concert to help lgbt youth who are homeless and on the street and help them find a home for the holidays. a lot to get to this monday morning. i'm thomas roberts. it's nice to have you with us. the clock is ticking down for a likely failure by the super committee. right now members are meeting on the hill to get this deal done, after months of hearings and negotiations. the bipartisan panel is expected to announce defeat ahead of the deadline. the finger-pointing is coming from both sides this morning. >> i personally believe that if the republicans would not insist on extending the bush tax cuts and making them permanent for the wealthy, we're all prepared to do it for 98% of america. if they insist on doing it for the wealthy, it's very hard to make a deal. >> our democratic friends had a different idea. their idea was this was the opportunity to raise taxes. it didn't matter what we proposed, the price of that was going to be $1.3 trillion of new

taxes. >> nbc capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell joins me now. any hope of a last-minute deal or meeting to achieve anything as we tick down to the wire here, or are they throwing their hands up in this early defeat? >> reporter: thomas, after so much presumption of failure in the last 12 hours or so, there is a breaking development where a group from both parties are are meeting right now. aides say they're taking one more look, one more pass to see is there anything they could try to salvage from some of the discussions they've been having over the last few months? is it a sign of good faith or a p.r. move to make it look like they filled all the time available? we don't know. they are meeting, and we will await any outkocome. they're cleared their schedules. the reason there's so much expectation of failure is that the order is so tall for the super committee. they needed to have it done by the end of today a bill in writing with an official numeric

score. how much would it cost over time? they don't have that yet. without is that it makes it very difficult to meet any subsequent deadline. that's where all of this pressure about failure really set in. is there any last-minute optimism? well, we're just hearing that they want to go at it one more time, and so when you have key players tr both parties willing to sit down, we have to give them the chance to pull the rabbit out of the hat. >> presuming the lost, i want to give you a livens what the candidates were saying. they were discussing the super committee this morning. take a listen. >> i want to talk about the super committee's collapse, which is good for america, it's a mess. they're trying to break out the mess by being even dumber, and that is creating a committee of 12 picked by the political leadership to magically get in a room to come up with something that 535 couldn't solve. it's the wrong direction. >> they set this trap by saying

we're going to cut the military by 600 billion with the world as a dangerous place. we'll put the military on the chopping block. it's like holding a gun to your own head. >> kelly. >> how do you expect the failure to play out for lawmakers on the hill and in the presidential race? not to forget that as well. >> reporter: one of the big consequences of the failure is it gives us a story line for 2012. you have republican candidates that hit the president for not being more personally involved. they talk about the ability there's no ability for democrats. they say this is their argument to make the cuts needed without also wanting tax increases. it gives republican candidates something to chew on. it also gives the president a way to run against a so-called do nothing congress. so in terms of the story line of the presidential race, both sides sort of get what they want pu purely in political terms, not in talking about what's best for the consequence. that's a consequence of what

happens or doesn't happen by the end of day. >> kelly, great to see you this morning. thank you. the man authorities are calling a lone wolf terrorist and an al qaeda sympathizer is held without bail in new york right now. 27-year-old jose pimentel was arraigned late last night on charges of plotting to bomb police, post offices and banks in new york as well as u.s. troops returning from afghanistan and iraq. he was arrested on saturday in new york city in an apartment where authorities say he was close to completing three bombs. new york police released a videotape of the potential damage that could have been done. take a look. >> that gives you an idea. joining me now is evan coleman. when we talk about this, authorities are saying that he basically sped up, pimentel, who they took into custody, sped up his planned attacks after the killing of an american-born cleric anwar al awlaki by u.s.

