opportunity to repay in a small portion of the blessings this country has given my family. today on the show we will game the chicago mayor's race to come and tell you all you never knew about pete rouse and ask why did rahm get a send-off fitting for a head of state? with us today, mark whitaker and eugene robinson and chuck todd and show us your papers, california's meg whitman denies she knowingly employed an illegal immigrant. >> neither my husband nor i received any letter from the social security administration, and if there is a letter out there, i don't know how they got it. it's not in our house. will $121 million on campaign ads buy her a new mailbox? and who knew i had an evil twin? >> for more, let's go to nbc's andrea mitchell. >> thank you, brian. good luck.

>> that woman is not the chief foreign affairs correspondent of nbc news. so, who is she? good day, i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. with everyone filling the east room of the white house other than the salahis, rahm emanuel got a great sendoff. with us mark whitaker washington bureau chief and eugene robinson, a pulitzer prize-winning columnist for "the washington post." that was a big deal, what a send-off for outgoing chief of staff, mark. usually it's in the white house briefing room, it's the president, it's the press corps. this was the entire cabinet and a cast of thousands. >> it was almost like the pope or something. everybody kind of kissed his ring. look, i think, first of all, it's a measure of how important rahm emanuel was to this administration. >> yeah. >> but also it was almost like a graduating ceremony for the first class of obama. and they have done things in the last two years, because they had

control of congress, often with rahm pushing the whole by, that frankly they're not going to be able to do going out. and you saw a lot of other people in that room, larry summers, others, who are leaving as well, so it's sort of a changing of the guard. >> it seems exactly that, mark. it seems, eugene, like a reset button. >> right. >> they've not been getting the credit that they think they deserve for all the things that they've done, 70% according to the president the other day which was famously ridiculed by jon stewart, and so this was a chance for them to say, look at us. >> exactly. for them to all be together one last time, and -- and at least symbolically celebrate what they view as their record of achievement over the last 20 months. and, you know, a reset button is a pretty good metaphor i think for what we're seeing here. there will be important -- you know, some of the people who are closest to the president are leaving now, and other persons closest to him, david axelrod,

is expected to leave early next year. >> jim jones? >> this will be a very -- >> national security adviser. >> it will be a very different-looking inner circle. >> a different feel from the beginning of the day, the meeting of the chief of staff, i asked melanie barns yesterday at the atlanta media ideas forum what the difference will be between rahm emanuel and pete rouse. >> can you replace rahm emanuel? i mean, you can't. every person brings their own personality, their own style, their own set of experiences to the job. and rahm is, you know, a -- just an amazing legislative tactician. he's someone who can see ten steps down the road when most people can only see five or eight steps down the road. and he also just has this wonderful energy that he brings to all the meetings and all of the work that we do. >> now, energy, one person's energy is another person's fear. what did austan goolsbee do

today as savannah guthrie reported, was there a dead fish involved? >> a dead carp was one of the stories. one of the things that is interesting here, we all know the president has a very even personality. you remember in the old cop shows where there was a tough cop and then there was a soft cop? in a way rahm emanuel has been the tough cop. >> absolutely. >> to obama's soft cop. and the interesting question now is going to be who is going to play that role? both with the president, himself sometimes, but then with the press and with the rest of the administration. >> we've seen a lot of different styles of chiefs of staff over the years, over the decades. we've seen other presidents bringing in hometown favorites, kindergarten pal in mac mccarty for bill clinton initially. leon panetta later on, john podesta, ken duberstein and then jim baker the well-organized

political brain and succeeded by what many people thought were a larger ego than necessary for the job, don regan who blew up at the first lady. this is a different model, because this is someone who the president is very comfortable and very low key and he's an inside man, and he's not much of a star player on "meet the press." >> no, he won't be voluntarily. it may be part of his duties. >> kicking and screaming. >> yes. rahm in addition to being kind of the enforcer in a way, was the legislative shepherd in fact and worked a lot with the hill. that's a role that pete rouse obviously can fill. i'm wondering if he will also do more of the traditional chief of staff role of kind of really organizing the flow of information to the president,

