>> i always want to know what the pitchers are saying in their gloves when ♪ ♪ o beautiful for say can you see by the dawn's early light ♪ amazing. that's adorable. >> if anybody screws up, he's great. >> he's amazing. that was awesome. good morning everyone. welcome to "morning joe." it is friday. does this feel like the longest week ever or was that last week? ever. with us on set msnbc and "time" magazine senior political analyst mike halperin. cute little sweater you have

there. zip it a little more. little less shirt. senior political editor and white house correspondent for the "huffington post" sam stein. and msnbc political analyst and visiting professor at nyu, former democratic congressman harold ford jr. >> i'm rochablely overdressed. >> in washington, white house correspondent for the associated press, julie page joins us. good to have you all on board this morning. we have a lot to get to. a couple of things. hillary clinton is back in the news. she got some good news but got heckled at an event. we'll show you how she handled it. how the former secretary of state was hammered on benghazi but she handled it pretty well. i think. you decide. also made accommodate in america, why are you all looking at me. medicaid in america. actually a very serious story prescription pills account for 75% of deadly drug overdoses in

the u.s. so the fda is working to try to do something about that and dr. nancy will be joining us to give us details on that. also just a tip, especially for you halperin. definitely harold ford jr., and sam stein for sure, if you're giving an interview on background or getting one, don't do that on the acela. perhaps not even in the quiet car. >> what could possibly go wrong. >> what's that? >> you can't do that in the quiet car. i've been kicked out of the quiet car a time or two. one former national official, intelligence official had a little problem with that. that along with the angela merkel story. it is just unbelievable. we'll begin in washington, though, where that was pretty unbelievable as well. both parties are calling for someone to be held accountable for the flawed roll out of

healthercare.gov and for republicans that person is hhs secretary kathleen sebelius. she defended herself yesterday saying in part quote, the majority of people calling for me to resign, i would say, are people i don't work for and who do not want this program to work in the first place. does they have a point? >> she does. she's a savvy political player. she has to be more forthcoming when she goes before congress. she's doing the balancing administration. things are getting better but not good enough yet. i don't think she's going anywhere any time soon but she has to focus on the pr as much as fixing the problem. she's in charge. she was designated the point person. she's got to convey a better sense, i think, of we are fixing it. >> julie page do we need to hear from her? >> i think we do. one question about sebelius yes she wasn't physically constructing this website but we

don't know if she was aware of the extent of the problems before the roll out. if she was aware then that's a problem for her, it will be a little bit harder for her to defend this roll out. the administration is starting to hold these daily updates, daily conference calls and she was asked whether she was aware of the problems before the rollout and she dodged the question. >> yesterday's hearing, one of the key points that came out was that the test for this thing, this site did not begin in ernest in time. supposed to happened months before and happened weeks before. secretary sebelius has to answer those questions. i know her and i like her. someone will have to be held accountable somewhere along the chain here and if not i think it will lead to creator credibility questions and even make it more difficult for the kinds of things to do with health care going forward. for the president thinking he can move to immigration after

this, it's strange to think he can do that. >> i don't disagree. on capitol hill contractors who worked on the website faced the ire of several members of congress. kelly o'donnell has that story. >> reporter: the top government contractors who built and run the flawed healthercare.gov website -- >> you can tell us when you'll be able to have some of these issues repaired? >> reporter: ignored questions -- >> about the delays do you feel you had an opportunity to explain that today? >> reporter: but did take an oath to answer congress truthfully. grilled for more than four hours. >> is that a system you're proud of? >> these problems need to be fixed fast. >> reporter: contractors responsible for different parts of the health care website and enrollment process claim they did their jobs well and working to fix system bugs. >> you keep speak about unaccepted volumes. pro flowers doesn't crash on

valentine's day. >> reporter: as the day wore on contractors gave a more frank assessment. >> we're not excited nor pleased what we delivered on october 1. but, you know, in principle it worked. >> reporter: contractors said the government agency in charge waited too long to test all the parts together weeks before it launched. >> what's the industry recommended standard for test before rolling out? >> months is nice. >> reporter: they blamed the same agency for a last minute change. instead of consumers being able to browse for different insurance plans the system was chaejd to require consumers register online first. but the committee's top democrat henry waxman is optimistic. >> you are confident they can fix it even after all the problems and delays we've seen. >> i'm confident they told us they can fix it.

>> reporter: while fred upton says they must get more answers. >> have you learned yet who is responsible? >> it seems like there was a fingerprinting and all of it was going to the administration. >> kelly o'donnell on story. one of the more heated moments came between a republican and a democrat over matters of privacy. >> you sign up for this or attempt to you have no reasonable expect jays of privacy. that is a direct contradiction to hippa and you know it. >> i started out in my opening statement saying there was no legitimacy to this hearing and the last line of the questioning confirms that. hippa only applies when there's health information being provided. that's not in play here today. no health information is required in the application process and why is that? because pre-existing conditions don't matter. so once again here we have my

republican colleagues trying to scare everybody. >> will the gentleman lead? >> no i will not yield this monkey court. >> this is not a monkey court. >> i'm not yielding. >> sam stein. >> it's not a monkey court. >> it is not a monkey court. it's not a monkey court. full disclosure my wife works for the administration. it's funny -- it's funny how everyone in congress became an i.t. expert. >> i don't think you can compare the affordable care act to flowers.com. >> the focus was misplaced. they looked at this anonymous shopping. they looked at hippa. the most important thing is what happens to information on the back end. when you tell where you live, if you're a smoker that should go out to insurers.

the problem is they are not getting the right information. until you fix that nothing else matters. they can have as many sign up as possible. if the data they are producing is bad that's not good. >> let's see if this argument works. a lot of the obama care website is not the first time a major program had problems being implemented. for example, medicare part d. right? while republicans today are hammering the affordable care act some were far more forgiving of president bush's law back in 2006. >> any time something is new, there's going to be some glitches. all of us when our children were new, we knew as parents we didn't know everything we were doing and had a foul up or two but persevered and our children turned out well. even no matter what one does in life when it's something new and learning the roechs it it will take a little adjustment. but as we were signing up 27 million seniors at a rate

sometimes approaching 400,000 people a week, the system wasn't always perfectly ready for them and there were a few glitches. but the point is, hhs or medicare responded. put extra people on board. worked out some of the glitches. >> kind of a stretch? >> like tmz meets c-span. big smoking gun. that program had some problems. this is a bigger deal. the whole country's health care system being redone and there's other problems with the program. the president said that. they will have to get this fixed. not optional. >> has anyone argued, jewely pace has anyone argued this can't be fixed? >> it depends on who you talk to. when you talk to people in the administration they say this is definitely going to be fixed. it's going to be fixed quickly. when you talk to some of these software developers, when you talk to people who have

experience building complex systems some of these folks say this is not a week's long endeavor this could be a months long endeavor. if they can fix this quickly this could blow over. >> one of the difficulties we're having the administration not being forthcoming what the problem is. you have a lot of people who are involved who are sort of guessing in many respects as to what's under the hood. they are trying to assume what's wrong and saying this could take weeks, it could take months. there's not an infinite amount of time to fix this thing, you have to do it quickly. >> they have to regroup. mark halperin shaking his head. we have a lot to get to this morning. new documents from edward snowden published in the guardian suggests the nsa monitored the calls of 35 world leaders, and their contact information came from another

u.s. government official. president obama assured angela merkel early this week, ironically over the phone that the u.s. was not currently monitoring her calls. merkel said soothing words would not be enough that true change was necessary. this is unbelievable. u.s. officials are alerting other countries and intelligence services details of their secret cooperation with the u.s. have been obtained by snowden. meanwhile a former nsa head found himself being monitored on the phone in public. michael hayden was loudly bashing the obama administration in an interview on background while on the acela. has that ever happened to you? tom massy tweeted much of what hayden was saying including he asked to be referred to as a former senior administration official and bragged about rendition and black sites and

gave disparaging quotes about the bristol-myers administration. remember just as a former senior administration. he speculated he might be caught for tweeting but all ended well. the two posed for a picture. this gets worse and worse. even chatted. he called hayden a gentleman. >> it's hilarious. >> he should have gone to the m cafe where the sound of people munching hot dogs and drinking heineken drowns out conversation. >> julie, harold, is this concerning? the snowden part. >> the fact that all of this has come out -- i was a believer early on that i wished this guy was caught. i wished this information was not released. the more it comes out and the more details come out about the

extent about this program, it was already challenging for this white house and for this team not only to develop a public relations and optics answer but this has become a substantive challenge. put aside what may be happening with every day americans and the kind of surveillance and monitoring occurring and i can accept a lot of that for my security. >> it's chilling. >> there's going to have to be further elaboration from the white house. >> let's ask julie pace. the angela merkel, the response from german officials was pretty gruff. they are very angry and rightfully so. >> absolutely. i think the administration's position will become a bit unsustainable when you have these revelations come up. they say we won't comment on each revelations because there's some. but we're talking about angela

merkel who is really sort of the senior statesman at all of these summits that the president goes to. she's one of the leaders that the president has a strong relationship with happen he truchts her. he talks frequently how well they work together. when you talk about listening in on her phone calls this is something that's not going to go away. angela merkel won't say okay, barack and i talked. >> we have a similar challenge with france. again they have to answer more than they've answered up to this point. >> i'm not surprised we spy on foreign leaders. i'm sure there's historical precedent. >> you're not surprised we're spying on angela merkel? >> but it appears there was at some point listening of her phone calls. >> i'm not saying there's a

lengthy historical precedence -- i'm not as shocked as you are. however there was a time when everyone was assuming the notice den revelations were basically old hat, he wasn't going to be producing any news. he has produce ad treasure trove of information that is disturbing in many respects and yes i agree with julie i think the administration at some point step back and say -- they keep pointing to this one speech that the president gave as enough. >> let me get to two more stories as democrats begin to look towards the 2016 presidential election vice president joe biden appears to still be keenly interested in the state of iowa. biden called newly elected representative brian meyer to congratulate him on tuesdaying night's victory. when asked why do you think the president called? well it's iowa. also attended senator harkin's steak fry.

speculation over hillary clinton's second run for president continues to grow. but at an event in buffalo clinton faced an issue that could resurface should she decide to enter the race. >> buffalo is a good model for the rest of the country because we can't move from crisis to crisis, we have to be willing to come together as citizens to focus on the kind of future we want which doesn't include yelling it includes sitting down and talking to one another. >> it's hard to hear but according to local reporters a heckler interrupted clinton shouting benghazi, benghazi you let them die. meanwhile george soros says he'll back an effort to convince clinton to run. he'll support the ready for hilary super p.a.c. so she's going to run, right harold? >> it's hard to imagine she doesn't. if she does not run there will

be a great surprise. i would be very surprised. there was a time honored tradition the secretary will have to expect a little of that. but she's so seasoned and so professional. >> awesome in handling hecklers. >> oh, my god only in some ways have the reverse effect. a story we talked about first yesterday about the maryland attorney general, doug gansler. a month into his run for governor he apologized for not stopping underage drinking r he was spotted. he wasn't at the party himself. the "baltimore sun" published this picture that included teenagers and alcohol. in a half hour press conference yesterday gansler admits he made a mistake by doing nothing. >> this was a dance party with loud music and there may have been some college students or others who were drinking beer.

