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i had to go downtown to testify before the grand jury, and i had to tell them how i was disturbed by this. i was worried for myself. i was worried for my family. i felt menaced by this. and i had to tell them all of the creepy things that i have done. now, of course, we get to what was it -- what was all the creepy stuff that he was going to put into the screenplay and the movie. and the creepy stuff was that i have -- had sex with women who work for me on this show. now, my response to that is yes, i have. >> wow, okay. welcome to "morning joe." david letterman talks about his extortion case with a cbs employee, admitting to having

affairs with women on his staff. we'll get to that as the president makes his case for the chicago olympics bid just a short time ago in denmark. and going after glenn, as republican senator lindsey graham blasts glenn beck, the white house attacks the cable host on their blog. we're going to talk about that and hollywood hypocrites. good morning, everyone. i'm mika brzezinski. joe scarborough is off as he recovers one more day. along with me, we have willie geist and pat buchanan. good morning to you. i want you all to weigh in on david letterman. i had sex with staff. that's what he said on his show yesterday. got a good laugh out of that. someone at cbs is trying to extort him. willie, why don't you go first since we've been talking about it. >> he went on the air last night, and he got a package in his car and it said, i know about the terrible things you've

been doing to your staff. dave said there was evidence of terrible things he's been doing to his staff, having sex with members of his staff. so he went to the district attorney's office. district attorney took the case, had him write a fake $2 million check to this person, and they went and arrested the guy at cbs news just yesterday. >> it's a squalid story all around in terms of personal behavior, but the criminal behavior all around in terms of his producer -- >> i don't know which is worse. >> criminal behavior is worse. $2 million extortion blackmail is appalling. but the personal behavior, people are going to have to judge for themself. i think it's a squalid story. >> harold? >> it's terrible for him, for his family, for it to go out to his wife and to those who may have been affected by this. i would agree with willie.

the criminal behavior is what's unacceptable. >> the other thing is note is we don't have any timeline on this. he married his wife eight months ago. he's got a 6-year-old son. we don't know when this took place, what was going on. >> besides, hello. it's with staffers. i had sex with staff. here's the problem. you've got a powerful, wealthy man, one of the most powerful men in television, who is admitting to having sex with people who work for him. if that happened at a paper mill inning abut kerr key, new mexico, or a plant in pittsburgh, he would be fired. at least human resources would be looking into it and wondering if it's a problem, this is a guy who got a laugh out of it after announcing it on the air. shouldn't cbs and viacom be looking into this? >> the guy at the paper mill doesn't bring in hundreds of millions of dollars. >> it's a double standard. didn't we just talk about a double standard relating to

powerful men? >> the lead story in "the new york times" is on senator ensign, whose conduct is difficult to defend, but i don't think it more egregious than what we just saw from david letterman. >> how does that take away? >> what i'm saying is paula kissinger treated much more harshly politicians or those in hollywood for these offenses. >> he's saying, if you're in hollywood, you can be attacked and get away with things when it comes to jokes. >> if you're a politician, your career it is over. >> in fairness, there was a payment in the ensign matter. there was not a payment in the letterman matter. >> but from what i know, there was no criminal activity involved in the ensign matter yet. he got some buddies to hire this guy. >> we're going to talk about this more. that's my gut coming out of watching him on the show last night. i just -- i don't like it. time now for a look at some of today's top stories. right now president obama is

wrapping up a quick stop in copenhagen where he's pushing chicago's bid as the host city of the 2016 summer olympics. a final decision is just hours away with madrid, tokyo, and rio de janeiro also in contention. nbc's jim maceda joins us live from copenhagen this morning where the international olympic committee is weighing its options. jim? >> reporter: hi there, mika. that's right. it's all kind of happening behind me in this nonscript ioc center. it truly is crunch time. we saw president obama, the first u.s. president ever to risk get can into the fray on this kind of olympics negotiation, arrive on air force one this morning, driving directly to this building behind me, and making his personal appeal. introduced by the first lady michelle obama, who was appropriately dressed in stunning gold, you might like to know. and it really -- from my point of view, it sounded like a yin

yang presentation. michelle obama really appealing to the heart, at times extremely emotional, talking about how she was inspired by olympics -- by the olympics, by watching the games on tv as a child, sitting on her dad's knee, never believing that someday the games could come to her hometown of chicago. and her father -- i'm sorry. barack obama appealing more to the head, making a very strong case, a logical case, saying that i am the president. the white house, the state department, and everyone else in my government guarantees that these will be the best games ever. here's a little taste of what he had to say. >> at the beginning of this new century, the nation that has been shaped by people from around the world wants a chance to inspire it once more. to ignite the spirit of possibility at the heart of the olympic and paraolympic

movement. to offer a stage for the extraordinary talent and dynamism for nations joined together. the games that ignite us in competition and shared celebration of our limitless potential as a people. and so i urge you to choose chicago. >> reporter: of course, mika, nobody knows if this pr sprint to the finish is going to work. chicago is the betting favorite, but betting favorites like paris have lost before here. so we'll know the answer sometime close to 1:00 p.m. eastern. stay tuned. >> nbc's jim maceda, thanks very much. we'll be talking about the president's role coming up in the show. it's another big story we're following today. in other news, back to the letterman story. a cbs employee being charged with the attempted extortion of the late night host david letterman.

according to letterman, the suspect learned about the host's sexual relationships with cbs employees, people who worked for him, and wanted $2 million to keep quiet. let's get the latest now from wnbc's lynn berry. >> this morning i did something i've never done in my life, and it was a combination of just unusual and scary. >> reporter: in a shocking admission to his late show audience, david letterman described his grand jury testimony after a threatening note was left in his car three weeks ago, saying -- >> i know that you do some terrible, terrible things. and i can prove that you do these terrible things. and sure enough, contained in the package was stuff to prove that i do terrible things. >> reporter: the audience laughed, but this was no joke. cbs confirms the alleged extortionist is a "48 hours"

producer, who demanded $2 million to keep affairs with various late night staffers from going public. letterman told viewers authorities passed the suspect a phony check, then arrested him for blackmail. >> the creepy stuff was that i have had sex with women who work for me on this show. >> reporter: that's when the 62-year-old married father of one silenced the audience. and while the funny man admits the plot scared him, he still leaned on what he knows best -- comedy. >> and would it be embarrassing if it became public? perhaps it would. perhaps it would, especially for the women. >> reporter: the cbs producer was arrested yesterday and charged with attempted grand larceny in the first degree. now, cbs news has posted an article on their website citing an ap source that identifies this suspect as 51-year-old robert j.halderman, an emmy-nominated producer for "48

hours." while the manhattan district attorney will not confirm that report, we have heard rumblings that there will be a press conference later today. for "morning joe," lynn berry, nbc news. >> it's stunning all around. pat, am i being too shrill? >> listen, i think you've got to break it down. first, if true about this fellow halderman, who's a producer for "48 hours." you know him. >> i do. i've worked with him. >> that's extortion, that's blackmail, that's indefensible. then you get to the behavior of letterman, which seems to me to be appalling. i don't know if there's any kind of coercion involved with these women. i don't know the story. i don't know the details of that. >> i don't either. i would give pause. the audience laughing. i think he set up the audience to sort of be brought into this sort of back me type of thing. of course i've had relationships with people, and it may be as simple as that.

my concern is there's an admission here to having one, possibly multiple relationships with people who work for him, and if i were running a company and that became public, wouldn't you be asking questions? wouldn't you launch a human resources investigation? wouldn't you look into it? i'm not saying that something incredulously criminal would come out of it, but i don't know. >> they probably will. cbs will look into it. let me be clear, i'm not defending david letterman's actions by any means, but we all know -- let's not pretend we're outraged. he's david letterman. he's the face of cbs. >> but he's being funny. >> it's his job to be funny. that's what he does. >> i don't know. i saw that. what if the wire company in bradford, connecticut, or someplace in tennessee the guy got up and announced and said he's had sex with people who work here. ha, ha, ha. actually, no. that's not funny. >> if it was the president of

that -- >> he's the one who wields the power. >> now you're talking. is it abuse of power, or are these women who are attracted to david letterman because of who he is, et cetera. >> what's the difference? >> i think it is different. if you have a coersive relationship with a boss, he should be thrown out. if it's an office relationship and the guy's married, i don't know if it becomes a problem for the corporation unless, frankly, it damages the corporation's name. >> i'm just worried it's being passed off as funny. >> he's the guy that set the audience up like it's funny. he had the audience laughing with him, and he brought them along into this crime and all this other stuff. >> i can't wait to hear from cbs and viacom. i'm very interested to hear how they handle this as a company. it's a good company. i'll assume they do the right thing. i'm certainly going to be watching for that. i really am. >> what do you think should be done with letterman? >> you know, this is a guy who's

made fun of mark sandberg, bill clinton, and other adulterers, whatever, people who have been embarrasseded by their behavior. and my issue is really not that they're all -- it's more, when you have multiple sexual relationships with people who work for you, there is an abuse of power issue, and it seems like it's being blown off for a laugh. >> i don't think it's -- he blew it off, but it's not been blown off. we don't know the truth about it is what the situation is. >> when somebody's the face of the organization -- let's take kobe bryant and the lakers. he came out. they condemned him. he had a press conference. this is terrible. i apologized to my wife, and everybody moved on. that's what happened here, right or wrong. >> kobe had a trial and everything like that, didn't he? >> the point is he did something horrible too. he faced up to it. lakers feigned outrage and then

moved on. >> this is what you're talking about. this is oenl the beginning of this. we're going to hear from this guy, this producer that you know. >> i've got to hear all the facts. >> i do too. i just don't think that was funny. i don't know what i would have done if i was sitting in that audience. >> that was probably the wrong way to describe it in disclosure. >> maybe it was brilliant, harold. maybe it was brilliant. >> no, it wasn't. we saw it, and we weren't laughing. the audience was drawn in. >> what they're expecting -- they're sitting here waiting -- >> they're waiting to hear a laugh. am i supposed to laugh? >> wait a minute. i would have walked out of there feeling a little like i want my money back. let's wrap up the conversation for now and get a quick check on weather with meteorologist ginger zee from wmaq in chicago. ginger? >> thanks, mika. good morning, everyone. we're going to take a look at the forecast. the south part of minnesota is where the low pressure system is located. cold front picking up storms in new orleans. warm front going to lift through the northeast and bring showers

for at least the first part of your weekend. from indianapolis up to detroit, some of the rain showers and some heavy at times but not all that bad. a quick look at the forecast out the door. we're a little cool in new york, but we'll head to a high around 62 with partly cloudy skies. that's a quick look at your weather. let's head down to mika. thanks for having me, guys. >> ginger, it was great having you. why don't you stay. bill's not coming can ba. we have a big show this morning. signs of hope with iran's nuclear program. we'll discuss yesterday's landmark meeting with the moderator of "meet the press," david gregory. plus racing for the swine flu. the cdc warns hospitals can soon be pushed to their limit. secretary kathleen sebelius joins us with an update. plus an exclusive look at politico's top stories this morning, including the scoop on sarah palin's ghostwriter for her new book. that will be aed good one. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. my l'oréal makeup matches my skin so perfectly,

