symptoms are not the same for everyone. i got sick... and then i got better. constipated? yeah. mm. some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps. but phillips' caplets don't. they have magnesium. for effective relief of occasional constipation. thanks. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. i intend to speak in support of defunding obama care until i am no longer able to stand. >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," up all night. tea party favorite ted cruz holds a 21-hour talk-a-thon railing against the affordable care act, including reading bedtime stories to his kids via c-span. >> do you like green eggs and ham? i do not like them, sam i am.

i do not like green eggs and ham. mike lee, i am your father. i'm a big fan of eating white castle burgers. most americans could not give a flying flip about a bunch of politicians in washington. who cares? you know, almost all of us are in cheap suits with bad haircuts. who cares? >> now the senate vote is finally on. returning to real business like the upcoming showdown over government funding and the debt ceiling perhaps. presidential sales pitch, two for the price of one. obama teams up with both clintons to try to boost support for his health care law. >> the city's been a little political, this whole obama care thing. what we are confident about is that when people look and see that they can get high-quality, affordable health care for less than their cell phone bill, they're going to sign up. >> but it's hillary who has the

first word. >> they have fabulous daughters. they each married far above themselves. >> and at the united nations, it's a near miss for president obama and iran's president rouhani when the iranians say a face-to-face meeting is too complicated. can the iranian leader's words set a new tone? >> good day. i'm andrea mitchell in new york. we're moments away from a procedural vote on the budget floor. a losing battle that stretched for more than 21 hours. towards the end of that

talk-a-thon, the texas republican admitted he's not winning the prize. >> let me note that bucking your party's leadership inevitably provokes a reaction. inevitably provokes expressions and often strong expressions of displeasure. but let me also encourage any democrats, there are worse things in life. >> joining me now for our daily fix, chris and mark halperin. shortly after ted cruz finished, john mccain got up to talk about something that senator cruz had said. so let's watch cruz first and then mccain. >> you go to the 1940s, nazi germany.

we saw in britain, neville chamberlain, who told the british people, accept the nazis. yes, they'll dominate the continent of europe, but that's not our problem. let's appease them. why? because it can't be done. we can't possibly stand against them. and in america there were voices that listened to that. i suspect those same pundits who say it can't be done, if it had been in the 1940s, we would have listened to them and then they would have made television. they would have gotten beyond carrier pigeons and letters and gotten on tv and would have been saying, you cannot defeat the germans. >> i do not begrudge senator cruz or any other senator who wants to come and talk as long as they want to, as long as they can, depending on the rules of the senate, but i do disagree strongly to allege that there

are people today who are like those who prior to world war ii didn't stand up and oppose the atrocities that were taking place in europe. >> so here we have ted cruz in his opening hour of that marathon speech talking about the supporters of obama care and comparing them to nazi germany or those who won't stand up and oppose them to the appeasers at munich. chris cillizza, where are we when john mccain is standing up to go against ted cruz? >> well, you know, andrea, it's the worth kept secret in washington that john mccain and ted cruz are not going to get together for dinner any time soon. remember that john mccain referred to ted cruz as whacko birds a few months ago. john mccain is a very different vision of how the republican party should be the loyal opposition than does ted cruz.

i would note that you played ted cruz saying he's not mr. cleej yalty. i would say 75% to 80% of the rhetoric in that 21 hours and 19 minutes was devoted to calling out republicans. ted cruz praised people like bernie sanders, the independent who caucuses with democrats for his filibuster. he said he understood why harry reid was doing what he was doing. he understood why democrats were taking the approach they took to obama care. he really saved kind of the rhetoric for his own side. why weren't more republicans there? he called some of the procedural votes that republicans had advocated for fake and phony. he knew what he was doing, and i'm sure he knew that the likes of john mccain were not going to be happy about it. >> mark halperin, what is the next step? you have a dysfunctional congress, house and senate. now we have the funding bill. we have the debt ceiling.