drone strikes on on september 30th. how confident are authorities that this lone wolf really is acting alone and is not in contact with other people just like him here in the state science. >> it seems pretty clear. it was developed by the nypd and local prosecutors in new york. looking at this, it became clear that the associates of this guy, even the people that thought the same way he did, they thought he was crazy and was going to do something terribly violent. the nypd watched this guy and filmed him making a bomb. it looks like he is a lone wolf, and that's what his idol, sheikh anwar al awlaki was instructing people to do. go out there and don't find somebody else or go to a training camp, do it in your own hometown. don't rely on anyone else, do it yourself. the more people that carry out acts like this, the more effective al qaeda is as a general strategy. now, this individual, we're going to see how sophisticated

he was, but he was following a bomb-making recipe put together by al qaeda. this wasn't something he came up with. this was something distributed by al qaeda in english under the title "how to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom." why did they disseminate it? too instruct people like this how to make bombs here, even in manhattan. >> he was in investigation for how long? how close was he to implementing the plan? >> he was under investigation for a long time. he was under investigation for a long time in ska necky. he wanted to go by the name osama hussein after his two heroes. he's far out on the extremist fringe. he was scaring our extremists. they know who he was talking to. the question is whether or not this will hold up in court. the twist is while most terrorism investigations take place in federal court, this is in local court. this is the nypd and didn't

involve the fbi. >> evan coleman, great to see you. thank you. developing news out of penn state. a special committee of the board of trustees tapping a big legal gun to lead the investigation into the university's growing sex abuse scandal. the announcement coming today. >> if our investigation identifies any additional victims of sexual crimes against or exploitation of children, we will immediately report this to law enforcement authorities. >> that was former fbi directly louie free leading the panel's probe into what officials knew about former coach jerry sandusky and when he knew it. his first alleged victim dropped out of high school because of bullyi bullying. a lot of developments. bring us up to speed on what we know about louie free being dragged into this now? >> we're on the penn state campus right now emptied out ahead of the holiday. it's filled with questions about

what the board of trustees knew about this jerry sandusky scandal before it became public. it was just last week that we heard it from a former board member, the acting athletic director that made it clear that the first he knew of this was in march of this year when it was reporteded by the hairburg patriot news. he read it in the newspaper. it was said they rarely discuss it in the board meetings. the question remains if the now ousted president graham spainer testified before the grand jury, why did the board not know anything about it? if they did, why didn't they act sooner? thomas. >> when we talk about this young victim that has apparently left school because of bullying, what can you update us on that with? >> reporter: this is victim number one, this is the first knew victim who is a senior in high school right now about an hour from here according to a school counselor. he was forced to drop out of school because he was bullied by

other classmates who blamed him for joe paterno's firing. counselor was upset that the school didn't do more to protect this young man. >> peter alexander in sat college, pa. nice to see you this morning. we'll bring you up to speed on wall street. red arrows across the board, but a 300-point plunge on the dow jones as the debt talks in washington basically near collapse. we'll get a live report from cnbc coming up to find out what type of ripple effects of conversations in washington have on the markets. also, the president begins his thanksgiving week to sign a bill to help get vets back to work. he'll speak at any moment at the white house. the law will offer tax breaks linked to hiring vets. we'll bring you the president's life remark when is they happen. they're setting up right there. more heads rolling from the pepper stray incident at uc davis, plus, how the protesters plan to respond to. mitt romney is on a roll.

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welcome back, everybody. new developments stemming from the disturbing video of campus police officers pepper spraying protesters at uc davis. take a look at this. >> the whole world is watching! the whole world is watching! >> university announced this morning that the chief of campus police has been placed on administrative leave. a step that the school's chancellor said is necessary to restore trust. nbc's kristen dahlgren joins us live from the campus. how is the campus and student body reacting to that news? >> reporter: it's what everybody here is talking about. that video quickly went viral over the weekend sparked outrage not just here but around the

