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good afternoon, everyone. we're following breaking news. news from the south pacific. >> powerful 7.9 earthquake hit the american samoa. there has been some back and forth over the size, but the

official stance is it was 7.9 magnitude but that number could change. the warning center says it appears the quake did trig err tsunami, reportedly hit low-lying areas of american samoa's capital of poga. the airport is closed because of debris, trees and rocks on the runway and that's caused problems. no reports of deaths or injuries. the tsunami warnings have been issued for new zealand and fiji. a tsunami ramp has also been issued for hawaii. nbc's tom aspell has been monitoring the developments from london. what else can you tell us? >> reporter: just a little over two hours ago, a 7.9 was recorded under the pacific ocean about halfway between hawaii and new zealand, close to the samoan islands. it's understood that shortly after that, a tsunami was sighted, a wave about five feet tall. we know from the capital of western samoa and from pago,

pago, american samoa, that waves were seen there. we understand that some residents had already moved to higher ground, but the water came in about 100 yards offshore and then we see that again residents said they felt a big jolt. they were given some warning, and many managed to move to higher ground. now, we haven't any reports of damage or any casualties yet, but it seems that the quake was felt all over the samoan islands and the warning center has issued a report for new zealand, hawaii, and across to the samoan islands themselves. >> reuters is now reporting that there have been -- they don't the number but deaths in america samoa as a result of this quake and tsunami, no word on how many people but that's the latest information there. let's talk quickly about the time line here. we spoke with an expert shortly ago, david and i, who said hawaii, for example, could see

some effect of this in the next five hours. >> well, you know, they move very quickly, the tsunamis, some of them, waves under the ocean, travel at up to 500 miles an hour. so, they're unsure what time any tsunami generated by this quake would make a landfall. nevertheless, police are urging people all over the pacific to be on the lookout and move to higher ground. ever since 2004 in the big tsunami out in asia, people have been well aware of what to do when there is a tsunami alert, ie, stay away from the coast, from rivers and streams, and be careful when waves it hit the coastal areas, because they cause as much damage receding as they do when they come in. >> i'm curious about the information flow. we've been on this story better than an hour or now and we're forced to show this graphic because video and images has not come in. it's shocking because people usually are instantly these days online, trying to put up

pictures. i know this is a chaotic situation according to some reports but are we getting much detail from people on the ground there? >> well, there's an official who's been speaking from pay pago pago saying as far as he's aware, when the earthquake first hit there was a terrific jolt. that gave the people a warning that a stham could follow. but as i said before, he said there were no casualties. he said electricity was still working and that some cars were still moving in the streets. they have not received word of any casualties at that time. tamron? >> tom, thank you very much. >> and tamron, to put this in perspective, just five years ago when there was the tsunami that followed the earthquake off the coast of indonesia, that earthquake was a 9.0. this is being described as a 7.9 by u.s. officials in colorado, the tsunami warning center suggesting it was an 8.3. in any case, to give you some perspective on how strong it might be. joining us on the phone is director of the international tsunami info center.

laura, what do you make of what we know and where the dangers are at this hour? >> good morning. this event occurred early this morning off samoa and the pacific tsunami warning center did issue a tsunami warning for that area, and american samoa, the national weather service there, did follow the tsunami warning center to confirm and they issued their warnings for american samoa. is the center also received the information and issued a tsunami warning for their coast. and my understanding is that their coasts were also evacuated. >> at your lab in berkeley in california, when you hear about an 8.3 or 7.9 in the pacific islands and tsunamis and deaths, how concerned are you based on the magnitude we're reporting of a 7.9?

all right. we apparently have lost the seismologist with the berkeley size month logical lab. again, this is a doping story and we'll keep your viewers posted on what we're picking up as far as indications in hawaii and the aftermath of this hurricane in the pacific. the story we've been talking about, politics and health care reform, and just minutes ago the senate finance committee, the crucial committee trying to move legislation forward, they voted against the amendment calling for a public option. the amendment by senator charles schumer failed by a vote of 13-10. senators max baucus, kent conrad and blanch lincoln sided with republicans. an amendment earlier today by senator jay rockefeller, which was also related to the public option, that one failed about an hour ago by a vote of 15-8. norah o'donneod kelly o'donnell, what do democrats do next?

