good morning. major changes at the top of the president's foreign policy team. in a move that is sure to rile republicans and maybe more significantly, potentially fuel the benghazi controversy, the president will name u.n. ambassador susan rice to replace tom donilon, who is stepping down. the president making that announcement this afternoon, 2:15, in the rose garden. rice became a gop target after her sunday show appearances delivering talking points about the attacks on september 11th and her name was pulled from consideration to succeed hillary clinton for secretary of state. >> i think the president has tremendous respect and affection for susan rice. she's done a wonderful job for the united states at the united nations and as chuck said, this

is not a senate confirmable job, so there's no concern on his part in elevating susan. >> i want to bring in washington post columnist dana milbank and casey hunt. good morning. >> good morning. >> tom donilon's been with the administration since the president took office and obviously, susan rice had been rumored to be the national security adviser in waiting, so this isn't a big surprise, dana, but why now? >> well, it was going to happen at some point eventually, so why not now? there had been some disappointment within the administration with tom donilon. this was always going to be the consolation prize for susan rice and it follows a pattern that the president has been doing in this second term and that is to appoint and promote loyal aides and new positions. it continues a pattern of having people who are very close to him and have been with him a long time into more senior positions

in the white house. >> casey, any reaction so far? what's the expectation? are republicans going to bring up the whole benghazi talking points again? >> it only took a few minutes before jason chaffetz to tweet judgment is key to national security matters and that alone should disqualify susan rice from her appointment. he tweeted that about 7:40 this morning, not long after we found out the white house was going to be making this announcement today. on the flip side, congress really doesn't have a lot of power in this case. >> doesn't require confirmation, senate approval. >> exactly. so no matter what they have to say and we've been seeing those early stages of anger about this, there's not much they can do and you're seeing from the white house here, a statement really that they don't think that these allegations or these charges against susan rice that she mishandled this benghazi affair are going to stick at the end of the day. they're elevating her. >> we got some new numbers on

the nbc news "wall street journal" poll. the president's approval ratinging is holding steady. largely untouched by these controversies, but from benghazi to the ap and irs, they have raised concerns about the administration. 55% to 58% say they are concerned it's not having an impact on the president personally. 48% blame them for benghazi. fewer for irs targeting. dana, you write today about how serious legislation isn't getting done because of all the investigations. do you think this appointment of susan rice brings some of that big especially to benghazi? where are we with all of this. >> i don't think so. there's a whole variety of scandals being brought up now. some like the irs or justice department going after journalists have some real element to it. the benghazi thing has been fairly dubious in terms of what has been uncovered so far. so i think the poll itself sort of confirms a general impression

that this president's approval rating is largely going to follow improvements in the economy, so if republicans are going to holler about scandal all the time, yes, it can raise some doubts about this administration. it can raise a lot of doubts about washington, wu the president eets approval is not going to be affected by this sort of scandal hollering anymore than it was in the late '90s when republicans were doing this to bill clinton and his popularity. ratings continue to soar. >> good to see you, senator. good morning. i want to first get your reaction to susan rice being named at national security adviser to the president. >> you know, a lot of people are raising concern because of benghazi, but i have said from the beginning that i think she was thrown under the bus and given the information that she repeated on the sunday shows. i think the focus should be at the state department and in the administration. she's a competent individual. was in the clinton

administration. this is a nonconfirmable position, so she's going to be the security adviser. >> you have said however on another big topic coming out of the white house that you think voting to confirm eric holder was the worst vote you ever took. do you stand by that? >> i do. i made a vote for him to be confirmed as attorney general, but everything that's happeneded since then, fast and furious, the voter intimidation -- >> but let me just stop you right there. the inspector general exonerated him in fast and furious. >> he didn't even attend mr. barry's funeral, the agent killed by the weapons going into mexico. the philadelphia voter intimidation issue. the issue we've had with him lately. just one issue after the other. this is supposed to be the attorney that represents you, me and the people of the united states and i'm disappointed in the vote that i cast. >> we've been talking about this, about how these hearings on these various controversies are distracting from the real

work of congress or at least the work they should be doing and let me ask jou about one thing that you have been working on, which is a solution to fix the student loan problem. rates are going to double july 1st unless congress acts. the president's plan would fix the rate over the life of the loan, which is different from yours. and the question i guess is wouldn't that give more certainty for college students when they have to go into borrowing often significant sums of money? >> well, our plan fixes all loans. not just 40% of student loans number one. number two, it indexes with 300 w basis points over the treasury. and it's for all loan, whether subsidized or not. i think our plan is the fairest and fairest of all the students. >> there are a number of plans out there, the white house has a plan. is there a way for you all to come together and get this done by july 1st? >> my prediction is we'll have two votes thursday morning.