i just don't know. what i could have done is investigate whether there was drinking going on and then taken action on that and for that i probably should have done that. do i understand that at beach week where there's hundreds and hundreds of children or teenagers, what have you some kids will drink and some won't? that happens. what i understand now certainly there was some drinking. if you look at the picture, not where i was, but some kids, one or two kids holding red cups and generally from could be kool aid in the red cups or beer in the red cups. >> i know doug gansler. i can't imagine he would have intentionally not -- i'm sure a lot of things racing through his head. i don't have kids. >> do i and they are teenagers. i will just say it is not as

easy as it looks. there's the right thing to do and the right thing to do is to call the police and call the parents. i've been in that position. it's not worked for me. >> you've never been the senior law enforcement officer of a state or a gubernatorial candidate. but the instincts he's showing and how he's handling this are not good. not a good sign for him to be a good candidate or governor. >> in the two clips we saw back-to-back the hilary clips and the clips of gansler you see a pro at politics and somebody who needs more work. >> yeah. i think i would have just said i'm a parent and if any of you have teens i'm sure you can imagine the situation i was in because none of it is black and whi white. i'll tell you sometimes it's impossible. and it's not the kids. the party was chaperoned. two older men can be seen in the corner of the photo. gansler showed up at the house

to briefly talk to his house. the lease of the house was not under gansler's name but he helped to pay for the rent. coming up on "morning joe" the moderator of "meet the press" david gregory and nbc news political director chuck todd. we'll talk to the republican candidate in the race for new york city mayor joe lhota. and later venus williams will be here on the set plus the fda looks to rein in the use of prescription pills. and the white house talks about a misconnection with senator dick durbin after he said a republican congressman insulted the president to his face. mike allen has the update to the story in the political playbook. first, bill karins, we insult him to his face all the time. >> it would be if i listened. >> you love it.

>> i rewatch it when i go home. good morning, everyone. as far as the fog is gone in seattle this has been one of the longest and gloomiest stretches you've had. look at the time lapse video. there's the space needle. you can see the clouds. they've been there for six straight days. today will make seven straight days. let me take new to the weekend forecast. the pattern is set. what you see today is what you'll deal with over the weekend. that cold blast of air is over the great lakes and heading all the way down into the southeast. whole western half of the country will be gorgeous. but we're looking at temperatures this morning. it's cold. national is down to 31 degrees. we'll see a hard freeze tonight into tomorrow morning. all the way down to atlanta. kind of an early end to the growing season. weekend forecast 50s and 40s. great lakes and the northeast. not a lot of warm up. cold nights and pretty nice afternoons. one spot wetter is texas.

from dallas to houston to san antonio. new york city, cold morning. this afternoon high around 52. same forecast all weekend. you're watching "morning joe". ♪ as your life changes, fidelity is there for your personal economy, helping you readjust along the way, refocus as careers change and kids head off to college, and revisit your investments as retirement gets closer. wherever you are today, fidelity's guidance can help you fine-tune your personal economy. start today with a free one-on-one review of your retirement plan.

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giving sea life-- new life. because the world's biggest challenges deserve even bigger solutions. powerful answers. verizon. ♪ it's time now take a look at the morning papers. halperin join me. from our parade of papers the denver news times, sandy hook elementary school success torn down. some will be preserved in memory of the victims. workers will check the site for mementos and time capsules buried by past students. a new elementary school will be built on the site and expected to be opened by december of

2016. raleigh news observer investigators are investigate judging what caused a ride to malfunction. ride is known as the vortex and reco reportedly was finished then restarted. >> "san francisco chronicle" twitter expects to sell between 70 and 85 million shares for it's $17 to $20 a piece when it goes public on the new york stock exchange next month. this price is considered conservative as twitter attempts to avoid facebook's problems when it went public in 2012 and its stock fell below the ipo price. twitter's evaluation is now $10 billion. >> "usa today" amazon.com's revenue was up 24% during the third quarter. that tops the $17 billion the online retail giant beat expectations by 2%. although reported an operating loss of $25 million. however an operating loss is pretty common this time of year

as amazon invests more money in its web base services and warehouse sales to keep up with sales. >> "new york times" the fda is taking steps to address the use of narcotic pain killers in america. new measures which may take effect next year will reduce the number of refills patients will have before returning to their doctor. patients will also need to physically go to a pharmacy rather than having a doctor call in a prescription. here's nbc's dr. nancy snyderman. >> this move by the food and drug administration follows an ongoing debate pitting patients who need narcotics for pain control versus otherwise healthy patients who abuse them. this change would curb abuse by reducing the number of refills patients can get before going back to see their doctor. it would require having a written prescription rather than having the doctor call the pharmacy. currently a patient can get a prescription refilled five times over a six month period before

needing a new one. with the new recommendation the patient would now need to see a doctor every three months. not everyone thinks this is a good move. the american medical association and pharmacy organizations are worried that this will be a burden to patient whose are already suffering. >> by making hydrocodone more regulated and harder to prescribe and dispense our patients are probably going to have a difficult time getting good control of their pain. >> reporter: the drug enforcement agency and health policy experts say prescription drug abuse has reached a tipping point and something has to be done. in a statement the fda has become increasingly concerned about the abuse and misuse of opiate products which has sadly reached epidemic proportions. the new regulations would reclarify hydrocodone and pain killers putting them in the same category as oxy cottin,

methadone, adderal and other drug known for abuse. >> in this weekend's "parade" magazine, halloween installment of what america eats series. >> candy corn, snickers, marathon bars. >> i just can't eat 12 -- >> candy corn. >> it's good for you. it's corn. >> no that's terrible. let's go to politico. with us now mike allen is here with the morning playbook. mike, president obama is looking to shift the national dialogue from obama care to immigration and yesterday he called on house republicans to act on a bipartisan bill passed in the senate this past june. take a listen. >> obviously just because something is smart and fair and good for the economy and fiscally responsible and supported by business and labor and evangelical community and

democrats and republicans that does not mean it will get done. this is washington after all. i'm not running for office again. i just believe this is the right thing to do. so now it's up to republicans in the house to decide whether reform becomes a reality or not. let's not wait. it doesn't get easier. to just put it off. let's do it now. let's not delay. let's get this done. let's do it in a bipartisan fashion. >> okay. mike, what are republicans saying about the chances of this in the house, immigration reform? >> mika, we have rarely seen a clearer, quicker example of the mars and venus relationship between the two ends of pennsylvania avenue. the president out yesterday spelling out why he thinks its in republicans interest to do this. white house officials say this is a chance for republicans to get some of their mojo back,

improve their image after the shutdown debacle. but our reporters in the capitol are hearing nothing doing from republicans. there's only 19 more working days left for congress this year. and politico is reporting house republican leaderships have no plans to take up any immigration bill in that time. mika, my private conversations with people on the hill say that they are so alienated from the president after these most recent negotiations they don't want to compromise with him, they don't want to talk with him, they don't want to give him an accomplishment. now the dynamic could change, erick cantor number two house republican leader, paul ryan others want to do something on immigration. maybe pieces. yesterday, this is very significant. yesterday in those remarks that we just saw from the president he indicated for the first time he's willing to go along with a piece by piece approach to immigration as long as it ultimately gets to that path to

citizenship. so that big senate bill the one that marco rubio and others brokered he's not saying that's the only way. >> julie pace and then harold, that angry dynamic between the president and some members of congress what's your take on what mike is reporting there? >> well, i'm hearing the same thing from a lot of house republicans. they feel they didn't get much of anything out of the shutdown and debt ceiling negotiations and that's true. they feel like they don't want to negotiate wait the president. they don't want him to come out of this stretch and have a big accomplishment like immigration. when you talk to the white house and you talk to some democrats they almost convinced themselves this is something republicans have to do. but it's a misread of some of the dynamics. >> think it's important -- >> this is ridiculous. it's like beating him over the head with a baseball bat and now i'm mad at you for not giving me what i want. >> we just went through a terrible episode here with the

debt ceiling and shutdown of government. we have other deadlines imposed, 13th of december, 7th of january, 15th of january, 7th of february. real focus should be on getting a budget deal. shortly thereafter my focus is fixing my health care program and ensuring people can enroll and as we move forward. then if there's time left then focus on something else. i'm for immigration reform. i'm not defending the republicans but you have to understand -- >> agree with all that. >> you got to try to get things done. >> i agree with all that. but to your point it's sort of absurd the reason to oppose immigration because you don't want to hand the president a victory. you oppose it because it's bad policy you don't want people in. those are reasons to oppose it. put aside the time limit. >> time honored tradition we

shouldn't be surprised. you shouldn't be surprised -- >> i understand. don't be so blatant about it. >> i'm not defending. it would seem to me the focus should be on getting a budget deal. >> you can do both at the same time. >> both can't to be done in washington. >> good lord. mike, real quickly you guys have been following this claim by senator dick durbin that a gop leader said to the president quote, i can't stand to look at you. we talked about this yesterday. much has a different story. now the white house is calling this a miscommunication? >> yeah. people are calling this a game of telephone gone bad. jake tapper. the house committee leader, pete sessions of texas and he probably didn't say exactly this, but a white house deputy chief of staff rob neighbors who

was describing this meeting to senate democrats including senator durbin including the comment the leader saying to the president, i can't even stand to look at you. he was referring more to the situation than the person but senator durbin was furious when the white house portrayed him as making this up. and that's how these details got pushed out, the white house came out with a statement that said, well, the remarks aren't exactly accurate but we did give an inaccurate read out. >> all right. politico's mike allen. thank you very much. >> and happy birthday to senator clinton who is 66. >> coming up. it's someone else's birthday too. lewis. big papi. solidifying his clutch status. was it enough to help red sox

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>> there's a fan at the game last night, die-hard red sox fan name gino. he really wanted to go to game one but his boss at the furniture store he works at wouldn't give him the night off because he didn't give enough notice. he went to the game anyway with

this sign saying "i quit my job for this." he did. he quit his job to go to the game. they asked if he was worried about it. he said i'll find something new. if you're a business employer and looking for an employee who writes like a 9-year-old and ditches work this could be your guy. i'm afraid gino will end up like this. >> they didn't show what he'll end up as. listen, cardinals/red sox game two of the world series. sixth, boston trailing by one but not for long. big papi, david ortiz, man on 2-1 sox. cards up. nice little small ball. double steal. jarrod saltalamacchia didn't get out his glove. a walk loads the bases. >> bases loaded one away. carpenter breaks his bat. fly ball into left.

here's the throw from gomes. tied game. now the runner jay -- it gets away and the cardinals will take a lead. >> pitcher greg breslow didn't use his education very well over throwing third base with another run to come in. tack on another run and they take the game 4-2 evening the series. they go back to st. louis for game three on saturday. >> still think seven? >> i called in six. now it's more like it's seven. >> don't overreact. it's one game. it could be six. >> you're right. >> 22-year-old pitcher for the cards, good for st. louis. >> which one of the 22-year-old pitchers. >> it's unbelievable. for some reason it's a boring franchise. we have juice in the world series. jon lester, little controversy,

game one winner, of course, and his performance being called into question. there was a video that shows lester repeatedly touching a greenish foreign substance within his glove. some speculated it may be vaseline. anyway he responded saying quote this is lester i saw the picture and i don't know what that is. it looks like a giant booger. i don't know how that came about with the lighting or whatever. like i said it's rosin. i guess with sweating and licking your fingers and rubbing your fingers it comes out a different color. >> it's his booger ball. >> used a lot of is not balls in the '70s. >> lester won that game fair and square. >> keep your fingers dry and they usually have a bag of it in

back of the mound. cardinals gm says non-issue, team is not concerned. >> let's move on. he's fine. >> everyone is fine. >> by the way, would you take bret favre over your quarterback for your nfl team? >> 44 years old. >> he's a grandfather. >> st. louis rams who drafted bradford after a knee injury reached out the his agent and the 44-year-old grandfather spoke with espn radio about it yesterday. >> years of football has taken its toll. it's flattery. there's no way i'm going to do that. i had a great career. if anything the last year that i played was, you know, an obvious writing on the wall. >> i mean why stop at favre,

call dan moreno. >> he's out of shape, obviously much coaching his high school team. >> sam bradford would be better with a torn acl. >> go for sonny jorgenson. >> don't go away, "morning joe" will be right back. twins. i didn't see them coming. i have obligations. cute obligations, but obligations.

