governor chris christie trounce his democratic candidate, winning with the largest margin of victory of any republican in almost three decades, in a state that went to president obama by 17 points last year. and despite the fact that he's against almost everything new jerseyans appear to be for. that was largely seen as an audition for 2016, he touted his leadership and ability to reach across the aisle. >> leadership is much less about talking than it is about listening. about bringing people around the table, listening to each other, showing them respect. doing what needed to be done. i did not seek a second term to do small things. i sought a second term to finish the job. now watch me do it. >> it's a win being called revenge of the rhinos. "the daily beast" calling it a

model for how republicans can win if they want to. can republicans learn from this and heal the divide between establishment and extremists? >> chris christie now has an opportunity to bring his brand of conservatism and make it real for those conservatives who don't think he is. >> first to sebelius. tennessee congressman marsha blackburn joins me live now from nashville again, as we watch the health and human services secretary continue her testimony there. congresswoman, you had your chance to question secretary sebelius last week. the administration working around the clock to get this website fixed. official enrollment numbers will be out next week we're told. is that enough progress for you? >> no, it is not enough progress, and we certainly are wanting the problem to be remedied. and the amount of money they have spent, the deadlines they have missed, the waivers they have given, the delays that they have made, i think what we're

seeing in the president's approval ratings is that this is unacceptable to the american people. i'm talking to a good many health i.t. specialists and, craig, they're telling me they're very doubtful they're going to have these interfaces and the appropriate integration done so that it is a working system by the time you get to the end of november. what's causing them some of the, i guess, the biggest questions is what is going to happen january 1st and 2nd when people who think they are enrolled in the program go to hospitals and they can't be found in the system. >> congresswoman, you and i have had several conversations on the air before and we've talked about obama care a number of times. it always sounds like you're sort of pulling against it. it sounds as if you don't really want it to succeed so that your point is made. would that be an accurate characterization or not? >> i think that a more appropriate characterization is

what we want to do is preserve access to affordable health care for all americans. what we have seen with the president's health care law is that it is constricting and restricting access. it is restricting choice and options. and it is driving the cost through the roof. and that is not the way it was supposed to be. you know, craig, i think that it's important every once in a while when something is not working to call a time-out. >> to talk about ways to improve it? to talk about ways to improve it? i want to call your attention to matt miller's opinion in "the washington post" today. he points out that nearly 50 million uninsured americans will finally know what it's like to go to bed at night certain that they can't be wiped out financially by illness. obama care's well insured critics, you being one of them, seem unable to imagine what it wolf like to be one of them. why don't we hear, congressman, why don't we hear from

republicans about the need to find ways to get poor workers secure health coverage? >> oh, you do. i mean we have -- look at the millions of americans that have elected and chosen to have health savings accounts. after those came into the marketplace. i'm one of those. i like having a health savings account. and the president's health care law would eliminate many of these -- >> not all of them, congresswoman. you're not saying that health savings accounts are some sort of panna sea. that's not what you're saying, right? >> no, i'm saying it is an option. it is a wonderful option for people to have. and has been very successful in the marketplace. >> for folks who can kfrd -- >> for individuals that are under 40 years of age. >> for folks who can afford to put money away in a health savings account. >> for individuals who are looking for cost-effective health coverage.

health savings accounts have been very successful. and another option, craig, that would be a way to open up the health care marketplace is to have across state line purchase of health insurance. let individuals go to a website and choose whatever they want from whatever vendor in the country. let them find something that suits the needs for them and for their families. give them the opportunity to make that choice. >> congresswoman, while i have you here, i do want to get your reaction to tuesday's election results. tea-party backed conservatives defeated in alabama and also in virginia. has the tea party lost some of its steam? has it lost some of its influence? >> i think that what you're going to see is the republican party expand. i think we're all very pleased to see chris christie's win and the way that he reached out and brought people to -- his is leadership in action. and that's what people want to see. >> so chris christie --

