>> just now in michigan, mitt romney responding. >> our hearts today are touched by people who i know are suffering. you heard that there was a shooting in new york city at the empire state building, one person killed there, others injured. our hearts go out to those that have been affected by that. >> we're live on the scene with the latest on the victims and what triggered the rampage. all eyes on isaac. will the rnc dodge a direct hit from the hurricane? and what about other forces of nature, like ron paul. team romney denies reports that they have moved up the roll call to avoid a potential clash. just now in michigan, where he and ann romney were born, romney took this swipe at the president. >> ann was born in henry ford hospital. i was born at harper hospital. no one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. they know that this is the place that we were born and raised. >> good day.

this is andrea mitchell in washington. we are following today's shooting outside the empire state building and the rapid response from new york city police, the mayor and the police commissioner had the latest information. >> a little after 9:00 a.m., a man who had been fired from his job about a year or so began shooting near the empire state building, but out on the street. he killed one person and at least nine other people were shot. >> a construction worker who had followed johnson from west 33rd street alerted two uniformed police officers who were on post in front of the empire state building's fifth avenue entrance as part of our counterterrorism coverage. as the two officers approached johnson, he pulled his 45 caliber semiautomatic pistol from his bag and fired on the officers, who returned fire, killing him. >> nbc's lester holt has been reporting from the scene all morning and joins me now.

what is the latest there? >> reporter: well, let me give you a little perspective. we're looking across or down, actually, 33rd street to the west. that's where the import/export store was where the initial shooting took place. the 41-year-old victim was cut down by this 58-year-old man, jeffrey johnson. it was at that point the construction worker saw it, alerted the police officers. as we move to the fifth avenue side of the empire state building, this is where there's usually a counterterrorism group of police officers. they were alerted and that's where this shootout, if you will, occurred. there's some conflicting reports as to whether johnson actually fired at police or if they fired at him and perhaps that he had fired on other people in the crowd. if you look just past, i don't know if you can see past that scooter, you will see yellow marks and numbers in the street. that's where some of the shells were. that's where, in that area is where johnson was eventually shot and killed but there were people injured all the way up there to 34th street as well.

lots of confusion, busy place at any time but certainly that hour of the morning, people coming to work, tourists trying to get an early start on the line to go up to the observation deck at the empire state building. thankfully, there was this constant police presence outside this building, because it is obviously a high profile, potential terror target. it was those officers, members of the counterterrorism unit, that responded and were able to end this situation. but police unclear whether some police bullets may have actually felled some of the injured. nine people injured, none believed to be life-threatening. this part of manhattan has been shut down now since this all began. several blocks, fifth avenue, the major artery up the middle of manhattan, is closed for about three blocks here, making a huge problem of course for deliveries, commerce. tourists have gathered here trying to get pictures of things they only see in nypd detective tv shows happening for real here. police slowly trying to gather the evidence. the body of the first victim was

removed just a short time ago down the street, but they've got a lot to go through before this area can be opened up. >> what a nightmare. lester holt all over the story. thank you so much. we're getting eyewitness accounts this morning of the terrifying shooting outside the empire state building, the heart of midtown manhattan. >> heard gun shots, turn around, see a guy running, shooting. then the cops took him out right there in front. >> i could see on the side right over in front of this hartland brewery, the big sign. there was just a white sheet and it was clear there was someone underneath it. >> nbc's jeff rossen is live at the scene. jeff, you have been talking to some of the witnesses. >> reporter: yeah. the witnesses heard the shots and were coming down. what basically happened was they were pushed on to the street and back to these barricades like everybody else. one woman told us that she basically heard the pop, pop, pop, then looked out of her building window and saw that there was a man laying on the ground outside which is of course incredibly disturbing. i can tell you from the minute

