one-time rival, rudy giuliani. plus, how would murdoch write his own headline? not fit to run a media empire, says the uk's investigative committee. and oh betty, america's favorite golden girl picks her candidate in a hotly contested california congressional race. >> and he has very nice blue eyes. >> betty. >> i'm howard berman, and my friend and i approve this message. >> good day, i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. on this the first anniversary of the death of bin laden, mitt romney now says, any thinking american would have ordered the operation. chris cillizza is an msnbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com. that begs the question, even jimmy carter would have ordered this operation and what he said initially at least in 20007, which is that he would not have moved heaven and earth, he created that a month later but he never came to the point where

he said he would authorize raids into pakistan which then-candidate barack obama said throughout. >> andrea, the a fascinating dynamic here, which is, typically republican presidential nominees and republicans in general are seen at least as stronger on foreign policy, weeker on domestic policy, democrats the reverse. foreign policy, particularly terrorisms a place where barack obama is strong, properly as it relates to the death of bin latin. i would say productly, take three big steps back. the longer a conversation goes on about how barack obama authorized the mission to kill bin laden, the better for barack obama. i would say every minute that mitt romney isn't talking about the economy and why things aren't getting better and why they aren't happening quickly enough, and that line of attack, the more he's not doing that, the better it is for president obama. >> mitt romney, again, today,

this morning, accused the president of trying to politicize this anniversary. let's watch. >> i'm confident that, of course, i would have taken the exactly same decision. and the idea to try to politicize this and to say, oh, president obama would have done it one way, mitt romney would have done another, is disappointing. let's not make the capture or killing of bin laden a poll list cali divisive event. >> this was mccain on fox news last night. >> to now take credit for something that any president would do is indicative of the kind of campaign we're under. we're seeing. and i've had the great honor of serving in the company of heroes. you know the thing about heroes, they don't brag. >> of course, what's implicit in that is mccain's a true hero, a

war hero, prisoner of war, and he's basically saying you don't talk about it. >> well, andrea, look, first of all, as you point out, i in no way shape or form question clearly senator mccain is an american hero, he has every right to say what he thinks about this. look at 2004, the first ads president bush ran talked about september 11th, 2001, why? because it was inintegral part of how he handled the country. death of bin laden is an integral decision that president obama made in his first four years. if that's what he's being judged on i personally think it's fair game to talk about. >> it was good politic forward george w. bush, also good politics to talk about for barack obama. mike boomburg did meet with mitt romney in new york. he's got a number of political aee vents and attending the

service for mike wallace and met earlier with mike bloomberg and sounds there was no meeting of the minds. bloomberg folks told me they brought up more money to go to the cities, education, and none of those are in the mitt romney platform. they met privately, and there was no endorsement, interesting. >> i would say i don't expect mike bloomberg to endorse in the race, he might, but he's on issues all of those just aligned, gun rights, education, he's clearly closer on the ideological spectrum at this point to barack obama on those issues than he is to mitt romney. >> he did play golf with joe biden on friday before the correspondents din somewhere no endorsement on either side. see you later. and one year after osama bin laden killed in the military town outside islamabad, pakistan has yet to complete its own investigation how did he manage to live for so long practically

in plain sight. nbc's pakistan bureau chief amna nawaz reports from where it's in some ways like bin laden was never there at all. >> reporter: today, this is all that's left of osama bin laden in abbottabad. scraps, bricks, and bathtubs. a collection from his compound before demolished. >> translator: it's mostly broken but i donate some to the poor and donate the rest. >> reporter: authorities levelled the place, reducing it field of rubble and concrete slabs. today it attracts a lot of attention as the cricket ground for local children. >> nbc's amna nawaz joins live from abbottabad. first of all, you found people not believing that he had ever been there, when you talked to the people in the streets, they thought it was all made up. >> reporter: that's very true. we were hard pressed to find

anyone here in abbottabad, open to the idea that bin laden had been living there in their midst. most people think it was all a lie, it was all part of a big conspiracy theory, part of a u.s. effort to test how far they could get into pakistan's borders, to destabilize their nation. a lack of credible information here. the fact that people haven't seen any proof of death they feel they have no reason to believe that the man was here at all. >> amna it's interesting that a year later, relations are still so difficult. the chairman of the foreign relations committee, john kerry, supposed to go to pakistan this past weekend and canceled the trip in real anger gauze someone in the pakistani government, someone leaked that he was going to issue an apology on behalf of the u.s. government for some recent incidents with civilian deaths.