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last week i made a joke about newark, new jersey, and the mayor of that city has now banned me from flying into newark airport. so, mr. mayor, i can't tell you how sorry i am that i didn't make that joke 15 years ago. >> leave cory booker alone now. here he is with us, executive editor of politico jim vandehei. he has a look at the morning playbook. >> how you doing? >> i want to talk about sarah palin's new book "going rogue." we don't have a lot of insight into what kind of book it's going to be. >> we know the co-writer, who

probably wrote the bulk of it is lynn vincent, who's a christian conservative writer. she was the co-author on the book on bush who was forced out because he was talking about the war on terror in religious terms. she helped write donkey kongs where she talked about how the democratic party was rooted in pro treason and subversion. there could be a nice sharp edge to the palin book. we do know it's not going to be a poll ti book. it's going to be more of a view on her life and politics. people seem to like it. it's already on the best seller's list a month and a half before it comes out. >> the pro treason party. i didn't know we had one of those. i know john mccain said good naturedly he didn't like particular sections of the book. do you think sarah palin comes out guns blazing on the campaign. >> i think there will be good

stuff on the campaign. it's the easiest place where she can be sharp and candid. it works in her interests when she talks about washington and why she has a rough relationship with the republican establishment. there are a lot of people in the republican party who are ticked off at the washington leadership, and she really resonates with those people. we see it in polling in lowell and national districts we want to take a look at. >> we want to sesay ra in 2012, but many people say this book is an indication she won't be running in 2012. but there is a guy gearing up for that race in three years. tell us about him. >> tim pawlenty, governor of minnesota, who was actually competing with sarah palin to get the vice presidential nod under mccain, has made it absolutely clear he's running. he's pulled a lot of the old bush folks into his camp. he's starting a pac, getting fund-raisers and putting together a media operation. he's making it clear three years

out that he's in, he's going to try to run. he's going to run, as he would describe it, as a sensible conservative. there's some danl in him running this early because there's so much pressure on him, if he wants to stay in the news, to say incendiary things, to get in the headlines and the internet mix. i think there would be pressure for him to dominate conservatives because they'll dominate the 2010 race and the republican party. and it will put pressure on the other republicans thinking about running to maybe pick up the speed and sharpen their approach. one person who's going to be a little bit nervous is mitt romney because mitt romney is going to claim the ground that pawlenty would claim, as a sensible conservative and not trying to be incendiary all the time. so far romney has kept a low profile. >> jim, thank you so much. is tim pawlenty a guy that excites republicans right now? >> i wouldn't use the word excitement. >> is he a viable candidate for

2012? >> let's go back to going rogue. tim pawlenty, if you named a dark horse for the republican nomination, people are looking at him, saying he's an interesting guy. i've seen him. he does better. he doesn't seem dynamic for tough, but i saw him on one of the national programs. i think he did an excellent job. i think he's a real comer. he's going to be a real competitor. the question is can we get the bonding going that none of them seem to get, except for sarah palin, in the republican party now. >> do you fear that republicans may again nominate someone who excites the republican base but has very little chance of resonating with the broader american voting public. >> i don't know when we did that. i think bush was a more exciting -- i guess mccain in 2000. do i think palin is going to get the nomination? if you ask me now, i would say no. i don't know she's going to run. she had all that problem with her family when she quit. if she had the problem with her

family, why would you go into that cauldron of iowa and new hampshire where she could get ripped to bits. >> she's not going away. >> she has an exciting personality. >> i know you feel that way, pat. >> me and 1.5 million readers. >> we're going to have a jon and kate -- believe it or not, i'm going to say the words "jon and kate plus 8" coming up. >> that's blasphemy coming from you. >> there's an actual news story pertaining to them. we'll have peter alexander coming up with that. first elizabeth smart testifying for the first time about the story that capture ed worldwide attention nine years ago. the relinlius fanatic and his wife who held her captive in the woods. nbc's chris jansing was in the courtroom as elizabeth smart shared the details. >> reporter: at 21, elizabeth smart is moving forward with her life, planning a mission trip to france. for nearly two hours on the

witness stand, she returned to 2002, when she was just 14, and she recounted in horrifying detail the night she was kidnapped from her bed at knife point. >> i thought she was graceful, remarkable, strong, and gave powerful testimony. >> reporter: for the first time ever, telling her story in public, details that even her family didn't know. >> there were certainly a lot of things that i had never heard before, and i had -- i had no idea what she had gone through so much out there. >> reporter: smart told of being chained to a tree in the woods and of being forced to take drugs and drink alcohol. her testimony will help a judge determine whether brian david mitchell, a homeless street preacher, is mentally competent to stand trial for her kidnapping. elizabeth smart painted a picture of mitchell as a master manipulator who used religion as an excuse for his sexual obsession. she remained calmed and focused throughout her testimony, even

as she described endiring nine months of sexual assault. mitchell was removed from the courtroom before elizabeth smart came in, when he refused to stop singing religious hymns. >> she actually wanted to face him. in fact, i think she asked brad if he could be muzzled and have to sit there and watch it. they indicated to her relief that he was there in the room with the audio and video and had nothing else to do but to listen to that. >> smart's family described her as relieved to put this behind her. dozens more witnesses will be called when the competency hearing continues next month. chris jansing, nbc news, salt lake city, utah. >> all right. coming up, the white house fires back at glenn beck over his olympics comments. we're going to bring you the back and forthcoming up with the national journal's ron brownstein. also, a look at what stories are making the front page in newspapers around the country. you can guess what it is here in new york. we'll be right back with more "morning joe."

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the first layer helps you fall asleep quickly. and unlike other sleep aids, a second helps you stay asleep. when taking ambien cr, don't drive or operate machinery. sleepwalking, and eating or driving while not fully awake with memory loss for the event as well as abnormal behaviors such as being more outgoing or aggressive than normal, confusion, agitation and halluciations may occur. don't take it with alcohol as it may increase these behaviors. allergic reactions such as shortness of breath, swelling of your tongue or throat may occur and in rare cases may be fatal. side effects may include next-day drowsiness, dizziness, and headache. in patients with depression, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide may occur. if you experience any of these behaviors or reactions contact your doctor immediately. wake up ready for your day. ask your healthcare provider for 2-layer ambien cr. welcome back to "morning joe." it is just after 6:30 on the east coast. live pictures of tokyo here for you.

it's time now for a look at some of today's top stories. president obama is calling on the international olympic committee to tap chicago as the host city for the 2016 summer games. joining the first lady in copenhagen, the president highlighted chicago's cultural diversity, describing it as "stage worthy" as an extraordinary talent. other cities being considered are rio, tokyo, and madrid with the final decision expected later this morning. the other big story we're following this morning, a cbs employee being charged with attempted extortion of late night host david letterman. according to letterman, the suspect learned of letterman's affairs with cbs employees and wanted $2 million to keep quiet. the associated press says the employee worked on "48 hours" and has been suspended pending the investigation. and rescuers in indonesia continue to search the rubble left behind by wednesday's

magnitude 7.6 earthquake. just this morning rescuers pulled a teenage survivor from the debris about 48 hour after the quake hit. the united nations put the estimated death toll at 1,100. that is a quick look at the hey lines. let's take a look at how the morning papers are telling stories this morning. we'll start with "the washington post." iran and major world powers reach agreement on series of points. iran agreed to transfer most of its uranium nuclear fuel to other countries. >> the washington times, same story. iran budges on nuclear fuel in u.s. talks. we'll dig into this with richard haass and andrea mitchell live from geneva later. >> senator john ensign sex scandal and whether he violated ethics laws. the paper says ensign helped the woman of the husband he was having an affair with get a job. >> "usa today," the first

priority the most vulnerable. >> and the rockies clinch a playoff spot with their victory over the brewers. and in new york, this was the headline in both papers. "i had sex with staffers," extortion case involving david letterman. big case here and across the country. i have a lot of questions about it. not getting a lot of nice e-mails about my questions. we'll keep talking about it and hashing it out. coming up next, ron brownstein explains why it could be costly for democrats in the 2010 election. this morning's must read opinion pages. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. (male anuncer) if you've had a heart attack caused by a completely blocked artery, another heart attack could be lurking, waiting to strike. a art attack caused by a clot, one that could be fatal. but plavix helpsave lives. plixtaken with other heart medicines goes beyond what other heart medicines do alone

