attorneys. history lesson if you listened to recent comments of politicians you can't help but ask what do they know about this country's past. i appreciate your time, i'm thomas roberts. congressman anthony weaner is refusing to step down but the controversy surrounding his growing social media scandal is far from over. the new york representative fell on his media sword at ace press conference yesterday taking everything that reporters had to dish out regarding his elicit conversations with a half dozen women through facebook and twitter. luke russert is live for us on capitol hill. he's admitted to not being truthful with you and other colleagues alike. yesterday it was transparent almost painfully transparent for those watching at home. >> reporter: indeed it was, thomas, after ten days with a lot of questions with very few answers, anthony weiner decided to step back up to the microphones once again and he did, in fact, admit that he had

been far from truthful over that time period. >> but i'm not resigning, and i'm going to try very hard to go back to work a better person and a better man and i'm going to try to be a better husband, too. >> reporter: but minutes after weiner admitted he had inappropriate phone and international contact over several years minority leader nancy pelosi was calling for an investigation by the ethics committee to "determine whether any official resources were used or any violation of house rules occurred. >> i don't see anything i did that violated rules of its house, i don't see anything that i did that violated my oath of office to uphold the constitution. >> reporter: he denied he sent a lewd photograph over his twitter account. the picture that went over twitter to gennette cordova from your account, is that you? >> i was pranked, i was hacked, i was punked, whatever it is,

someone sent out a picture. i'm an easy name to make fun of and i think that's what happened again. >> reporter: but monday he told a different story. >> last friday night i tweeted a photograph of myself that i intended to send as a direct message as part of my joke to a woman in seattle, once i realized i posted to twitter i panicked, took it down and said i had been hacked, i continued to stick to that story which was a hugely regrettable mistake. >> reporter: when photographs surfaced online monday weiner was forced to admit more inappropriate behavior. >> over the past few years i have engaged in several inappropriate conversations conducted over twitter, facebook, e-mail and occasionally on the phone with women i have met online, exchanged messages and photos of explicit nature with six women over the last three years. for the most part these communications took place before my marriage, though some have sadly took place after. >> reporter: conspicuously absent from his side was his

wife, huma abedin, long time close adviser to hillary clinton, how close? bill clinton officiated their wedding last july. >> my wife has known about some of these online relationships since before we were married and we spoke frankly about them, well, we spoke frank lly about them but didn't know about this posting. >> reporter: he says their marriage remains intact. >> she made it very clear she thought what i did was very dumb and she was not happen by it and very disappointed and she also told me that she loved me and wanted us to, you know, pull through this. >> reporter: weiner maintains he violated no law and claims no government resources were used in the scandal. >> my blackberry is not a government blackberry, my home computer is usually where i did these things. >> reporter: but late monday radar online reported a 40-year-old las vegas black jack

dealer named lisa weiss said weiner contacted her from his office saying "i gave him my number and he called me from his office and we talked dirty for 30 minutes. >> i never met theseomen or had physical relationships at any time. >> reporter: in an odd twist with weiner running late a conservative blogger took to the podium before weiner. >> i'd like an afollow gee from him for allowing for his political protectors which this was his strategy was to blame me. >> reporter: when he spoke, weiner did apologize to brightbart one of many apologies are offered. >> i have made terrible mistakes that have hurt the people i care about the most and i am deeply sorry. i have not been honest with myself, my family, my constituents, my friends, and supporters and the media. >> reporter: and thomas, it remains to be seen whether or

not he can pull through this. he said he will not be resigning but will be the subject of a house ethics committee investigation in the coming months. those are quite thorough as we saw play out last summer with representative rangel and many other representatives of thomas. >> while the dust continues to roll around what are you hearing politically support wise if any on capitol hill. is anyone on the democratic side coming out to his defense? >> reporter: not publicly. everyone who has spoken out, steve israel, chuck schumer, nancy pelosi express regret in what anthony weiner did, sort of saying he showed a lapse in moral judgment but you have to understand there's an anger within a lot of members in the democratic caucus, they view this as a distraction. last week they wanted to hammer republicans on the medicare plan, talk about the economy,er itible job numbers, they had the better ideas they believed to put forward, anthony weiner did not allow the message to shine through. if anthony weiner stays in

