on the one foot line. we could have gotten this ball across the goal but unfortunately that did not happen this evening. >> so now the game changer happened a couple of minutes ago. the president has decided to assert executive privilege. pete williams is with us now. what does this mean? >> reporter: it won't stop the committee from having its vote. if the committee votes to find the attorney general in contempt it goes to the full house and won't stop the full house of voting but here's where it makes a big difference. here's the end game. if the full house votes to find the attorney general in contempt, then there's a federal law that says speaker of the house sends this to the u.s. attorney here in washington, part of the justice department, and the law says he shall convene a grand jury to look at whether he should hold the attorney general in criminal contempt. in the past, justice department through republican and democratic administrations alike has taken the position that when

the president asserts expectative privilege then the u.s. attorney doesn't do anything, he does not refer it to a grand jury and in a couple of letters that have just been released, informing the house of this development, the justice department says that releasing these documents or forcing the government to turn them over to the house would basically chill executive branch deliberations in the future and impair the executive branch's ability to respond to congressional oversight. one other thing here, chris. there is the fast and furious operation itself and how it was approved and what went wrong there. this dispute is about something a little different. something removed. it is from documents created last year when the government sent a letter to congress erroneously saying there was no gun walking and then the government pulled that letter back, saying, wait, that's wrong. we have been misinformed by the people in arizona.

what congress wants the know is what was going on in the justice department when it figured that out. to put it bluntly, they want to know if there was a cover-up. the administration consistently said, no, there wasn't. this was an honest mistake. those are the documents the house wants now. the stuff created after the officials in washington found out the true nature, say they found out the true nature of fast and furious and not about the operation itself but how the government responded to finding out about it. that's the dispute now over the donlgt documents now and would chill internal deliberations. >> so it's only those documents, pete? >> yes. >> only the documents included in this latest request from darrell issa? >> that's correct. >> all right. give us a little bit of perspective here. i was just handed some research and reminded me that clinton invoked executive privilege in the lewinski probe. off the top of your head, how rare is this?

>> reporter: not rare at all dealing with congress. you know, oftentimes congress says, we want something and the president says, no, that's protected by executive privilege. we are talking about -- a sown that's not very rare. we're talking about is a subset of that when congress is voting to find somebody in contempt for not turning it over and then the number of times the administration asserted executive privilege is much smaller there but it does happen and happened so much this has gone to court and as i say in both republican and democratic administrations the justice department institutionally taken the view this is a separation of powers thing and by the way not something the courts are particularly thrilled about refereeing when the two branches going at it like this. it changes now the possible end game here. >> all right. well, that's obviously what we are looking at. pete williams, thank you so much. let me bring in members of the committee that's going to vote

today. congressman, let me start with you. what do you think about the president's decision to assert executive privilege in this case? >> well, one of the questions becomes the extent to which that privilege would cover hethese materials. i'm not sure what the answer is to that. there was a representation made by the justice department and then they did a 180 an they changed that representation so they made a statement that was fundamentally incorrect to congress and now trying to ask why that was made. there's evidence, as well, of intimidation of individuals who were whistle-blowers who were very concerned about those representations made and brought information that contradicted the justice department representations. so there's been whistle-blower intimidation on top of it. that's what -- this is a very, very sad moment but that's the issue that really concerns me. >> congresswoman, is he, right? >> i think what is important to

focus on is the fact that the attorney general has already turned over 7,000 pages of documents. about 1,300 relatting to this letter to senator grassley of february 4th. and a willingness to turn over all the documents but couldn't do it by the start of business today. and so, for all of the apparent willingness to work together, this is becoming a showdown at the okay corral that should never be taking place and frankly it's becoming a bit of a circus. when we have so many issues we should be focused on, creating jobs, using the committee to look at the va system not responding to claims by veterans swiftly enough, the medicare fraud issues that exist. there's so many other issues we could be dealing with. we all agree that fast and furious was a horrendous mistake and really started in george

