democrats are on the same page, followed a meeting this morning with chuck sheurschumer and lamar alexande, harry reid the majority leader has given a statement and said that meeting went surprisingly well. take a listen. >> the conversations were extremely cordial but very preliminary of course. nothing conclusive. but i hope that our talking is some solace to the american people and to the world. >> now, at midday today in the senate there was a vote to try and get discussion underway on raising the debt ceiling which is the very serious issue on all of this. that happens on thursday if the debt ceiling isn't raised the government rungs out of money. and 53 to 45 the senate blocked that possibility. the only glimmer of light is an idea out there from the main senator susan collins. now she interestingly was surrounding by democrats before the counting of that vote by midday had even been finished today. we watched her being completely surrounded. there can be a possibility that there may be some movement involving the susan collins idea, we don't know for certain. she was due for a press confer

[inaudible] including alexander harris has suspended my daughter. i am really concerned that their ecological process -- protests is being misinterpreted as piracy because nobody wants -- [inaudible] >> i share my honorable friend concerned at one of the people involved is a constituent of mine but i think we need to follow this case extreme it closely and that is what the foreign office is doing. the foreign office minister had a meeting which i'm sure she attended and we are daily seeking updates from the russian government about how these people are being treated. >> thank you, mr. speaker. last week in answer to question on his marriage tax policy the prime minister answered that all married couples paying basic rate tax would benefit from this move. that wasn't correct, was it, prime minister? can he confirm that? >> what i said was married couples allow tax is available to all couples who are on basic rate tax to anyone who has unused tax allowance is able to transfer it between a husband or the wife but it comes back to a very simple principl

present were harry reid, chuck schumer and lamar alexander. after that harry reid said that meeting had gone well but he personalized his relationship with the majority leader, said he and mitch mcconnell had known each other for years and kind of hinted they would work it out. take a listen. >> senator mcconnell and i have been in this body for a long time, we have done things together, i know him, he knows me. we don't agree on everything that is as you know an understatement. but we were whips together, we did some good things together, we revamped government together, as whips. so this is what legislation is all about. if we have political scientists out there now, this is a classic case of what legislation is all about. the problem we've had in recent years is we've had too little of this. too little sitting down trying to work out problems. that's what we're doing now. >> harry reid earlier in the day they couldn't work it out between them though, because there was a vote in the senate at 12:00 which was designed to get everybody talking

alexander -- >> okay. so harry reid is just opening the session. >> good stuff there. >> yeah, thank god we cut away to that. we will be taking senator reid's comments live as we continues to speak and potentially announces a deal, kate. it is high drama on capitol hill. that drama sort of, i think, the peak drama began last night when heritage action came in on, not angel's wings, devil's horns basically, and snatched the gavel if not physically then politically from john boehner, who was trying to pass a house bill and heritage action basically said, uh-uh, no, and gave him the hand. >> and then this morning heritage action ceo came out and said, we all know we're not going to be able to repeal obama care until 2017. so that sound you heard was a lot of gop aides and republicans who have been warning about this very thing, just smacking their heads this morning. the feeling on the hill this morning was the sense of kind of resignation, you know. like, all right, here we are, we've tried everything we possibly cou

alexander for tonight's program. joining us for congress' response is julian sÁnchez. shane harris, senior writer of "the watchers." and bob genier. john, we're seeing movement in congress now to bring about change, some restrictions to what the intelligences can do. there was an attempt to rein in abilities. but it didn't go anywhere. what changed now and why is it different? >> there have been leaks and certain information that has been piled on. there was significant attempt back in the summer. what surprises people is that more people sided with reining in the nsa than we expected. including people who traditionally might not have been on that site. i think the revelations about monitoring foreign leaders communications may be plays into this to some degree. i think there is a growing anxiety amongst some members not only that the nsa may be going too far but maybe they themselves have not been completely briefed or maybe not availed themselves of the information to find out what those programs are about. i think you're seeing accumulation over time giving rise to put the brake