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what do you think of glenn beck ' >> only in america can you make that much money crying. glenn beck is not aligned with

any party, as far as i can tell. he's aligned with cynicism. and there's always been a market for cynicism. >> welcome back to "morning joe." here with us now, political director of the atlantic media company ron brownstein. ron, thanks for joining the conversation with morning. it appears the white house now has engaged beck, which we have a blog which we'll read in just a moment. i always get worried when i guess people take his conversations too seriously. do you think the white house should have engaged? >> i think there's going to be limited amount of engagement. the white house has wanted to identify the republican party with the very strident voices on the right, limbaugh earlier, glenn beck now. i know we're in what seems like a sideshow or carnival, but in

some ways it does have an impact on the overall tenor of our debate. there is a market for polarization. joe wilson raising $2 million because he yelled "you lied" at the president. his opponent raised money as well. there's so much more room for everyone in the political sphere to be more outrageous and incendiary, and it can pay off. the cost, though, is the degradation of our public dialogue and our ability to work together to solve big problems. i think the white house is going to be selective in how it deals with someone like glenn beck, but certainly they want to identify the republican party, the opposition, as much as they can with those kinds of voices. >> so the white house has this blog where they go -- they kind of answer criticism about the white house, tit for tat people, on cable news even. here's what they said about their blog. they point out rhetoric versus fact. the rhetoric is vancouver lost $1 billion when it had the olympics. glenn beck said, vancouver lost, how much was it, they lost a

billion dollars when they had the olympics. the white house says the reality is vancouver's olympics will not take place until 2010. vancouver will host the 2010 olympic games in february and march respectively. so they're picking apart what happens on cable news and what's wrong. glenn beck reacted. >> what i meant to say was calgary, but since the white house is so eager to point out something where i switched the wrong name there and they're talking about vancouver, let's talk about vancouver and what a raging success that is for the vancouver olympics. i mean, let's look at a couple of the facts on vancouver, shall we, white house, since you brought it up? vancouver olympics have budgeted $75 million for security. you're right. it hasn't even happened yet, and they're already $800 million over budget on that one. don't worry. they have an emergency fund. they're in vancouver. right, city? yes, vancouver, $66.8 million,

which they've already spent 98% of. so thank you, white house, for correcting me on that. you got us. >> hey, ron, that clip notwithstanding, should the white house be in the business of splitting hairs about what people said on cable news? >> you know, it's a tough call. i think that, on the one hand, in talk radio and the talk radio world that has migrated into television, particularly on fox, and to some extent, msnbc as well, there is no such thing as a losing argument for these hosts. any argument is goos because it generates controversy, and controversy is what they feed off of in this very polarized era. you can always draw an audience with an argument. on the other hand, the white house does, i think, worry that arguments that are unrefuted tend to migrate through the media bloodstream. i think the olympics is really a tangential issue for a lot of people, but there's really nothing that is beyond the bounds of political controversy at this point in america. >> let me just stop you right there because the white house

being worried about -- i actually think they know exactly what they're doing. you talk about this market for polarization, and i think they're using it in their best interests, pat buchanan, harold ford jr., let's bring it back to ron. think about it. the white house setting up rush limbaugh as the leader of the republican party. that was useful. that worked. >> i thought the white house got creamed on this one by glenn beck. glenn beck made a mistake. then they elevated glenn beck. they gave him an opportunity to say all these things which were very persuasive about vancouver, and msnbc has just run about a minute of glenn beck. >> but what does that do to the other side in terms of democrats versus republicans? >> i think it elevates clearly glenn beck, there's no doubt about it. the white house is responding to him. i think beck won this particular face-off, to be honest. >> harold? >> i happen to agree with pat. whether beck was right or not, whenever you give him more face time, if you believe he's not on the level of the white house,

which he's not, you give him a win. two, the real responses probably should come when opponents of health care and opponents of the president's plan with regard to iran or opponents of his plan regarding financial reform, those are the kinds of issues that need to be corrected right away and response needs to be given. i appreciate some ire being raised at the white house about glenn beck, but glenn beck is irrelevant when it comes to policy making. straighten the facts out. >> if you're talking about something big, if you're talking about iran or something like that, maybe you've got to go out and correct somebody. to correct him on the fact that he mentioned vancouver rather than calgary, for heaven's sakes -- >> but there may be some subversive usefulness there -- ron, i'll let you chime in -- because it sets him up as a voice on the other side, a conservative voice. >> you're absolutely correct. the white house does want to identify the republican party with these very strident voices. the opposition to the president's agenda extends beyond these strident voices,

but there's no question it does project beyond the energy at this point, the talk radio and fox and so forth. to the extent, they can invite that, it makes it harder for the electorate that's going to show up in 2012. to a splauler extent, i agree with pat and harold it's kind of a secondary point to engage somebody like this. ultimately it's a petri dish controversy that will fade away quickly. >> ron, let me ask you about your national journal piece about the relationship between 2010 and 2012. most people expecting republicans to pick up seats in 2010. what does that mean for 2012? >> the historical pattern, of course, is the president's party loses seats in the midterm election. this year the democratic party seem vulnerable on a couple l of front. one, they're overextended. they won a lot of seats on

bush's decline. they have 257 out seats right now. the republicans never had more than 235 in their biggest years of control. but the biggest for the democrats is the composition of the electorate is going to look very different in 2010 than it did in 2008 and again in 2012. obama won by assembling the coalition of the offended, very dependent on young people and minority. they're going to drop off in mid term elections, and the share of the vote that's white and older increases. that's where obama is weakest now among white seniors. approval rating of 40% or less. when the republicans come back in 2010 they have room to expand their coalition. >> so more pat, less me. the contrast is right here. >> thank you very much. talk to you soon. coming up in a few minutes, we'll have the moderator of

"meet the press" david gregory joining us. and this morning in our green room we're serving via, the new instant coffee from starbucks. but first, sports and willie's "news you can't use." pure cane sugar and the stevia plant.

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the obama and his lovely wife michelle are in copenhagen making a pitch to bring the summer olympics to chicago. barack obama is an unusual democrat. i mean, here is the guy is on a business trip with his wife. i mean, what is that? isn't that odd? >> then moments later dave shocked the world sitting down and talking about a sex scandal in his own office. we'll have a lot more on that coming up. big college football game of the weekend, you know what it is, ole miss visiting vanderbilt in nashville. it's going to be a dandy. here's fred with sports. >> thank you and good morning. on june 4th, the rockies 12 games under .500 and after a remarkable turnaround, they're once again back in the playoffs. they got it done playing small ball against the brewers. todd helton scores. colorado up 1-0 after one. more the same in the third. helton came in from second and

scored. rockies put up four in the inning and won it 9-2. they clinch at least the wild card and are two back of the dodgers in the west. they play a three-game series in l.a. starting tonight. twins beat the tigers. orlando cabrera gave them a 7-0 lead. twins now two back of the tigers with three remaining. chris carpenter picked up his 17th win of the year, but his hitting made headlines. hit his first major league home run, and it was a grand slam. move over pujols, chris carpenter now can do it all for the cards. top ranked oklahoma will be without sam bradford for another week. he'll be out tomorrow's game against number 17 miami. landry jones will make his third start at quarterback. opening night around the nhl. reigning mvp alexander ovechkin put on a show against the bruins. second period, capitals with numbers, and no one picked up

ovechkin. he made boston pay for their mistake. ripped one past tim thomas. caps up 2-0. bruins all over ovechkin in the third. still got three and ovechkin got a second goal of the night. in toronto, maple leafs and canadiens need overtime. pick up the loose puck and scored with 13 second left in ot. maple leafs picked up where they left off last season with a loss. here's something i think is interesting. according to the boston herald, the nba has issued an anti-handshake directive, asking players to greet each other with a fist or chest bump to combat the swine flu. one can only imagine what brain yak thought this. what next? players using a handkerchief when boxing out. and the angels hazed their rookies in front of thousands at a playoff pep rally. chris pettitte pretty in pink. hope he shaved his legs. sean o'sullivan was a red teletubby.

and palmer, who was the pitcher for the angels this season, dressed as a baby. i wouldn't want to get arrested by that rent-a-cop, and the angels had to wear the outfits on their flight to oakland. for those who think golf is too slow of a sport, grab one of these. it's a golf cart with a motorcycle engine inside. watch it go reaching speeds up to 140 miles per hour. forget those four hour rounds. you can finish 18 holes in half an hour. but someone once told me the whole point of golf was to stay away from the wife and kids as long as you can. >> coming up next, "news you can't use." talking about david letterman went on his show last night and revealed to his audience of millions and people watching in the studio there's a big sex and extortion scandal going on in his office, and it involves him. gecko vo: geico's the third-largest

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time for some news you can't use. our conversations have been a little sleesy with all the goings on. >> all next week, we're going to have a "news you can't use" editorial meeting. >> i wouldn't have a job after that editorial meeting. you'd kill everything. let me bring you a good story about a great american, sully. captain sullenberger.

got back on the plane. here he is flying that route from charlotte up to newark. you remember the miracle on the hudson when he landed that plane safely. no one died somehow. he's an american hero. yesterday he climbed back into the cockpit. here he is speaking after the flight landed safely. >> first, it was great to fly with jeff again, and second, being back in the cockpit felt very familiar. it was like coming home. in many ways, even though several months have passed since i've flown, it would seem like i never left. >> remember, sully saved at least 155 lives that day. it's funny. look at some of the quotes from the people on the plane. they said, we heard sully was the pilot. put my seat back and just fell asleep. >> that's such a nice story. that's the perfect "news you can't use." end it there. perfect. good job, willie. >> we have a couple minutes left. >> this is good. this is your best one this week. we go from american hero to one of the lower forms of life here on the couldn't nen, jon

gosselin. >> why? >> yes, jon and kate plus 8. we heard earlier in the week it was going to be kate plus 8. now we heard they're pulling the plug on the show all together. by they, i mean jon gosselin and his attorneys. this is so, so rich. he just said he just realized it might not be good for his kids to have their life taped at every moment of the day. he just realized it when he was no longer allowed to be on the show. >> i'm asking not to be on the show, and i'm asking my children not to be on the show. i don't want them to film anymore. i don't think it's healthy for them. the reason it's not healthy is we're going through a divorce. i don't think it should be televised, and i think it should be taken off. >> pat buchanan with his commentary. >> i don't know who these people are. >> you are a better person for it. seriously, you're a smarter

american. unfortunately, it is a story we'll be covering. >> i know who john gotti is, but that's a big thing in the new york post. speaking of things in the new york post, let's go back to dave. >> this is a really big and troubling story. >> it happened late last night. david letterman on his show went on the set and revealed a really shocking story. it was so awkward. we'll talk about the way it happened. he presented it kind of as comedy, people were laughing in the audience nervously. bottom line, a man came to him in a $2 million extortion plot and said, i know you've been having sex with people in your staff, david letterman. i want $2 million to keep it quiet. letterman went to the d.a. and said, we need to do something about this. they caught the guy yesterday, but then dave went on the show last night and admitted that he did, in fact, have sex with many members of his staff. >> i have had sex with women who work on this show. would it be embarrassing if it

were made public? perhaps it would. perhaps it would, especially for the women. but that's a decision for them to make if they want to come public and talk about the relationships. if i want to go public and talk about the relationships. but what you don't want is a guy saying, i know he had sex with women, so i would like $2 million or i'm going to make trouble for you. >> so we don't know all the facts, don't know who the people are, don't know what he did exactly. but, mika, certainly strange on the set of "the late show." >> i think we'll start there. it's one of the big stories of the morning. we have pat buchanan and harold ford jr. with us. on the front page, as willie just showed, of the major newspapers of new york, it's a $2 million sex extortion plot on "the daily news."