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[ male ♪nnouncer ] and our priority is you. (announcer) answer the call of the grill with new friskies grillers, full of meaty tenders and crunchy bites. welcome back to "morning joe." joining us now the president of the council on foreign relations and author of the book "foreign policy begins at home, the case for putting america's house in order." richard haas good to have you here. our first must read is from the "new york times" and i'll need

your help. >> i have to put my glasses on. >> what's this word? look. right here. handyuberwachung. that would be called spying on cell phone calls. yeah. that's easier to say. obama in his cool detachment is not big on diplomacy through personal relations but merkel is as close to a trusted fend as he has in europe. to infuriate her amounts to sloppy plungeling that hurts american soft power in lasting ways. pivot to asia was not supposed to mean leave all europe peeved. but all europe is. the perception here is of a united states where security has trumped liberty, intelligence agencies run amuck and the once-admired checks and balances

studied by johnson school children have become at best secret. a repivot to europe as is an internal u.s. security-freedom rebalancing. richard haas explain. >> we have a situation where there's lack of adult supervision. we're doing certain types of espionage by our friends which is overwhelmed by the actual cost. the answer is not what the editorial says. reverse pivot back to europe is silly. europe is the most stable peaceful part of the world and we should pivot much more to asia and limit what we're doing in the middle east. there's a pattern whether it's the middle east or asia or europe we're going out of our way to alienate people. >> what do you make of this latest monitoring, the cell phone conversations with angela merkel? >> it sounds to me like the intelligence agencies are on a bit of a auto pilot and

capability is driving policy. let me say in a general way, the question of whether you're spying quote-unquote on friends is one of the most sensitive subjects in the business and it goes through extraordinary layers of oversight. you have to be persuaded it's worth it. i don't know the details here. i'm no longer on the inside. this doesn't seem to be the case here. >> is this a flap or a fundamental crisis? >> has snowden, how would you characterize his role in this? >> he obviously got the stuff out there. it's not a fundamental crisis but two things. one we're facing a moment where the whole question of internet policy and digital policy in government is up for grabs. we arriving having what we call now a global internet a fragmented internet. the french, the russians don't trust us to manage it. that's really open to question. we would be a big loser if that

were to happen. secondly you're beginning to see whether it's the saudis or what's going on in asia it's a push american world where people look at our political dysfunction to our spying on our friends to the saudis being angry at our policies in the middle east, everyone is going recalibrate their relationship and dependence on the united states. >> has to be more dangerous than the first part. >> we're setting things in motion. >> i'll read one more and give julie pace the final word. this is from "the washington post." most of the energy in the republican party today at least in washington is expended on opposition, not on reform and the tradition vails of obama care have loin fed that purely negative energy, yet republicans require an approach more sophisticated than pointing and

laughing. health care should be an opportunity to demonstrate the appeal of a positive, reform-oriented conservatism. president obama has provided the foil, conservatives do not or should not oppose obama care because they want fewer americans to receive health care. but making this clear requires an american on this issue and others, americans will be more likely to trust republicans to govern when they demonstrate an interest to govern. it did fall flat. did ring hollow. >> there's an argument and a lot of people within the republican party are making the same argument that you can't just pose things. eventually you'll have to come up with your own solution. that being said i don't think you'll see those solutions come in the next couple of weeks. you'll have kathleen sebelius on the hill next week answer obama care. until that's solved republicans will have less incentive to put

their own programs forward. >> julie pace thank you very much. richard stay with us. "morning joe" is back in just a moment. when i first got shingles it started on my back. and i had like this four inch band of bumps that came around to the front of my body. and the pain from it was- it was excruciating. i did not want anyone to brush into me to cause me more pain than i was already enduring. i wanted to just crawl up in a ball and just, just wait till it passed.

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up next nbc's david gregory

and chuck todd are standing by. and jim miklaszewski has news on two americans being kbapd idnapy pirates off the coast of africa. more "morning joe". ♪ [ male announcer ] the new twin turbo xts from cadillac. 410 available horses. ♪ room for four. twice the fun. ♪ ♪ for sein a whole new way. for seeing what cash is coming in and going out... so you can understand every angle of your cash flow- last week, this month, and even next year. for seeing your business's cash flow like never before,

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and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. ♪ in what appears to have been a blunt and embarrassing phone call today, the chancellor of germany told president obama to stop tapping her phone.

[ laughter ] >> awkward. [ laughter ] ladies and gentlemen my impression of how this phone call went. how are you, angela. what do you mean? you know how i am. it's impressive they managed to put a tap on the actual chancellor herself. who could have imagined to do that. oh, my god that's what it was. he was planting the bug. unbelievable. >> welcome back to "morning joe." beautiful shot of the white house as the sun comes up over washington. that's a funny -- that was a funny bit from the "daily show." mark halperin, harold ford jr. and joining us from washington the moderator of "meet the press," david gregory and host of the daily rundown, chuck todd. gentlemen good to have you on board. we'll begin in washington.

where lawmakers from both parties are calling for someone to be held accountable over the flawed roll out of healthercare.gov and for republicans that person is hhs secretary kathleen sebelius. she defend herself yesterday saying in part the majority of people calling for me to resign, i would say, are people i don't work for and who don't want this program to work in the first place. on capitol hill contractors who worked on the website faced the ire of several members of congress. nbc news capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell has that story. >> reporter: the top government contractors who built and run the flawed health care government website. >> when will these issues be repaired? >> reporter: ignored our questions. >> about the delays. do you feel you had an opportunity to explain that today? >> reporter: but did take an oath to answer congress truthfully. grilled for more than four hours. >> is that a system that you're proud snf >> these problems need to be

fixed fast. >> reporter: contractors spns sibl for different parts of the health care website and enrollment process repeatedly claimed they did their jobs well and are working to fix system bugs. >> you keep speaking of unaccepted volumes. that really sticks in my craw. pro flowers doesn't crash on valentine's day. >> reporter: as the day wore on contractors gave a more frank assessment. >> we're not excited nor pleased with what we delivered on october 1. but, you know, in principle it worked. >> reporter: contractors said the government agency in charge waited too long to test all the parts of the website system together, just two weeks before it launched october 1st. >> what's the recommended industry standard for end to end test before rolling out a major website like this? >> months would be nice. >> reporter: the contractors blame the same government agency for a last minute change to how the website works. instead of consumers being able to browse for different insurance plans, the system was changed to require consumers to

register online first. >> we weren't made aware of this until the final days prior to the launch. >> reporter: the committee's top democrat henry whackman is optimistic. >> you're confident they can officials it after all the problems and delays we've seen. >> i'm confident they told us they can fix it. >> reporter: fred upton says they must get more answers. have you learned yet who is responsible? >> it seems like there was a lot of fingerprinting and all of it was going to the administration. >> kelly o'donnell. i have no words for that. terribly embarrassing. and a heated discussion between a democrat and a republican. >> but you're telling every american if you sign up for this or even attempt to, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy, that is a direct contradiction to hippa and you know it. >> started out in my opening

statement saying there was no legitimacy to this hearing and the last line of the questioning certainly confirms that. hippa only applies when there's health information being provided. that's not in play here today. no health information is required in the application process and why is that? because pre-existing conditions don't matter. so once again here we have my republican colleagues trying to scare everyone -- >> will the gentleman yield? >> i will not yield to this monkey court. >> this is not a monkey court. >> do whatever you want. i'm not yielding. >> david gregory i yield to you. take it away. >> we have to take a step back at the end of this week and ask the question which is, is obama care doomed if they can't fix this fast? and i raise that very provocative question for two reasons. one, it is this caricature of

incompetence that's soeshd with obama care for a long time because of a bad start. and, two the very real fact that they got this limited window get younger, healthier people enrolled if the whole system is going to work. if you're going to have more affordable premiums, keep cost down. that's what the whole model is pretty indicated on. what republicans will argue -- all these republicans that opposed obama care and said this would be a disaster didn't even realize there were problems with the website. here it gets to a bigger question that i think you'll see more and more going into next year, is this too big, too complicated for the federal government to administer? and i think these are some of the questions that have really got to be coursing through washington and the country. >> i'll start over here. i think president obama may have gone to the wrong school at harvard.

