cycle." "now" with alec wagner starts now. quarantined in texas and outbreak in west africa and no containment yet of the ebola virus. it's thursday, october 2nd and this is "now". >> it really is scary. it's just so close to home. ♪ ♪ >> i'm concerned about those children in that apartment. >> as many as 100 people. >> who are low risk, no risk and high risk. >> who may have had contact with ebola patient thomas eric duncan. >> you hear about the missteps that occurred at this hospital in dallas. >> totally blew it by sending them home. >> the man's nephew told us the hospital put more people at risk. >> i called cdc because he wasn't getting the appropriate care. >> it's important not to have a blame game. it's the situation where you think it would be obvious. let me check you a little bit. >> how hard is it to spread the disease. >> in this part of africa, it is out of control. >> five people an hour in sierra

leone contracting the disease. >> would you leave liberia? >> the u.s. has sent 3,000 u.s. forces over to liberia to help. >> our doctors, scientists. >> what happens if it mutates and becomes like the flu. you cannot get it casually and you must come into contact with bodily fluids. all eyes are on texas today where just in the last hour officials from the dallas county health department as well as the city and its schools briefed reporters on the ebola patient currently being treated at texas health presbyterian hospital. giving an update on the situation and the contact tracing, officials ryed to reassure texas residents that the ebola virus is not something that is easy to contract. >> this is not like the flu. it's not something where it spreads broadly through the community. >> you can't contract this unless you have contact with somebody that has shown signs of

having this. >> officials are now assessing about 100 people who may have come into contact with mr. curvi duncan, but only a handful are being isolated and monitored by health officials. those include four of his family members who have been asked to stay quarantined in their homes with no visitors. none of the individuals are symptomatic. joining me is from the university of pennsylvania and outer of reinventing american health care, dr. zeke emmanuel and from children's hospital, dr. otez. let me start with you since you are familiar with what is happening in texas. how confident are you in mr. duncan's treatment given the the fact that a family member says that she told nurses, health practitioners twice that he had been in the virus zone and of course, nothing was done. he was turned away and given antibiotics? >> now we clearly have a diagnosis and he is receiving

appropriate supportive care. it's not clear whether he's receiving any of the new interventions that are out there such as new drugs that are increasingly becoming available for ebola virus, but i think right now i have a lot of confidence in our federal and state health agencies. this is what the cdc is very good at doing which is isolating and quarantining infections and tracing down contacts and isolating them and ensuring that the epidemic will not progress. so i have complete confidence and as the cdc director first said in the news conference after the story broke that the likelihood that this is going to create an epidemic of ebola in dallas or elsewhere in texas is highly remote. >> let's talk about quarantine, dr. emman queuelemmanuel. there are differing opinions as to whether they did the right thing. what is your opinion on the matter some?

>> look. the reason for car an eening someone is to prevent spread to other people. the problem in west africa is if you quarantine a large group of people it's very hard to maintain that quarantine and you're putting people who are at high risk with people who aren't at high risk and also those people, as we've seen tragically in sierra leone and liberia don't really have access to good health care facilities and the proper care like mr. duncan has in texas or anyone else who, god forbid, gets the disease would have a well-developed country. so in that kind of situation you do get a lot of people becoming very upset and violent and they feel like they're being quarantined in a place where they're almost inevitably anything to get the disease if. they don't have it to start with and that is's perfectly understandable response. in the case of texas it's a very

narrow group of people to observe them to make sure that they don't develop the disease and don't become infectious themselves and there are people who had close contact with mr. duncan and it was not just casual. i think we're talking about two different circumstances. >> narrow quarantine versus state quarantine, as it were. >> a whole community or a whole city. >> i would agree. we're looking at two completely different settings. we are not going see anything like the horrific scenes that we've seen in liberia in dallas and texas and we had a whole intact to be able to identify contacts and isolate them accordingly and snuff out this epidemic which i imagine should happen -- >> look at nigeria, a country's whose health system has been