neither one will get 60 vote, so we'll come together and make a compromise. >> you believe that's going to happen? >> that must happen in my opinion. >> and i want to get your thoughts about chris christie's decision yesterday to set a special election to fill frank lautenberg's seat. obviously, this will have an impact on the upcoming votes in the senate. >> well, he's the governor of new jersey. he knows the laws of new jersey. he made a decision he thought was in the best interest of new jersey. there are some who wished he made a different decision from a partisan standpoint, but he is the governor of new jersey. that's his responsibility to make that decision. >> there are some to suggest maybe to show his bipartisans p bipartisanship, he wouldn't appoint a republican. would you be open to that? >> amy open to him making the decision that he thinks is best x but if you're a republican and your job is to support your party that you would make an appointment from your party on the interim basis and then let the election decide.

>> it's good to have you on the program. thank you. let me play clip of kris thety yesterday. he was talking about some of the criticism. this is about the $24 million it will cost for a special election. >> i don't know what the cost is. i quite frankly don't care. i don't think you can put a price tag and i will do whether i need to do to make sure those costs are covered because all the people in the state of new jersey will benefit from it and we're not going to be penny wise and pound foolish around here. >> dana, how do you read his decision? what do you make of what he decided? is. >> well, on that particular point, it's a little bit hard to make the case that it was necessary to spend $24 million since the election. when he's on the ballot, just two weeks later. but he's followed through with what has been his pattern all along and that is to work in a way that confounds his own party and he's done that again here and clearly elevating the

prospects of the likely democratic nominee, cory booker. republicans are kind of sour. i think senator isaacson was quite mild to the way a lot of others were feeling, keeping the election away from his own election. helped him in november, but really makes it more difficult for the republicans. >> because cory booker would have brought more democrats to the polls and then his margin of victory would have been smaller. >> exactly. >> and possibly, the coat tails of christie could have helped whoever that republican nominee would have been. that won't happen now. >> just a little while ago, his republican, democratic challenger, rather, was on "the daily rundown". let me play what she had to say about his decision yesterday. >> we see the two chris christies. the one that appears like he's a straight talking governor, that politics don't enter into his decision making, then a decision like this, which reeks of politics. >> casey, if you look at his numbers from our poll, a nearly

equal republicans, independents, democrats, he's got a 41% favorable rating as opposed to 12% unfavorable. do you think in the larger picture, which means the rest of the country, should he decide to run in 2016? any of this matters? >> it shows that bipartisanship sells with a broad slice of the electorate. people are recognizing that christie has reached across the aisle to president obama, sometimes to the chagrin of people in his own party. in 2016, he's going to have to get through a republican primary first and that's part of what hung up mitt romney in 2012 and his tripped up some candidates that might seem like great general election candidates. >> in the short-term, he said he's got to make a decision about somebody to fill in. it might be a place somebody like tom cane. how important is it who that

person is giving the votes coming up on things like immigration? >> every vote counts now. democrats don't have the 60 votes necessary to pass the legislation they want to get passed, so this isn't going to help them in any way. so it's impossible to predict, but they weren't having senator lautenberg's vote in the capitol any way because he was ill. so basically it's a status quo until the end of the year. >> is is it? how closely are they watching this on the hill? >> they brought lautenberg twice in the recent few months. his last time on the floor was to vote for a compromise on extended background checks. that was an issue he cared a lot about over the years. gun control. they felt like they needed him. they asked him to come from basically his sick bed down here to washington and it happened again for a committee vote for one of president obama's nominees. so clearly, any small hang up like this is is a problem for

harry reid. >> you are not going to see a lot of senators around today because of senator lautenberg's funeral is at 11:30 this morning. major league baseball could be rocked by a huge wave of suspensions for performance enhancing drug, including some of the biggest names in baseball. 20 players have been linked to a miami area clinic including a-rod, alex rodriguez, ryan braun, nelson cruz. they have a combined salary of $57 million. the founder of the clinic has reached a deal to talk to major league baseball. we're not sure what he's going to say, but the information could lead to significant suspensions. he could meet with baseball investigators by the end of this week. nbc news has not independently confirmed that espn report. ♪