instead of going law school he should have spent more time at the kennedy school. 90% of life is execution and implementation. the idea something this big is so poorly prepared. all the effort went into design than implementation. >> how does that communication of not being prepared does not get to the commander-in-chief? >> that's, you know, that's been a question that they've not answered very well. they simply say some of these things couldn't be tested. they were building an unprecedented site. think about where the two parties are right now on this issue. you essentially one party looks like doesn't know how to govern with this poor implementation then you have another party that doesn't want to govern with the republicans. they don't want to get involved at all. they don't want to do any governing. so you sit there and you wonder this is like leaving something wide-open in the middle because on one hand you have a

confidence issue, on the other hand you have this political party that has no interest in making anything work. so guess what? everything seems doomed to failure. now let me give the administration is looking into one potential asset here during all of this focus on the website. is suddenly the website works or doesn't working does that become a proxy for the health care law working or not working? obviously it not working is a proxy for it not working. but what some republicans i was talking to yesterday are worried about is they assumed the administration is going to get this website working and that it will get working pretty well in the next couple of weeks and their concern that in some ways that all of a sudden the website itself becomes the proxy of the law working and it takes some focus off the other parts of the law that the republicans think are also questionable and are also potentially vulnerable for

democrats. >> i just think if they can get 7 million people or however many their goal is to sign up, that's hat they need. >> david, good morning. harold ford. let's assume they get through this moment here. let's hope they get off the block. what's the next phase they should be concerned about? are there other tests that should be conducted to make sure the next phase around health care, obama care sim pleamented. is the white house taking all of this into consideration? >> i don't know the answer to that latter question. they have metrics getting around a certain amount of people signed up. it will take time to see how the marketplace responds. i would say the next series of tests have to do with consumer interaction with the new health care system both in terms of the quality of the experience, the

prices that they are getting. but also the prices and the adjustment that small businesses have to make and even larger businesses. we've seen stories about premiums going up. is that in anticipating of obama care. is that price gouging on the part of insurance companies. is it a combination of the two? there's a lot of tests to see how the system actually operates and gets administered. one of the thing that strikes me and it goes to chuck's point. you look at a map of the united states where there's state-run exchanges and where the feds have had to come in and start the changes. it tracks a little bit too top of our red and blue map. that's a factor. look i'll have the democratic governor of kentucky who has a pretty good thing going in kentucky with health care in a largely republican state. that may be a success story to tell. that's part of this. this unwillingness to govern,

this difficulty in execution leaves hearth in poor infancy. >> here's a story i'm interested to hear from our two gechts from washington chime in. it's a parenting story ultimately but it's got one politician in very, very difficult position and there may be more to it. here's what we know so far. maryland attorney general doug gansler one month -- i hear chuck groaning -- one month into his campaign for governor is apologizing for not stopping underage drinking at a party where he was spotted. now the "baltimore sun" published this photo of gansler at a june beach house party that included teenagers and alcohol. in a half hour press conference yesterday gansler admits he made a mistake by doing nothing. >> this was a dance party with loud music. and there may have been some college students or others drinking beer. i just don't know. what i could have done was investigate whether there was drinking going on and then taken

action on that and for that i probably should have done that. do i understand that at beach week where there's hundreds and hundreds of children or teenagers, what have you, that some kids will drink and some won't? that happens. what i understand now certainly there was some drinking, i guess going on because if you look at the picture, not right where i was, but some kids one or two kids holding red cups and generally -- there could be kool aid but there's probably beer in the red cups. i didn't go over and stick my nose in and see and maybe i should have. that's all i can tell you about that. >> the party was chaperoned. two older men are seen in the corner of the photo. gansler showed up at the house to briefly talk to his son. the house was not under gansler's name but he paid for some of the rent. chuck? i would say politically should have said i was a parent i was

there to get my kid. >> your state attorney general. all i know is when i was that age i used to tell my mother to stay away from the house. >> okay. >> i'm not kidding. i would say, mom, don't, don't come here. don't get here at all. >> was she an attorney general? no. right. >> david, he's the attorney general of maryland. it's kind of a political question here. that's really the easy question to answer. but let's get to the bigger parenting question. this is really important. and, you know, we can all sit around and say look we were once that age, there's drinking going on. when you're the parent and you're responsible, if you have any responsibility for what goes on in that house, i can tell you, as you know, my wife is quite a good lawyer. >> yeah. >> has dealt with situations that flow from these circumstances, they are horrifying for parents. what can happen behind alcohol

and it's not just drunk driving, it can be, you know, sexual activity, and accusations that flow from that. these are serious deals and though this is a moment if you're a politician or otherwise to say, you know what, you got to take a look at this. as parents we don't want our kids going some place where there's a lot of permissiveness, there's a lot of drinking and that's what kids into the. this shines a light on to something you can dismiss the politics and say wow bad move on the part of a politician but there's a real issue here that he had an opportunity to stand up and say let's have a real conversation about this. >> i'll jump in for better or worse and i have before and it's blown up in my face as a parent. i speak as a parent now of several teenagers. richard you have teenagers. i have tried the calling the parents in the middle of the night route and that blew up in my face. i tried to talk to the kids. that blew up in my face. it's such a difficult thing.

i talked to the police. it's a very difficult thing to navigate and none of it ends well but you have to do the right thing, you have to say this is happening. and my child is involved, so is yours. we have to stop it. i've gotten back from parents -- come on they do that. come on, they aldo that. i'm thinking to myself really am i on mars? we're still supposed to try and stop it. >> as david said there's real questions of liability and morality. one of the rules has to be whether your kids can go to parties when they are 18 or 19 years old when parents are not there. >> how about 16 or 17 or 14 or 15? i have situations where there are not parents there. how is that possible? >> he's in a moment now. >> you can't let that happen. >> he's in a moment where his own politics in play. he needs to use this moment to educate people in his state and

country. there's a lot of visibility on these big issues because of him. he needs to step up and talk about it much differently than he did in that press conference. >> the facts don't look good. i don't know how you don't stop a party like that. sounds there was a beach house or beach party. stop the music, stop everything and everybody pour out the cups and go back to what you're doing. >> the minute he knew his kid was renting a house he knew what was going on. this is the narcissistic where there's naivete. every parent deals with this in their own way and you have this conversation and so there's that line, i think he's got to walk. you don't want to be telling other parents what to do at the same time you want to set an example that you think makes a lot of sense for a wide public if you're a public official and i'll say this. because he's the state attorney general, let's be realistic, he's held to a higher standard. >> appreciate, chuck being what

you're saying opinion we're both parents. there's too much reluctance in our communities that parents don't want to offend each other. >> thank you. >> listen, do you what you want to do, i don't want to judge you. there was a time where there was community standards that people ad heard to and we reinforced these values. >> you keep your kids away from those folks. >> how old are your kids, chuck? >> look, obviously i have it easier my kids are 9 and 6. but i know that's never -- that's never a full fledge -- it's not easy and, you know, you know you have permissive parents, things like that. but there is only so much you can do and i think that there's that line. you just -- you know, you disagree with how another parent parents -- >> i'll tell you -- >> look, this is -- >> i wish more people would go

with what david gregory said so i'm not the crazy lady in my town. because that's what i am right now. we'll move on. great conversation. now to the latest on a high seas abduction. two american sailors were kidnapped off the coast of nigeria. nbc news pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski joins us with the latest efforts to rescue them. >> reporter: no fresh word on the condition or whereabouts of those two americans. their identities have not been released. the very fact that their ship was flying an american flag made them a very tempting target to the pirates. in a brazen attack pirates kidnapped the two americans off this u.s. flag ship, the sea retriever. the heavily armed pirates easily boarded the slow moving ship then singled out the americans, the u.s. captain and chief engineer and took them audiotape shore as hostages. it all happened in the gulf of

guinea off the coast of nigeria. this has become a prime hunting ground for pirates. the most memorable pirate attack on an american is now a hit movie. captain richard phillips was kidnapped by somalia pirates and held hostage for five days at sea before he was rescued by navy s.e.a.l.s. but those nigerian pirates will pose a more of a threat. >> you got to understand it's dangerous out in the gulf of guunea. >> reporter: acts of piracy have decreased pirate attacks off the coast of nigeria have skyrocketed 30% this year. >> this is not a hollywood movie plot. piracy and hijacking put innocent lives at risk. >> reporter: defense officials here at the pentagon tell us that a u.s. military rescue attempt right now appears highly

unlikely and the way this has worked in almost every case in the past, a ransom is paid, the hostages are released and these shipping companies write off the millions of dollars in ransom that they have to pay as a cost of doing business. but in the meantime that makes it no less terrifying to the hostages and their families, mika. >> nbc's jim miklaszewski. thank you. david gregory thank you as well. what do you have planned for sun's "meet the press"? >> we'll ask this question about how much damage has been done obama care as a result of this week. we got governors kasich and bashir, two governors taking us outside of washington and how they are dealing with it. >> another good one. chuck we'll see you at 9:00 a.m. on "the daily rundown." richard haas thank you. have a wonderful trip to belfast. up next he's hitting his opponent hard in the race for new york city's next mayor. >> bill blasio's recklessly

dangerous record on crime will take us back to this. >> republican candidate joe lhota joins us here in the studio. we'll ask him about that attack ad and his plans for the big apple. you're watching "morning joe". ♪ at any minute... ...you could be a victim of fraud. most people don't even know it. fraud could mean lower credit scores...

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♪ throughout my entire career i've done nothing but work with people and brought them together. >> it's trying to tell people what would happen to you and how dangerously reckless you are. >> you're fear mongering. >> there's nothing race about it. you want to throw out the race card. don't tell me i throw out the race card because there's nothing racial in there. you can't stoop that low to bring that up. >> as upset he wants to be but the bottom line -- the bottom line is his ad depicted images of riots and dead bodies in the

streets, racial imagery that's fear mongering. anybody who looks at that ad knows what he's up to. >> all right. joining us now, former deputy mayor under rudy giuliani and the republican nominee for mayor in new york city, joe lhota. we showed a bit of the ad before we went to break just a few seconds ago. i want to let you listen what former white house press secretary robert gibbs, his take on it. take a listen. >> here's where political commercials lose people is when you go from saying okay you want to -- let's sort of use the fear of increased crime to go to those pictures, race riots, and, you know, drive by shootings. again, political ads to be effective has to be believable. right? it has to speak to more than simply the people in mr. lhota's

case who are very few that are already vote forge him. >> so there are those that are concerned about blasio's policies they might change the dynamic of the city but doesn't the ad take it so far that it can't be taken seriously? >> no, i don't. 40% of all enrolled voters here in new york didn't live here 20 years ago sponsorship you need to remind them of what the stiffs like under reckless policies which i believe bill de blasio implemented. >> up think crown heights could happen again? >> sure. look at bill de blasio's direct involvement in crown height. he received phone calls from the community that he sat on. he didn't talk about it, he didn't bring to it his boss the deputy mayor, he didn't bring it to the mayor. is this the kind of leadership we'll get somebody who gets information and sit on it. yes it's relevant. >> what am i missing here, sam stein? >> politics campaigns simplify

issues. seems pretty logical to me the drop in crime was tied to economic trends than stuff whether rudy giuliani integrated the police force more smoothly. can you talk about, you know -- first of all do you think that's true? >> no, i don't think that's true. when you look at the data around the united states, new york fell significantly more. new york has stayed down. rest of the country is going up. look what's going on in chicago, perfect example. they have access to the same, in fact their police commissioner used to work in new york opinion he should know what he needs to do. they are not implementing pro active police strategies to prevent crime from happening. the reality is the reduction in crime in new york started because of different policing strategies and strategies that changed almost every week and need to continue to change. strategies need to be dynamic. you don't -- >> let me ask you this. the new york police department has been cryptized in many

respects for bringing it too far, to using techniques that were in defiance of people's civil liberties. do you see any problem to the extent which they've gone reduce crime? >> i think the issue, what you're talking about -- look we've seen during the period of time, stops have gone down 40%. crime still continues to drop, training and retraining -- >> do you see any problem necessarily with the tactics they have employed over the past decade? >> probably i agree with 99% of the tactics. abuse of stop-and-frisk. look at the data that was put forward by the plaintiffs. 95% of the stops were in accordance with what the supreme court allows police officers all throughout the united states to use. the 5%, we need to deal with it. i said this since the first day of my campaign. if a new york city cop racial l profiles somebody, doesn't stop them because of suspicion but because of their color of their

skin they ought to lose their job plain and simple. >> that was happening, correct >> sorry? >> that was happening before the judge ruled that the program needs to be implemented correctly. >> right. >> it was being misused. >> i don't agree with that. look at the data that was given to the judge. 95% of the stops were in accordance with the supreme court. she agreed with that. >> we can have fun with data. >> you wanted to talk about data. >> there's a lot of data that showed the vast majority of stops were taking place in minority neighborhoods. >> one of the things that your opponent has said is that you've created an us versus them stance and you make voters not feel like you want to bring the city together. how do you react. i understand what you're trying to do. identify had ads run against me that i thought would inflame people in certain ways. don't you under how some would say this is not bringing us together. could you have done it more

effectively by showing how crime has come down. >> maybe you talking -- >> you present differently than your ad does. i've seen the ad and i have a different feeling. >> look at my opponent's phrase that he always falls back to when asked a question about anything. it always falls back it's a tale of two cities. there's nothing more divisive than saying we're two cities, whether it's rich versus poor, black versus white, young versus old, he's dividing this city by his core theme and the reality the reason i have this ad when you look at the most recent poll put out by the "new york times" there's a wide gap between where i am and my opponent is. look at the issues. majority of new yorkers agree with me on all of the issues. i needed to have an ad that woke everybody up because everything being done today is all about de blasio, de blasio, not about me. >> do you see wealth inequality a problem.