office and does not resign which he said he will not there will be an ethics investigation that will develop much likely into 2012, the election year, that is not something a lot of democrats will want to see on the media radar in an election year. >> luke russert on capitol hill, thanks. what type of future can congressman weiner have, and will anyone on capitol hill stand up and support him? hearing what luke is saying there but michael gorman, principal and chief executive of group gordon communications, it's nice to have you on this morning. i think a lot of people would probably say the mistakes are one thing, the coverup is another because of the lies that came out of this. the lies though, was this an attempt to stop the bleeding and make the story go away and is it ultimately the achilles heel that cuts him? >> sure if you look at the history of political scandal two parts, the initial bad act and the lies and coverup.

that's the mistake he made and exactly what will stick to him for the longer term. if he had let the lies go on further it would have been harder to make a recovery. the fact he came out yesterday despite a week of denials that potentially could help him recover long-term. >> this has personal implications for his life so we're not going to get into that but professionally speaking can he regain the trust of his colleagues, his constituents? >> he can but you have to think about it in terms of a long-term comeback plan. charlie rangel after his ethics investigations and censure before congress he was reelected handily last year. david vitter, worse circumstances and acquisitions, he was relektded by the voters of louisiana last week. weiner needs to focus on his district, forget about running for mayor for a long time and building his national profile. if he focuses on the 700,000 constituents who elect him every two years he can come back.

i'm surprised so many pundits are writing his death certificate, not. >> andrew brightbart took over the first part of the press conference yesterday saying he was encouraged by media inside the room to go to the podium and speak taking over roughly the first 30 minutes, kind of odd for everybody watching to see how this was all going to transpir. some people were even saying was this brightbart setting this all up at some point, everyone confirming no weiner's office said this was going to take place. listen to what he had to say on the today show this morning. >> i disagree everything except for israel with congressman weiner and i'm telling you in the room i felt so unbelievably sad for this guy. it was pathetic but also a sad moment. >> so with breitbart and there are people on the left and people on the right that are looking for these types of

things to be able to go after politicians and bring them down, do you think that there needs to be a common sense is symposium washington, d.c., you know what, everybody is fallible but let's avoid these mistakes. >> i wouldn't call breitbart gracious. he was running several victory laps around weiner. democrats are pouncing on weiner with a couple of exemptions. the republicans are more or less staying quiet. the rule is don't get in the way of someone who is injuring themselves mightily. the republicans are smart by being quiet but the democrats are the ones who need to call fort investigation, see it through so this doesn't stick to them as a party. >> michael gordon, great to have you on. we appreciate your insight this morning. lawyers learning from the ethical mistakes of the hopast, we'll talk to john dean.

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welcome back, everyone. anthony weiner is the latest in a long line of politicians who have tried to hide unethical behavior and of course the hallmark and the reason political scandals immediately get the suffix "gate" stapled to them is president nixon and watergate. joining me is john dean, he served prison time for his roll in the could ofup but will soon are teaching lawyers in the lessons he learned from watergate. reappreciate your time. >> thank you, thomas. >> i first want to start with the ethical decision you had to make in the days following the watergate break-in. whatever your first thoughts and did it ever go through your mind to consider resigning or alerting authorities to what this h taken place?

>> it did. that's one of the reasons we're teaching this. the rules have changed a lot in the last 40 years. one of the things the lawyer has to do is consider exactly those things at this point. at the time i was there, the rules were so strict on confidentiality that that was all you could do is keep the confidence. today they've changed. while we want to rely on lawyers and their confidences, there are times when it might be good if the lawyer has a little leverage. that's why we're teaching the course. the rules after 40 years of debate have really changed and we wrote what not to do. i thought we should share it and people learn from it. >> there have been significant legal and ethical reforms today, you'd be obligated to report a client's criminal act to your organization and go to authorities if they don't act on it before watergate that legal obligation wasn't there, so what do you think through these courses that you'll be able to steer people in the right direction for? what to avoit? >> a lot of things, one is a lot