bush administration and i think we're losing sight of what's important here. >> she does make a point, congressman. it started in the bush administration. given everything else going on, why is this being pursued? you know the perception on the democratic side and that is that this is basically a political witch hunt. >> well, i regret that we're here and i wish we were working on jobs but the fact of the matter is it did -- the process of gun walking as an investigative tool was begun under an atf division during the bush administration but the u.s. attorney from that administration denied that very prosecution based on those tactics. it was this administration with evidence that it goes to the highest levels of the criminal division of the justice department opening that up and encouraged the atf to pursue this. it's very clear violations of what is consistent with atf policy being actually supported from the highest levels of the justice department. i mean, these are very serious

issues and the bottom line is we have an agent, brian terry, who's dead. who was led to bleed out in a desert and people are asking questions. his family's asking questions enthey're going unanswered. >> congresswoman, that's the same argument we have heard from darrell issa. it is, we have an obligation to find out how fast and furious got so messed up and why an agent was killed. do you feel you have sufficient information to get to the bottom of this? is there a legitimate reason for requesting the other information? >> first of all, if we're going to really try to get to the bottom of fast and furious, it's really important to bring former attorney general luke casey to hear from him because he was in charge and was actually briefed on the issue. we should have the former head of the atf who is mr. nelson who said that he never sent this information up the chain of command sort to speak. so i think if we're really focused on brian terry and what

went wrong, we've got to make sure that we do a postmortem of the entire system. what we aren't doing with this contempt proceeding is focus on that. we're now talking about whether or not a legislative affairs office within the department of justice wrote a letter with the awe sp us a passes of the attorney general or just the locals in arizona. it is like saying i put out an e-mail, my staff puts out an e-mail i didn't know about and whether or not that was, indeed, the case. that's what we're talking about here. we are not talking about the fundamentals issues about fast and furious. >> i want to both of you for taking the time. i know you have to go in to the committee hearing any minute now. thanks to both of you for being with us. let me bring in the rev reerend sharpton. i saw you last night and talking to adam schiff. he said this is about politics.

is that's what's going on here? >> i think that clearly the way it appears. when you look at the fact that the attorney general has said i will hand over the documents, met with issa and it seems like whatever it is that issa wanted was being made available, that's not good enough. they want a contempt vote. and where will the contempt vote go? it goes before the house, likely pass because it's majority republican. and then it goes in the court. so we're not really going to see answers to why this agent was killed. we really going to see a cloud over the attorney general's head which is good for commercials during an election. if they really want to pursue what happened and what made fast and furious go where it went, they would start at the beginning which happened in '06 under the bush administration, we'd be talking about what started the program, how it went through hernandez and '07.

>> you are not arguing there's not legitimate questions. >> not only am i not arguing it, i don't think the attorney general argued it. he conceded it. you start with wide receiver '06 and come forward and if you want the documents you claim to give you direct answers on what happened in this particular death, why are you playing the games of, oh, i want it now. you can't do it now? first you want wiretaps, the things you know couldn't be handed over and then narrow it down and then give an unrealistic time line and say contempt getting ready for the political season. >> then the republicans are firing up the base, but i don't know how this plays to the middle, to the independents. do you worry at all -- and again, we just got this information ten minutes ago about the president's decision to assert executive privilege, are you concerned in some way this might be construed as trying to stop information from getting snout. >> no. i think that what they really

risk, the republicans, is by the president using executive privilege after they had narrowed down and said that we'd hand it over. is the president saying, look, enough of this nonsense? what happens in terms of internal discussions in the justice department, some that could have bearing on things that should not be made public, is executive privilege. let's move on. and i think the independents say, wait a minute. if they gave you all these pages and evidence, was willing to give you more, enough is enough. is this about trying to find out what happened or is this another campaign -- >> will it conversely hurt the republicans, that the average voter, certainly the undecided voter out there says this is what's so frustrating about congress, they're worried about stuff that doesn't affect my daily life? >> i think it does. i think now independent voters and every day voters saying you're dragging us through the minutia. if you don't want the answers,

don't want the beginning, i think it becomes offensive to voters and saying, we have real things like, oh, jobs, like medicaid fraud to deal with. now you're down to examine e-mails? come on. we have real problems here. >> reverend al sharpton, always good to have you here. thank you. >> thank you. we'll continue to watch the proceedings in the house oversight committee and a live report from the white house on the president's use of executive privilege. we'll be right back with new information men time on the vp stakes. they're heating up. with better car replacement, if your car is totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. liberty mutual auto insurance.

yoo-hoo. hello. it's water from the drinking fountain at the mall. [ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can come from any faucet anywhere. the brita bottle with the filter inside. and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too.