>> and finding a way -- >> chris christie is now the standard bearer? >> i think that his win is big. i think that that the republicans controlling the house of delegates in virginia, that is a big win. and i think, craig, you and i will hear a whole lot about the analysis as they go through the elections and look at it. state senate, state house district by district. >> tennessee congresswoman marsha blackburn, thank you. always a pleasure. there's a lot to digest on this day after election 2013 from new jersey to virginia. the headlines point to partisanship fatigue. voters rewarding the middle road in a triumph of pragmatism versus purity. in the wake of his landslide win against barbara buono, chris christie had a victory speech that sounded a lot like a kickoff to a 2016 presidential run. >> we don't just show up in the places where we're comfortable, we show up in the places where

we're uncomfortable, because when you lead, you need to be there. you need to show up. you need to listen. and then you need to act. my pledge to you tonight is i will govern with the spirit of sandy. i know that if we can do this in trenton, new jersey, maybe the folks in washington, d.c., should tune in their tvs right now and see how it's done. >> oh, who is he talking to there, steve? nbc news exit polls show governor christie's landslide was made possible thanks to nearly a third of all democratic voters. 57% of women and significant gains being made among black and hispanic voters as well. gains over 2009. steve kornacki hosts msnbc "up with steve kornacki." he's here to break down all the election results with me. let's start with what "the daily beast" talked about, some of these exit poll numbers. here's the headline. the outlines of a candidate who

can dig the gop out of the demographic trap it's facing. and while hard-core conservatives might call him a rhino, republican name own, there's another name for it, a winner. what is the major takeaway from christie's win last night in new jersey, steve? >> first of all, if chris christie is the republican candidate in 2016, he's not going to be blessed for the democratic party that rolls over for him like the democratic party rolled over in new jersey. one of the reasons they rolled over in new jersey is because he was so skillful in creating these alliances, alliances of convenience with various democrats in new jersey that helped him sort of rack that margin up last night. but that speech he gave last night, that was an audition to national republican opinion leaders, you could call them donors. it's not about, hey, this is my vision of conservatism, it's like, hey, imagine me at the republican national convention in the summer of 2016. don't think about the primaries. imagine the convention in the summer. imagine the debates in the fall. >> i'm glad you brought that up,

the primaries. here's a guy who, again, you listen to the speech last night and it sounds like it's all but a foregone conclusion that he's going to get in the race in 2016. chris christie has a hard time in south carolina in an early primary. chris christie has a hard time in some of the early primary in caucus states. >> i'm a little more bullish on his prospects of winning the republican nomination than a lot of people are. i completely k knowledge -- i'm not saying it's a slam dunk, there are a million land mines. but when we use the term moderate to describe chris christie, that helps him in terms of positioning for the general election. when you dig a little deeper and say, moderate, he's going to have trouble with the republican base. what does that mean? does it mean he's pro choice? no, he's pro life. is he supporting gun control? no, he's vetoing it. does he support gay marriage? no. >> is he for tax hikes? no. he goes after the teachers unions, the public employees unions.

chris christie actually, when you start looking at the boxes that today's tea party republicans want you to check off, he checks off a lot of them. >> he's not nearly as moderate as many in the media made him out to be. >> exactly. >> terry mcauliffe barely eked out a win there. this is a snippet of his acceptance speech last night. take a listen. >> the truth is that this election was never a choice between democrats and republicans, it was a choice about whether virginia would continue the mainstream bipartisan tradition that has served us so well over the last decade, and a time when washington was often broken, just think about what virginia has been able to accomplish when we work together. >> as our nbc first read team points out, president obama's rating is at about 46% right now and equal percentage supports the health care law while 53%

oppose it. so president obama and three weeks of intense coverage of the health care rollout are not helping democrats. how much of the president and the health care law nearly tanked terry mcauliffe in virginia? >> it's so interesting how this story has become how terry mcauliffe almost lost. this is the first time in four decades that the white house party has actually won an off year gubernatorial election in virginia. the whole story we've been hearing the last several election cycles is that when president obama is on the ballot, this new democratic coalition turns up and votes and gets him elected in '08 and '12. when he's not on the ballot, it's a disaster for democrats. the extraordinary thing about what happened yesterday is basically that democratic coalition -- >> showed up? >> showed up. it was out there. it's one of those funny things. it remains to be seen the grow to which -- i don't know if the health care thing at the end made this a two or three point race instead of a four or five point race. but terry mcauliffe winning this