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new reports about government funded programs feeling the pain from across the board spending cuts known as sequester. take the national institutes of health. medical research is taking a big hit because of $1.7 billion in cuts. meals on wheels has been forced to cut staff and deliver thousands fewer meals to the elderly each week. and domestic violence programs are being dealt a serious blow, losing $20 million in funding that advocates say could put women's lives on line. i'm joined by ceo of the national network to end domestic violence. good morning. >> thank you for having me on the show. >> your organization did a survey in the fall and found that 69% of programs are getting hit by state cuts. this is before the sequester.

they wouldn't be able to make that up in private donations. so tell me what these federal cuts will mean to domestic violence programs. >> well, the sequester cuts alone are going to mean the estimate is 105,000 fewer victims of violence will be able to receive services and we already have such a shortage of services. we did a one-day -- 24 hour census that found that over 65,000 victims were served that day by over 1600 local programs. but 10,471 calls for help -- >> wow. >> received no services because there simply were not the resources. 10,471 calls for help in a single day were not able to be served and now, the sequester is going to take another 5% to 7% off of that and i understand the budget bill's pes pending in th

house for 2014, an additional 18 to 20% on top of the 5% sequester. >> in very real terms, what does this mean for a woman who is trying to get help? >> it means very simply that a woman is going to look for help, she's going to look for shelter, for safety and there's going to be in shelter there and she is going to end up choosing between homelessness for herself and her kids or going back into an abusive home where she may or may not survive. >> let's look at the breakdown that senator tom harken's office put out. 70,000 of that you said 105. he's got 106,000 here. we have no access to shelters and programs. 36,000 more. no access to restraining orders and sexual assault treatments. they saved air traffic controllers. there doesn't seem to have been a big human cry. why? when it comes to domestic violence programs. >> i think it's because they

could see the planes not taking off as often. they could see there were delays. that was affecting their travel back home and it was affecting their constituents directly. they don't hear as quickly that a woman is killed because she went back home to an abusive situation because when she calleded the shelter, there were no beds because they had the close a wing of beds or because one state's expecting as many as three programs to close between now and october statewide. >> we've been hearing a lot about sexual assault in the military and at the same time, we're hearing the sequester means the defense department may cut services to victims who are assaulted or raped in the military, so you know, just another sort of aspect of this. and we've seen the big numbers jump within the military and in terms of the civilian population, eight out of ten domestic violence shelters are reporting an increase in women looking for help.

do you know what's fuelling this uptick? is is it more reporting? more violence? what do we know about that? >> we know when there's a tough economy, there is frequently an increase in violence and we've had a very tough economy for a number of years. we know unemployment is one of the risk factors for domestic violence, so that's a part of it. part of it is that as the years go by, more people learn that there are services available and yet, there have been cuts an cuts and cuts. the victims of crime act cut 17% last year. we have had large cuts to the family violence prevention and services act funding, which is the core funding for the shelters and now, we're looking at more funding. how many women have to go back to an abusive situation and get killed by their abuser before the members of congress really take this seriously and give it the funding that it needs?

the funding was inadequate to begin with and this is going to make a terrible situation absolutely deadly. >> ceo of the national network to end domestic violence, thank you so much for coming on. residents along the mississippi river are scrambling to shore up barricades. volunteers are in place for the town of a will recollect ton, missouri and more rain on the way for several towns as well as storm weary oklahoma. the national weather service upgraded the tornado last friday to an ef5, the strongest category. it's also believed to be the widest tornado on record. 2.6 miles across. [ female announcer ] the best thing about this bar it's not a candy bar. 130 calories 7 grams of protein the new fiber one caramel nut protein bar.

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we're not practical, we tried to change the structure in a dramatic way and we get the blame. we're toast in 2016. >> no, and i think even the democrats would concede that. people don't trust the department of homeland security to do the job or come up with a plan that will do the job. >> well, they didn't have the votes to pass universal check last time, but harry reid and joe biden plan to meet to plan a way to bring back gun legislation. michelle obama confronted a heckler tuesday. she told the woman, quite, you can listen to me or you can take the mike and i'm leaving. the crowd started chanting for the first lady to stay and the woman was escorted out. former miss america 2003 is

officialry running for congress. this video is on our website. challenging congressman rodney davis now in a republican primary in illinois. in massachusetts tonight, the candidates for senate will square off. president obama will head to boston next week to stump for ed marky, who is facing a challenge from gabriel gomez and if you read only one thing this morning, it is still graduation season and that means controversy. my must read is about whether rules or rules or is it true there are exstepgceptions to ev rule? for example, in tennessee, an honors student was banned from his graduation ceremony after he missed a mandatory rehearsal. but he missed it to go to work to help pay for college. this is just one example. read it. let me know what you think. it's up on our facebook page. ♪