[ male announcer ] every day we help students earn their bachelor's or master's degree for tomorrow's careers. this is your moment. let nothing stand in your way. devry university, proud to support the education of our u.s. olympic team.

we got lots of new clues on the mitt romney veep stakes. we're told that tim pawlenty soared to the top of the short list and it looks like you can

scratch indiana governor mitch daniels off the list. he reportedly chosen as the next president of purdue university and then marco rubio. romney is knocking down a report that rubio isn't even being vetted. >> there are only two people in this country who know who are being vetted and who are not. and that's beth meyers and myself and i know beth well. she doesn't talk to anybody. the story was entirely false. marco rubio is being thoroughly vetted as part of our process. >> i'm not going to discuss the process. i have a new book out. i don't know if you heard about it, though. >> i'm joined now by white house correspondent major garret and "the washington post" political reporter nema malika henderson. he said marco rubio is being vetted. what do you make of that? >> well, look. governor romney doesn't want to

exclude marco rubio until he decides if he decides to exclude him himself. every nominee wants maximum latitude who's in the tent, considered for the tent and make sure in that process you communicate every possible c constituency in the party or may come to the party this is an open process and someone to favor still has a chance. i still think and i've written before i don't think senator rubio is near the top of the list. i don't think he'll be chosen for lots of reasons and i think former governor tim pawlenty is always on the list. >> let's stick with rubio for a moment. my hypothesis is the flap over immigration and the fact that the president gained some headway on friday when he made his announcement maybe moves rubio a little higher up on the list an the fact we have seen so many pictures of them together. there seems to be a kind of ease and casualness when they're out

on the campaign trail together. what do you think? >> well, i think that's certainly what a lot of top republicans want to see from romney. that is, that he is carefully vetting and considering marco rubio and why i think you saw him come out hours after the initial story and essentially ruled rubio out. he basically wanted to show to the rest of the republicans and to the country that, of course, he was considering this shining star of the republican party who happens to be latino and could help in florida. but i do think -- >> but not necessarily picking him? >> that's right. i think in some ways both stories can be true. the idea he's not being seriously vetted and that he ultimately won't be picked and i think in some ways depends on the meaning of vetting but i think if you look at what romney's chief argument is against the president, it is that he has never run anything. that romney is better on the economy, he's run not only a

business but also run a state and if you look at rubio's background in florida, he has been a politician. got in to some trouble quite frankly down in florida with charging that credit card, the party credit card, a personal expenses and i think that in itself would be enough in some ways to disqualify him. but at the same time i think romney wants to give they appearance he's considering rubio. >> one thing we know is the veep stakes looking to maybe fill gaps they might have and you mentioned tim pawlenty. here's a guy unlike mitt romney and seeing this in the most recent bloomberg poll, not the most accessible according to voters. tim pawlenty relates to the blue collar guy, doesn't he? >> yes, he does, to a point. remember, he had a spectacular flame-out as a candidate. michelle bachmann knocked him out at the iowa straw poll. that was a spectacular failure for tim pawlenty. i understand why he did it.

he didn't want to -- >> i'm sorry. i have to interrupt you because darrell issa just started speaking. let's go to the hearing. >> in a canyon west of rio, rico, arizona, u.s. border patrol agents were engaged in a shootout with armed mexican bandits preying on illegal immigrants. one of the agents was 40-year-old brian terry, a 3-year veteran who had served as a u.s. marine and gone through boot camp in camp pendleton in my district. dufrg that fire fight, a bullet pierced agent terry's aorta and he died in that canyon. two weapons were found at the scene. they were later traced to an operation conducted by the department of justice called fast and furious. 16 months ago, this committee along with senator chuck