>> good afternoon, david. i think you captured it. what happened here today is pivotal. and what is important to read in those vote tallies you just gave us is that democrats made the difference and democrats made the difference in the defeat of a public option in this senate finance committee measure. and why that is important is it almost seems as if public option was losing steam in the public conversation. liberal democrats especially want to get it back on the front burner. and so, jay rockefeller of west virginia and chuck schumer of new york both crafted proposals that would provide for a public option. a few details different but it would put government paid-for health insurance available to people to purchase in the overall health care reform package. now, what we saw today is that democrats responded basically on two issues. one is sort of pragmatism. they don't believe that the overall senate would support a public option. no republican is for it, and there are a number of moderate

democrats who don't like it either. and they also were concerned about the expansion of government and where that might go. some of the more typical arguments against a government-run option. so, when liberal democrats needed the support of fellow democrats today, they didn't have it. david? >> kelly, as far as what's next, presumably at some point they'll get through all these amendments, the committee will pass something, it then goes to the full senate. they'll be merging this bill with other bills from other committees and try to merge it with the house if the house gets its act together and passes something. does this mean the public option is essentially dead? >> reporter: well, that is really the critical question, and i think the vote today strongly reflects that the senate doesn't believe it has a chance. but is it dead, really dead? there is still a chance that the president could weigh in. you described how all the bills will be sort of put together and one final result will be put before congress. will that have a public option? senators say no. members of the house say it's still possible, and top

negotiators say they will be focused more on the white house to get the president to weigh in. would he sign a bill that doesn't have a public option. you know, he advocates for it but has said he could be open to any good ideas. pinning down the president may be the next big hurdle for a public option, but thfrs not a good day for those who want to see government-run health insurance available. >> nbc's kelly o'donnell covering fast-moving and dramatic movements on capitol hill. tamron, i've never seen a situation where the house and the senate, when they get into negotiations, that the house gets its way. in these conference negotiations they have to defer to the senate and yostz how that's going to be any different this time. >> interesting that capitol hill says we may see more pressure now on the president. he's waffled on this public option. people have demanded he take a strong stand. now we'll see what he does. very intriguing. coming up, looking for allies in iran. another problem for this president. can the u.s. get russia and china on board for tough

sanctions over iran's nuclear program? >> and of course much more on today's big breaking news, a tsunami generated by a massive earthquake in the south pacific. campbell's tomato soup. we've added a unique sea salt. it helps us use less salt than before without changing our famous flavor. that means it's healthy... along with over 65 others and more to come. campbell's.

welcome back. in just two days, iran and six major world powers will meet in geneva for crucial talks about iran's nuclear ambitions. >> the obama administration is looking at new ways to sanction iran if the talks fail. the white house wants iran to agree to open its nuclear

program up for inspections immediately, but if that doesn't happen, the "washington post" reports the united states is preparing to cut iran's economic links to the rest of the world. white house press secretary robert gibbs says the burden is on the iranians to come clean at the geneva talks. >> the onus is on the iranians to show the world that the program they have is a peaceful program to create energy rather than a secret program for nuclear weapons. i think if you're -- if the iranians are unwilling to discuss something that should have been reported to the iaea years ago, i think that's quite telling. >> senior adviser for the center for strategic and international studies in washington, there's obviously unity in terms of the priits, the french, the germans, the united states. how difficult will it be to get the russians and specifically the chinese who have a lot of energy interest in iran, how difficult will it be to get them on board with strong sanctions

against iran if iran doesn't come clean? >> i think, david, it depends on the kind of sanctions we're talking about. i think the chinese trade with iran is somewhere around $15 billion. it's quite significant. the russians selling iran just under about a billion but hardly buy anything from them. russia has more of a strategic issue. they want to not attack iran, but they want to hide up there. they have every interest to make sure the iranian oil and gas does not come on screen to be competitive with theirs. so, i think the russians will be slightly more amenable, but the chinese will not. i think the chinese will hesitate and drag their feet. >> and then, in order to try to convince the russians or at least try to convince the chinese even if they're going to drag their feet to go along with sanctions, what needs to happen or what needs to not happen at these talks? what does the united states need to floouf two days after these talks have started and presumably if the iranians don't