that i got here, first of all, police immediately shut down this area. that was the first thing they did today, when they didn't know what this was. there were counterterrorism investigators who came here. of course when you hear about a shooting at the empire state building, that's an initial reaction for a huge police department like the new york city police department. they quickly ruled that out and figured out what this was but in the meantime, fifth avenue remains closed. this is as you know, major thoroughfare in the middle of midtown manhattan. traffic has stopped in this entire area and now you have dozens of people behind barricades at every single street. it's unclear when this will open again because this is a major crime scene and will be for quite some time. >> jeff rossen, thanks so much for being out there for us today. we'll continue to follow it of course with updates throughout the hour. in our daily fix today, did he really just say that? this was mitt romney in michigan. >> ann was born at henry ford hospital. i was born at harper hospital.

no one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. they know that this is the place that we were born and raised. >> mark halperin is a senior political analyst for "time" and msnbc and joins us now from new york. mark, what was the point of raising that issue in that context to that audience? was this an ad lib, a joke, strategy? >> i would like to answer your question but twitter is exploding and i need to tend to that. the left and the right are going crazy over this. i think mitt romney was making a joke. we have seen particularly when he's in michigan, when he jokes about the heights of the trees. the left will say i'm making an excuse for him. i don't know why he did it. it was ill-advised, i'll say that, and it is going to cause -- we have already seen a statement from the obama campaign, fast and furious, a reaction statement. you will see tons of comments on this. this will dominate the day and into the weekend. governor romney i think will say he was just joking but people on the left won't believe it. it was a mistake, whether it was

accidental on purpose, it was an unfortunate mistake because anything that injects the birther talk into the top of the republican ticket is going to be seized on forever as something that is divisive and a mistake. like i said, i think he was trying to be funny. i think it was not the right thing to say because it's going to distract the campaign from serious issues for a long time and may distract from his convention. >> kevin madden has put out a statement. as you know, romney's senior advisor. he says the governor has repeatedly said he believes the president was born in the united states. he was only referencing that michigan, where he's campaigning today, is the state where he himself was born and raised. but i watched it live, i was watching the rally as i was preparing for this program, and this was not what we were planning to be talking about. we were going to talk about their rollout, the convention plan, and what they're doing regarding ron paul which we'll get to in just a moment but this is, some will say this is a dog whistle, that this was not ad lib but it does somehow suggest

the whole birther issue which is the whole question about race and the campaign, something that the romney m campaign has vigorously rejected, saying their welfare ads have nothing to do with race but this, as you point out, is going to give critics a big opening. >> there's two things about this that are true that makes what governor romney said for whatever reason unfortunate. one is, there are all these other issues. governor romney has used other language and his surrogates have talking about the president needs to be more american, things along those lines. there's the welfare ad which there's no doubt the democrats think is a racial dog whistle. so it's part of a package of things that is going to intensify the democrats' claims that governor romney and his allies are engaged in a dog whistle campaign across the board to try to paint the president in terms that they're unwilling to confront directly. the other unfortunate thing, there are tens of millions of americans who don't think the president was born in the united states, so anything that responsible people do to talk

about that, someone who is about to become the official republican nominee, is going to inflame the dialogue in a way that the white house doesn't like and frankly, governor romney shouldn't like. i think for them, it would be wise for them and good for the country if rather than kevin madden's initial statement which on the face of it is fine, they went a little further than that and tried to defuse this. there will be danger on the right if they do but it's the right thing to do. >> let's talk about ron paul because what they've now made clear is that the roll call is going to be on monday and they did say that last week. it was little noticed when they put out the schedule. the roll call is going to be monday. he will not accept the nomination or start spending general election monday until thursday but ron paul will get his own video on tuesday. his son rand paul speaking on monday, then ron paul getting a video tribute at the convention on tuesday. why? >> one of the things the romney campaign has done i think brilliantly is they are ending up with almost the exact convention they wanted in terms of excluding speakers who they