>> it's problem. here's the only way to deal with it. >> you said it was divisive to talk about inequality but now you think it's a problem. >> i don't think it's a problem. i said does it exist. it exists. i don't think it's a problem. it exists. you need a mayor who wants to expand the economy so the unemployed become employed, the underemployed get better paying career jobs. bill de blasio doesn't have a job creation program. he has a job destruction program. he wants to raise taxes in the city. the reality is we need an economy moving upwards where everybody can participate. i want requires the city have job training programs, we need to fix our public school system. the big issue in this campaign for me is children. they are falling behind in our public schools. i'm so pro charter school and he's so against charter schools. we need to find new and different ways to make sure our kids can survive in the 21st century.

we're failing at it. we have to focus on them. >> coming up one of the top tennis players of all time venus williams will be here. we'll be right back with much more "morning joe". (vo) you are a business pro. maestro of project management. baron of the build-out. you need a permit... to be this awesome. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. (aaron) purrrfect. (vo) meee-ow, business pro. meee-ow. go national. go like a pro.

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♪ all right. there's amelia. thank you fred. time to check on the weather with bill karins. he's got the weekend forecast for us. >> how do you feel about those people running around saying christmas is only two months away. >> oh, god, is it really? >> it's the last weekend in october. getting there. just to get you in the seasonal mood let's look at snow pictures. downwind of the great lakes we have been watching snow. areas of michigan got hit more than others with leaves on the trees, power lines came down. we'll have more of that today. some areas near lake erie by erie, pennsylvania and cleveland south side of those cities we'll see accumulating snow. this is the weekend weather

pattern. feeling like november, eastern half of the country. very cold this morning. all the way down to the 30s right now as far south as mississippi. today we're looking fine. what you see is what you get. not much change over the weekend. still remain very cool from the great lakes to the northeast. eat least, mika dry in many spots. no problem for anybody doing any traveling. >> bill thank you very much. still ahead 20/20 vision. our next guest saw a big opportunity to crack into an industry that had a chokehold on the competition. how entrepreneur neil blumenthal is turning a profit while helping those in need. helicopthierhis hibuzzing, andk engine humming.

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what if my abdominal pain and cramps end our night before it even starts? what if i eat the wrong thing? what if? what if i suddenly have to go? what if? but what if the most important question is the one you're not asking? what if the underlying cause of your symptoms is damaging inflammation? for help getting the answers you need, talk to your doctor and visit crohnsandcolitisadvocates.com to connect with a patient advocate from abbvie for one-to-one support and education. ng out of pipe. sfx: birds chirping. ♪ it's expensive and left him disappointed. and with discount retailers, the

results are unpredictable. so he's trying the virtual try on tool gives him recommendations to fit his face and with the home try on program he gets five pairs shipped to his home for free. he can spend quality time with each pair and pick the very best one. >> here with us now co-founder and co-ceo of warby parker, neil blumenthal. those glasses are awesome. >> thank you. >> let me try them on. are they comfortable? >> they are. >> doesn't joe wear these? he's a warby guy. >> how am i doing? all right. are they good? >> they are good.

>> would you choose these >> what about my wrinkles. you can't see a thing. you have no idea what i look like now. all right that's fine. here you go. make you feel comfortable. first of all, i guess, tell bus your company and how it started because it's a great story. >> we basically started because we had that frustrating experience going to an optical shop being excited about getting glasses and walking out feeling frustrated. so there has to be something we can do. i ran a nonprofit that distributed eye glasses in the developing world. let's start our own brand and sell to customers over the internet. >> i know the glasses well because i've seen people that i know wearing them and loving them. you have a philanthropic mission which is more impressive. tell us the concept and then maybe the unexpected reward.

>> sure. so, warby parker exists to do good in the world. to demonstrate that business can have massive positive impact. so every pair of glasses we sell we distribute one to someone in need and we've now distributed over 500,000 pairs to people in need. but we try do that in a thoughtful way. it's not just about giving away free glasses. how can we use glasses to create jobs. we work with the nonprofit i used to run that trains low-income women to start their own businesses giving eye exams and selling glasses in their communities. >> i love it. >> how awesome the company is. let's talk more about the philanthropic effort. how do you get eye exams for people before you give them glasses. >> we're training people on the ground. not warby parker but our nonprofit partners like vision spring will give training. when i was at vision spring, i would go into these communities,

give some of the trainings myself, and what would sometimes happen is that one of these entrepreneurs would go back to their village and say i can now give eye exams and give glasses and neighbors wouldn't believe them. i've grown up with you. now you're saying to he in i'm better too. that's how i learned to market and build credibility. i designed i.d. cards, training certificates, lab coats for these women to look and feel more like professionals and we actually put banners outside of their homes in these villages that would say vision entrepreneur in training and then after six months swap those out to official vision entrepreneur. >> so your company as successful as it is, you have interesting ways of sort of staying focused. every month you and the co-founders conduct a what's called a 360 review of each

other. what is that and how honest is it? >> one of the things that we're finding is especially millennials everybody wants feedback to see how they are performing, and the fear that we had -- >> your all millennials. is that what you're telling me? >> depends on what year it starts. i might fall into it, i might be right outside of it. but we were three guys starting this business, and we were friends and sort of were worried could we stay friend throughout this process. so we figured we got to make sure we're being honest with one another. so we literally go back to the bar that we had that first conversation, it was like hey let's do this. this is in philly. because we were getting our mbas. we really would have these honest conversations that we would go "around the table," each person would be in the hot saerkts hey you're doing this well, this could be improved. when you shoot me a ten-page e-mail in the middle of the

night i want to kill you. >> yeah. wow. you do go there. >> we still go there. now we're based in new york. our office is in soho. we still have those honest conversations. we have over 300 employees and every manager is having that conversation with their direct report on a quarterly basis and monthly formal background. >> neil blumenthal, i love the mission because if you can't see you can't really move forward in life and you're going to help a lot of people around the world. and the glasses are kind of cool. i don't know how i look in them. but he looks okay. >> i need some new glasses. >> up need some new glasses. buy some. coming up tennis champion venus williams joins the table after tackling the big challenge off the court. look at that hair. beautiful. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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there's a fan at the game last night, die-hard red sox fan named geno marcello. he really wanted to go to game one, but his boss at the furniture store he works at wouldn't give him the night off because he didn't give enough notice or something like that. so he went to the game anyway with this sign. it says, "i quit my job for this." he did. he quit his job to go to the

game. and then i guess they asked him if he was worried about it. he said i'll find something new. so if you're a business owner, you're looking for an employee who writes like a 9-year-old girl and ditches work, this could be your guy. i have a feeling geno's going to wind up like this. living in -- >> here with us now, tennis superstar venus williams. good to have you on the show. i love your hair. >> thank you. thank you for having me. >> it looks great. we're going to talk about a bunch of different things which will end up around the issue of healthy eating. i bet you can have a better message than my moral scold message that you all make fun of. but the world found out in 2011 that you were suffering from an autoimmune disease. tell us what it is and what you discovered about how to deal with it aggressively and still perform on the court. >> it's autoimmune disease

called sjogren's syndrome. how do you say this? how do you put an "s" and "j" together? it was a life changer for me. i missed pretty much a year on tour because of it. and then coming back, i was able to learn a lot and hopefully ha help a lot of other people with autoimmune disease because they're all in the same family. >> did you have symptoms? i mean, this came out of the blue from the perspective of the public. >> yeah, it did. i was feeling symptoms for many years before, but it wasn't until that i got more sick that i got diagnosed, and the actual diagnosis time. typical is seven years. so i kind of fit into that window. i just got so sick that i finally got diagnosed. i'm hoping that more people will be able to get diagnosed sooner so you can feel better sooner. >> and how do you do that? i think it sounds like diet is a fundamental component of feeling better. >> yeah, diet for me has been a

lot. i've tried different things and traditional medicine and diet. i do a little of everything. rest helps a lot, too. when you have an autoimmune disease, you have to accept limitations. >> ooh, that's hard when you're venus williams. >> it is. and i've made a lot of very bad mistakes, and i still do. that's a part of life. but i think a lot of times you have to accept it, and that's the first step. >> so how would you describe your diet? is it the raw food diet? >> there was a doughnut in the back. >> did you have it? >> that was mistake number one. >> stop it! you guys should not do that. those doughnuts should not be back there. who put them? >> in moderation, doughnuts are okay. >> i can't have them in moderati moderation. but it's not about me. this is about venus. is it a diet issue in terms of trying to deal with an auto -- or is it -- >> yeah, there are a lot of things i cut out of my diet. i call myself a chegan. i cheat, like i said. and i'm not perfect. i don't pretend to be.