of people who have looked at this history, the fellow who developed it with me realized things he hadn't thought about when you bring them up in a real world context like confronted with at watergate. it's a sensitivity training in that sense, and also there are some clear rules, understanding who you really do represent in the instance of the president, it's the office of the president and not the president. in other organizations it won't be the chairman of the board or the president of the corporation or the corporation. these make for distinctions and give a lawyer leverage, good for the entity and everybody involved. >> as i understand it the first law firm where you're holding the course is so popular they're opening it up allowing non-lawyers to come and attend this. >> that's right. they have been invited. we're also doing a public session in chicago, that's why i happen to be in chicago and we're encouraged by the signup and trying to get young lawyers to come into this thing. those are the ones who can most

learn from this past experience where we look at it with today's rules. >> john, in terms of political scandals of modern day and as we said "gate" gets put on everything, weinergate is now the big thing in the news, are you surprised as we continue to watch political leaders make these types of mistakes where it's not so much the bad decision of the mistake that they made but it's the coverup that's going to lead to some type of political downfall? >> well that's an interesting situation with the weiner problem he's got right now. he initially looks like he was thinking about covering it up, but he's doing what everybody says you should do, and that is tell the truth, come out, be open, don't cover it up. i don't think he had any legal problems at this point. the question is, will this, the fact that he has revealed what's gone on, put him in a situation where he's got to resign anyway. that's really the issue. he's doing exactly what i think he should do in a situation like

this. you make the mistake, you don't bury it, you don't compound it, don't make it worse. you go out and deal with it and try to understand why you made that mistake. >> john dean, thanks for coming on today. we really appreciate your time. >> thank you, thomas. rewriting history, a closer look at what americans know about how this country actually came to be. wait until you hear this stuff. it's great. look, every day we're using more and more energy. the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪

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over the past few weeks, we have watched a number of public figures stumble while trying to recount facts of american history and these toned attract a lot of attention. take a look. >> he who warned the british that they weren't going to be taking away our arms by ringing those bells and making sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots

and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free. >> for the benefit of those that are not going to read it because they don't want us to go about a constitution there's lay little section that talks about life, liberty and the. you are suit of happiness. >> what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty. you're the state where the shot was heard around the world at lexington and concord. >> here are the facts, paul revere wasn't warning the british, he was warning the americans. life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is from the declaration of the independence and the shot heard around the world is from massachusetts. "newsweek" magazine gave 1,000 americans the u.s. citizenship test and the results are shocking. andrew row ma in a is a senior reporter and joins me in studio

now. it's great to have you here and going to be interesting to find out about the results. you polled over 1,000 people in "newsweek" asking how dumb are we and the numbers aren't that good. break it down for us. tell us the results and how shocked should we be? >> sure, the thing that was shocking the top line number is 38% of the people who took the u.s. citizenship test failed, which is surprising because these are basic facts of how our civic system worked, u.s. history 101 in high school. there were a couple other shocking facts. the one that really got me 29% couldn't name the vice president, joe biden, in case anyone is wondering. >> the 29% that couldn't get that right. where does this american ignorance come from? is it because we're not processing and saving this information that we're taught in school or the fact when we're talking about our country's foundational history but modern day history who the vice president is, because people aren't keeping up what wes' going on, picking up a

newspaper, turning on the tv set? >> one of the big factors we have a complicated political system, in europe their system is a little bit more compressed and condensed and they tend to do better on these types of tests than we do. everyone who goes out to the polls knows they see a whole list of people they have to vote for and not familiar with the offices. another reason why we don't do well is because we don't have a kind of centralized curriculum in our schools. everyone in different states learns different things and that contributes to it as well. >> is that the most problematic aspect, you think it's revealed from doing a simple test to prove that out of 1,000 people that are polled we get results like this that one of these results was even 6% couldn't circle independence day on the calendar. couldn't circle july 4. >> that's pretty surprising. the big takeaway polls have been done for years and years since world war ii and shown the same thing we don't know as much as

