responsible for those drone flights. >> reporter: those who have sent drones up to give chase like local sheriff's departments say they have never been able to see where they come from or where they land. a mayor chased this one down in his car and thinks the military should consider shooting them down. he says 11 drones have flown over military site in new jersey recently. >> those drones should have been blown out of the sky. >> reporter: as more people start to look up at the night sky, the fbi is asking anyone with credible video to send them in for analysis. >> it's 2024. are you telling me in this day and age, somebody can fly drones of this size, the size of a car, if not bigger, and we have no idea who is doing it? >> for now, another growing mystery in the sky. gadi schwartz, nbc news, morristown, new jersey. >> that does it for this hour. our coverage continues with katy tur reports now.

good to be with you. i'm katy tur. matt gaetz may be the exception, not the rule. as trump's nominees are starting to get a much more friendly welcome among senate republicans. even the controversial ones. pete hegseth looks to have turned his fate around, and kash patel is being, quote, well received. even tulsi gabbard has a decent chance. in fact, a very good one, according to senator mike rounds who spoke to punchbowl news. how much of this is the senators' own independent judgment, how much is it respecting historical norms and how much is it bending to pressure from maga? "the new york times" writes, the people close to president-elect have been telling him that this was a moment that would test his power as he prepared to return to washington. it would be catastrophic, they argued, if he allowed republican senators like joni ernst of iowa to obstruct his mandate. and trump himself implies to "time" magazine in his interview as person of the year, he was

still open to anything including recess appointments. quote, i really don't care how they get them approved as long as they get them approved, trump said, adding, quote, i think i have a very good relationship with senator thune and the others. all of them, i think, almost everybody, many of them, i was very instrumental in getting them elected. joining us now, nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard, nbc news capitol hill correspondent ryan nobles, punchbowl news cofounder and msnbc political contributor jake sherman, and "new york times" opinion columnist david french. i want to start with the hill. a lot of the reporting i just cited there comes from punchbowl news, jake. what is your sense, we can take them one by one, but what's your sense of the totality of trump's nominees? is anybody going to find themselves in the same position matt gaetz did? >> you said it right, at this point, it doesn't look like that. it's early. it's only december, only december 12th.

so you know, we'll have to see how it unfolds. a disastrous hearing in which democrats find some sort of political or policy cudgel to divide republicans could change the tone and tenor of this debate. could change the tone and tenor of the nomination, but as of right now, for the folks that are up here on capitol hill, that's all the people you named, rfk, i believe, is starting in earnest next monday. they do seem to be heading in the right direction. you have gotten approving comments, and listen, there is a push and pull here. the senate has an advise and consent responsibility to give their stamp of approval to the president's nominees. but a lot of republicans believe donald trump should be able to have the people that he wants in the positions that he wants them. and that's where we find ourselves. and that is true, that trump did get a lot of these folks

elected. he did not get john thune elected. in fact, he said of john thune that he was a rino who should be primaried. of course, that didn't work out. john thune comfortably won his primary and won his general election. so that's where we find ourselves today. >> ryan, what about the realities for john thune? donald trump's been pretty clear that he wants his nominees confirmed, and today, when that "time" magazine interview came out, he even said that he doesn't care how it happens. he just wants them confirmed. so if he does meet a road block, john thune, with joni ernst or susan collins or lisa murkowski on a pete hegseth or tulsi gabbard or kash patel, does john thune stomach the idea? does he feel open to the idea of recess appointments? >> the answer to that question today, katy, is no.

until the question becomes yes. and i do think that we are in a position right now where perhaps the most compelling story line of the next congress is going to be this push and pull between the republican majority in the senate and the white house. and how willing are they to stand up to donald trump and fully utilize their responsibilities, constitutional balance of power and coequal branch of government, and use this advise and consent role in the way that the constitution authored it. i do think that john thune is in many ways between a rock and a hard place here because he's no doubtedly going to have a ton of pressure put on him by donald trump to make sure these nominees are all confirmed but he also has quite a few headstrong members of his conference who are not just going to roll over and say yes to everything donald trump does. i think the way this confirmation process plays itself out may be a window into what we can expect that this process is going to play out