give up anything, the united states then has to be able to make its case. how crucial are these discussions? >> the discussions are crucial, but i don't think anything is going to happen in two days. i think it's going to drag out for two or three sessions over few months, because if you look at the difference between the north korea position and the iran position, north korea keeps on saying we want the bomb, we have the bomb, and boom, here's the bomb. the iranians are saying we don't have the bomb, we don't want the bomb, against our religion and the supreme leader has said don't do it. so, our situation with iran is prove to us that we don't have the bomb. so they will gradually start opening up and allowing us to expect significantly in more detail than we have in the past. i suspect that's going to be a step-by-step movement forward. they will make some baby steps moving forward, but it's not going to be that rapid. and if we think they're going to stop enriching uranium for a nuclear power generation, i don't think that's going to

happen. >> senior adviser for the center for strategic and international studies in washington, thanks for coming on. tamron, it would be interesting. there would be a lot of people who would still feel extremely uncomfortable relying on iaea inspectors to tell us iran is in compliance or not. same issues we had in the run-up to iraq. >> and interesting because of the information that the united states and the others will go to iran on. there's some speculation on wasn't this handled -- we talked about incredible leverage the united states has to influence russia and germany. they may not now have that leverage. >> we have, of course, continuing to watch the breaking news from the south pacific. a powerful 7.9 earth wake hit the american samoa. the pacific tsunami warning center sid it appears the quake did, in fact, trig err tsunami. that is the news. there are reports of deaths in american samoa but it is not known how many people. the tsunami warnings have been issued for the region including new zealand and fiji.

meanwhile, a tsunami watch has been issued for hawaii. joining us is wtvj meteorologist john morales. thanks for joining us. what is the latest? >> well, the latest is this earthquake under water, of course, which has already generated a tsunami, confirmed tsunami as we know from american samoa, was one that was an order of magnitude below the intensity of the one we saw in 2004. keep in mind, the one in 2004 had a reading on the richter scale anywhere between 9.1 and 9.3. this one is being talked about in the 7.9 to 8.3 range. for every grade or every point, if you will, on the richter scale, that means that the earthquake is ten times less strong or ten times less destructive. so, this one is ten times weaker than the one we saw in 2004. and i think that's very significant in terms of the wave height we're seeing with the tsunami that's already ongoing. >> how does that play into the news for hawaii? we're hearing reports that while

it is weaker than what we saw, there have been people who have lost their lives. how does this factor into what we could or could not see for hawaii? >> well, hawaii is under a tsunami watch at this time, meaning that they have a significant lead time to watch this as it develops. and there are still some uncertainties as to which direction this ripple effect is traveling. as we heard an oceanographer earlier on our coverage here on msnbc, it doesn't necessarily spread out in all directions. sometimes it spreads stronger in one direction versus another. so, we still have to evaluate looking at some of that buoy information to see just how high these waves might be as they approach hawaii. looks like the earliest waves they might see, and we still don't know how high those would be, but the earliest they'll see is 11:00 p.m., so this evening and they have plenty of lead time should this become a more dangerous situation, i'm sure

that watch would be upgraded to a warning for hawaii. >> john, thank you very much. we'll continue to monitor the breaking news on that tsunami. keeping a close on hawaii and what happens there. we'll of course have a lot more on that and the world of politics. as washington continues the debate

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there are a lot of things that could be considered news in this world. >> but there are only a few stories that make us say -- >> no way! >> no way. >> that's my niece and nephew. hey, kids. >> wow. very cute. tamron, tonight show host conan o'brien, he is back in action after a minor accident sending him to the hospital last week. he hit his head running onto the set with teri hatcher. he said he vaguely remembered what happened after that. listen to him slur his words right after he fell.

>> i can't watch that. >> are you okay? >> oh, yeah. >> he did slur his words but we didn't have that loaded properly. conan also told the audience what it was like then once he was take on the hospital. watch. >> let me re-enact this. >> i'll re-enact it. i'm teri hatcher. >> he said -- i really started to come back and really was feeling much better, then one of the neurological questions was how many nick ets are in a buck 35. i've never known that. i mean, if you're only using the nickels, if you're using a dollar bill -- >> he's a comedian. he's joking. >> okay. >> all right. something that turned into a joke but certainly not a funny one, "jon & kate plus 8" will