alexander. >>> floor of the u.s. senate. you heard harry reid the majority leader saying he wanted to wait for mitch mcconnell to come up. that's presumably when they will make their announcement about this, let's call it a tentative deal that appears to be in the works, a deal that would get the government fully operational at least for a while until january 15th and raise the nation's debt ceiling until february 7th. gloria borg ser here once again, we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. gloria, what does it say about these two leaders, the majority leader and the minority leader that apparently they've been able to do what so many other folks couldn't do, especially in the house of representatives, work out a deal? >> well, it says a couple of things. as you know, wolf, they're not close friends. harry reid and mitch mcconnell have effectively campaigned against each other not in their states but raised money for the campaign committees to defeat the other one. mcconnell's in a race now for re-elec

harry reid is speaking. let's listen in. >> alexander reached out to senator schumer and being the peacemaker that he is, al ander suggested they that start doing what they could to engage senator mcconnell and i and as a result of that, i think we're able to talk and hopefully develop really a strong relationship. we -- senator mcconnell and i worked together for many years, the last little bit is no surprise it hasn't been too good. so anyway, appreciate the work that senator alexander and senator schumer did. i'm grateful for prior and the gang of senators that they did some things that helped us. so i would hope that in the future the work that was done by senator prior and collins will be able to get together to create some separation from all this shrill voice, these shrill voices here over that are not helpful. this crisis is historic. let's be honest, this is pain inflii inflicted on the nation for no great reason and cannot make, cannot, cannot make the same mistake again. so as we move into the next round of negotiations, i'm depending on stable, hard working, always available patty murray. she's

he is talking with senate majority leader harry reid and the point person in negotiations as well as senator lamar alexanderion there. but at this point we don't have any sense of what a deal might look like. when this might be struck, and even if anything can really progress so that we see something before the markets open on monday and no doubt react one way or another depending on this weekend's developments. >> well, the way things have been going, not keeping my fingers crossed and i'm sure most of america is not doing that either. again, the president meeting with leaders. but no republican leaders invited to this meeting? >> reporter: no, that's right. think of this as sort of a time-out, you're meeting with your team, you're not really going to invite players from the opposing team? gotcha. stand by, brianna, i want to bring candy in. senators reid and mcconnell said they are cordially negotiating an extension of the debt ceiling. if they agree on some terms, what happens when the house reconvenes? >> well, having said "if" is a really big if here, but if they come up with something, and it passes m

with senate majority leader harry reid and senator minority leader mitch mcconnell who met really for the first time on this topic today. mcconnell has appointed lamar alexander, obviously a republican, to be the point person on this. what are they going to cook up? we just don't know at this point, don, things are very uncertain, but we'll certainly be keeping an eye on the senate to see if there is perhaps some sort of framework they can come up with before the markets open on monday. and even though it's a holiday, the markets, the stock market anyway, will be open and either way, whether there's some sort of framework or not, it will no doubt -- we would think anyways -- respond in some way. >> yeah. and as you were speaking there, we saw the video of them leaving the white house. the last one was harry reid getting into his suv, a driver helping him to get in there. let's talk now about the house members, brianna. they went home to their districts today. senate leaders, again, negotiating that debt limit deal as you've been talking about. you told me last hour that the process is back to the drawing board. so, what happens when the house is back in sessi

alexander. my thanks to both of you. i want to bring in opinion writer and msnbc reporter jonathan. >> i do want to play this because we have new sound from senator harry reid from the senate floor this morning, and i want to play that tape and get your read on the back side. take a look. >> it's time for my republican friends to defy your tea party overlords. every day that passes the idea of shutting down the government in order to repeal obama care is becoming so transparent and so bad for the country. >> harry reid there, jo know than, calling out the tea party overlords, is john boehner just painted himself into a corner, allowing for this bad behavior to rule the day especially now with the president specifically calling him out in that speech to call for a yes or no vote? >> right. ever since speaker boehner's plan b fizzled last year at the hands of the so-called tea party overlords. he's been weakened. it's not just that he's painted himself into a corner, he's willingly walked into this corner because he won't do anything to defy the tea party, the far right wing of his party, those few people within the republican majority who with are calli