jack lew says the money will run out. >> there's a side show we've observed for the last 20-plus hours with ted cruz. but it's meaningful. it weakens the republicans' hand going into the showdown. the president's hand is not super strong, but it's stronger now because republicans are divided. they're aiming a lot of their fire at ted cruz. it's keeping them from formulating a strategy. the reality is the president, and a lot of republicans care about the substance of this. the government shutting down can be finessed. it's not ideal. people will hurt. i suspect it won't last long. the debt ceiling, though, as jack lew is making clear, cannot be finessed. there are real world consequences, some of which cannot be anticipated involving the reaction of markets, both here and abroad. so i think it's bad for the country to have to go through the side show. it's also bad for the republicans. again, no one can tell you how this is going to end. i suspect there will be solutions, but when the time comes to make a deal, republicans are a lot weaker now

despite ted cruz standing on principle and doing what he believes in than they were 24 hours ago. >> and you've also had the clintons, you know, on center stage with the president yesterday. hillary clinton in particular. take a look at hillary at the clinton global initiative. >> they're both left-handed. they both love golf, a game that does not often reciprocate the love they put into it. they both are master politicians. they have fabulous daughters. they each married far above themselves. >> as a long-time hillary watcher, mark, she is in a zone right now. >> just a couple blocks from here where they have the clinton global initiative, it's a great event. the clinton foundation does fantastic work around the world helping people. that's the main purpose of the meeting. the politics of the meeting have been extraordinary. these two political families now, the clintons and obamas,

grow closer together with this event. secretary clinton there kind of laying on hands the partnership between her husband and former boss and political rival in 2008. and she, in that room, those people in there do a lot of philanthropy. there's also a lot of political activists in that room, a lot of donors. bringing president obama in there to sell health care together only brings them closer together, only strengthens her hand for 2016 if she chooses to run. >> i would say that just about everyone in that room is a potential or current or past contributor or all of the above. and bundler, indeed, to clinton 2016. mark, chris, thank you both very much. senator bob menendez is the chair of the foreign relations committee and joins me from washington. first, i want to talk about iran and everything happen at the u.n. first, ted cruz. i wouldn't expect you as a democrat to be one of his big fans. what about the dysfunction of the senate right now?

many republicans seem as upset as some of you democrats are. >> well, i don't know. senator cruz is within his rights to speak. i guess he's had a lot of cuban coffee here. the reality is he knows what the end result of this is. he knows we're going to have a vote to proceed to basically accept the house's level of funding but not accept their end of the health care program that provides millions of americans an opportunity that they didn't have to get coverage and protects millions of others in ways that including pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps has given millions of dollars back to seniors and prescription drugs. they have no solution for that. i just think that this is really not in the interest of the senate or the country. i think this is more about cementing himself as a leader in the tea party nationally. that's unfortunate to use the senate's time this way.

and to create an environment which makes it very difficult to have a sense of confidence and progress as we deal with major issues. the government staying hope, the debt ceiling on the horizon. and what message do we speend i the world, for example, to iran, when we're trying to get them to follow the path of the security council's resolutions and they'll say, if we do that, will we ultimately find a congress willing to, you know, lift the sanctions? because they seem not to be able to get along with the president. these are enormous challenges. >> let me also turn to foreign policy. i know you were among the senators who were writing to the administration about iran and the overtures from iran. you said you were disappointed by some of the rhetoric in president rouhani's speech to the united nations yesterday. i have to share with you i was at a gathering of journalists who met with him off camera. some of it was off the record. on the record was the fact we asked him about his refusal to be meeting face to face with president obama yesterday.

he said he has no problem shaking mr. obama's hand. regarding negotiating, we need a plan of action to make sure these meetings reach the conclusions we want. he said, we did not have enough time to make that happen. we never have a problem shaking mr. obama's hand. he added it was only two days ago the u.s. proposed such a meeting and they were not opposed to it, that it's a sensitive subject. we have not talked at this level in 35 years. so we have to take these steps very carefully. now the foreign minister has just said at the united nations he wants to jump start the nuclear talks with the group of security councilmembers, the so-called p-5 plus one, the group of permanent members. of the united nations as well as germany. so do you now see that the glass might be half full rather than half empty? what's your posture? >> well, andrea, the charm offensive sounded a lot better from iran than it did from new york. obviously, rouhani was speaking to a different audience in new york. he was speaking back to iran and