through at least the first two years of this second term of donald trump. it could foreshadow a whole numberf other topics in which he's going to need republican votes on a wide range of things and will he always be guaranteed he's going to get them. there's no doubt things are much better for pete hegseth. there's no doubt that we're getting encouraging signs for people like tulsi gabbard and robert f. kennedy jr., but we have to keep in mind they can only lose three votes, and for each one of these potential candidates, there is very much a universe in which they could lose three votes. they still have to go through a hearing, through fbi background checks. there's a lot that can happen between now and when the vote takes place. >> i'm curious about "the new york times" reporting that he's got folks around him saying, listen, you can't let these senators tell you who you can have and who you cannot have. couple that with the deep pockets that elon musk has and his ability as he's promised publicly, to go on the airwaves

and try to pressure these republicans in their home states, republicans who, you know, have an election coming up in a couple years, some of them. what is the strategy there? is the strategy it's my way or the highway and i'll use my cudgel if i need to? >> i was talking to somebody yesterday who is familiar with the trump transition team's view on this right now. the ait was framed is it's in donald trump's interest to have a decent working relationship with people like joni ernst and if you all but throw her off the cliff and cut off her line to the white house, she and others could pose a difficult challenge for them when it comes to legislation. budget, other issues that are important to donald trump. so if they can at least make it clear, though, that if you don't go along with this, right, that it's not going to work out for you in the long run, then the message is all but sent here. i think that is where i try to shout out to donald trump today, while we were down at the stock

exchange, what's your message to republican senators? joni ernst? he said let's make a deal, and then just kept walking. so it's clearly for him, i think, something that he is not on social media sent any direct threats at this point in time, and they're still holding out for some hope he doesn't have to play the card. >> he hasn't been playing the social media card. he haas done that frequently in the past. that's usually the way he operates. he's been pretty quiet. >> it's interesting, really. justin trudeau is the one he's been playing tough talk with up to this point, and he's inviting president x x to come to his inauguration. >> any others invited? >> i attempted to ask him too, and he said everybody he has invited has said they are going to come. i said, does that includes president xi. you go person by person, somebody you think would be an easier person to pick up the phone and call, like joni ernst, is perhaps behind the scenes not

getting the same warm reception as others. >> david, you are a republican. a lot of these picks that donald trump has made for his cabinet, line up very much with the republican establishment. not folks who will have a hard time getting confirmed but there are a handful, kash patel, tulsi gabbard, rfk jr., even pete hegseth, that don't align with the republican establishment. donald trump is not republican establishment, as we used to know it. he's now the new version of that, the maga version of republican establishment. so how much of what we're seeing in the senate is a deference to what a president normally gets, which is the people they want around them? how much of it is personal opinion that these people are going to be okay? and how much of it is pressure from maga, pressure from the deep pockets of someone like elon musk? >> when it comes to hegseth, when it comes to rfk, to gabbard, what we are dealing with is a pressure campaign.

this pressure campaign has a single message which constitutional conservatives should know to reject immediately. and that message is, trump won. he gets his team. but that is not what the founding fathers envisioned with the advise and consent responsibility that the senate has. this is a party that is supposed to be able to quote the federalist papers, and federalist number 76, hamilton writes the advise and consent authority is, quote, an excellent check upon a spirit of oritism to prevent the appointment of unfit characters. look, rfk, gabbard, hegseth, these are loyalty picks. these are reward picks. this is the favoritism of the president for unfit characters. this is exactly when the senate is supposed to set forward and fulfill its constitutional responsibility. and trump's response is not a constitutional argument. it's a power argument. i won, might makes right, but

that's not the constitutional structure. >> what is your sense, david, of what the next, i'm not going to go four years. what the next year is going to look like with donald trump? how he's going to come in, because it does feel different than 2016, the transition into 2017. donald trump was very much out there, very loud. he was having this parade of people come to see him in bedminster and mar-a-lago, or trump tower, excuse me. this time, you know, he's ringing the bell at the nasdaq this morning. it doesn't seem like there is as much pushback against him as there certainly was the first time he got elected. >> i think that's absolutely right. and i think the reason is that he not only won the electoral college, he won in the popular vote. he doesn't have a majority of the popular vote, but he had more votes than kamala harris. so i think that's created a sense that in 2016, a lot of people saw him as, well, this was an aberration.