he's being quoted on the cover of the kws new york post," i had sex with staff. cbs is acknowledging that one of its employees is being charged with the extortion of late night host david letterman. the host learned about sexual relationships with employees, plural, from those who worked with him and threatened to go public if he didn't pay $2 million. it's joe halderman, he works for "48 hours." i know who he is. i've worked with him. that's shocking in and of itself. but it raises some questions in terms of what letterman was doing last night in his show. i kind of don't appreciate he used the audience to get a laugh there when he talked about having sex with employees, people who worked for him. >> i think the words used the audience is exactly right. he gets the audience in. they're all part of the thing. they're laughing and cheering. he rolls into this personal --

they think they're being set up for jokes, i think. they're going along with it. i bet a lot of them are wondering what is this all about? i wouldn't blame the audience because they're caught up. >> we're going to play a little more sound. then i've got a couple of questions. and the one i'll start with is isn't this something cbs should be looking into? isn't this something that should be taken very seriously, and aren't there some questions that need to be asked? willie, let's hear more from david letterman. >> he went on to explain what he did once he received this package, the threatening package asking for $2 million. he went downtown and talked to the district attorney. >> i think it's time to testify before the grand jury, and i have to -- i was disturbed about this. i was worried for myself. i was worried for my family. i felt menaced by this, and i had to tell them all of the creepy things that i have done. now, of course, we get to what was it? what was all the creepy stuff

that he was going to put into the screenplay and the movie? and the creepy stuff was that i have had sex with women who work for me on this show. now, my response to that is yes, i have. >> laughing is strange. i just want to point out he referenced a screenplay in there. part of the threat was i'm going to write a screenplay and a movie about david letterman's life and reveal all this. he failed. >> truly, if the extortion attempt is true, that's a criminal act. that's one problem, pat. >> part of the thing he's doing before the grand jury, he's testifying -- giving the manhattan district attorney, giving him the evidence to prosecute this guy. and this guy is going to have to come up with his defense. >> but aren't there other questions here? >> questions of journalism. look at "the new york times."

they put it on page 4. maybe their defense is we didn't get the story until later. >> maybe they're late. this is a powerful wealthy man, a media mogul. >> and i've got ensign on the front page. most americans don't know who john ensign is. >> here's my question. we got the daily news and the post. i'm not surpriseded they have it as the screaming headline. having said that, i have other questions. cbs is a great company. i work there. i'm sure they would be asking questions at this point. maybe human resources would get involved and just make sure there wasn't an abuse of power when you have such a high level, powerful employee admitting on his show to the laughs of his audience that he's using, to having sex with people who work for him. how low level were these employees? how many were there? wouldn't cbs and viacom be asking these questions? isn't that a legitimate question, harold? >> sure. i would imagine those questions are being asked and have been, and hopefully answers will be provided. if not, there's enough pressure for the answers to be provided.

i would just draw the distinction. i know john ensign. he's a friend. there's a difference here. according to "the new york times" this morning, senator ensign tried to find the woman he had an affair with, her husband, jobs and for that matter financial support, all in an effort that we can imagine from the story to try to keep some of this quiet. david letterman didn't provide the guy seeking this any money to keep him quiet. >> is that why -- >> we're talking about two different questions. mika, your questions are legitimate, and they need to be answered. all of that will come out. >> here's another question. willie -- >> i thought it was wrong the way letterman did it. the forum was not right, to do it in a joking fashion. >> he's trying to brush it off. i think it seems like a serious thing. willie, given the fact -- and you followed all of this quite seriously in terms of media critiques and humor, but isn't he kind of a hypocrite at this point? i mean, this is a guy who's made a living of making fun of

adulterers, of making fun of people who have been caught in inappropriate situations, mark sanford, bill clinton, i could name a host of people that he's made millions of dollars ridiculing on his show for having inappropriate sexual relationships. >> absolutely. he still makes jokes about bill clinton 16 years later. you still hear him a couple of times a week. but the question is does his audience care? i mean -- >> does it make him a hypocrite? >> sure, but nobody cares about hypocrisy. his fans love him. they'll rally behind him. they still think he's funny. he's a huge star. we can't pretend the same standard applies, right or wrong, that the same standard applies to stars as it does to regular people. >> i don't think he's a hypocrite. i'll tell you why. he trivializes the affairs. it's all a big joke. i don't know if it's all hip chrissy that all this stuff clinton does is the subject of jokes, making jokes about sarah

palin's daughter and things, that's a problem for him. but he trivializes. what he's saying is this stuff isn't important. it's funny. >> i would be very interested to see the other side of this story and how, i guess, cbs and viacom as a company looks into this. i would think they have to. unless maybe there's no one filing disclaimers. but having multiple sexual partners of people who work for him, you've got a problem. >> is it voluntary, consensual behavior between adults, in which case those people are going to say it's his business. judge him if you want, but it's got nothing to do with his job. >> really? he's in a position of power. >> that's a different question. if it's abuse of power, he's got a problem, quite frankly. and also, he would have a lawsuit problem, a civil suit problem, would he not? >> you would imagine. >> if it's an abuse of power. >> i guess the reason i raise this -- you know, the laughing and to bring the audience into

that. there seems to be sort of -- >> that forum is awkward. >> i wonder -- we still don't know how all sides are going to be responding to this, so it may be early. if there is no, i don't know, questioning into this investigation, you know, it just seems to me like the same old thing we've been talking about all week. very different cases. clearly, one is a criminal act. but the roman polanski conversation we've been having all week and sort of hollywood's version of let him go. leave him alone. this is terrible what's happening to roman polanski. and the rest of america, many people twittering me saying, mied go, my god, he raped someone. why is he not in jail? >> roman polanski should be in jail. he should be extradited. a 13-year-old was rape. he fled the country. now, david letterman, we don't have those kind of facts.

that doesn't apply -- it's wrong in some ways, but i think it's unfair to put him in the boat with rape. >> but i think blowing off a certain behavior, there's like a hollywood standard to certain behavior, and then there's the rest of us that are applied to the same rules. again, i brought up this conversation when i brought up roman polanski saying completely different acts. i'm not comparing the acts. >> but you're right, mika, there are two countries out there. >> there are two countries, pat. >> are you talking about me and ron brownstein again? >> i'm not taking it down that way, harold. don't bring me up on charges again. >> we were talking earlier, mika, on one of the commercial breaks about other television personalities -- and we don't need to bring up their names -- who have been involved in things like this. their supporters and audiences have rallied to their side, and their audiences have gone up. there will already be people who don't like you and will continue to hate you even more, but their core audience is going to stay

with them. they're not going to cancel the late show because of an hr violation. >> this broke in the last 24 hours, am i right? this whole thing. and the note that he got and all those things, that happened all very recently. i would just like to know -- and i can't wait to hear from cbs on this because i'm sure they'll do the right thing. i would like to know what they're doing and if they're looking into it. you can't have one of the most powerful men in television announcing that he had sex with his own staffers on his show and not have questions. >> and they said, dave, give us all the names of these women, and they're going to go talk to these women independently. that's what cbs will have to do. >> i would think they would. i would think in a situation like this that they absolutely would. >> i bet they are right now. the other big story we're following this morning, right now president obama is'wraing up a quick stop in copenhagen where he's pushing chicago's bid as the host city for the 2016

summer olympics. the final decision is hours away with madrid, tokyo, and rio de janeiro also in contention. the president is expected back in washington this afternoon, where he will deliver brief remarks from the white house. so we've got that story we're covering. also, we're just learning that president obama met with general mcchrystal -- oh, he can do more than one thing while he's covering the olympics. he's got a phone. he spoke to general mcchrystal while on air force one while in denmark and mcchrystal was in london and met with the president to continue their conversation on afghanistan and pakistan. here with us now, the moderator of nbc's "meet the press," david gregory. david, we have just determined the president can multitask and his eye won't be off the ball if he goes to copenhagen. what is the headline pertaining to afghanistan? is there anything new in terms of how we move forward? >> well, general mcchrystal, who

was addressing an audience in london before he met up with the president, has made it very clear that that assessment he provided to the administration is something he stands by. he does not want to scale down efforts and focus on al qaeda. this is the subject of debate between the president's top advisers, the war council on afghanistan. here you've got the president meeting with general mcchrystal, getting additional face time with him to talk through these issues, and i'm told by senior officials that really we're looking at a period of a few weeks to work out this policy difference, a profound policy difference for the president to decide exactly which direction he wants to move in. >> okay. the other big story, the major talks taking place yesterday pertaining to iran. it looks like tensions have eased a bit. how do we know to trust at this point? how does the united states move forward being clear and decisive and yet getting the action that

they need in return from iran? >> this is the important question that does not have an answer yet. the u.s. has agreed to ship out of iran some enriched uranium that would put off any kind of nuclear program they could build. but the issue is do they have secret stockpiles the world doesn't know about? the president says he won't negotiate with iran indefinitely, but you have to wonder what the good faith is. is there an opportunity to get over the tensions. is there a conversation about what the u.s.-iranian relationship could look like down the road if they can do business and negotiate away the nuclear program, there might be a lot of upside for iran. the question is what relationship the u.s. and its allies have against iran and what they're really prepared to do. senator mccain yesterday, as part of the washington ideas forum here yesterday, and he was skeptical about the impact of sanctions primarily because he's

concerned that russia and china won't necessarily be on board. so this diplomatic work will go forward, but there's a real question about how much leverage the u.s. will have working its allies against iran. >> pat buchanan. >> david, reading a lot of reports from washington, one gets the sense that the white house, as a collective, is leaning against any 45,000 or 40,000 troop commitment to afghanistan, that they would prefer to go, if you will, more the biden route. is that your read as well, and would that not mean a real collision with general mcchrystal? >> i'm not certain that it goes in that direction. i think there may be some effort to negotiate that path and the ability to move on capitol hill to get a troop increase that would be much smaller than that or would just put that kind of increase off and maybe buy a little bit more time. but i do think there's something

of a clash coming because the president's own party does not want this kind of additional troop build-up. there's a lot of skepticism about the idea of really doubling down and getting into a long detracted counterinsurgency. this is really the source of the debate. the difficulty is, as you know, pat, finding some kind of middle ground may be the most dangerous path of all because we're in a situation now where, you know, things are not going well. general mcchrystal and admiral mullen has said the situation is deteriorating with our current standards. so we either need to shift fundamentally or give the general the kind of troops he wants. again, he's speaking out publicly saying he's fundamentally against this kind of reduction that the vice president and some others are advocating. >> all right. david gregory, to you thank you so much. we'll be watching you this sunday on "meet the press." >> we've got ambassador susan rice to talk about these issues. >> excellent.

