good morning, i'm chris jansing coming to you from washington, d.c. where there is a lot happening. right now, president obama is meeting with embattled v.a. secretary eric shinseki and we are expecting the president to make a statement from the briefing room. also at the meeting is rob neighbor na nabors, and he is going to be look to phoenix where the secret wait lists and other allegations took place. and there are hearings on this same issue on the hill today. meeting with the chairman of the veterans committee is chief of

staff with bernie sanders chair chairing the committee. what are you hearing nick miklaszewski? >> there is no indication that it is about a resignation of shinseki or that the president is going to demand the resignation, but i can tell you that anything short of a shinseki resignation after this meeting is not going to satisfy the veterans groups who believe there has to be a shake-up at the top, and there is a question of the deputy chief of staff's neighbor's visit to the hospital there at phoenix, because unless he has criminal investigative background or he is used to conducting serious audits, one person going to the phoenix hospital is not going to get to

the bottom of this, and one thing that is interesting in last week's testimony is from the ip spenspector general rich griffin is that he pointed out that when their investigators went to the phoenix hospital and talked to some of the people, those who could be potential whistle-blowers told inv investigators apparently they were afraid to come forward with any reports of any kind of misconductirregularity, because they fear ed retributio. and as you said, chris, this the scandal has spread to more than a couple dozen people there. >> and this needs to go to the fbi and lead to the criminal investigation and what are the chances it goes in that direction? >> well, in the first broadcast

interview with secretary shinseki, i asked him specifically, you know, these charges sound like fraud, theft, and perhaps obstruction of justi justice. and those are criminal deeds, and if you want to see the people guilty, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and yes, but the inspector general would have to turn that over to the fbi and there are some criminal investigators within the veterans affairs department, itself, that are also involved in thein ve investigation, and problem s s the va are not abou one person, shinseki for example, and there are many in the house and the senate calling for the v.a. to be able to provide those veterans who for

whatever reason, because of the long distances or because they have an emergency and they still can't get the appointment with the doctor, they have to be provided some kind of viable options that will get them the kind of the medical help that they need when they need it, chris, and not have to wait for appointments that stretch out sometimes as long as two years. >> that is something that everybody can agree on. and quick reminder that we will bring you the president's press conference live at 10:45 eastern time. and in the meantime, let me bring in the vice chairman of the democratic caucus

representative joe crowley. >> first and foremost, we have to focus on what happened here, and get to the bottom or the top of this the and where it may lead, and i don't rule out the criminal investigation either, and any one who was denied service in the life and the death situation at the v.a., that affects every one of the veterans and affects every american, and the one promise that we make to the veterans is if you serve this country honorab honorably, you will have access to health care, and the first and the foremost and the president is sending rob nabors the deputy white house chief of staff and he is going to go to the full authority of the president of the united states, and wherever this may lead to find out what happened and rout it out, and let the chips fall where they may after that. >> and the congress is expected to vote on a bill to give them more power to fire those responsible for this mess. do you support that bill? >> well, i'm not sure what that

bill does, and we are looking at that bill now. it is upon us now, and my understanding is that it is maybe not the case and may not be responsible for the people in phoenix, but be that as it may, the democrats and the republicans do it in a level-headed way, because it is affecting, not only those who suffered but the morale of the mep and women of t men and the women of the military. and they have to understand when they come back, they will have health care. >> and you know, that the president's response to the scandal has been criticized as being slow and inept, and let me play for you what eric canter had to say. >> it is time for the president to come forward and take responsibility by this and do the right thing for the veterans and begin to show that they care about getting it straight.