but for the most part, i do the right thing. >> i think she might be perfect. what do you think? >> no, no, no. >> if the numbers are right, it took you seven years to discover this, you won four wimbledon titles during this time. i mean, you fought through this obviously. just speak to that as an athlete and the kind of motivation, where you found the motivation in the midst of obviously some pain and struggle and uncertainty about your health condition, health status. >> yeah. a lot of times i wouldn't feel well, and i've had some bad losses. and then i would go to the doctor. i don't feel right. and they couldn't find anything. there were times where i felt okay. so then that's when i could play better. you know, i wouldn't change it any other way. it's been my life. i feel like a lot of positive has come out of it. i'm just happy to know what's wrong so i can address it. >> you can't necessarily think about how much you could have won if you had known earlier. you've had this long career and

this fun doubles relationship with your sister. first talk about are you still loving playing, and do you still have that desire to win after being on the court so much? >> absolutely. i started playing at 4 years old, so i prepared my whole life for those moments on the court. and i love a challenge. i love the battle, so to speak. and it's a ton of fun. of course, getting to play with serena is amazing. >> yeah, your clothing company is a challenge, too, because i love the concept. you're trying to find clothes that you can actually look good and move in, which for women, that's hard to find. >> yes. my clothing line is called 11, and it represents being better than a 10. >> i like that. >> you're best always. even if you aren't, you always give 100%. our models look good and play well. today i'm wearing pink python because that's what you want to do in the fall. >> exactly. >> it's a ton of fun to wear. and actually, we have a special promotion for all the "morning joe" watchers. you can go online and put in

mojo as the code. >> get out. >> mojo, m-o-j-o-e, and you get 20% off. and it's up until sunday so go and be a pink python. >> i think that's our first mojo discount. i think it is. venus! oh, my god! thank you so much! >> thank you. >> so if you logon to your website to buy your clothes, you put mojo in there, you get 20% off? >> you get 20% off. >> did you hear that? that's cool. >> pink python or the floral that we were showing. >> what should i get? what would you put me in? >> i would put you in the pink. but you can mix and match. >> can i do that, too? >> i love your hair and the lip color. >> oh, thank you. i like yours, too. >> oh, my goodness. >> this all goes downhill. girl talk. >> of our era here. it's an honor to be with you. thank you. >> it really is. you're so nice. nice to meet you. venus williams, thank you so much. up next, maryland attorney general doug gansler responds to criticism after photos surface of him at a teenage party.

what the candidate for governor says he should have done and how it could impact his campaign. "morning joe" will be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] staying warm and dry 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. [ male announcer ] and our priority is you. cheryl burke is cha-cha-ing in depend silhouette briefs for charity, to prove that with soft fabric and waistband, the best protection looks, fits, and feels just like underwear. get a free sample and try for yourself. "stubborn love" by the lumineers did you i did. email? so what did you think of the house? did you see the school ratings?

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well. in washington, we have julie pace, ever fabulous. we have a lot to get to. a couple of things, hillary clinton's back in the news. she got some good news, but she also got heckled at an event. we'll show you how she handled it. it's pretty good, how the former secretary of state was hammered on benghazi, but she handled it pretty well, i think. you decide. also, medicaid in america. why y'all looking at me? okay. >> we're waiting for our instructions. >> medicaid in america. actually the very serious story, prescription pills account for roughly 75% of deadly drug overdoses in the u.s. and so the fda is working to try and do something about that. and dr. nancy is going to be joining us to give us details on that. and also, just a tip, especially for you, halperin -- oh. definitely harold ford jr. and sam stein, for sure. if you're giving an interview on background or getting one, don't

do that on the acela, okay? perhaps not even in the quiet car. >> what could possibly go wrong? >> what's that? >> you can't do it in the quiet car. >> is that bad? >> yeah. >> i've been kicked out of the quiet car a time or two. one former national official had a little problem with that. that along with the angela merkel story. it is just unbelievable. so we have that as well. we're going to begin in washington where that was pretty unbelievable as well. both parties are calling for someone to be held accountable for the flawed rollout of healthcare.gov. and for republicans, that person is hhs secretary kathleen sebelius. she defended herself yesterday, saying in part, quote, the majority of people calling for me to resign, i would say, are people i don't work for and who do not want this program to work in the first place. does she have a point, halperin? >> well, she does. she's a pretty savvy political

player. and she's going to have to be, i think, a little more forthcoming next week when she goes before congress. she's doing the balance of the administration, which is things are getting better but they're not good enough yet. i don't think she's going anywhere any time soon. but she has to focus on not the pr as much as i think fixing the problem. people have to be confident that she's in charge because she's been designated the point person. she's got to convey a better sense, i think, of we are fixing it. not pr but actually getting it done. >> yulely pace, do we need to hear from her? >> i think we definitely do. one of the questions about sebelius is yes, she wasn't the one that was physically constructing this website, but we don't actually know if she was aware of the extent of the problems before the rollout. and i think if she was aware, then that is going to become a problem for her. it's going to be a little bit harder for her to defend this rollout. you know, the administration is starting to hold these daily updates, these daily conference calls with cms. and officials there were asked twice yesterday whether sebelius was aware of these problems before the rollout. both times dodged the question.

and i think that question is going to keep coming up every day. >> harold? >> you know, yesterday's hearing, one of the key points that came out was that the tests for this thing -- this site did not begin in earnest in time. it was supposed to have happened months before and just happened weeks before. secretary sebelius had to answer those questions. i know her, i like her, i believe in her, i hope she's able to keep her job, but someone's going to have to be held accountable someone along the chain. if not, i think it will lead to greater credibility questions and even make it more difficult for the kinds of things they're going to have to do with health care going forward. and for the president to think he can move to immigration after this, i think it's strange to think that he can do that. >> i don't disagree. on capitol hill, contractors who worked on the website faced the ire of several members of congress. nbc news capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell has that story. >> reporter: the top government contractors who built and run the flawed healthcare.gov website. ms. campbell, can you tell us

when you'll be able to have some of these issues repaired? ignored all my questions. about the delays, do you feel like you had an opportunity to explain that today? but did take an oath to answer congress truthfully. >> the truth, the whole truth. >> reporter: grilled for more than four hours. >> is that a system that you're proud of? >> these problems need to be fixed fast. >> reporter: contractors responsible for different parts of the health care website and enrollment process repeatedly claimed they did their jobs well and are working to fix system bugs. >> you keep speaking about unexpected volumes. that really sticks in my craw. pro flowers doesn't crash on valentine's day. >> reporter: as the day wore on, contractors gave a more frank assessment. >> we're not excited nor are we pleased with what we delivered on account 1. in principal, it worked. >> reporter: contractors said the government agency in charge waited too long to test all the parts of the website's system together, just two weeks before it launched october 1st. >> what's the recommended

industry standard for end-to-end tests before rolling out a major website like this? >> months would be nice. >> reporter: the contractors also blamed the same government agency for a last-minute change to how the website works. instead of consumers being able to browse for different insurance plans, the system was changed to require consumers register online first. >> we weren't made aware of this until the final days prior to the launch. >> reporter: but the committee's top democrat, henry waxman, is optimistic things will improve. you're confident they can fix it even after all the problems and delays we've already seen? >> i'm confident that they've told us that they can fix it. >> reporter: while republican chairman fred upton says they must get more answers. have you learned yet who is responsible? >> well, it seems like there was a lot of finger pointing, and all of that was going to the administration. >> all right, kelly o'donnell, on the story. one of the more heated moments of the hearing came between republican joe barton and democrat frank pollone over matters of privacy. take a listen.

>> but you're telling everyone american if you sign up for this or even attempt to, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. that is a direct contradiction to hippa, and you know it. >> i started out in my opening statement saying there was no legitimacy to this hearing, and the last line of questioning certainly confirms that. hippa only applies when there's health information being provided. that's not in play here today. no health information is required in the application process. and why is that? because preexisting conditions don't matter. so once again, here we have my republican colleagues trying to scare everybody. >> will the gentleman yield? >> no, i will not yield to this monkey court or whatever this thing is. >> this is not a monkey court. >> do whatever you want. i'm not yielding. >> ooh. sam stein. >> it's not a monkey court. >> is it not a monkey court? >> it's not a monkey court. full disclosure, my wife works in the administration. >> oh, good lord.

you've turned into mike barnicle. >> it was funny how every member of congress suddenly became an i.t. expert yesterday. >> yeah. >> talking to the people who constructed this website. >> i don't think you can compare the affordable care act to flowers.com or whatever. come on. >> no, listen. i think the focus was sort of misplaced yesterday. they looked at this anonymous shopping. they looked at hippa regulations. the real problem, as i understand it, from reading reports is what's happening with information on the bag eck end. when you enter all your data, you tell them where you live, it should punch out basic information. that should go to insurers and insurers should have that. and the problem is they're not getting the right information. until you fix that, nothing else matters. they could have as many people sign up as seamlessly as possible. but if the data they're producing is bad, then that's not good. >> let's see if this argument works. some might disagree. but the rollout of the obama care website isn't the first time a major program has had problems being implemented. for example, medicare part "d,"

right? while republicans today are hammering the affordable care act, some were far more forgiving of president bush's law back in 2006. >> any time something is new, there's going to be some glitches. all of us, when our children were new, well, we knew as parents we didn't exactly know everything we were doing, and we had a foul-up or two, but we persevered, and our children turned out well. even no matter what one does in life, when it's something new and learning the ropes of it, it's going to take a little adjustment. but as we were signing up, 27 million seniors at a rate sometimes approaching 400,000 people a week, the system wasn't always perfectly ready for all them, and there were a few glitches, particularly for some folks who were due eligible. but the point is, hhs or medicare responded, put extra people on board, worked out some of the glitches. >> kind of a stretch? >> it's like tmz meets c-span.

a big smoking gun. look, that program had some problems. this is a bigger deal. >> yeah. >> this is the whole country's health care system being redone. >> yeah. >> and there's other problems with the program. the president said that. they're just going to have to get this fixed. it's just not really optional. >> but does anyone argue -- julie pace, does anyone argue this can't be fixed? >> well, the problem is not -- sorry. >> it depends on who you talk to. when you talk to people in the administration, they say, this is definitely going to be fixed. >> of course. >> it's going to be fixed quickly. but when you talk to some of these software developers, people who just have experience in building complex systems, some of these folks say that this is maybe not even a week's-long endeavor. this could be a months-long endeavor. that's when you start to get into real problems for the administration. >> they're going to have to regroup. mark halperin is shaking his head. we have a lot to get to this morni morning. new documents from edward snowden say the nsa monitored

the calls of 35 world leaders, and their contact information came from another u.s. government official. president obama assured angela merkel earlier this week, ironically over the phone, that the u.s. was not currently monitoring her calls. merkel said soothing words would not be enough, that true change was necessary. this is unbelievable. and u.s. officials are alerting other countries intelligence services that details of their secret cooperation with the u.s. has been obtained by snowden. meanwhile, a former nsa head found himself being monitored on the phone in public. michael hayden was reportedly loudly bashing the obama administration in an interview on background while on the acela. has that ever happened to you? tom matzzie tweeted much of what was being said, including being referred to as a former official

and apparently bragged and gave disparaging quotes about the obama administration, adding remember, just refer as former senior administration official. he speculated at one point that he might be caught for his live tweeting. but all seems to have ended well. the two posed for a picture. oh, my god. this gets worse and worse. and even chatted. matzzie called hayden a gentleman. >> it's hilarious. >> it is? >> yes. >> he should have gone to the am cafe. >> am cafe. >> where the sound of people munching hot dogs and drinking heinekens drowns out conversation. >> all right. let's try and raise the bar on this conversation and go back. julie, harold. >> the substance here is disconcerting. >> the substance is disconcerting. the snowden part. yeah. >> the fact that all of this has come out is a total embarrassment. i was a believer early on that i wished that this guy had been caught. i wish this information had not

been released. but the more it comes out and the more details come out about the extent of this program was already challenging for this white house and for this team. not only to develop a public relations and optics answer, but this has become more of a substantive challenge for them. put aside what may be happening with everyday americans and surveillance and monitoring which may be occurring. i can accept a lot of that for my security. but to know that presidents of other nations, allies -- >> it's chilling. >> -- there's going to have to be further elaboration and on the part of the white house as to why -- or the administration as to why this is happening. i don't know how you answer these questions. >> i don't know where this is going. let's ask julie pace. i'm sure she knows. julie, i will say that the response from german officials was pretty gruff. they're very angry, and rightfully so. >> absolutely. and i think that the administration's position is going to become a bit unsustainable. when you have any of these revelations that come out, they say we're just not going to

comment on each revelation because presumably there are so many. but we're talking about angela merkel who is really sort of the senior statesman at all of these summits that the president goes to. she is one of the leaders that the president actually has a strong relationship with. he trusts her. he talks pretty frequently about how well they work together. so when you're talking about listening in on her phone calls, this is not something that's going to go away. angela merkel isn't going to suddenly say next week, oh, it's okay. barack and i talked. we're fine. >> let me get to two more stories. as democrats begin to look toward the 2016 presidential election, vice president joe biden appears to still be keenly interested in the state of iowa. biden called newly elected state representative brian meyer to congratulate him on tuesday night's victory. when asked why he thinks the vice president called, he replied, quote, well, it's iowa. biden also attended senator tom harkin's steak fry in september. meanwhile -- look at the baby. speculation over hillary clinton's second run for president continues to grow.

