tv Andrea Mitchell Reports MSNBC October 10, 2011 1:00pm-2:00pm EDT
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>> here in new hampshire, that is seen as the most ridiculous side show in recent politics. occupy wall street goes national. as the movement spreads, it gets no respect from herman cain. >> my parents never said we hope rich people lose something so we can get something. no. my dad's idea was i want to work hard enough so i can buy a cadillac, not take somebody else's. >> in washington, lawmakers are choosing sides. >> what is infuriating to me is we have elected leaders that are inflaming this sense that we ought to be pitting americans against americans. i think right now is the time for all of us to come together. >> i didn't hear him say anything when the tea party was out demonstrating, spitting on members of congress right here in the capital and he and his colleagues were putting signs in
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the windows encouraging them. and the arab spring turns ugly in autumn. deadly clashes in cairo as protesters rebel against the military regime and lack of progress since the ouster of mubarak. good afternoon. i'm andrea mitchell. the dust up over religion is the latest controversy in the republican race. chuck todd is with us. it seems to be a distraction but an important distraction because of the calendar. you look at iowa, south carolina, large numbers of evangelical voters, mitt romney needs to get past those races and he is being challenged. >> there is belief in romney lore, and the reason he ultimately lost iowa, that mike huckabee got there, that somehow mike huckabee took advantage of an anti-mormon whisper campaign.
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when you look at the campaign, de-emphasizing social issues, and de-emphasizing resources in iowa and south carolina, that it is a way to not have to confront this issue where there are a lot of evangelicals that are uncomfortable with mitt romney's faith. now -- >> not uncomfortable, suspicious. >> they also thought the romney campaign, about two weeks ago when pat robertson in many ways who took the evangelical movement and made it a political force and took it national with his presidential run in '87, when he called romney an outstanding christian, it was important to hear that. it was a sense of relief to some romney folks that thought okay, maybe we have gotten by this, past this, then boom, value voters happens. and they realize it is still a large conversation taking place among some in the evangelical. >> and look at the way herman
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cain and michele bachmann, two of his competitors dealt with it or didn't deal with it in interviews this weekend. >> he is a mormon. that much i know. i am not going to do an analysis of mormonism versus christianity for the sake of answering that. >> by not answering the direct question do you think mitt romney is a christian, you leave open the possibility that people are going to say you dodged the question, the direct question. >> no. i think what the real focus is here again is on religious tolerance. that's really what this is about. >> why would they not -- >> i'm sorry, i was struck by it. you know what i was waiting to hear, take him at his word. this was the conversation we heard some republicans and conservatives who had questions about president obama's faith, you would hear what came across like wink and a nod language, not full embrace, full believing. well, you know, so bachmann goes
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on religious tolerance and herman cain says all i know is that he's a mormon, and it does sound like whether that was the intention or not, they're doing this wink and a nod which the romney people fully believe huckabee took advantage of in iowa in '07 and '08. evangelical vote is 35 to 40% of voters in terms of voting. it is one of the largest electorates of evangelicals. this has consequences on the calendar. >> talk about something that has life and death consequences, and that's afghanistan. mitt romney's position on afghanistan, we have jon huntsman giving a foreign policy speech today, but mitt romney didn't address all the issues in his foreign policy speech because he still has not persuasively said is he okay with it, is he not?