>> has the white house dragged the feet on this? >> well, it is a situation that is political, and at the end of the day, americans lost their lives, because of ineptitude at the v.a. and possible criminal c conduct at the v.a. and to make this a political football, the president is sending the deputy white house chief of staff to the facility with the full authority, and the president is personally engaged and one thing, chris, a man like shinseki, and a man like shinseki who dedicated his entire life to the men and the women of the military and four-star general, they want to get to the bottom of this, because they know how serious it s. >> and yesterday, the results of the primary, this is our headline on msnbcnews.com. gop emphasizes electability over

tea party purity, and you know that the two republican establishment candidates emerged mitch mcconnell and matt belvin, and obviously, they are breathing a sigh of relief that none of the candidates that hurt them the last time, and so conventional wisdom is that this is going to improve the republican's chances to take control of the senate, so is this a problem for the democrats on the general electorate? >> i know there is a problem of the tea party and the republican party, but mr. boehner said the other evening no, difference between the tea party republican and average conservative republican, and we have agreed with him for a long, long time, but it is not about the internal squabbles or the fights, but the reality is that the republican party has no vision on the views

of the country like the immigration bill, and the minimum wage raise, and address ing the issues, and some big issue that america is facing. their failure to address the issues is the biggest handicapped and they will pay for it in november. >> congressman joe crowley, good to have you on the program. >> thank you, chris. >> i want to bring in amanda terkel from the "huffington post" and from politico, their editor. and so you have the gop sees primaries taming the tea party, and boehner's comments are not that difference, amanda in the tea party and the establishment candidates and what is the take away? >> well, that is what the tea party is saying, that mitch mcconnell may be the gop, but we are winning the larger fight

that he is much more conservative. and so the tea party thinks that they have more electable candidate candidates and if the people are not winning, they are not so tea party. >> and one idea is how tough the contests should be, and this is one that everybody is watching, and alison lgrimes. >> they practice loyalty above all else. tonight i'm confident of this, kentuckians are not going to be deceived. alison lundergan grimes is president obama's candidate.

>> i will answer to the people of the state and not answer to the president no matter who he or she might be. as proud kentucky woman, i will speak for myself and no kentucky woman, mr. mcconnell, will sit on the back bench. >> margie, speaking of the polling, this is a statistical dead heat, and this is a contest that everybody is watching. it is critical to take control of the senate, and what are you looking for now that mitch mcconnell won so handily last night? >> well, he is hailed as a hero today, because he beat this challenger -- >> ell wshwell, maybe a little exaggerated. >> well, in the georgia race, the two candidates have not said i will support mitch mcconnell for the senate majority leader, because he is vulnerable.

he is the ultimate washington insider. >> he is turning it to the positive, i'm the person with the experience and the power, and you want to turn that for a neophyte? >> well, the least most popular institution in the country is washington. nobody embodies that more than mitch mcconnell. he has been a proponent of the campaign finance reform, and finance law, and he is very, very far outside of where majority of the people are. and not only that, but the tea party, you have the republicans talking about the tea party, and the tea party is not only unpopular, unfavorable for years, and just now, they have beat back some of the candidates by moving so far to the right, they are tea party candidates themselves, and this is just in all of the races that you have seen the candidates and the republican candidates drifting farther and farther to the right, and it does not matter if

they are incumbents or members of congress to look for promotions, but they are becoming a member of the tea party. >> and this is going to be expensive race and already, alison lundergan grimes has an ad out there already. is this going to be a theme that will be popular. >> they may not go out to say, we want to repeal obamacare, and maybe not as much as some would want, and president obama is unpopular in some of the states, but at the same time, the democrats have to motivate the base to get them out to vote, and that is where president obama is popular, and you will see a bunch of democrats getting the voters out in the midterm elections, because that is where

the republicans are strong. >> and he will raise money. so nice to have both of you. checking the newsfeed, there is a whole slew of hear inings capitol hill taking place. look at this one looking at the cyber threat facing the u.s., this is after the justice department charges five chinese employees of hacking into computers and stealing trade secrets. david barrent wrote a drone report and the controversial killing of al awlaki. and there is such an emotional place at the 9/11 memorial that red cross

counselors are on charge. and there is a controversy about the price of $24 and the gift shop which some have described as crass. this hour, the supreme court stepped in, and we will look at what this means for capital punishment in this country. and we will also have the president's statement after meeting with general shinseki. add a line anytime for 15 bucks a month. low dues... great terms... let's close. introducing at&t mobile share value plans... ...with our best-ever pricing for business. there was a boy who traveled to a faraway place where villages floated on water and castles were houses

