right now on "andrea mitchell reports," how do you explain quote, legitimate rape? one week before the republican convention, the party is scrambling to run away from this comment by missouri senate candidate, congressman todd akin. >> it seems to me first of all, from what i understand from doctors, that's really rare. if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. but let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something. you know, i think there should be some punishment but the punishment ought to be in the rapist and not attacking the child. >> is this a lifeline to democrat claire mccaskill? with control of the senate hanging in the balance. >> he may be acting like he's backtracking but he didn't say he was wrong. all he said was he now is acknowledging that someone can become pregnant when they have been raped. >> what happens in israel stays in israel? two weeks after last august's debt ceiling debacle, 20ouse

republicans take a drunken dip in the sea of galilee and one of them, kansas freshman kevin yoder, seems to have forgotten his swim trunks. together again. mitt romney and paul ryan team up today in new hampshire to tackle president obama on medicare. >> medicare should not be a piggybank for obama care. >> and a clubf their own. augusta national welcomes its first two women members and one of them is condoleezza rice. good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. the republican party now has a todd akin problem. the missouri senate candidate whose comments on so-called legitimate rape have put gop hopes to take over the senate in doubt, and forced mitt romney to respond. times running out for congressman akin, under pressure from scott brown and other republicans to bow out. he has to quit the race before 5:00 tomorrow afternoon or be a potential headache stuck on that ballot, a headache for

republicans all the way to election day. susan page is washington bureau chief for "usa today" and is with me today for our daily fix. susan, the last 24 hours have been unbelievable. we've talked about gender wars, about the gender gap that republicans were fighting back against, and now here you've got todd akin, a leading candidate for ahead of claire mccaskill until this happened. what is the impact? >> todd akin not just random challenger, but a sitting member of the house. you know, i think this has the potential to cause -- to give claire mccaskill a second chance at winning another term in missouri, especially if todd akin doesn't take the hint and get out by 5:00 tomorrow afternoon. you know, it could have repercussions elsewhere. you talked about scott brown in massachusetts calling for him, calling for todd akin to step down. you could see the ramifications in a close race like massachusetts, where scott brown needs to get the votes of women and of independent and democraticwomen, and this creating a problem for republicans elsewhere makes it

harder potentially for republicans to win back the senate. one of the things they once thought was pretty much a guaranteed thing this year. >> let's play the rest of what todd akin said. so people get the full impact of his comments not out of context. >> if an abortion could be considered in the case of say tubal pregnancy or something like that, what about in the case of rape? should it be legal or not? >> well, you know, people always want to try and make that as one of those things how do you slice this particularly tough sort of ethical question. it seems to me first of all, from what i understand from doctors, that's really rare. if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down, but let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something. you know, i think there should be some punishment but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child. >> i'm trying to understand what possessed him, what he's thinking of. he then tried to backtrack but

in explaining just the biology of it and of course, the politics of it, and this has caused mitt romney and i must say, this was a very, very fast response time, andrea saul was out immediately last night with a statement from the romney/ryan campaign saying those comments were outrageous. we understand now that mitt romney is not going to have anything further to say. he did speak to national review online today, though. >> he pushed back pretty hard on national review online this morning saying it was offensive, it was wrong and ought to be corrected. i mean, just the phrase legitimate rape is one i think is very hard to understand what that means, and the biological explanation is not one i'm familiar with. so i would be interested if there is some kind of biological process, it's not one i've heard of. >> we'll deal with that. we have dr. nancy snyderman coming up in just a second. i also wanted to touch on the

sea of galilee, a holy site for christians, christ walked on the water there. it is a place for bathing, most israelis, people raised have a right of passage we're told by our colleague, martin fletcher, who all take the plunge in the sea of galilee so there's nothing unusual about it but this was a rowdy bunch. it was 20 members of a 30 member delegation paid for by the pro-israel lobby and its offshoot, this foundation for education, and they do very good seminars, we're told, in israel but they are paying for these members to go and apparently, the members were chewed out the next day by the leaders who were not present for this post-dinner somewhat drunken revelry. >> from the politico story posted last night, we understand there was drinking going on, that one of the members of congress from my home state of kansas stripped naked to go swimming.

