, i can guarantee you that he is not

looking at a poll to decide whether or not he wants to run. >> and still, the polls in florida seem to be on jeb's side, and new quinnipiac poll there puts him easily on top of the rest of the 2016 hopefuls and beating marco rubio by double digits and so does the gop have a new front-runner? we will bring in our democratic strategist and former chief of staff for republican joe manchin chris kofiniz and alice stewart who is a republican strategist. and we know that bridgegate did hurt chris christie's popularity, but he is looking to get back into play, but the donors have creeping doubts about governor christie's ability to rebound or to even win over conservative skeptics, and how concerning is this for chris christie? >> well, right now, it is so early in the game to tell, and the key for governor christie or any of the folks looking for 2016 is to keep the fund r-raiss

and the bundlers and the money folks close, and your enemies closer, b closer, but the key is to have them engaged and keep communicating with them, but also if you are really seriously considering it, work on the ground games in the key states, but as we have heard from all of them, nobody has made a decision, and everybody is going to wait until after the midterms in november, and make a decision at that point. right now, it is really early to decide based on where the bundlers and the money folks are hedging the bets and what it means in november when these folks make decisions. >> realistically, chris, it is too early? >> well, no, it is not too early, and the reality is that considering how much you need to raise to the run in the priority, and hundreds of millions of dollars and let alone the general, we have seven or eight months away that you will see the candidates announcing. in terms of the republican primary, you will have a very, you know, wide field. you will have the candidates coming from the more traditional

establishment side, and more from the kind of the tea party libertarian side, and the battle of the traditionalists is that i put christie and jeb bush in that category, and having that big money donors behind you is key, because you won't have the grass roots support that a paul has or cruz has. and so my guess is that, you know, if you start to see the big donors going over to bush, that is just another, you know, stake in the heart to christie's potential candidacy. >> and alice, if it comes down to the clinton and the bush race, and it is important to point out to family dynamics of the recent new york journal/nbc news poll, and more than two families should run, and 69% agree, and is that something that either party is not weighing in? >> well, there is legacy fati e

fatigue, and people in the country will be smart enough to look at the potential candidates to look at for their own merits, but on the republican side, there is a strong one with jeb bush and chris christie, and the national polls, huck abee and s forth, and a tough bench, but this week, e-mails of benghazi coming out showing that she, and including the secretary of state were not honest with the american people about the cause of the attacks of the benghazi attacks and trying to cover that up -- >> well, there is an article this week that suggested that essenti essentially if hillary decides not to run, one reason is going to be the weariness of the attacks and knowing what it is like to be in the public eye, and when asked about it, one clinton campaign veteran said about journalists, look, she hates you, period. that is never going to change. are too many democrats putting their eggs into the hillary

basket at their own peril? >> well, not, and i don't think not yet. my indication, and my gut tells me that she is going to run, and in terms of the dynasties, you know, it is both a positive and a negative. if you have the bush name attached to you and i think that jeb bush is a smart individual, and no question about that, but having the bush name, and how that is his brother's presidency was is a negative. now, if you are a clinton and she is accomplished person, and wildly respected and given president clinton's tenure as president which was successful, and the people across the board have a favorable opinion of it, it is more of a positive, but at the end of the day, running for president is an incredibly hard and brutal business. so i blame her for not running? no. she is going tick ma the calculation that is best for her and her family, and what she can offer the country, and see what happens. >> thank you, chris and alice. coming up, it is not all business in washington, d.c.

nope. outfits packed and the bars stocked and the jokes written, and we have the preview washington, d.c. style.

the performance review. that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. and yet, there's someone around the office who hasn't had a performance review in a while.

someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business.

well, from pop stars to politicians which started as a small gaerling this of the white house reporters has exploded into the biggest d.c. party of the year, the white house correspondent dinner called nerd prom, but the celebrities of the normal people make it anything but nerdy. and those at the ending will be lupita inwongo, and sofia vergara and so many more. and joining us is alicia and

also jonathan capehart. >> well, we expect this to be slightly less star-studded. we will see sophia vergara who is going to attend, and it has become scaled down because of the celebrity people who have come to the dinners in the past. >> yes, they are invading your city, jonathan, and they say that d.c. goes to hollywood, and what do you think of the whole controversy if we can call it that. >> why controversy, because this city gets very, very excited about this weekend. remember, it used to be one night, one dinner, and then it was a dinner and a party thor, and then it was preparty and the dinner and the after parties. >> and how many parties are you going to? >> well, there are four tonight. >> come on! >> one before the dinner and three after the dinner.

and then there is a brunch on sunday, and there is a lot going on. and it is no longer just -- >> well, it is good for the research, right, jonathan? you are doing the job? >> exactly, exactly. >> you are saying that besides who is going to be there and who is the host, and that is joel mckale this year, and the president and the speechwriters, and they get together and it is a tricky one, and what are you expecting with the speech this year? >> well, the president goes after it, and he has been criticized for being funnier than the emcees, and we know that he has a spot he filmed with the host, and jimmy kimmel, and other past hosts say they will experience something unique, but he is ready for it. >> let ee's play a clip when he called tout president of the gop on the minority outreach. >> i know that the republicans are sorting out what happened in 2012, but one thing they all agree on is that they need to do

a better job to reach out to minorities. and look, call me self-centered, but i can think of one minority that they could start with. hello. >> he is pretty funny, jonathan, and who is he going to hit this year? >> everybody. this is when the president shines, when he gets to, i mean, clearly somebody else is writing the jokes, but the joex plus his delivery and as you saw in that, he likes the jokes that he is telling. and it is funny when he laughs at his own jokes. >> agreed. >> and i want to say, jonathan that you always look amazing, but no bow tie for me today? >> well, i'm sorry, but if you are here tomorrow, i will wear one. >> okay. jonathan capehart and alicia quarles. thank you. and we will have up next

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good morning, everybody, i'm betty nguyen in for tamron hall. we are awaiting a press c conference with president obama and chancellor angela merkelle. that is scheduled to be in about 30 minutes, and we will have that for you life and the topic should be the tougher sanctions of russia and the eu role there. and meanwhile, there was a major offensive launched today to take back one of ten cities in eastern ukraine that had been seized by russian militants. and gun fire and explosions could be heard. you are seeing that now. and the government said that the militants shot down two of the helicopters killing two of the crew. the militants say that one of the men was kill d