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[ male announcer ] to celebrate, visit your local benjamin moore dealer today and get $50 off every $250 purchase. the next step in the reignited debate over capital punishment in america rests with the nation's high court. j justice samuel alito suspended the lethal execution of russell buckley skcheduled to die just after midnight at the 11th hour. alito gave no explanation, and now they must decide whether he live ares or dies, and this is

the series of stays following the botched execution of clayton locket in oklahoma. that raises questions about the death penalty itself, and the way it is carried out. i would like to bring in pete williams, and the executive director of the death penalty information center. and pete, start with the news of the day, and take us through the legal chain of events and what the supreme court must next do? >> well, the lawyer succeeded in getting a stay, but the full appeal denied going to the supreme court, so justice alito granted a temporary stay while they looked at the merits, and may have something more to say about that, but there are many distinctions between this case and what is going on in oklahoma. first of all, missouri uses a entirely different system, and single drug. and secondly the lawyers here argue that not a general claim about lethal injection, but they

say that in his specific case, he has a medical condition to make it difficulty for this drug to circulate, and so this could cause cruel and unusual punishment. >> so many of the debates have come about in how the drugs are d a ministered, but is this a specific case that is not applicable to the broader discussion at large? >> well, people were shocked at what happened in oklahoma. they don't want to see it happening again, and so this case is unique, but it would also be disastrous if this man suffered and bled in the execution. so i think that oklahoma is on the court's mind, and in that way it is still similar. >> and you know, he, himself, gave an interview to the associated press and i want to read to you part of the int

interview. he said i'm worried it could be painful, i'm worried about being brain dead and i understand that the victim wants closure, but we are victimizing my family here, too. and on the other hand, the children of michael sanders had planned to be at the execution, and his mother said that she is not thrilled about this delay. i don't forgive the guy, because i don't believe i could ever do that, and even though i'm supposed to, i will be glad when it is overwith and leave the rest of it up to god and let him take care of it. for death penalty support famerd family, this is certain ly not justi justice. >> well, it is not which family is more deserving, but there is about the constitution. we can't have cruel and unusual punishment regardless of what the person has done and that is the issue in this case. >> pete, overall in this case, this is playing out state by state, case by case, and is

there something pend org a possibility that there could be something larger going before the supreme court? >> it is possible, because the supreme court ruled, and correct me, richard, lastly 2008? >> yes. 2008 in "bays versus reeves" ye yes. >> and the court said that there is no such thing as a painless execution, and what you want to do is to minimize it as if at all possible. number one, there is not any sign that this supreme court is going to declare the death penalty overall unconstitutional, but you get down to the meth states are struggling with this, and so far the supreme court has continually turned down the series of invitations to look at this, and i can't imagine that in the next six months or so, they would take up the e lethal injection case, and maybe within the next year, but there is not

a case on the horizon now to cause the court to relook at what it said in 2008 which is e lethal injection however you carry it out is constitutional. >> and what are you expecting later today, richard? >> well, a divided court for sure. they may want to give more time for this issue to develop, because it came over the last couple of weeks with the doctor examining mr. bucklew, and there may be reason to examine further. >> thank you, both. we will be reporting further on this tomorrow. appreciate your time. right now, a house hearing is trying to figure out what is going on with boko haram as new violence kills more than 100 people in a city. has this terror group been emboldened? and now, how long before this map is entirely dark blue?