able to contain the outbreak there. >> zeke, that's because the gates foundation and there were some emergency there were some emergency institutions, if you will, already in place and transferred to ebola response centers and in that way the infrastructure seemed like it was better than other west african countries. >> it's not better than western europe, that's my point. >> yeah. certainly. dr. hotez, let me ask you, i ask the quarantine question in some part because there say concern in this country about why passengers, why are there still flights going back and forth between the u.s. and these countries and certain airlines have discontinued flights to liberia, while we are told that quarantining an entire country is good for not only preventing the entire virus, but in terms of what impact it has on the country's recovery and it could be devastating and sort of

cutting flight paths and saying, we're not going to sort of service this part of the world would seem to suggest that well is some merit in quarantine. >> even if you were to -- it's a very good question, but even if you were to stop direct flights from the three major affected west african countries. remember, this individual, the index case flew from liberia to brussels. >> right. >> to washington and then to dallas. so it's very complicated to regulate that. while you have an individual on an airplane who is not sick, the risk of transmitting the infection to passengers is essentially zero. and restricting flights is a tricky matter and not something that's easily done and not something that makes sense from an infectious disease perspective. >> looking at the flight path is sort of a case study of just how difficult it is to control something like this in a

globalized world. >> go ahead. >> even if you restricted flights, there's trucking. so someone could move from liberia to senegal. get on a plane in senegal. you're not going to restrict all of africa. one needs to be a little more judicious than just keep them there. >> that's also not only air flight. remember a significant percentage of the tankers fly under a liberian flag and have liberian personnel working on major tankers coming into various ports including the port of houston and they're emerging with the expansion of the canal and some of the largest ports in the country. it's not easy. >>. >> let me ask you, zeke, about the question of fear. >> in terms of contagion, it's between hepatitis c and hiv and it is not, by far, the most transmissible virus and because

of the sort of the the deadly nature of it and the the violent aspects of the disease, there is a lot of fear around it, and i guess i wonder from the sort of epidemic perspective how critical it is to maintain calm. rand paul suggested that we should rethink sending over 3,000 u.s. health officials to deal with the conflict in west africa because what may happen when they get back on ships and planes to come back to the united states. one assumes that that is not upon hadful in e helpful if tere national discussion. >> it is a fearful skis. lots of these diseases that lead to vomiting, diarrhea and blood coming out are fearful. we do understand that will be a natural reaction of people and

we don't stoke fear and we have one person in the united states out of 310 million people. we have an excellent functioning health care system for containing it although actually this case illustrates the basic communication between doctors and nurses, but we shouldn't get, you know, hysterical about it and i think the hysteria is, as you point out quite counterproductive and we need to be rational about it it and rational that an outbreak in the united states while not impossible was extremely remote and furthermore, those 3,000 troops that are there will be properly equipped and i am sure the military's anticipating that they'll be isolated before they're -- to make sure they're not in infectious before they return. we have that under control and we know how to handle that and we should not be fearmongering in this country because this is not epidemic flu and it's not

the flu of 1918 which killed people around the world. a very different situation. >> dr. zeke emmannel and peter hotez, thank you for your time? thank you. after the break, you cannot make it up. julia pierson reportedly wanted protection surrounding the president to feel more inviting like, quote, disney world. we'll discuss the agency's problems and whether new leadership may solve them. plus, buried in a news cycle of scandals and uncertainty and threats there is actually some really pretty good news today. strong new numbers on the economy and health care coverage in this country. the good word is ahead on "now."

ameriprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you have enough money to live life on your terms? i sure hope so. with healthcare costs, who knows. umm... 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. start building your confident retirement today.

security is super tight here, john. i tried to enter through the

north portico, but the the steps were mysteriously covered in ice. as i slipped i grabbed on to a doorknob which to my surprise was scaldingly hot, so i tried the back entrance, but when i entered the door a bucket of glue fell on my head causing me to stumble into a trip wire that activated a feather canon. >> that was a unique presidential security suggestion from "the daily show," home alone, the weiss. new details are emerging about how poorly run the secret service has been ahead of the break-in by an army vet. in the series of withering indictments, agents who have sworn to take a bullet and the family have little faith in the wisdom and direction of the seniormost leaders. under now former director julia pierson staffing shortages have grown so severe that the agency had to fly in field agents from

across the country for two-week temporary details paying their travel, hotel and per diem costs. pierson also rejected an internal recommendation for boosted security around the perimeter of the white house and she regularly accommodated the white house staff wishes for lower security levels over the warnings of her own tactical teams. at one point ahead of the presidential summit with african leaders, the secret service chief reportedly told staff we need to be more like disney world. we need to be more friendly, inviting. today the white house announced a retired secret service agent joseph clancy will officially begin as interim director on monday. he will serve as corporate director of comcast which is the parent company of nbc universal since 2011. is it a new day? don't hold your breath. according to one longtime agent, chancy is one of the most genteel guys, but he doesn't like conflict. they need to clean house, he is not the guy to do it.

