make america more competitive, help create jobs in our country, and it's something that is under discussion. >> but can he sell it to his members? like michele bachmann, head of the house tea party caucus, who just happens to be running for president. just look at her first ad airing today in iowa. >> we can't keep spending money that we don't have. i will not vote to increase the debt ceiling. >> we have got all the players this hour. white house communications director dan pfeiffer. senator chuck schumer. budget chairman paul ryan. ranking budget member chris van hollen. plus, from fires to floods to oil spills. natural and man-made disasters wreaking havoc across the country. with us, agriculture secretary tom vilsack. i will sentence you to one year in the orange county jail, imposing a $1,000 fine on each

count. >> casey anthony will not walk from court today a free woman but she will be released from jail next week for time served and for good behavior. and blastoff or bust? the latest on the "atlantis" launch and the future of the space program with former nasa administrator sean o'keefe. good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. we are expecting president obama will come into the briefing room at any moment. there is the president. let's go to the briefing room. >> all the congressional leaders from both chambers, from both parties, and i have to say that i thought it was a very constructive meeting. people were frank. we discussed the various options available to us. everybody reconfirmed the importance of completing our work and raising the debt limit ceiling so that the full faith and credit of the united states of america is not impaired.

what we decided was that staffs as well as leadership will be working during the weekend and that i will reconvene congressional leaders here on sunday with the expectation that at that point, the parties will at least know where each other's bottom lines are, and will hopefully then be in a position to start engaging in the hard bargaining that's necessary to get a deal done. i want to emphasize that nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to, and the parties are still far apart on a wide range of issues, but again, i thought that all the leaders here came in a spirit of compromise, in a spirit of wanting to solve problems on behalf of the american people. everybody acknowledged that the issue of our debt and our deficit is something that needs

to be tackled now. everybody acknowledged that in order to do that, democrats and republicans are going to be required in each chamber, everybody acknowledged we have to get this done before the hard deadline of august 2nd to make sure that america does not default for the first time on its obligations. and everybody acknowledged that there's going to be pain involved politically on all sides, but our biggest obligation is to make sure that we're doing the right thing by the american people, creating an environment in which we can grow the economy and make sure that more and more people are being put back to work. so i want to thank all the leaders. i thought it was a very constructive meeting and i will be seeing them back here on sunday. a lot of work will be done between now and then. all right?

>> talking about how the meeting went, saying there were a lot of compromises being offered but that nothing is final until everything is done. kristen welker, nbc white house correspondent, is on the north lawn. we will be talking to republicans and democrats from the hill in a moment but first, your take from this, because it sounds as though they are finally really negotiating. they will be meeting again on sunday, we gather. >> reporter: that's right, andrea. i think the take-home point here, what's interesting about what the president just said, is that congressional leaders will be meeting throughout the weekend and then they are going to meet again on sunday and the president said hopefully at that point, they can begin the process of the hard bargaining that needs to happen to actually get a deal done. what we're hearing is that there may be some real progress being made here. you also heard the president say that any deal would likely involve some political pain on both sides. so what does that mean. we have been talking a lot about taxes. president obama, democrats saying they would like to see a

roll-back of some tax credits for wealthier americans, for larger corporations. republicans have been saying that they won't support anything that looks like a tax hike until recently, when as you mentioned in your open, that we started to hear speaker boehner open the door for rolling back some tax cuts, as long as they were offset by an overall tax cut. so we are seeing some progress here, andrea. the president calling this meeting frank and constructive and again, lawmakers going to work through the weekend. they are going to reconvene on sunday. >> that's certainly the strongest indication that something is being accomplished. but they're being squeezed from all sides. we played earlier a little snippet of michele bachmann's first ad in iowa which basically says that she won't agree to any raising of the debt ceiling. the aarp has now issued a statement from its -- this of course, the largest lobbyist against any changes in medicare or social security or other entitlements for many decades, despite some hints a few weeks