country. this morning we heard the news the chief of police was placed on administrative leave over the weekend. the two officers seen in that video doing pepper spraying, they were placed on administrative leave as well. the school's chancellor called for an investigation, 30 days for a task force to study what happened here. all weekend there were calls for her resignation, for the chancellor to step down. she has so far not done that. she said she does take responsibility, and she plans to address the crowds here later today, thomas. >> kristen dahlgren for us at uc davis. thank you so much. the romney campaign is open for business in iowa. it's part of the front-runner's renewed push in the hawkeye state with a new office and growing iowa staff he hopes to steal the caucus with a cash infusion and a stronger presence over the next month. mark mckin none is the founder of no labels and joins me now. if mitt romney wins iowa, he's probably in the driver's seat and certainly through new hampshire. what's the downside to making

this late of a move? >> the downside is last time he spent $10 million and didn't scratch, and the game is all about expectations. so if he can keep expectations low and exceed those, he's in good shape. as soon as you get into the state and you start spending money or any significant money, then you raise the bar on your expectations. right now it looks awfully opportunistic for mitt romney because you've got a fractured field of alternatives, and you can see a scenario where any one of those alternatives candidates can get, say, 10 or 15% of the vote, which would make it right for romney to step in and pick off iowa with just, say, 20% of the vote. strategically it makes a lot of sense, because i think actually his greater vulnerability could be new hampshire because in new hampshire you have just the opposite scenario where expectations are very, very high. in '08 romney was at about where he is now, and it all collapsed because new hampshire loves to upset the conventional wisdom.

so i think it makes sense strategically for romney to go in, steal iowa, beat the expectations and then just put the race away there. >> hindsight being 20/20 in this one. mark mckin none, the co-founder of no labels. we'll watch the story out of the white house where the first lady michelle obama is introducing the president about to sign a bill to help get vets back to work. let's listen in to the president and his remarks. >> the joining forces campaign, because jill and i wanted to give something back. so we have been traveling around the country from city to city talking with business executives, nonprofit leaders, school administrators, clergy members, pretty much anyone who will listen. we've been asking them to find new ways to honor and support our veterans and their families. the really wonderful thing that we found is that people are actually listening. americans are standing up to

show their appreciation. businesses have already hired more than 18,000 veterans and military families, and they've made commitments to hire at least 135,000 more. schools are working with nonprofits and tech companies to improve the experience of our military children. entertainment executives are making public service announcements. community groups are gathering donations and putting together thousands of care packages. truly, the list goes on and on on and on. what i've been most struck by is how excited people are to get involved, and that's what we want our military members and their families to know. people want to do something. this is something that americans want to do. we want to give something back. we want our veterans to know that we are humbled by their sacrifice, and we're awed by their service. sometimes we just have to be

asked. sometimes we need a little nudge. i am about to introduce my favorite man who is someone who's not afraid to ask for the support for our veterans. he has been standing up for veterans since before he was president, and since he took office he's been working hard to strengthen our nation's sacred trust with our veterans, not just with words, but with action. he's helped send more than half a million veterans and military family members to college through the post-9/11 g.i. bill. he's building a 21st century va to fully support our veterans throughout their lives. he's taken unprecedented steps to improve mental health care and expand care for our women veterans and wounded warriors. he's working to put an end once and for all to the outrage of veteran homelessness.

today with this bill that story continues. so i am truly proud to introduce you to the man who is the favorite man in my life, our president, barack obama. >> thank you. it is wonderful to see all of you. thank you for being here. thank you, mich, who is a brett goode speaker so i try want to follow her. given the incredible work she and jill biden have done in advocating for the veterans, i could not be more honored to be with them. i know joe shares my feeling. we could not be prouder of their efforts on this front. over the past three years, they have visit sod maed so many of troops. they have thanked them for their

service. they have comforted their spouses and have given voice to their struggles and challenged all of us at a national, state and local level to do more for our veterans. joe biden has been a champion for veterans for decades now. it is his birthday, so we speak in terms of decades. it's actually -- actually yesterday was his birthday. i won't say the number. you can ask joe if you want. but for a man who cares as deeply about our troops as joe does, this bill, i imagine, is a pretty good birthday gift. the secretary is here. where is rick? there he is. rick's been doing an outstanding job leading our department of veterans affairs, and i'm also proud to say we're joined by some of the nation's leading veteran service organizations and members of congress who helped make this bill possible.