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what does he say about would he listen to the generals. this is judy woodruff friday night. >> i would listen to the generals. if that continues to be the view of the commanders in the field as they assess the capabilities of the afghan military, of course i would pursue that course. but at the same time, we have to be open to what we're hearing from the people on the ground. i hope we can perhaps move even faster than that. >> he and his people criticizing the pace of president obama's withdrawal as too fast, precipitous was the word norm coleman used the other day, and still on friday night he still didn't explain exactly what he means. >> he is trying not to alienate what i would call foreign policy elite of the republican party which is a caucus position. more on the side of the argument that said president obama is trying to do, you know, is leaving too fast. he is trying not to alienate
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those folks that are sort of with him. at the same time, you know what mitt romney strikes me as? somebody that spent a lot of time on the campaign trail. guess what, you spend a lot of time on the campaign trail, doesn't matter if you talk to republicans or democrats, talk to iowa straw poll folks, remember, they're all it is time to go. they want it over. how we do it may be up for some debate. they all want it over. everybody wants to focus back on the economy. you see that struggle in romney where he would like to be, and at the same time you can't praise president obama in a primary, it is tough. he doesn't want to be on his side of withdrawal, but i can tell you this, a president romney will be hoping president obama starts the withdrawal. >> he will have to answer questions possibly as early as tomorrow night. we'll talk about that next. thanks, good to see you. protesters fill the streets around wall street a fourth straight week. similar demonstrations nationwide, two years after the
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tea party sprang to life to reshape the political map. both movements are challenging, wisdom of the economy and role of candidate. candidate michele bachmann doesn't see the similarity. >> i ran across two of the protests, one in washington, d.c. and one in boston, and they have nothing in common at all with the protests that were being put forward or the demonstrations you might say that were put forward by the tea party. i think that if the occupy wall street wants to be upset about something, they should go in front of the white house and that's where they should be protesting. >> charles blow joins us from new york. thanks for joining us today. >> absolutely. >> first off, i want to say a little of mitt romney just today, speaking to the occupy wall street protests. this was romney in milford, new hampshire. >> the idea of dividing our nation in a time of crisis is
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not the way to go. all the streets are kekd. wall street is connected to main street. finding someone to blame in my opinion isn't the way to go. >> i guess, charles, first of all, are the republicans as well as the white house having a difficult time trying to figure out how to deal with this protest? >> everyone is having a difficult time trying to figure out how to deal with this because occupy wall street kind of exists outside the framework of politics at this point, and you know, no one knows if anyone will be able to -- the left seems to want to harness that energy. energy is a precious commodity in a campaign season, but no one knows if the left will be able to harness it, and the right is kind of preemtively trying to knock it down, hoping that if they do kind of co-op the energy of occupy wall street that they will have injured it in some
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way. so what you see is both sides trying to figure out what do we do with this because people are showing up. people are in squares. people are in public spaces. people are demonstrating. you can't simply ignore it. so you see people like romney grasping to figure out how do i position myself relative to occupy wall street. >> but democrats are also concerned. >> absolutely. >> because they see the possibility of back lash because this could be rather than the way the tea party was embraced by large numbers of anti-establishment republicans and others, this could be something that actually goes down against the white house. >> what you have to remember about the tea party, it started when they did not have a republican in the white house. to have kind of an anti-establishment movement start that has some similarities to some of the ten ets of the
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left. when you have a sitting democratic president should be worry some to the white house because they're the establishment right now. president obama represents the establishment, a lot of what occupy wall street and occupation of other areas in the country are talking about is bailing out businesses that were too big to fail, and whether or not that was legal and right to do. well, obama was part of that bailing out. he supports that idea. his administration kind of functioned within that construct, and you know, barack obama and his campaign basically said they want to raise a billion dollars. where is that money coming from? it is not from money outside sleeping under tarps in downtown manhattan. that comes, money like that, comes from people in those towers around that occupation. so there's a natural tension between any establishment, but
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in this case definitely the democratic establishment because they're in the white house. >> exactly. charles blow, thank you very much. thanks for joining us today. in 1960, john f. kennedy felt compelled to defend his catholic faith when running the first time and his independence from the vatican should he be elected. fast forward 50 years. mitt romney and mormonism are now on trial in the election cycle. richard land, president of ethics and religious liberty commission joins us. thank you very much, good to see you. >> good to see you. >> we have the incident this weekend where the pastor who is closely identified with rick perry actually criticized mormonism, said it is not a christian faith. you have seen how herman cain and michele bachmann declined to avert it is a christian faith. is mormonism a christian faith? >> no. most evangelical protestants and most conservative catholics would say no, it is not. it is another religion.