sort of access to the president, and, you know, organizing his decision making, in a way that some very successful chiefs of staff have done in the past. >> one role that rahm played and that david axelrod has played which has made some people on the foreign policy team uncomfortable is that they've been very actively involved on foreign policy, the way that don regan wanted to be in the summits wi summits wi summits wi summits wi summits with gorbachev. >> david plouffe, the great architect of the campaign, comes in when axelrod leaves and becomes part of the white house staff, what the division of labor is between hem and rouse. because rahm was policy and politics. i think what you're going to see is rouse taking over more of the policy and plouffe driving the politics, and i think also being

much more of the public spokesman, because pete rouse really is not going to be comfortable doing that. >> but rouse is a good choice if you think that congress is going to be more republican and you need someone who has worked with other people and knows how to play that game. one other thing i wanted to bring up is from our friends at game change, mark halperin and john heilemann, this is rouse's behind-the-scenes role and this tells you about the early relationship with barack obama and political relationship, after obama is a new senator and goes on "mete the press" with tim ruse certasert, rouse sends memo an update of his earlier strategic plan and set forth two alternate paths for obama in the year ahead, one if he were categorically rejecting a presidential bid, one if he wanted to keep the door ajar, however slightly. rouse knew he was being a bit manipulative by framing the case this way, but more than

manipulative, rouse was being methodical, which is his way. it tells you a lot. >> it does tell you a lot. this is a guy that really, really knows his way around washington. >> and he knows his clients. >> he does. >> everybody said, daschle said in the press said he's a master at fixing things. and i think one of the things that an administration always discovers, and i think this administration discovers is often you can't plan ahead. you end up managing crisis to crisis. and in that environment he could be quite effective. >> is he short term or long term? depends on how he does? >> i think it depends on how he does and i think it also depends on what happens in the midterms. >> right. >> because as you say it's very different from the current situation where as difficult as it was to heard all the cats in the democratic side, they had that possibility and the prospect of working with a republican house, but as you say, he was the chief of staff to tom daschle when he was the minority leader, so he's used to that situation.

>> someone might ask why take the chief of staff to tom daschle, why not get the real tom daschle? >> well, you know, i don't know if the real tom daschle was asked. but, you know, rouse has worked with obama for years now. back to his -- >> i guess i'm just saying why not bring in the way howard baker came in to rescue the reagan presidency, someone who can go on tell vision and negotiate with foreign leaders who can be this bigger figure? >> maybe this is a reset button but not an entire reboot button. >> good point. >> maybe, you know, rouse has been in the white house, you know, senior adviser, and -- >> knows no-drama obama. >> and clearly obama is comfortable with him and his style. i assume he has a new mission and instructions for him. >> the other point being that you'll have a change in the national security team. we all know that jim jones is going to be leaving, and you're clearly seeing a change still to

be evolving in the economic side, so why not have one central player who is known, trusted, well liked, and can coordinate with all these other new faces? >> but also historically, chief of staff has never been that long-term a job anyway, the longevity just doesn't tend. i suspect possibly even within the first term of the obama administration you might see another one and certainly if there's a second term, chances are that we'll have -- he'll have the chance to name another, whether it be inside or outside. >> this is a guy that can take that punishing schedule, though, he seems to relish -- >> but he's a cat lover how does that figure -- >> well, cats take care of themselves. well, he's working the 18-hour days, whereas rahm emanuel was kind of pulled, you know, he has young children and a family and everything. and not that he didn't put in the hours. he did. but, you know, you have to kind of be thinking about it. >> there's a lot of personal sacrifice for rahm emanuel, wouldn't you say? >> with work and work.