which he had no intention of doing. he canceled his trip, went on to afghanistan and other points, and to sudan. there has been no agreement on where to go forward with pakistan's government and the u.s. government. >> reporter: that's true, andrea. the raid in a lot of ways, people have called it a turning point in the relationship, but certainly all of last year, 2011, were a tumultuous decline in the relation and people on both sides, officials on the american and pakistani side, tell us that that relationship is at an all-time low. pakistan's parliament issued a null new rule of engagement for the u.s., calling for a complete cessation on drone strikes and conditioning those sorts of things on reopening of the nato supply line through here. clearly a lot of daylight on the two sides portfolio as the u.s. went ahead and launched another drone strike days ago. >> what is the reaction, if any,

to the fact that the president permitted, ordered, in fact, john brennan, yesterday, to confirm the existence of what had been a covert policy of the drone strikes? >> reporter: you know, the drone issue here has been one of great sensitivity and a lot of interest over last few years, particularly as their use has increased in recent years. there was a lot of reaction to the drone strike a few days ago, mixed reaction, and the admission by john brennan that the u.s. was engaging in these activities was received here in the news, i mean it was played out in the news media, covered quite widely but it wasn't a surprise to anyone here. the drone issue has been a real part of the dialogue at all levels, the public level and the official level ford quite some time now. there's a lot of anger towards the u.s. on that issue alone. >> amna nawaz, terrific to have such deep reporting. reporting from islamabad and

today from abod ta bod. thank you for being with us. michael leighter served to both president bush and obama. he was in the situation room that night with the president, the top national security team, monitoring the operation in real-time, a breathtaking, intense experience. michael joins us from new york from 30 rock. michael, thanks so much for being with us. looking back we look at iconic picture and other pictures that show you as well during those tense moments. what was, in your recollection, the most difficult moment? hillary clinton has said when they weren't sure that the helicopter going down could be replaced and also when they went inside and lost connectivity briefly. >> i think i would agree with hillary, andrea. really those moments when we saw the first helicopter go down we knew where the helicopter was supposed to be and we neat it wasn't where the plan had

directed it to be. that moment of not knowing who was going to get off that helicopter, people were going to be injured, how is it going to affect everything, that wassen an intense moment. we knew they were on the ground in a firefight but couldn't see what was going on, it was -- the tension you could cut with a knife and i think everybody held their breath, really not just until they got out of the house, but obviously all the way until they returned back to afghanistan and were safe. >> did you expect going into the operation, it would be the president and everyone else sitting in the situation room? how did that evolve? >> it's a bit of a funny story. we started much larger section of the situation room where there was actually comfortable seating, around a bigger table that you see. in one picture that is up now, but the actual feed that we were watching was going into that smaller room, so a number of us, one point, wandered in, and the president, one point was told the feed was in the other room and he got up and came in and

obviously everyone followed the president. so everyone jammed into that smaller room. and that's how you end up with that iconic photo of, you know, eight or ten of us crammed into the room and a few just peering in from the door. and i tell you there were 15 people or so in that room, barely a peep during the entire operation. >> and how long did the whole operation take? >> well the s.e.a.l.s were on the ground for about 40 minutes or so but we were monitoring them from the time they took off in afghanistan from afghanistan, flew into pakistan, on the ground, and then departed. so that entire period with all of the flight time was closer to four hours. once they left the site, we at least exhaled a little bit. but again, until they were on the ground, and also until we knew for sure that it really was bin laden, there was enormous amount of tension and really anticipation from the group how this would turn out and really our prayers, the entire time

with the incredibly brave s.e.a.l.s and army helicopter pilot whose did the hard work of this mission. >> when you say until you knew for sure, you had circumstantial evidence but didn't know, how did you place the odds that it was in fact bin laden? and separately, the odds being able to get him without too many casualties of the armed forces? >> well, we did tell the president, and the president, from my perspective, ran a really great process to make sure that everyone expressed their views about what they thought the likelihood of bin laden being there was, and the range was low of about 40%, up to 70% or 80% and admittedly i was on the lower end of the range, i wasn't as confident as some people were. i will say, i think, everyone was incredibly confident that whether or not bin laden was actually there, that the s.e.a.l.s and the army pilot whose went in were going to do this incredibly professionally and do it well. there was obviously the risk of