ago that they might be flexible, they took that back. now they have issued a statement saying aarp will not accept any cuts to social security as part of a deal to pay the nation's bills. social security did not cause the deficit and should not be cut to reduce the deficit it did not cause. of course, we then get into definitions of what is a cut, what's the deficit, and what are we talking about when we talk about taxes and revenue. those are the terms of art that they're all going to be walking around. but the aarp can put a lot of pressure on the democrats in these negotiations and on the white house. >> reporter: absolutely. being squeezed on all sides is a really good way to think about it. the white house issued a statement earlier today regarding that issue of whether or not entitlements would be on the table and they said look, the president has said for a long time that he would consider some cuts to social security, medicare and medicaid as long as

it didn't mean an overall restructuring of those entitlement programs. essentially saying look, we want to make those programs more efficient. however, i'm hearing from some people on the hill that there might be some structural changes that are part of these discussions. we're really going to have to wait and see. again, that key phrase you heard the president talk about, political pain. the republicans are potentially going to have to deal with taxes and the democrats, possibly going to have to deal with those entitlements. why did exxonmobil tell federal regulators that their oil pipeline beneath the yellowstone river was safe? clearly it wasn't. plus, floods, wildfires and a political stalemate costing thousands of american jobs on the farm. agriculture secretary tom vilsack joins us next. send me your thoughts on twitter. [ elevator bell dings ] ugh, great.

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the environmental protection agency says that it may soon begin to test the air quality of homes near billings, montana, after thousands and thousands of gallons of crude oil gushed into the yellowstone river. locals out there say that the fumes are overwhelming and they're also raising questions about exxonmobil's response to the spill. that is only the latest of the man-made disasters. there have been natural disasters as well. we have been talking about wildfires in arizona, wildfires in new mexico, agriculture secretary tom vilsack has just returned from touring those natural disasters in the wildfire damaged areas of new mexico and arizona and joins us now. thank you so much. i know one of your concerns after the containment of these fires is the possibility of

floods and that's because of the ash that can't contain the water, the erosion and the water that needs to be absorbed. tell us about that and what your concerns are at this stage. >> well, you're right. basically our reserves of our water resources, when they are destroyed as they have been in these massive fires, what happens is that the trees are not in a position, the soil is not in a position to absorb water so arizona's going to be confronting monsoon -- their monsoon season very soon and when that happens, the water will run down the mountain areas that have been subjected to this fire just as it would on a tarpolin and essentially cascade into the towns that are in the valleys near the forested areas. so it's very important for those communities to be alert to the flood issue and the flood risk because that's when fatalities can occur and when we can have even greater damage and loss of property. >> i don't know if this is your jurisdiction or whether you have been briefed on it, because we haven't had a chance to chat in

the last few days, but let's talk about the oil pipeline under the yellowstone river. do you know anything about that? can you share anything about the cause and why exxonmobil, having told the governor last summer that everything was under control and that there was no risk of this happening, it happened? >> well, i know that the governor was smart enough to have done sort of a mock emergency last summer to prepare themselves for a potential break in that pipeline which is essentially buried underneath the river. unfortunately, it was not buried deep enough and the problems obviously are now with the water quality and the fish content which really impacts a state like montana, because they very much depend on tourism. they are a relatively small state, less than a million pe people, but have upwards of seven to ten million people visit the state because of their beautiful landscapes and fishing opportunities. this is a difficult situation for montana. the epa i know is very much

involved in the cleanup efforts and hopefully this matter will get resolved very quickly. >> does it raise questions to you at least with the pending decision by the state department of a pipeline, 1400 miles from canada, all the way to houston which is pending before hillary clinton, the epa has expressed concerns about the environmental impact not having been properly analyzed of this additional pipeline which would take tar sands, very heavy kind of oil, from the canadian border to refineries in the gulf? >> obviously, you need to be concerned about accessing energy as we try to remove ourselves from a dependence on foreign oil and from middle eastern oil, and energy sources. having said that, every federal agency has to go through an environmental assessment whenever we take action that may impact public lands. so i'm sure that as this works itself through the process, there will be a very rigorous review and if there's not a rigorous review, then folks can question that in the courts and