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new momentum this morn for to a vdadvocates. a few hours ago oregon's ban was overturn and then before that arkansas and idaho and that is four ruling in favor of same-sex marriage in three weeks, and that means that 19 states plus the district of columbia allow gay and lesbian couples to get married so that as of this morning 44% of americans live in a state that allows gay marriage. i want to bring in chris geithner who is the political reporter at busby, and shane mills who is from the progress action fund. so one of the stories i saw this morning is "is gay marriage unstoppable" and it is moving at the speed of light, and anything, chris, to slow the

movement other than the brick wall? >> well, the supreme court has emboldened many of the cases, and in the utah case, they said they will stop the marriages while we consider the appeals, and as the cases go up through the appeals court, we are going to have sort of this period of where the trial court judges are striking down the bans, but we are waiting to get a final word. something definitive from the supreme court. because in the meantime, we will have matchwork in places where you can and cannot and 44% is far ahead of where it is, but it is not the majority, and the math is easy, right? >> well, the math is easy, but if you look at the momentum, we can all agree it is inevitable, and maybe not tomorrow, but in the next three years we will see the marriage equality take hold across the country, and the cool

thing about this is that the sky did not fall. we have had marriage equality over the past ten years and the people are saying, oh, the children and now this is going to mean something to my religious values and the sanctity of marriage did not get destroyed and because me and my wife got married, nobody's marriage has been nullify and nobody married somebody they did not want to, and so most people believe it should be the law of the land and some people are shrugging wondering what took so long. >> and let me read to you from the pennsylvania case, and this is someone who was appointed by george w. bush and endorsed by former senator rick santorum. we are a better people than what these marriage laws represent and time to discard them in the hash heap of history. and then monday, michael shane wrote in oregon, look less to the sky to what may fall, to your point, ayee shisha, and th

really strong words. >> well, i was down in washington where 4th circuit was determining if the same-sex marriage ban was constitutional, and they know they are writing for history and they want to make sure they are right. they want nik -- they want to make their case, and once they have decided put their best foot forward and they have done. so both judge jones and mcshay with some strong languages over the last 24 hours as you said. >> according to group freedom to marry, ten states have legislation concerning same-sex marriage as we speak. what is next? what does the supreme court have to see to take this up do we think? >> well, it is interesting, because we with have seen six federal courts around the country hearing the cases, so it is inevitable to go back to the

supreme court, and they have to make a more e definitive point, and it is sooner than we expect it to be. and this is about the humanity and the dignity of the country, and i am excited to see that the courts are acknowledging certain classes of citizens in the country differently and that is not what we do in america, and it is about the humanity and the emotional connection among people. >> and it is, because i have had so many conversations of seeing gay friends of mine get married, and they go back to talk about when they first came out and how friends said to them, i never knew a gay person before, and that is 10 years ago and not another century that those kinds of conversations happen, and now 55% of americans in the latest gallup poll support frnlts. it is an amazing question for the 2016 election, does the republican party have to support

gay marriage? >> well, it is a stretch. but the american unity fund has been working really hard, and we have seen success in pretty much every state where they have attempted to get some republicans on board with some americans on board. and we saw this these primaries last night that it is still very difficult to win a primary in the republican party while you are putting forward a position to support marriage equality. >> and in 2016, the run for the presidential has to be not ga s against lgbt people. >> and we are hours from the ruling in pennsylvania, and the pennsylvania governor corbett has still not issued a statem t statement. he has said nothing. a.g. kathleen cain who is not defending the marriage ban issued a statement minutes after

the ruling came down, and governor corbett who is defending the ban has said nothing. he is reviewing the ruling. >> and so chris and aisha, what a great con vversation and than you. we want to remind you that president obama is expected at the podium this hour discussing his meeting with the office of veteran affairs, and will there be a resignation. we will bring you the president's remarks as soon as he begins. no, that can't happen. that's the thing, you don't know how long it has to last. everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive.. confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor can get the real answers you need. well, knowing gives you confidence. start building your confident retirement today. start building your confident retirement today. when folks think about wthey think salmon and energy. but the energy bp produces up here creates something else as well:

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there are new fears to dday about what act of terror boko haram might unleash next. they believe that the group is behind twin car bombings that left 118 people dead in nigeria and now there is a report of 17 more killed in an attack in a northeast village in the northeast part of the country amount and what happened to the 300 girls that they kidnapped last month?