i'm from kansas, i'm familiar with this being the process that you would do in the sea of galilee. i think voters must -- voters who already have the lowest possible regard for congress has gotten even lower. >> the republican brand, the house republican brand, the congressional brand, writ large, is just in terrible shape and here they are, this happened a year ago right after the debt ceiling debate, the debacle, and you know, you have to wonder. there was, by the way, there was a confusion about reporting. there was no politico initially reported the fbi was looking into this. there was no fbi jurisdiction into this but one member of this delegation was being investigated separately by the fbi. >> i'm not sure saying the fbi is not investigating is much of a defense with voters when you look at this kind of behavior in a sacred place while you're on, by the way, a fact-finding trip. >> fact-finding indeed. thank you very much, susan page. great to see you. doctors in reproductive health are denouncing congressman todd akin's remarks

today. for more on this, i'm joined by dr. nancy snyderman. dr. nancy, i'm trying to get my head around this but perhaps you have some explanation, medical explanation, as to what he possibly could have been thinking. >> well, i think susan hit the nail on the head. if you haven't heard it before by the time you're our age, it probably doesn't exist. he mentioned possible physicians and a stress response for women who during time of any rape, that it would thwart becoming pregnant, it's just bogus. it's not written anywhere, it's not taught anywhere. in fact, what is taught in medical schools now is that rape is not about sex, it's about power, it's a crime, and the reason the morning after pill does exist is that women can get pregnant after rape and the morning after pill gives them a chance to prevent the pregnancy. i just want to remind people again that a pregnancy is implantation of egg and sperm,

not disrupting an egg and sperm from getting together. >> dr. nancy, again, there is some possible explanation going back to i think an argument that was articulated by the national right to life organization. there was a 1999 essay entitled "rape pregnancies are rare" which is not the case, that possibly it could have been what akin was thinking, not that it's rooted in any facts. >> you know what's interesting, if you have unprotected sex, the chance of getting pregnant is reasonably rare, about 5%. getting pregnant as a result of a rape is also about 5%. so if you calculated that forward, that means thousands of women are put in the situation of having to figure out what to do. so the idea that it's rare is true but that's because biologically, if you have unprotected sex, you have about a 5% chance of getting pregnant. that means that if you're raped, your chance is 5% and if you're

one of those 5%, it's 100% for you. these are really not the kinds of facts that people should throw around cavalierly, any more cavalierly than throwing around the term legitimate rape which has no business being in any medical or social lexicon, period. >> maybe you are going to have to make some house calls, or at least come on the shows all the time to try to explain to some of these politicians out there the facts. >> use your words carefully. thanks, andrea. >> thank you very much. how does this debate play into this year's larger argument over women's access to reproductive health care? cecille richards is the president of planned harparenth and is launching a new program today to increase women's access to follow-up services for breast cancer screening. great to see you. i wanted to ask you about your new program but first, let's deal with what's happened in the last 24 hours with todd akin and

this latest assault or outrage, really, on the whole question of women, women's health and rape. what's your response? >> it's obviously incredible that anyone, a sitting member of congress, would make these statements. it's appalling. it's insensitive. and i think whether it's as a woman or as a mother, incredibly disturbing. but honestly, i think you can sort of take this in the context that women have been looking at this entire year of women's health care somehow now being a political issue and i think what it shows, i actually thought the comments the doctor just made are exactly on point. this is the danger when you have people legislating, politicians legislating about women's health care and particularly about personal decisions women make about their pregnancies. it's absolutely extraordinary. but i would say mr. akin has plenty of company in the united states house of representatives. >> and i know that you find -- you try to be nonpartisan but

you do find that it does tend to come more from one party than another, the legislatures, texas and other legislatures. how many states now, more than 20 states have tried to take action against planned parenthood screening programs for breast cancer because perhaps in 3% of your medical services do provide pregnancy counseling. >> i think not only state legislatures but we have seen the u.s. house of representatives again try to end all funding for planned parenthood to do cancer screenings, birth control but as disturbingly, frankly, mr. romney and mr. ryan have committed themselves to ending all funding for planned parenthood's preventive care, overturning roe versus wade, to really taking away incredibly important rights and decisions that women currently have. unfortunately, it looks like this is going to continue to be a big topic in the presidential election as well as it appears to be the senate race in missouri. >> let's talk about the breast cancer screening program because