look forward to that. coming up next, going for gold. how president obama and the first lady made their final pitch to host the olympic games. the decision is now just hours away. we'll have live coverage from copenhagen to chicago. also, major signs of progress with iran's nuclear program. is the showdown over? we're going to get insight from the president of the council on foreign relations richard haass, and also andrea mitchell live in geneva. (mom) it's a good thing dove does such a great job repairing damaged hair.

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while we don't know what the next few years will bring. but we would like to be in chicago with michelle and our two girls and welcome the world back to our neighborhood. >> welcome back to "morning joe." the president putting his political capital on the line after his overnight pitch in chicago in 2016.

in copenhagen he's making the pitch. natalie morales is live there in denmark. we begin with nbc's lester holt live in chicago, the city in question. lester, good morning. >> reporter: mika, good morning. a lot of chicagoans were up in the wee hours of the morning watching the chicago pitch from copenhagen. a lot of city pride. the street i'm standing on, there's a famous picasso statue in daly plaza, it's got the olympic medal. it's been a place of celebration, the '85 bears super bowl, the win by the sox back in 2005. they're hoping thousands will gather today for a celebration that could top those, chicago being named as the olympic pick for 2016. they've got a jumbotron set up where people will be watching the voting and the announcement from copenhagen live. the stage is set up for an old fashioned pep rally, and the world's press is gathered here

as well. they've actually shut down streets here. the one thing going against chicago is civic support. while the people here will be largely in favor of it, a recent poll found that only 47% of chicagoans are in favor of the olympics, 45% against. that could weigh against chicago. other cities in the running have better public support. but nonetheless, chicago made a very heartfelt and emotional pitch in copenhagen today. a lot of folks who were up watching it say they believe it could clinch it. certainly having the president, they believe, could clinch it for the windy city. back to you guys. >> lester holt live in chicago, thank you so much. let's go now to natalie morales live in copenhagen, denmark. natalie, how's it going this morning? >> as lester was saying, a lot of confidence from the chicago delegation, particularly after the president and first lady made such a passionate and emotional appeal to the ioc voters here. it really says at this point, if i'm quoting a couple of sports

writers i talked to, it is chicago's to lose. let us not discount rio, a very, very tough competitor here. a couple of weeks ago, they probably were considered the favorites going into this. but now that the president has spoken and the first lady made such a lasting impression here, it remains to be seen what will happen in the next couple of hours because it's scheduled to go for a vote about 12:30 eastern time. a lot of people feeling like this is chicago's time. >> natalie, it's willie. we were talking earlier, and i was taken aback by some of the things you said. ioc people clamoring for handshakes and photographs. describe that scene to us. >> reporter: oh, it was crazy. in the press, we were all standing there waiting to see if the president and first lady would even walk by us. he kind of got stuck behind a wall as the ioc pretty much rushed him. of course, obviously, a lot of secret service and security trying to make it very -- keep it very controlled. but they -- everybody seemed to really want their picture with the president, shaking hands.

and, of course, the ioc voters trying to appear somewhat impartial, but you could tell they too felt the rock star power there that the president and first lady were exuding. >> wow. >> all right. natalie morales, thank you so much. we appreciate it. let's turn now to nbc news chief white house correspondent and nbc news political director chuck todd. chuck, the president putting his political capital on the line here with this. if it doesn't work, i still think he comes out a winner, but what are you hearing from the white house? >> reporter: well, look, they made the calculation. if chicago didn't get it and he didn't go, they thought that was worse than if chicago didn't get it and he went. he was getting a lot of pressure from friends who know a lot of people who work in this building, whether it's valerie jarrett, who obviously has taken the lead here. this is something she was very passionate about. this was a bid -- there was probably nobody in the white house who worked harder on this bid than valerie. i have no doubt that, if chicago

gets the bid, i wouldn't be surprised if valerie ends up finding herself wanting to run the bid. it becomes a big entity once you actually run an olympic committee. we've seen some big people. mitt romney ran the winter olympics in salt lake city. peter ueberroth went on from running the olympics in los angeles to running baseball. to a lot of people thinking he should have run for governor a lot sooner than he ever did in california. it is a big role. she seems to be -- have taken the issue front and center. >> chuck todd, we had criticism from some republicans -- i think john boehner actually -- who said the president would be getting his eye off the ball from going to copenhagen. i just found out they have a phone on air force one and the president spoke with general mcchrystal about afghanistan from air force one. what's the headline out of that? >> reporter: it wasn't by phone. general mcchrystal came on -- >> oh, he came? >> reporter: no. he went to copenhagen.

this is a face to face meeting. >> that's even better. you can actually multitask and bring the generals to you. >> reporter: well, general mcchrystal was in london. so obviously, you know, europe, what is it, about ten miles wide? you know, europe not a big continent. i don't know. it's very european to me. what do i know? it's across a lake, right? we call it a pond. so seriously, general mcchrystal was in london. they set up this meeting yesterday. they had a 25-minute meeting on air force one. obviously, general mcchrystal was involved in the three-hour marathon session on afghanistan strategy that took place here at the white house. he was on via teleconference. but because general mcchrystal was in the vicinity in europe, hop, skip, and a jump, couple hundred miles away, he came and visited with the president. i think it does, for all of the folks that wanted to criticize the president here for somehow taking his eye off the ball, it's a reminder the president has a lot of abilities to suddenly pop up and there's a

general there ready to meet him. it, i think, does show that this is a face to face meeting that maybe the president could not have had this week unless he had gone to copenhagen. >> there you go. chuck todd, thanks very much. we'll be talking to you soon and, of course, reading first read -- oh, he's going to come back to the political round table. perfect. chuck, we'll talk to you in just a bit. coming up, "the new york times" is reporting this morning on growing concerns about pregnant women exposed to swine flu. we're going to get the latest from secretary of health and human services kathleen sebelius. she'll be right here on set with us. keep it here on "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. how to get rich, by america's health insurance companies. raise health insurance premiums 4 times faster than wages. pay your ceo twenty four million dollars a year.

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welcome back to "morning joe." live pictures from chopper 4 for you of governor's island. why? >> it's a great place. building the harbor school coming up next year. good place. >> there was another shot about a minute ago. we missed it. >> it would have been better wider. >> let's actually talk about something now instead of show useless live pictures. is there a stimulus roadblock? "usa today" reporting that stimulus aid failing to get to

key metropolitan areas. some would argue that's where it's needed most. here to speak with us is mayor of charlotte, north carolina, mayor pat mccrory. he was on sully's flight yesterday. how did it go? >> i walked up, and there was jeff skiles and captain sully. i went in the cockpit with them, said hello, and i said, you know, i think this is going to be a safe flight. >> if i'm sully, i'm going to start charge a premium. i know people would pay to be on his flight. >> they are such nice guys. >> that's a great story. i'm glad you're on the flight. >> and everyone applauded when we landed. everyone applauded. it was a lot of fun. >> must have been good for him to get back in the cockpit, you know. >> he's a great guy. >> there's been so much talk about whether or not the stimulus package is working. is it getting to the places it needs to get to start working. what's your sense of it as a mayor getting some of that

money? >> there's two problems i'm having with the stimulus package. only 10% to 12% of is being used for infrastructure. it was kind of sold as rebuilding the infrastructure of america, and very little is going towards infrastructure, and the infrastructure it's going toward is mainly filling pot holes and repaving roads, which is not long-term sustainability. i've said before that roosevelt built dams, eisenhower built highways. we're really filling pot holes with very expensive money. >> there are a couple of questions, mayor mccrory, involved with that. that's not long-term job creation, involving more jobs which are higher end, which, by the way, a large percentage of people that are unemployed have jobs that are 10, 20, 30 years, high level white collar jobs. how do you replace those? not with potholes. >> most of the other 80% of the money is mainly going to fill government jobs.

i'm using it to hire new police officers in charlotte. that's the good news. we need new police officers. the bad news is the grants only last about two years. so mayors and governors have to make sure they budget for the long term and don't get stuck in the same position two years from now. >> let me ask you about that. you hear about the states are really going to be hammered when the stimulus money runs out next year. is it charlotte and north carolina sort of generally regarded as very well to do, much more prosperous than a lot of states? are you being hammered by this cutback in revenue because of the recession? >> oh, absolutely. the states, billions of dollars in debt. it's a very tough government -- the state government's in terrible deficit right now, and they're using some of the stimulus money to fill the deficit. so two years from now, they're going to have to deal with the same issue. my revenue in charlotte, my sales tax revenue is down 19% this year. that's a big hit, especially on my transit system. and so we're all having to make adjustments and cut back.