thing is a big deal. >> i do want to ask you about something else. most public polls had mcauliffe winning this thing -- a lot of those polls by double digits. in fact this is -- by the way, he squeaked by, boy about 3%. but he ended up winning by about 3%. "washington post" had mcauliffe winning with women specifically by 24 points. he won by 8. any chance that some of those polls were just way off? >> oh, it looks that way. the other thing i always wonder is this. this was an election -- one of the stories about the virginia race was nobody liked either one of these candidates. they didn't like cuccinelli and they did not like terry mcauliffe. i think back to something that happened in 1976. gerald ford was running against jimmy carter and there were doubts about both candidates. gerald ford had pardoned richard nixon and he was running from behind the whole race. in the weekend before that election gerald ford pulled ahead in the polls for the first time and suddenly the first time is, hey, gerald ford is going to be re-elected president and it

made everybody think back to, wait a minute, the guy that pardoned nixon is going to win? and jimmy carter surged ahead. i wonder how much terry mcauliffe has got it, get used to it, guys, i wonder if at the end there were people who like, remember, we don't like this guy. are we sure we want to make this happen? if it had been cuccinelli up five points, i wonder if he would have crunched in the last few days. >> steve kornacki, we always enjoy your insight, thank you, sir. as always, you can catch "up with steve kornacki" 8:00 eastern right here on msnbc. that brings us to our question of the day. do you think republicans will learn from new jersey governor chris christie's example? you can weigh in on twitter or facebook. we're going to share your thoughts a little later in the broadcast. history was made last night in some of the races for mayor across this country beginning in the big apple. voters elected the first

democrat in a generation. bill de blasio won by the largest margin since the 1980s. he called his campaign a progressive one, featuring his diverse family in campaign ads where he promised to tax the rich and rein in stop and frisk. marty walsh will become boston's 48th mayor. the democrat won a narrow victory to replace long-time mayor tom menino. and in detroit, mike dugan will be tasked with leading that bankruptcy. he was elected on the hopes of bringing revitalization and become detroit's first white mayor in four decades. >> yes, i have some had some crack cocaine. but do i -- am i an addict? no. >> a stunning admission from toronto's mayor. he said all he can do is apologize and move on. what about resigning? forget it. we'll tell you why he has a good chance at even being re-elected. our agenda panel will weigh in

on that. plus "the washington times" is ditching senator rand paul's weekly column amid several plagiarism accusations. what senator paul says is to blame for those mistakes. in just a few moments i'll talk to thomas roberts live from russia. he'll be talking about the assault on lgbt rights in that country. stay with us. i started part-time, now i'm a manager.n. my employer matches my charitable giving. really. i get bonuses even working part-time. where i work, over 400 people are promoted every day. healthcare starting under $40 a month. i got education benefits. i work at walmart. i'm a pharmacist. sales associate. i manage produce.

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developing right now, the u.s. supreme court just finished hearing arguments in a major first amendment case involving prayer at government meetings. at issue, whether an upstate new york town starting its council meetings with a prayer violates the separation of church and state. the decision from the high court could have, could have a far-reaching impact.

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is live for us outside the supreme court for us this morning. pete, what did we hear this morning? >> reporter: this is the town of greece, which is a suburb of rochester, new york. a lower court said that the problem is that the town of greece prayers were almost exclusively christian and that was challenged by two residents of the town, one is jewish and one atheist. and they said that they in essence felt compelled to pray. now, the problem is for the supreme court, right across the street here, the congress has opened every session throughout our entire history with a prayer from a paid chaplain. 30 years ago, the supreme court said there's nothing wrong with that in legislatures. the question is, is there something different about these local meetings, where somebody is basically asking for something from the town and told beforehand that they have to join in a prayer that they may disagree with, that they're not going to sit down an not take the prayer because that might offend the very people they're asking for something. here is a hypothetical question that began today's oral argument

from justice alana kagan. she said suppose at the beginning of the supreme court session the chief justice stood up in front of everybody, talked about how jesus died on the cross, made the sign of the cross. she said would that be allowable? the lawyer for the town said, well maybe not. she said, what if it's in the beginning of a congressional hearing? that's the problem for the court. they don't seem to be willing to do one thing that was potentially an issue here. there was no indication at all. the supreme court says you can't have prayer at the beginning of a government meeting. the only question here is, is there any way to set guidance or limits on the kind of prayers allowed. >> pete williams from the supreme court for us. thank you. up next, our agenda panel weighs in on senator rand paul's plagiarism scandal and also toronto's mayor coming clean about smoking crack. >> your status with the dolphins? your status with the dolphins?