he was the product of the electoral college system, not the will of the people. now, you have -- you don't have that argument anymore. so you're having to address the fact that he won more in the popular vote, he won more in the electoral college. what does this say about us? and what kind of resistance is actually feasible and wise? so i think a lot of people are kind of pressing the pause button to wait and see how things unfold. and that's not going to be all that predictable, because trump doesn't have an ideology so much as he has a lot of vanity. and so what is going to be in his self-interest is how he's going to act early in his presidency. >> ryan, i want to ask you about vaccines and rfk jr., we're going to talk specifically about one of the nominees. in the "time" magazine article, donald trump says that he's going to have a discussion on vaccines with rfk jr. he says, i'm going to be listening to bobby, who i have gotten along with great and where have a lot of respect

with, having to do with food, with vaccinations, he does not disagree with vaccinations. all vaccinations. he disagrees with probably some, but we'll have it, we'll do what's good for the country. he also mentions the autism rate, which no scientific evidence that's been peer reviewed and is trustworthy links autism to vaccines. is that going to give any senators pause? the idea that donald trump really will be listening to somebody like rfk jr. on vaccines? >> i don't think there's any doubt, katy. i think robert f. kennedy jr.'s confirmation process is very fraught. he's a very controversial pick. i don't doubt that there are quite a few senators that have serious questions that are going to want to ask him serious questions about what he might do at the department of health and human services to rein in the widespread use of vaccines or to raise questions or conspiracy theories from such a powerful perch. at the forefront of the hhs. but there is also a part of robert f. kennedy jr.'s platform

that appeals to progressive democrats. you have seen senator cory booker, for instance, say some positive things about his agenda. and having to do with the processing of food and the way that the food makes its way from the farm to our tables. and things that robert f. kennedy jr. has spoke to quite a bit over the course of his advocacy. this is not a slam dunk case, and it could take some weird turns as it makes its way through the confirmation process. you could even potentially see a universe where he loses a couple of moderate republicans but maybe gains a couple progressive democrats. i'm not saying that's going to happen, but i'm saying that we should not look at that nomination in the same perspective that we're looking at some of these other nominations where it's just a donald trump loyalty pick, and it's someone that's not qualified and therefore that's why people have reservations. this is a different animal. and the way that this process could play out could surprise us. >> all right, one last thing,

this one to you, jake. is john fetterman trying to be the new joe manchin? we caught him on camera talking about meeting with pete hegseth, first democrat to meet with donald trump's defense secretary pick. >> so, from people who were apprised of that meeting, it went well. and fetterman, i would say, is not definitely in the no category on hegseth based on my reporting. that's number one. number two, a little more difficult to be joe manchin when the republicans have a 53-seat majority. but yeah, i do think he's going to line up with republicans on some policy perspectives. someone who serves with him in congress put it really well to me, when fetterman likes to be on the other side of where the crowd is, when everyone is centrist and on the right, he's on the left. when everyone is on the left, he goes to the right. it does hold up based on what we have seen of fetterman over the last year and a half or so.

listen, i think he has said he's going to 100% support elise stefanik. i assume he's going to support marco rubio. sounds like he might be able to support pete hegseth. there's a lot to dig into when it comes to john fetterman over the next couple months. >> i think we have seen he has a good handle on pennsylvania. understands the state, and is somebody trying to position himself for a longer run there, as senator, just a longer run. jake sherman, vaughn hillyard, ryan nobles, david french, thank you. still ahead, what single day record president joe biden just broke. and shortly after a promise from donald trump to pardon january 6th rioters, the hour he steps into the oval office, a long awaited doj inspector general report has now been released. what, quote, basic step it said fbi agents missed leading up to january 6th. plus, what the suspect in

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share more. today, president biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1500 people placed on home confinement during the pandemic. and pardoned 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes. it is the largest single day act of clemency in modern history.