to others in the world associated with iran in some of their work. look, there is a peaceful path forward. i mean, i hear the ayatollah talking about historic flexibility. i hear rouhani talking about constructive engagement. i would say deeds, not words. that would be my phrase in respond to them. and there is a peaceful path forward. that peaceful path is embodied in the four security council resolutions that call upon iran to conduct themselves in a series of ways that would show their intentions are peaceful and that would stop the threat of their nuclear power for nuclear weapons. this is not the united states saying this is what we believe. this is the world saying this is what we believe. and i don't know what iran needs. so we're happy to have a conversation with them, but they need performance, not just a charm offensive. >> understood. and i asked about the nuclear issue, what's negotiatable and what's not.

he said everything is on the table. the level of enrichment, all the nuclear sites. he said, we want to be transparent, reassure those who have concerns when they have reasonable concerns. he did reiterate iran's right, as they say it, to enrich as 40 other nations do. he said everything's on the table. most interestingly, ann curry, our colleague, had had the first interview with rouhani last week. when asked about ahmadinejad, his predecessor's, denial of the holocaust. he said, i'm a politician, not a historian. when he was in new york and was asked again about ahmadinejad, he said what the nazis did was a massacre of jews, that it was a crime against not only jews but muslims and christians and a crime against jews is a crime against all of humanity. he said he would not get into the numbers because he would leave that to the historians but it was a massacre and something that should not be tolerated.

very strong language on the holocaust. it does seem, as you point out, he's also speaking to the audience back home and that picture, perhaps, of him and president obama that did not happen is not a picture that they feel they could show back home right now. >> well, i think that what's happening here is that, you know, the president's simple offer of a quick briefing, a quick meeting and a handshake tested this bubble. because if the iranians cannot even ultimately have a handshake, then you have to wonder what are they ready for back at home? and what they need to be ready for back at home is to pursue the edict of the world by virtue of the security council resolution. you know, rouhani, i know there's a lot of hope here. i'm hopeful, but at the same time, here's a man who boasted during his run for presidency that, in fact, look, when i was the negotiator a decade ago, i avoided sanctions and yet we proceeded on our nuclear

program. so i think we have to keep that in mind as we deal with him now. >> senator menendez, thank you. i know you've got to go. thanks for much for taking the time today. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> meanwhile, in pakistan, the death toll is rapidly rising after a powerful earthquake struck a remote area near the iranian border yesterday. at least 327 people are confirmed dead. many were killed when their homes collapsed. at least 350 people were injured. the 7.7-magnitude quake also created a solitary island rising from the sea just off the coast. it's about 60 feet high, 100 feet long, and 250 feet wide. meanwhile, rescue efforts continue today to find survivors. the pakistani military has rushed 1,000 troops and helicopters to that area. i do a lot oresearch on angie's list before i do any projects on my home. i love my contractor, and i am so thankful to angie's list for bringing us together. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list.

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mr. president, i'll tell you i would be perfectly happy if not a single story coming out of this ever mentioned my name. >> you think? it's going to be hard for ted cruz to stay out of the spotlight after the last 24 hours. so what does this senate spectacle mean for republican lawmakers passing him in the hall on capitol hill? joining me now is michael steele, former chair of the republican national committee. you thought you had problems at the rnc. just imagine some of those breakfasts. i mean, ted cruz, he's really ticked off his fellow republican from texas and john mccain and a lot of the hours. 21 hours to really produce nothing. and it wasn't even a filibuster. >> what ted cruz did was not for the senate leadership. it was not for the republican leadership for certain. >> was it for a political action committee? >> it may have been for his pac, maybe a higher profile. at the end of the day, it was a

