>> speaker boehner decides to light a match and throw it on the gasoline that's already all over the place. i hope he will desist. >> will they break the stalemate before time runs out? the president calls house democrats to a crisis meeting at the white house this afternoon. and are you a don draper or jack donaghy? >> why are you wearing a tux? >> it's after 6:00, what am i, a farmer? >> despite d.c. dysfunction our new profile shows americans are not as divided as congress. chuck todd joins us with all the answers. good day, i'm andrea mitchell in

washington. we may be on the verge of a deal that could end this government shutdown or not. heated words from senate democrats as they face down house republicans who are pushing their own deal, a last-minute deal they say would reopen the government but would it. the president is weighing in saying the house republican bill is not acceptable. whooi while the shutdown underscored how polarized washington has become, outside the beltway the rest of the country seems to be on a different track. more on that in a moment. a new survey shows the majority of american voters exist in a broad middle ground when it comes to politics. more from nbc's chuck todd in a minute. first lets talk about those deals in play. are they deal breakers. joining me from "the fix" kelly o'donnell and chris cillizza, msnbc contributor and host of tv's in play. you came from the briefing, questioned the speaker, lets listen. >> mr. speaker, can you guarantee to the american people congress will not go past the

deadline and push us into default. >> i've made clear the idea is wrong and we shouldn't get close to it. >> it's very clear this speaker does not want to push the house, push congress, push the united states government over the edge. is he in control? we have a last minute plan from house republicans that says there's a deal breaker. >> almost a feeling of containment strategy with john boehner. dealing with his republican conference, what we're told the offer discussed this morning which basically takes when the senate bipartisan deal, it adds on to that something very important to the most volatile group within the republican conference, which are the most conservative tea party members who do want to see some kind of change to the health care law. it has been enormously watered

down from where this began. now what they are talking about is a two-year delay of a tax on pacemakers and medical devices, those kinds of things, which is something there are a number of democrats who would support it but not under these circumstances. and they have made changes to the health care law, members elected but not their staff in terms of how the government would provide some funding for people getting their own health care through those new exchanges. what he found out, speaker boehner, there's not enough support, not enough votes among republicans to pass this idea. so we're in a holding pattern as they are looking at ways to make small changes. we don't know what it's going to be. it's an important moment. john boehner does not have the vote and he can't move forward. that is critical when you're looking at this is tuesday and the time is running out. andrea. >> it's just another waste of time as we approach the thursday

deadline. chris cillizza, is this sort of running out the clock so boehner can say we've got to pass the bill with democratic votes and go for a final solution? >> it's possible, andrea, though i don't think that was john boehner and the republican leadership's intention here. when we heard news republicans are going to offer something quite similar to the plan as kelly points out a few thins in there to appease some of the conservative parts of the party, i think that was put out there because they wanted to sort of have a say, that house republicans felt as though they were cut out of this deal. they were worried whatever deal the senate negotiated, i think john boehner was worried if it went to the house he had no hope of passing it. this was a legitimate attempt to say, hey, guys, here is what i think we can get through the house. can you work with this? the problem is in many ways same as ever for john boehner as speaking, which is we saw this with the fiscal cliff, farm

bill, what eric cantor tried to do when it came to keeping government funded on a vote on obama care. all those were rejected by four dozen -- somewhere between 30 and 50 conservatives within the party in the house who simply do not want any sort of deal. same problem here. they are now trying, as kelly noted, to sort of sweeten the deal, to get more conservatives on board. john boehner's problem is the same as it was before the shutdown, the same as it was at the start of 2013. >> kelly o'donnell, you're where all the acis and chris cillizza, thanks very much. see you in a bit. to esquire magazine survey. it doesn't dominate political landscape, joining me host of "the daily rundown." chuck, take us through it.

>> it is. you want to talk about a disconnect and polarization, washington is disconnected and polarized from the rest of the country. the way we did this survey we found people and put them in eight buckets, left, center and right. what was interesting was the right and left buckets together, the most liberal and most conservative did not make up a majority. a majority of the country is right here in the middle. let me take you through a few details. here is the left. sort of a religious left, gospel left, bleeding hearts. that's 21%. these folks voted 99-1 for president obama. to columns on the right where folks fit in evangelicals represented here and talk radio heads, the fiery sort of tea party brand of conservatism, that makes up 28%. everybody else fell in the middle in some form. we have from left to right on the political spectrum.