would be better off not having at the podium in their view, and including people they wanted to include. ron paul's speech is a distraction that they don't want. rand paul is a nice compromise for them and a tribute video, ron paul's people really appreciate it. most voters, some voters might be turned off by dr. paul, won't notice there is a video. it's another good compromise on their part in a way that is lining up the program they want. they just need to avoid the kind of distraction governor romney created for himself this morning. >> briefly, before i let you go, do you think there's going to be a compromise on ann romney? she's supposed to speak monday. the broadcast networks are not carrying the convention on monday. they are doing three days as they are doing for the democrats or the same amount of overall time as they're doing in charlotte. do you think they will relent if they see no broadcast opportunity to show ann romney, who is one of their best surrogates, and move her speech to the next day? >> i think they will. i think there's a history

sometimes of networks changing course on things like this. i don't get the sense that's going to happen here. i think the republicans are sort of putting out one last ditch effort to say please, could you all cover monday night, that's an important speech. if not, it's really not that big a deal of moving it to a different night, maybe tuesday, sharing billing with chris christie. i think it's important to them. they must introduce ann romney and through ann romney, mitt romney to the country. i think they're right to go for that broadcast coverage. it's a bigger audience, typically, than cable and it's a demographic that is going to have more undecided voters in it than you can reach typically on cable. >> okay. mark halperin, thanks. get back on twitter. >> thanks, andrea. up next, the counter convention. what do democrats have on tap to try to compete as republicans converge on tampa? still ahead, isaac. also converging somewhere. the tropical storm taking aim at haiti. will tampa be spared? don't forget, next week we're live in tampa, rain or shine. the republican national convention. join us. i've discovered gold.

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we continue to monitor the scene of this morning's tragic shooting at new york's empire state building. a gunman killed one person, injured as many as nine others. new york police responders killed the gunman soon after he opened fire and identified him as a 53-year-old disgruntled employee who had lost his job at an office inside the building. the obama campaign today is not going silent during the republican convention. their plans at least. president obama is planning to be on a college tour of battleground states next week, courting young voters in colorado, iowa and virginia. president obama's traveling press secretary off the road, joining me now. great to see you. >> great to be here.

>> first of all, i wanted to ask you about your response, the romney campaign says that governor romney was not saying anything, that he's always said that he knows that president obama was born in the united states and has always rejected the birther arguments but you saw the offhand remark that he seemed to be ad libbing today when he was at the rally in his home state of michigan. >> well, this is the kind of gutter ball politics that i think will and should turn the american people off. this is a pattern. mitt romney has questioned repeatedly over the last several months whether the president understands america, whether he understands freedom. he's wrapped his arms around donald trump, one of the original -- originators of the birther movement. we've seen a pattern here and this is the same guy who said he wanted to raise the rhetoric of this campaign, wanted to have a debate about policy and we just haven't seen that at all from his team. >> what we also have seen from

the other side, from the romney camp in the interview that mitt romney did with michael crowley in "time" magazine, the cover story, he complaining directly about president obama, saying the divisiveness and personal character assassination i think is an unfortunate course. i don't think it will be a successful one. and "time" asked and you hold him personally accountable for that character assassination. governor romney replied well, i'm responsible for what happens in my campaign. he's responsible for what happens in his. >> well, i have no idea what he's talking about. i spend every day with the president out there on the campaign trail. he does make some contrasts or talks about the choice in this election. >> he made a joke about seamus, the dog, the other day. another ad lib -- >> well, it was a light moment in a longer speech about the wind energy tax credit and how important that is for jobs in iowa, jobs in colorado, investing in clean energy to help put people back to work. it was a short, light moment and

otherwise, a very substantive policy speech that was laying out the substantive choice in this election. so it really was nothing more than that. >> as you very well know, their complaint also is that priorities usa, which is the obama super pac, did put up an ad, it did run at least once somewhere, and the ad seemed to be suggesting that mitt romney was personally responsible for the death of this man's wife, who had been laid off from a company that had been owned by bain not even when he was in charge of bain. >> well, the ad ran once, maybe twice. mitt romney has run not one, but three ads on welfare that are based on a bold-faced lie and have been fact checked by countless reporters, countless members of the media across the country. they continue to run it and they continue to fail to defend it. so i think he needs to take a look at just as his campaign does about what kind of campaign they're running. are we running a campaign about