>> miami dolphins player richie incognito accused of sending racist and hate-filled messages to a teammate. he is speaking out publicly for the first time since that scandal hit. what he told that reporter about the allegations is coming up. also, my colleague, thomas roberts, joins me in just a few moments to talk about lgbt ha s hostility in russia. thomas talked to a journalist who was fired for coming out of the closet. [ male a nnou

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seeing millions of americans lose their health care. >> that was republican senator mike crappo questioning kathleen sebelius just a few moments ago. sebelius is testifying in front of a senate committee about the rollout. she's also been answering questions about the law and whether the law is working. we continue to monitor that on the hill. meanwhile as republican lawmakers continue their angst over obama care, there's a new talking point. politico is reporting that the obama administration has ordered a study to determine whether the affordable care act will increase the number of people enrolled in the food stamps program since it increases the number of people eligible for medicaid. it's too soon to tell, but this much we do know to be true. right now 47 million americans are making ends meet with fewer food stamp dollars. the automatic cuts that kicked in nearly a week ago are forcing more recipients to turn to

resources like food pan trees. rebecca is the executive director of florida association of food banks. florida is among two dozen states where at least 15% of the population relies on food stamps. how much of an uptick has there been at food pantries that you work with over the past week since those automatic cuts went into effect? >> well, i don't know that we've seen the impact of that at our food pan industries just yet because it's just beginning to roll out. people haven't necessarily seen the drop -- well, they have seen the decline in their program, but they haven't necessarily seen the impact immediately. but our food pantries over the past four years have seen an increase from 72 million pounds of food distribution to 173 million pounds. so we've seen over four years during the economic decline here in the state of florida a dramatic increase in food distribution and we anticipate that this will simply add to

that burden. >> the cuts here that we're talking about, those who rely on food stamps, will now see an average cut of roughly 36 food stamp dollars per month. to a lot of folks out there, that's not a lot of money. but when you start talking about what $36 fewer in food stamps means for food-insecure families, what are we talking about then? >> we're talking about a pretty significant amount of food. if you look at food stamp dollars, that can buy a package of ham pittsburgher, two packages of spaghetti, chicken, bread, lunch meat, a gallon of milk, a box of cereal, i mean it's essentially a good week's worth of food for families who are struggling. >> lawmakers right now trying to negotiate just how much is going to be cut from the food stamps program in the farm bill. the house bill calls for a $39 billion cut to the program. the senate is calling for $4.5 billion cut so either way there's going to be cuts to this

particular entitlement program. how are food banks like yours, how are you trying to brace for even more people who could end up needing your resources? >> we've been working over the past several years to increase the amount of food that's available to us from two major feed streams. the retail industry works very closely with us to donate surplus food through their market and we're also working through the fresh produce industry. florida has been a real boone to us with our agricultural community donating a lot of fresh produce to us, so we've seen significant increases in the amount of fresh produce and food coming through the retail market. >> rebecca of the florida association of food banks, thank you. up next, senator rand paul with a few choice words for his critics, even as he continues to be plagued by that plagiarism scandal. our agenda panel is standing by next. with amazing rewards. with the spark cash card from capital one,