soon be a thing of the past. tlc says the show's name is changing to, guess what, "kate plus 8," which means it's minus jon. it begins november 2nd. while the show continues to focus on the lives of the goslin children, jon will a continue to appear on the show but not as often. writing out the dad. >> squeezing that thing as long as they can. amazing. >> yeah. >> tamron, students at tufts university are facing a sex ban of sorts following a flood of complaints. the school's gas policy now states that residents cannot engage in sexual activity while their roommate is in the room. sounds like common decency. the school does not list consequences for those who don't fly comply, but officials say they hope the policy will empower students to discuss the issue if it comes out. i'm so sure, tamron, something will be going on and the roommate will say, hey, stop

that over there. i don't think that's going to happen. >> a parent's worst nightmare to know whatthat's what's happenin college campuses. breaking news regarding toyota. a huge recall. we'll have the list of cars. - ( funk music playing ) - let's put a few thousand kilowatts in a vise.

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here's your cnbc "market wrap." dow lost 47 points, s&p 500 lost two points and the nasdaq down six points. home prices rose for a third straight month in july. the standard & poor's schiller index was up, but homes are 13.3% below a year ago. americans remain apprehensive about the economy. the conference board says consumer confidence fell unexpectedly to 53.1 in september as consumers worried about job prospects. disney is encouraging

volunteerism. the company offers a free day's admission to any disleeland or disney world to 1 million people who complete a day of volunteer work in their communities next year. that's it from cnbc. now back to msnbc. >> welcome back. i'm tamron hall. >> i'm david shuster. we continue to follow the breaking news from the south pacific, a powerful 7.9 earthquake hit american. some agencies put that number as high as 8.3, including one expert that we had on our show saying his estimate was 8.3. the pacific tsunami warning center says the quake did trig err tsunami and now there are reports of death, but it is not known how many people, and tsunami warnings have been issued for the region including new zealand and fiji. meantime, a tsunami watch has been issued for hawaii. we want to get more on this tsunami threat. we're joined by the weather channel's dr. steve lyons. dr. lyons, thanks for joining us. we're getting firsthand accounts

of people -- fishing boats swept into the downtown area, people moving through higher grounds, conflicting numbers on the number of deaths but certainly chaos and folks greatly affected in that area by this tsunami. >> that's right. usually that's the case. the closer to the case or the epicenter of the earthquake the more the impact of the tsunami itself. and then as you move away from that the tsunami magnitude goes down. >> explain. what do you mean by that? >> the wave height that the tsunami actually decreases as it emanates away from the epicenter of the earthquake. it spreads out across the ocean so it's not as high as you go away. it won't be as high in hawaii, for example, if there is one that goes in that direction. >> what about the threat or lack of threat? we know there are thousands of people on the beaches every day. presumably a lot won't be there because of the tsunami warnings, but there are low-lying areas where people live if they have boats. because of that, they'll be that much lower with the tsunami at

all. would that suggest hawaii if it does get hit shouldn't have to worry so much? >> well, the thing is it doesn't take much of a wave, tsunami height wise to inundate the coastline significantly, especially like in waikiki beach, which is very shallow with a lot of infrastructure on the coast. so, you have to be very careful and take particular caution and move out of harm's way, out of that water rise area. >> dr. lyons, i've got some information i want to share with our audience. i guess we have a firsthand account from a manager at the pago airport. he's saying people were moving to higher ground. as i said before, some fishing boats were swept in the downtown area, buildings and low-lying areas damaged. a school apparently -- school children at a very populated school saw them heading to a higher ground. his hotel e vacuated as well. a pretty strong earthquake felt for about 30 seconds to one

minute. so, dr. lyons, you're still there. what should we be looking for or at this point? >> well, down there, of course, you've got the damage from the quake itself that's caused a lot of the infrastructure damage. the other thing is you have aftershocks, plus you have multiple waves. a tsunami is not a single wave, so you can actually have a series of tsunamis come into the coast. most of those, if it's been the single shock over that short period, has already a o cured in the localized area. so, any tsunami that's still being generated is moving away from the area, much farther away now, more than a thousand mile ace way by now. they typically move about 500 miles per hour in the ocean. >> another bit of information, david. most of the schools in pago pago are close to the ocean, and the earthquake happened about an hour after school started. so, as a result, you had a lot of children in a very populated area trying to get to higher ground. we'll see what happened there. in the meantime, the justices of the supreme court gathered this morning in honor

of the court's newest justice, sonia sotomayor. they posed for the official portrait. the photo is only taken obviously when there's a change on the court. sotomayor is the 11th justice, third female and first hispanic on the court. they get the justices to look at the cameras and not each other, sit there for ten minutes and hear the small chat just so we can have the final video. always fun. >> look how interested clarence thomas looks. still ahead, going rogue. >> what should we expect from sarah palin's upcoming blockbuster book and will it be her launching pad for 2012? what would you say if i told you that drivers...