that is unknown. those kidnappings and the terror group is the focus of a foreign affairs committee going on right now. and here are some of the highlights of the hearing so far. >> the difficulty is that boko haram is in a process of expanding their terror, and the frequency of the attacks, and the attacks on girls, and the -- that is an evolution, and as they have intimidated and frightened the nigerian military, they are now no tto t point where a lot of the military units have run away. >> joining me now is malika salazar and michael litener, and thank you for coming in. and michael, he said that they are in the process of expanding the purview of terror and this is a group that seemed like a small regional threat, but what is the real threat now? >> well, it is significant, and not as recent as the congressman

might suggest, but since 2009, boko haram has been expanding the reach, and adopting much more aggressive at ttactics, an they have been killing hundreds of thousands raiding schools, and other car bombs in the capital and now they are an aggressive group who has regional aspirations in many ways. >> and let me read to you something from "the new york times," definitive pronouncements from the group were hazardous since the announcements to the outside world were tactics and remain murky, and now, the nigerian government has claimed to have killed mr. shekau at least three times. although there is widespread evidence that he is very much alive. >> although we are coalescing,

we don't know the leadership well. part of the problem is the nigerian government, because they have attack ed them in a heavy handed way and drien some of the radicalization which has led to what we have seen today, and so without a good partner in the nigerian government, it is difficult for us or any one else in the region to get control of them. >> we have a sense of how deadly they are. according to the bbc, they have killed more than 1,000 people alone this year, malika, and when you tack about the bigger pick chu, i want to go back to the girls missing now, but the kind of threat that they pose, and the people who have their ideology posed the girls in that part of the world and their right to get an education. >> well, it is the act of extremism to create this violence in the girls' lives, and it is so important to name what they are doing as extremism as violent, and that this this

type of extremism and violence is denying the girls in nigeria but throughout the sense of privilege and entitlement to get their education. >> and without education, there is no hope for the future, but let's talk specifically about the girls missing. it was a huge part of the conversation, and it is why people even though what, who boko haram is at this point, but as the news cycles go, they have fallen out of the conversation, and what has likely happened to the girls, and what do we need to know about the situation now. >> the attention that was put on the girls really came from the social media in africa that ricocheted out to the rest of the global community. i think that it is so critical that we not allow attention to the recede. it is critical that in the social media and the hearts and the minds and the prayers that we continue to insist that the

girls be brought back and we continue to insist that president jonathan give more than lip service and have an aggressive approach to finding the girls as well as the international community, that if the international community does not insist and become aggressive to find these girls, they will be lost and we won't be able to bring them home, and we are in a critical place to maintaining the focus and attention to bringing them home. >> malika and michael, thank you. any minute we expect to see president obama coming up to the po podium in the white house briefing room, and he is going to tell us about the meeting he had with v.a. secretary eric shinseki live.

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stanford researchers showed that young children who are small for their age are likely to gain weight after having their tonsils removed, but the weight gain did not increase the risk of obesity. we are wait foing for the president to come to the podium after his meeting with eric shinseki and he is expect ed in the briefing room any moment, and now you can see the reporters for peter alexander, and now let's bring in kristin welker, and honorary jack jacobs, and kristen, any signal s from the white house about what we are expecting from the meeting? >> well, chris, i think that when president obama takes the podium he is going to express that and express his anger and frustration with the crisis at the v.a. and he has come under an immense amount of criticism for not speaking out about the issue in over e three weeks now,

and that is going to be something that we will hear from him, and as you point out, he is currently meeting right now with the secretary of the v.a. eric shinseki as well as the deputy chief of staff rob nay bors who has been assigned to help sh shinseki and what went wrong and how to avoid it going forward and the white house has consistently said that they have confidence in secretary shinseki, and we will be listening closely to see if he reiterates that, and the calls for shinseki to resign have been growing louder, and the white house says they want twit for t -- they want to wait for the investigation that is ongoing. and background information, chris, just to bring everybody up to speed, the v.a.i.g. is investigating po ttential