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senator rand paul finally admitting mistakes, but is still defiant as ever. up in smoke, the toronto mayor's stunning crack confession, but if you think he's stepping down, you're smoking crack. and winners and losers, the real lessons from election night. those are today's topics for our agenda panel, zer liena maximum vel, michael tomasky and igor vols volsky, good to see all of you. let's start with rand paul, the kentucky senator accused of plagiarizing material for speeches and writings now telling "the new york times," quote, we have made some mistakes but never said that those mistakes have been intentional. he went on to say what we are going to do from here forward if it will make people leave me the hell alone, his words not mine, is we're going to do them like college papers. we're going to try to put out footnotes. that's the latest accusation

involving lifting material for a september 20th op-ed in the "washington times." the newspaper has now cancelled the senator's column. zerlina maxwell, let me start with you. is this a big deal or much ado about nothing? >> no, this is a big deal. we're used to plagiarism or accusations of plagiarism when you're in high school. particularly from wikipedia. expect it from somebody in high school or in college and not somebody who's a sitting senator. he needs to do better than this. it's unacceptable to be caught copying. if he wasn't caught, he would probably continue to do it. >> and then he threw his staff under the bus as well, mike. senator paul blaming his heavy workload, lashing out at his critics telling "the new york times," quote, this is coming from haters to begin with because they want the implication to be out there that you're dishonest. that's again what he's telling "the new york times." michael, what could all of this mean for senator paul,

especially if he wants to run for president in 2016? >> well, in terms of getting the republican nomination or trying to get the republican nomination, craig, it probably helps him because it's -- as far as those voters are concerned, it's just another witch hunt of a tea party icon by the liberal mainstream media. and so paul, of course, is going to be defiant and use phrases like "leave me the hell alone" and so on. that's how he's got to play it. he's got to play it to that base and they're going to defend him up and down as far as this goes. if he actually made it to the general election, it would be maybe another matter. >> let's turn to toronto mayor rob ford's stunning admission yesterday for folks who have not seen or read about this. after months of denials, after toronto police said last week they have got a tape of him doing it, the mayor in probably the most bizarre news conference that we've seen in some time admitted he did in fact smoke crack.

>> yes, i have smoked crack cocaine. but no -- do i? am i an addict? no. have i tried it? probably in one of my drunken stupors, probably approximately about a year ago. >> is toronto's mayor rob ford the new marion barry? cocaine possession is a criminal offense in canada, it can be punishable by prison time, but so far mayor ford has not been charged with a crime. he also insists he is not going to be resigning. there's no vehicle to remove him from office in toronto. what's next? >> it's shocking because it looks like he's going to win re-election. he's running and he has this hard core base of supporters. these people who are with him all the way who kind of like the ran paul situation view government very conceskepticall buy into the message you need to get the government off your back and they view this as an

activity that shouldn't be regulated by the government. politically at least for now it looks like he can move forward. >> that was your article we just referenced in the grio. you know, there are folks who have said that the actual worst part of this was the telling of the lie and the continuing to tell the lie and now he comes out and again, any time you have to admit that you smoked crack at some point, that's a bad day at the office. >> that's not a good day for you. >> that's a bad day at the office. >> in my piece one of the things i wanted to make clear is this is not marion barry 2.0. marion barry was charged and sentenced to prison, so he's actually spent time in federal prison and was held accountable by the law for his illegal actions. rob ford is still in office and admitting to doing something illegal but he's still the mayor, which is something that is unbelievable to me. also i think if you're looking at the bigger picture, in michigan last week, they passed a series of bills that drug tests -- people applying for unemployment insurance. they take away your unemployment benefits if you test positive

for drugs, but you can be mayor but can't get unemployment that you paid into the system and you want to get back? that's ridiculous. >> it's also important to note that many would contend that marion barry was entrapped. if you haven't seen the documentary, i would encourage you to watch the nine lives of marion barry. an here's the other part of this, michael tomasky and i know you want to talk about the canadian mayor smoking crack, but the excuse, the drunken stupor excuse was -- i found that to be just as surprising as the admission itself. i did it, i smoked crack, but i was so -- i was in one of my drunken stupors. >> it took me back to college, craig, because when you're in college, i was drunk is a plausible excuse for a lot of things, and your friends will probably accept that. but, dude, you're not in college anymore. you're the mayor of the fourth largest city in north america. grow up a little. >> a lot of folks forget that. we're not talking about a podunk

town. before you get out of here i want to get your reaction to what we saw last night. first of all, governor christie's big win in new jersey, terry mcauliffe's not as big a win in the commonwealth. igor, let me start with you. have we made too much of the christie win in the garden state? >> well, craig, i think the real headline here is the win for obama care. christie wants to expand medicaid under obama care. in virginia, you have really the loudest opponent of obama care defeat, go down to defeat, and now that state might also expand medicaid. so if virginia is kind of the national bellwether for politics, and i think it bodes well for obama care, particularly if those exchanges start working. >> michael, "the daily beast" called it revenge of the rhinos for chris christie, but there are going to be a number of obstacles, a number of hurdles that a chris christie would have to jump if he is going to be the gop nominee in 2016.