joining us, nbc news white house correspondent mike memoli. bring us behind the scenes, why these pardons, why these commuted sentences. >> reporter: well, katy, it's interesting because as we have seen since the election, a number of democrats, a number of interest groups affiliated with the party have been calling on the president to exercise his pardon power. those calls only were amplified after he did use it for his son, hunter biden. as we see what the president did today, both in the terms of the sheer number, 1500 commutations, the most on any single day in history, but the types of cases the president is highlighting. you see the president responding to some of those calls. i really think the story of the individuals pardoned are always interesting, the ways in which we see they have contributed to their community, they have been fully reintegrated into society. they want to honor that by clearing the decks of the offenses from their record is

important, but the commutations speak to what a number of democrats have raised concern about more broadly over the last decade, especially, this idea they call masscarcerion. what the president was able to do is take the cases of 1500 of the 13,000 individuals who were transferred to home confinement because of covid-19, under a law signed by then-president donald trump, to illustrate the ways in which these nonviolent offenders given the chance to serve their sentences in home confinement rather than in the prison sentence itself, continue to be contributors to their community, acted in good faith, only 22 out of the 13,000 individuals who were transferred into home confinement had any new cases that put them back into the criminal justice system. so highlighting this number, it's about what advocates really say is an opportunity here to change the criminal justice system, to highlight the fact there is an overincarceration crisis for nonviolent offenses.

>> anyone else? is there any more commutations, are there any more commutations or pardons coming? >> i was just in the press briefing today, karine jean-pierre highlighting the fact this is the most pardons or commutations any president has issued at this point in their presidency. why is that important? usually it's the end of the presidency when they pile up more. she was asked about some of the cases we have been reporting on, potential pre-emptive pardons especially for those in the cross hairs of trump. she did not address that. did not want to get ahead of where the president is thinking there, but they did indicate that some of the broad categories of cases we see in today's pardons and commutations, especially nonviolent offenders, especially people who if they were sentenced today for the same crimes would have much lower sentences because of the reforms we have seen, especially as it relates to drug offenses. those are categories the president will continue do in the last 38 days before he leaves office. >> mike, thank you very much. the tie matches your eyes

beautifully today, my friend. thanks for being with us. >> joining us now, former communications director and spokesman for congressman hakeem jeffries, michael hardaway. what's your reaction, do you think this is the right direction for the last months and a half or so of president biden's four years? >> it's a christmas miracle. christmas is in two weeks. we all agree in a bipartisan way our criminal justice system is broken. we did the first step act several years ago in a bipartisan way. this makes the most sense for democrats over the next month. >> how do democrats use this and then expand it during the next few years? two years is going to be hard. can they work with republicans to try to continue to reform the criminal justice system? >> absolutely. i had this conversation with leader jefferies. he's interested in doing so and mr. schumer in the senate and mr. durbin are also interested. so there is an aptide on the democratic side. >> i want to ask about doj and

the trust in the department, in the system. president biden got a lot of flack for the way that he pardoned hunter biden, by kind of going after the prosecutors who went after his son. anita dunn, former right-hand woman to president biden, commented on that to deal book and "the new york times." let's listen. >> i absolutely agree with the president's decision here. i do not agree with the way it was done. i don't agree with the timing, and i don't agree, frankly, with the attack on the judicial system. the white house was really not part of the process. it was a process that was done very much internally with the family, with the defense lawyers. >> so it's interesting that -- i mean, there's no democrat that i have not heard a democrat say that president biden was wrong to have compassion for his son. but there's a lot of democratic frustration and anger about the way that he did the pardon of

his son, and the way he went after the department of justice as anita dunn just mentioned. do you think that's going do do longer term damage to the reputation, the trust? >> no, democrats have to get over it. the real question is what kind of man wouldn't take care of his son? >> the way he did it. >> i think honestly, whatever way he did it, people would complain either way. the reality is that because of what he did today in terms of extending klemm clemency to 150 people and pardoning 39 more, that makes the hunter biden thing a little easier to digest, and he's going do do more, apparently, according to the white house. >> what about the calls from some in the democratic party to make pre-emptive pardons for those donald trump may be trying to go after. liz cheney, adam kinzinger, james brennan, the people trump has mentioned, named. adam schiff, dr. anthony fauci, as people he believes did him

wrong. >> he should. there's no downside to doing the right thing. who knows what donald trump is going to do next year. you have to make sure people aren't punished for doing their jobs. >> you think biden is going to do it? >> no. >> why not? >> because we're democrats and we never do that sort of thing, although we should. we truly should because who knows what donald trump is going to do next year. >> democrats don't do that because they believe it sets a bad precedent. >> there is no precedent with donald trump. this is the other issue. we say we're not going to do this because it sets a bad precedent, as if donald trump cares at all. >> what about after donald trump? >> i don't think it affects it. i truly don't believe that. the reality is if people are doing their job and they have done nothing wrong, you should protect them. >> what about the perception for the american public that everybody is -- everybody is out for their own interest. everything is partisan, everything is political? >> yeah, listen, again, you have to do the right thing. also, you should explain why you have done those things.