i have often said the most humbling part of my job is serving as commander in chief to the world's finest military. not a day goes by when i'm not awed by our troops, by the strength of their character, and bit the dep by the depth of their commitment and the incredible sacrifices that they and their families make on behalf of our nation's freedom and security. the men and women of our military don't just fight for each other. they don't just fight for their units or for their commanders. they fight for every single american, for the millions of fellow citizens who they have never met and who they will likely never know. just as they fight for us on the battlefield, it's up to us to fight for our troops and their families when they come home. that's why today is such a wonderful day, because today a

deeply grateful nation is doing right by our military and paying back just a little bit of what we owe to our veterans. today the message is simple, for businesses out there, if you are hiring, hire a veteran. it's the right thing to do for you. it's the right thing to do for them. it's the right thing to do for our economy. while we've added more than 350,000 private sector jobs over the last three months, we've got 850,000 veterans who can't find work. even though the overall unemployment rate came down just a little bit last month, unemployment for veterans of iraq and afghanistan continue to rise. that isn't right. these men and women are the best that america has to offer. they are some of the most highly trained, highly educated, highly skilled workers that we have. if they can save lives on the battlefield, then they can save

a life in an ambulance. if they can manage convoys moving tons of equipment over dangerous terrain, they can manage a company's supply chain. they can track millions of dollars of assets in iraq, they can balance the books of any company here in the united states. our country has benefitted enormously from our veterans' services overseas. we will benefit just the same from their service here at home. that's why under my direction the federal government has already hired more than 120,000 veterans, thanks to the work that jill and michelle mentioned, some of our most patriotic businesses have pledged to hire 135,000 more veterans and military spouses. today we're giving those businesses just one more reason to give veterans a job. back in september i sent congress a jobs bill, and in it i proposed a tax credit for any business that hires a veteran

who has been unemployed for at least four weeks. i proposed a bigger tax break if a business hires a veteran unemployed for at least six months. if business hires an unemployed veteran with a disability related to their service, i proposed doubling the tax break that we already have in place. today, because democrats and republicans came together, i'm proud to sign those proposals into law. i urge every business owner out there who's hiring to hire a vet right away. now, over the past decade nearly 3 million service members have transitioned back to civilian life, joining millions who have served through the decades. as we end the war in iraq and we wind down the war in afghanistan, over a million more will join them over the next five years. this bill is an important step towards helping those veterans transition into the work force. beyond the tax breaks that i

mentioned, it also contains a number of other reforms, from education and training to career counseling to job search assistance. we're still going to need to do more, and that's why i've also announced a series of executive actions to help our veterans back to work. we've set up a veteran gold card. there's a card that post-9/11 veterans are acan download todad it gives you access to a suite of career services, including six months' of personalized counseling as the 3,000 one-stop career centers across the country. we've launched an easy-to-use online tool called ready to move to enter skills they acquired and matches it with civilian careers that will best put that unique experience to use. and we've created a new online service called veterans job bank. a partnership with leading search engine that is directly connects unemployed veterans to job openings.

so all of these initiatives are up and running right now, and you can find them at w whitehouse.gov/vets. to our veterans, know that we will stand with you as long as it takes for you to find a job. to our businesses, let me say, again, if you are hiring, hire a veteran. hire a veteran today. they will make you proud just as they've made this nation proud. now, i'm pleased that both parties came together to make this happen, so once again, i want to thank all the members of congress who were involved. it is important to note that in addition to our veterans, there are millions of other americans still looking for work right now. they deserve the same kind of bold, bipartisan action we've seen here today. that's what people have sent us here to do. so my message to every member of congress is, keep going. keep working. keep finding more ways to put