grassley launched an investigation in to whistle-blowers' allegations regarding fast and furious. we became involved only after senator grassley was told he would not receive answers from the justice department because, in fact, he did not have subpoena power and was not the chairman. in the course of our investigation, the committee has uncovered serious wrongdoing by the justice department. that wrongdoing led to 2,000 weapons crossing the mexican border that cost lives on both sides of the border including brian terry's. a year and a half later, the terry family is still searching for answers. the operation contributed to the deaths of countless mexican citizens. it has soured our relationship with our neighbor to the south. it's created an ongoing safety

problem here in the united states in which even the attorney general has admitted more lives could be lost. >> we'll continue to listen to this hearing. we'll let you know and obviously we are waiting for the vote expected to pass and i want to thank major garret and namela henderson. we'll be back with more. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true. ...but you still have to go to the gym. ♪ the one and only, cheerios

trouble with a car insurance claim. [ voice of dennis ] switch to allstate. their claim service is so good, now it's guaranteed. [ normal voice ] so i can trust 'em. unlike randy. are you in good hands? you walk into a conventional mattress store, it's really not about you. they say, "well, if you wanted a firm bed you can lie on one of those. if you want a soft bed you can lie on one of those." what we do is, we provide the exact individualization that your body needs. never tried this before. this is your body there. you can see a little more pressure in the shoulders and in the hips. now you can feel what happens as we raise your sleep number setting and allow the bed to contour to your individual shape. oh wow, that feels really good. it's hugging my body. take it up one notch. oh gosh, yes.

when you're playing around with that remote, you get that moment where you go, "oh yeah" oh, yeah! and it's perfect. they had no idea that when they came to a sleep number store, we were going to diagnose their problems and help them sleep better. once you experience it, there's no going back. wow. wow. and right now, during our summer sleep sale, save $500 on our exceptional p6 bed set. find your sleep number. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699. wouldn't it be nice if there was an easier, less-expensive option than using a traditional lawyer? well, legalzoom came up with a better way. we took the best of the old and combined it with modern technology. together, you get quality services on your terms with total customer support. legalzoom documents are accepted in all 50 states, and they're backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. so, go to legalzoom.com today and see for yourself. it's law that just makes sense.

[ female announcer ] take the pantene dare to compare challenge. get healthier, stronger hair in less than 7 days guaranteed. then tell us your results on facebook. pantene healthier hair in less than 7 days. back to darrell issa. he is -- they're expected to have a contempt vote against the attorney general. let's listen. >> we have not received a credible reason for them not being supplied. and in fact, no constitutional assertion has occurred. rather, it is the duty of the executive branch and its

agencies to represent itself honestly before congress and to make available such transparency as necessary for us to fund and authorize now and in the future the request of this and future presidents. only today, only a few minutes before the goaveling of this mark-up did we receive from the deputy attorney general a letter dated today, not spoken of last night, which says, an i'd ask unanimous consent the entire letter be placed in the order. without objection so ordered. in the first paragraph, it says, i write now to inform you that

the president has asserted executive privilege over relevant post-february 4th, 2011, documents. it goes on for several pages. as we speak, as i speak, the committee is evaluating this. we have verified that no communication from the president has arrived before the house. additionally, at least in a preliminary evaluation, we discovered that the president well after february 4th has said that, in fact, he has not discussed this and was not made aware of it. additionally, the attorney general has repeatedly given us testimony showing that he did not speak to the president about this. i now read for the record from page 25 of when congress comes calling which is from the

constitutional project. and i apologize if this seems preliminary but this communication arrived only minutes before the beginning of this mark-up. executive privilege. the president's communications privilege -- >> and so, darrell issa talking about the letter, the executive privilege letter he got literally just a little before the top of the hour and we brought that information to you immediately. it's not going to change the vote today. it looks like they'll go ahead with the vote and then move to a full vote in the house. what it will change and what happens when it gets to the courts because generally the courts have stayed out of these kinds of disputes. we should say that the white house is reminding folks that six times george w. bush exerted executive privilege. they say in the same cat girl of do category of documents they're talking about.