you have apparently had a windfall of contributions after the controversy and now you're putting those to good use for additional breast cancer screening. this is a program you have launched today. tell us about it. >> we're very pleased to be launching the planned parenthood breast health initiative today. this is as a result of raising really in one week, more than $3 million from more than 70,000 folks who wanted to make sure that women who come to planned parenthood can get their cancer screenings and referrals for further treatment if they need it. we saw about 750,000 women every year for breast cancer screenings and with this new support, we are going to be able to expand that even further. that's really our goal is to make sure that every woman has access to affordable preventive care, including cancer screenings, both pap smears and breast exams. >> let's talk a minute about what this really means, because in practical sense, if you provide a mammogram screening, you did not have the money

available before to have the follow-up appointment. >> correct. >> now women who perhaps have a bad result on a mammogram can go for a sonogram or follow-up or biopsy. is that basically what's now going to be possible? >> that's right. what we've done now is we've now sent out grants, actually, more than $1 million going out this month to our health centers across the country to make sure that if women are we believe at risk and need further diagnostic tests, that that -- that there's money to help support that. i think the other thing, though, breast cancer is such -- the leading cause of death of women in this country, the important thing is there's so many women who don't ever go and get tested, and the two things we have found, and i think this is consistent across the medical community, is that it's fear and it's cost. that's what keeps women from getting preventive screenings. so we're hoping that not only we can provide funding for further screenings when necessary, but also be sure we educate particularly young women and when they're first starting, sort of their medical life, to

make sure that they are aware of those things that designate they're at higher risk of breast cancer. it's very exciting. >> briefly, because we have the jay carney briefing coming up at the white house and we don't know what else might be occurring at the white house right now, at a briefing, but women who are hispanic and african-american and young women have a higher fatality rate. these are the women you will be trying to reach. >> that's correct. we see three million patients a year, many of them young women, many women at color. they are at higher risk of not getting early detection. frankly, because of all the conversation about how much breast cancer work we do this year, we are seeing a flood of women coming to us for preventive care and we want to be there to serve them. >> cecile richards, thank you very much. you're launching the program today. it's very exciting for women who

are looking forward to increased access to breast cancer screening which is as you know, a cause very near and dear to many of us here, including me. >> thanks for having me. coming up next, at 2:00 eastern on "news nation" sandra fluke responds to the firestorm over congressman akin's comments. coming up next also, history is made in augusta. still ahead, republicans and their todd akin problem. this is "andrea mitchell reports." [ birds chirping ]

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after years of controversy over the all male policy at augusta national, augusta national is finally admitting its first two women. one of them is also

african-american, another underrepresented minority on hallowed fairways of augusta national. the chairman of the augusta golf club is calling this a joyous day. the first two women members, former secretary of state condoleezza rice and financier darla moore. they accepted becoming the first female members. rich learner is an anchor and reporter for the golf channel and joins me now. what is the significance of this? >> andrea, nice to be on. first off, the masters is arguably the most famous and influential golf event in the world. it's a beloved tournament that year in and year out brings golf fans tremendous excitement. we know that. they take great pride in their tradition and in the excitement they deliver but also in having been stewards of the game and if they're going to be stewards of the game, proper stewards of the game, then they understand, chairman payne fully understands

that that's a game that needs to be accessible and inclusive for all people, enjoyable for all, not just men. i think they fully understood that. chairman payne, i think, did and we all knew that. so this is a monumental day but i think one that those of us in the sport saw coming. >> condi rice, i remember when she first took up golf. she's always been a very, very good athlete, always loved football. when she took up golf, she took it up with a passion and had more time once she left becoming -- being secretary of state, but this is a very big deal for women, from the perspective of women and sports. two women, two southern women, two women who are very conversant with the traditions of augusta joining. how will that change the atmosphere, do you think, at the club? >> i don't think it's going to change it all that much. i think you spoke to the great passion they have for the game, like all of the members at