misconduct at 26 v.a. hospitals across the country after relevations last month that as many as 40 veterans may have died while waiting for the health at the phoenix v.a. and there have been people who have been essentially asked to be put on the administrative leave while the investigation continues, and one person has been resigned in the wake of it, and there is fallout, and a lot of people point out that this has been exasperated by a record number of claims from veterans of iraq and afghanistan and coming back to need help to be 300,000 veterans on the wait list and on the backlogs, chris, waiting for the help, and this is a part of the broader problem, and political problem for the obama administration. chr chris? >> well, those are a big problem, and colonel jack jacobs and political one, and what do you imagine that was like between the president and general shinseki? >> well, not pleasant.

general shinseki is an interesting character. he has had amazing responsibility and combat soldier himself, and i have known him for 40 years and my take is something like this, he is not going to leave unless he is told to leave. if he is leaving, it is because he has been asked to resign, but he won't do it voluntarily, and he is one of the kinds of people who will stay at the post until he is dead or dragged away. i think that the conversation is going to revolve around general shinseki's plans to make it better and alleviating the problems that exist now. chris, you mention ed the enormous backlog and it is shorter now than it used to be and one of the reasons that you have backlog that you do from the veterans in iraq and afghanistan is because general shinseki decided, himself, to enfranchise that group of people who said that anybody who has

pts or suffers from the effects of agent orange in vietnam and those are enormous groups of people who will get care from the veterans administration, and there were hundreds of application that the v.a. could not handle, and that is one reason that you have the backlog. >> and one analysis i heard from somebody in the military said that, look, nobody is doubting general shinseki's record, and you don't get to be a four-star general without a lot of skills, and it is a mistake to assume, and not speaking for myself, but it would be a mistake to assume that you use the skills that you use in military leadership and necessarily transform them into running a bureaucracy, the second biggest in the government as the v.a. is that a fair statement? >> no, i don't agree with that. as a matter of fact, i think that nobody is better capable of organizing and running larger

organizations than the generals or the admirals and the lowest ranking enlisted men than military men who have had responsibility at an early age, but the second point revolves around that and it is whether the department of veteran affairs medical establishment is capable of delivering what it is supposed to and that is timely first-quality medical care to the men and the women who served this country, and i believe that no matter who is running it from the world's best administrator on the one hand to some junk yard dog, i don't believe that the v.a. is capable of delivering. >> let us bring in nick miklaszewski and you know some of the political conversations going around this. the republicans are saying that the president did not act quickly or strongly enough, and so bring us up to date on the status of the internal

investigation, and what went wrong and how the fix it. >> well, the inspector general is like the medical system in the v.a. and overwhelmed now, and so many more instances and allegations where the people were put on the secret waiting lists and died before they could see any doctor or get any medical care from the v.a., and the whole thing has exploded, and this dates back to 2012. this is not really a new issue as emphasized in the hearing of the veteran affairs committee and the senate last week. this has been going on for some time, and you know that if one administrator at the v.a. hospital sees that another administrator got away with it, why wouldn't they, too, use that ruse. the problem here is that there are potential criminal charge, and if they use these secret waiting lists to game the system, and earn a bonus, that could be considered fraud if not theft. there are reports particularly

out of the phoenix institution where the administrators there twuns once notified them the, they tried to destroy or alter the records there at the hospital, and that could result in criminal charges. as far as the bureaucracy, and jack talked about as a military leader, himself, general shinseki should handle the largest of bureaucracies, but my experience and the others in the government, the v.a. is the most entrenched and maybe not the biggest, but the most entrenched bureaucracy in the u.s. government to many of those i talked to. and in many cases, it is impenetrable. over the years they built a wall around themselves that even the secretary of the v.a. cannot