the president asserting executive privilege over the documents provided by the justice department. we're going to continue to follow this story for you right after this. uncer ] considering all your mouth goes through, do you really think brushing is enough to keep it clean? while brushing misses germs in 75% of your mouth, listerine® cleans virtually your entire mouth. so take your oral health to a whole new level. listerine®... power to your mouth™. but they haven't experienced extra strength bayer advanced aspirin. in fact, in a recent survey, 95% of people who tried it agreed that it relieved their headache fast. visit fastreliefchallenge.com today for a special trial offer. if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... ...advanced headlights... ...and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima.

it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪

nissan. innovation that excites. it's time to live wider awake. only the beautyrest recharge sleep system combines the comfort of aircool memory foam layered on top of beautyrest pocketed coils to promote proper sleeping posture all night long.

the revolutionary recharge sleep system... from beautyrest. it's you, fully charged. we continue to follow developments on capitol hill. there you see elijah cummings is speaking. as we've been telling you, just about at the top of the hour we learned that president obama has asserted executive privilege over the fast and furious documents in question. nbc's christin welker is live at the white house. what are you hearing there? obviously the accusation had been gnat request for the documents is political. is the white house concerned that the use of executive privilege will look political, as well? >> reporter: well, look. to some extent they have to be, chris. this is an election year. we are closer to the november election so everything right now will likely be viewed through a political lens but i just spoke

to senior administration official who is say that president obama felt it necessary to assert this executive privilege to essentially protect a class of documents that's never been turned over to congress before, class of documents that really relates to correspondents about fast and furious and they argue that the primary documents of fast and furious, 7,600 of them have been turned over to congress. they say there's 11 congressional hearings about this. they say that the justice department is cooperating fully with the proceedings. so they believe that this executive privilege is necessary for that reason. the white house also points to the fact, chris, they bring up something you noted earlier in the broadcast which is that president bush asserted six executive privileges. president clinton exerted 14 and this is president obama's first executive privilege. still, chris, we are in an election year so this will likely be viewed through a political lens but just showing

you that this fast and furious issue continues to grow more heated by the day. >> we are going to continue to listen in to the hearing. thank you so much, kristen. there's a fascinating new poll out this morning with a new look in the presidential race. with a boost to president obama, 45% say they're better off now than they were when he first took office. 36% say they're worse off. look at the head to had matchup. obama with a double-digit lead over romney. 53% to 40%. that's larger than recent polls. nevertheless, this poll has good and bad news for both the president and for mitt romney. let's bring in chuck roker and ed goas. good morning. >> good to be with you, chris. >> good morning. >> chuck, what's interesting is the president gets, frankly, some pretty low marks here on

the handling of the economy, of the deficit. 6 in 10 say the country on the wrong track. so what do you make of what would seem to be contradictory numbers? >> i think we're nowhere near where we need to be but when president obama took over this economy and the presidency, we were hemorrhaging 700,000 jobs a month. over 25 months, we have had sustainable private sector job growth while republican governors across the country laid off over 600,000 teachers, firefighters and custodians in high schools. >> do you think voters make that distinction? do you think they make the distinction and say, well, it was budget cuts in the state? i won't blame president obama for that? >> i think it's a mix of both. gas prices have come down. they have more money this week to spend on their children. i think they see things turning around slowly. i don't think it's something that's overnight but a slow process where they are as your poll said some saying it's better and some saying it's not. >> mitt romney's central

argument basically that americans are not better off than they were four years ago. this new poll suggests that they're feeling otherwise. is romney losing this argument? >> i think that he is. i think he's trying to connect with people being a millionaire businessman saying i feel your pain and know what you are like an i think you see that on the polls. >> chuck, what do you think's going on here? i'm sorry, ed. >> well, first of all, not to throw water on this but this poll appears to be an outlier before we get too in depth in terms of the data. in fact, the average of the polls out there the last week has president obama up by 1 percentage point and including this poll. if you take this poll out as an outlier and romney leading by a point. i think what's consistent in terms of data out there is all the polling is showing this to be a dead heat between the two