we've got minivan moderates, take you through, mostly women, mba middle mostly men, pickup truck populace, rural and disengaged. that's turrellette in the entourage days. moderates, mostly women, mostly high educated, very affluent, a third of them have children living at home. liberal pro gay marriage, pro-choice, pro gun control. they want less government. a lot in favor of a balanced budget amendment. take you to the mba middle. twenty years ago hard core businessman, now 49-49 between romney and obama in the last election. the biggest disparity on social issues and fiscal ideology. they are very much fiscal conservatives. these are social libertarians. 86% of them want more individual accountability. think the personal responsibility. economic populace, pickup populace we're calling them.

predominantly white, rural, most never graduated college. 64% of this group believe government should be doing more. to essentially level the playing field, big believers in the social safety net. last group, whateverman. mostly single, 75% of them under 50. big on social media, they just do not talk politics. they don't have a lot of opinion. but when you do force them, they literally broke right down the middle if they were at all bothering. they really don't have a lot of faith in washington. overall i would say this, andrea, if there's one thread that there's a commonality here it's basic fairness. okay. this group believes, you know what, if people want to get married, that's fine. they are not in favor of affirmative action. nobody should get a special deal. people should be treated equally. that's the common theme here among this big group. >> the strong libertarian strain which has shown up in the

polling on gay marriage and things like that. >> also foreign policy, andrea. >> foreign policy. very isolationist. i would say foreign aid is in trouble here. >> foreign aid in big trouble. this group of moderates basically they don't see what good it's giving america. war weariness we saw in there. definitely open to cutting the defense budget. again, they are looking inward. one of our polsters said this. most of these folks fall in the middle that aren't comfortable left or right, they fall in the middle. they are essentially looking at politics through their own life. they sit here and say, boy, i'm struggling to do this, why are we bothering aiding the military in egypt who isn't interested in helping us out. >> is it any wonder after the two wars we've been through and recession that people are looking inward. there's a lot of space for a different kind of political candidate. >> it is. if people look at it. here is the thing. we all knew -- we used to say politics fought between the 40

yarls using a football metaphor. what we've learned with this poll, politics fought between the 25 yard line. the two ideological groups are smaller than the media has made you believe. >> people fighting over these marginal issues. >> this group has nothing to do with it. they are solutions oriented. just get it done. >> chuck todd, thank you very much. >> you got it. >> see you later. msnbc analyst michael steele former chair of the national committee and joins me now. whoa, you look at that. the polsters were from the romney and obama camps. so these were real world political presidential campaign polsters who did these data for esquire and us. >> it's exciting, exciting for politics. it's something i discovered early on my tenure, there's something developing outside the

walls of washington whether it was the move on, not move on but tea party, libertarian, tendency to foreign policy, aid we give, we take care at home before we take care abroad. >> it's vastly misunderstood it's less than 1%. >> less than 1%. again, it goes to how washington has failed to educate on these front. people fill in the blanks for themselves. this poll reflects how american people are filling in themselves. they recognize as chuck put it, it's not 40 yard lines anymore, it's 20 yard lines and everything in between. they are taking up more real estate. that's a good thing for politics. ultimately it will force politicians to come around where people are. we have more bottom to hit with the craziness we see now. >> the bottom, the house doesn't

have the votes, the speaker, yet his members, the 30 or 40 hard core conservatives are really ready to bring the whole house down. we're losing another day. >> we're losing another day. >> until tonight. >> i think you're absolutely right there. we're losing another day. the optics and certainly the politics do not work for the republican party right now. i think boehner recognizes that. he also knows he doesn't have the votes. so i think as kelly aptly put it, he's trying to push the thing along just enough to give him the wiggle room to come back to the table with the kind of deal that the caucus and house will support. i don't know if they get that done in the next 24 hours. i think we get reit up to the edge here. reid is going to have to give a little ground in the house, the senate. he can't get out there and say whatever the house produces is doa. there has to be the sense of put it on the table and we'll work it out. that's ultimately what the american people want to see happen here. >> there is a battle for the

soul of the republican party. it was played out at the veterans rally dominated by sarah palin and ted cruz sunday. larry claman was one of the speakers. i want to play it for you so you can see what we're talking about. this was uncontested by those present. brings to mind what john mccain did so eloquently, excuse me, ma'am, the president is not a muslim, et cetera, et cetera. >> we are now ruled by a president who bows down to allah. this president is not a president of we the people. he's a president of his people. i call upon all of you to wage a second american nonviolent revolution, to use civil disobedience and demand this president leave town, to get