partisanship aside and put more americans back to work. tomorrow i'm heading to new hampshire to talk about another proposal on the american jobs akt act and that's a tax cut for nearly every worker and small business owner in america. democrats and republicans have traditionally supported these kind of tax cuts. independent economists have said this proposal is one of the best ways to boost our economy and spur hiring. it's going to be easier for us to hire our vets if the overall economy is going strong. so there's no reason not to vote for these tax cuts, and if congress doesn't act by the end of the year, then the typical family's taxes is going to go up by roughly $1,000. that's the last thing our middle class and economy needs right now, it's the last thing that our veterans need right now. let's keep at it. no politics, no delays, no excuses. let's keep doing everything we can to get america back to work, and on that note it is my great

pleasure to do my job and sign this bill into law. thank you. >> there we have it, president obama thanking the left and right saying that democrats and republicans came together to put forward this legislation that he's about to sign into law. basically the tax breaks they're going to range from 5600 to 9600 doll toll for certain businesses.

the president saying two businesses out there across the country f-you're hiring hire a vet. the president said we stand with you as long as it takes to find a job. the bill is going to provide these tax credits to companies that hire unemployed vets. as the president was pointing out, though, it's at different leve levels. a vet unemployed for four weeks to six months, businesses get a different tax break if the vet has been unemployed rather longer than six months. then we have the actual fact that the president said that disabled vets, if they're hired, businesses get a bigger tax credit for that. now, the unemployment rate for military vets who join the service since the september 11th terrorist attacks was 12.1% in october. this according to the labor department, and that's a big number. a lot of great americans we need to get back to work. there we have it. the bill is now signed into law. also, what we're watching today for you is the markets on wall

street and taking a really tough turn this monday as the super committee struggles to find a deal on reducing the debt, investors are concerned about europe. right now, take a look, because we saw earlier that the dow was down by some 300 points. there it is hovering at the range right there. we have red arrow across the board. joining me now is melissa francis. you've been sticking around for us and you have to prep for your own show. explain to us, what we see in this tough, kind of manic monday as we run from a nice weekend to this sell-off. >> it's a tough monday out there. 99% of the s&p 500 trading lower right now. the dow is down, as you said, more than 300 points. a lot of this is coming over from europe. right at this moment european markets are closing significantly lower for the day. the italian market is down 5%. that's the case across europe right now, and that's drifting over here. as we see credit contract and the companies inability to

borrow money is drying up. at the same time here in the u.s. we're watching everything happening or isn't happening with the super committee. waiting for that super committee, the market thinks to come out during the day to fall on the swords and say they couldn't get the job done. that is also causing a lot of uncertainty here in the u.s. and all the way around, all 30 of the dow stocks are trading lower right now. it looks like it's going to be a rough ride, although we still do have hours to go here. >> this is a bad monday that followed a really rough week? >> it is. it is. you know, we have a shortened trading week this week, and it's tough to start it out with so many pessimism. markets are looking at the super committee two ways. on one hand they thought that surely these guys would get together and have some kind of deal, even if it was the shadow of a deal and the promise to get something done down the road. the flipside is if they say we'll wait until 2013, the automatic cut gonzals go into e

maybe that's better from a market perspective. this is the banter going back and forth in the market today, but it's a surprise that they weren't able to come together and do something. that's what we're seeing in the market. >> melissa francis, thanks, appreciate it. newt gingrich is trying to keep his recent surge going and steer clear from comments that might sink his campaign. oemp t over the weekend he took a sharp tone when discussing "occupy wall street." take a look. >> all the movement starts with the premise we all owe them everything. they take over a public park they didn't pay for to go nearby to use bathrooms they didn't pay for, to beg for food from place that is don't want to pay for, to obstruct those that go to work to pay the taxes to sustain the bathroom and park. that is a pretty good symptom of how much the left has collapsed as a moral system in this country, and why you need to reassert something as simple as saying to them, go get a job right after you take a bath.