pakistani intervention or an accident like we saw with the helicopter, but we had incredible confidence in their ability to go do the task that they were given by the president and by admiral bill mccravin. >> there was a disagreement among some advisers as to whether to do it, whether the risk outweighed the possibility that he was there. when you had to assess, in your own mind, how did you weigh in on it? >> it was a close call. after the fact, maybe it's easy to say that this is an easy call. at the same, the geopolitical consequences of this going wrong and potentially engaging in a firefight with pakistani troops on the ground that posed a tough situation. and i think my conclusion was, it was probably about a 50/50 shot. in some ways i would like to sigh if we could collect more intelligence but we didn't have that opportunity. i came out really this was, at

the low end of the probibility 40% he was there, by far the best intelligent we had on bin laden and it was worth going in and doing something. >> among all of the intelligence that you gathered as a result of the raid, what was the most interesting you you and perhaps the most troubling? >> i think out of the raid, and looking at the documents, i think the most interesting was how involved bin laden remained in trying to plan operations. we thought for a long time we now that he was the inspirational leader of al qaeda but didn't realize how much he was trying to direct operations from abbottabad. i think what was most surprising was his lieutenants repeatedly telling him we can't do that, we're having trouble, and i would add, a significant amount of dissent within al qaeda about how al qaeda was repeatedly targeting muslims, targeting mosques in iraq, medical school

graduation in somalia. there was at least some part of al qaeda that very much understood their message really was not resonating and it was because they were slaughtering innocent muslims around the world. >> you have done an interview with discovery, the discovery channel special report tonight. i want to play that on what other threats were out there. >> within the intelligence we saw bin laden had a plan to assassinate president obama and potentially to assassinate general petraeus, commander in afghanistan at the time. >> that's the discovery program, "secrets of bin laden's lair" did you think those were operational threats or aspirational? >> i really didn't. i think they were aspirational. bin laden was trying to direct a lot but the organization frankly didn't have the ability, didn't have the people, didn't have the training, to put most of these aspirations into operational effect. so i think he had a big vision,

but the organization, because of great work during the bush administration and the obama administration by the intelligence community, by the defense department, had really decimated what was left of al qaeda in pakistan. >> and mike mullen sad down, of course he was head of the joint chiefs at time, he sat down with brian williams for rock center, for special in the situation room program tomorrow night, and this is what he had to say about the political debate over this anniversary. >> from my perspective, the president's support, the decision that he made and obviously the result, stand alone in terms of the kind of call presidents have to make, and he made it. i do worry a great deal that this time of year that somehow this gets spun into election politics. i can assure you that those

individuals who risked those lives, the last thing in the world that they want is to be spun into that. so i'm hoping that that doesn't happen. >> you've worked for george w. bush, you've worked under the obama administration. are you uncomfortable with some of the campaign ads and the campaign rhetoric coming from the white house on this? >> well, andrea, as you said, i was no nominated by president bush, i served president obama and i will tell you neither president ever asked me who i voted for, neither president asked me who party i was a member of. i'm going to associate myself with chairman mull. who has been a great leader and a in the my time in the administration and after, i'm focused on trying to stop terrorists, i'm not actually even thinking about how this is used in campaign rhetoric. i think that the united states should be proud of what we did a year ago. i think that that was a result

of incredibly hard work in the republican administration, incredibly hard work culminated in a democratic administration, and i'll just leave it at that. >> incredibly hard work by you and your colleagues. just a word on that, this all occurred during the weekend of your wedding. you were married saturday night and canceled your honeymoon without being explain to your bride why and it all happened the day after your wedding. an eventful weekend. >> it -- it was. i have been lucky enough to celebrate two anniversaries this past weekend. obviously the wedding is a happier anniversary but the death of bin laden brings great satisfaction and i'm happy the entire country can celebrate it. >> thank you for your service. and of course, you can watch "secrets of bin laden's lair" tonight, 10:00 eastern on discovery. rock center with brian williams