augusta national. they have a fairly high profile within the business and certainly in the case of secretary rice, within the political community. darla moore was the first woman as i understand it to have ever been on the cover of "fortune" magazine so she's a powerful figure in her world. i don't think it's going to change it all that much because number one, they fit the profile of an augusta member. civic-minded, passion for the game of golf, successful in business. i think obviously early next year when we arrive in that first week of april to augusta national, that will be the dominant story. from that point on, i think it's golf and business as usual and then from that point on, it's a question they won't ever have to answer again. >> why do you think it took so long and why now? >> that's a good question, andrea. i think now versus say in april, because this is the point in

time when traditionally, they extend their invitations to become members, right at this time of year. i think traditionally, augusta and the membership have not wanted to be forced to react based on media pressure as they've seen it through the years, and so i think the timing was right and i think you credit certainly chairman payne. always a forward-thinking leader in the business community, with having brought the summer games of 1996 to atlanta. he's tried to open up the game of golf in asia. he's done a few other things in and around augusta national that had us thinking he was on this path, and that it was just a matter of time. so i think the time was right and maybe it was too late for some, but here they are and i think they've obviously done the right thing. >> condoleezza rice and darla

moore getting green jackets and mitt romney, by the way, has tweeted congrats to my friend for joining augusta national and congratulations to augusta national for admitting its first female members. we can say okay to that. thanks very much, rich. thanks for taking the time from the golf channel. good to see you. coming up next, politico's glen thrush with an exclusive look at the new politico ebook, "obama's last stand."

♪ hello...rings ♪ what the... what the... what the... ♪

are you seein' this? ♪ ♪ 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. vice president joe biden is well known for saying what he thinks. it's a quality the president has said he relies on, getting good advice from joe. but what about this comment by the vice president on "meet the press" endorsing gay marriage before the president had? >> i am vice president of the united states of america. the president sets the policy. i am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and

heterosexual men and women are entitled to all the same exact rights, all the same civil liberties and quite frankly, i don't see much of a distinction beyond that. >> according to a new ebook out today, politico's glenn thrush reports that joe biden's declaration on gay marriage caused a lot more anxiety behind the scenes at the white house than has previously been acknowledged. that is one of the revelations. joining me now, glenn thrush, politico senior white house reporter and author of "obama's last stand." congratulations on your new book. >> thank you. >> let's talk about what really happened behind the scenes. how upset was the president with what happened on "meet the press"? >> i think the president was very upset. a lot of his senior advisors including david plouffe were recall upset. previously it had been -- >> right now we have to go to the white house because there is the man you have been writing about. the president has not appeared before the press in the white house since march 6th. >> before i take some questions,

let me just mention since medicare has been a little bit in the news lately, i thought it would be useful to start with some actual facts and news about the program. today, hhs announced that thanks to the health care law that we passed, nearly 5.4 million seniors with medicare have saved over $4.1 billion on prescription drugs. that's an average savings of more than $700 per person. this year alone, 18 million seniors with medicare have taken advantage of new preventive care benefits like a mammogram or other cancer screening at no extra cost. these are big deals for a lot of americans and it represents two important ways that the improvements we made as part of the affordable care act had strengthened medicare and helped seniors everywhere get better care at less cost. that's been our goal from the very beginning and i'm going to

continue to do everything i can to make sure that we keep our seniors healthy and the american people healthy. so with that, let me start off with jim. >> thank you, mr. president. thank you for being here. you are no doubt aware of the comments that missouri senate candidate, republican todd akin made on rape and abortion. i wondered if you think those views represent the views of the republican party in general. they have been denounced by your rival and other republicans. are they an outliar or representative? >> well, let me first of all say the views expressed were offensive. rape is rape, and the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we're talking about doesn't make sense to the american people, and certainly

doesn't make sense to me. so what i think these comments do underscore is why we shouldn't have a bunch of politicians, a majority of whom are men, making health care decisions on behalf of women. and so although these particular comments have led governor romney and other republicans to distance themselves, i think the underlying notion that we should be making decisions on behalf of women for their health care decisions or qualifying forcible rape versus nonforcible rape, those are broader issues and that is a significant difference in approach between me and the other party. but i don't think that they would agree with the senator from missouri in terms of his statement which was way out there.