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pressure is building for

president obama to take stand and support a bill to crack down on sexual assaults in the military. yesterday, military leaders testified before the senate armed services committee. they got an earful from a lot of senators for resisting efforts to takeover sight of those cases away from the chain of command. >> this isn't about sex. this is about assault, domination and violence. we need to know how many women and men are being raped and being sexually assaulted on an annual basis and we have no idea right now. >> not every single commander believes what a sexual assault is. not every single commander is distinguish between a slap on the ass and a rape. >> i think it would be hard to testify not supporting what seems to be basic common sense. >> kristen gillibrand's bill, which does have bipartisan

support, would have trained special prosecutors handle the cases, but the chiefs pushed back. >> our goal should be to hold commanders more accountable, not render them less able to help us correct the crisis. >> making commanders less reasonable, less accountable will not work. it will undermine the force. >> let's bring in political analyst and grio.com contributor, lena max well and john feehery. good morning. what a striking contrast yesterday. you had seven women senators on the armed services committee, the most ever and there they are squaring off with the top pentagon breaths. all of the men except for one. is is it time for the white house to step in? does the president need to say something? >> i think he needs to say something, but we need more women in elected office. >> that's not if the question though. though.

you're not going to change this by getting more women elected a couple of years down the road. does the president need to come out and decide and say here's what i think we should do? or is this not his role? >> he definitely needs to say something, but he has said a lot about preventing sexual assault. the key is it's not just about the military and about rape and sexual assault. it's a cultural problem prevalent in the military because we're not holding the people committing these rapes accountable and the joint chief, that is ridiculous what they're talking about. readiness. women should be able to enlist in the military and move about without the threat of assault. >> made the point early on about the fight to repeal don't ask don't tell -- including james amos and he now calls don't ask don't tell a nonevent. is this about a system that's simply resistant to change? >> well, yes. the pentagon is a huge bureaucracy. they don't change easily or quickly. and i think that what you see

here is a political system meeting a big system in the military that has had tradition stretching back for hundreds of years. i think the senate armed services committee in a bipartisan way is very, very fed up with all these sexual assaults and they said enough is enough and i don't think that the joint chiefs have had a particularly good answer and i don't think they have the trust and the ability to really handle this situation. >> yeah, the problem is a lot of people are saying enough's enough, but they don't seem to really want to make a significant change and senator champion blis for example called on the military to do more to stop sexual assaults, but then listen to what he went on to say. >> the young folks that are coming into each of your services are anywhere from 17 to 22 or 3. gee, whiz, the level of the, the hormone level created by nature, sets in place the possibility

for these types of things to occur. >> that is absolutely ridiculous. rape has nothing to do with sex. rape is not sex. i think back to the war on women because this has to do with the fact that -- on sexual assault generally. when he's talking about hormones being the cause of rape, he has a fundamental misunderstanding about what sexual assault actually is. >> and to put this in a political context and i don't want to take away from the seriousness of sexual assault itself, but when you've had a number of republicans saying we've got to get away from these crazy statements and republicans ar trying to reach out to women voters and just bringing back to all these problems that have been raised on the war on women. >> i think it's a mistake. the most striking thing about what happened at the who aring

yesterday is the bipartisan support to hold the military to account. john mccain was clear on this. kelly ayotte was clear on this. from a bipartisan perspective, the senate is outraged. they want the military to do something about it. >> john feehery, thanks to both of you. i want to bring in debbie wasserman shulgs. good morning. you said senator should apologize. >> yes, he should apologize. the comments he made yesterday are emblematic of what kristen gillibrand said yesterday. you have military commanders and the people who don't have the training or skills and people who have the perception that you know, these are no big deal and it's just let's just talk them up to raging hormones.

is sexual assault, whether it's a rape or any other type of sexual assault, it's not a sex act, it is not the result of passion or desire and needs to be treated as the crime it is. that's why he needs to be taken out of the chain of command so that we can have trained prosecutors and a judicial system that ensures there is serious accountability and crimes for these crimes and that we make sure that up and down the chain of command, there's a clear understanding that this conduct is absolutely unacceptable and that you will be prosecuted. >> and kristen gillibrand's bill has bipartisan support. we should also point out that ohio house republican mike turner, who is co-chair of the caucus, issued a statement after he said what he said. perpetuating this line of thinking does nothing to help change the culture of our military. we must be focused on combatting this issue directly.