candidates. probably going to remain that way. been that way for eight weeks now. ever since the nomination process basically with republicans. so i wouldn't take too much out of this poll. in fact, most of the other polling as you say is showing wrong track, over 60%. >> well, i mean, yeah. but also to be fair, i mean, and been a long time speaking of ed hunt of bloomberg on "morning joe" and suggests to look at this as a whole and analysis of this poll by bloomberg or other people is looking when you see the numbers at a race that's very tight, an american electorate that's very unsettled. let me ask you, ed, about a particular number that i think al pointed out that a lot of people find interesting. they ask the question, who would you want to sit next to on a long airplane flight? 57% president obama and people find president obama more likable. how important do you think

that's going to be in the end? >> i refer to as the fool's gold for the democrats. in our most recent poll, we had 24% of the sample that disapproved of the job the president was doing but approved of the president personally. of that 24%, 68% said they were going to vote against him for re-election. only 6% said they were going to vote to re-elect him so i think the whole likability issue is fool's gold for the democrats at this time. one of the positive points they can point to, but it doesn't mean anything about anything. >> chuck, ed, thanks to both of you. we really appreciate it. we want to go back to the committee hearing. now we want to hear from the other side, elijah cummings saying basically the attorney general held by the republicans to an impossible standard. let's listen. >> to try to come to a mutual resolution, despite its normal legal assertion. as a member of congress, i treat assertions of executive

privilege very seriously. and i believe they should be used only sparingly. in this case, it seems clear that the administration was forced in to a position by the committee's unreasonable existence of pressing forward with contempt despite the attorney general's good faith offer. mr. chairman, it did not have to be this way. it really didn't. we could have postponed today's vote, accepted the attorney general's offer and worked with the department to obtain additional documents and information. instead, by not honoring the constitution's charge to seek accommodation when possible, the president and prestige of this committee has been diminished and the result should concern us all. with that, i yield back. >> i trust the gentleman did not mean to demean my intention but for the record, the press conference that occurred after

our meeting was equally usable and intended to announce that we had a deal and a stay if it was appropriate. and i had prepared a written statement saying that we would be staying today's mark-up had we been offered anything pursuant to our letter so i trust the gentleman would realize that it could have gone another way and we had no idea. >> mr. chairman, i believe you when you say that. i trust that's what the situation was. i simply was giving my opinion of the way it was set up. that's all. >> i thank the gentleman. i will hold the record open -- >> let's bring in jonathan allen who's been watching this. you don't have to be a devotee of c-span to see the tension in that room, do you, jonathan? >> reporter: no. it grips viewers for long

periods of time. there's real animosity between the government reform committee and the democrats on that committee and between the republicans on the committee and the obama justice department specifically eric holder. >> now, we haven't had a lot of time to vet some of this and it just all happened at the top of the hour that the white house exerted executive privilege and we saw in it a statement from the white house, they say that basically this executive privilege is to protect a class of documents that, frankly, has never been turned over before. that what darrell issa and other republican committee members are asking for is something that's outside what is typically done. do we know if that's right? >> i think that's a matter of subjectivity. there's a harsh disagreement. seeing it play out right now. issa thinks he is entitled to the documents as an overseer of the justice department and the

obama administration. the administration feels like he's asking for way too much information and probably will end up in a court. that's something to continue to keep this on the political level for a long time. probably through the election. darrell issa no doubt will accuse the administration of trying to hide something and the administration will say he's investigating us on everything he can and this is a partisan wit wit witchhunt. get used to the headlines. i expect congress william lacy collie have a harsher take on it than you heard from elijah cummings. my idea is he's going in with guns plazing. >> thank you for the heads up. we'll be watching for that, jonathan allen. thank you. we really do appreciate it. we'll is the latest on the jerry sandusky trial next. unner,marathon r

in absolute perfect physical condition and i had a heart attack right out of the clear blue... he was just... "get me an aspirin"... yeah... i knew that i was doing the right thing,

when i gave him the bayer. i'm on an aspirin regimen... and i take bayer chewables. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. so he's a success story... [ laughs ] he's my success story. [ male announcer ] learn how to protect your heart at i am proheart on facebook. yoo-hoo. hello. it's water from the drinking fountain at the mall. [ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can come from any faucet anywhere. the brita bottle with the filter inside.  [ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can come from any faucet anywhere. like, keep one of these over your head. well, i wasn't "supposed" to need flood insurance, but i have it. fred over here chose not to have it. ♪ me, i've got a plan. fred he uh... fred what is your plan? do i look like i have a plan? not really. [ female announcer ] only flood insurance covers floods. for a free brochure, call the number on your screen.