facts and the differences on policy, or are we running a campaign on bold-faced lies and innuendo. that's a question they need to answer. >> do you think there is a racial subtext to doing the welfare issue? >> we wouldn't characterize it that way. i think it's clear with the pick of paul ryan, with a number of the steps the campaign has taken, that they are really going after the right wing conservative part of their base, turning them out. it's clear when you pick someone who has one of the most conservative records on women's issues, who has an idealogical twin with todd akin on those issues, who is the author of a radical budget that makes dramatic cuts to key programs families rely on, that you're really trying to appeal to a certain part of the party and that's probably where the ads fit in as well. >> the president is going to be on the road, a college tour in key battleground states. the youth vote is really important to you. in our latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll, the president was ahead 52-41 among

young voters. he won that vote, the 18 to 29 vote, by 66 to 32 last time around. so he's got some catching up to do to motivate these young people. >> well, kids are just going back to school. we're going to be visiting three college areas next week. i'm sure we'll visit more in the months to come. this is a really key period for voter registration. four years ago, the majority of our voter registration happened actually after labor day, with young people, with people who are just getting engaged in the process, so we're making a big push on that as well and that will be part of the president's message next week. >> jen psaki, safe travels. up next, the politico briefing. the rapid rise of paul ryan. [ male announcer ] imagine facing the day

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our first thoughts are for the murder victim and then prayers that thank god nobody else was seriously injured and

that they will all recover and once again, there's an awful lot of guns out there. >> mike bloomberg, the new york city mayor, again making the point that he always has made about guns. we will continue of course to give you updates throughout the hour on the shooting outside the empire state building. two people are dead, including the alleged gunman. turning now to today's politico briefing, an in-depth look at the making of paul ryan and his heady climb to national prominence. joining me, jonathan martin. jonathan, thanks for being here. paul ryan, from the minute he was elected, had a lot of support. >> he did. >> through his think tank work, working for jack kemp, he knew the movers, the shakers, editors of the "wall street journal," the editors and publishers of "the weekly standard." >> those relationships have been so critical to his climb. we know so much about his ideas and his sort of policy vision but we had not heard much about how he climbed to power, the lbj style means of ascent and i

really do think what he did in the last 12 years, by cultivating these conservative voices on the outside, think tank folks and columnists and commentators, it's a big reason why he is where he is today. he comes off as very wisconsin nice but make no mistake, this is somebody who has been very ambitious over the years and has diligently worked his way up to the point where at age 42, here he is on the national ticket. it's different than the old way which is the old gerald ford, bob michael model where you serve for 30 years and do some favors here or there and climb the ladder. he worked from the outside in. >> another point is that there's a natural, i don't know what you would call it, synergy between his views, his ideas and theirs. so they found in him someone who agreed with their principles -- >> a vessel. sure. >> their conservative principles on the budget. >> right. >> and on deficit cutting. it hasn't always worked out that way in practice. but he certainly has walked the

walk, talked the talk in terms of their views on how to handle the federal deficit. >> he's one of them idealogically and also in terms of how he lives his life. he's more at home in a think tank boardroom than in a cloakroom in the capitol. that is his identity as a public figure and i think that's why they were so sympatico and why, as to why he's risen in the ranks, those people were so important in promoting and pushing him. we checked it out, the number of mentions he got in the "wall street journal" editorial page alone in the last four years was well over 100. the average house budget chairman doesn't get that kind of attention. it's been remarkable to watch. >> but it's also, he's not an average house budget -- >> he's not. >> one other thing that is very clear is that he had a relationship with mitt romney, sort of under the radar that goes back several years, where they were talking, they were meeting, they had an understanding -- >> a wonk bonding. yeah. >> i think that had a lot to do with this as well.