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welcome back. we were going to talk about former governor sarah palin's new book, but with the developments with public option and the vote coming in from the finance committee, we want to switch the topic because it is heated right now, moving fast. it may be democrats versus democrats, and the president will have to step in here. >> and you've got essentially all the makings today, tamron, of a democratic civil war. there are three key democrats who voted against the public option, the more conservative version, today. max baucus, the chairman of the senate finance committee, who originally supported a public option a year ago, lincoln from arkansas up for re-election, and

senator conrad who favors co-ops. but this is like a knife in back to many democrats to see these three dissent. what's next, and is this a major democratic setback or not? our democratic strategist and republican strategist. let's start with the democrats blocking this thing today. what's the democratic party do now? for liberal democrat who is want the public option, what's left? >> yeah. i don't know, david. it does mean that the white house is working overdrive with baucus, the conservative democrats, and, again, olympia snowe still remains key on this even though she wasn't part of this, a sort of straight party line vote except for democrats coming over to vote against the public option. i think that, you know, i guess there is talk this they may want to offer something on the floor. it's going to be a tough road. this was a big day for the baucus bill. >> as far as republicans, do you

believe if the bill moves forward and does not have the public option that that is enough to get at least one republican like olympia snowe to get on board? >> well, david, it depends on what it looks like. there are so many different variables in this whole debate. one thing this vote does is freezes a lot of the conservative democrats in the house, makes it much more difficult for nancy pelosi to pass a bill, which i think is interesting. it's also called into question why is the president going to copenhagen when he's got this rebellion within his ranks with democrats on democrats. i don't think it's a surprise the public option wasn't going to pass the senate finance committee. peter is right. do they go with reconciliation? if they do, that puts the onus on harry reid and he's got some very difficult election troubles back home. i don't know if he can go reconciliation. a difficult decision for him, as well. >> peter, how embarrassing, and i use that word, is it for democrats? here you are, the american people stood up, voted, gave you the power and people like blanch lincoln, who had -- she wants to

politically survive here -- vote against it. this is an embarrassment for progressive who wanted this because they had their faith and put their hope that the democrats pulled together and we've seen the republicans pulled together in the previous administration. >> tamron, you have to remember, the democratic party is a more diverse party. we have blue-dog democrats, progressives. it's easier for republicans, more monolithic in their views, to ban together and unite. that's what you're seeing play out here. what's interesting is you're going to get -- the baucus plan has gotten a lot of criticism, but if you look at the details of the plan, you'll get a lot more people insured, bring down costs, a lot of good things to like about it. >> howard dean was just on, and he's got a great voice, doctor, governor, former head of the party, he says it's not reform without a public option. he says you can have insurance reform, but without a public option you ear really not doing

what the president and others said they would do on the campaign. >> not to get into a disagreement with the former chairman, but with olympia snowe on board some democrats are proposing which is that trigger would preserve the public option. there are going to be purists on both sides that either don't want a public option at all or need a public option. what we're trying to do in the legislative process is get somewhere in the middle and get something that brings reform and gets more people insured and covered. that's the goal here. >> john, as far as the politics, behind all the stuff is the simple theory that a lot of americans don't believe there should be a for-profit corporation making decisions. to get costs down, a government-run alternative which doesn't have to market, advertise, doesn't have a profit margin and therefore brings down the cost. politically, though, are the republicans continue vined now this argument, even where you see 65% of americans want this public option, that the