but at an event in buffalo, clinton faced an issue that could resurface. should she decide to enter the race? take a look. >> buffalo is a good model for the rest of the country because we can't move from crisis to kreis. we ha crisis. we have to be willing to come together as citizens to focus on the kind of future we want which doesn't include yelling. it includes sitting down and talking with one another. >> it's hard to hear, but according to local reporters who were there, a heckler interrupted clinton shouting "benghazi, benghazi, you let them die!" meanwhile, billionaire democratic donor george soros says he will back an effort to convince clinton to run, saying he will support the ready for hillary super pac that i think claire mccaskill is behind. support -- she's going to run, right, harold? >> i think it's hard to imagine her not. and if she does not run, i think there will be great, great

surprise. i would be very surprised. >> come on. >> and there was a time -- think about time-honored traditions. the secretary will have to expect a little of that. >> absolutely. >> but she's so seasoned and so professional. >> awesome in handling hecklers. >> oh, my god. it's only, in some ways, going to have the reverse effect than the heckler wants. a story we talked about first here yesterday about the maryland attorney general, doug gansler, just a month into his campaign for governor, he's apologizing for not stopping underage drinking at a party where he was spotted. apparently he was going there to get his kid. he wasn't at the party himself. "the baltimore sun" published this photo of gansler at a party that included teenagers and alcohol. in a half-hour press conference yesterday, gansler admits he made a mistake by doing nothing. >> this was a dance party with loud music, and there may have been some college students or others drinking beer. i just don't know. what i could have done was to investigate whether there was

drinking going on and then take action on that. and for that, i probably should have done that. do i understand that at beach week where there's hundreds and hundreds of children or teenagers, what have you, that some kids will drink and some won't? that happens. what i understand now, there certainly was some drinking, i guess, going on because if you look at the picture, not right where i was, but there were some kids, one or two kids holding red cups, and generally, you know, there could be kool-aid in the red cups, but there's probably beer in the red cups. that wasn't -- you know, i didn't go over and stick my nose in and see, and maybe i should have. that's all i can tell you about that. >> i know doug gansler. i can't imagine that he would have intentionally not -- i mean, i'm sure a lot of things are racing through his kids. i don't have kids. i look forward to raising kids. >> i do. i have teenagers. and i will just say it is not as easy as it looks. there is the right thing to do.

and the right thing to do is call the police and to call all the parents. i've been in that position. it's not worked for me. >> you've never been the senior law enforcement officer of the state or a gubernatorial candidate. >> poor guy, but he's also a parent. >> but the instincts he's showing in how he's handled this since the revelations, not good. not a good sign for him to be a good candidate or a good governor. coming up on "morning joe," we'll check in with "politico's" mike allen. plus what went wrong at a north carolina state fair? new details on a ride malfunction that injured five people. also, prescription pills account for roughly 75% of deadly drug overdoses. now the fda is trying to do something about that. dr. nancy snyderman reports on ways to fight this trend. but first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill. >> morning to you, mika. it's amazing, all wiig long, instead of "morning joe," it's been "morning red sox." st. louis wins one game, we don't hear much about the world series. i'll give my love to people in

st. louis as the series returns home for you. you are actually going to be looking very nice. it's going to be cool. night quite as cold as it has been in boston, but it should be dry and the game should be perfect. the big weather story has been out in seattle. they have now gone seven days in a row with dense fog. i mean, you can see the space needle above it, but they've been locked in low clouds. it doesn't look like the fog should break until sunday. can you imagine eight straight days of being stuck in the fog? how crazy and weird is that? as far as the weekend forecast goes, what we have today is pretty much what we have all weekend. cool and chilly, the great lakes, the midwest right into new england. going to be a very cold morning saturday in the southeast. but then by sunday, you should warm it up nicely into the 70s and even the upper 60s. the only really wet spot will be there down in texas. looks like a pretty nice late october weekend. so st. louis, series returns home. should be a fun scene there at the stadium. you're watching "morning joe." avo: the volkswagen "sign then drive"

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it's time now to take a look at the "morning papers." halperin, join me for these. from our parade of papers, demolition crews are starting to tear down sandy hook elementary school. but parts of the school will be preserved in memory of the victims of the shooting. workers will be checking the site for mementos and time capsules buried by past students. a new elementary school will be built on the site and is expe expected to be open by december of 2016. from "the raleigh news and

observer," investigators are now trying to figure out what caused a ride to malfunction and injure five people at the north carolina state fair in raleigh. the ride is known as the vortex. >> oh. >> reportedly finished and people were beginning to unload, and then it restarted. two victims of that remain in serious condition. "san francisco chronicle," twitter expects to sell between 70 million and 85 million shares for its $17 to $20 apiece when it goes public on the new york stock exchange next month. this price is considered conservative as twitter attempts to avoid facebook's problems when it went public in 2012 and its stock fell below the ipo price. twitter's valuation is now $10 billion. "usa today," amazon.com's revenue was up 24% during the third quarter. that t-- topping $17 billion. the giant beat expectations by 2%, although reported an operating loss of $25 million. however, an operating loss is pretty common this time of year

as amazon invests more money in its web had of based services and warehouses to keep up the sales as the big holiday season approaches. "new york times," the fda is taking steps to address the use of narcotic painkillers in america. new measures which may take effect next year will reduce the number of refills patients will have before returning to their doctor. patients will also need to physically go to a pharmacy rather than having a doctor call in a prescription. here's nbc's dr. nancy snyderman. >> reporter: by the food and drug administration follows an ongoing debate, pitting patients who need narcotics for pain control against otherwise healthy people who access the medications and abuse them. this change would hopefully curb abuse by reducing the number of refills patients could get before going back to see their doctor. it would also require having a written prescription rather than having the doctor call the pharmacy. currently a patient can get a prescription refilled five times over a six-month period before needing a new one.

with the new recommendation, a patient would now need to see a doctor every three months. not everyone thinks this is a good move. the american medical association and pharmacy organizations are worried that this would be a burden to patients who are already suffering. >> by making hydrocodone more regulated and harder to prescribe and dispense, our patients are probably going to have a difficult time getting good control of their pain. >> reporter: but the drug enforcement agency and health policy experts say that prescription drug abuse has now reached a tipping point, and something has to be done. in a statement, the fda has become increasingly concerned about the abuse and misuse of opioid products which have sadly reached epidemic proportions. the new regulations would also reclassify hydrocodone containing painkillers, putting them in the same category as oxycontin, methadone, fentanyl, adderall and ritalin, drugs with a known potential for abuse.

>> that was dr. nancy snyderman reporting. and in this weekend's "parade" magazine, it is the halloween installment of their "what america eats" series. well, that should be full of -- >> deliciousness. >> candy corn? snickers? >> i love candy corn. >> marathon bars. >> i never can eat just one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12. >> what, candy corn? >> yes. >> it's good for you. it's corn. >> that's terrible. let's go to "politico," with us now, the chief white house correspondent for "politico," mike allen is here with the "morning playbook." mike, president obama is looking to shift the national dialogue from obama care to immigration. and yesterday he called on house republicans to act on a bipartisan bill passed in the senate this past june. take a listen. >> obviously, just because something is smart and fair and good for the economy and fiscally responsible and supported by business and labor and the evangelical community and many democrats and many

republicans, that does not mean that it will actually get done. this is washington, after all. i'm not running for office again. i just believe this is the right thing to do. so now it's up to republicans in the house to decide whether reform becomes a reality or not. let's not wait. it doesn't get easier. to just put it off. let's do it now. let's not delay. let's get this done. and let's do it in a bipartisan fashion. >> okay, mike. so what are republicans saying about the chances of this in the house, immigration reform in >> well, mika, we have rarely seen a clearer, quicker example of the mars and venus relationship between the two ends of pennsylvania avenue. the president out yesterday spelling out why he thinks it's in republicans' interests to do this. white house officials saying this would be a chance for republicans to get some of their mojo back, improve their image

after the shutdown debacle. but our reporters in the capitol are hearing nothing doing from republicans. there's only 19 more working days left for congress this year. and "politico" is reporting house republican leaderships have no plans to take up any immigration bill in that time. mika, my private conversations with people on the hill say that they're so alienated from the president after these most recent negotiations, they don't want to compromise with him. they don't want to talk with him. they don't want to give him an accomplishment. now, the dynamic could change eric cantor, the number two house republican leader, paul ryan, others want to do something on immigration, maybe pieces. and yesterday -- this is very significant -- yesterday in those remarks that we just saw from the president, he indicated for the first time that he was willing to go along with a piece-by-piece approach to immigration as long as it ultimately gets to that path to

citizenship. so that big senate bill, the one that marco rubio and others brokered, he's not saying now that that's the only way. >> i know you guys have been following this claim by senator dick durbin that a gop leader said to the president, quote, i can't even stand to look at you. we were talking about this yesterday. and we got a lot of different points of view. everyone has a different story. now the white house, what, is calling this a miscommunication? >> yeah. people are calling this a game of telephone gone bad. and jake tapper was the first to put up these details. it turns out that the house republican leader was the rules committee chairman, pete sessions of texas, and he probably didn't say exactly this, but a white house deputy chief of staff, rob neighbors, who was describing this meeting to senate democrats including senator durbin, included the comment, house republican leader saying to the president, a shocking thing to say, i can't even stand to look at you. now, supposedly he was more referring to the situation than the person, but senator durbin

was furious when the white house portrayed him as making this up. and that's how these details got pushed out. the white house came out with a statement that said that, well, the remarks aren't exactly accurate, but we did give an inaccurate readout. >> "politico's" mike allen, thank you. our next guest has racked up millions of hits on youtube with a video explaining why he hates religion but loves jesus. jefferson bethky doesn't even have a bible, but he's having a major impact on the conversation. he joins us with his new book when "morning joe" comes right back.