joining me now is a white house correspondent, as a member of the white house press corps i can't believe i'm actually going to ask this question, but i will. is what has happened here a choice of presidential can access over presidential security and i mean presidential access in the sense of personal sense and not, of course, in the media sense. >> well, look, you know, well's always a will will bahhance to be struck here. you mentioned the issue of secret service seating to this or that. that's always going to happen in the white house. that's always going to happen in a push and pull wane the president and his staff to take connected to the people that he represents and the secret service which is trying to protect him. they'd put him in a sealed container for four years or eight years, right? finding the balance is a tricky thing. >> you know this administration. this president in particular has wanted to stay connected to the outside world whether this was

the blackberry discussions at the beginning of the administration. he wanted to keep his black berry is other folks in the administration said you can't keep the blackberry or the fact that he seems most at home and happiest and thriving when he's at home interfacing with people. >> well, look, truman called the white house the crown jewel of the american penal system. you feel like you're stuck inside this building for most of your life and getting out is a great treat. that's why so many of them like to go to camp david and that's why so many take vacations in ranches or martha's vineyard because they want to get away and it's understandable. it's a very constrained lifestyle in some ways and the secret service is responsible for finding ways for making it happen and making it safe for them to do, but you will always have this push and pull and there's natural tension there. >> there's the question of fading institutional memory because after the the attempted assassination or the attempt on ronald reagan's life, secret service kind of -- there was new momentum and energy behind their

work, and i think new deference to what they were doing, but that seems to have faded and it jeffrey robinson in "the washington post" points out periods in the last few decades as that sense of vigilance has a atrophie atrophied. a few years into bush's first term, institutional memory of the reagan assassination attempt faded and the first sign of this came in 2003 when george w. bush became the first president in history to land on an aircraft carrier in a fixed-wing plane, a moment that all of us remember well, peter, the mission accomplished moment. the idea that an american president would risk his life in such a fashion was not something that would have been contemplated even ten years before. >> president obama had a secret service agent riding behind him in the plane and apparently was pretty, you know, nervous about the whole thing for obvious

reasons, but in the end the president does decide what he or she wants to do and the secret service can make recommendations and they can give advice, but you will see in the end the president will sometimes override them. there was another incident during bush's time that i remember well and i was in the former soviet republic of russia, they overwhelmed the magnetometers and the screening checkpoints that had been set up by the secret service and the guy ended up throwing a combrgr at the the president and fortunately the thing didn't go off. when you see the secret service get its game going again when it it feels the sharp, you know, the sharpness of a misthreat or a threat that could have been much, much worse. >> let me ask you, peter, in terms of the relationship between the first family and the secret service, one of the things that this administration has underscored this week is that they have access to sort of the innermost details of the president's life and as such, i

think this president and the first family and the white house to some degree have been reluctant to excoriate the secret service and also because the job that they're doing is a very, very tough one with long hours and thankless in many ways. in your time having covered the white house have you sensed a difference in the way certain administrations and certain presidents interface with their agents. >> that's a good question. first, let me say that the agents i've seen over the years are truly, really professional people. i've never had a bad experience with them. i think they take their jobs very, very seriously. that didn't mean they're capable of mistakes, everybody is. you're right. the relationship with the president is key to making it successful and different presidents have different relationships. should of them probably resent the constant presence more than others might. during the clinton years it became a big issue because special prosecutors subpoenaed

secret service agents to auction about bill clinton and monica lewinsky. will this person end up telling secrets on me and do i keep them as close as they need to be? these are questions that will be answered by each president and each new special agent in charge. >> on the flip side, i would imagine certain presidents are easier to monitor than others. bill clinton, notorious night owl, crazy hours and a fly by night if terms of his social habit, if you will. president obama and george w. bush, family men. >> lyndon johnson used to speed up -- he would drive his truck around his ranch at super speed trying to lose them in a way and you hear the kids trying to ditch their agents. i don't think it's an easy thing to be a secret service agent. >> that it is not. peter baker, "the new york times," thank you for joining us. >> coming up, umbrellas up.