conservatives, republicans, can stay with the for-profit private insurance company and the guys of capitalism and not pay a political price despite the outrage that is there against this industry? >> that's kind of a loaded question, don't you think? >> well, give him a loaded answer. >> the fact of the matter is i don't know where you see these polls. most americans who have health insurance don't want their health insurance to get worse. and they're actually very satisfied with their health insurance. the problem -- that is the biggest problem for democrats. if you go back and what happened in august, this rising up and people are very upset about the fact that they might lose their health insurance and be forced into a public try. the 65%, i don't know if that's where the blanch lincolns of the world are feeling that. if they felt 65% were for a public option, they would have voted for it. but they went home in august and heard something different. they heard don't let the government take over my plan, don't increase my costs, don't

force me into a public plan. that's the way they voted. peter talks about a more moderate approach. i think that is very difficult in a partisan congress like this. if the president wants to do that, he needs to start over and start with republicans and democrats advocate the approach, something i wanted since the president was sworn in. >> just one response. the deference between the arguments this time and last time with clinton you still have at the table, the pharmaceutical industry, the hospitals, doctors, insurance industry, still part of this process. so, traditional allies with republicans are a part of this agreement where we're trying to forge a consensus. you're going to get a lot of people upset, as i said earlier, about not having a pure bill one way or the other. >> peter, i think you're right in the sense a lot of the special interests are supporting this bill. the people that aren't are by and large the american people, which is why so many -- >> john, it depends on the question you ask.

it really does. >> you're right. polls say a lot of different things. >> right. >> these guys agree on something. yeah, you're right, got me on that one. interesting conversation. you can bet this one will continue because the question still remains is the public option in. >> john's right. there are other vehicles they want to attach the public option when it gets to the senate floor, but it becomes even trickier than there than it was in the committee. big setback. pet peter's point, there is a lot of other stuff in this bill but you're hearing from democrats who were so outraged. they say 7 out of 10 doctors want the public option or something stronger and they won't get it. >> it was a recent poll that said 65% of the people want a public option. i think it boils down to what you want to believe at this point truly what american people want. now, the secret service is investigating a poll posted on facebook that asked users if

they supported assassinating president obama. the website pulled the poll after becoming aware of it yesterday. a facebook user created it using a third-party application. over 700 people answered the survey. face book is working with the secret service to determine who is responsible for the potential threat. how do officials go about investigating this kind of cyber threat against the president? patrick spent 22 years in the united states secret service and is the founder of lennon security corporation. how difficult or easy is it for the secret service to track this? and what was your reaction when you heard about this story? >> well, my reaction was i'm not really surprised that this goes on because when i was we got a number of threats like this. i'm not sure if we had this many at one time. it's very difficult to track these, especially through facebook or linked in or twitter or those kind of media

outreaches. and secret service i'm sure at this point, if they're not already doing so, are monitoring these utilities, this social medium. >> patrick, i know you said there have been other threats, but we're talking about the technology is certainly new. >> sure. >> so many people on facebook in a matter of a couple years. it's exploded. before if you had people with hateful thoughts they'd communicate with their neighbors or people of a like mind in their community. now this spread quickly, as you well know, a virus on the internet, and you're reaching other people who may subscribe to that same violence around the world. >> right. right. i think what's happened, because of the outreach for the media in these social utilities, i think you're going to have a lot more of it. definitely the secret service, 20, 25 years ago did not have to -- did not have to deal with this. but of course this is something now that's going to make their job even tougher to do. i understand they have shut it

down since then, but that's not going to guarantee it won't happen again. >> patrick, assuming that the secret service finds this creep that put this horrible stuff on facebook, what are they doing in terms of the interview? how do they become convinced or not as far as whether somebody is a real threat or just trying to make waves on the internet in total colossal fashion? >> well, i don't think he's made a threat -- a personal threat toward president obama. the threat would have to come in actually from that person saying i will do harm to the president. in this case, what he did, he put out a poll, and the poll just merely suggests -- it took numbers on how many people would like to see this man assassin e assassinated or whatever questions they had on here. but they cannot really prosecute anybody for doing that. all they can do is take it off the media at this point. they will interview him once they can find out who this was and they'll put him on a hit list, i'm sure, to be able to

look into -- in the future if there's anything else that were to arise in this case. but he has not made any direct threat, and that's what the secret service will actually go after. for example, if you made a threat against the president, you were talking to -- you were out in a crowd and talking to somebody and you made a threat, the secret service then would have to interview you, would have to get involved and make a case, you know, open a case. in this case, they haven't because i'm sure what they're doing is they're looking for the person that put this on the third-party application but there's really not too much they can do except monitor this in the future. and if somebody on face book 2004 actually make a direct threat, then they've got a real problem. >> real quickly, patrick. what about the people who make comments? a lot of these places have parts to comment. could they be held criminally liable? >> if they can find them.