want a constituency he's been able to rally around the idea of, you know, eliminating obama care and putting pressure on republicans who talk the talk. his words are you need to walk the walk with me. i know people want top dump on cruz. i don't think shutting down the government is the solution. i think the party has missed so many opportunities to define this discussion on obama care. what he's doing is honoring the commitment he's made to his constituency, which has grown nationally. >> well, this is about 2016. does he see himself as a viable 2016 contender? >> i'm sure he does. i know a lot of people within the party do as well. so that is also a play. you're going to see this dynamic. we saw a little bit of the skirmishing between rand paul and chris christie. you're going to see john mccain kind of take the whack at cruz even though mccain's not running. but again, it's the setup with the messaging, setup of the ultimate presidential play by

each of these individuals should they decide to get in. they want to start to begin to build that constituency now that's going to rally towards them going into the cycle next year. we're going to have folks going around and drumming for republican candidates in primaries and in general elections next year. they want to build that support, that momentum now, and it's an interesting competition. the problem is, on a policy side, andrea, we're out in the field somewhere. the american people are not seeing how this connects to creating jobs or solving the concerns they see on obama care. they have a lot of work to do. i think there's more bottom to hit before this thing really works itself out among gop activists and the establishment. >> what about rand paul versus ted cruz in terms of, you know, two guys who have presidential ambitions and are both fighting against the white house, against

obama care but taking different paths? >> that's the key thing. they're taking different paths. i give the edge at this stage a little bit to rand paul because he has sort of a natural constituency that's followed from his dad, number one. but he approached this whole thing very differently. you look at how he went to the floor and he talked about drones. first he educated americans about an issue that they weren't totally aware of or understood completely. that was bringing a new set of eyes to a discussion that was only inside washington. this issue for someone like cruz on obama care, american are very clear where they are on obama care. their question is, now what? what are you going to do next? that's a very different dynamic in presidential politics for people who have starting to warm up. they're going to see rand paul having more substance to the argument than cruz at this point. >> michael steele, again, i'm sure you're very happy you're not in charge of the party right now. >> wouldn't want to be in this spot, no. >> they're acting like

democrats. unsurprisingly, senator ted cruz's comments are already creating online buzz. he's the top trending topic on twitter. "the huffington post" tweeted this, having "green eggs and ham" now printed in the congressional record. not something you see every day. and when he brought in star wars, that prompted buzzfeed to create this image. rand paul gets top billing as luke skywalker. okay ladies, whenever you're ready. thank you. thank you. i got this. oh, no, i'll get it! let me get it. uh-uh-uh. i don't want you to pay for this. it's not happening, honey. let her get it. she got her safe driving bonus check from allstate last week. and it's her treat. what about a tip? oh, here's one... get an allstate agent. nice! [ female announcer ] switch today and get two safe driving bonus checks a year for driving safely. only from allstate. call 866-905-6500 now.

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in kenya, three days of national mourning have been declared after scores of civilians were killed, hundreds more terrorized at that shopping mall in nairobi. officials say the investigation will now focus on the forensics as the rubble is cleared from the explosions used by the military to secure the building and to end the standoff with the

al qaeda linked group al shabaab. nbc's tom costello filed this report of an american woman, a lawyer, who nearly lost her life in the attack and the emotional reunion with her family when she returned to the united states. >> nice to see you. you survived. how do you feel? >> reporter: at dulles airport this afternoon, bendita was finally back home. a harvard trained lawyer with the world bank, she was in kenya having lunch in the mall on saturday when terrorists suddenly barged in. >> and then all of the sudden there's this explosion. everybody like hits the floor and we hear machine guns. then it might be ten seconds later, we're still trying to crawl out. there was a second explosion. when they first came in, i mean, they were just shooting. there wasn't really -- they weren't asking any questions. they were just shooting. >> reporter: crawling away from the gunfire, she and her friend

made it to an employee breakroom in a nearby store and waited with 15 other people. their only defense, a fire extinguisher. listening to the terrorists in a store one floor above them. >> we could hear the feet. then you would hear some talking, some in other languages. sometimes you'd hear random things like muslim, christian. you'd hear random things. people would respond or scream "don't shoot," and you would hear some people walk and some people get shot. >> reporter: for five hours they hit listening to the gunfire. she texted her father, please pray, i love you all very much. >> you just feel so helpless, you know. >> reporter: then out of nowhere, she says, an american security team showed up. >> this american security forces guy came back and said, look, he's like, we've been under a lot of pressure to get you out f you guys want to get out. we understand it's dangerous,