he was nominated by the republicans in missouri. i will let them sort that out. nancy? >> yes, mr. president, thank you. as you know, your opponent recently accused you of waging a campaign filled with anger and hate and you told "entertainment tonight" that anyone who attends your rallies can see they're not angry or hate-filled affairs. but in recent weeks, your campaign has suggested repeatedly without proof that mr. romney might be hiding something in his tax returns. they have suggested that mr. romney might be a felon for the way that he handed over power of bain capital and your campaign and the white house have declined to condemn an ad by one of your top supporters that links mr. romney to a woman's death from cancer. are you comfortable with the tonethat's being set by your campaign? have you asked them to change their tone when it comes to defining mr. romney? >> first, i'm not sure all those characterizations that you laid out there were accurate. for example, nobody accused mr. romney of being a felon.

and i think that what is absolutely true is if you watch me on the campaign trail, here's what i'm talking about. i'm talking about how we put americans back to work and there are sharp differences between myself and mr. romney in terms of how we would do that. he thinks that if we roll back wall street reform, roll back the affordable care act, otherwise known affectionately as obama care, that somehow people are going to be better off. i think that if we are putting teachers back to work and rebuilding america and reducing our deficit in a balanced way, that's how you put people back to work. that is a substantive difference. that's what i talk about on the campaign. when it comes to taxes, governor romney thinks that we should be cutting taxes by another $5 trillion and folks like me would benefit disproportionately from that. i think that it makes a lot more sense and have put out a detailed plan for a balanced

approach that combines tough spending cuts with asking people like me, millionaires and billionaires, to do a little bit more. that's a substantive difference in this campaign. whether it's on wind energy or how we would approach funding education, those are the topics that we're spending a lot of time talking about in the campaign. now, you know, if you look at the overall trajectory of our campaign and the ads that i have approved, and are produced by my campaign, you will see that we point out sharp differences between the candidates, but we don't go out of bounds and when it comes to releasing taxes, that's a precedent that was set decades ago, including by governor romney's father, and for us to say that it makes sense to release your tax returns as i did, as john mccain did, as bill clinton did, as the

two president bushs did, i don't think that is in any way out of bounds. i think that is what the american people would rightly expect, a sense particularly when we will be having a huge debate about how we reform our tax code and how we pay for the government that we need, i think people want to know that everybody's been playing by the same rules, including people who are seeking the highest office in the land. this is not an entitlement, being president of the united states. this is a privilege and we've got to put ourselves before the american people to make our case. >> why not send a message to the top super pac that's supporting you and say i think an ad like that is out of bounds? we shouldn't be suggesting -- >> so let's take that particular issue as opposed to -- because you lumped in a whole bunch of other stuff that i think was entirely legitimate. i don't think governor romney is somehow responsible for the death of the woman that was

portrayed in that ad. but keep in mind, this is an ad that i didn't approve, i did not produce and as far as i can tell, has barely run. i think it ran once. now, in contrast, you've got governor romney creating as a centerpiece of his campaign this notion that we're taking the work requirement out of welfare, which every single person here who has looked at it says is patently false. what he's arguing is somehow we have changed the welfare requirement, the work requirement in our welfare laws. and in fact, what's happened was that my administration responding to the requests of five governors, including two republican governors, agreed to approve giving them those states some flexibility in how they

managed their welfare rolls as long as it produced 20% increases in the number of people who were getting work so in other words, we would potentially give states more flexibility to put more people back to work, not to take them off the work requirement under welfare. everybody who's looked at this says what governor romney is saying is absolutely wrong. not only are his super pacs running millions of dollars worth of ads making this claim. governor romney himself is approving this and saying it on the stump. so the contrast i think is pretty stark. they can run the campaign that they want, but the truth of the matter is, you can't just make stuff up. that's one of the things you learn as president of the united states. you get called into account. and i feel very comfortable with the fact that when you look at the campaign we're running, we are focused on the issues and