>> and rahm emanuel's chances in chicago? in this mayoral race? he's certainly got a good lift today. >> axelrod was saying he is going to need to earn it. he's going to have to work very hard, and there is a very big field there. but he has a lot of money. he has money left over from hils last c his last congressional campaign, he has personal money and he has a lot of name recognition. i think it will be a while before we know whether he emerges as the front-runner, but certainly he's on the short list of people that have a serious chance. >> big shoes to fill, richard daley. thank you, mark whitaker, thanks, eugene. good to see you. and up next, a horrendous medical experiment gone terribly wrong. it is never good also for a politician to be volunteering to take a lie detector test a month before the election. stay with us. and send me your thoughts. you can find me on twitt

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california politics, you might have thought that meg whitman was running against a celebrity lawyer, gloria alred instead of jerry brown. her $20 million campaign has certainly taken a new turn, with charges that whitman knowingly employed an undocumented housekeeper for nine years. this is a charge she vigorously denies. >> i don't know the full story here, but clearly, you know, i think nicki had a gun to her head, and i think that this was, you know, very challenging for her, and i think she's been manipulated by a very sophisticated attorney who has done this for a living over the last 20 years, and i absolutely believe this is linked to the

brown campaign, 100%. >> joining us now politico's andy barr. this is quite a soap opera with meg whitman against gloria all l allred and the housekeeper's name is nicki, and allred appeared last night on "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. let's watch. >> i know she's reluctant to attack my client because she doesn't want to alienate the latino voters, but -- so she's trying to use me as a punching bag, but none of that is going to deter us or deflect from the fact she terminated my client's employment not because she was undocumented, lawrence, because we believe she knew that for years. she did it because my client wanted to be legalized and she thought at that point she would be so -- >> gloria -- >> so, andy, is this a side show

or is it going to become the main act? >> it's certainly a main act. the whole story is belief. do you believe that meg whitman knew that her housekeeper was illegal or do you not? it's one of those issues where it's kind of a dangerous thing for jerry brown to be playing with. on one case, you know, this is not a great story for whitman. on another case, you could see how this might be able to rally people behind her if they feel like this is a partisan attack and you certainly see that whitman is trying to start that kind of line, because she's continuing to hammer injuriry brown and blame him for this. >> if you don't like the notion of whole notion of celebrity lawyers trotting out her clients, she did have some papers that said that whitman's husband, griff harsh who himself acknowledged said he can't say completely he didn't see the letter years ago that should have raised some questions about the legality of this housekeeper. >> right.

the whole thing there is kind of pending on, again, which side you believe here. whitman at first denied that they'd seen the letter. she speculated that the housekeeper had hidden that. later, as you alluded to, that statement came out where her husband said, you know, it's possible that he may have seen it. the handwriting looked like his, but he couldn't be 100% sure. this is the kind of strange circumstances of who you believe in this scenario. but i think you're right, the celebrity attorney and the people representing this is really giving whitman's camp and republicans in that state a little bit of credence in fighting back. >> but, of course, she's been very -- taken a hard line on immigration which is a big issue out there, so then you get into the, you know, the question of hypocrisy, if these allegations were to be proved. it certainly does change a dynamic in a race where she has spent, as we point out, more than $100 million of her own money, to try to portray jerry brown as, you know, another one of those insider incumbents.

and he certainly has been around for a while. >> right. and, of course, jerry brown in turn has been trying to portray her as totally out of touch with everyone, and, you know, this feeds that narrative. you think about, okay, a billionaire ceo who's not even sure, you know, if her housekeeper is legal or not, and then can't even keep track of paperwork that's coming in from the social security administration, questioning that. you know, that certainly plays to that narrative that they want to spin. >> okay, in our next segment at some point, andy, let's talk about why anyone wants to be governor of california? >> that's a good question. >> just saying. thanks so much, andy barr from politico. have a great weekend. >> thanks. and up next, we have shocking revelations about government medical experiments in guatemala. and then education nation, los angeles's mayor joining us on how the california budget crisis is threat can his city's schools. maybe you want to rebuild homes for those in need? or, maybe you want to help improve our schools?