we think we know about civics and u.s. history. the problem now we live in an interconnected world and information economy and knowledge is more important than ever, if we're competing with china and india it's not about braun and manufacturing, it's about knowledge and information and this is more dangerous than ever. >> do you think it also doesn't help when the politicians have been confronted with the fact they made a mistake they don't say they made a mistake, no, i was right and they try to give some ass backwards answer? >> it's tough. not all gaffes are created equal. in this case they make a big show of being familiar with the constitution and the founding fathers and saying the democrats really don't care about the ideals of this country so when they make these mistake it is really sticks in a way it doesn't for other people who don't make a big show. >> the people we're looking to, to know these things. we expect better. andrew thanks for your time. president obama and angela merkel will be taking questions

at the white house shortly, we'll bring that to you live on msnbc. britta olsen is my patient. i spend long hours with her checking her heart rate, administering her medication, and just making her comfortable. one night britta told me about a tradition in denmark, "when a person dies," she said, "someone must open the window so the soul can depart." i smiled and squeezed her hand. "not tonight, britta. not tonight." ♪ not tonight." you know rheumatoid arthritis means pain. but you may not know it can also mean destruction. not just of your joints, but of the things you love to do. and the longer you live with the aching, swelling, and stiffness, the closer you may be to having your favorite things... taken away from you. but you can take action today. go to ra.com for your free joint profile so you can better talk

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a new food for your cat or dog. hi, everybody, i'm thomas roberts. federal officials are predicting heavy flooding along the missouri river will last through the summer. projects from the army corps of engineers are the highest levels since they began keeping recorders since 1898. up. an enormous wildfire has grown to 300 square miles and forcing evacuations in arizona. firefighters from as far away as new york are working to contain that fire. the national weather service is reporting that smoke from the wildfire is visible as far as central iowa. the smoke is also visible in new mexico, colorado, nebraska and kansas. nato war planes pounded libya's capital of tripoli

today. the air strikes were designed to step up pressure on moammar gadhafi to step down from power. some of 309 explosions were believed to be targeting directly gadhafi's compound. tim pawlenty is laying out his plan for his nation's fiscal future in chicago this morning, the former minnesota governor says he'll provide the pro-growth policies to help the nation thrive in 2013 and beyond. >> i'm willing to tell americans the hard truth, and i believe they're ready to hear it. but the truth about our economy isn't really that hard at all, and the truth is this. markets work and barack obama's central planning doesn't. >> austin goolsby, chairman of the white house council of economic advisers announced he's leaving to return to teaching at the university of chicago's school of business. he was senior economic adviser on the 2008 presidential campaign. this announcement comes in the wake of a disappointing jobs number for the month of may. as we promised we are

minutes away from a press conference at the white house in the east room. president obama wrapping up a bilateral meeting with german chancellor angela merical. they are tackling major topics before a formal dinner this evening in the chancellor's honor. kristen this is an important ally for the obama administration especially what's going on in the global economy and what it the current mission is in libya. >> reporter: it certainly is an important ally, thomas, the overarching theme of this visit. chancellor merkel got a warm welcome at the white house, greeted by the president, all of his top advisers but as you say there's some serious business here, both leaders gave some brief remarks this morning. the president really focusing on the strong historical alliance between the united states and germany and saying that the partnership is more important than ever, saying that global prosperity and security really

depends on this partnership, and those are ideas that were echoed when chancellor merkel spoke this morning. she talked about the alliance that we have in afghanistan and also said she supports the emerging democracies in north africa and the middle east but there are contentions hovering over the entire visit, the main one libya, chancellor merkel did not support the nato-led military strike in libya. at bea ma looks forward to talking about with her and one other point of contention vermont know's monetary-led policy. timothy geithner critiqued it and vice versa. this trip is really about shoring up those ties, focusing on the things the two nations do have in common so this is a theme we're going to see play out but when they do speak in that press conference just momentarily we can expect them to talk about libya, afghanistan, potentially you could hear the chancellor weigh in on the troop withdrawal so that's what we're looking for.