but this is probably your best shot. >> reporter: everybody in the storeroom ran from the mall. >> then, like, within 30 feet of us, two grenades are thrown. and that was our first breakdown. >> reporter: she says she doesn't know yet if she'll return to kenya, but for now she's home. tom costello, nbc news, dulles airport. >> and that was a remarkable account from tom costello. our thanks to him. many are questioning now what will become of the diplomatic overtures by iran's president. after conducting his first interview with nbc's ann curry last week, president rouhani met with a number of us today, this morning, for breakfast for a conversation. he also spoke briefly in english last night with cnn east christiane amanpour. >> i would like to say to

american people i bring peace and friendship from iranians to americans. >> joining me now is a senior associate at the carnegie end endowment for international peace. this was pretty unusual. we talked to senator menendez. he and others say let's see the substance. what do you make of all this, him speaking in english and some of the things he said to us this morning at breakfast? >> well, andrea, as we have talked about before, this has really been one of the most significant charm offenses iran has launched since 1979. in contrast to the last few weeks, i think rouhani's performance at the united nations yesterday was far more intend on reassuring iranian supreme leader than it was

impressing barack obama. but i think there's ample reason to be skeptical given the past history we have with iran, but i do think that this is our best shot at some type of diffusion of the nuclear issue perhaps ever. >> well, one of the things that was very clear was that the lack of a meeting has a lot to do with what's happening back home. you're right. the tone of the speech was tough yesterday to the united nations. he repeated all of the concerns iran has expressed before about drones, about afghanistan, about iraq, about what he called warmongering by the united states. at the same time, today when we asked him why no meeting with president obama, he said there was no time to set up the meeting, that he has no objection to a handshake with president obama. what would be the value, do you think, of a face-to-face me meeting? >> i think the value of a face-to-face meeting would have more than just symbolic

importance, especially for the iranian public. this is a public in which approximately three-quarters were born after the revolution. it's arguably the most pro-american public in the middle east. i think rouhani, had he shaken hands with obama, would have won himself huge political capital amongst the people in iran. at the same time, it probably would have caused the iran's hardliners a can nipgs. i think for that reason, he wants to proceed forward cautiously, and i think the white house did the right thing. they made it clear that they do want to meet, that they're keen on diplomacy because if the global narrative changes and it appears that washington is the inflexible actor in this equation, then the unanimity, the sanctions which has come about over the last four years is going to start to unravel. >> and the other thing was about the holocaust. when ann curry asked him about this, he said, well, i can't

explain the holocaust, i'm a politician, not a historian. today he called it a massacre of the jews by the nazis. he said, we never want to sit side by side with the nazis. he said they committed a crime against jews, which is a crime against all of humanity. he could not have been more explicit. >> i think rouhani and his team appreciate how much damage ahmadinejad's holocaust denial did to iran's international image and standing. that was just simply offensive to the world. so they're taking great pains right now to make clear that a change has happened, political change has happened in iran. they're the anti-ahmadinejad. they're not going to make this kind of gratuitously offensive mistake, which ultimately undermine iran's position, certainly more than they strengthen it. >> thank you so much. >> any time. >> we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] who are we?

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did you accomplish something here? >> i hope that this filibuster gave the american people an opportunity to express their views and to engage in this debate. >> well, it really wasn't a filibuster. let's go back to it the hill on the breaking news from the floor. nbc's capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell joins us after talking to ted cruz. it wasn't a filibuster. this was 21 hours of sort of non sequitur comments and some reading from dr. seuss. it was making a point that not even his own party completely supports. >> well, not a filibuster in the technical sense that you talk and talk and talk to change what happens on the senate floor. not that. there are people who sort of use that term any time they're referring to what seems like an endless talk-a-thon, and this was that. ted was was about trying to make a play much beyond the senate floor to ignite the spirit of