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one thing is vital to mention. how jesus and religion are on opposite spectrums. see, one's the work of god. one's a manmade invention. see, one is the cure, but the other is the infection. see, because religion says do. jesus says done. religion says slave. jesus says son. religion puts you in bondage while jesus sets you free. >> that was part of the youtube sensation that went viral in 2012 and now has more than 26 million hits. and here with us now, the star of that video, jefferson bethky, the co-direct either of the college ministry the king and is

out now with the book "jesus is greater than religion: why he is so much better than trying harder, doing more and being good enough." very good to have you on the show. >> thank you. i'm excited. >> welcome. let's start with answering that question. why? >> why did i do the video or the book? >> no. the question that your book poses. why he's so much better than trying harder, doing more and being good enough. >> yeah, so i think in my context, i grew up in a culture that my generation knew the games, the church songs, knew the culture. and then a lot of us got to high school and -- >> resonate. >> and then i started following jesus in college, which i talk about in the book. and long story short, i pretty much just saw that what i said no to as a child or at least what i was kind of rebelling against in high school really wasn't what i see in the new testament, really wasn't what i see in scriptures. it was kind of just this modern evangelicalism that honestly looks nothing like the scriptures. >> what is it about that religion itself that's not working in this day? >> yeah. just to define that term real

quick, i don't mean institution, don't mean church, don't mean anything of that nature. >> right. >> it's kind of a shorthand term in my seattle context for just kind of legalistic, false religion. really the idea i was trying to get at is religion -- what i was trying to pose jesus against is that there's a lot of these ideologies that you have to climb the ladder to heaven, be good enough, pray this way, do this, eat this way. >> uh-huh. >> jesus is the exact opposite. it says in the scriptures that we're run ago way from him. we don't want him. we're kind of spitting in his face with our behaviors. he comes and gets us and says hey, i want you, you and you. that's radically different. >> isn't the framework of religion a way to reach jesus? >> yeah, yeah, totally. that's what i'm saying. when it comes to institution, that's where i think the word breaks down a little bit. if i learned anything from the video, it's that man, that word means a lot of things to a lot of people. >> what resonates? why did you get so many hits do you think? what are people saying to you that you're hearing again and again? >> i think exactly that. in the intro of the book, i put a few e-mails i got from the video. and they all come at that idea of my generation, my age really

just struggling under this burden of shame, of guilt, of not being good enough and how jesus, when you get him and you see his grace as beautiful and amazing kind of actually sets you free a little bit. >> but isn't there a certain -- mark, you're next -- but isn't there a certain standard that you have to live up to in order to be able to feel like you are trying hard doing more? >> yeah, yeah. so the best way i try to explain it -- >> i mean, are you giving people a pass? is that what you're doing? >> yes. first of all, grace is radical. any time you say grace, but, you kind of kill grace. >> right. >> the way i like to explain it, it's like a marriage. when you understand jesus, you're under contract. then you have to try hard. then you have to fake it because you don't want to get fired. covenant is about the promise, not the behavior. and so when you understand that it actually motivates you to grow in the same way as a marriage. me and alyssa, my wife, we don't

date for 60 years and then at 99 get married. we marry first, covenant first, that's behind us pushing us towards growth. when you get that, it's a lot different. >> so the video has given you some pretty awesome influence. congratulations on the look. >> thank you so much. >> what do you want to do with your influence? >> i'm left-handed, an artist, creating in that adhd mindset. >> oh, lord. okay. >> you never know what's going to happen. >> i have one of those in my family. >> i really enjoy creativity. i really enjoy the arts. so whether it's videos, a book, i just kind of want to do things that make people look at jesus in a different light. >> how will you measure whether the book's a success? >> i'm not totally sure. so it's been out for two weeks, and both time it hit "the new york times'" best-seller list. >> that is a very good and earthly standard. >> so that's -- i don't know if you were asking on that manner or not. but then also, e-mails and messages are my favorite. so like, again, the awards, whatever, aren't the biggest deal. but when i get an e-mail that says hey, i read the book, i see jesus differently, that for me, that's why i wrote it. >> do you ever -- first of all,

do you attend church? >> of course, yeah. >> do you ever have a desire to work within the institutions of religion? >> mm-hmm. >> to become maybe, you know, a priest or pastor or do something like to change the institutions? >> totally. that's one of the things i don't like about the generation which is we critique and then say see you later. that's the difference between a servant and a critic. a critic leaves. a servant says i want to help change it. so for me, i want my life when i'm about to die, i want people to look back and say he believed in the chump. if it had shortcomings, he poured hope into it in the hopes that it might change. >> you can read an excerpt on our site mojo.msnbc.com. thank you. so nice to meet you. congratulations. >> thanks. up next, twitter sets its ipo price with a value of about $10 billion. how the social media giant is learning from facebook's mistakes. today's business headlines are next.

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time now for business before the bell. brian shactman, how are market futures looking? >> well, they're a little mixed. we had a durable goods number that we've got some weak demand in the u.s. economy right now. the s&p 500 right near all-time highs. the dow is less than 200 points from all-time highs. people left the market in '09 and didn't come back in, they are losing out on a huge, somewhat historic wave here. but there's a company -- i want to talk about twitter for a second. >> yeah. >> their ipo set to price about $17 to $20. they're going to raise about $1.4 billion. it will probably come to market the first week of november. this is a big deal because people think it should be

trading for probably a lot more. so if it opens up at 20, people think it will trade into the 30s on day one. and the key is facebook was a disaster. they kept bringing the price up, and it went down, down, down afterward. so they're hoping that everyone can make money off of this ipo, whether it's a successful company in the public market, who really knows? but i tend to think if they can succeed in being the world's news wire, it's going to be a huge, huge success. >> what's their revenue model besides ads? anything? >> well, the promotion side of it is basically all they have, but it will open themselves up to just the way they cycle through different than facebook. they're less kbrintrusive. in terms of revenue, that is their main one at the moment. their sheer reach is so big. >> how about a twitter putting? >> you like that? >> i'm just trying to think of what else they could sell. >> the other thing, amazon, great story. when i was at cnbc, i talked about how this race to have all of your money spent in one

place, right? and the players, whether you think it's google, apple, if you think walmart can catch up, they're sort of the brick and mortar, the tech side, the other ones are the tech trying to go brick and mortar. amazon has revenues over 20-plus billion dollars, but they're losing money. and we talked about this with the book earlier. i think it was this week or last about how they pour everything into building this business. jeff bezos thinks that's the best way to go about it. and the stock is up, like, 20-plus dollars because people believe the growth story, even though it is losing money, that it is worth it. >> how is it losing money? >> building distribution centers, they're trying to diversify what they sell. they are putting every penny possible into some long-term growth plan. and that's why they're now turning a profit. they will again soon, but but it's an amazing thing that a company that brings in that much money isn't making money. next, is a 50-year-old mystery solved? we know know the story behind this photo. ringo starr was asking for the public's help, and he got it. we'll be right back.

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the high-profile search for some fresh-faced beatles fans appears to be over. beatles' drummer ringo starr asked the public to help i.d. the teens in this photo. and now "the miami herald" says it knows who they are. ringo took the picture back in 1964 on the band's first trip to the u.s.

a boston attorney says he recognizes the kids as his classmates at fairlawn senior high school in new jersey. come on, now. kenneth kolpin says they cut class and went to laguardia airport to meet the beatles. none of the students in the car have come forward to confirm the story just yet. ringo is releasing a book of his photographs next month. well, we'll see if it pans out. >> yeah. >> fun. all right. up next, a "morning joe week in review." and what, if anything, did we learn today? i know something. oh, yeah. mm-hmm. thank you orville and wilbur... ...amelia... neil and buzz: for teaching us that you can't create the future... by clinging to the past. and with that: you're history. instead of looking behind... delta is looking beyond. 80 thousand of us investing billions...

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sales go up, i'm happy. i ordered another pair. i'm happy. (both) i'm happy. i'm happy. happy. happy. happy. happy. happy happy. i love logistics. are you all ready for the news? >> willie? >> please, god. just stop -- don't talk about the red sox. don't talk -- nope. let me do this just once. somebody do the montage of you interrupting me was hilarious. >> why do you have to do a montage? just turn on your tv set. ♪ >> you promised a product to the american people. you said this was going to change the way that health care was delivered. and the fact of the matter is, it didn't work. >> if this happened in the private sector at a big company, the person responsible would be gone, and the firemen would be rushing in, and they would be working around the clock, 24/7,

fixing this. the three journalists that get through, they go, thank you for getting through. please go to our health care site. who does that? are you trying to call? >> i am. >> you're trying to call them? >> it took me 20 seconds. thank you so much. >> that was chris christie's phone. >> no, it wasn't. ♪ >> he's living his dream, just like me. sitting on tv, talking to you. >> i can't hear a single word you just said. >> you're better off. >> see ya, louis. >> are you ready, joe? >> that is a great shot. >> joe is wearing bermuda shorts and a hawaiian shirt in 30 seconds. >> not even 30. how to look rough and ready all year long. >> how would you describe joe's style today? >> i wouldn't call it rough and ready. >> the thing is i usually have food all over me, so it's hard to say that i'm calculating. >> and a private chapel. >> that's one thing dottie doesn't have. >> i'd like to think of my bedroom as a private chapel. >> oh! >> bill karins who really needs to get off those social networking sites. >> it's great.

you should see all the handles i got, different names. >> people love dogs, period. >> i know. i love dogs. >> you do not. >> i do. >> obviously you don't. >> you can have a situation where fewer people -- jim says hi. jimbo. >> i like your head there, jim cramer. >> they can see you over there. >> i'm a yankee fan, so i'm quiet this year. >> got another four years of silence coming. >> barnicle. >> see how red sox fans are? all of a sudden after 86 years, they get chirpy. t.j.'s got something. i can't understand what he's saying, but he sounds fantastic. looking good. >> nice seats. i see nbc really came through for you. >> thank god that we are the least self-aware people on the face of the earth. >> really, we're not self-aware. >> it is time now to talk about what we learned today. we're having a little party here. because it's louis's birthday. so you'll have to lose that and wear a tiara. >> why am i being abused on my

birthday? >> a pink tee iara for a birthd. let's sing. we have the whole staff here. we do love you. >> thanks, bill. i knew i could count on you. >> as rare as a meteorologist is accurate. >> oh! >> i learned i have an incredible staff that i work with, and i love each and every one of you. >> he just called you his staff. >> wow, staff. okay. wow, louis. that was awkward. okay. happy birthday. >> happy birthday, big guy. >> i guess we love him. do we love him? >> he's all right. >> someone -- columbia guy. take him out back, all right, and beat him up. all right. have a great weekend. if it's "way too early," it's time for "morning joe." but now it's time for "the daily rundown" with chuck todd. do it! will rogers may have said it best. you've got to admit that each party is worse than t