>> kristen welker at the white house, thanks so much. the obama administration wants to make the economy the main charge, austan ghoulsbee is leaving the post at the white house. gentlemen, it's great to have you here and i want to give you fair warning we are waiting for chancellor angela merkel and president obama to take the microphone and when they do we'll cut away. i don't want to be rude if i cut out of our segment. >> sure. >> julian a tough announcement for the loss of ghooolsbee. we're looking for stability in the white house. how quickly do they need to get a replacement? >> we'll get a replacement.

they have gene sperling, president clinton's national led of council. they have an excellent team and record. when obama entered the white house we were at negative 6, we're at a positive 9 swing in two years. we were losing 750,000 jobs a month when he entered and now we're gaining on average 200,000 jobs, a positive swing of a million. when he entered the white house the stock market at 6,000, now at about 11,000, almost a doubling. we have never seen that kind of increase in economic growth, increase in job creation, increase in the stock market in our lifetime. this is a president who has had a miraculous economic record, still got a long way to go given the unemployment rate but the trend lines were going wrong when president obama entered office and trend lines are in the right direction two years after entering. >> goolsbee is going back to

chicago. p can pawlenty and rick santorum carry out like mike huckabee did in iowa? >> things are backsliding, unemployment is higher, and it's been characterized higher every month in the obama administration than it was the entire eight years of the bush administration. the focus for republicans is largely going to center on spending, getting the economy moving forward, and then social issues yes are always important but i think they'll take a little bit of a back seat this election to things like the economy and getting this country moving forward. >> julian, is that something you agree with? >> i think you asked alex a

question as to who the candidates were likely to be, i think most people recognize is that, will recognize that none of the above is the front-runner in the republican, there is no real strong candidate to go up against obama. the strongest candidate i think was john thune, he's not running. i don't think there's a strong field. the last election they ran on cutting the deficit. it's going after entitlement. the ryan plan on medicare, republicans are running away from. obama has a superb economic record. he inher rited the great economic recession. he's returned it around, the unemployment figure is getting better gradually. the republican it's not clear what they're running on at all. they don't have a candidate, they don't have an agenda and obama has a superb record to run on. >> to talk about deficit, the president proposed a deficit commission and did not endorse

and i don't think any of the democrats endorsed either. so they failed to lead when it comes to issues like the deficit. >> excuse me alex -- >> with regard to presidential candidates you've got a couple of really strong candidates i saw today, mitt romney is leading in most recent polling against obama, 46 or 49-46 so don't say we don't have a strong candidate. tim pawlenty, jon huntsman, strong candidates with great track records are being tough on deficits and growing the economy. >> i'll correct two quick items. >> i think you've got a president who is well liked and a very likeable fellow and also will raise a lot of money. does that make him qualified for re-election, the american people will have their say. >> let's correct you on two items first of all saying romney is an exciting candidate, romney make a mannequin look exciting. he is hardly a guy that's a stand-in. with respect to the deficit even

though obama has been incredible economic record to run on at this point, obama proposed a $4 trillion deficit reduction plan that adopd a lot of the deficit commission recommendations. that's false. obama has a heck of a record to run on not just on domestic affairs, he has osama bin laden, presided over a miraculous transformation in the mideast, troops coming out of iraq as he promised, he has a remarkable record of promises he kept and delivered on. republicans by contrast have kind of a you know it's almost like a star trek convention when you look at who their candidates are. there's nobody who is compelling, nobody who looks like they can win a general election. huntsman is a good guy but is a sellable candidate but beyond that there's nobody serious and they're running away from their own ideas, running away from the promises they made on deficit reduction. >> gentlemen, thank you both for coming on, julian and alex, good to have you on and want to have you back for more conversation. >> thanks for having us. the czech republic is

testing beef and pork imports from germany in the wake of europe's deadly e. coli outbreak. 22 people have died from the bacteria, highly toxic strain. world health officials say it is unlike they've ever seen before and although organic produce is suspected its actual source remains unknown. nbc's michelle kosinski has the latest. >> reporter: new cases are developing every single day, 100 in 24 hours. granted the numbers are smaller than when this originally started but the mystery remains, where is this coming from. let's get to the bottom of it, what officials have been trying to do for three weeks. in the last couple of days they pointed the finger strongly at this organic spraut farm 50 miles south of hamburg, the sprauts went to restaurants where people ate just before becoming violently ill. the thing is the tests they've