the conservative outside groups and voters. that certainly happened. and perhaps to put pressure on fellow republicans. he spent a lot of time during those 21-plus hours urging other republicans to see it his way. now, all republicans agree that they'd like to see the president's health care law delayed or defunded. the real kind of rub that we have seen playing out here has been about how to do it. ted cruz has not won many friends among more senior republicans, people who have been around here a while and have a different view of how the institution should work. >> kelly, let's talk about defunding the government and continuing the budget process. what happens next? at this stage, it can eventually get back to the house where the real action will be, where house members have to decide, are they going to continue linking defunding of obama care to continuing the funding or to the debt ceiling or are they going to come up with some other means of getting out of this box. >> the expectation is that over the next couple of days, the senate will vote and they will

pass a plan that keeps the government operating. no shutdown. but harry reid and democrats do plan to take out of the bill they're considering this whole idea of taking away money for the health care law, defunding it. they would strip that out. they have the ability to do it. then the house has a tough call to make. will they pass just what the republicans -- the senate has passed? not much of a chance of that. so one of the issues is, is there an alternative that the housing come up with? is there sort of -- think of this as the two-minute offense in football. how many plays can you get? who is the last one with control of the ball when the clock runs out? so the house will try to come up with some other plan. most people believe it's impossible just the way the lay of the land is to be able to take all of the funding away from the health care law. so a possible alternative republicans would try to craft is something that either takes apart a bit of it, delays pieces of it, what you would call a

smaller goal. this has been really an ordeal over the last 21 hours with all this talk. he's made a point, ted cruz. he's made his point, but will it have a practical, real world effect? that seems hard to grasp right now. certainly both parties want to keep the government operating, but they're going to fight over the health care law at every turn. andrea? >> kelly o'donnell, thank you very much. we'll be back in a moment. it's eb. want to give your family the very best in taste, freshness, and nutrition? it's eb. want to give them more vitamins, omega 3s, and less saturated fat? it's eb. eggland's best eggs. eb's. the only eggs that make better taste and better nutrition... easy. eggland's best eggs. better taste. better nutrition. better eggs. it's eb. ♪ [ male announcer ] bob's heart attack didn't come with a warning.

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i have no reason not to shake hands with president obama, but we didn't have enough time to arrange it all. the white house was really leaning forward leaving open that possibility, mark. how do you think this comes out? >> well, you know, i think that the white house in the wake of the handshake has tried to put the best possible face on it. what they're saying is that this shows that president rouhani is a pretty skilled political operator. shaking the president's hand might have looked good to an international audience, but it might also have gotten him into trouble with hardline elements back home, particularly after several weeks in which he'd made a series of have moderate statements, given a lot of interviews to television networks, released political prisoners, sent greets to the jewish people. there was an agreement maybe he had gone as far as he could on the charm offensive and shaking the president's hand might have actually caused more problems for him at home in terms of

trying to get this diplomatic overture on the road. so the white house's take, again, trying to put the best face on it is this shows a canny political operator who knows how to balance the various political constituencies he's going to need as he presses on with this initiative. >> at the same time, ann, his speech here at the u.n., we were both watching at the u.n. yesterday. his speech reiterated a lot of the hardline positions. again, speaking to the audience back home. >> yeah, it certainly wasn't ahmadinejad, but it was ahmadinejad light. it had a lot of the same themes, none of the patently offensive material that ahmadinejad repeated fairly regularly in his u.n. addresses. but it was far from a real overture either directly to the united states or to the united nations more broadly. that came in some of the other things that rouhani's been doing. and he's been doing a lot here this week. he's giving a whole bunch of

interviews. he's appearing here and there. he's appearing at a think tank tomorrow. he's trying to get his message out. >> the rubber meets the road, really, when the foreign minister and john kerry get together with their counterparts at this group meeting of the security councilmembers plus germany tomorrow to talk about the nuclear issue. >> right. a handshake would have been nice. speaking personally, we don't have a lot to live for as diplomatic reporters. that would have been great. we'll have to settle for kerry and the iranian foreign minister speaking tomorrow, which will be significant in its own right. first time it's happened in six years. >> do you think there will be a separate meeting, or will this still be the group? >> i think they're trying for a separate meeting. as mark said, the white house has been leaning forward on this. they've done absolutely nothing to discourage the idea that obama wanted to have at least an informal meeting yesterday, and this would be really sort of the next best thing. >> mark, the president's other