>> david goodfriend is a democratic strategicist and former white house strategicist. it's nice to have you with us. i know newt gingrich is trying to appeal to conservatives, but could this toxic language backfire? >> i think it could, and i'll tell you why. a lot of us in the democratic party looked at the tea party when it started, and at great risk politically. what proved out is the tea party represented a bonified feeling among american voters. i would say the same thing of the "occupy" movement. if you look at polling well north of 50% of the americans support the notion of taking money out of politics and support the notion of taxing high income earners a little more, support the notion of reducing some of the income inequality. to take this sort of cartoonish picture that newt gingrich is painting as gospel, looks past

the fact you have retired police captains and moms and teachers along with young people in those parks, and ignores the fact that this is a bonified sentiment among the american people. that's politically risky, even on the right. >> right. out of work veterans that returned home from fighting the wars. robert, look at this revolving door in this race. we seem to have the anti-romneys, the trump, perry, cain, now newt topping the polls. in your estimation, what's the appeal of this candidate who has flip-flopped or seem to have flip-flopped on so many different issues? >> i think newt gingrich is a known quantity to a lot of republican voters out there. remember two things. one, he was the revolutionary leader that led republicans to victory in 1994. he was the one that was the standard bearer, if you will. he had the impeachment and contract with america. a lot of republicans say, wait a minute. i remember that newt. by the way i remember newt

gingrich being that visionary leader back in 1994. it's ironic when you fast forward to today, we need a visionary leader in the republican party. the question becomes whether or not he can win a general election. i'm not sure the american electorate have thought that through yet. when you take a look at the republican electorate, this is a twofold race. the first race is obviously to win the new hampshire and south carolina and iowa primaries and caucuses, and the second one is the general election. we'll see if newt gingrich has the horsepower to get through new hampshire and south carolina and iowa. >> it will take stamina from all of them. thank you so much. appreciate your time. let's go live to egypt. we want to show you the scene in tahrir square where egyptian authorities say at least 24 people have been killed just in the last 24 hours in clashes between protesters and egyptian security forces. this is just a brief glimpse of the third straight day of

demonstrations demanding that the military hand over power to a civilian government. nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel joins us live from tahrir square. this is reminiscent back in january and february before the ouster of president hosni mubarak. how has it gotten this bad so quickly? >> reporter: it is very similar but very different. it is similar in that the protesters are here in tahrir square and that's commanding change. they focused on mubarak before and now on the military. if you go down over my shoulder, you can see this is tahrir square. it's completely filled with people, and i think we can zoom in on on that one ambulance that is struggling to move through the crowds. you can only see the top of the ambulance, because it is completely surrounded by people. there are protesters here now, and they say they will stay tomorrow and the next day for

the start of what they call million man marches. it's pressure against the government, and they say this is the only way they can convince the military council that has been ruling since mubarak stepped down to also step down and allow a civilian government to come to power here. >> nbc's richard engel in tahrir square in cairo for us. thank you. now details today in the british phone hacking scandal. actor hugh grant is giving damaging testimony about the british media and is accusing tabloid not owned murdock of hacking into ms. phone. >> i can't think of the life for any conceivable source except those voice messages on my mobile telephone. >> stephanie gosk joins me live from london. what else have we heard from the testimony going on? >> reporter: thomas, well this testimony has been not just about phone hacking but a wide

variety of different issues when it comes to the practices of the media here. specifically hugh grant was talking about an article in 2007 that appeared in the mail on sunday. what you heard him say there, he said he believes it was the result of his phone being hacked. he did not provide any proof, however. we've reached out to the mail on sunday and asked for a response. they have yet to reply to us. the question all along since this story broke last summer was is this just the practices, the isolated practices of the "news of the world," or is this how the tabloid press has been operating in this country all along? that's one of the things that the inquiry is trying to get to the bottom of. thomas. >> stephanie gosk in london for you. thank you. back here at home, nascar fans diss the first lady and vice president joe biden's wife. the reaction from the crowd when the two showed up to support vets. we'll show you. governor had you nuntsman on "s"