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it does not have an orthodox view of the trinity and the full and complete detee of jesus christ. one sentence says it all. as man now is, god once was. as god now is, man may become. now, they have every right to believe that, and we should protect that right under the first amendment, and it shouldn't be a disqualification for office. don't have a test for the office. >> does that mean it is a cult? >> some define it as a cult. he is a pastor. you ask a pastor a theological question, you get a theological answer. the answer i have given when asked is that perhaps the best way to look at mormonism is it is the fourth abrahamic religion. joseph smith playing the role of
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muhammad, and the book of mormon playing the role of the koran. >> does that mean you think mitt romney doesn't believe in jesus christ? >> he doesn't believe the way orthodox christians believe in jesus christ. interestingly enough when he gave a speech at texas a&m, which i encouraged him to give, gave him a copy of kennedy's speech when he asked to meet with me when he was running last time. i said governor, i would encourage you to review this and give your version of it. note kennedy didn't defend catholicism, he defended the right to be catholic and run for president. that's what he did. at the end of his speech, he said i believe in jesus christ, but i give others the right to believe differently than i do about him. giving christians permission to say this is now how we understand christianity. >> the profound question, is there any reason he could not be
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the president of the united states, why he should not be supported by people of all faith to be president of the united states? is there any way that the mormon church would interfere in his ability to follow the constitution and be an independent -- >> i don't think so. he said in his speech basically the same thing that kennedy did, which was that his mormon faith, the authority in his mormon faith extended over his personal religious belief, and his family, and would have nothing to do with his performance of his office. >> and what would you say to evangelicals that are suspicious or concerned about this? >> i would say to them that look, we voted for an evangelical, just because he was an evangelical once and that didn't work out well in jimmy carter. we're not looking for somebody applying for church membership. we are looking for someone that wants to be president of the united states. you should examine his policies, his views, and you should vote if you find he is most in
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agreement with your views, then you should vote for him. if he's not most in agreement with your views, you shouldn't vote for him. >> would you support him? >> i don't endorse candidates. as a matter of policy, i have to serve all southern baptists, and they support numerous candidates. i know southern baptists that support romney, some support perry, some southern baptists support every one of the candidates except the governor of new mexico. >> all right. thank you very much, richard land. coming up, massive clashes in cairo as frustration erupts over last of progress since mubarak's ouster. this is andrea mill he will reporting on msnbc. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool msnbc. aitl reporting on msnbc. cl reporting on msnbc. hl reporting on msnbc. on msnbc. l reporting on msnbc. wouldn't it be cool if your car could handle the kids... ♪ ...and the nurburgring? or what if you built a car in tennessee that could change the world?
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can herman cain shake up the republican race? and does he care to? skyrocketing in the polls, cane is skipping early states for a book tour but insists he is running for president. >> people that say i'm the flavor of the week, they don't know herman cain. you see, before i got the idea of running for office for president, i was on my way to cruise control. playing golf, relaxing, writing some more books. i didn't need to do this for visibility and exposure. and secondly, there's a difference between the flavor of the week and the flavor with substance. >> national political editor for political editor for politico. let's talk about this. herman cain doesn't seem to be seriously addressing some early primary states but keeps scoring in the polls, latest, the value voter poll. ron paul, 37%, herman cain, 23%.
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rick santorum, 16%. rick perry, 8%, michele bachmann 8%, mitt romney, 4%. is herman cain, does he have real staying power? >> right. it is not just the straw polls where he does well, it is also individual state polls that came out, in places that you think might not be herman cain territory. it is clear it is his moment. numbers look great for him. the question everyone has, when you have to explain you're not the flavor of the week or that you're not going to run to be president of disneyland, it suggests there are concerns about how serious you are. going on a book tour as your moment has arrived and as you surge in the polls doesn't give a lot of confidence to the kind of republican primary voters that are lining up behind him at the moment. >> let's talk about herman cain's 999 plan, because it is now under attack from left and right. many people believing on the left it isn't progressive enough. some conservatives believe it doesn't raise enough money.