the differences that matter to working families all across america and that's exactly the kind of debate the american people deserve. jake? >> thank you, mr. president. a couple questions. one, i'm wondering if you can comment on the recent spate of green on blue incidents in afghanistan, what is being done about it and why. your commanders tell you they think there has been an uptick in this kind of violence. and second, with the economy an unemployment still the focus of so many americans, what they can expect in the next couple months out of washington, if anything, when it comes to any attempt to bring some more economic growth to the country. >> on afghanistan, obviously we have been watching with deep concern the so-called green on blue attacks, where you have afghan individuals, some of whom are actually enrolled in the afghan military, in some cases

dressing up as afghan military or police, attacking coalition forces, including our own troops. i just spoke today to marty dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff who happens to be in afghanistan. he is having intensive consultations not only with our commander on the ground but also with afghan counterparts, and i'll be reaching out to president karzai as well, because we've got to make sure we're on top of this. we are already doing a range of things and we're seeing some success when it comes to better counterintelligence, making sure that the vetting process for afghan troops is stronger, and we've got what's called a guardian angel program to make sure that our troops aren't in isolated situations that might make them more vulnerable, but obviously we're going to have to do more because there has been an uptick over the last 12

months on this. part of what's taking place is we are transitioning to afghan security and for us to train them effectively, we are in much closer contact, our troops are in much closer contact with afghan troops on an ongoing basis, and part of what we've got to do is to make sure that this model works but it doesn't make our guys more vulnerable. in the long term, we will see fewer u.s. casualties and coalition casualties by sticking the our transition plan and making sure we've got the most effective afghan security force possible. but we've got to do it in a way that doesn't leave our guys vulnerable. so we are deeply concerned about this from top to bottom and hopefully over the next several weeks, we'll start seeing better progress on this front. in terms of the economy, you

know, i would love to say that when congress comes back, they've got a week or ten days before they go out and start campaigning again, that we're going to see a flurry of action. i can't guarantee that. i do think that there's some specific things they could do that would make a big difference. i'll give you a couple of examples. first of all, just making sure that we've got what's called a continuing resolution so that we don't have any disruptions and government shut-downs over the next couple months. that's important. it appears that there's an agreement on that but we want to make sure that that gets done. number two, we have put forward an idea that i think a lot of americans think makes sense which is we've got historically low interest rates now and the housing market is beginning to tick back up but it's still not at all where it needs to be. there are a lot of families out there whose homes are under

water, they owe more than the house is worth because housing values dropped so precipitously, and they're having trouble refinancing. we're going to be pushing congress to see if they can pass a refinancing bill that puts $3,000 into the pockets of the average family who hasn't yet refinanced their mortgage. that's a big deal. that $3,000 can be used to strengthen the equity in that person's home which would raise home values. alternatively, that's $3,000 in people's pockets they can spend on a new computer for their kid going back to school, or you know, new school clothes for their kids. so that would strengthen the economy as well. obviously, the biggest thing that congress could do would be to come up with a sensible approach to reducing our deficit in ways that we had agreed to and talked about last year, and

i continue to be open to seeing congress approach this with a balanced plan that has tough spending cuts building on the trillion dollars worth of spending cuts that we've already made, but also asks for additional revenue from folks like me, from folks in the top 1% or 2% to make sure that folks who can least afford it aren't suddenly bearing the burden and we're providing some additional certainty to small businesses and families going forward. alternatively, they could go ahead and vote for a bill that we've said would definitely strengthen the economy and that is giving everybody who is making $250,000 a year or less, certainty that their taxes aren't going to go down next year. that would make a big difference. now, obviously the republicans have voted that down already

once. it's not likely realistically that they're going to bring it back up again before election day, but my hope is after the election, people will step back and recognize that that's a sensible way to bring down our deficit and allow us to still invest in things like education that are going to help the economy grow. chuck todd? >> thank you, mr. president. update us on your latest thinking of where things are in syria and in particular, whether you envision using u.s. military simply for nothing else than safekeeping of chemical weapons. i also want to follow up on an answer you just gave to nancy. you said that one of the reasons you wanted to see mitt romney's tax returns was you wanted to see if everybody is playing by the same set of rules. it actually goes to a question she asked which is this implication, do you think there's something mitt romney is not telling us in his tax returns that indicates he's not playing by the stame set of rules? >> there's a difference between