>> i think romney sees a lot of himself in ryan. somebody driven by data, somebody who is passionate about spreadsheets and power points, somebody who is more at ease in the boardroom than on the campaign stump, frankly. i think that's why they connected awhile ago and why i think romney, understanding the risks, still wanted to put ryan on the ticket. >> jonathan martin, we'll see you in tampa. next, countdown to tampa. three days to go. republicans are juggling more than just the threat of a hurricane. the rnc's sean spicer joins us next. i am going to become facebook friends with our babysitter. no. these work, right? no. all right. mom! look what i found in the shed! no! no! no! ♪ ew! were you guys just making out in here? what? no! is it okay if i quit my job and start a blog? no. really? cold cuts from a package? yes.

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continuing our breaking news, new york city officials say this a man laid off from his job a year ago, a man identified as jeffrey johnson, walked into his former workplace and killed a co-worker. johnson himself was killed after engaging with police near the empire state building.

nine others were hit by gunfire. nbc is on the scene. mara, what is the latest? >> reporter: you can see a number of city streets are still closed off as the investigation continues. that shooting took place about three blocks from where we are now, right in front of the empire state building. as you mentioned, jeffrey johnson, the gunman, shot a former co-worker and it was after that exchange where those other victims were injured. according to police, when johnson tried to get away construction workers alerted police to the fact that he had been involved in a shooting and police then pursued him, where there was an exchange of gunfire. that's when those nine other people were injured. now, initially it was unclear as to how those people were injured, whether it was johnson who actually shot them or the police. at this time, we're hearing that there is no evidence that the victims were shot by johnson. by all indications, they were shot by police in that exchange of gunfire. there's no evidence that johnson ever fired a second round.

we're also getting some new information about the condition of those victims. they were all taken to area hospitals. they are suffering non-life threatening injuries. the majority of them are to limbs. a number of people shot in legs, hips, the arms. one man was even shot in his foot. they are all expected to survive, although three of those injuries are considered to be serious. now, that shooting took place here in midtown manhattan shortly after 9:00 this morning and this area is one of those areas of the city where you have a lot of tourists and locals alike. in addition to the empire state building, there are a number of other tourist attractions that are very close by and this is also a big commercial area for the city. andrea? >> thank you so much for the update there. of course, we'll have continuing information from our team at the scene as the hour progresses. meanwhile, as tampa is bracing for the possibility that isaac, a tropical storm, could turn into a hurricane and head toward florida, right now it is

still a tropical storm, centered 175 miles southwest of the dominican republic. in haiti, people are still living in tents two years plus after that devastating earthquake. residents are being told to get to schools and other shelters as soon as they can before the storm hits later today. when will this storm get to the u.s. and where is it tracked? joining me now, hurricane expert with the weather channel, the preeminent hurricane expert, bryan norcross. bryan, what is the latest? >> haiti, we are very concerned for. it's imminent in haiti, the effects of this tropical storm moving into the populated areas. let me show you where it is. it's a 60 mile an hour tropical storm. indications are it is indeed strengthening. you see the pressure, that number we look to see how low it's going to get. still fairly high. indications are it is getting stronger, moving now in the direction of haiti and then on up toward cuba. here's the satellite. the main thing i want you to look at here with the center up in here is look at the

circulation size. it's very, very large. because that's going to be important when it gets up toward the u.s. here we go in terms of the timing, moving over haiti later today so tomorrow, it's in the vicinity of cuba. then up toward the u.s., so sunday is the day for significantly bad weather in south florida, from the keys up to miami. odds are that it's a tropical storm, strong tropical storm perhaps at that point. now, here's the big question for tampa. we're getting pretty confident that the center is going to stay offshore and that extremely high winds will not be the issue in tampa, but here's the problem. once the system, let's say the center is right there with the circulation like this, that's going to be pushing water up in tampa bay. what they're going to try to be evaluating is how strong will that wind be that many days in the future, and is that wind, whatever they're forecasting, enough to make it dangerous and inconvenient and push water up over the bayfront, where all those delegates and you folks