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>> right. it's sort of herman cain's welcome to the top tier moment. he is starting to get the same scrutiny rick perry got. the real problem he faces is he will get unlimited scrutiny of all his ideas. he hasn't had to contend with that before. you're already seeing that. you're seeing some of his competitors, rick santorum or anyone else, raising questions about the viability of his ideas, raising questions about the depth of his knowledge on foreign policy and other issues, and i think you're probably going to see a little of that tomorrow night at the debate. that's going to signal whether his competitors, whether rick perry, mitt romney and others take him seriously as a contender. >> that's of course "the washington post" bloomberg debate in new hampshire, dartmouth college debate. thank you very much, charlie. there's a new debate help america's hungry children
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understand their life. in a one hour special covering poverty in america. >> elmo didn't know there were so many people that don't have all the food they need. >> when you don't know whether you're going to have a next meal or not, that can be pretty hard. >> producers hope that lily will help children learn about hunger, including what resources are available to struggling families, as well as teaching children to be more sympathetic towards those that are in need. time for the your business entrepreneur of the week. mobile medical international, a builder of mobile surgical units hit hard times in its first years of operations. owner asked the employees to work without pay, maintaining health insurance. soon, business boomed and the company was named the sba 2011 small business of the year. for more, watch your business sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc.
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well, we're here to get you custom orthotic inserts. we can't afford that. yes, we can. dr. scholl's custom fit orthotic center. foot-care scientists are behind it. ( man ) you have flat feet... no way... way. orthotic 440 is recommended. it recommends the custom-fit orthotic insert that's best for your feet. you'll get all-day relief. for your tired, achy feet. and you could save a couple hundred bucks. sweet. this is great. dr. scholl's custom fit orthotic center. thank you... who are you talking to ? for locations, see drscholls.com. egyptian christians in mourning after government troops mowed down at least 26 people. there were protests that started between religious factions and spread to a larger outpouring of anger against the country's military-led regime. president obama released a statement on the violence that said in part now is a time for restraint on all sides so that egyptians can move forward together to forge a strong and united egypt. these tragic events should not
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stand in the way of timely elections and a continued transition to democracy that is peaceful, just and inclusive. but egypt is only one of many countries in the region that are still simmering as the arab spring becomes arab autumn. national public radio kelly mckeefrs returned from the region. thank you for joining us. you traveled to some of these countries and have seen so much hope not transformed into real democracy. egypt the latest example. only last night, 60 minutes had a horrific story of torture, recent torture of protesters that are trying to force the military to let loose of their grip and lead to real democracy. now we see in yemen one of the countries that you visited where we heard false reports that president saleh is going to leave, isn't going to leave. what's happening in the rest of the region? >> i think in egypt, the moment of euphoria passed and for a
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moment, they were jealous of the dictator. they did the work and won. they see the project of rebuilding the country and sort of joining together the divisions within society is really difficult, but as these other revolutions that haven't finished as it were, as they kind of continue to move on, you have repressive regimes doing everything in their power to stay in place. seems like as they learn from mistakes of the previous dictators, gadhafi, mubarak, in egypt, ben ali in tunesia, they get better at it. in syria, it is a real show down between the protesters and the president. >> and we have seen in syria, many of our allies aren't supporting our efforts in syria. this very weak u.n. resolution was vetoed by china and russia. they finally were outed as real opponents for any pressure at all on that regime.
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in yemen, do you think the nobel prize to the woman leader there will have any impact on reenergizing the opposition? >> i definitely hope it does. it is somebody i met in person, interviewed, and spent a lot of time with down in what they call change square. she's basically been camped out in a tent, she has three children for six months. is bound and determined to stay there until that dictator false. is it going to reenergize the movement? definitely. the movement itself there is very fractured and there are a lot of interests. you've got this president who three times agreed he would step down, that he would sort of follow this plan that saudi arabia and the u.s. and other neighbors helped put together, and three times he reneged on the promise. basically, the protest movement in yemen needs anything they can get. i think this nobel prize is a great thing. >> thank you very much. up next, president obama's path to 270. the magic number. stay with us.
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topping the headlines now on andrea mitchell reports, u.s. drones continue to fly after the air force discovered a virus infekting the computer systems that control the remote control piloted aircraft. officials wouldn't disclose whether they have any leads of who planted the virus. as of now, they say nobody is panicked. in central florida, heavy rains and flooding left several homes underwater. 28,000 are still without power today. and an 80-year-old woman drowned and seven other people, including a four-year-old girl, spent 20 hours treading water after their boat sank in the florida keys. the coast guard found most of the group clinging to a water cooler miles from the capsized boat. they had been warned of rough seas. the search for missing infant lisa irwin continues today. detectives spent the weekend going door to door, questioning and searching a landfill, even
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staging a fake break in at her parents home. they have no leads so far. president obama visited with wounded soldiers at walter reed today. he will be hitting the road tomorrow. he is visiting battle ground states pennsylvania and florida tomorrow, virginia and north carolina next week. so where does the president need to win if he hopes to spend four more years in the white house? ann, seems to me he is going to battle ground states and swing states. if you look at our map of where he has to win, he has been to most of those places or is about to go. >> of course. i would say keep your eye on the two you mentioned that he is going to travel to next week. virginia and north carolina. these are central to the re-election strategy. were central last time also. in part because they take some of the pressure off two of the other big states we looked at in recent elections, florida and ohio, where democrats and the president are doing worse.