"inside the situation room" with president obama and the national security team on the one-year anniversary of bin laden's death tomorrow, 9:00, 8:00 central. bin laden politics with tom daschle. later, jim talent. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. hey dad. see how the carrots i grow make that new stouffer's steam meal so tasty. actually, the milk from my farm makes it so creamy, right dad. dad can see... boys! don't you think stouffer's steam perfect bag should get some credit? my carrots. my milk. [ female announcer ] new from stouffer's. farmers' harvest steam meals taste so good we'll bet the farm on it. with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved

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the president said there was not excessive celebration at white house over the bin laden anniversary and there's other foreign policy news as well. let's bring in nicholas burns, profess of of international politics, served as international ambassador to nato to the white house and the state department. great to see you again. this is a signature day. i mean you were in office during the beginnings of the al qaeda movement. you had to grapple with it

yourself. how do you think the white house is grappling with this and commemorating the anniversary? >> well, frankly, andrea, this was a significant event the death of bin laden and the daring and courageous raid by american military forces to kill him, but i think we're right to mark the day because everyone remembers 9/11, what a horrible day it was. it was for us. we also remember the attacks on the american embassies in nairobi in august 1998 that took hundreds of lives. that was al qaeda and the "uss cole." al qaeda has been an enemy of the united states for a long time. this was its founder and the fact that the united states was able to defeat him is a significant victory for the country and the battle against terrorism. >> as we mark the anniversary, secretary hillary clinton is on that plane that you know so well, traveling to beijing at what is conceivably the worst

time for this end gaugement, it annual meeting in beijing with the treasury secretary and secretary of state. they had so much on their plate in terms of economic and trade issues and importantly, syria, iran, china's role in the u.n. security council, north korea, the new leadership there, and now they are dealing with the one thing that of course neither really wants to be dealing with, a major human rights crisis. how does she navigate this? >> with great difficulty. as you said, andrea, this is the biggest and most important relationship that the united states has with any country in the world. there's no question that what happens in the u.s.-china relationship will drm a letermi lot of history in the next several decades. the agenda could not be more complicated. now we have a case of a courtney hazlett rageous man, escaped house arrest, apparently maybe in u.s. custody though the u.s.

government has not affirmed that. i think this issue will dominate the proceedings, whether or not the chinese government denied that, it will be the big issue. the united states, our credibility 'a country rest on the ability to protect and preserve human freedom. we have someone reaching out to the united states for support. i think the administration has done very well to keep this a quiet dialogue, that's the best way to work with the xhin nchin government, yet i don't see any outcome the man staying in u.s. custody or released into freedom. i can't see any option for the united states to hand him back to the chinese authorities who are not trustworthy in these matters and major human rights violators. i think it will dominate this week. it may dominate the next several weeks or months of the u.s.-china relationship. >> nicholas burns, thank you. good to see you. former senator tom daschle is the former majority lead

somewhere senior policy adviser at a law firm. thank you. you've been in the situation whereas a senate leader you were in the small group who would get that call from the white house come to the situation room, we have to brief you on an action, on an operation. from your perspective, as a policymaker, we're signifying a very important motion, as nicholas burns, a nonpartisan player arc tested to just now. >> i think each of your guests have offered a very unique and interesting perspective, and i think they're all right. this is a very important moment. it's a moment that i think will be marked in history for generations to come. for us to call attention to it, to learn from it, to recognize its importance, and it really, in many ways, to set policy as we go forward as a result of this experience is critical. that's what we're doing. and collectively, i think, we've learned a good deal.

>> what do you think of the republican criticism that we are politicizing and the white house is politicizing it with the obama ad which focuses on this, in part, and all of the events around today. >> i guess, andrea, i'd say two things. first, this is a critical moment in the obama presidency. this was probably the pinnacle of what presidential decision making is all. it's no secret there are those very high in the administration who opposed taking these actions and made no -- were not at all hesitant to make their views known. in light of the fact that he had very different points of view expressed, he made a decision, and that decision was executed perfectly as a result of the extraordinary professional itch of the s.e.a.l.s. so that's my first point. this is a legitimate, contention on the part of the obama administration that it's all about leadership. the second thing i would simply