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united states is apologizing today for horrific medical experiments conducted more than

60 years ago, but not acknowledged until a college professor unearthed the grisly details. the experiments involved intentionally infecting guatemalan mental patients with sexually transmitted diseases. in a statement issued today secretary of state, hillary clinton, and hhs secretary, kathleen sebelius, said jointly, although these events occurred more than 64 years ago, we are outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health. we deeply regret that it happened. we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices. robert bazell is nbc's chief science and health correspondent and he broke the story and joins me this morning from new york. bob, i don't know how to begin on this. it's so horrendous. >> well, for one thing it is horrendous and in addition to those two apologies robert gibbs at his briefing just announced that president obama will call the president of guatemala shortly to apologize even more.

the united states deeply regrets this decision, and it shows the medical imperialism going in those days after the second world war. samples of syphilis and other organisms were shipped from laboratories in staten island, and were put into these people, who were prostitutes, mental patients and prisoners, and they were told to infect other people. and the injections included even putting them into their spine, and most of them were treated with penicillin, but about a third of them never got any treatment at all. it is going to go down as one of the most horrendous chapters in the history of medicine. the head of the national institutes of health said that today, and i don't think would argue with him. >> just from a foreign policy perspective, it's a nightmare for, of course, for hillary clinton and kathleen sebelius. what about the medical practice here? because i don't know enough about these diseases to know, you know, are these things that are, then, passed on from generation to generation? what is the death rate? how do we find going back

what -- who suffered, how widely it was spread and what the damages are? shouldn't we pay some reparations? >> there's a big question about even finding the people that were involved in this, because as you said, it's been more than 60 years, there's 700 people. i think the united states is talking about the potential reparations for families in terms of the damage. it could have been extensive. all these diseases can be congenitally passed on, we don't know whether that happened, certainly syphilis can go on for jenration generations if it's not treated. it came at a time when there were no regulations about this kind of thing, but they clearly knew it was wrong, but the historian who found it found a quote from the then surgeon general saying we couldn't do it in the united states. it was a time after the second world war they were are very concerned about what they saw as the dangers of venereal diseases and they thought anything was justified as long as it was done outside the u.s. >> guatemala was a public

government. there's long history of what happened in latin america then. but what about tuskegee? that happened in the united states and i believe i heard you say this morning that this welswel wellesley professor discovered this because she was working on tuskegee. >> she has written books on tuskegee and was working on another one. they are both horrendous chapters on the history of medicine. but there are differences. tuskegee went on for four decades from 1932 to 1972 and it only ended when it was leaked to the press. this went on for only two years, and it was ended because they were just running out of money and they weren't finding any good results. you know, tuskegee, the people were not intentionally infected, but they were lied to. they were told they were getting treatments and they weren't, and that was -- it's become a fabric of our cultural history in terms -- particularly in terms of how african-americans relate

to the u.s. medical system. >> and has led to, you know, terrible suspicion, you know, understandable suspicion on the part of a lot of minority communities in the way it is handled. >> it will only make it worse in many ways. >> exactly. >> and in an international sense as well, even though one ended in 1972 and this 21 we're talking about ended in 1948, they still leave their scars. >> bob bazell, thanks for uncovering this and we look forward to your reporting throughout the day on msnbc and of course on "nbc nightly news" with brian. thanks, bob. and up next, surprising shifts in the race to control the senate. plus, chaos in ecuador. will there be a coup? and send me your thoughts you can find me on twitter at mitchellreports. ♪

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north carolina, to be precise, 12 inches fell in 6 hours, more than the area typically gets in three months. and five people were killed in accidents linked to these storms. a new tape has surfaced believed to have contain the first message from osama bin laden in seven months. on it the al qaeda leader trifes to further inflame anger in pakistan about the government's failure there to cope with the summer's floods. u.s. intelligence sources believe that bin laden is hiding in pakistan's mountainous border region. and in ecuador armed troops fill the streets to quell an uprising. the president calls it an overthrow of his government. president correa had to be rescued after being attacked and tear gassed by rebellious police. the u.s. is warning rebels there it supports the current government of ecuador. midterm elections a little more than four weeks away. we're seeing big changes, though, shifts in the prevailing wisdom concerning key senate races, let's get to key