you should ver assume people automatically know. they're good people, they have just done their job, and they're being politically prosecuted. >> michael hardaway, thank you very much. still ahead, inside a new doj watchdog report on the fbi's failures leading up to january 6th. what, quote, basic step it says agents missed ahead of the insurrection. plus, what police in new york say they have on luigi mangione as public donations for his legal defense pour in. legal. . taste so fresh and amazing. ( ♪♪ ) deliciously superior nutrition, too. for us, it's eggs any style. as long as they're the best. eggland's best. ( ♪♪ ) ♪ ♪ eggland's best. with verizon, trade in any phone, any condition.

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♪ dad: you can talk to me. son: it's been really, really hard for me. coming up on four years since january 6th, the department of justice's inspector general is out with a report on what the fbi did wrong that day and what it missed in the days and weeks leading up to the intelligence reporter. joining us, ryan riley, and msnbc legal analyst mary mccord.

ryan, so tell us what the fbi missed. what is this basic step? >> the basic step was asking all the field offices for what info they had on january 6th. there was a bunch of stuff out there that never made its way up all the way to the washington field office here in d.c. so what you ended up with is a lot of intel that was floating out, you might call it siloed if you want to make a reference back to the 9/11 commission report. that never really made its way all the way up to headquarters. when i was looking at this report, there was one email that essentially it seemed like was discouraging people from sending things in because it was talking about if you're going to send in information, please answer all of these questions. essentially, they were shifting the administrative burden from the washington field office into the field offices, and making it more burdensome for those people in the field offices to send that information up to headquarters. and of course, expectedly what you end up in that scenario is not as many people send things in or sort of keep things to themselves. and that's what you end up with as a sharing environment.

overall, they said the fbi had a limited role and that's what they emphasize, and they did do -- they tried to do a bunch of things to get that information out there and compile it, but if you just look at this in reality, what you're talking about is a lot of this was happening in the few days before january 6th, which is also vacation time and also holiday time, and it's also in the year when covid is happening. so i don't think this was necessarily the fbi putting their best foot forward in the days before january 6th, katy. >> excuse me. so let me ask you about a lot of the reporting that you have done, ryan, which was there was a conspiracy on the right that this riot was egged on by undercover fbi agents. what did the report find regarding any fbi involvement here? >> yeah, they found no fbi undercover agents at all or no evidence of them participating in the attack, but what they did find was some confidential human

sources wrrbl already, that's what we have seen some people on the right latching on to, 26 confidential human sources somewhere in d.c., but the important thing to note there is the vast majority of them were not assigned to come to d.c. for this. there were three or so who were actually tracking individuals and were assigned specifically by the fbi. and you know, people, this is sort of a side gig for a lot of folks. this is something that they might just be living their normal life and because they support donald trump and because they thought the election was stolen or what have you, may have traveled to d.c., but weren't doing it on behalf of the fbi or for any purpose like that. so i think we're going to see a lot of that, as we have already seen members of congress really hone in on this idea that there were confidential human sources in the crowd as well as january 6th defendants themselves. >> all right, so mary, this report, it's coming just about a month, not even a month, a few weeks away from four years to january 6th, 2021. donald trump's coming back into

office. do you see trump's team taking any of this and using it to help plug some of the holes in the justice department? >> well, i mean, i would concur with ryan that the recommendations here are fairly narrow. in fact, there's one at the end of the report, one recommendation really to reviewilities policies and see to it when there are events, and this year's january 6th has been designated a national security special event, which gives the fbi additional responsibilities that it did not have in 2021. that is something new this year. then recommendations is really to review its policies to make sure that it's best able to meet its intelligence goals. specifically when it comes to confidential human sources, the mistake made here was in not canvassing a field offices to make sure those field offices canvassed their confidential human sources that might have been able to provide even more