if they can locate who that was and they have that on tape, they certainly could. they could look into that and open an investigation. >> patrick lennon, thanks so much. we appreciate it. tamron, sounds frightening. >> it is. >> we've had on the show before people say the threats for this president are 400% higher than the last one. >> and people think they can hide behind their computer, think there's anonymity, and there's not. thought they would get attention. then a knock on the door from the secret service. >> hopefully they will. we'll have an update on the tsunami in the american samoa. an entire beach was wiped out. a five-foot tsunami wave swept into the american samoa capital of pago pago, sending seawater surging inland about 100 yards. electricity and phone lines are out all across the island.

the u.s. geological service estimates the quake magnitude at 8.0. the pacific tsunami warning center says it was 8.3. up next, other things we saw you should hear about today. on "hardball," senator chuck schumer. as washington continues the debate over health care reform, aarp has chosen a side-- yours. we're fighting to guarantee that you'll never be denied coverage because of your health or age. to prevent anyone from coming between you and your doctor. and to make sure patients don't take a backseat to insurance companies. because at aarp, we believe your health is worth fighting for. learn more at aarp.org.

a lot going on today. a few more things we thought everybody should know. tomorrow vice president joe biden will welcome home his son.

he spent the past year in iraq. he served with delaware's national guard, the 261st tactical signal and could face a number of questions about his political future. his term as delaware attorney general is due up next year. bo is considered a likely candidate for his father's old senate seat in 2010. >> good for him for serving and of course salute him and everyone else serving in iraq. still 160,000 some people there. tamron, starbucks has unveiled a new brand of instant coffee claiming it will change the way people drink coffee. >> i tasted it. >> was it good? all right. they're taking a shot at angry town hall protesters in an effort to sell the new brew. watch. >> people who yell at town hall meetings can't taste the difference. >> i can't taste the difference! >> i can't either! >> can you? introducing starbucks via. see if you can taste the difference. >> that was pretty good.

>> that's actually how i felt when i -- it jolted me. you're like i can't tell -- feel like that's great. all right. tom delay's dancing lays on dancing with the stars may be numbered. >> really? >> he was giving it his all. last night, he was at the bottom of the scoreboard but an injured foot may have contributed. blame it always on the bad foot. he did the tango. but that wasn't the worst part. watch as tom delay almost drops his partner in the final dip. ♪ >> our producer was saying it may have been pretty serious but

when you dance, when you do wild things, you didn't hear him talk about his foot. but now he's done poorly and talking about his foot. >> good he didn't drop her. >> some things we thought you should know today. it was originally scheduled for today, but president obama's big white house meeting on afghanistan will take place tomorrow. on the agenda, whether to send more troops to afghanistan or as we know, they are rethinking the strategy but what will emerge? deputy political director for nbc news, mark, what do you have for us? hey, david and tamron. that's right. tomorrow president obama will be sitting down with his national security team which includes secretary of state hillary clinton, defense secretary bob gates, as well as generals petraeus and mcchrystal. it's going to be a big event tomorrow. also on president obama's schedule for tomorrow, he's heading to the national institutes of health to announce new funding that's related to the economic stimulus. and then finally we're going to keep watching that senate finance committee markup on

health care. by my count, it will be day six tomorrow of that mark-up, which is turning into the never-ending mark-up. >> are we expecting any real headlines to come in? i have to tell you, i spoke with one individual who's in the military and they said they felt the delay was because this administration is not sure of the strategy at this point. >> you know, tamron, i think that's a really good take. i don't think they're sure what they want yet. as we know, president obama's file is to always get so many different opinions, and i think that tomorrow's big meeting is a formal way to do that and hear from all sides. we know that on the one hand there are people who are skeptical of sending more troops. that's led by vice president joe biden. on the other hand, there are people who are more hawkish and that's certainly coming from the military like generals petraeus and mcchrystal. so, president obama's going to be getting it from all sides and the decision he'll make will be an interesting one but probably one we won't get for a couple more months. >> mark, i got the to ask you be w