out, to put the quran down, get up off his knees, come here and demand the resignation of obama and other leaders who have subverted the interest of our country. >> this is not helping the republican party. >> not helping the republican party. any self-respecting republican not only distances themselves from that stupidity but condemn it. around ideas we know will work and be beneficial as a whole. when you start from a position of hate, which that is, stupidity which that is. >> and racism. >> that was just a given. playing to the lowest possible common denominator, i hope the organizers of this are distancing themselves from this craziness. this is not the republican party of the future, certainly not the republican party i joined. that to me does not advance the

conversation that the republican party needs to have happen in this country on obama care and debt. when you start from that position, you get what under the circumstances. right now we're going to get a whole lot of in your face from the american people if that's the kind of voice we're putting out in front of the country. >> that's why you're such an important voice for the republican party and for us at msnbc. thank you. in fact, the veterans who organized that event said it was hijacked for political gain. they released this statement, the core principle was about honoring all veterans in a peaceful and apolitical manner. our love for and dedication remains to the veterans regardless of political affiliation or leanings. today veterans return to the world war ii memorial with another rally. if the shutdown continues disability payments could halt for 5.1 million veterans by the end of the month. >> we all stuck together when we were in combat. we put the mission first.

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wasserman schulz chairman of the committee and author of "the next generation, a wake up call to solving our nation's problems." boy, do we need this now? >> thank you. >> what do you expect? the speaker pulled this from the floor. he doesn't have votes for the alternative. we're back to square one? >> we're very hopeful and glad republicans and democrats in the senate are working on a solution. we're waiting to see what the total framework and details are.

that's the direction we should be headed trying to make sure we could reopen the government, pay our bills and work on a longer term deal so we can replace the sequester, make sure we're adequately funding our budget. >> there is a timing issue here. one of the reasons why the democratic -- bipartisan, i should call it, bipartisan proposal that came out of the senate at the insistence of the democrats on the white house the continuing resolution spending bill january 15th, that's when the next group of cuts from the sequester would kick in. >> yes. >> this is to end the spending bill so that the democrats hope they can moderate the next cuts to come on january 15th. >> i've heard republican colleagues of mine in the house and the senate say that we think these sequester levels are unacceptable. the goal is to replace them. if we make sure that that january 15th date holds in any proposed compromise, we're going to be able to renegotiate a more targeted, focused spending cut

package that will ensure we're not cutting legs out from under education and health care and indiscriminately make budget cuts for people that harm people that can't afford it. >> your book, it's a call for action. >> it is. >> how do you frame it? you see this dysfunction, i've never seen it any worse than this, where do you get your optimism? >> i am optimistic. we do have an opportunity for cooler heads to prevail. i wrote the book so we could sound the alarm bell. even if someone like me as head of the national democratic party could understand we could set aside our differences and work to find common ground, anything is possible, also to motivate regular people, moms and other parents that they should get off the sidelines and really get engaged to push us towards that goal. >> people are turned off by it. chuck todd's survey we've done with esquare shows there's a broad middle hoping for better

things, hoping for fairness. generally libertarians not wanting to mess around with people's personal lives, letting people get married to whomever they love, wanting gun control or gun reform in some cases but not wanting involvement in the rest of the world. it's very isolationist. >> it's one of the reasons i hope that people read this book is that we have an opportunity to measure our nation's success based on how our children are doing. i think that broad middle understands there are so many major challenges we're facing, it's like the sun is blocked out on all of them because of the gridlock. the public understand gridlock won't move the country forward. as a mom, also a lawmaker, not an abstract concept we have to do what we can to make sure the next generation has success. we've all got to work together towards doing that. >> how did going through breast cancer, this is breast cancer awareness month, we were talking

about it off camera because both of us have gone through that. being a mom as young as you are, facing that, how did that reshape your political priorities? >> there's two lenses you look through when you survive cancer and you're a parent. both of those are really what shapes the rest of your outlook. knowing that every day is a precious gift and that you have to make sure that our children are our focus but also that you take advantage of every opportunity you have to make sure you can improve things for the generation that you brought into this world. >> one of the things you just mentioned to me, which is, i think, appalling and i was unaware of as well read as i am on this stuff, medicare does not cover testing, expensive testing, breast cancer testing for the gene unless you already have the disease. that's crazy. >> insane. i found that out actually because my own mom after i was diagnosed with the breast cancer

gene and had breast cancer assumed she should probably go get the test. she's 20 years older than me, 66 years old and found out she couldn't get it covered. the test is $3,000. someone on medicare, many of them, millions are living with that safety net as almost the only thing they have that allows them to play their bills. it is obviously far more expensive for medicare to cover cancer than it would be to cover the test so that you could watch more carefully and be more ikely to catch cancer early if you do get it and reduce the overall cost of treating the disease. >> to say nothing of saving lives. >> exactly. i'm working hard to push medicare to change that policy because it's so irresponsible. >> another reason why we need more women in politics. >> we do. >> need more experience in the next generation. >> women could get it done, i believe that. >> women in the senate are getting it done. >> they are.