hong kong protesters are standing their ground even as chief executive refuses to step down. more on that coming up next. there comes a time in everyone's life when you want more.

like a new meticulously engineered german sedan. finely crafted. exactingly precise. desire for such things often outpaces one's means. until now. hey matt, new jetta? yeah.

introducing lots of new. the new volkswagen jetta. isn't it time for german engineering? >> hong kong's leader says he's going hoenowhere. leung chun-ying awaiting the answer that he resign by midnight local time. in a press conference moments before that deadline, declined to step down. he opened dialogue with protesters and called for an adherence to the law. >> i appeal and have been appealing to protesters that we should all follow the basic law. that we should work with in the

national people's conference. >> right now it is early morning in hong kong and the gesture appears to have headed off an escalation. police had warned of serious consequences if protesters try to surround or occupy government buildings and something demonstrators had threatened doing if leung doesn't resign. hours into the announcement that he will stay, protesters have remained massed, but they have remained peaceful. as the leader said, quote, we must create the biggest possible room for dialogue to take place. just ahead, this time last year things looked pretty bad for obamacare. >> the federal website crashed. >> we were on the website and guess what? people got messages like this one at health care.gov. >> the white house is still trying to fix the glitches a lot of people are encountering. >> glitches. a year later the president's health care plan is not only working, it's kind of maybe a giant success. that's ahead. goodnight. goodnight.

for those kept awake by pain the night is anything but good. introducing new aleve pm. the first one with a sleep aid. plus the 12 hour strength of aleve for pain relief that can last until the am. now you can have a good night and a... good morning! new aleve pm. for a better am. an unprecedented program arting busithat partners businesses with universities across the state. for better access to talent, cutting edge research, and state of the art facilities. and you pay no taxes for ten years. from biotech in brooklyn, to next gen energy in binghamton, to manufacturing in buffalo... startup-ny has new businesses popping up across the state. see how startup-ny can help your business grow at startup.ny.gov

in the country. we operate just like a city, and that takes a lot of energy. we use natural gas throughout the airport - for heating the entire terminal, generating electricity on-site, and fueling hundreds of vehicles. we're very focused on reducing our environmental impact. and natural gas is a big part of that commitment.

just hours ago president obama saw to turn the page on a series of sprawling crises by heralding economic success under his leadership. part of his closing argument in the final stretch until the midterm elections. >> unemployment down, jobs up, manufacturing growing, deficits cut by more than half, high school graduation's up, college enrollment is up, clean energy production up, financial system more stable, health care costs, rising at a slower rate. across the board the trend lines have moved the in the right direction. >> but the economy has always posed somewhat of a political challenge for this president. while unemployment has dropped to 6.1% the lowest since he

entered office, 6.1%, everyone and the economy has grown at a healthy 4.6% clip. 4.6% in the second quarter of this year, celebrating the gains comes at the risk of appearing insensitive to the many still struggling, a problem that the president itself readily acknowledged. >> it is indisputable that our economy is stronger today than when i took office. it's also indisputable that millions of americans don't yet feel enough of the benefits of a growing economy where it matters most and that's in their own lives. and these truths aren't incompatible. >> so with the mid-terms looming the president is looking to fire up the base, parts of which may be less than enthusiastic as the president readies to address a congressional caucus, the washington post reports he will do so amid growing evidence that obama's admission to wait is hurting democrats and it comes as dozens of protesters plan to

picket obama and they allege a, quote, brutal betrayal of latinos, but at the same time, politico reports that there has been mow backlash from latino activists and that despite promised protests and political retribution if president obama didn't take executive action this fall. instead, they're turning out latino voters for democrats. joining me is heather mcknee and washington bureau chief for "time" michael scherer. let me start with you from a white house perspective. how worried is this white house about the latino parts of their base? >> i think they're worried. i don't think they're that worried in this election. there were aren't that many districts or states that there were closely contested races in 2014 that were going to turn on the hispanic vote. will colorado senate race is sort of the one exception. they were more worried that if you took this executive action now or two weeks ago that it