[ creaking ] [ male announcer ] trophies and awards lift you up. but they can also hold you back. unless you ask, what's next? [ zapping ] [ clang ] this is the next level of performance. the next level of innovation. the next rx. the all-new f sport. this is the pursuit of perfection.

in addition to less focus and an increased risk of obesity, sleep deprivation may increase your risk of a stroke. new research shows adults that consistently get less than six hours of sleep are more likely to have a stroke compared to adults who got more sleep. a couple of pieces of breaking news. first of all, we just heard from congresswoman maloney saying this shouldn't be a political witch hunt. her voicing the concerns of many democrats who believe that this contempt hearing for the attorney general is exactly that. of course, the fight is over documents that darrell issa and his republican committee members want turned over. the president today expecting executive privilege. that is developing story and watching this because this hearing is getting pretty contentious. in the meantime, we are just learning some new information at the jerry sandusky trial. the question has been will he

take the stand? this is the final day of defense testimony we're told. and, we are also told that within the next 15 minutes by 11:00 eastern time we will learn whether or not he will, indeed, take the stand in his own defense. joining me now live from bellefonte, pennsylvania, nbc's national investigative correspondent michael us cough and civil attorney and former prosecutor john q. kelly. michael, is anybody signaling what the decision is going to be? >> well, needless to say, chris, the tension the mounting right now. you can see people filing back in to the courtroom. we are on recess to resume at 11:00. the judge told the jury this morning that this trial is on schedule which means that the defense is planning to rest by midday today, possibly by noon. they have got if jerry sandusky is going to take the stand, it's going to be right after we resume at 11:00. and everybody obviously is waiting for that big -- to see

whether that happens or not. we had a couple of defense witnesses this morning including two fairly compelling character witnesses. former second mile kids who talked about how jerry sandusky was a father figure to them. helped them out with schoolwork, inviting them to his home. never did anything inappropriate and one talked about how he was visited by police investigators several times and asking him over and over trying to get him to say something that was not true. that's what one of the witnesses testified to. that helped the defense marginally in the every r effort to show that police may have been coaching or encouraging the witne witnesses. all right. we're breaking up there but let me come over to john. what do you think? is he going to take the stand? >> conventional wisdom would say no. >> no. >> nothing's been conventional about this trial yet so i don't think so. we gave that -- i would call it

damning interview with bob costas and the things could be viewed as admissions. i don't see him taking the stand. >> would bit a signal they're desperate and lost this and nothing to lose? >> well, no. i think it's sort of maybe cut their losses and hope for a hail mary. i think they know they would definitely lose it putting sandusky on the stand at this time. >> but if they do, they would have to know given that interview it's a wild card at best and probably disastrous potentially. >> i think so. both for impeachment purposes and the fact he just seems like not able to deny his attraction to young men even when directly asked by costas. he said he didn't see every young man as a sexual object and begging the question did you see some of them as sexual objects and pursue them? >> you have the kids yesterday saying he was great, a father figure to me. other former nfl players who had played for him who said what a

great guy he was and then his wife who, you know, made it sound like she was around. they helped these kids out. there was no soundproofing in the basement. if a kid was yelling, she would have heard it. did she help? >> i don't think she helped at all. i think he basically corroborated the factual testimony. she confirmed the sleepovers. she confirms sandusky in the basement with the boys. she confirmed the kids traveling with him. she even confirmed the specific incident of walking in on what she called a confrontation of sandusky and a boy and a boy said it was, you know, an interrupted attack. but you know, it happened. there's just two different versions of it. >> all right. thank you so much, john. >> sure. >> obviously, we are awaiting anxiously in the next ten minutes or so to find out what will be a key moment, key decision in this trial whether or not jerry sandusky takes the stand. today's tweet of the day is from nationally syndicated talk show host michael smerconish.