>> yeah, he's very conservative. nobody should be mistaken about that. but he's not really tea party. you know, emotionally and so forth. so he -- he is going to be in the middle of that brawl if he becomes the establishment candidate. two other things, though, from new jersey. the exit poll result that showed him still losing to hillary clinton 48-44 even while racking up this huge victory i think is problematic for him and also the minimum wage increase passed in new jersey with 61% of the vote. that's not a very christie-like vote either. >> that's a great spot to leave it. always great to see you. michael tomasky, zerlina maxwell and igor volsky. today's agenda panel, thank you. you can find more from our agenda panel on our website, thomasroberts.msnbc.com. speaking of thomas roberts, he's live in moscow right now for the miss universe contest. he drew the short straw. good to see you, sir.

>> good to see you too, craig. we're going to be talking about that through the week. first up, we're going to be talking about russia's anti-gay propaganda law and how regular russians are living with it. i'm speaking to one man specifically about what his life has been like since he came out publicly on the air and got fired at his job. we'll meet anton coming up. [ man ] adventure, it means taking chances.

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i can tell you - safety is at the heart of everything we do. we've added cutting-edge technology, like a new deepwater well cap and a state-of-the-art monitoring center, where experts watch over all drilling activity twenty-four-seven. and we're sharing what we've learned, so we can all produce energy more safely. our commitment has never been stronger. marriage equality advocates in illinois are celebrating a major victory now that the illinois house has approved a long delayed same-sex marriage bill. governor pat quinn is expected to sign that bill by the end of the month. once signed, illinois becomes the 15th state to recognize same-sex marriage. last night president obama praised legislators in his former home state. as marriage equality advocates in the united states look to illinois as another triumph in their fight, the recent arrests of two norwegian journalists in russia is once again putting a spotlight on

that country's anti-gay climate. two norwegian journalists were detained on their way to cover the sochi preparations, the site of the winter olympics has been plagued by the country's recent passage of an anti-gay law. our thomas roberts is in russia. he's there all week co-hosting the miss universe pageant. he's also getting a firsthand look at the impact russia's laws are having on the lgbt cmunity ahead of the sochi winter olympics. thomas, good to see you again. first of all, what are you hearing from those on the forefront of the fight against vladimir putin's anti-gay stances? >> craig, it really is a taboo subject here in russia to bring up the fact that these propaganda laws even exist, to discuss that there is a distinction between the classes here. and right now because of the anti-gay propaganda laws it does make the lgbt community a second class citizen. now, i had the opportunity to catch up with 38-year-old anton,

who is a popular political commentator on a pro-kremlin cable station. when you came out on the air, it sent shock waves through the air and it's left him professionally sidelined ever since. >> i'm sitting home without job and actually without money. >> because of -- >> because i said that i am gay and the same person like president putin. >> so you had just had enough, you were fed up. >> totally. >> and when you decided to make this public statement, did you think about the consequences that might come? >> sure. >> and how did you adapt to that line of thinking then, if you knew that the consequences would be this -- >> because it's time. now it's time to be open.

and i thought -- i thought th that -- that it was my attempt, it was my attempt to rush g-- russian gay people, to russian people, to all russian people, because it's not good gay rights, it's about human rights. >> reporter: now, he said his story has inspired some other people to come out as well. but since it's such a taboo subject here in the country it hasn't elicited a lot of responses with a lot of other people with name recognition coming out. but, craig, anton says that he has no wish to leave his country. he is 100% committed to staying here and feels that he has to see this change through. he also doesn't want to see people boycott the sochi olympics. he feels like that would be boycotting the seven million