big challenge right now is syria, this deal with russians really unraveling in front of our eyes. do you think they can salvage this at the united nations this week? >> well, i mean, i probably know less about this than ann does because i'm not involved in the ins and outs of the reporting around the resolution. but yes, you're right. the talk is increasingly negative. and frankly, a lot of this could have been predicted when john kerry and sergei lavrov first sort of announced the framework. there was an acknowledgment that getting the details pinned down was going to be extremely difficult. what struck me about the past two days at the united nations is that iran had the effect of sort of sidelining syria. and for president obama, this might not be the worst outcome. i think he's very happy to sort of delegate this now to the secretary of state and let it sort of unfold in the world of diplomacy without having it continue to be a consumining ise

for the white house. that sort of sense of emphasis came through very strongly in the white house's message over the past two days. >> mark and ann, thank you both so much. this is basically going to be john kerry taking care of this problem. >> indeed. >> moments ago, the fbi released video evidence of the shooter aaron alexis at the navy yard. this video shows the shooter's car driving into the garage and going through the front door of building 197. then it shows him making his way through a hallway with a sawed off shotgun. he's got that bag there -- rather, the shotgun was hidden in a bag he then said was etched with messages. just look at this. you can see him making his way down the hallway. this is before, obviously, he started shooting, before the standoff.

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a few moments ago this video was released. this is aaron alexis' car going

into the navy yard. you see he has a bag and here he is assembled the gun and starts stalking down the hallway and the rest was history. we also learned from the assistant fbi director in charge of the investigation, that he initialled his shotgun with some personal messages. here's what she just said. >> we can say that the remmington 870 shotgun had been altered with a sawed off barrel and stock. purple duct tape covered the end of the stock and handwritten etchings were present at various parts of the shotgun. etched into the barrel of the shotgun were the words, quote, end to the -- end quote. etched in the right receiver, quote, that what y' all say,

close quote. and the phrases, quote, better off this way, close quote. and quote, my weapon. >> tragedy all around. chris is back with us to talk about what's coming up in the next 24. and we have a big debate in virginia of the chuck todd moderating the gubernatorial debate between terry mccalliffe and ken cuccinelli. >> there are 41 days before november 5th, election day in virginia. it's the one race that's really competitive between the two parties. terry mccalliffe, frequent cable news guest is right now ahead. there's a dispute over the numbers but i think he is

clearly ahead about a handfull of points. cuccinelli struggled. this is his chance to change this. these debates matter, we know that from the presidential level and gubernatorial levels past. this will be a big moment on statewide television. probably the single biggest event of the race to date happens tonight. >> and it will be well prepared with chuck todd in charge. >> always. >> thanks so much, chris and there will be a lot more coming up from the navy yard investigation on "news nation." remember, follow the show online and twitter at mitchell reports. tamron hall will have more on the newly released fbi surveillance video. >> we'll have as you mentioned great detail on the new video. stunning to see aaron alexis walking through the facility with his weapon in hand. we'll get more detail on that video plus the breaking news

from the senate, they voted just minutes ago to move forward with a bill to keep the government running, including senator cruz despite his 21-hour talk-a-thon, now the question, what's next? a closer look at the path to washington, including claims from a former law school roommate that cruz refused to study with anyone who wasn't a yale or princeton undergrad. closing arguments in the michael jackson civil trial, his family versus aeg. and the fashion crackdown on female soldiers, set to issue new rules on how women can wear their hair and nails and even fingernails. it's our news nation gut check. ? [ female announcer ] no time to plan? there's still time to whiten. new crest 3d white whitestrips 1 hour express. now, in just one hour you can have a noticeably whiter smile. new 1 hour whitestrips from crest. life opens up with a whiter smile.

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