playing by the same sets of rules and doing something illegal. in no way have we suggested the latter. but the first disclosure, the one years of tax returns that he disclosed indicated that he used swiss bank accounts, for example. well, that may be perfectly legal, but i suspect if you ask the average american, do you have one, and is that part of how you manage your tax obligations, they would say no. they would find that relevant information, particularly when we're going into a time where we know we're going to have to make tough choices, both about spending and about taxes. so i think the idea that this is somehow exceptional, that there should be a rationale or

justification for doing more than the very bare minimum has it backwards. the assumption should be you do what previous presidential candidates did dating back to -- for decades. governor romney's own dad says the reason i put out 10 or 12 years is because any single year might not tell you the whole story. and everybody's i think followed that custom ever since. the american people have assumed that if you want to be president of the united states, that your life's an open book. when it comes to things like your finances. i'm not asking him to, you know, disclose every detail of his medical records, although we normally do that as well, but,

you know. i mean, this isn't sort of overly personal here, guys. this is pretty standard stuff. i don't think we're being mean by asking you to do what every other presidential candidates done, right? it's what the american people expect. on syria, obviously this is a very tough issue. i have indicated repeatedly that president al assad has lost legitimacy, that he needs to step down. so far, he hasn't gotten the message and instead has doubled down in violence on his own people. the international community has sent a clear message that rather than drag his country into civil war, he should move in the direction of political transition, but at this point, the likelihood of a soft landing

seems pretty distant. what we've said is number one, we want to make sure we're providing humanitarian assistance and we've done that to the tune of $82 million i believe so far, and we'll probably end up doing a little bit more because we want to make sure that the hundreds of thousands of refugees that are fleeing the mayhem, that they don't end up creating or being in a terrible situation, or also destabilizing some of syria's neighbors. the second thing we've done is we said that we would provide in consultation with the international community, some assistance to the opposition in thinking about how would a political transition take place, and what are the principles that should be upheld in terms of looking out for minority rights and human rights, and that consultation is taking place.

i have at this point not ordered military engagement in the situation, but the point that you made about chemical and biological weapons is critical. that's an issue that doesn't just concern syria, it concerns our close allies in the region, including israel. it concerns us. we cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people. we have been very clear to the assad regime but also to other players on the ground that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. that would change my calculus. that would change my equation. >> it's somehow -- >> in a situation this volatile,

i wouldn't say that i am absolutely confident. what i'm saying is we're monitoring that situation very carefully. we have put together a range of contingency plans. we have communicated in no uncertain terms with every player in the region that that's a red line for us, and that there would be enormous consequences if we start seeing movement on the chemical weapons front, or the use of chemical weapons. that would change my calculations significantly. all right? thank you, everybody. >> president obama saying to chuck todd that if there were any evidence of chemical or biological weapons in syria, that that would change his calculation about getting involved militarily. that is a red line, he said. he said that that has been communicated, that we have communicated that not only to the regime but to all of the players in the region. very important statement from the president on syria.

also said that he had talked today to the chairman of the joint chiefs, general martin dempsey, who is in afghanistan, about their concerns about the uptick in the deaths of american forces, the so-called green on blue violence there, and that they are trying to improve the screening. the angel system as well, the buddy system as the buddy syste well as the screening, the intelligence of afghan troops as they become standing up in this transition and american withdrawal. here at the table now is steve mcmahon, democratic strategist and former republican chairman michael steel. the first questions have a lot to do with todd akin, his comments, and the president said rape is rape. how difficult is this for the republican party? since we have been sitting here we hear from the chairman of the campaign committee has told todd akin in no uncertain terms