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virginia and north carolina for demographic reasons are states they think they could win again and would take the pressure off bigger states. colorado, the other big state to keep your eye on. he has less room for error this time than last time. some states like indiana he has not looked as though he is doing as well in. and then national numbers that add up to a tough picture for them to get to the necessary 270 they need to win. >> what do you see as the must win states now? >> you know, this is a fun game this far out. obviously the three that i mentioned are necessary if you're not counting on ohio and florida. on the other hand, if you want to count on ohio and florida, you don't need them. pennsylvania is important for anyone running. there are democratic states he did well in last time, obviously in the northeast, rhode island is one and the west, new mexico is another, that if you are
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picking a path to 270 that you want in the mix, not counting the obvious big ones, new york and california that any democrat is expected to win, but it is early because you don't know who the republican nominee will be. the map would look different if it were rick perry running than mitt romney. similarities for any republican, romney has a better shot picking off states in the northeast and new hampshire where obama did well last time, but where romney is a next door neighbor and is running strong in the primary. i think a lot depends what happens on the republican side in the next few months. >> anne corn blut, thank you very much. how explicitly will mitt romney deal with the issue of faith. in 2007, he followed john f. kennedy's example and delivered a speech to the country about his religion, but his campaign says he has no intention of doing that this time around. democratic strategist jennifer pal mary, deputy press secretary
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for bill clinton, now at the center for american progress. and republican strategist, pat buchanan, msnbc political analyst. welcome to you both. we talked earlier to reverend land about this strategy and the fact is he did advise mitt romney last time to give that speech in texas about mormonism. what would you say, pat, especially after the value voters met this weekend and we saw what happened with the question of whether or not he is a christian. >> i would not give the speech in the primaries. i think he made his statement the last time, and he doesn't want to get into those issues. but unfortunately tuesday night, tomorrow night, i think they're going to come at him, his opponents and get in that issue through the back door of social, cultural issues. suggest mitt romney had one view on abortion and gay rights and planned parenthood when he runs against teddy kennedy and another view when he is running against rick perry. they have to strip him of those socially conservative votes to deny mitt romney victory in iowa
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and south carolina. it is not going to hurt him in new hampshire. but if they can stop him in those two states, they can break it open. >> jennifer, as you sit as a democratic strategist and look at this, this is not a debate that -- certainly rest nant of what happened to barack obama when his faith was challenged and had to give that speech in philadelphia which was a turning point. >> it is reminiscent of that. i think path is probably right about not needing to do that in the primary, and you know, i'm not a republican strategist, but it would seem to me that the voters who were going to be concerned in the republican primary about romney's faith are probably the people that have other concerns about him already, so -- and i think that in general, he may have to do it. >> in the general election, if he does get the nomination, he wants to energize, fire up the
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base, which will be fired up by barack obama who will unite the party and to assure them he is with them on the social, cultural, moral issues. i think if i were him, i would do that, after the event, september 15th, get it done, then go back to the economy and i'm mitt romney and i'm a businessman. i know how to deal with all of this. that's the big issue. his way of unifying the party. my guess, too, he might look to a vice presidential candidate that reassures folks. this is not an unserious matter. the word cult conjures jim jones and the branch davidians. the mormon faith is the largest protestant denomination in the united states, not simply the reverend. >> and this is when the call comes through to marco rubio with all that he would bring to the table. in new hampshire, the economy
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will be front and center. this is a bloomberg "the washington post" debate. they say they're going to focus on the economy, and the economy is the great weakness of the white house now. >> well, it certainly could be going better. i think that they still, the white house still thinks that the choice voters have when it comes to economic issues between president obama and what you see in the republican field, they think that they win that. i think that the thing with occupy wall street, you know, it's not a partisan thing, but i think it is an opportunity for the president to show that he's connected to those concerns, and the republicans' reaction seems to be dapg russ ngerous in term looking out of touch. >> it is rejection of the obama strategy to now. >> he will be careful how to handle it, but it can put