democratic strategist, michael feldman, and chris cillizza managing ed editor of postpolitics.com and an msnbc contributor as of this week. let's talk about the races, connecticut, richard blumenthal on the decline. this is becoming a single-digit race, democrats realize this could be a real problem with him and linda mcmahon because of her cash. and they have a debate monday. chris, you first. >> this is my home state, this is a democratic-leaning state at any time even a sort of republican year nationally. dick blumenthal hablg ts been t attorney general since 1990 and well liked, but as you point out, his numbers are eroding down. even in connecticut, president obama and the national democratic party not particularly powerful, and blumenthal is feeling the effects. and linda mcmahon is the former head of the world wrestling entertainment group. spent millions and millions in the primary, continuing to spend

heavily. that's helped her. it's close. i don't know if she can get up over the top. she's got it close, i just don't know if you can do that in a state like connecticut. >> i think that be date debate really important. let's talk about west virginia. a very interesting state because president obama is not do well there, i think he only won three congressional districts. there's a lot of resistance to barack obama there and joe manchin, the popular governor trying to run not as a centrist but as more liberal and against a lot of money, his opponent controls the media. >> sure. i think west virginia is also an example of a race that will tighten as it gets closer. we tend to look at them as national trends, how is the right track, wrong track going to affect the race? more to your point, how is president obama's approval rating going to affect the choice. the state-related issues prevail and the factors become less

important. >> wisconsin, their guy, russ feingold, is perhaps the most endangered one of the incumbents. chris cillizza, you've seen the president there this week, will he be able to turn it against russ feingold against russ johnson? >> i'm astounded and i bet mike is, too, i am astounded this race is where it is, andrea. and he said the toughest one for us to get is russ feingold, it's a pretty good state but he's a smart and savvy campaigner. johnson is a businessman from oshkosh, spent a lot of his own money, run a really, really good campaign. russ feingold always ran as the outsider, 1992, won, elected as the outsider. i'm in the senate but i'm not one of them. ron johnson has taken the mantle away from russ feingold and he's struggling to get it back. if you're looking at polling averages, russ johnson is up five, seven, eight points and

that's amazing given feingold's ability as a politician. >> this is one where the turnout will be a key. the president goes in and -- >> energizing the kids. >> correct. i think when the base comes back the numbers are less threatening to senator feingold. >> barbara boxer beginning to stabilize now in california. it's a great matchup, boxer versus fiorina. >> i'm optimistic about senator boxer being re-elected. >> she's a democrat. >> and what drives the race in california is the governor's race and jerry brown's numbers are stabilizing and that's good news for barbara boxer. >> when you look at missouri, robin carnahan, the democrat, supposed to have a pick-up there but roy blunt is moving fast. >> roy blunt is not a perfect candidate for this cycle. he is married to a lobbyist. he's a member of congress. he's a former member of the republican leadership, but the thing i always say about missouri, all the swing states that john mccain and barack obama targeted in 2008, only one

went for john mccain, missouri. it suggests there's a real conservative base in that state. robin carnahan is a good candidate, i think she's a better candidate on natural ability than roy blunt, but she's struggling against a conservative state in a conservative year. >> okay, michael feldman, thank you, chris cillizza. and now for something completely different, a look at a different -- something different than what we normally do, i should say, around "30 rock." >> and we have this just in to us, richie and liz spotted in tree. eyewitnesss report k-i-s-s-i-n-g. for more let's go to nbc's andrea mitchell. >> thank you, brian. slut. sure i'd like to diversify my workforce,