are going to be. it's still a very tough call for tampa but it does not look like very, very small chance of any kind of direct hit. >> we know as you know better than anyone that those bridges to the area where the convention center is, a lot of the delegates are going to be outside that area. they have to cross bridges. you were on the air -- >> very low, yes. >> you were on the air with hurricane andrew 20 years ago. >> it was 20 years ago this morning and last night. we went through that in miami and it was something that certainly changed my life. it was hard work for us at the tv station but as we have been looking back, we really remember the folks that went through it, just like they went through a war. a couple hundred thousand people in south florida really didn't know if they were going to make it through that night and we're proud as we can be, we were there with them but they're the real heroes, they kept their families together and made it through. >> bryan, you're the real hero for the way you have reported throughout all of these years.

thanks for being with us today. tropical storm isaac is just one of the looming concerns for mitt romney and conservative leaders ahead of the convention. republicans hope are going -- it will go off without a political hitch. sean spicer is communications director for the republican national committee and joins me now. thanks so much for being with us. first, as we are preparing for this convention, mitt romney was at a rally of course with ann romney and paul ryan today in michigan and as you know, he raised the question by -- let me play so that you can hear yourself, if you haven't heard it already, exactly what he said. >> ann was born at henry ford hospital. i was born at harper hospital. no one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. they know that this is the place that we were born and raised. >> why did he go there? >> to michigan? because it's an important state. it's where he was born.

i know what you're asking. look, it's -- i mean, it's a light-hearted moment. he was stating a fact. he's proud of the fact he was born in michigan, that mrs. romney was born in the area. i listened to your segment with jen a few minutes ago and found it somewhat laughable that these guys who have taken gutter politics to a new low, if you can do that, are suddenly feigning outrage about this kind of comment. th governor has been, he made a light-hearted moment, nothing more than that. if you look at some of the outrage from the obama campaign, i would ask them where that outrage was when their super pac made unbelievable claims about governor romney when they themselves referred to him as a felon, when the president referred -- made dog jokes as you asked jen about. these guys to feign outrage is a little ridiculous. >> i did ask as well about the super pac ad as you saw. but the fact is that the birther

issue and all that went with it has been such a lightning rod and the governor has continually stepped up to the front and said he doesn't agree with it, yet at the same time, he went there today and raised it and isn't that a potential signal, it's reigniting something you guys didn't need going into this convention. >> we're going to have a great convention. we will spend four days talking about mitt romney and paul ryan and their vision for the future, how to turn this country around, why we need to get people back to work again and deal with our debt and deficit. i think you're going to see that in the next four days starting sunday, going into monday here in tampa. we are extremely excited about the program that we've put together, the people that will be coming here, the speakers, the activities that are going on. i think we will have a great four days here in tampa. >> let's talk about ron paul because now we know he's going -- you guys have told us that there's going to be a video

tribute to ron paul on tuesday. it seems that governor romney and your whole team has done a very good job of bringing the party together and making sure that the ron paul supporters will not feel they didn't get a moment in prime time. >> well, thank you. it's true. i think that we're all committed, everybody. if you look at not just dr. paul but all of the other candidates that ran in the primary, gave it their all, everybody 100% is united around governor romney and congressman ryan to move forward. i am extremely pleased with the folks in the paul campaign and he will have a role in this. former speaker gingrich, governor pawlenty, all the folks that gave it their all will have a great role in this convention because every one of us is committed to putting mitt romney in the white house and getting this country moving again. so what you've seen the last couple days as we build up and what you'll see going forward is just a tremendous amount of unity from this side, not just