say is, how would they then explain their own advocacy of the 9/11 and the added that george bush used early in his presidency about his leadership during that critical moment? it's exactly the same thing. so i think they're hard pressed to find a difference. >> senator, i want to ask you about one of your former colleagues with whom you worked across the aisle, dick lugar, in the fight of his life. he is such a longstanding veteran, known as the former chairman of the foreign relations committee for his work with senator nunn on nonproliferation, getting rid of fissile material after the fall of the soviet union and challenged by richard mourdock and a significant pac financing ads, pulled their ads down, indicating that he may well lose this next week. >> i'm concerned, andrea, any praise from a democrat could hurt his campaign. i will say that he is an extraordinary leader and

respected senator on both sides of the aisle. his contributions over the last couple of decades is -- are as great as any that are serving today. i have great admiration for him. he has done indiana extremely proud. i hope that the voters will recognize his leadership as they make their decision next week. >> and finally, before i let you go, health care was your big issue. you've written a book on it now the supreme court is poised, many believe, to overturn the most significant part of the president's health care bill, which was of course the individual mandate. how will that affect the campaign? >> well, i think it would be catastrophic for the supreme court to make that decision if they were to overturn it. i think it would be calamitous for our health care system. i think in would be advantageous in many respects politically, but that is small measure, in terms of the overall satisfaction anybody should

have. this is an incredibly important decision it ranges up there with bush v. gore and citizens united, more important than the citizens united decision. politically it would help the democrats. that isn't the way to look at this. this is bigger and more important than that. >> tom daschle, thank you very much. next, tea party turmoil. insider's look at what is happening in that republican ranks. author robert draper joins us next on "andrea mitchell reports." time for the "your business" entrepreneurs of the week. ken whiting and his nephew jeff own whiting foods which has run food concessions on the santa cruz board work. they employ hundreds of high school and college-age employees, and they've learned managing this generation means you have to speak their language. watch "your business" on sundays 7:30 on msnbc. sarah... will you marry me?

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not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity. we looked at our family's goals and some ways to help us get there. they helped me fix my economy, the one in my house. now they're managing my investments for me. and with fidelity, getting back on track was easier than i thought. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get one-on-one help from america's retirement leader. republicans swept into power in the house two years ago installing john boehner as speaker over an unruly group of 7 freshman prudent perso republ supported by the tea party. author robert draper given unprecedented act set to infighting for his book, "do not ask what good we do." you were embedded, basically,

inside the caucus. tell me about the tensions and whether the tea party freshmen really didn't care whether they were re-elected, so they couldn't be disciplined with the usual appreciate you could get from the leadership, i'll put you on this committee, that committee, you won't get money from the re-election campaign committee. >> one emblematic moment featured in my book, took place when the house republicans voted down one of their own continuing resolutions this past september to fund the government's activities and it riled up the senior members of the house propose iations committee who demanded a meeting with house leadership and speaker boehner. these appropriations cardinals, they're known as, senior appropriators yelled at boehner and said, this is ridiculous, you're allowing these freshmen and other conservative senior members to vote against our own legislation. you need to punish them, take them off committees, you need to take them off of lists for

congressional overseas delegation trips. boehner said we prefer to reward for good behavior rather than punish for bad behavior and the truth is we can't punish them it would make martyrs out of them. hard to imagine a tom delay uttering those words but that's the position speaker boehner finds himself in. >> what about eric cantor and the speaker o. and the well reported rivalry and ambition of eric cantor. >> speaker boehner recognizes that majority leader cantor is an ambition guy. there was a moment during the debt ceiling stand-off when some of boehner's allies in the house came to him, had a meeting with him, and had said to him, john, you know, if you cut a deal with obama, that fails to get the majority of house republican

support, there's going to be a mutiny and cantor's going to benefit, and you know because you were there during the newt gingrich days, it only takes a dozen or so upstarts to start a mutiny. speaker boehner internalized. at this immediate moment there's no daylight between cantor and and boehner, cantor's ambitions are there, boehner. watchful. >> we read the personal kaem e. chemistry, the president and boehner got along, played golf, tried to do the big dial we thought both sides wanted to and there was the back and forth over who was responsible for upping the ante, from your perspective, being inside, how much friction is there between boehner and the white house? >> well, it's -- there's no particular friction right now, just because there's nothing in the way of legislative activity taking place now. i mean apart from appropriations bills and --