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welcome back. it's time for our political sidebar. let's get to this quickly. i forgot. i want it to show you the dow jones. we see this manic monday basically down 324 points right now. red arrows across the board. a lot of people feeling jittery about the markets just closing overseas, but also about the failure of talks with the super committee in washington, d.c. trying to reach a compromise on the debt deal. now it's time for our political sidebar. governor john huntsman is trying to make a name for himself in the republican race for president. if the tired old campaign stump fails us, if you can't get a lift from the debates, maybe the weekend update on "snl" will do the trick for you. >> you know, i'd like to start with something you never get to hear at the debates. governor, huntsman, the first question is for you.

>> thank you. >> isn't it true that nationally you're currently polling in the low single digits? >> it is true, seth, but only a few months ago i was polling at margin of error. so to have any digit at all is a pretty big deal. >> pretty good sport there, right? huntsman is hanging all his hopes on the state new hampshire. first lady michelle obama and jill biden attended their first nascar race this weekend. they got a mixed reaction. >> welcome sergeant ant drew berry and family and first lady michelle obama and dr. jill biden as they deliver the most favorite words in motorsports. >> gentlemen, start your engines! >> the women were applauded earlier, though, at the drivers' meeting. tony stewart won the final race and his third championship. the battle of the presidential candidate memoirs heats up with a new book out today from

congresswoman michele bachmann, "core of conviction." she says former president george w. bush and her gop colleagues embraced bailout socialism. how is other competition doing? mitt romney, no apologies and 9 million copies and newt gingrich is in next, about 12,000 copies so he had. he's written dozens of books in his past. rick perry sold 12,000 copies of "fed up." herman cain has 30,000 copies sold. ron paul's "liberty defined" a whooping 38,000 copies sold so far. rahm emanuel has plenty of clout on the campaign trail. on the stump in iowa this weekend, the chicago mayor boosted his former boss and blasted the republican party top presidential contender. >> president obama never tailored what he believed in to the moment.

i want you to compare that for a second to mitt romney, who was once pro-choice, now he's not. who was pro-gay rights, and now he's not. he supported gun control. now he doesn't. mitt romney says he's a man of steadiness and consistency. if that's true, then i'm a linebacker for the chicago bears. >> all right. so the bigger question is ramh revving up for his own run down the line? nbc did a profile on the notorious blunt politico for rock center and harry joins me now. does rahm have bigger political aspirations down the line? >> everyone is wondering that. what's interesting about spending a couple of days with him in chicago, is he's treated like a rock star there. there's a big, extended money moon between the people of chicago and rahm emanuel. if anything what we saw is maybe a rahm that a lot of other folks

might not recognize. >> chicago's l runs around the clock, and the city's mayor of six months, rahm emanuel, seems to move around the city with as much momentum. glad handing and strong arming along the way, he's attempting to span the city's division in a time of crisis. so far he seems to be enjoying a honeymoon. are you a little surprised at how well you've been received even in the short term? >> you know, as i said to the president once, they're waving with all five fingers up. i'll know when things change. >> but the city of big shoulders and its mayor have a lot to bear. a budget deficit of $600 million, billions of dollars in underfunded pensions and neighborhoods rife with violence. homicide rates in chicago are far higher than in new york or los angeles. >> there's only one problem that

gives me pause. the fiscal ones, financial ones do not give me pause. >> what gives you pause? >> hearikids are growing up in environment in parts of the city that you wouldn't let your own kids grow up in. there's no sense of life, and there's an emptiness in their eyes that you don't know if you can change. and they can see downtown, and yet, for them it's miles and miles away. i don't ever want a city that for some of our children, they don't think they're part of that. i don't know whether i have the ability to affect that. >> a kinder, gentler rahm emanuel. >> it seems like you found the softer side, and you explain how he lost that finger, correct? >> correct. the other thing back to your original question, is he going to run or not? somebody is talking to me. the other thing i should explain is we aked him are you going to run, use this as a platform to