my republican colleagues in the house, women and democrats, we all sort of half jokingly say if it was left to us, we could solve a whole lot of problems. that's why we need more women to run so we have more women in power to make decisions. >> the author, debbie wasserman schulz. >> thank you, andrea. >> back quickly after heart health square, nbc confirmed a report it was more seriously than previously reported. what was described as a routine procedure, a stint inserted into a blocked artery was a severely blocked coronary artery potentially light threatening before that stint opened it up. the 43rd president one of the most athletic presidents known for working out in the white house gym, jogging, mountain biking, even leading wounded warriors last may on memorial day weekend in a 62 miale bike

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we found riley at the shelter, and found everything he needed at angie's list. join today at angieslist.com welcome back, al libi, alleged al qaeda operative accused of masterminding bombings in kenya and tanzania pleaded not guilty in new york city just one week after his dramatic capture in libya. richard engel outside the courtroom with the latest. tell me about the hearing. >> we just left the courtroom. i was in the courtroom with a small number of journalists. we watch as he was brought in. he was wearing gray sweatpants, a black sweatshirt. he was initially handcuffed, flanked by u.s. marshals.

once they brought him into the center of the courtroom and sat him down, his handcuffs were taken off. it was a fairly quick and routine procedure. the judge speaking through a translator, mr. al libi does not speak english told him if he understood why he was there, read the charges against him. he was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to destroy american public buildings and the conspiracy to destroy national security infrastructure. he said he did. he said he did not have the money for lawyer. he was taken out of the room wearing flip flops and the judge set a hearing on object 22nd. >> richard, you're not a doctor, nor do you play one on television. how did he look? the issue of bringing him to the

united states before interrogating him at greater length was supposedly because he had a pre-existing condition, which the family said was hepatitis. >> he certainly looked older than 40 years. he had a beard almost entirely gray at the bottom, brown at the end. as he stood up and sat down in his chair, stood up as the judge entered the room, he moved very slowly. his translator and one of his temporary lawyers had to help him move the chair in as he tucked it under his seat. he didn't seem very infirmed, he wasn't limping, didn't look visibly sick. he looked slow and weak, certainly older than the man he is. >> we all remember the 1998 bombings, which really was the signature act by al qaeda and osama bin laden before the uss cole and then, of course, 9/11. so this is a very important

trial and an important trial of the system whether he can get a trial in lower manhattan, federal court. richard, thank you very much. thanks for being here today. affirmative action is again being argued in front of the supreme court at this very hour. the court is hearing oral arguments on the constitutionality of the 2006 michigan law that bans affirmative action. allowed race to be considered in college admission. the law then prohibited it. after the law was instituted minority enrollment at the university of michigan dropped. of course the competition of the court has changed. the key vote in favor of the affirmative action case back in 2006 was sandra day o'connor no longer on the high court. so we could be a better, safer energy company. i can tell you - safety is at the heart of everything we do. we've added cutting-edge technology,

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shutdown the cdc can't track the cases. nearly two-thirds of the cdc employees have been furloughed. an idle cdc prevents managing all viral outbreaks not only the flu. the doctor director of the vaccine research group at the mayo and valentine's day valentine's day advisory group on immunization practices joins me now. thank you very much, doctor. tell me about the challenges in tracking the flu and what the risk is given the shutdown now which is going into the third week. >> right. for me, i really think of this as a national health security issue. the cdc is the agency charged with taking all the snapshots we get internationally and from each state and creating a collage or picture of what's happening in there. they sequence viruses so we know is a new or novel virus emerging. they look whether antiviral resistance is occurring and feed

that back out to physicians so we know how best to treat or prevent illness. >> and you've pointed out that the flu that came, bird flu that came from mexico erupted in 2009 so quickly. we've already been down for two weeks, going into the third week. these things can change dramatically in just a matter of days. >> absolutely. this is realtime situational awareness. just to elaborate a little bit, go back to february of 2009 when there are a handful of unusual respiratory cases in a rural area of mexico. then in the next few days a few cases in the southwest, then a bunch of cases in the northeast states. if it had not been for cdc, realtime being involved in that and piecing that, stitching that disparate pieces together into some picture that made sense, we wouldn't have understood we had a novel pandemic virus. that could occur today.