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united states has fallen very badly behind in science and engineering around the world. that gap is widest for minority

students. a new report released by the national academies of science, mathematics, engineering, medicine shows that though underrepresented, minorities make up almost a third of our national population. they represent only 9% of scientists and engineers. joining me now to take this apart is dr. freeman, chair of the national academy study and president of the university of maryland, baltimore county, and ali, assistant secretary for civil rights at the department of education. welcome to both of you. doctor, in your study, you see how badly underrepresented in the science and hard sciences minorities are. you see this every day in baltimore county where you at the university has been working on k-16, what can we do? >> we have to focus on the idea that they can make it, that students can really make it. and what we found is large number of americans don't do well, over half don't make it, frankly. change their majors.

a lot of people know people that started off in premed or engineering and change their majors. how do increase the number of americans in general that succeed in the areas and how do we change the numbers of blacks and latinos that can make it? >> and the what is the answer about, you know, minorities? how does the department of education -- we've been reporting on all of the efforts in -- in elementary and secondary schools, but how do we really take a targeted approach toward minority underrepresentation? >> we focus like a l laser on equity, we need to make sure they have the courses to succeed in the science and engineering and mathematics field. we make sure they have the supports for their teachers. most recently the president announced for a call of 10,000 new stem teachers over ten years. >> science, technology, engineering. >> in s.t.e.m. fields. it's also focusing unprecedented resources on s.t.e.m. education,

$3.7 billion across the federal government, that both ensures that access is there, that students are encouraged from the earliest grade levels through completion of high school and into college and career, and that we help them get the teachers they'll need to succeed. >> when we look at the underrepresentation of minorities, we see that minor y minorities are 33.2% of college-age population. >> right. >> 17.7% of bachelor's degrees, only 9.1% in science and engineering occupations. and only 5.4% of doctorates, we've got to do a better job. >> routight. we've got to start at pre-k-3, more science at those levels and high school and college level and grad school level, but it requires specificity. we need to help students with financial support. it's absolutely impossible to work 20 hours on the outside,

andrea, in college and do well in biochemistry. >> the kids are carrying even those with some scholarship assistance are carrying all sorts of workloads outside of their educational work -- >> exactly. >> -- and they can't sustain it. >> exactly. >> and they fall farther behind. >> i tell my students you have to be married to the work, be there in the evening, and on weekends, and to succeed in the sciences, you need to be much more focused and we need to give them the support do it. >> when we're talking about support, it's money, and it's not just federal money with the budgets under stress, it has to include private fund-raising, does it not? >> certainly everyone needs to be involved in this game. we have to ed skate our way to a better economy, that's about including foundations and business folks and community folks and making a movement in this country around this issue, in order to ensure that students finish college, we have to make sure they are ready for college.

we now have almost every state in the nation committed to ensuring that students graduate from their high schools ready for college and career. we've also through this congress and president we have unprecedented resources into federal financial aid for college, to make college more affordable for students when they are ready to enter the door. >> but beyond financial aid, you talked about access. are there other barriers of discrimination against minority students getting into these programs? >> unfortunately we still do see in far too many districts across the country where after american american students and latino students aren't getting access to a.p. courses. >> advanced placement courses? >> advanced placement, college preparatory courses and arne duncan said it's about enforcing the civil rights laws to make sure students are free from discrimination in our nation's schools and they'll get the access to the sources they need

to succeed. >> i need to update myself on where we stand now in the district of columbia after the recent reforms, but you'd go across the border in montgomery county, maryland, and you'd find computers, the best resources for kids in the elementary schools, but in the district of columbia, it didn't exist. >> i want to talk about values in america. >> good. >> we have to get families to understand the role they can play in teaching your kids. you can do this. i am a mathematician, i get goosebumps doing math problems. we have to have families who tell their kids you can be a scientist, you can be an engineer and then give support to teachers as they're working in these areas and then in the schools we've got to encourage students to take more courses, rigorous courses, in math and science. and then finally, at the college level, we have to make sure more of our students who begin in math and science who are interested in math and science, can actually succeed. the report makes it clear, if we can increase substantially the number of students already

trying to make it in those areas, we would increase substantial-the number of scientists and engineers in america. >> first we have to, as you point out, value it and teach these kids that what they achieve in math and science is, you know -- is cool. >> yes. >> and that this is part of not only getting ready for success, but being a superstar. >> it's not just art matter of a few kids that can make it in math and science. america's children can succeed in math and science, but we have to believe that and then focus attention and resources in that area. >> look, we used to lead the world in math and science, now the rest of the world is leading us. and it's not just about all stude students and african-american and latino students, in particular it's girls. it's about debunking the stereotypes about what we can do as women when it comes to math and science. we still see large achievement gaps there as well. >> to be continued. i hope you come back soon. thank you very much. thank you. >> thank you. and next, what political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours?