interesting that dottie sandusky was asked zero questions about her physical relationship with jerry. not even whether they hug. an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪ so,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. great grains. search great grains and see for yourself. for multi grain flakes that are an excellent source of fiber

try great grains banana nut crunch and cranberry almond crunch. how math and science kind of makes the world work. in high school, i had a physics teacher by the name of mr. davies. he made physics more than theoretical, he made it real for me. we built a guitar, we did things with electronics and mother boards. that's where the interest in engineering came from. so now, as an engineer, i have a career that speaks to that passion. thank you, mr. davies.

statements continue at this hearing about contempt charges against attorney general eric holder. this is congressman john mica of florida and earlier today the president asserted executive privilege over the documents in addition to the 7,600 already turned over, executive privilege over the request of the republicans on that committee. that wraps up this hour. i'm chris jansing. thomas roberts is next. >> hi, chris. we are going to don't watch that hearing. as chris pointed out, congressman mica is talking and scheduled to be our guest at the 11:30 point of our show. we'll watch all of the goings on in that meeting about ericpoten

in contempt of congress regarding fast and furious. so the contempt is easily expected to pass. another thing we're watching for you is former egyptian president hosni mubarak reportedly suffering a stroke. why think eve gone silent about updating his condition. also, as you watch in the last hour, today may be the day that jerry sandusky takes the stand to defend himself. we'll know coming up at the top of the hour as they're in recess right now but the trial scheduled to resume at the top of the hour. we'll bring you details from bellefonte, pennsylvania. ♪ uh-huh... uh-huh... uh-huh... ♪ ♪ it kinda makes me miss the days when we ♪ ♪ used to rock the microphone ♪ back when our credit score couldn't get us a micro-loan ♪ ♪ so light it up! ♪ even better than we did before ♪ ♪ yeah prep yourself america we're back for more ♪ ♪ our look is slacker chic and our sound is hardcore ♪ ♪ and we're here to drop a rhyme about free-credit-score ♪ ♪ i'm singing free-credit-score-dot-com ♪

♪ dot-com narrator: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com. if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... ...advanced headlights... ...and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪ nissan. innovation that excites. so i test... a lot. do you test with this? freestyle lite test strips? i don't see... beep!

wow! that didn't take much blood. yeah, and the unique zipwik tab targets the blood and pulls it in. so easy. yep. freestyle lite needs just a third the blood of onetouch ultra. really? so testing is one less thing i have to worry about today. great. call or click today and get strips and a meter free. test easy. holding down the fort while you're out catching a movie. [ growls ] lucky for me, your friends showed up with this awesome bone. hey! you guys are great. and if you got your home insurance where you got your cut rate car insurance, it might not replace all this. [ electricity crackling ] [ gasping ] so get allstate.

you could save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. [ dennis ] mayhem is everywhere. so get an allstate agent. are you in good hands? where tonight we switched their steaks with walmart's choice premium steak. it's a steakover! it's flavorful. it's so juicy. the taste...it's fantastic. it's probably the best steak i've had. only one in five is good enough to be called walmart choice premium. tastes like a five star steak. tonight you were actually eating walmart steak. are you serious? wow. scrumdeliumcious. tomorrow will be the day i will buy walmart steaks. walmart choice premium steak in the black package. it's one hundred percent satisfaction guaranteed. try it and check us out on facebook. good morning, everybody. i'm thomas roberts. we begin with breaking news on capitol hill. a house committee moving ahead with a contempt of congress vote for attorney general eric holder over documents related to the fast and furious gun walking investigation. the president within the last hour invoking executive

privilege over certain documents. now this committee is leading the charge, it's the house oversight committee headed by congressman darrell issa. and the committee which is gop majority controlled will decide whether the contempt vote moves on and makes it to a full vote on the house floor. >> that he is asking the committee to close the investigation before seeing the documents. he is pretending to offer. i can't accept that deal. no other chairman would. >> it's not consistent with the powers of the constitution and potentially create an imbalance in the relationship between these two co-equal branches of government. >> let's get more on this now from kelly o'donnell joining us from washington, d.c. kelly, let's talk first about what happened right before this panel convened about the president invoking the executive privilege. how does that inter