>> mayor, what are some of the projects you'd love to send money. where would you direct the money to create the kind of jobs you're discussing? >> i probably would direct it toward major highway programs. i'm a mass transit advocate. i'm a republican who believes in mass transit. i wouldn't apply to mass transit because they weren't shovel ready. that's the second issue i had was this definition of shovel ready is very difficult for cities because, in cities, you have to go through environmental studies and engineering studies, and that means they aren't ready to go. so you tend to pick short term projects that don't have sustainability. >> mayor mccrory, thank you so much. great to have you on the show. >> thank you for having me. >> i love hearing the story about sully's flight. that's nice. >> hope you get him on the way home. >> their egos are exactly the same. it hasn't gone to their heads. they're real pros. they saved a lot of lives of people from charlotte too, and i want to thank them. >> thank you very much, mr. mayor. coming up next, more on

david letterman's late night confession, sleeping with staff members and getting a laugh off of it. apparently, it's all due to an extortion case that broke recently. plus major developments on iran's nuclear program. is the international showdown over? we're going live to andrea mitchell in geneva. also, we have the president of the council on foreign relations richard haass here. you're watching "morning joe." announcer: right now, all over the country, discover card customers are getting 5% cashback bonus at grocery stores. now, more than ever it pays to discover. yep. real smooth. with unbeatable prices on revlon super lustrous lipstick, beauty costs less at walmart. save money. live better.

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i think it was a productive day, but the proof of that has not yet come to fruition. we want to see concrete action and positive results, and i think today's meeting opened the door, but let's see what happens.

new signed the tension is easing between iran and the six major world powers at the talks in geneva, this after tehran agreed to let nuclear inspectors into its newly revealed uranium enrichment plant, which was kept a secret for a while. joining us now, nbc's chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell is live in geneva switzerland. andrea, where do we go from here? very carefully, i guess. >> reporter: very carefully. as ronald reagan said, trust but verify. you heard a stern tone from hillary clinton and from the president. we want to see concrete results. the iranians have reneged before. optimally, if this were to work, mohamed el baradei is going to be in tehran from the international atomic energy agency saturday and sunday trying to work out details for a vienna meeting october 18th on details of a novel transfer of

uranium, low grade enriched uranium. and this could be moving most of the stockpiles, 80% of the stockpiles, of the known or declared stockpiles that iran has to russia, which would then process it, send it to france. it would be turned into fuel rods, metallicized, so it could no longer be, once it's sent back to iran to be used in a medical reactor in tehran as fuel, it could in no way be used as a nuclear weapon. this would be a small test, but if it could work, it could be a pir di paradigm for a much broader program. it could be iran backing down from a confrontation, we no longer need this peaceful nuclear uranium enrichment program because you're going to do this for us and give it to us in the form of fuel that can't be made into a bomb. so we're no longer a threat to the rest of the world.

let's talk about the rest of the offers, relations, diplomatic relations. this is the pie in the sky way of looking at it, but if everything were to work, this is the first step. and also, the inspections of that secret site. only a week ago, we were all talking about the threats and the confrontation, the escalating tensions. and now they've promised inspectio inspections. if they deliver unfettered inspections, then the proof will be exactly what they let the inspectors see. do they get to interview the engineers? do they get to see the documents, the architects, the construction of that site built into a mountain top on a military base? so a very suspicious site. if all of that were to come to pass, they could move to the next step. certainly nobody is talking about sanctions right now, and that is the big deal. >> andrea mitchell, thank you very much. we'll be watching you at 1:00 eastern time on msnbc. here with us now to continue this conversation, the president of the council on foreign relations richard haass, who is the author of "war of necessity, war of choice, a memoir of two

iraq wars." a great book. richard, tagging right off of andrea's reporting there, the headlines, haven't we seen this movie before? how do we make it a different movie when it comes to dealing with iran and how they've sort of handled the troops? >> obviously, they've lied. they stalled. yesterday, though, was all things being equal, a good day as these things go. as andrea correctly se, it's one thing for the iranians to make commitments. it's another thing to implement the commitments. let's see how that goes. secondly, one of the first rules in this business is you never know what you don't know. we just learned about a secret installation. i find it almost impossible to believe there aren't other secret installations. >> that was my next question. great, we'll get access to this one. we might even control how it operates or lack thereof, but they've lied. >> what people may not understand who are watching this is the entire world arrangement to deal with questions of nuclear proliferation is based upon cooperation. the international atomic energy

agency gets to inspect facilities that governments say they have. but if the government never declares the facility, the international atomic energy agency never gets to inspect it because they don't know about it. so this entire arrangement is always based upon cooperation, honesty, and trust. needless to say, cooperation, honesty, and trust have often been in short supply when it comes to iran. >> harold, go ahead. >> how do we ensure we're able to hold on to russian and chinese diplomats? how do you win it, and how do you hold onto it? two, john mccain said yesterday, accord to go david gregory, that he is skeptical, if we have to move to a sanctions regime, that that would work. if he is skeptical -- you can't get in mccain's head, but what would be the next step if sanctions don't work? >> getting chinese and russian support is difficult because they have different considerations. chine russians are very concern they'll lose economic considerations with iran.

and they're also worried the iranians will unleash terrorists inside russia. the russians are very careful. and the russians would not mind a crisis with iran. what would be the result of that kris snis the oil prices would go sky high. china, which imports most of their oil, doesn't want a crisis with iran because their import bill would go up. but they don't want to lose commercial access. so russia and china are most limited partners here. the idea they're really going to support muscular sanctions or anything that's probably going to be enough to get iran out of the nuclear business, i think, is highly unlikely. >> let's talk about afghanistan. "washington post" is reporting that the administration is preparing a case, the anti-mcchrystal case, and more for the biden case. in other words, you're not going to get the 45,000 troops. a, do you think that's true? b, if the president moves in that direction, would you see

mcchrystal resigning? >> i think it is true. there's going to be a whole set of options between building up by 45,000 fighters and, quote, unquote, abandoning afghanistan. but abandoning afghanistan isn't on the administration's agenda. there will be creating more trainers, changing the mix between war fighters and trainers, using war aircraft to go after al qaeda. doing more inside pakistan. at the end of the day, afghanistan matters most not because of afghanistan, not because of terrorism, but because of its potential impact on the stability of pakistan, and pakistan is the prize here. it's pakistan that has the dozens of nuclear weapons and is host to al qaeda. >> you say no to mcchrystal, who says i need 45,000 troops to get the job done, does mcchrystal stay on? if he says it's imperative i get them, and he's been public about this, what does he do? >> there's lots in mcchrystal's report, if you read it, that does not involve troop increases. my guess is at the end of the day the administration will cherry bic.

it will take some recommendations of mcchrystal's recommendations of how to change strategy and won't give him much of the troop increases. at that point, if he wants to walk, fine. we've had showdowns between generals and presidents before, the most famous be the macarthur showdown with true man. i thought mcchrystal went far. it's the most we've heard from an administration official about afghanistan as this is going on. if i were the president, i would be strong. make the decision you're going to make. if stan mcchrystal can't live with it, so be it. >> richard haass be, great to have you in today. still ahead, the latest on the letterman extortion case. it's the big story of the moment. we've been talking about it. a lot of different dimensions to it. we'll have the latest coming 77. up next, the editor of "the new york times" book review and week in review, sam tannenhaus. excellence is right on time.

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he said it could help with her cognition which includes things like memory, reasoning, communicating and understanding. (announcer) the most common side effects of exelon patch are nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. the likelihood and severity of these side effects may increase as the dose increases. patients may experience loss of appetite or weight. patients who weigh less than 110 pounds may experience more side effects. people at risk for stomach ulcers or who take certain other medicine should talk to their doctor because serious stomach problems, such as bleeding may worsen. mom's diagnosis was hard to hear, but there's something i can do. (announcer) visit exelonpatch.com for free caregiving resources. what you don't want is a guy saying i know you had sex with women, so i would like $2

million or i will make trouble for you. >> guess what? pat? sam? we are talking about that right now because we are on the air. >> how about that! >> we have sam tanenhaus who is the author of "the death of conservatism," and it's a great book. nice to have you back. we will do much more at the top of the hour, but the headline in some newspapers, very small in the "new york times," can't ask you about that, but i wish i could. breaking in the past 24 to 48 hours -- >> last night on the show. >> he basically talked about the fact that he had sex with some staffers, people that worked for him. and there are a lot of questions here. there is a cbs employee that has been arrested in the extortion

side of this. >> who you know? >> who i know, i worked with them. and anybody can chime in or choose not to, and it will be interesting to see, but i wonder if there are questions in terms of multiple staffers and a relationship, and it should be looked into instead of being used for a laugh on the show. >> i think it should be looked into, if it's not an. >> well, he took the $2 million check and letterman testified before the grand jury. and we don't know if it's consensual or not?

>> it will be interesting to see in the wake of the roman polanski story, which is still with us, how hollywood acts when one of its own gets caught in something like this. >> if there is any link, and it's the questions about the abuse of power and how certain people get a pass and others don't. if this was the head of the paper mill in pittsburgh, i think there would be an hr invest xwaigation if he got up said what david letterman did. >> yeah, and i remember people saying or wondering now, and i may overstate it, but i want to say it anyway, i wonder how many

of those in hollywood that sat on their hands when somebody testified for one thing that was offensive and what they stand up and say for polanski. >> yeah, that's interesting. >> roman polanski should be in jail and extradited. >> yeah, he is. >> yeah, and he should be. >> it will sound like a clich'e of the french. they are rallying support for him. the odd thing is that in many

ways it's a conservative country. there is actually a divide in that culture that may be as strong as the one here. >> there is a difference. i lived in france for a while. i get it there, and they say bur law scony has the teenager girlfriends, and the difference is roman polanski raped a 13-year-old girl, and so the parallels are tough. >> yeah, and there were drugs involved. and he admitted most of this, right? >> yeah, plead guilty. >> quickly, book review? >> well, big change of topic. well, the man of the moment, i would be interesting to think what pat things about this, and george cannon. neil shan wrote a great story

and has his first book out in 20 years, and it's about the creation of building the enter continental ballistic missiles that kept us from armageddon. >> yeah, that sounds exciting. but cannon helped to inspire my last book, and he wrote me saying we agree on world war ii, and not many agree. i used to criticize him, and i came around to think that he was a great thinker and a conservative. >> yeah, i will tell you it makes a case for the wise men to go back to look at it. >> is there a wiseman today? who do we have?

bob gates the close we have? >> no, gates is moving away from the involvement. i don't think he is a wiseman that stand above like cannon and folks like that. >> baker, hamilton was there when i was in congress. you can still put kissinger. >> and mika's dad, he takes a position, and clearly is nonpolitical. >> i can't help but agree. >> thank you, pat. coming up next, brazing for the swine flu. kathleen sebelius will join us.