from republicans but from independents and disaffected democrats who all want to be part of this movement, this cause, and the comeback team that we've put in place to get this country moving again. >> sean, what about the possibility, you're not ruling out the possibility that ann romney's speech would be moved from monday if there's no agreement for full broadcast network coverage on monday when she's scheduled to speak? >> well, mrs. romney is currently scheduled to speak on monday. the campaign you know, if there's a change, we'll let you know about that. but it's unfortunate that because the networks had initially committed to covering our convention, all four nights, then at the last moment, have, because the democrats can't fill their convention time, are now kind of saying to us well, we're only going to cover three nights, that's very unfortunate. mrs. romney's obviously got a great story to tell about governor romney and who he is as a person, getting in a little insight as to what kind of family man he is and the kind of

person that makes him want to commit himself to helping this country. so i'll leave those decision toss the campaign as far as any changes that could potentially happen. she's currently slated for monday night. it would be unfortunate for the american people not to see her in prime time and she just has a real special way of being able to describe t governor and so i would hope that the networks reconsider. you know, we have four great days of programming and just because the democrats can't fill their time should not come down -- should not have to affect us. >> i think it was always supposed to be three and three, but it's way above me, above my pay grade, so i'll stay out of that particular argument. stay tuned on the actual scheduling. sean, see you down there. thank you very much. >> look forward to it. we'll have a great convention. thank you. >> thank you. join us monday as we kick off a power-packed week in tampa. among our guests, florida senator marco rubio, former minnesota governor tim pawlenty, house majority leader eric cantor, virginia governor bob mcdonnell, iowa senator chuck

grassley, michigan governor rick snyder and we will have democratic leaders coming on to present their points of view as well. tonight, right here on msnbc, you can see mitt romney, the making of a candidate, a documentary hosted by our own nbc political director and colleague and friend, chuck todd. it includes answers to a lot of the questions that have been raised about bain capital. >> after a few years, the company's ceo and founder, bill bain, asked romney to head up a spinoff, bain capital. >> mitt was hesitant. he was making a good salary, he had a growing family and he essentially said no. bill bain said run this new company called bain capital and if it fails, i'll bring you back to bain and company so you sort of can't lose. >> bain capital initially invests in startup companies. in 1986, after a tough two years, bain strikes it big. >> we invested in staples early in the year, and staples in pretty short order started doing well. we also helped start sports

authority, bright horizons, all within a six or nine-month period. >> romney helps launch staples not only with money but with business and strategic advice. >> this can be 100 stores. looks like it could be something big. >> it was critical. he acted as our lead investor. a lead investor in early stage company is very important because they manage relationships with other investors and the board. having somebody with mitt's savvy at your side was really, really helpful. >> don't miss chuck todd's hour-long special tonight, "mitt romney, the making of a candidate" at 10:00 eastern right here on msnbc. up next, attention, walmart moms. there's a candidate looking for you in aisle 10. if there was a pill to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? well, there is. [ male announcer ] it's called ocuvite. a vitamin totally dedicated to your eyes, from the eye-care experts at bausch + lomb. as you age, eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients.

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president's birth certificate. we will play you mr. romney's comments, plus we're also following two other breaking news stories. of course, the shooting at the empire state building, we are learning more about the person involved in that shooting, and this is the latest incident where so many people are now calling for some gun control. also, tropical storm isaac headed toward florida. we'll track that storm for you and have the very latest. women are among the most sought after voters this year and especially the so-called walmart moms, women with children, school age children who have shopped at walmart at least once in the last month. according to a new bipartisan research study that walmart commissioned, walmart moms aren't buying either candidate. joining me now is margie o'mara. you worked with a republican research group in this and what found is the walmart moms are still undecided. in our own nbc news/"wall street journal" poll we saw a ten-point