would be a huge motivator for the republican base which could swamp them across the board, but that would be the decider. i think by 2016, though, democrats definitely need to get latinos onboard and they continue to be concerned about that and that's yet president will take after the election. >> immigration is a publicly fraught issue for this administration. the president keeps announcing the deadlines here. perhaps in an effort to woo john boehner to do anything, but also because i think he feels personally compelled to do so and those deadlines pass and there's a sense of anger and frustration understandably by some in the community. luis gutierrez has been full-throated in his criticism of this and i want to quote him, he's quoted in the washington post saying we will not wait until after november if it was an issue affecting the gay and lesbian community, if this was about the women's reproductive rights, if this was about

minimum wage, if this was about a series of other issues the democratic party would come together. >> i don't know what he's saying is the difference between the latino community and others. i think if you take a step back and look at how important this issue is to the country, how much this could be a boon to our economy, how important it would be to just the sense of fabric and communities, how much this would be a boon for workers' rights and for families and the fact that actually the core outlines of what the president has been proposing are extremely popular across the ideological spectrum. i do think that sometimes democrats get really cynical and don't understand how much they have the high political ground and are frankly afraid from the sort of radicalism of the far right of the republican party and are missing the fact that a lot of everyday republicans more toward the center want to see some sanity in our immigration laws. >> michael, i mean, this is all about base politics to some degree. the notion that the president take an executive action would have fired up the conservative base more than let's say,

perhaps, a lawsuit and could change the balance of power in the senate in november. at the same time the point that the post makes is that in a season when democratic turnout is always a problem, literally every vote counts and so, you know, taking that executive action maybe it would fire up the conservative base and maybe they're fired up already and it would certainly get some latino, democratic base supporters out to the polls who might not otherwise come. >> it would, and that would be the benefit and the issue is whether cost would be greater. the american people have been behind it for a number of years now and republicans have been on the wrong side of the issue and i don't think the president has made the case that this executive action right now is what the country needs to be doing and i think he still feeds to make that sale to the american people and part of the backlash that they feared was among independent voters upon. you're taking an equation and we'll secure the border and we'll create a path to

citizenship and we'll solve the big problem that everyone wants to solve and we'll just legalize this group of people, any i think that shift that they'll support and we'll legalize a bunch of people. we don't know which people who are here without documentation right now is one that will be troubling for the weiss because i don't think if there is a poll that asks the question that way if woe take a half-step measure here there is a broad support for that than there is for comprehensive issue. >> that seems to be the step that they'll take in 40 days and some unspecified amount of time after the midterm elections. is that not right sonot right? >> i don't know that for sure, but it's been winked and nodded at the advocacy group. the white house hasn't handed around a piece of paper that i've seen, but i think that's the expectation that there will will be some sort of expansion of what they did during the

election year giving, work visas to certain people, allowing certain people to live in the country illegally and in the context of the broader comprehensive reform there's enormous public support for that, absent that there will be much less support. >> the white house did something this week that nobody has focused on which is this new sort of refugee plan for children from central american countries and i think it's specifically targeted towards it's encouraging them to apply for refugee status from their home countries. >> right. that seems like a good idea except the number of refugee visas for kids from central america and latin america, is 4,000 which is a lower number than the last fiscal year. while it's half a step for war, it's half a step back. >> if you look at the sort of muted reaction on the right and it's been, well, this is going to encourage so many children. >> it's going to discourage

them. >> exactly, there are fewer visas. i think this is that issue when you had children coming unaccompanied was one of the saddest moments of a lack of leadership on both sides where it really could have humanized the issue of immigration. you really could have actually reached out to the american people and said that this is actually -- you can imagine your own children being forced to do this and it was such a political hot potato and it was a wasted opportunity, i think. >> we have a lot more to talk about including the very good news of today. heather mcgee and michael scherer stay with me. we'll have that and the rapidly changing politics of obamacare. one year to the day after the glitches, millions of people are insured under the affordable care act. that's next. [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, we know in the cyber world, threats are always evolving. at first, we were protecting networks. then, we were protecting the transfer of data.