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lanksz los angeles los angeles has one of the lowest graduation rates in the country. the mayor has been at the forefront of reform efforts trying to turn the numbers around and joins us now. mr. mayor, thank you very much. how do you manage any kind of reform given what's happening with your budgets? >> well, remember, different than new york, chicago, boston and other school districts, the mayor doesn't have control or the school district, which made my battle that much more

difficult. we went to the legislature. got legislation passed to allow for a partnership. the school district sued. one at the trial court level. we elected a number of people to the school board to begin to make the changes to transform the school district, but it's been a big uphill fight, frankly. and this dropout rate is facing us. and looking at how few young people have a chance to compete in the economy. >> more than 43% of african-american students are dropping out. hispanic and latino students, 36%. it's just astounding. their whole futures, their whole livelihood, having dropped out of high school is completely short circuited. >> i was a high school dropout. and i said that my mission, my

passion is to do everything we can to change that statistic. i partnered with the school district. i took over the lowest performing high schools, middle schools and elementary schools. initially 10, then 13 which we've broken into 20. have about 22,000 kids. both years. both years higher than the school district and the state overall. we've reduced the number of kids who are being suspended. we have to keep them in school. we have parent centers in all of our schools. we're working to ensure accountability and transparency. the schools are safer. but we still have a long way to go. >> and, of course, when you graduated from high school, you

faced a lot of challenges, but not the competition and challenges that a lot of these kids have so many years later. let me ask you briefly about this immigration flap that as erupted in the california governor's race. what is the impact, you know, i know you're a democrat and it's meg whitman versus jerry brown. what are people saying about the impact of this allegation? >> well, the fact that she ran a very shrill campaign, and i'm talking about meg chit man, that focused on tightening our borders and stigmatized the undocumented, this makes it much worse than it would have been otherw otherwise. this woman did work for her for a period of time and is

apparently undocumented. the irony of this will not be lost on the voters, i think. but we'll have to wait to see all the facts play out, frankly. >> thank you very much, mr. may mayor. thank you for being with us. what political stories will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? chris cillizza, author of "the fix." a and msc contributor, what are you looking for? >> i'm looking for your star turn on "30 rock." which was probably my favorite moment in broadcast television in modern memory. mitt romney, the former massachusetts governor in florida for rick scott. then marco rubio. mitt romney is running for president of the united states. he's going to continue to travel. he's endorsed a slate of candidates in iowa. he gave money to them today. he's doing everything that a candidate for president will do. the question is, and this was

raised by the nbc "wall street journal" poll this week, he's not all that well liked by conservatives, especially tea party conservatives. that's a problem. those are the kind of folks in iowa, south carolina, especially, two of the first three states who vote. that's a problem he's got to address. >> chris cillizza, thank you so much. have a great weekend. thanks for the props. that does it for our edition of andrea mitchell reports. monday on the show, newark's mayor corey booker. you can follow the show online. tamron hall is here with what's up next. we're following a lot of stories for you this hour. including the shocking admission. the buzz story for all the wrong reasons. outrage that gautamalan patients were injected with syphilis and

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right now on msnbc, a shocking admission. the u.s. government apologizing after purposely infecting people with stds. a deadly storm taking lives in the carolinas, including two children. emotional good-bye. rahm emanuel leave ls the white house to try to win chicago's top job. plus, we talk with my favorite teacher, the woman who changed my life. and now the latest on tropical storm nicole being blamed for at least five deaths in north carolina. two adults and two