lgbt russians living here. while there was talk of other countries offering asylum because of the anti-gay propaganda laws, it remains to be seen how many russians would actually do that. but anton is staying for sure. i just have to say this is a remarkable young guy. i mean he's 38 years old and right now he's been without a job for most of the year because of coming out. but there was this great sadness in his eyes. hopefully it came through so you could see it. >> it did. >> great sadness in his eyes about losing his job, but also great pride in the fact that he has taken this on. and it's a real integration of the spirit, of the person that he is. to be walking around with his head up very high but knowing that he paid a high price for it professionally by just living his truth. >> hey, thomas, as an outsider there, how visible is the impact of russia's -- of those anti-gay

laws, how visible is it as an outsider. >> reporter: it's interesting because i'm trying to come in with a clean perspective and get everybody's take on it. it seems as if the variables of how everybody understands what the propaganda law and what it means, it seems so vague. and people don't really understand. there are some people that say that the west is overreacting. there are other people that would say that the west is underreacting to this news. so it's been a fast 14 hours, i think now that i've been on the ground so i continue to educate, i continue to gather and i'm going to bring you what i find. so bear with me as i get back out there and find more for you. >> thomas roberts, thank you so much, sir. do appreciate you, as always. be safe there. thomas roberts in moscow. we'll see you again tomorrow. of course thomas there to host the miss universe pageant. remember, you can check out thomas' video diary. he's going to keep updating that

diary at thomasroberts.msnbc.com. you can also join the discussion on the agenda setters page there. you can get realtime updates on twitter, facebook, instagram as well. and the hash tag, #robertsinrussia. we'll be right back.

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isn't it also true that on the same date that your department estimated that 66% of the people in small employer plans and 45% in large employer plans would lose their grandfather status by 2013? isn't that true? >> senator, that is an inaccurate use of those statistics. what the statistics -- >> is it not true? >> senator, could i answer the question? >> if you can answer whether it's true or not. >> i can tell you what the statistics mean. >> i'm asking you whether it's true or not. >> i would like to tell you what the statistics mean. >> would you answer my question and then explain? >> she did answer. she said you were inaccurate.

>> that was a rather tense exchange a few moments ago during this morning's senate finance hearing with kathleen sebelius. sebelius being grilled about the rollout and implementation of the obama care rollout. we continue to monitor it for you. that brings us to our question of the day. we asked, you answered. do you think republicans will learn from new jersey governor chris christie's example? eric says, no, they are under threat of the tea party. mike writing, you mean, pretending something something you're really not in order to get re-elected? they've been doing that for years. and dana says, we can only hope. keep the comments coming on twitter and on facebook as well. another plea to change the washington redskins name. it's time for the side bar. the washington, d.c. city council voted yesterday to call on the team to change the name saying it's, quote, racist and derogatory. native american officials have asked for the name change.

the team's owner, dan snyder, says that ain't happening. res denlts in portland, maine, overwhelmingly approved a measure that will legalize recreational use of marijuana for those 21 and older. more than 67% voted in favor. meanwhile, in colorado, voters in 5 of 11 counties voted to secede from the state of colorado. results are still being counted. the rural communities wanted to secede because they felt the legislature had been ignoring their needs and end they don't agree with stricter gun laws there. and the fbi says a former california city councilman accepted a whopping $2.3 million bribe from an undercover agent back in january. it is thought to be the largest bribe involving a politician in a sting ever. he is charged with one count of bribery. and husband and wife ran against each other in the town of

waterville, maine. jennifer johnson beat her republican husband david 127-76. they say they ran against each other to show that democrats and republicans can get along. that's going to do it for me. i'll be back tomorrow at 11:00 eastern right here. "now" with alex wagner is up next. it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen,

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how long can a hot seat stay hot? ask kathleen sebelius.

it is wednesday, november 6th, and this is "now." this morning hhs secretary kathleen sebelius returned to her own private haites on the hill. >> user are receiving far fewer error messages. we are making progress, but there's still a lot of work to do. >> still, the progress was not enough to spare the secretary from the panel's republican inquisition, including senator hatch, who berated sebelius for her cavalier attitude and issued a presumably nonironic invitation to appear before the committee every month for the next six months. >> there is a long track record of broken promises and untruthful answers to both this committee and the american people with respect to how