done at that farm have all come back negative. officials are going to test there again and know it's possible the contamination is where, where they didn't test, maybe all distributed or maybe that is not the source. at any rate they are warning people don't eat raw sprouts, also no cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce as they originally warned them. some are saying don't eat any raw vegetables which angered eu health officials. they said you have no business warning people when you don't know the source. farmers are losing tens of millions of dollars. officials saying we don't know the source and better warn people based on the best knowledge that we have. thomas? >> michelle kosinski in germany for us. back to washington, d.c., and president obama and german chancellor angela merck. >> my good friend and partner chancellor angela merkel back to the white house, wonderful dinner at the white house one on one. as you saw this morning,

angela's english is much better than my german. michelle and i are very much looking forward to hosting the chancellor and professor zao at tonight's state dinner, where i'll have the privilege of presenting angela with the medal of freedom. as i said earlier, germany is one of our strongest allies. we see our partnership in the drive of our workers and businesses who sustain the largest trade relationships in the world. we see it in the students and teachers, the scientists and researchers who are unlocking new innovations, including the clean renewable energy sources that we need to combat climate change and create the industries of the future, we see our partnership and the courage of our service members who stand shoulder to shoulder in afghanistan, where germans serve under americans and americans serve under germans. chancellor merkel, i want to thank you and the german people

for your strong commitment to this vital mission and our hearts go out to the wounded warriors and all the families, american and german, and others, whose loved ones have given their lives to keep us safe. we remember and honor them all. we see our partnership in the skill of our diplomats who prevent the spread of deadly weapons and stand up for democracy in europe and beyond, and in the passion of our development experts as they work to avert suffering in countries like sudan. this is the essence of our alliance, two peoples bound by common values and committed to security, the prosperity and dignity not just of our own citizens but those far beyond our borders and that's thence of our partnership with chancellor merk merkel. this is our tenth meeting together, doesn't include the phone calls and video conferences at all hours of the day and night. there's hardly any global issue

where we don't consult one another. i've said before, i always value angela's practicing ma tick approach to complex issues, her intelligence, her frankness. i trust her, and as she said herself, is just fun to work together, and it has been again fun today, even as we address some very urgent challenges. germany is one of our largest trading partners and we discussed how to keep our economies growing and create the jobs that our people need. as angela mentioned in her remarks at the opening ceremony, hundreds of thousands of american jobs are supported by our exports to germany, hundreds of thousands of americans work for german companies that have chosen to invest in america. i'm pleased that billions of dollars more in german investment is making possible new plants, steel in alabama, manufacturing in tennessee, all of which go to create thousands of new american jobs.

the chancellor and i discussed the need to eliminate regulations and barriers so we can unleash more trade and investment including in the area of electric vehicles where both our countries are leaders and the pobltsz of american/german cooperation are enormous, and of course i very much appreciated the chancellor's views on the financial situation in europe which we agree cannot be allowed to put the global economic recovery at risk. with regard to security, we discussed our progress in afghanistan where we've broken the taliban's momentum, trained afghan forces and now preparing to turn a corner in our efforts. we're scheduled to begin the transition to afghan lead and i reiterated we'll begin reducing american force this is summer even as we join with germany and our nato allies in supporting afghans in their political and economic efforts in forging an everlasting peace. i thanked the chancellor for the principles i laid out last month as the basis for negotiations

between israelis and palestinians and i commend angela for her efforts to bring the parties back to the negotiating table. just as we agreed that both sides will need to make difficult choices we agreed that unilateral actions such as palestinians seeking a vote on statehood at the u.n. general assembly should be avoided. we agreed that iran's continuing nuclear program and its refusal to engage in any meaningful talks with the international community remain a very serious concern so we agreed that if the international atomic energy agency this week determines again that iran is continuing to ignore its international obligations, then we will have no choice but to consider additional steps including potentially additional sanctions to intensify the pressure on the iranian regime. we discussed the historic changes in africa and the middle east. with regard to libya, germany's deployment of additional

resources to personnel in afghanistan has allowed other nato allies to protect the libyan people. the chancellor and i have been clear, gadhafi must step down and hand power to the lib yab people and the pressure will only continue to increase until he does. and following our agreement with our g-8 partner we discussed our support for political and economic reform across northeast and africa especially in tunisia and egypt. the united states and germany are the two largest donors of assistance to the region, and we agreed that this historic moment must not be squandered, along with the entire world, we have an enormous stake in seeing that these transitions to democracy succeed, and given the chancellor's own remarkable life story and her experience in helping to heal the wounds of the past and build a united germany, i very much appreciate her leadership and a partnership