they have done that on a number of occasions with our forest service, for example, in terms of environmental assessment. there will be an environmental assessment and i think we pay very serious attention to those risks. >> mr. secretary, i know you are very concerned about jobs in the agriculture sector and the fact that there has been this political stalemate over approval of the korean trade deal. you have said this deal would be larger than all the trade deals, recent trade deals combined and it would have a huge impact on our exports. >> this is a terrific opportunity for american agriculture and we are obviously very hopeful that congress will take quick action to ratify the three trade agreements as well as the trade adjustment assistance package which is also important. this is a two-way street here. there is opportunity that is created by trade but there are also people that sometimes are adversely affected by trade agreements so therefore, there needs to be some training and opportunities for them to redirect their careers. it's a good combination. it's a good package. the president did a great job of

renegotiating several of these agreements to have greater labor standards to ensure that american workers are protected. the fact that in the korean agreement that the uaw and the ufcw, two very large labor unions, are supportive of this trade agreement at the same time the chamber of commerce is supportive suggests that there's broad base of support for these agreements. for agriculture, it's about $2.3 billion of additional ag opportunities in exports. we will have a record year in ag exports. every $1 billion of ag exports generates about 8400 jobs. it's great for bottom lines for farmers and also great for employment. >> mr. secretary, i know you're not involved in politics but we were checking just today and there has been an exploratory committee filed with a name that's very similar to yours, vilsack, in iowa. in that fourth congressional district, the former first lady of iowa, looks like she might be running and against a very high profile incumbent republican, steve king. can you share anything with us about her plans? >> i'm certainly proud of

christie and obviously, love her to death. it's probably not appropriate for me to comment about her particular race on this particular interview but obviously, i'm very proud of her and i think she will do a great job of talking to the people of the fourth district about the needs of the fourth district. >> well, a lot of us, as much as we admire you, a lot of us who cover this think she really was the better half. i'm not going there. >> i have to agree with that. >> thank you very much, mr. secretary. our best to your wife and whenever she wants to announce, if she wants to do it here, open invitation. thank you. tracking the presidential candidates to the first caucus date in iowa. last edition. a scandal takes down one of britain's most venerable papers. ♪

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iowa straw poll, but the candidates are already working hard on their ground games for the hawkeye state, and we are joined now by politico reporter, jonathan martin. first of all, we know that christie vilsack's going to be in that fourth congressional race which will be a hot one against steve king. >> that's going to be a great race. >> she of course is the former first lady, born and raised in iowa, obviously. >> yeah. >> it's going to be an interesting race. >> for political junkies, her endorsement of john kerry at the eve of the iowa caucuses was critical in 2004. she has a lot of pull with activists in that state. >> which is that almost like sarah huckabee's endorsement of tim pawlenty, although mike huckabee hasn't come along. let's talk about iowa and all the different pieces of iowa. what are you looking at now in iowa in terms of what's happening with romney and bachmann? want to play a little bit of bachmann's first ad which went up today.

>> as a descendent of generations of iowans, i was born and raised in waterloo. as a mom of five, foster parent and former tax lawyer, now a small business job creator, i know that we can't keep spending money that we don't have. that's why i fought against the wasteful bailout, against the stimulus. i will not vote to increase the debt ceiling. i'm michele bachmann and i approved this message. >> so that's a pretty potent ad and especially as a signal of where she stands on the debt ceiling talks. where we've just had what the president called constructive negotiations today. you can see how the speaker of the house, if he tries to make a deal, will be squeezed very hard from the right. >> absolutely. two things about that ad that jump out to me. one, for all the talk that we hear about cultural conservatives dominating the iowa caucuses on the republican side, i think right now, the center of gravity in the

republican party is very much on fiscal issues and especially on spending. you see that illustrated when michele bachmann, a candidate of the right, no doubting her cultural conservative credentials, introduces herself in a first ad entirely talking about fiscal issues. secondly, to your point, andrea, this debt limit issue i think could be for michele bachmann what iraq was for howard dean. on the issue where she can push her party and where a lot of grassroots activists in the party are concerned about the establishment wing of the party caving in to the opposition and a candidate like dean in '03 and bachmann right now has a real opportunity here i think to sort of push her party from the right. the grassroots of the gop right now are very skeptical towards washington. their own party included. i think it's a smart move for her to really take a hard stance on this debt limit issue.