and today it's evolved to infrastructure... ♪ ...finance... and military missions. we're constantly innovating to advance the front line in the cyber battle, wherever it takes us. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. then you may be looking for help in choosing the right plan for your needs. so don't wait. call now. whatever your health coverage needs, unitedhealthcare can help you find the right plan. open enrollment to choose your medicare coverage begins october 15th and ends december 7th. so now is the best time to review your options and enroll in a plan. medicare has two main parts, parts a and b, to help cover a lot of your expenses, like hospital care and doctor visits. but they still won't cover all of your costs. now's the time to learn about unitedhealthcare plans

that may be right for you. are you looking for something nice and easy? like a single plan that combines medicare parts a and b with prescription drug coverage? a medicare advantage plan can give you doctor, hospital, and prescription drug coverage all in one plan for a low monthly premium or, in some areas, no plan premium at all. plus, with the pharmacy saver program, you can get prescriptions for as low as $1.50 at thousands of pharmacies in retail locations like these, all across the country. call now to see if our medicare advantage plans are available in your area. maybe you'd just like help paying for your prescriptions. consider a part d prescription drug plan. it may help reduce the cost of your prescription drugs. with over 30 years of medicare experience, unitedhealthcare can connect you with the right people and programs, offer smart ways to save, and give you helpful tools for a better healthcare experience.

remember, open enrollment ends december 7th. whether it's our medicare advantage plans or our part d prescription drug plans, call unitedhealthcare to learn about medicare plans that may be right for you. don't wait. call now. o0 c1 i've never seen swanything so soft!tness... charmin! take a closer look at charmin ultra soft and you'll love what you see. not only can you use less, but you can actually see the softness in our comfort cushions. plus charmin ultra soft is so much more absorbent you can use up to four times less. what are you boys looking at? my main squeeze. rotorooter approved. charmin is clog-free or it's free. there's a reason fewer republicans you hear them

running around about obamacare. because while good, affordable health care might seem like a feined threat to the freedom to the american people on fox news, it turns out it's working out pretty well in the real world. >> feined threat. president obama gave republicans a reality check on the aca, a law contrary to republican myth-making is actually covering more americans while at the same time reducing the deficit and slowing down the rising cost of health care. back with me are heather mcgee with dmost and health care. heather, it's happening! 10 million people have health insurance. the health care costs are rising at historically low rates, premiums are barely rising and no death spiral. a winged bat in the night has not transformed into the vampire with the head obamacare to suck your life away from you.

this is a huge success story. >> yeah. i think it's really important for us to celebrate this and i thank you for doing that, giving air time to the successes. >> we sure don't give enough air time to the successes. >> i think we'll look back and look back right now and know that this has been a historic success. it is saving people lives and it is saving people money and allowing people to take risks that they would not have been able to do without the security of the affordable health care coverage. i was actually at a gathering of community volunteers and advocates who had been part of the sort of fanning out and door knocking and saying to their neighbors there's this new benefit that you can have and i think obamacare is saving something more than lives and money. it's saving, i think a little bit of faith at the community level and not in the national sort of discourse because the advocates were saying that they were able to tell a struggling mom, this is actually that something that we as a nation have done together that can help

transform your life. >> certain parts of us. >> we as a nation have done and it it can help improve your life and actually, for most people there hasn't been something like that from the federal government in their entire life time that they've really seen that has changed for the better and the more that we can tell that story, the more we'll look back and see that this is actually a transformational piece of legislation. >> michael, it is a year to the day, i believe, from the beginning of glitches and look how -- look how it's shaken out. at the same time the president was delivering some really positive economic news, whether it's 6.1% unemployment or the fact that the economy grew by over 4% in the last quarter. i mean, it is a big deal and yet the narrative around this administration is, you know, 49% of americans still believe the country is in a recession. the feeling that things are getting better which in many ways has to do with wages and

sort of workplace environments and hiring conditions, things that the president doesn't necessarily control, the narrative is still out there that he's done a very bad job. well, the reality is that people don't feel they're getting ahead. obamacare is an enormous success story compared to the worst fears and we're still a pew years away from knowing how big a success story it is on paper and we don't know how much of these lower costs have to do with other factors and we don't know how they'll react when not getting the same backup. >> and you don't know how these court rulings that they cannot be applied will affect the longer term health of the law, but still, mr. wet blanket, there is good news about this health care law. >> i was in raleigh yesterday at the republican senate candidate there and there was a diner that was talking to an independent voter who was eating and didn't come for the event and he said