the numbers speak for themselves. so, men and women, republicans and democrats, are starting to line up behind this bill. we have not yet heard from the president. we have not yet heard from the secretary of defense. do they need to talk about this? do they need to come out definitively for this bill or say what it is they think should be done? >> we have heard from the president. >> but he hasn't said he supports kristen gillibrand's bill as you just did. >> the president has come out forcefully and said this is a horrific, horrendous problem that needs to be addressed, that people need to be held accountable, that these are crimes that need to be treated like crimes. with any set of challenges, the president doesn't comment on every single piece of legislation that gets considered. the process is working its way through. just like with don't ask don't tell. that's what had to happen in order for there to have consensus. the military chain of command

and leadership in the military seemed to be always the last to finally relent and realize that there's a better, another way of doing something to make sure we can have people serve in the military with dignity and that they can be who they are and em brat who they are or women or men, they can at the least not be worried day-to-day about being victims of sexual assault and there be no response because the person above them was the perpetrator or decides this wasn't a big problem because he chalked it up to raging hormones. >> senator john mccain was not only a war hero, but a prisoner of war. had something to say about this yesterday. i thought it was very powerful. >> just last night, a come came to me and said her brother, her daughter wanted to join the

military could i give my own qualified support for her doing so. i could not. i could not overstate by disgust and disappointment over the continued reports of sexual misconduct. >> what would you say, congresswom congresswoman, to that same mother? >> you know, i as a member of congress, have the privilege of nominating young people to our military academies every year and i thankfully have not be asked that question, but if i was asked that question, i would have a similar response to a parent asking if it was a career that a woman in particular should pursue because this is something that we need to address. it's a serious, deep cancer as was talked about yesterday and it needs to be addresses so that we can ensure that whether you're a young man or woman entering the military, this you don't have to live in fear day-to-day about being the victim of sexual assault.

26,000 just last year and that you will, if you are god forbid a victim of that assault, that the military aggressively pursues justice for that individual and doesn't do it through the chain of command. right above the individual who was the victim. >> it's always good to have you on the program. >> thanks. >> today's tweet of the day comes from a friend of the show. michael beschloss, who reminds us of this date in history. here is the farewell letter by ronald reagan who died today in 2004. president reagan penned that letter ten years before his death. i am an american success story.

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think you know how much you are eating? most people don't. a recent harvard medical school study showed two-thirds of people underestimate the calorie counts of the food they eat by an average of 175 calories and about a quarter of those underestimate by at least 500 calories. police in turkey used tear gas and water cannons against protesters in istanbul after a fifth night of protests. did little obviously to diffuse the situation. tens of thousands of turks have been joining. syrian tv is reporting that the government has regained control of a strategic town in western syria and is vowing to crush the rebels. opposition forces have been in control since the civil war began there back in 2011. less than two hours from now, army staff sergeant robert

bals will plead guilty to killing six afghan civilians in march of 2012. most of the victims were women and children. it is the worst case against a rogue u.s. soldier since vietnam. his lawyers say the decorated soldier and father of two was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and a brain injury. private bradley manning's immediate supervisors are expected on the stand today, day three of the court marshall trial. he is accused of leaking 700,000 documents to wikileaks and manning is getting support from some celebrities who think he should be protected by whistleblower laws. oliver stone, maggie jillen hall and russell brand among those who say they believe manning exposed war crimes and they've put together a video. >> i am bradley manning. >> i am bradley manning. >> i am bradley manning. >> i am brad my manning.

>> bradley manning. >> and now, what do we do about this? >> the group is urging supporters to tweet their support and up load their own photo. ohio state university's president is retiring in the wake of controversial comments he made criticizing the university of notre dame and catholics. his comment saying you just can't trust those catholics were made public last week. in a news conference, he cited family and age concerns as the reason for stepping down. >> i don't want to be the president of the university and run it like a 69-year-old. >> he also said the -- the remarks played a small part in his decision. who knew one could take maternity leave from a royal. on june 13th, she will say bon voyage when she kristened a cruise ship in south hampton. she said due to give birth to