>> it's going to come to a head in the fall and certainly in the lame duck. >> certainly will. in the lame duck we'll see this again. the dynamic at play is within the republican conference rather than between bayoehner and obam per se. boehner wanted to cut a deal with obama but for all of the varying accounts of who was to blame for pulling out earlier, the reality is that speaker boehner did not have votes in his own conference, in particularly amongst a lot of the freshmen. now, there's been this -- a lot reported how the freshmen aren't influential as it would appear, they've voted with leadership, but they voted with leadership after extracting so many concessions, that the legislation they voted yes on has been so far to the right of what was originally intended it's not palletable by the senate and stands no chance becoming law. >> robert draper, great inside reporting. "do not ask what good we do."

thank you very much. coming up, the war of words over bin laden. what mitt romney is saying now and what he said back then. every time a local business opens its doors or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business, it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities. that's why we extended $6.4 billion in new credit to small businesses across the country last year. because the more we help them, the more we help make opportunity possible. avoid bad.fats. don't go over 2000... 1200 calories a day. carbs are bad. carbs are good. the story keeps changing. so i'm not listening... to anyone but myself. i know better nutrition when i see it: great grains. great grains cereal starts whole and stays whole. see the seam? more processed flakes look nothing like natural grains. you can't argue with nutrition you can see.

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>> on this first anniversary of the bin laden death, republicans say obama is politicizing the raid but the obama campaign says it's fair to ask what mitt romney would have done. joining me former senator, jim talent. it's fair to say that mitt romney is saying today that he would have done the same thing, that even jimmy carter, he said yesterday, would have done the same thing, but was not really an obvious call. it was circumstantial evidence, our own nbc terror analyst miking leighter in the room pegged it 50/50 bin laden was there and from romney's statements in the past he said at various time his would not

have gone into pakistan's territory because of the other risks. >> well, what he said was the same thing vice president biden said at time, he wouldn't have talked about publicly going into pakistan because you don't telegraph that option and i thought joe biden was right. if you there talk publicly about it you're going to put the pakistanis in a dft position and maybe undermine your ability to do it. of course governor romney would have tried to get bin laden. what he's saying the war on terror's more than that. we're saying the white house is beating on this so much, there's a danger they're going to turn a national victory into a partisan gambit, and that's a shame. >> what mitt romney said yesterday and again today he would have gone after osama bin laden with the intelligence that he was there but in fact the intelligence only indicated that he might be there. it was not that easy a decision, is what those who were there would argue. these are not partisan, these

are military and intelligence officials who worked under george w. bush. >> yeah. it was a significant victory. the president's entitled to his share of the credit for making the call, but again, the problem is, when they beat on this so much and put it into political context, there's a danger they're going to turn a national victory that everybody should celebrate into a partisan political add or partisan gambit and it looks like they're trying extract from the economy and setbacks we've had in foreign policy, like what happened in north korea recently. again, nobody's saying the president doesn't deserve credit. we're saying the war on terror's bigger than getting bin laden. let us all enjoy it. >> is it acoincidence that mitt romney, right now, is at ladder 5 with rudy giuliani and near ground zero, at a firehouse, and that is certainly his political

attempt to at least commemorate this anniversary. >> andrea, political candidates, political office holders, you know, when there's a big event, the country's involved in, they're part of the country and they should participate but it should be about the event or about what the american people did or the soldiers or the first responders. you know, it shouldn't be about you. i mean that's true whether you're responding to a flood or anything like that. again, the problem here is that the problem in using this politically the way he's doing is making it too much about him, and it looks like he's trying to distract from other part of his record he doesn't want to talk about. >> jim talent, the former senator, thank you very much. >> thank you, andrea. and coming up, the stinging verdict from media mogul rupert murdoch. what are the legal implications? this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. c'mon dad!