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additional congress to act on the jobs package. can help him get things done. >> it is a real problem, i'll tell you why. a bunch of them broke into the air and space museum, sat on brooklyn bridge, they're soiling up the park, got the mayor of new york complaining. there's a real potential that this thing could look like one of those leftwing 1960s or people's part that back fire horribly on the democratic party. >> what happened on the brooklyn bridge was by most accounts that the police were way too heavy handed. >> there was thousands of people trying to get across. what you want is to appeal to middle america, bring those people across. you don't do that, i'm telling you, by breaking the law and putting on masks. >> you want to appeal to middle america, but they are appealing to a lot of middle america. i know ron paul supporters that support this. >> but the mayor of new york is saying look, you guys are blocking the park. people are protesting. >> but that's just one incident
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in new york. i think the fact these are popping up all over the place, you see everywhere people that have never been politically involved to ron paul supporters to people on the left. this is 99% versus 1%. >> the mainstream is concerned about a lot of their issues. but keep reaching for that. i mean, don't get into this leftwing routine with every american seeing those kinds of demonstrations. i was at the battle of seattle. >> i was there, too. >> good movement. 50,000 were marching. then the crazy and ar kisses show up, roll trash through starbuck's, looks like a bunch of and archists, it destroyed the whole thing and it was a solid movement against globalization. they better watch for exactly that possibility. >> pat buchanan, jennifer palmiieri. we have live developments next. .
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i'm tamron hall. coming up at 2 eastern time, we are following breaking news out of egypt. new clashes between muslims in cairo left 26 dead. i talk with nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel that made it to cairo. some of them say the government cannot protect them. republicans have another big debate tomorrow. will mitt romney address the harsh words directed at his religion by an influential pastor that supports rick perry? i'm joined by a newsweek writer that's a mormon. we'll talk about what he thinks mitt romney has to do next on news nation. is congress about to start a trade war? the house could join leading senators in trying to push the china currency bill even as beijing promises that could ignite an all out economic battle. luke russert covers capitol hill and joins us now. luke, we're seeing the lead had
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been chuck schumer in the senate. now the house is thinking of a strategy to get that bill out of committee onto the floor, think they could get enough conservative republicans to join in against china. >> correct. it is interesting. the idea now is the senate would pass this senate currency bill tuesday which would force some protectionist tariffs for american products to figure out the $600 billion trade deficit. the president hasn't said where he stands on the bill. there's a lot of speculation the gop leadership is coddling wall street. same with the president, that he is doing that with wall street. there's enough support in the house gop conference. i spoke to a few rank and file members they believe to possibly have a discharge petition. what's that mean? eric cantor is not going to take up the bill himself, he is the majority leader. they have 177 signatures on
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there. you get 218 members, republicans and democrats, then force the house to vote on the bill, perhaps maybe sometime later in the month after the senate passes it. a lot of republicans want to go forward but are reluctant to do so until they know whether or not the president will sign it. it is an odd moment where house republicans want to support something, they have to make sure the president is on their side before they go forward. >> and you've got the free trade bills finally up for vote, for columbia, and state visit this week from the south korean president. this would be a good time to vote on that. >> absolutely. we hear so much on capitol hill the fact that the free trade agreements are jobs plans, also hearing from the public that says capitol hill is not moving quickly enough on jobs plans. if you think free trade bills are jobs plans, wednesday is your day. bill daley saying the house, senate and white house will act in the same day to pass these things, that's very fast for washington, d.c., the goal being to get trade agreements with south korea, columbia, panama
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done by thursday when the premier of south korea is in washington for a state visit as well as addressing a joint session of congress. bill daley says obama doesn't want to give his guest no crescent on arrival. >> luke, thank you very much. a busy week on the hill. now to breaking developments in egypt. nbc's chief correspondent richard engel joins us. this has been such a terrible 24 hours in egypt with at least 26 at last report dead. the outburst began in a religious dispute, but has it become a more broadly felt rebellion against the military leadership there? >> it has the danger of becoming real sectarian violence. i just came from a demonstration. it was being held in front of a christian hospital where some of