>> thanks so much. good to see you, jonathan martin. >> thank you. budget poker. what cards will the democrats be playing? senator chuck schumer and congressman chris van hollen are joining us. plus the casey anthony countdown. days to go until she's free from jail. and send me your thoughts. [ male announcer ] this is larry... whose long day starts with arthritis pain... and a choice. take tylenol arthritis and maybe up to six in a day... or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. happy chopping. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. this is my band from the 80's, looker. hair and mascara, a lethal combo. i'm jon haber of alto music. my business is all about getting music into people's hands. and the plum card from american express open helps me do that. you name it, i can buy it. and the savings that we get from the early pay discount has given us money to reinvest back into our business and help quadruple our floor space.

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all for attention-grabbing headlines. former deputy prime minister is among those hacked. the paper came under fire when messages of a 13-year-old missing girl who was found dead were erased by a tabloid's hacker. that led the girl's family to think she was still alive for long after she was really gone. at camp pendleton, california, a marine corps helicopter crashed, killing one marine, injuring five others. the five injured marines are all hospitalized at this hour. the aircraft is described as having crash-worthy seats and fuel tanks. authorities are investigating whether or not the hot weather played a role in the accident. the christmas day underwear bomber is in a detroit court today, hoping to postpone his october trial. the nigerian man is accused of trying to blow up a detroit-bound plane with close to 300 passengers on board back in 2009.

yemeni's president has spoken for the first time since an attempt on his life was made back in june. he spoke on yemeni television saying he welcomed a power sharing agreement within the terms of the country's constitution. it is not the first time he has said that. casey anthony will spend only six more days in a florida county jail before becoming a free woman next week. she was sentenced to four years of jail time by judge belvin perry earlier today for lying to police, but after time off for time served and good behavior, she will be released next wednesday. savannah guthrie is nbc's chief correspondent and joins us from new york. take us through this. how is she going to walk next wednesday? >> reporter: this is one of those times when i think people get really frustrated with the legal system because if they're home trying to do math on the back of the envelope, it's hard to put this together. even for me, i have been burning

up the phones with all these florida attorneys who practice in these jurisdictions to ask how it is exactly that they may have gotten to this amount of time. bottom line is she got credit for 1,043 days in jail and will be released on wednesday but how exactly the lawyers and the judge arrived at that, we don't know. bottom line, the judge maxed her out in terms of the penalty he could have given her, four years for each count of lying to law enforcement officers and then asked her to serve them consecutively. so it maxes out at four years. however, as you mentioned, she's been in jail nearly 1,000 days already so that gets counted as credit for time served. in addition, each county in florida has its own policies on good time behavior and in this case, gain time behavior so she gets credit of about ten days per month for good time, so that gets knocked off her sentence. bottom line is the calculation that the judge and the lawyers, which includes the prosecutors, came to is that she's eligible for release on wednesday. so six more days in jail for her.

>> savannah guthrie has all the details and the math. thanks so much. great to see you. house speaker john boehner is telling his troops that there is a 50/50 chance of a mega-budget deal happening possibly even in the next few days. will democrats now balk at changes in social security, medicare and medicaid? new york senator chuck schumer chairs the democratic policy committee and joins us now. senator schumer, thank you so much for being with us. you're such a key player in all of this. just seeing the suggestion of social security elicited a huge strong statement today from the aarp, saying that there can't be any changes on social security and that that won't help the deficit, didn't cause the deficit, not going to help the deficit. is this a case where as the president said, nothing happens until it's all agreed to, and it depends on your definition of what is a budget cut, what is a social security cut, what is a tax increase? >> yeah. i think it's hard to comment on

anything about social security until you see what is going to be proposed. it's been my position and i believe the overwhelming majority of the democratic caucus that because social security's in good shape, you don't run into it running out of money until 2037 and because it is not a driver of the deficit, even the simpson-bowles commission said any changes in social security would go into social security, not into the deficit. that it should be treated separately. but it's premature to comment until you see some specifics. i think that the bottom line is in terms of an overall deal, the big holdup here is the fact that republicans have kept revenues off the table completely, even eric cantor yesterday, people said well, it's a great thing he says maybe he'll do a few of these egregious loopholes in the law, corporate jets and yachts and stuff like this, but even there, he had another loophole