there's nothing that would stop that from occurring. the delay in knowing about that in this time of year would be enough to prevent making a vaccine in time. this has real potential implications for the the health of the nation. >> what about other diseases, infectious diseases like whooping cough and rubella? how are they affected by the shutdown? >> absolutely the same way. the states only have jurisdiction in their state. they can't take a national snapshot to know what's happening. cdc monitors disease activity. the sars-like virus circulating in the middle east. they keep track of that, look for any new clusters of disease and quickly investigate that. good example would be in this past week we had a salmonella outbreak in california. there's a strong feeling that the furloughing of those cdc

workers allowed this to get larger and delay in getting people there to investigate the outbreak. some 300 infected and almost half hospitalized. >> dr. greg poland, thanks for the update from the mayo clinic. thank you very much indeed. coming up next live to geneva, switzerland where iran is meeting with western leaders, the first day of important nuclear talks. has never been our priority. our priority is, was and always will be serving you, the american people. so we improved priority mail flat rate to give you a more reliable way to ship. now with tracking up to eleven scans, specified delivery dates, and free insurance up to $50 all for the same low rate. [ woman ] we are the united states postal service. [ man ] we are the united states postal service. [ male announcer ] and our priority is you. go to usps.com® and try it today.

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ask your doctor about non-insulin victoza®. it's covered by most health plans. add brand new belongings from nationwide insurance and we'll replace stolen or destroyed items with brand-new versions. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ the white house is warning can't expect quick results from the negotiations in geneva as new negotiator sat do not in the west in geneva, the first since the election of the new president in iran, rouhani. as they discuss the contentious nuclear program for the first time they were held english as well. spoke with the prime minister on

the eve of the talks. >> we should not shoot for concessions, either getting concessions or giving concessions. we should aim for finding solutions. that is what in my view is needed for tomorrow. that is what i'm trying -- that is the logic i'll be trying to use. >> finding solutions to a history of mistrust is not easy. >> you always have to take the first step. probably the first step is the most difficult step but it takes courage and hopefully leadership to take that step. once you've taken it, the road is not that difficult. >> behind the scenes in the talks. joining me now with that exclusive report is nbc's ann curry and tron bureau chief. thanks to both of you. ann, tell me about the mood today. they got together and there's a new iranian proposal. there is a lot of steps to be

taken going forward before we reach anything close to the hoped for agreement. >> absolutely, andrea. well, i can say that the mood, i think, was full of anticipation, a great deal of stress. people were realizing this was a real opportunity. perhaps the first, the biggest opportunity in more than 30 years for a possible deal. that was the feeling, especially because we've heard so much from president rouhani and also the prime minister -- excuse me, foreign minister we heard from zarif talking about how they really wanted to reach out to the west, they really wanted to make a deal. it's interesting to note that the deal was -- the conversation was english. that zarif presented about a one-hour power point presentation. it seems he was trying something different. a state department official, senior state department official said afterwards, andrea, that

after the presentation for the first time ever there was a detailed and very highly technical conversation in these talks. >> very interesting that we saw a picture of sarrive with katherine ashton from european union an head of the u.s. talks from the state department. very strong role for women in these arms control negotiations. ali, coming from tehran, how much running room do you think he has. he's obviously deputized by president rouhani but how much space does rouhani have before the hard-liners say enough, and we're not going to give you any flexibility in these talks? >> well, andrea, that's the $64,000 question, just how much time do they have to negotiate. that's in the supreme leader's hands. he's obviously given them a certain amount of time to negotiate. how much, we don't know, six months, a year.