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the demonstrators, coptic christian demonstrators that were killed yesterday, their bodies are still in this hospital. out in front there were several hundred people, very angry, saying things that we hadn't heard before. saying things that the egyptian revolution has failed them, that the egyptian revolution has ushered in a period of chaos, that it has empowered islamic extremists, groups like muslim brotherhood, the sell a fees that are taking advantage of this power vacuum in egypt and punishing coptic christians and attacking them. specifically what happened yesterday was an on-going dispute that's been going on for a long time, but specifically this one was related to a church that was burned down by extremists a week ago. the protesters came out to demand justice, to demand retribution for this church that had been burned down, and instead of being received by government officials, they were attacked by the army and attacked by some islamic
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extremists on the street. the latest figures are 25 people killed and over 300 wounded. >> richard, will this only reinforce the resistance of the military leadership leadership to finally schedule elections and move towards democracy. the defense secretary was there, but will they now point to the chaos and say you see we have to keep a firm hand. >> there many here who believe this is a plot by the military. the political transition is supposed to take place or begin to start happening in a month when elections will begin in this country. many are pointing their fingers at the military and saying that the military is allowing this violent chaos to take place to delay the political transition.
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that's the conspiracy view that is popular here. the christians are nervous about the election. they see islamic radicals are empowered and the military is not stepping this to help them and yesterday came out and was attacking them. they are nervous about not only the transition phase, but what the political process will bring. >> we look forward to your reports throughout the day and on nightly news. thank you very much. what political story will be making headlines in the next 24-hours? that's next on "andrea mitchell reports." so you can focus on what really matters. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. see? he's taking his vitamins. new one a day vitacraves plus omega-3 dha is a complete multivitamin for adults. plus an excellent source of omega-3 dha in a great tasting gummy. one a day, gummies for grown-ups.
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which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours? our editorial writer for "the washington post." what are you looking at? >> in the next 24 hours, we will be talking about "the washington post" bloomberg debate in new hampshire. it will be on the economy, but with race and religion swirling around the republican candidates, it will be interesting to see if they can
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just stick to economics tomorrow. >> i know that economics are the topic, but it seems as you point out it will be hard if the candidates try to get the topics in to try to put romney on the spot on social values and voter issues. >> right. put romney on the spot on voter issues and perry on the spot when it comes to the reverend and what he said about the mormon faith and put perry on the spot about his hunting camp. >> and of course immigration. it's one of my favorite places in the world. hanover, new hampshire. thank you very much. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow on the show, "the washington post's" dan balz and al hunt continue their debate in new hampshire. tamron has a look at what's next on "news nation." >> great to see you. >> you got the orange memo. >> i guess we did.
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richard engle has arrived in egypt 24 hours after an outbreak of violence between christians and muslims and why leaders are criticizing the government for not protecting them. plus the wall street protest is spreading further across the country, even across the pond. new reaction coming in from congresswoman michele bachmann who is going after the protesters. herman cain doubling down on his criticism. zachary from the daily beast will join me live. "news nation" is minutes away. uh, it is, yeah, it's a chevy volt. so what are you doing at a gas station? well it still takes gas to go farther. but you're not getting gas. true. not this time. uh, don't have to gas up very often. so you have to go to the bathroom? no. yes you do. thought these were electric? yes, it's a uh, a chevy volt. so what are you doing at a gas station?
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uh yeah, it's a chevy volt. so you're just here rubbing our nose in the fact that you don't have to buy gas? just plug in and go? that make you feel better? well i still pay about $1.50 a day in electricity... on average. you know he's just here to use the bathroom. customers only. no gas, no bathroom. ok, i'll buy gas. [ father ] whoa, what are you doing? thought these were electric? >> i'm tan ron hall. out of cairo, christians are saying they can't depend on the current government to protect them. at least 26 people were killed in clashes with the egyptian forces. some were crushed by military vehicles that
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