i'll vote for him because of obamacare and i'm upset with kagan about obamacare. he's totally convinced that if he has to change jobs to another employer that will offer him insurance his premiums will go up because of obamacare. it's probably not going to happen. there's not a lot of factualis bahhis to that, but it does inform that the white house has lost control of the narrative. >> yes that people think obamacare is hurting them, it is hurting them as we understand it right now. >> if you talk about narrative and messaging, republicans have been so concerned and totally unrelenting in the spin that this is the worst law ever, obamacare will kill people as michele bachmann said and the democrats have not competed on that terrain. >> and also because they're not competing on the sort of underlying foundational terrain which is being able to use the law to sort of divide makers and takers, right? so someone who is employed and sitting in a diner is saying that my health care costs will

go up is because obamacare is something for somebody else who doesn't deserve be it and not someone who is employed. >> heather mcgee and michael scherer, it's always good to see you guys. >> coming up, a major development in ferguson. the grand jury looking into the officer who shot michael brown is now being investigated for misconduct. that is just ahead. what's in a can of del monte green beans? ( ♪ ) grown in america. picked and packed at the peak of ripeness. with no artificial ingredients. del monte. bursting with life.

your customers, our financing.. your aspirations, our analytics. your goals, our technology. introducing synchrony financial, bringing new meaning to the word partnership. banking. loyalty. analytics. synchrony financial. enagage with us. football fans like meat clearly, i am a football fan. up your game with the new ultimate meats pizza. a large for $12 dollars. add a mega chocolate chip cookie for just $5 dollars more. better ingredients. better pizza. better football. papa john's. ugh. heartburn. did someone say burn? try alka seltzer reliefchews. they work just as fast and taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm. amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews.

weighing an indictment for officer darren wilson in the shooting death of michael brown, a grand jury in ferguson, missouri, was set to make its decision as early as next month, but now a tweet could derail the entire process. we'll tell you why coming up next, but first, josh lipton has the cnbc market wrap. hi, josh. >> hi. alex. here's a look at how stocks stand anything into tomorrow. u.s. stocks finished little

moved in today's trade as investors reacted to an unexpected drop in weekly jobless claims ahead of the monthly jobs report. the dow dropped three points and the s&p 500 finished flat. the nasdaq up eight points. that's from cnbc, first in business worldwide. uhhh. 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. a man who doesn't stand still. but jim has afib, atrial fibrillation an irregular heartbeat, not caused by a heart valve problem. that puts jim at a greater risk of stroke. for years, jim's medicine tied him to a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested.

but now, with once-a-day xarelto®, jim's on the move. jim's doctor recommended xarelto®. like warfarin, xarelto® is proven effective to reduce afib-related stroke risk. but xarelto® is the first and only once-a-day prescription blood thinner for patients with afib not caused by a heart valve problem, that doesn't require regular blood monitoring. so jim's not tied to that monitoring routine. gps: proceed to the designated route. not today. for patients currently well managed on warfarin, there is limited information on how xarelto® and warfarin compare in reducing the risk of stroke. xarelto® is just one pill a day taken with the evening meal. plus, with no known dietary restrictions, jim can eat the healthy foods he likes. don't stop taking xarelto®, rivaroxaban, unless your doctor tells you to. while taking xarelto®, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer for bleeding to stop. xarelto® may increase your risk of bleeding if you take certain medicines. xarelto® can cause serious bleeding,

and in rare cases, may be fatal. get help right away if you develop unexpected bleeding, unusual bruising, or tingling. if you have had spinal anesthesia while on xarelto®, watch for back pain or any nerve or muscle related signs or symptoms. do not take xarelto® if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. tell your doctor before all planned medical or dental procedures. before starting xarelto®, tell your doctor about any conditions such as kidney, liver, or bleeding problems. jim changed his routine. ask your doctor about xarelto®. once-a-day xarelto® means no regular blood monitoring, no known dietary restrictions. for information and savings options, download the xarelto® patient center app, call 1-888-xarelto, or visit goxarelto.com. therlike a new meticulouslyone's engineered german sedan. finely crafted. exactingly precise. desire for such things often outpaces one's means. until now.