the royal heir in july and after the baby is born, she is expected to follow the lead of princess diana, who bucked tradition in 1983 when she took 8-month-old prince william on a royal tour to australia. a new ruling could end the sale of some iphones and ipods in the u.s. i guess if this ruling is upheld, it would be a big victory for samsung. >> they've been going at it for some time, fighting over mobile patterns and now, the u.s. international commission has found that apple enfringed on a patent owns by samsung and issued a limited order, which stops all imports and sales for at&t models of the iphone 4, the ipad 3g. these versions targeted more than a year old, but still

pretty good sellers for apple. president obama has 60 days to review this order and if he does not veto it, it goes into effect, but apple says it does plan to appeal. >> and this is interesting. this is a rare act of defiance for an automaker. chrysler is refusing a government recall request. what's going ton with that? >> it is highly unusual. but chrysler is fighting that request from the federal government to recall 2.7 million jeeps. the national highway traffic safety administration has asked chrysler to recall these jeep models. the 1993 to 2004 grand cherokee and the 2002 to 2007 liberty models because of concerns the fuel tank may leak and contribute to deadly fires. in a rare impact crash. it is unclear how the dispute is going to be resolved. explain why it doesn't want to

come ply, but in a written statement, the ce oh, defended the safety of those models saying the safety of drivers and passengers has long been the first priority and that commitment remains steadfast. to provide information confirming the safety of these vehicles, so we'll just have to watch this and see how it revolves. >> we will see you there. thank you. might be a nice day for a walk in the park where you live. non-profit group trust for public land is out with its list of best city parks, so they looked at the access to parks, the size, services and the investment that the city makes in them. san francisco fell from the number one spot last year. their tied for third with sacramento and boston. new york jumped from third to second. and the number one city for parks, minneapolis. listen to this.

94% of the residents of that city live within a ten-minute walk of a park. where does your city rank? a link is on our website. oh, he's a fighter alright. since aflac is helping with his expenses while he can't work, he can focus on his recovery. he doesn't have to worry so much about his mortgage, groceries, or even gas bills. kick! kick... feel it! feel it! feel it! nice work! ♪ you got it! you got it! yes! aflac's gonna help take care of his expenses. and us...we're gonna get him back in fighting shape.

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over the fate of a 10-year-old girl in desperate need of a lung transplant to live. tom costello has the details. >> it's heartbreaking. she has spent the last three months at children's hospital of philadelphia waiting for a lung transplant, but because she's 12, not yet 12 rather, she must wait for a child's lung and now, the nation's top health administrator says she can't change if rules for one patient. every breath is a struggle. >> how long have we been here at the hospital? >> cystic fie broes is has filled her lungs with mucus and

moved her to the top of the transplant list for children, but there are very few children's lungs available and national transplant rules created by surgeons don't allow a child under the age of 12 to receive surgically modified adult lungs, even though sarah could benefit. on tuesday, lawmakers urged the secretary of health and human services to override the rules. >> the study will take over a year. this young lady will be dead. >> but secretary sebelius declined. >> she says there are already 40 patients 12 and older in pennsylvania alone waitinging for an adult lung donor, but sarah's mother insists the sickest patients should be at the top of list. >> the stakes don't get any higher. she is 10 years old, she has weeks to live and we have no greater chance of getting lungs

today than we did when she was fairly healthy six months ago because the severity of her illness doesn't matter. >> for three months, she has waited at children's hospital of philadelphia for a young transplant. the ethical question are strict guidelines standi ining in the of sarah and other children from getting a chance at life. >> they have to remember the statistic of the couple of other hundred people on the wait list who are adults are parents of children, husbands, wives. >> and online petition urging the dwovt to change the policies to allow children to receive adult lungs has garnered -- sarah's parents are pleading with any family who suffered a tragic loss to consider a direct donation to sarah. >> that's going to wrap up this

hour. thomas roberts is up next. good morning, thomas. >> and tha story is creating a big dialogue. we're going to have the father of the little girl on that we just showcased there, talking about what it means to have a lung transplant for his little girl. also, the bombshell news that major league baseball may be looking to suspend 20 player, including new york yankee, alex rodriguez. a brand new statement. what does it mean? we'll investigate. plus, president obama getting ready to name susan rice as his next national security adviser. how are republicans reacting? and chris christie's master move. his decision to hold a special election to fill frank lautenberg's senate seat. but will he end up having the last laugh come 2016? no. okay. this, won't take long will it? no, not at all. how many of these can we do on our budget? more than you think. that didn't take very long, did it?

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