penetrate. >> let me go back to kristen welker, and talk about the political implications of this, and the president's approval rating is a problem for the candidates running in november, and what is the level of concern at the white house how this might bleed over into the campaign? >> well, there is a fair amount of concern here, chris, because prior to this, remember, that the big issue was health care. and another issue that republicans have signaled is a big issue in the midterm election year is benghazi, and this is now really moving to the forefront and you can sense the level of concern here behind the scenes, and they acknowledge that this is a big problem, and it also speaks to and raises the questions of the president's management style. that is something that is his critics have seized upon and he is too slow or methodical to the ask and express ainnger and outrage in the instances, and

the flipside is that there is an ongoing investigation, and the white house is arguing that the president is not going to take action and not going to take any next steps until he understands the root of the problem and how to specifically fix it. that is going to be one of the key problems that rob nay bors is going to try to answer. and by the way, he heads to phoenix to talk to the officials there, and the v.a. hospital officials there, and he is going to ask, is this fixable? how systemic is this problem that led to or may have led to those 40 deaths at the v.a. hospital. that is the point that colonel jacobs is making that the bureaucracy is entrenched and as nick said it is impenetrable in some instances, so it is a political problem for the democrats running in 2014, but it brings the president's

management style in a new light and fresh criticism. >> and i have just been given a note that the fbi is not yet involved in investigating the allegations against the v.a. medical hospital. and so far, it is in the office of the inspector general, and if it goes to the next step, criminal charges, will it wait for the report to be ready? >> well, the inspector general for the v.a. richard griffin testified up on the hill last week before the senate veteran affairs committee that he has assigned criminal investigators within the i.g. to start investigating some of the allegations certainly out of the phoenix hospital, presumably at some of the others. i am not clear if they have to turn that over to the justice department or the fbi to pursue

prosecutions, but that investigation as kristen mentioned is in the early stages. so, again, the questions are being raised and what is nabors going to accomplish there, the deputy white house chief of staff if in fact, the investigation is in the early stamgs, early estimates when it was said three months to six months before we would have any results from the investigation, and you have to understand that the investigators have to tiptoe around these issues, and preserve individual rights, and security issues, and understandab understandably, that could take some time. it is not surprising that the fbi is not yet directly involved in the probes. >> well, colonel jack at the top of the show, we numerated a number of things that the white house has done, putting rob nabors on the case, and jim

mcd mcdonough going to the white house to talk to the opeople there, and we have seen that action, and the hear inings are going on, but how much of a threat is there realistically, jack, as this continues and if some action is not taken that actually changes the system that more people could die. >> well, it is always possible, and don't forget a large number of veterans in care at the veterans a administration facilities, and lots more waiting for care, and even if you clean up the administration, and get people to see a doctor quickly, the backlog for the initial investigations is down 200-some-odd days, and that is an awfully long time, and if they make it shorter, there are some people who will die for lack of care which raises the question of whether or not the department of veteran affairs is ever going to be capable no matter the money that is given to it to be capable of

delivering what the vet van era need. the idea that you need a concierge system for veterans is a good one, but it does not hold the candle of the speed with which the public is seeing with the public/private partnership which is medicaid.

also -- >> i am just getting more informati information, and we expect the president out any moment now of what went on in the meeting that started 58 minutes ago. their agenda was to update the inspector general's investigation, and perhaps the president will bring us up to speed on that, and the face-to-face audit process where the v.a. employees have gone out to visit various facilities around the country, and here is

the president following that meet i meeting. >> i have just finished meeting with secretary shinseki and my appointed investigatsecretary. as the commander in chief, i have the honor of standing with the men and women from every moment of service from the moment they take the oath to when the troops prepare to deploy, to afghanistan, where they put their lives on the line for our security, to their best side as our wounded warriors are fighting to recover from terrible injuries, and the most stirring moments of my presidency have been going to walter reed or bethesda or bagram and meeting the troops who have left a part of themselves on the battlefield. and their spirit and determination to recover and often to serve again is always an inspiration. these men and women and the families are the best that our country has to offer. they have done their duty, and they ask nothing more than that this country does ours and they uphold the sacred trust to all who have served. so when i hear the allegations