hey matt, new jetta? yeah. introducing lots of new. the new volkswagen jetta. isn't it time for german engineering? could possible misconduct derail the grand jury that is investigating the shooting death of michael brown? the answer to that could rest on 140 characters or less. the st. louis county prosecutor's office says it's looking into a tweet posted yesterday. it reads i know someone sitting on the grand jury of this case. there isn't enough at this point to warrant an arrest. that twitter account, the susan nichols has since been deleted, but the user had previously tweeted support for darren wilson. wilson, of course, is the white ferguson officer who shot unarmed black 10 teenager.

the grand jury has been meeting since late august. those grand jury proceedings are supposed to be secret and if there's been a breach the case that has spurred weeks of protests in ferguson may have to begin again with a brand now panel. joining me now is professor of law of georgetown university, paul butler. thanks so much for joining me. what is the likelihood in your mind that a new grand jury is going have to be empanelled? >> so there are two clear choices and one is that they can start the whole process over again and the other is that they can kick this guy off the grand jury. grand juries is a majority vote. all they need is nine votes for an indictment and officer wilson might be on his way to prison. >> how frequent does this happen, paul? given in the age of social media and constant communication, one has to think that it's really hard to hold a secret grand jury especially for an extended period of time in such a high-profile case. >> grand jurors tend to take

their responsibilities very seriously and they are told this is totally confidential and an investigation of someone who we presume is innocent and you can go to prison if you violate the oath of confidentiality. how ironic would it be if the criminal case that comes out of ferguson is one of the grand jurors who is supposed to be doing the the investigation. >> ironic and not at all satisfying for the folks calling for justice for michael brown. to that end, the way in which this jury is getting information, they are hearing live from witnesses. that is really unique, and i wonder, you know, how much sort of -- whether you think that's questionable at all, the way in which the grand jury is getting information about michael brown's death. >> alex, i don't get what the prosecutor is doing. nobody thinks this is an easy case and he doesn't seem to be giving them any legal advice. he's dumping a whole lot of information and data on them and they've got to decide whether it's manslaughter, negligent homicide or whether it's murder and he's supposed to be their

legal adviser and he's one of the many concerns whether he's investigating this case fully and fearless. >> doesn't that seem to be if we're just playing armchair analysts here, in some part mccullough trying to wash his hands or gain distance of this, look, i gave them everything. it was up to them. i am not at fault if there is no indictment. if he really wanted to prosecute this case, he didn't have to go the grand jury route. he can do what's file an information and then officer wilson has to answer the charges, but he said no, there should be a commuting investigation and he used the grand jury. there does seem to be an indication that he doesn't want a prosecution and he is using the grand jury to blame it on them. that's not unusual for prosecutors to do in controversial, high-profile cases like this. >> you know, because of the questions around mccullough's intentions and what will ultimately happen with the grand jury, a lot of pressure and

hopes have been pinned to the doj civil rights investigation. we know last night the washington reports that the doj is unlikely to bring civil rights charges to zimmerman. eric holder, soon to be former attorney general has launched a similar investigation in ferguson. do you think the standard of proof is too high and weir unlikely to see a civil rights charge? >> it is more likely a civil rights case against george zimmerman for killing trayvon martin in this case where we have a police officer who is a much more sympathetic defendant than george zimmerman, the neighborhood watch guy. importantly, though, there is another federal investigation in ferguson, not of wilson, but the whole police department. in terms of people who want justice, that's the best place to look that there could be a prosecution and investigation of them for racial prowill filing, for excessive use of force. >> at least there are other opportunities and not the path of justice has not been closed off entirely, georgetown law professor paul butler.

thank you for your time. >> great to be here. >> that is all for now. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. eastern. "the ed show" is up next. good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show." live from new york, let's get to work! student loan debt is at an all-time high. >> student loans -- >> like a graduate tax. >> whether college is worth the price of admission. >> we only finished paying off our student loans about eight years ago. >> [ bleep ] college experience because you may be paying for it for the rest of your life. >> they want a fair shot at an affordable education. >> more and more takers than makers in america. ♪ ♪ >> good to have you with us today, folks. thank for watching. >> i want to start with a subject that i think a lot of people, parents and kids can relate to. next week i'm going to ben