in this effort, so again i'm very grateful to the chancellor for being here, i'm confident that the great alliance between our nations is going to remain an indispensable pillar of a world that's more secure and prosperous and more just and i very much appreciate the personal friendship that i enjoy with the chancellor. so angela. >> translator: thank you for this wonderful reception, i'm saying this on behalf of the members of my delegation. the reception to the white house, german ancestry, we can

safely say that we indeed share common leads. if we look at the names that loom large in american history, frederick shteiden and many leaders of the american business industry, guggenheim, strauss, singer, all of these german names, so that is a broad foundation on which we can build and we are so grateful that many germans found asylum and a great place to live during the second world war in the united states. we have a broad based exchange of students. we have cooperation in science. we work in air and space with the iss. we share a lot of successes. i mentioned the 50,000 soldiers, many soldiers that are present today in germany are very welcome indeed in my country. let me say a personal note, without the united states of america i would in all

probability would not be able to stand before you today. it required the courage of the people of central and eastern europe and also required the steadfastness of the western partner over many decades, many had long lost hope of integration of the two germanys and europe, many perhaps didn't even want this anymore, but the then present george herbert walker bush said german unity is something that deserves support so there are a lot of tasks that we have in common, a lot of challenges that we need to meet together, we're doing this in this spirit of freedom, of shared values, we want to bring these values to bear on the international agenda. we're dealing and ever since the month of january with these issues, in the arab spring in tunisia and libya, that is a great challenge.

if i remember, let me take you back perhaps to the period after the second world war when through the martial plan, germany was able to get back on its feet again i see this also as a common task, as a task of the europeans and of the americans and the germans to support this change, to make it possible for the young people to have a perspective for the future. we talked about this. we talked about term know in particular with its experience and occasional trainings, schemes, offerings and alliance for job, training and education, working together with the egyptians and tu in additions with this on our foundations, building up institutions, for example, is something that we want to do. i said that we after all opened up an office in benghazi that will serve as a clearing house for training schemes for example for the security forces, the police there on the ground, and we will also, through an additional commitment to afghanistan, lend contribution to mastering the common shares.

we talked about economic issues in the g-20, we work closely together and i believe we've been able to make a lot of progress there and be successful. the situation in the euro group in europe obviously is also of very great interest over minis these issues, but we, too, talked about this at some length and i said yet again for germany, europe is not only indispensable, it is part and parcel of our identity. we always said german unity, european unity and integration, that's two parts of one of the same coin. but we want, obviously to boost our competitiveness. we are very much aware of -- very well aware, both of us, i think, we are in competition with the emerging economies. europe needs to be competitive and we also need to be competitive if we wish to remain an interesting economic partner for the united states. this has to be done on the basis of strength, of competitiveness. so this is why the germans are pursuing a policy of a

competitive europe, and this is -- and it is also an approach of solidarity. we need it show solidarity to the countries that need it. they also need to enhance competitiveness. we talked about the middle east peace process. i think this was a very important initiative to point out yet again that the united states of america just as germany and the european union wish to promote a development of the peace process was saying this to both countries, we want a two state solution, a jewish state of israel, and alongside an independent palestinian state. unilateral measures are not helping at all to bring about this cause and we agree that we wish to cooperate very closely on this because we -- as we both say time is of the essence and looking at the changes in the arab area, and the arab region, it would be a very good signal indeed if it came out that talks between the parties are, again, possible.

the commitment we take in afghanistan shows that we're very close, we're very grateful for the close cooperation in the north of afghanistan, that has turned out excellently. we share the opinion that in afghanistan we wish to approach an -- the matters in a sense of an integrated security approach and that network security approach. we said we want to build up not only the military side of it, but the civil side of it. we wish to go in together, out together. afghanistan will need our support however in the long run, so we will not abandon them. barack, thank you, again, for the very friendly talks, for this very warm atmosphere, for making it possible to have this exchange of views. and a very candid matter. i think even though we may look differently than our predecessors, we have a lot in common, i think, and we have a lot to discuss. thank you. >> i'll start off with steve from reuters. >>. [ inaudible ]