run for president, and he basically says no. we asked him 30 times in two minutes, and he says no a lot of different ways. it's worth seeing. >> we'll look for it tonight. harry, thanks. if you haven't seen harry smith on "rock center" you can do so tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern time with brian williams. cyndi lauper knows how to have fun and knows how to help people that need it most. the singer joins me in the studio with more on how she's helps lgbt youth this holiday season. there's miss cyndi now. americans are always ready to work hard for a better future. since ameriprise financial was founded back in 1894, they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through tough times. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them.

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light ♪ ♪ my mother says when you going to live your life right ♪ >> so who can forget that adorable redhead in the funky dress dancing down the street in that famous video in the 1980s. the iconic dress could be yours. today it went on display at julianne's auction house where it will go on sale december 1st. we are curious to see how much it will fetch, that's because this is a fitting segue, the woman who wore that dress is here now to talk about a cause close to her hard. the iconic, incredibly talented, insanely funny, cyndi lauper. >> my god, that's hard to -- >> you live up to all of those things. what do you think about when you see the video and that dress knowing that it's going to be auctioned off? >> i'm thinking where are the shoes that went with it and the hat. and the gloves. all tof the things.

we have you here because you have been involved with lgbt issues. explain what you are doing with the lgbt youth and the shelter you opened in harlem. >> that was spearheaded by colleen jackson. when i was first doing the "true colors" tour, i had gone down to the pier because i wanted to do a photograph which had the faces of the community in it that i was trying to benefit. the true colors was working with the hrc, pflag, and i went down and i noticed there were a lot of homeless kids. and this woman, colleen jackson, runs a multi generational home, i went up there, she was doing a benefit, and i got up and sang. we were talking, and i said, listen, i wish you could do something for these kids.

these lgbt kids on the street. they're at great risk and kids. and she came to see the tour, and she got excited about it, and she asked if she could call it the true colors house and use my name. i said absolutely. then we started working together and helping with whatever we could. and it was opened. it was -- it's -- it was very moving, but it's 30 beds. >> amazing. >> there's a big -- there's a big need. >> when we talk about the need, though, one thing you're doing coming up is the holiday concert at the beacon theater on december 4th. what inspired you to pull, cull together all of this musical talent with the money going to help lgbt homeless youth? >> well, you know, with the true colors fund, we've been doing a lot of research. we realized that what isn't out there and what they need, you

know, trying to find out to help them and one of them is to maybe some day have this network that you can -- you can connect all these wonderful people, doing all this work with these kids, and come up with a program that could help them. and, you know, that's what i've been -- that's what the true colors fund has been working on. we decided to do this concert. i had done this song with norah jones "home for the holidays" when we thought, wow, wouldn't it be good to -- because i love christmas. >> who doesn't. >> i love christmas. i even did "blue christmas" and i have this cd "to memphis with love" that is out. >> let's hold it up properly. i want to give a plug to the online website you have for a give a damn campaign. >> clue part of. >> i was part of. >> they can find out about that,

find out about the beacon theater. >> this is separate. this is just -- i did the live dvd to connect the end of the whole process. i did the memphis blues thing. it's not really the end, it's actually now the beginning. i did the christmas music with these guys from memphis. >> we highly recommend everybody going to get it. the beacon theater on december 4th. >> it has everybody, wanda sykes, rose o'donnell, cassandra wilson, norah jones, cheryl wright, deluca, skylar gray. there's so many. there's like 20 people. >> a lot of people. i hate to cut you off. we got to run. "now with alex wagner" is coming up in a moment. cyndi lauper, thank you very much. >> thank you. thank you so much. how about mak. more colorful. ♪ and putting all our helpers to work? so we can build on our favorite traditions by adding a few new ones.

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the congressional super committee is on the brink of failure, each side is