put in the law and none of the money that would be -- that comes from closing these loopholes would be used to reduce the deficit. so it's one step forward, two steps back. if republicans are willing to entertain serious revenues, there's a real chance for a big deal. if they're not, there's no chance for a big deal and i can tell you this. democrats are not going to go for something that says we have all these cuts that we'll put in the budget now and maybe we'll get revenues down the road, the ways and means committee or the finance committee will decide those down the road. leader reid issued a statement that i think sums up our view, that there has to be balance between cuts and revenues, and that balance should be in terms of dollars, in terms of specificity and in terms of timing. that pretty much sums up our position. >> there had been a previous position in previous talks that three to one would be a -- >> we're not saying -- there has to be balance. obviously we're not going to take $100 of cuts for $1 in

revenues. but we're not specifying exactly what that balance should be. however, it's got to be some decent form of balance. >> does making a deal that does include entitlements including medicare take away a huge weapon from house democrats? as leader pelosi believes that she has a shot at 24 seats and getting back control of the house. so why would house democrats, especially the more progressive wing of the party, and you were a house member at one point, you know what the deal is, why would they go for a deal like that just on the politics of it, when they can continue boati inbeati paul ryan and anybody else who mentions medicare? >> i think the majority of the house have the view that benefits should not be cut. there is also a generally agreed to view, i couldn't speak for every person, that there is savings to be wrought out of medicare, the way we did in the health care bill, through making

the system more efficient, delivery system reform, prevention, making sure that when hospitals readmit people because they made a mistake, they don't get double reimbursement. things like that. so again, the devil is in the details here, but i think we're pretty united along with speaker pelosi that medicare cuts, actual cuts in the benefits, are not something we would want to entertain. >> you are a good lawyer and you know the president and this white house. do you think that if there isn't a deal, if this whole thing blows up, the president should go for this constitutional gimmick, some would call it, to say the debt ceiling law is unconstitutional under the 14th amendment? >> you know, it's a relatively new argument and i don't think it's been fermented and explored. i would say this. it is premature to use it for this round of raising the debt ceiling. there hasn't been enough exploration in it. god forbid the courts would throw it out if the president

went ahead and did it. i think it should not be used this time around. it's something that should be explored for later debt ceiling raises that we will have to do down the road. >> chuck schumer, thank you so much for being with us. great to have you on the show. one of the big players in the biden budget talks that laid the groundwork for everything discussed at today's white house summit is now joining us. maryland democratic congressman chris van hollen, ranking member of the house budget committee. thanks so much. the speaker said earlier he thought there was a 50/50 chance of actually getting a big deal, not just a short-term deal, and avoiding this crisis. how would you rank the possibilities right now? >> andrea, that's very hard to say. i don't know how speaker boehner did that particular calculation. you just heard the president say that they're playing to reconvene at the white house on sunday so let's take it one step at a time. obviously, we're all anxious to

try and resolve this issue but every time we think we're making progress, we find that our republican colleagues, as chuck schumer said, resist the idea of closing corporate loopholes for special interests and refuse to entertain the idea of asking the income earners at the very high end to go back to the rates they were at during the clinton administration, which by the way, was a time when the economy was booming. >> would you agree to some changes in medicare and social security despite what the aarp said today, if you had enough of a tax offer from the other side to make a deal? >> let me just echo what senator schumer said, which is that the democrats in congress will not balance the budget on the backs of social security beneficiaries and will not support these cuts for medicare beneficiaries. we do believe and senator schumer alluded to this, that there are ways to save additional funds, for example, in medicare. one way to do that is to get a better deal for the medicare

program from the prescription drug industry. when the prescription drug program was passed as part of medicare back in 2005, they got a very special deal. so there are ways to generate additional revenues to help improve the medicare solvency issue without slashing benefits to medicare beneficiaries. >> it sounds to me like this was something discussed by all of you during the biden talks. >> during the biden talks, a number of proposals were put forward and you just got a flavor of the kind of things that we talked about. again, when it comes to prescription drugs, we simply said that the medicare program should be given the same rights as the veterans administration, which gets a very good price for drugs for veterans. why shouldn't we be able to do that for the medicare program? why shouldn't we go back to the same payment rates for pharmaceuticals that were in place for medicaid and now medicaid and medicare