publicly saying take the next 24 hours and do what is best for you and your country and the republican party. this is not such a gentle shove to get out of the race. >> it is not. i hear people saying it is an unfortunate comment and all. it is stupid. it is just amazing that someone could sit there on a subject as powerful and hurtful as rape categorize it the way he did. it does as was talked about this morning on a few shows, reflects the mindset of this individual going into the senate campaign. >> he is not qualified to be a senator you're saying. >> in my estimation, no, and i think that applaud the senate leadership that has probably quietly, certainly, and now publicly saying rethink this bid, and do the right thing, and so whether or not he takes that advice remains to be seen. his comments so far is i have said something unfortunate and

there is no indication he will take that advice and rethink over the next 24 hours what he should do. >> what leverage do they have? they can withhold money from him. >> they can withhold money. look, he was backed by his community, the people elected him in his district in a republican primary. unless and until they're really clamors from the grassroots for him to do something, i don't think that pressure from washington, in fact, that may have the opposite effect. >> in fact, he was just on mike huckabee's radio show saying he is not going to drop out. >> yes. >> until 5:00 tomorrow. >> that's what they always say. we have heard that from a lot of these guys. >> what about the bigger question, michael, the bigger question for the party, you have a 15-point gender gap in some states, battleground states. you needed to close that for mitt romney to win. he has a big advantage with men. he is farther behind than most of the republican candidates with women and all of these other issues come up with

women's health and reproductive freedom. >> as a brand this does not help close that gap. i think it widens it in many respects because it affirms and pushes forward a narrative about the gop and women and health issues and their rights that the gop has faltered on over the last eight months or so. romney campaign has been, i think, a little bit quiet on this as they probably should to see how it plays out and it makes you not want to jump into these head long, but again as the standard bearer for the gop going into the convention, whether it is this or the dipping into the sea of galilee by members of the gop caucus, the branding and the messaging going into the convention is not good, not helpful for the romney campaign nor is it helpful for the party at large? >> steve mcmahon, has mitt romney and his running mate paul ryan, they immediately put out a statement last night but paul ryan before he joined the ticket

was a co-sponsor with aiken on one of these restrictive clause and supported prison. >> if you look at paul ryan's position on abortion, and i am not talking about the position on legitimate rape because no one has the position a kin took. he is against it in every case unless the health of the mother is jeopardized. it is not a position that will be effective for the republican party. i think you can see where it is going by looking at where mitt romney has been. he issued a statement not too dissimilar to senator cornen's just a little while ago in which he basically said he initially had said we have to evaluate it and it is not our view. he is denouncing very strong terms and i think the republican party is and we have until 5:00 tomorrow to do it. >> is this a moment of change? is this an inflection point,

michael? >> i think it could be. i think for romney it is a chance to put it on the party and it gives him an opportunity to rebrand the messaging and as you said, steve, very strong response to denouncing something like this and it can be very helpful, and again it has to be consistent. that oftentimes becomes a problem in these things. >> this conversation will continue. michael steele and steve mcmahon, thank you both very much. of course we heard from the president directly, his first news conference in many months. that does it for us. for this addition of andrea mitchell reports and more throughout the day on msnbc and tomorrow on the show stephanie and michael cranish, author of the real romney and time magazine columnist joe kline and my colleague has a look at what's next on news nation and i think you have breaking news. >> breaking news of the day, big problems for the gop, todd akin if you will the man of the day or the infamous man of the day.

he is talking with mike huckabee. we hope to play his interview and at this point it is well on the controversy and we have also learned mitt romney has just sat down for an interview in new hampshire. we hope to know more of what governor romney is saying today about the akin problem in his party and the paul ryan and todd a kin connection will dig deeper than that and at the top of the hour our guest will weigh in on this latest allegation, the war against women. drive a car filled with as much advanced technology as the world around it. with the available lexus enform app suite, you can use opentable to make restaurant reservations. during the golden opportunity sales event, get great values on some of our newest models. this is the pursuit of perfection.

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throughout our lives. one a day men's 50+ is a complete multi-vitamin designed for men's health concerns as we age. it has more of 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day men's 50+. hi, everyone. i am tamron hall. the news nation is following breaking flus this hour. president obama strongly condemning controversial comments made by missouri republican senate candidate todd a kin. the president made the unscheduled remarks during the