and more concrete information about plans that those confidential human sources might have been aware of. that, the inspector general said, also would have made it potentially not only easier but also more effective for the fbi in washington, d.c. on january 6th to be able to be learning from those confidential sources while they were out and around the capitol. as ryan said, not all of them even told the fbi that they were coming to d.c. that day because these were ordinary people who sometimes cooperate with the fbi. none were tasked to be there, well, almost none were tasked to be there. none were authorized to go in the capitol or in restricted spaces. had the intelligence relating to confidential human sources been more thorough, that could have added to the effectiveness of what the fbi was able to get on that day. so to your question, do i think that the trump administration

will take it, will heed this recommendation? i will remind you that there is only one political appointee at the fbi. it will not be director wray. christopher wray, because he has announced his resignation. we don't know who it will be. the suggestion is kash patel, but he will have to make it through a confirmation hearing. my point is the fbi is likely even regardless of who is in that director position, to implement these recommendations and the same with the department of justice in my opinion. >> all right, mary mccord, ryan riley, thank you very much. still ahead, there's been a lot of anger about health care in this country. we are going to talk to one senator about things that could change, that the federal government could try to change about health care. plus, what this 29-year-old from missouri was doing in a syrian prison. nbc news spoke with him after he was discovered among the

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on the third and final appeal, because they only allow you three, cigna's appeal physician told me point blank, it was my fault when i was dying from a ruptured appendix in the e.r. that i didn't check and make sure that the hospital i

was being sent to by ambulance was in my insurance network and i was denied the final appeal. saying we owed the entire bill. so we filed for bankruptcy. >> we're going to talk about headache in a moment. first, a little update on the suspect of the killing of the unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson. he fired for habeas corpus, meaning pennsylvania authorities now have to justify why they have arrested and detained luigi mangione. since his arrest, more than $50,000 in donations have poured into an online fund-raiser in support of his legal fund, along with that cash, a consistent outpouring as i'm sure you have seen of antowa the health care industry. joining us now, democratic senator from oregon, jeff merkley. let's separate out the violence here that no one is -- that it should be condemned from the anger we have seen in the aftermath of that violence.

a lot of people coming out and giving their own stories about the horrors of dealing with the health care industry. and they're resonating because they're so familiar, including what that woman just went through. she talked about it in that clip we just played. how does congress step in and try to help? >> katy, you're absolutely right about this outpouring of anger, because we really don't have a health care industry. we have a health profit industry. and that means that the insurance companies first want to delay, and then they want to deny coverage, and then they want to defend. and we know that they do this, these denials, knowing that they should be covering it because it makes more money. most people have no idea that they even have a right to appeal. they don't know how to get help if they want to appeal. if they in fact call up the thesurance company, they're probably going to spend three hours trapped in pressing numbers and not ever get to talk

to a real person. but when they succeed in appealing, 90% of the original denials are overturned. and so essentially, with only one out of seven people appealing, that means six out of those seven are never getting the justice that they deserve. and they are left with huge bills, often bankruptcy, and often they decide not even to get care they need because they don't think they'll ever be able to afford to pay for it. so this massive health care consequences with this current structure, and think about people being at the most vulnerable moment of their life. they are ill or they have gone through surgery, they're in recovery, and then they have to fight with an insurance company. it's an abominable system. >> i know you're someone who has been trying to fight this for a while. you have introduced legislation. i wonder what you think you can get done during this next

congress and i wonder if this is a different moment because the anger we're witnessing is not a left or right issue. it's very much an up/down issue. either you're wealthy and don't have to deal with insurance the way everyone else does, or you're everyone else and have to deal with insurance if you want to go to the doctor ever. i'm still very shaken by what we played at the top of this segment, which was a woman who had a ruptured appendix being taken in a hospital, in an ambulance, excuse me, to a hospital. that's an emergency situation. and that the health insurance that she had told her it was her fault for not checking that she was going to a hospital that was in network. how can that be okay? and she appealed it, she says. appealed it three times. final appeal was denied. >> yeah, no, i was thinking as she was talking about when i had my own appendix rupture when i was in fourth grade. i happened to be nearby the place where we had insurance.

but if i hadn't been and been out of network, who knows how my blue collar family could have paid off the bill. we would never have known if we were in network or out of network. this is why chris murphy and i introduced the choose medicare bill a number of years ago that said look, you can decide to proceed to be part of health care that you can take with you through your whole life, no in network and out of network. you take it from employer to employer. you don't have to worry about your spouse changing, your kids graduating, being in and out of medicaid because your income goes up or down. we have a system that's so complicated, people have to spend massive amounts of energy just making sure they have insurance. then when they have insurance, they get denied anyway. and that is just a stres that citizens in no other developed country, an unfairness, an injustice that no other citizens in developed countries have.