gender gap. it's really critical for mitt romney, who has an advantage among men, to try to narrow that gap among women, a gap that has traditionally been among women. what do women want to hear? >> a few things. first they want a candidate who will really speak to them personally and tell them how their plan is going to really affect their daily life. they say that very specifically. they want a plan and they want to know what it means for them in their daily struggle. they also want a candidate who says that he really understands what their lives are like and they get a lot of cs from that, whether it's how they come across. they also get cues from the candidate's spouses and their family unit and what they're talking about and really make sure that the voters have a real connection with the candidates. >> here's some of the responses that you got in a couple of places, denver, detroit, when you asked about president obama. >> i really don't think that his performance has been adequate enough as far as doing things that he said that he was going to do. >> i feel that he does

understand a lot of possibly like lower income families, middle class, a little more than his opponent. >> there's a lot of hope that all this could be different and pretty much, no. >> at the same time, you also had a response, responses about mitt romney. let's play that. then we'll talk. >> he needs to kind of get in touch with the people, where obama is or seems to be so in touch with the people. this one here seems to be the complete opposite. >> i think he is a good businessman and very successful at that. so i would tend to think okay, he should be able to enforce policies, if he can get past the bureaucracy of the government, enforce good policies that can help the country. >> he is so beyond wealthy and has this account offshore, secretive, shady -- >> one at a time. >> i think he's just shady.

>> what is your take-away from having listened to these women? >> i think there is good news for both candidates and also some warning signs for both candidates. for the president, a lost moms feel that he understands their struggle a little bit more than maybe they feel about mitt romney. maybe they feel about mitt romney. but they also feel that the economy is not improving quickly enough for them. these are a lot of moms going through some tough times. they may be living with their parents or they have older kids coming to live with them or they've been out of work. with mitt romney, we heard from a lot of moms that they feel that he -- they haven't warmed up to him or he hasn't warmed up to them so they'll be looking to hear a little more about him and try to figure out if his business experience is a plus or a minus. and they're still trying to figure that out. >> margie o'mara, thank you very much for bringing that to us. and what political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours right here on "andrea mitchell reports."

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headlines in the next 24 hours, "the washington post"

editorial writer/msnbc contributor jonathan capehart sportscaster extraordinaire joins me now. >> hey, andrea. >> thank you so much. good to see you. >> you too. >> what a week this has been. looking ahead we have mitt romney, paul ryan campaigning together in ohio leading up to of course the big convention. everybody traveling to tampa. >> right. >> heading toward storm central. what are we looking for in the next 24 hours? >> hopefully we'll all be able to get off the ground and get to tampa in time for the convention and that nothing, if hurricane isaac doesn't delay anything with the convention starting. i also think we'll be talking about the birther comment that governor romney made at that michigan rally. you've shown the tape many times so we know what he said. but we're going to be talking about the implications of this. you know, mitt romney is going into his convention. this is the time when people start paying attention to the

campaign, to what -- who this person is and what he -- how he wants to lead the country. for the last week he's been dealing with distraction after distraction and what happened in michigan today is just one more of those. >> the romney campaign says he does not have any doubts about the president's birth and it's clear he was not using a teleprompter today. it seemed to be an ad lib. they say it was not deliberate. we'll have to see how this plays out. it certainly was attention grabbing and did distract from the message that they were going to convey of paul ryan and mitt romney together in michigan with ann romney in the state where they were going. thanks. we are out of time. we'll see you soon. that's it for us for this edition. we'll see you in tampa. my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next on news nation. >> safe travels to tampa. we'll pick up where andrea left off discussing mitt romney and how he may have taken attention

today off the republican national convention. romney's comments seemed to take a swing at the birther moment or the president's birth certificate. >> no one has ever asked to see my birth certificate. they know this is the place we were born and raised. >> so what romney's campaign says he meant by those words, why did he go there? plus we're also following breaking news on that shooting at the empire state building learning more about the man who is the latest in work place violence it appears and tropical storm isaac. we'll have an update for you. foll sre w d thbo teft msue.

hi everyone. i'm tamron hall. news nation is following big breaking news at the top of the hour. we have new information on the deadly shooting just outside the empire state building. it is the third mass shooting in recent weeks in the u.s. once again new york city mayor michael bloomberg is saying, quote, there are just too many guns