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welcome back to "morning joe." just after 8:00 in the morning here in new york city. we start our trek cross the great country. and las vegas, a place where donny deutsch and i really enjoy hanging out. and then chicago. st. louis, missouri, looking good this morning, too. we have a shot of the arch coming up. and then washington, d.c., beautiful picture there. and on home to new york city. a shot from across the river in

new jersey, and that's the home of david letterman, the man of the hour now. >> yeah, and that's where we will start this hour. joe scarborough will be back on monday. he is recovering from surgery. and willie geist and i are joined by pat buchanan and donny deutsch for this hour. and i will go right to the story, and what we have got is cbs at this point acknowledging that one of its employees is being charged with the attempted extortion of late-night host, david letterman. the suspect is a producer on the show called "48 hours." according to letterman, the suspect learned about the host's relationship with employees, and wanted $2 million to keep it quiet. and letterman went and dealt

with this with the authorities, and then brought it to his show last night. here is how he got a laugh from the audience as he told the story. >> i had to go downtown to testify before the grand jury. i had to tell them how i was disturbed by this and i was worried for myself and family and i felt mennioused by this, and had to tell them all of the creepy things i have done. now, of course, we get to what was it, what was all the creepy stuff that he was going to put into the screen play and the movie? and the creepy stuff was that i have had sex with women who work for me on this show. now my response to that is yes, i have. >> i have a lot of questions about that. >> let's talk quickly, because he explained how it happened. three weeks ago he got into his

car and there was a package inside the car and the package sted there was evidence of the terrible things that he says he admits that he has been doing, and he took it downtown to the district attorney's office, and they sat down and talked and he spoke to the grand jury, and he wrote a fake check to the guy, and the guy accepted the check and they went and arrested him. and letterman talking about how it all went down last night. >> i have had sex with women that worked with me before. would it be embarrassing if it were made public? perhaps it would. perhaps it would. especially for the women. but that's a decision for them to make if they want to come public and talk about the relationships, or if i want to go public and talk about the

relationshi relationships, what you don't want is somebody saying i want $2 million or i will make trouble for you. >> lots of questions that i have in light of this, we have a powerful media mogul talk show host, and somebody tried to exstoert him, and that's terrible, and i am not sure that it's funny, where he said and got a laugh out of talking about having sex with multiple women that worked for him. i think the company would have to look into that, or does he get a pass? it will be interesting what cbs has to say and how they handle this. >> it's interesting. forget the way he did it. talking about relationships in the workplace, and i run a company with thousands of employees, and relationships happen in a workplace.

and chess is david letterman's boss who just had a baby, and for us to put our heads in the sand where ceos have relationships. jay leno ended the run, and they open the curtain and it was hundreds of people that had kids in the workplace, and he said he was more proud of this. there are consensual versus

preside preditory. >> i think there is story of extortion. >> i am not here to defend the way he did it, but relationships do happen in the workplace. >> if you run a company where one of the most powerful people in the company make an announcement about having sex with women who work for him, and don't you want to know more? >> obviously, they were subordinates to him. and my point is, and going up to his boss, it's not necessarily a heinous thing. before we create a mob and put him in the same sentence of polanski who rape ad a 13-year-d girl. can you make moral judgments between a consensual relationship. have you had a relationship in the workplace.

>> i married a man that i worked with. >> let's stop the nonsense. >> i am not talking about nonsense. it's a abuse of power. >> now, that's a different discussion. >> we have no evidence of that, but wouldn't you ask? >> yeah. >> and you have to ask if it was coercive, and that's a separate question, and it's not and it was consensual, then have you a different thing of morality. but was it funny last night? no. >> donny, look, i don't think that there is too much of a diversion between what you are saying and i am saying, but if a guy that ran a paper mill and announced that he had sex with a number of women that worked for

him, wouldn't there be an investigation. >> there will be here also. >> let's take our heads out the stand -- >> talk among yourself. >> i am getting nasty e-mails right now. >> and there is a difference between coercive and consensual. in other news, today president obama is heading back to washington right now after joining the first lady in denmark, where they push chicago's bid as the host city for the 2016 summer olympics. before departing the president met with mcchrystal on air force one to discuss the afghan strategy. it's interesting he can do two

things at one there. and health and human services secretary, kathleen sebelius, and we will talk about how we are handling the swine flu situation and what we should be most concerned about, and one of the big issues is pregnant women. >> yeah, and we know pregnant women are targets of this, and pregnancy in this instant is an underlying health condition. and 6% of the seriously ill victims of swine flu have been pregnant women. so they are much more at risk. the only way to protect not only themselves but their babies is to get vaccinated. >> i have a 2-year-old, and this is a huge focus this fall. come back and it's all about washing hands every five minutes, but when do the swine flu vaccines come in? >> the first orders have been

shipped. the early flu mist will be in states early next week and probably begin to be distributed. we targeted october 15th. we are on track. we have five manufactures pushing it out. 90,000 sites around the country will receive this. we want to push it to right where the states say the best places are to get folks vaccinated. soon it will be there. only one dose for most folks. 10 years old and up one dose, and every step along the way the news is positive. >> clear it up for me. there are reports there could be 30,000 deaths and epidemics and they could not handle it. and nowhere near compared to the traditional flu. how much is hyping it and how much is a reality? >> well, great news so far.

it's presenting as a non-lethal case. 200,000 a year are hospitalized from flus. we will have deaths. we will have deaths in a younger population, because those are the targets of this. nobody at this point knows, and nobody knows when seasonal flu and h1n1 begin to mix, how lethal that could get. we are thrilled to have the vaccine out early fall. we want to get it in peoples' arms. it's a serious illness. >> i am following donny's question, why the intense publicity when i hear 36,000, we have seen that figure for normal flu that kills, and they say this will -- h1n1 will not kill that many, and the attention it

has given is extraordinary? >> well, younger folks have no immunity to this. for some reason, 65 and older seem to have a built in immunity, but nobody younger than that because nobody has seen the virus. i think the concern is -- even if you just have millions of people, millions and millions getting the flu, that takes a toll on the economy. kids get sick, and parents stay home. but kids dying, and pregnant women dying and young people dying is a very serious situation. so it's serious, pat, and particularly kids with underlying health conditions, and pregnant women, and i mean death tolls are magnified i think when you move down to a vulnerable population. >> secretary sebelius, i want to ask you, as you look at what the administration is trying to get, what is the indispensable part of the health reform that we

have to get one way or another? >> well, that's a multipart question. the great news is senate finance finished their process, and they will vote next week. all five committees have a bill. we are ready to go to the floor of the house and the senate. this never has happened before. and there is a lot of common ground. coverage for everybody that is affordable. moving forward on changing insurance rules forever, which is a very good news for lots of americans. paid for. the drug will be paid for. unlike other health issues that have been tackled. and health care in our agency will have a big part of that. we can't reward for the number of procedures instead of for the out comes. >> and back to the swine flu vaccine, there are reports of health workers that don't want

the vaccine and those that want to refuse to take it. where do you stand on this. >> there are local agencies that say we think it's important for our workers to be safe but not make patients sicker than they would be, so they imposed a mandatory vaccination for them. some of the ceos of hospitals and other places say that's dangerous. >> all right. thank you very much for being on the set during this very diverse array of stories. >> all right. coming up, hollywood hypocrites, pulitzer winning

columnist eugene robinson on the polanski arrest. later, major unemployment numbers due out this morning. will they hit double digits? monday i will host the reinvention convention. i will be interviewing laura bush. it will be really fun. i cannot wait to interview her. that's happening on monday. still time to buy tickets. you are watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. on l'oréal paris true match makeup, beauty costs less at walmart. save money. live better. walmart.

live pictures of the windy city, and chicago waiting for word as to whether that city could be host to the 2016

olympics. that announcement will happen, and you can see it here on msnbc. and with us now, associated editor for the washington post and msnbc analysts. he says hollywood has the best moral campus. i could not agree with you more about a serious double standard there, eugene. >> absolutely. i just couldn't believe it. i wrote about the polanski thing on tuesday and wasn't going to write about it again. and then the hollywood

luminari luminaries, 100 of them came out with a petition that the authorities free roman polanski, and then whoopi goldberg said how it was not rape rape but something else, and then they talk about how polanski served his time in the south of france. it's appalling to me. and conservatives and culture warriors claimed all these years that hollywood was out of step with the moral tenure of the country, and you have to wonder if maybe at least in this case they don't have a point. >> well, out of step with the

tenure of the country or just out of step with a morality. >> yeah, that's a seventh grader. this is a child. this is vile and disgusting and a criminal act. i don't know what planet they are on. i wonder if they had 13-year-old daughters that were somehow raped by one of their fellow directors, how they would feel? this is insanity? >> you know how they would feel. and it's pure hypocrisy. it's so mindless, and heedless of basic moral standards. i cannot believe people are defending this guy that raped a seventh grader and then fled before the state had a chance to punish him. >> eugene, i said this yesterday, read the transcript of the 13-year-old's testimony at the trial, and that will convince anybody that is not

convinced yet. what is the threshold between those that hollywood rally behind and those they don't? is it somebody they like and somebody they don't? >> it's somebody they like and somebody they know. it's a certain narcissistic element that seems to go along with movie stardom, and so there are a lot of hollywood people that believe the stars and planets resolve around them and their interests and issues and their friends. so they know him. and also there is a people in hollywood that realize what a tragedy this is and don't want to say anything, because they want to be in the next movie. >> well, i challenge those that

have spoken out to come on the show, and i would like to ask questions about why they are taking the position they are taking, and i don't want to hear them behind the microphone, i want to ask them about the 13-year-old girl and why it's okay, and i want to hear responses to real questions about this and have them not be cowards and blanket together and stand behind somebody that rape araped a 13-year-old girl. >> and some are tone deaf and out of touch with the country in which they make the tens and millions of dollars and all the rest of it, and sort of a sense of above it all. what i want to know is what kind of a reaction did you get to the first column, and did not inspire you to come back and hammer this again?