but they have to come up with something tangible. rouhani and zarif have both said they have a green light with the negotiations, full authority. but, as you said, there is a time alignment for this. if they can't get sanctions relief, come in from the cold, things will get very difficult brf if i may interrupt, andrea, very interesting in the interview with zarif, he said it's a window, not a gate. in other words he was making it very clear the window of opportunity is small. >> both sides are under an incredible amount of pressure. >> that's right. >> there's also an element of good cop bad cop here. the senate foreign relations committee issued a bipartisan letter to the president saying don't give away the store here. we want diplomacy, negotiations, a verifiable agreement, we recognize the elements, explicit, won't allow iran to inquire nuclear weapons. we want the ability to continue

enriching uranium, store it under supervision by u.n. control agency on iranian soil. they are no longer talking about exporting it to russia or other places as were in previous negotiations. ann. >> well, i think it's really interesting to note that a senior state department official has said -- has noted that the president himself, president obama has said that iran has talked about wanting to continue to have a peaceful nuclear program and there was room in the u.s. position on iran having a peaceful nuclear program. the question really is, where is that space. whether there will be enough in these conversations that are going to be going past geneva to ensure there was transparency, there were going to be serious opportunities for the west to verify that there is not a weaponization program in iran's intentions as iran has said over

and over and over again. >> i think one of the problems is there's a deep seated mistrust between both sides. i don't think either side wants to take the first step in case they get burnt. >> the other thing to really note that's interesting is zarif has also said when i ask them about how involved is president rouhani in these conversations, how involved is he behind the scenes in these negotiations, he says he's in constant contact with president rouhani, iran's president. as you well know, andrea, president rouhani is a former nuclear negotiator himself. this is one of the reasons why we are hearing now already so soon here on the very first day that the conversations have turned technical and very detailed. >> that's a good sign, because they have got to get down to business. on a rainy night in geneva, thank you both very much. thanks for being there for us. here at home the nation's highest military other than, medal of honor will be awarded

by president obama at the white house to retired captain swin son, the first army officer to receive the award since the vietnam war. we'll bring that ceremony to you live in the next hour. the 34-year-old seattle native risked his own life to save comrades, afghan allies and recover bodies of four americans killed during the seven-hour firefighter in the afghan valley back in september of 2009. swinson's path to this medal was a tough one. he criticized his army superiors for failing to provide enough air and artillery support during the mission. his award nomination was delayed for years. in this moving video recorded with a helmet camera and without his knowledge he can be seen helping kenneth westbrook into a rescue hillary clinton. the height of the fight swinson stops to kiss the top of westbrook's head before running back directly into the battle. want to cover and correct spots? try this: cc creams from covergirl + olay.

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which political story will make headlines in the next 24 hours. we know there are going to be meetings at the white house and the government is still shutdown. i'm not going to predict anything will happen. let's talk politics for a moment, chris, we have the lonergan election and the polls will be open and we have the first debates in new york, general election debates with de blasio tonight. here is bill de blasio, acknowledged front-runner, the democratic candidate, with alec baldwin on friday night. >> we are talking about trying to respect every kind of people, trying to have a city and a government that actually helps people along, that helps them through their struggles, that really loves and embraces people from that beginning point, which is family of every kind.

>> it was less about look at the different skin colors and more about a co-heerns and hope. >> he is trying to reassure wall street and business community in general, that he is not some anti-capitalist democrat who's going to take over new york for mike bloomberg of all people. >> andrea, this debate tonight, i would say bill de blasio, unless he does something colossally bad in the next six to eight weeks is going to be elected the mayor of new york. it seems very unlike that the republican nominee, down between 50 and 60 points. i do think this is more about bill de blasio defining what his mayoralty will look like. he has come under criticism who have said that they are not people who are going to do the

things necessary to move new york city forward, which of course by implication is that he was doing those things. look, de blasio we know will be significantly more liberal on economic and social policy than mike bloomberg. i think he is trying to define what it is that he's going to focus on, care about and talk about once he very likely becomes mayor. >> and very interesting will be what he says about questions about stop and frisk, which is so controversial in new york. thank you very much and we'll look to the white house and hill to see whether they come up with a deal. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show online and on twitter at mitchellreports. tamron hall has a look at what's next on "news nation." >> several big stories developing in the first hour. first in washington, a deal to break the budget stalemate once again appears out of reach. the white house says it is optimistic but harry reid

accuses republicans of blind siding him of threats to torpedo a plan on the debt ceiling. one of al al qaeda's top leaders, it follows ten days of questioning on board. richard engel was in court and will bring the latest to us live. >> we're moments away from president obama awarding the medal honor to an army captain during one of the deadliest battles in afghanistan actually caught on tape. we will carry this very special ceremony live next on "news nation." [ male announcer ] maybe you've already heard what they're saying about the nissan altima. ♪ and we have to admit, that it's all true. but don't just take their word for it, check it out for yourself. the award-winning nissan altima. nissan. innovation that excites. now get a $179 per month lease on a 2013 nissan altima.

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