beneficiaries prior to 2005. those are some examples of things we can do that would strengthen the medicare program, but without taking the approach that the republicans did in their budget in the house, also voted on in the senate, which would say that medicare beneficiaries who, by the way, have a median income of $22,000, that they should take the big hit, that they should be asked to either pay a lot more or sacrifice benefits. that's absolutely wrong, especially when republicans are refusing to deal on things like corporate jet loopholes and getting rid of subsidies for the oil and gas industry. >> the next 48 hours are basically counting heads, doing counts, seeing what people would go for on both sides. is that what the staff meetings are going to be that harry reid and mitch mcconnell are holding, going up to the sunday meeting at the white house? >> my sense, andrea, is the first step is to actually get some kind of agreement among the eight people around the table at the white house, and then it

will be their responsibility, assuming you can reach that kind of agreement, to begin to shop it around to members of the different caucuses. i think we're still in that earlier stage. there's no agreement, obviously there's hope, but we're certainly, i think, a long way from a final deal. and again, it is irresponsible and reckless to be holding the whole american economy hostage to these one-way demands. if the united states was to default on its full faith and credit, that would put a whole lot more americans out of work at a very bad time. so we should not be playing russian roulette with the american economy and not saying that we're going to hold that economy hostage to getting the budget the way the republicans would like it which is, again, calling for deep cuts for medicare beneficiaries but protecting special interest tax breaks. that's just wrong. it's the wrong priorities and i think it will be rejected by the

american people and hopefully, that message is getting through to our colleagues in the republican caucus. >> congressman, thanks very much. if you guys can pull this off in the next couple days, maybe we should send you to negotiate middle east peace. thank you very much. there aren't too many jobs where raising $18 million brings you short of expectations. we'll be measuring mitt's money haul next. plus, final countdown. former nasa chief sean o'keefe joins us to talk about the future of the space program.

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history mandatory in school textbooks. i'll talk to the state senator who proposed that bill and says it will help curb bullying of gay teens. all that and more coming up on "news nation" in 15 minutes. remember when barack obama went overseas to campaign for president three summers ago? we were with him on that trip. republicans pounced all over him. today, mitt romney, the presumptive republican front-runner, is in all places london, raising cash from wealthy americans abroad. romney has raised $18 million plus in the second quarter, $3 million less than he did during a comparable period four years ago when he ran. but far ahead of the rest of the republican field. msnbc contributor and managing editor of post-politics.com chris joins us. romney doing well, not as well as some expectations but far ahead of everybody else. what about at this stage going to london? doesn't that invite criticism? >> well, it does, but it shows i

think romney's calculation, these are always these calculations, his calculation is he can raise more money going to london than the criticism he will take. the president makes this calculation, too. republicans hit the president, he's doing so many fund-raisers but the president and his campaign team know money adds up. they will need the money more than they're worried about the negative publicity. so that i think is the romney calculation. to your other point, it's a fascinating thing about fund-raising. success is in the eye of how you measure it. against mitt romney 2007, he's behind. against mitt romney versus the rest of the field, he's way ahead. in fact, he's further ahead in the money chase than he was in 2007, when rudy giuliani and john mccain raised double digits in millions of dollars in a comparable quarter. depends how you look at it. >> take a look at newt gingrich now, he's in negative territory. no comparison. but the fact is that michele bachmann has also proved to be a very effective fund-raiser.

she went up with tv ads in iowa today, ads as we pointed out earlier hard-lining her position against any raising of the debt ceiling. she can be a very effective campaign fund-raiser, as she proved in the past. >> her numbers have not come out yet. they're not due to the federal election commission and therefore, public until july 15th. her campaign has said they will wait until that point. my guess, it's only a guess because they really haven't talked about it, my guess is she's going to finish second behind mitt romney in terms of raising the most money over the last three months. second right now is ron paul at $4.5 million. my guess is bachmann is in the $6 million to $8 million, still $10 million to $12 million behind romney. bachmann announced she was running for president at a debate in mid-june in new hampshire. she had about two weeks to aggressively raise money where she could go to donors and say yes, i am running. if she's able to put together a quarter that eclipses the likes of tim pawlenty, for example,