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i'm tamron hall. coming up in 15 minutes, mitt romney is in new york city with rudy giuliani, marking the one-year anniversary of death of osama bin laden been but romney and giuliani at odds going into pakistan and taking out bin laden, if given the chance. now that's the same issue that has romney in a heated exchange of words with president obama. plus, i'll talk to a florida lawmaker who has come up with recommendations to change florida's controversial stand your ground law and he's calling on the governor of state to review his ideas that he pull together with the help of law enforcement officials and attorneys. we'll have that coming up. british lawmakers have issued a scathing critique of rupert murdoch. accusing him of ignoring the phone hacking scandal at his tabloid and claiming he's unfit to run a major company. in a sharply worded report, a committee said, quote, rupert and his son janes murdoch's instinct throughout until too late was to cover up rather than

seek out wrong zwoog discipline the perpetrators michael isikoff has been following this closely. the murdoch empire has tried to strike back. >> they put out a statement acknowledging serious wrongdoing at news of the world, the now defunct newspaper that murdoch owned that news corp. owned but said portions of the report, were in their words considered unjustified and highly partisan, reference to the fact that the conservatives on the house of commons committee opposed the language about rupert murdoch but got outvoted. but that said, this is a really serious blow to the murdoch empire. i empire. look, news corps has already been facing this in the united states into possible bribes paid in russia, in china by 20th century fox, and in the u.k. to

the scottish police officers. this is part of the evidence that has come out in the phone hacking scandal. in addition, we have shareholder lawsuits and shareholder resolutions demanding changes, to loosen the strangle hold and control of the board. this report is powerful new ammunition for those shareholder resolutions and lawsuits, and i think it could well have a larger intangible effect on the murdoch control of the company. >> and it is also having a political effect. what we don't see so much here is that his very close relationship, the cozy relationship with some cabinet ministers in the cameron government, has already had an impact politically for them. and they've got elections coming up. >> you had a top aide to one of cameron's ministers having to resign because of some of the disclosures. you have, remember, and this is very big in the u.k. they're trying to buy, murdoch

wanted to buy a cash cow control, all of it. i think this puts that seriously in jeopardy. so there is a lot of ramifications for news corp which is a u.s.-based company as a result of this report. >> michael isikoff, thank you so much. what political stories will make headlines in the next 24 hours? eteners. this bowl of strawberries is loaded with vitamin c. and now, b vitamins to boot. coffee doesn't have fiber. unless you want it to. splenda® essentials™ are the first and only line of sweeteners with a small boost of fiber, or antioxidants, or b vitamins in every packet. mmm. same great taste with an added "way to go, me" feeling. splenda® essentials™. get more out of what you put in.

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welcome back. which political stories will make headlines? this was a good shot. this was tweeted out. it is rudolph giuliani and a short-sleeved mitt romney entering ladder five, lower manhattan. that is near ground zero and of course, 11 firefighters, first responders from that engine company, died on that fateful day. so another picture with the pizzas. i guess being picked up before they were delivered. you call for pizza and you get mitt romney and rudolph

giuliani. not bad service. >> no. look. i think you're right. this is a big story. rebolet what happened in new york on september 11th. such a touch stone culturally. the fascinating thing for political nerds like myself is the undercurrent here which is rudolph giuliani has been, or was at least, one of the most critical people, both in the 2008 campaign and in this campaign, of mitt romney. there is very little love lost between the two of them. so fascinating. politics can make strange bedfellows. >> indeed. thank you to you. thank you so much for today and every day and we'll be talking more with you tomorrow. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." join me for a live web chat today at msnbc.com. and today on the show, jose rodriguez talks about his controversial book on enhanced interrogation techniques that were used after 9/11. my colleague, tamron hall has a

look at what's next on "news nation." >> looking forward to seeing that interview tomorrow with jose rodriguez. meantime, mitt romney is in new york with rudolph giuliani where he is marking the one-year anniversary of osama bin laden's death. at one point, even romney and giuliani were at odds over going into pakistan and taking out bin laden if given the chance. now that same issue, of course, has romney vaerk tough exchange with president obama. we'll have the latest. plus, i'll talk with a florida lawmaker who has come up with recommendations to change the state's controversial stand your ground law. and he is calling on the governor of the state to review his ideas that he pulled together with the help of law enforcement, agents and attorneys. there's definitely a temptations for you. unless you're one of those people who doesn't like delicious stuff. temptations. it's the first jell-o that's just for adults. but when i was diagnosed with prostate cancer...

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