and impact on health care that no other citizens have in other developed countries. so that would be one way, giving people the option to opt out of this crazy broken matrix, we should also take on the cost of drugs because that infuriates people, because we're paying many times what people in other countries pay, in canada or europe or japan or australia. and yet,thosis those drugs were developed largely on research that we paid for. we should be getting the best price, not the worst price. these are absolute reforms i would love to see us actually debate and vote on in the u.s. senate. >> do you think you have that capital? in the next couple years? are republicans onboard with this too? >> we have to talk a little bit about the senate where you can't get a policy change to a vote unless you have the support of 60 members, which means that the republicans who have been in step with this private insurance

fiasco don't let these bills be voted on. we have to reform the senate, reform the 41-vote veto to be able to do the people's business. and it's why reform of the senate has to go hand in hand with actually delivering good policies. >> sounds like you're saying get rid of the filibuster. >> or reforment, as i like to say. >> thank you very much. i appreciate you coming on. not a lot of people are saying yes to our invite on this topic, so i appreciate you taking it up and giving us your opinion of how things need to change. appreciate it. >> you're very welcome. take care. >> still ahead, a 29-year-old from missouri was found among the thousands of freed prisoners in syria. what he told nbc news he was doing in detention. in detention an add-on treatment for eosinophilic asthma taken once every 8 weeks. fasenra is not for sudden breathing problems. serious allergic reactions may occur. get help for swelling of your face,

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we can't do this without you. ♪ check again just so i'm sure ♪ ♪ watch ziggy from the plane ♪ ♪ ♪ my garage i could open ♪ ♪ while i'm hiking in wyoming ♪ ♪ if my home just had a brain ♪ a missing american was found in syria this morning. a 29-year-old missouri man who identified himself as travis timmerman. he was discovered just outside of damascus. he says he was one of the thousands of prisoners freed by the rebel groups who overthrew bashar al assad. >> yes, i was in prison for seven months. but it's been okay. i'm on a pilgrimage, and that's when i was arrested. >> you were arrested by the former government? >> yes. >> what did they do to you once

you were picked up? >> i was interviewed to see if i was a political actor. but then they cleared me essentially. and then i was just held in prison. i wasn't beaten or anything like that. >> then how did you get out? >> on monday, two men broke down my door. >> joining us now from damascus, syria, nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel. for a moment there were those who thought he could be austin tice, news of an american freed. any news on the search for the journalist austin tice? >> reporter: we are still pursuing that story. we have a few leads that we're following up on. nothing confirmed at this stage. the latest i have heard from a very senior u.s. military source is they don't have anything definitive about his whereabouts or wellbeing at this moment. yes, as you mentioned, when the

word broke, actual reporting on the austin tice story, when word broke, there was this video that came out first. and in the video, this unknown group of syrians said, we found this american. and it was very -- the suggestion was that it was austin tice, that he had been held by the regime. you could only see a little bit of him. it wasn't that clear. and we thought, well, maybe this is him. and we pretty quickly, we were able to determine it wasn't austin tice. but it was this other american who was here on this mysterious religious pilgrimage. we eventually found where he was taken, i spoke to the person who found him wandering on the streets. he was seen earlier in the day barefoot, walking alone in a very, very poor neighborhood on the edge of damascus.

and we got there, got inside this house where people were giving him food and water and there were aide workers there, there were a lot of rebels. the rebels here acted very quickly. they took this very seriously. they thought it was austin tice, and they wanted to find him. they want to hand him over. they also want to show the world that they're not taking people. they're not terrorists. they're very sensitive about their public image right now. they want to show the world that they're liberating people from a dictatorship. so yes, after we eventually found him, found out that he wasn't austin tice, he told us his story. >> really just remarkable. it's remarkable what we have seen come out of syria and the people wandering out of prisons, just in the past few days. richard engel, thank you very much. that's going to do it for me today. "deadline: white house" starts after a very short break. "deadline: white house" starts after a very short break maybe now my friends will believe me. we did this for one delivery,

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