>> the reaction to the first column was overwhelmingly positive, and you know, i did an internet chat that day. hundreds of people wrote in to say, you know, you are absolutely right, i can't believe it. but the focus was really on the polanski case itself. it was not so much on the hollywood reaction. that's what prompted me to do the second column. i could not believe the hollywood reaction. i could not believe that there was a petition demanding he be freed. i could not believe that they were taking his side in which seems to be such a no-brainer. there is no roman polanski side as far as i can see in this issue. read the transcript and what he did to that girl and it's appalling and vile. >> it's criminal. >> is there a disconnect?

hollywood does make movies that millions of people go see. obviously, they are very smart people out there that know how to push our buttons in very profitable ways. but some of whom also seem just to live in a different moral universe from the one that we inhibit. a great column, as usual. >> before we go, i want to say this is one country, and i have conservative guys, and pat put on your bono glasses, and look at this guy, cutting edge. go to pat. cutting edge. the world, we are one world, and that's my point. i want the world to know that. >> i get made fun of when i wear

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we are following big breaking news right now. new monthly unemployment numbers coming out. let's go immediately to cnbc's melissa with the new york stock exchange. >> i wish i had better news, but the unemployment rate stays at 9.8%, but the loss of jobs in september, 263,000 payrolls. the expectation was about 90,000 less. and we are seeing a rally in the treasury market. we could see yields of breached levels. the 10-year yield hit a level we have not seen since the month of may.

today we will be grabbling with the numbers that are much worse than expected. and yesterday we had a giant slide in the markets, the first day of the fourth quarter after the best third quarter in 11 years. >> so the headline, melissa, u.s. employers cut 263,000 jobs in september. >> yeah, 9.8%. coming up, our round table weighs in on david letterman's late-night confession. rally deutsch rallies to his side. >> wait, donny and pat. >> and you i will talk coming up after the break. you're in trouble! one yogurt. (mr. mehta) it has five grams of fiber, zero fat, and fifty calories. please, this is too creamy and delicious. it's true, only fifty calories. (announcer) fiber one yogurt.

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i had to go downtown to testify before the grand jury. i had to tell them how i was

disstushed by this and worried for myself and for my family, and i felt menaced by this. and now we get to what was all the creepy stuff that he was going to put into the screen play and movie. the creepy stuff was i have had sex with women that work for me on this show. now, my response to this is yes i have. >> welcome back to "morning joe." time for the round table discuss this morning, and we have pat buchanan is donny deutsch. >> you cannot wait to get to me. i see it in your eyes. >> let's take it and go there. there is the extortion case, which is one part of the story,

and criminal allegations and those will play out in the court of law. and there is a guy under arrest, a guy the "48 hours" at cbs. you had an issue with the fact that i had questions? >> no, your questions are real questions. >> what are they? what are the questions? >> you are a man in power in this position and you have relationships with people that work for you, and were you harassed in any way, and those are real questions. my point is we live in a world where relationships can be productive and loving -- >> they could lead to a bad work environment for others. >> letterman was taking a calculated decision as a man and worker that he would engage in relationships and suffer to the consequences, and i think he is testing his new crest of popularity. he is kicking conan's butt, and

riding the wave. he will be bigger because of this, and that's terrible. but i think there is a certain reality in how we live as people, because it's how we spend our waking hours? >> i want to clarify the questions that i was asking. how does cbs or viacom deal with this? >> they will have an investigation. if one of those women races their hand and says in reality mr. letterman was predatory. >> i don't think they talk to the women, but they talk to all of the women that they work and look at the environment, and it may be totally fine. >> but before we rush to judgement -- my judgment is i think it was a bad forum to make jokes about it, and testing his royal stature. having said that does not make

him a bad man because i have a relationship with him. >> here is a guy, and letterman knows he is facing the horrendous headlines the next day. if you have that problem in politics, you get it out your way and first and before your friends and lay it out, and as a political term and political operation, he did exactly the right thing. obviously i am not talking about his behavior, but how you deal with the personal crisis at this time. it's the advice that you get from advisors -- >> couldn't he have gotten it out without making jokes about it. >> that's what he does for a living. >> he made tons of money making jokes. >> we are playing his version of events all day long rather than the "new york post'" version. >> he got a laugh out of saying

i had sex for women that work for me. >> if you have a problem like that, you get your story out. >> and donny's point about this helping letterman, and it will. he had the stalker, and why didn't he marry his girlfriend after 20 years? and that's something that could make him popular. >> yeah, and the sarah palin jokes about her daughter made him bigger than ever. there is a double standard, and we know that, and -- >> i don't accept a double standard. >> you may not like it but i think you have to look at it as a reality? >> i am only raising questions and not making presumptions. and now what does the company do when one of the major players, incredibly powerful and lucrative for the country, makes a statement on public

television? >> now, if your boss was single -- >> so this is so not cool. >> donny, don't go there. >> mika, don't do it. >> no harm no foul. >> don't go there. >> i think that's my point, as my adult -- >> honestly, my answer is that doesn't apply because we are talking about a powerful man that makes money for a company who talked about having sex with not just one romantic incredible love affair where he fell in love and married this woman, with a bow on it, no, he said on television to use for a laugh where he said he had sex with a number of women that work for him. to me that leads -- i need to finish. it leads to the question of work environment, and this is a good company. i worked there.

i absolutely know they will do the right thing. the question is what are they going to do? >> that's good questions, but let's not rush to the answers. >> do you think they cleared what letterman did last night? >> having worked there, i tend to think they did not. i know there has been friction between what goes on -- let me clarify that i worked in the news decisiivisidivision, and t friction on what is on the news and what ends up on letterman. >> he has his own island there. >> now, what will happen -- >> they will do an investigation. as well, they should. that's the answer. the questions that you bring up are the right questions. we are on the same page there. but where we --

>> cbs is playing catchup this morning, i think, very fast. >> really? i am sorry, oh, my husband is calling, and here, you handle that. >> you ruined my weekend. >> nobody could digest their food. >> there is going to be an investigation at msnbc. >> i have worked in this city for 20 years, and there are good environments and bad ones that i worked in, and these issues affect the work environment. and we have to ask the questions, and i don't think it's above it all. >> there is too much me on this, and maybe i have been putting myself out there a bit? >> well, my vantage point as a human being -- >> oh, oh -- >> what am i allowed to do in

the workplace to inflikt pain on him without getting fired? what do you think? >> there will be an investigation. >> chris just said in my ear, oh, my god, go to break. >> let's stop being children. >> this is not predatory or harassment. can we go to health care or something? let's get secretary sebelius back or something. >> when we come back, julianne nicholson. >> cut him loose, willie. >> we'll be right back. the great taste

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you know, i almost asked you out our first year. >> you are kidding? >> it's true. i should have. it's just too complicated. >> why is that? >> why? it's not just that you are beautiful, but you are -- it's just that you are so darn smart. there! that's why! beautiful people are a dime a dozen, and not -- hey, let's face it, genuinely smart people are rare of either sex, you know

that. for me, i think, for me it's your smartness more than anything else. >> oh, my god! >> that was a clip from quality brief interviews with -- >> we just did that with donny deutsch. >> no, the costar of the movie, julianne nichols. >> it was a book written by a series of interviews with the various men. and i am the interview wur, and i just get to set with all&b--c these various nasty people. >> what have we learned? >> well, i think that there is -- i don't know if i can see it on tv, but [ bleep ].

>> yeah, we had a 10-second delay, chris. >> it's the least offensive thing that has been said here this morning. >> yeah, and did the 7-second delay work? >> it worked. >> yeah, they revved the machine up. >> let's not take away from the truth of what she was telling. go on. >> men are not as decent as they may let you believe. there are some good ones, i should not say that. but these particular gentlemen should be ashamed of themselves. >> do you believe men are less soulful than women? >> i am married to a wonderful man so i know they exist. if i was single, i would not think this was a very hopeful

movie. >> what kind of jerks are we talking about in this movie? i just want to know? >> it's an amazing cast. it's new york actors. will arnette, and frankie, and it's a huge cast. and there is a guy that plays a missing limb. he uses that to get women into bed. and that's pretty crumby, behavior, i think. >> well -- >> why don't you take that one. >> that's terrible. i can't believe they would do anything like that. >> and there is another guy, josh charles plays him, and here is a serial ma nanogomist, and dumps them, though. >> do you think it's fair how

hollywood portrays men as jerks? >> no, no, i think hollywood is not looking too nice right now. i have to tell you. >> i think there has been a lot of movies recently on this factor, the depths men will go. and it's sexists, where there are bad and good women also. and might be an interesting movie one day to see the travels. >> this one is sure to be a hit? >> it is? >> you know, we could just elevate this. >> our executive producer wants to thank you for testing the 7-second delay. did it work? >> nbc is busy on other stuff anyway. >> julianne, great to meet you and thank you. >> it has a added of value

truth, so -- >> i have never seen you happier, this man-assault hour. you are twinkling and like you are pregnant. >> "brief interviews with insidious men" starring donny deutsch. coming up next, what, if anything, did we learn today. ok, if you're thinkin' about gettin' a new truck... this is your lucky day. make that month. 'cause it's ford truck month. and that means savings on the best selling trucks 32 straight years. fortunately, luck has nothing to do with getting... a heck of a great deal on a brand spanking new ford super duty. plus, ford credit is there to help you with the financing. lucky you to get zero percent apr for 60 months or 5000 cash back on an '09 super duty. so, to hit it big on every built ford tough truck... forget vegas. it's truck month!

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time to talk about what we learned today. i learned on monday i will be hosting the more reinvention convention. it's here in new york city. and one of the things i will be doing is laura bush. i can't wait to talk to her. >> being the first lady, the way her husband was treated. that will be great. >> yeah, and of course her daughter and member of the nbc family. >> jenna hagar. that would be great. >> i learned last night's show for letterman was a weird one, but not as weird