>> how worried are you about the -- what specific policies are you considering to help head it off and how broad do you expect germany to fund another bailout of greece. >> i'm not concerned about a double dip recession. i am concerned about the fact that the recovery we're on is not producing jobs as quickly as i want it to happen. prior to this month, we had seen three months of very robust job growth in the private sector. and so we're very encouraged by that. this month you still saw job growth in the private sector, but it slowed down. we don't yet know whether this is a one-month episode or a longer trend. obviously we're experiencing some head winds. gas prices probably being most prominent. it has enormous impact on family budgets and on the psychology of consumers. and so we are taking a range of

steps to make sure that we got an energy policy that can bring some stability to world oil prices. but the overall trend that we have seen over the last 15 months, 2 million, over 2 million jobs created over the past 15 months, you know, a rebounding of the manufacturing sector in the united states, that is exemplified by the recovery of the big three automakers here. all indicates that we have set a path that will lead us to long-term economic growth. but we still have got some enormous work to do. as long as there are some folks out there who are unemployed, looking for work, then every morning when i wake up, i'm going to be thinking about how we can get them back to work. some of the steps we took during the lame duck session, the payroll tax, the extension of unemployment insurance, the

investment in -- or the tax breaks for business investment and plans and equipment, all those things have helped and one of the things i'm going to be interested in exploring with the members of both parties in congress is how do we continue some of these policies to make sure that we get this recovery up and running in a robust way. we then have a set of long-term competitiveness challenges that aren't so different from what germany or any advanced country is having to go through in the 21st century where we have emerging markets, who are becoming more competitive themselves, and we're going to have to step up our game. making sure that our school systems are working well and we have got the best trained workers in the world, making sure we're investing in infrastructure so we can attract businesses to our shores, making sure that we reform our tax system so it is less complex, more transparent, and is

encouraging the business investment, and getting the -- getting a handle on our deficit in a way that is balanced and sensible. so we're going to have some days where things aren't going as well as we would like. there are times where we'll be surprised with better economic data than expected. we're on the path of a recovery, but it has got to accelerate. that's going to require a continuation of a lot of the steps i already discussed. with respect to the european situation, i have had extensive discussions with angela about the situation there. it is a tough situation. and i think we all acknowledge it. greece's debt is significant. and it is taking some difficult steps to improve its situation, but they're under the gun from the international capital markets. as a member of the euro zone,

they necessarily are going to be looking to other members of the euro zone to help them figure out a path forward. germany is going to be a key leader in that process. and the politics of it are tough. you recall how difficult it was for us to make investments in our own auto industry, or to make sure that we didn't have a financial meltdown here. well, imagine if you're having to make those same decisions with 27 other countries with respect to somebody else's economic problems. that gives you some sense of how tough the politics are. but i am confident that germany's leadership, along with other key actors in europe, will help us arrive at a path for greece to return to growth, for this debt to become more manageable, but it is going to require some patience and some time and we have pledged to

cooperate fully in working through these issues, both on a bilateral basis, but also through international and financial institutions like the imf. >> translator: well, in europe we are very well aware of responsibility for the global economy. barack just outlined what the americans are doing in order to generate growth and combat unemployment, which is what we're doing in europe as well. through the global financial and economic crisis we have seen how interdependent we are and the stability of the euro zone is therefore an important factor of stability for the whole european economy. we're shouldering the responsibility together with the imf. we have seen the stability of the euro as a whole will also be influenced if one country is in

trouble. and that is what the assistance is all about. there are actually -- there is actually a ban on bailouts in the treaties and pinning the civility and growth pack. but if a country is in danger and endangers euro as a whole, it is each and every country's interest to see to it that this common currency area is not in danger. and we will act in such a way, however, that sustainability is guaranteed. as i said previously. as far as the situation in the united states is concerned, i think each and every one ought to deal with his or her own problems. we in europe have our hands full already with what we need to do. and i'm absolutely convinced that as we shoulder our responsibility, meet our responsibility, so will the united states of america. >> just the recognition of her accomplishments in the