former minnesota governor, it's a troubling sign for pawlenty and very good sign for michele bachmann because she's trending upward in a very short period of time to raise money. >> watching all things for us, thank you, chris. what big story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? that's next. [ male announcer ] this is lisa, who tries to stay ahead of her class. morning starts with arthritis pain... that's two pills before the first bell. [ bell rings ] it's time for recess... and more pills. afternoon art starts and so does her knee pain, that's two more pills. almost done, but hang on... her doctor recommended aleve because it can relieve pain all day with just two pills. this is lisa... who switched to aleve and fewer pills for a day free of pain. and get the all day pain relief of aleve in liquid gels. for a day free of pain. man: be kind to your eyes

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and which story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? it is sure to be the final launch of nasa's space program or a last-minute weather delay perhaps. we have a special guest. sean o'keefe is a former nasa administra administrator and joins us now and it is so great to see you for so many reasons, but first, the shuttle launch. there was an interview yesterday with brian williams and there is many regrets from the shuttle

corps and many others that we will be relying on the russians and their ability to take our astronauts to the soyez. do you have any regrets of the turn of events? >> well, it is a 30-year history that is remarkable and the exploration of space has been open as a consequence of the space shuttle on a routine basis and made it a feasible opportunity that would never have been possible, and it was exactly 30 years ago that began and now the next chapter is about to open. >> what is that chapter? >> well, it is evolving and to aed ministration has launched goals for space vehicles and objectives, and charlie bolden has been expressive in looking at the alternative methods than duplicating or replicating what we did in the "apollo" era which

is the trip to the moon. and meantime, we will look at commercial opportunities to access the space station which is still the most remarkable laboratory ever built as an international space community and that is the next discovery away from the next wonder of the world. there is access to that which is commercially available as well as by our russian partners who have been part of the international space coalition for 20 years, so it is another phase of this. there was a period of lag between the end of the "apollo" era and the beginning of the shuttler e e er era. >> and is the next era the next big bet? >> well, there are commercial means to be encouraged as a way to resupply the international space station and replicate what the space shuttle did in termings of cargo,

transportation, and all of the assets that you need to maintain a laboratory in space that is 350 million miles off of the planet, but what the space station did that could not have been physically ak kccomplished to bring the elements of the space station to literally assemble it on orbit which cannot be expended through a launch vehicle or any other commercial asset that is currently being considered. this is a unique capability and employed exactly for that important purpose which is creating a remarkable capability that we will be proud of for years to come now. >> and now, thinking back to the horrendous crash and you were one of the victims of august 9th, we lost senator ted stevens and oers in crash, and thinking back now, and i understand that you are in rehab but your son is fully recovered? >> indeed. he has a great, great virtue of being 20 years old and he has

the great virtue of feeling immortal. >> well, you look terrific, sean, i have to tell you. >> i'm glad i look anything at all, andrea, because it was a harrowing adventure and one that took the lives of some very, very extraordinary people, and among them certainly senator ted stevens who was a extraordinary mentor and friend and a guy i will miss deeply for a very, very long time to come. >> we are grateful that you are well and recovering and your son as well, and we of course mourn the loss of those who lost their lives, but so happy to see you today, sean o'keefe. thank you very, very much. >> my pleasure. >> and tamron hall leads msnbc's coverage of the final launch live from cape canaveral tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. eastern. and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow on the show, austan goolsbee, the outgoing counsel

of adviser director, and also, the releasing of the jobless numbers at 8:30, and we will reschedule paul ryan who had to leave for a vote. we will have him as well. my colleague thomas roberts is in for tomran hol and has a look at what is happening in "newsnation." >> thank you. reince previs is going to join me live next. and plus, casey anthony days away from being a free woman and the prosecution now trying to get casey to pay back the money spent on investigating and prosecuting her. "newsnation" just minutes a waichlt [ female announcer ] ever wish vegetables

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hi, everybody. m thomas roberts filling in for tamron hall who is on assignment. today's news follows the high stakes budget talks at the white house. president obama is c