harry reid and senator chuck schumer. they opened the formal talks with mitch mcconnell. senator lamar alexander as well.turday. here's how reid described those talks. >> the conversations were extremely cordial but very preliminary, of course. nothing conclusive. i hope that our talking is some solace to the american people and to the world. >> what does solace mean there? does it mean jittery financial markets are not going to tank monday morning? >> i was at that press conference yesterday where i think part of what they were trying to do, and this was just the democratic leaders there, was to say there might be an end in sight. just by virtue of mcconnell and reid talking, alex and jonathan. so even the idea -- i think what the senate leaders are trying to do, both republican and democrat, is say, well, we might be able to craft a bipartisan plan. but i still go back to what i think is a main problem, selling it to most -- and when i say most, 232 republicans, if they could embrace a senate republican plan, then you have the framework to get a vote. >> okay. we have to book more time for our segments

lot of these people, especially in the primaries, like lamarr alexander, he needs to pack his ags because he is nothing but patsy for harryeid. that is why they constantly demonize the tea party because we espouse the truth and the concept of the founding fathers. thank you for the call. the house returning this week, the senate is back next monday, and this is from doyle mcmanus -- host: the washington bureau chief for "the l.a. times" writes -- "it is time to start planning for the next crisis. that is the problem the crisis -- that congress set up in the stopgap deal. after all the sound and. the parties agreed only to agree spending at the current level through january 15, raising the debt ceiling until the seventh. the shutdown could again happen next year, although we did hear from mitch mcconnell saying that that is not the case and we will be talking more about that later in the program. sheila is joining us. how would you place your own political ideology, sheila? caller: good morning, how are you? host: fine, thank you. look, i am a progressive conservative, if that happens. i think a lot of things could be done

defense in the hope majority leader harry response to the %ln in response to the candid and heartfelt recommendation that dr. clapper presented today. doctor -- general alexanderwhen asked if 20 records of all americans would testify i believe quoted as a nation's best interest to put all code records into a lock box and weaken certain when the nation needs to do it. besides the phone records were the records to believe the federal government should be doing? >> i cannot think of any right now. they give for the question because we did not have foreign brodeur i did not think of other bulk records that we would need like the phone but i do think fazio look at the phone data that is the question releasing the intel committee today what they understood of the vocational data and the requirements, a rethink right now there are but i cannot think of any. i apologize. >> and also whether the nsa tried to gather the data of the phone calls and there was some suggestion from senator wide and it was a classified matter. my question is in your personal opinion, do you believe the nsa needs to collect gps location information:american citizens to prevent terrorist? >> w

harry reid holding a news conference right now. let's listen in. >> republican offers going around or discussions with my senators. i called senator alexander and said, what's going on? to shorten the story here, he said, i'm representing senator mcconnell. and later in the evening, he asked if i would meet with him and senator schumer and senator mcconnell. and i said, yes. we met at 9:00 this morning. the conversations were extremely cordial but very preliminary, of course. nothing conclusive. but i hope that our talking is some solace to the american people and to the world. this hasn't happened until now. senator mcconnell asked to meet with me, i was happy to do that. this should be seen as something very positive. even though we don't have anything done yet and a long ways to go before anything like that will happen -- that's a relative term. in minutes, hours, days, we're trying to figure out a way to go forward. susan collins is one of my favorite senators, democrat or republican. i appreciate her efforts as always to find a consensus. but the plan that she suggested that i've seen and is in writing is not going to go anyplace at th

harry reid said we're not going to negotiate or compromise. take a listen. >> as i explained to senator mcconnell and senator alexander this morning, they're not doing us a favor by reopening the government. they're not doing us a favor by extending the debt ceiling. that's part of our jobs. >> one of the issues that was a bit of a sticking point -- maybe not a sticking point, but the medical device tax, it seems to me that that may be an area where there could be more bipartisan support. they're did go to meet to talk about the medical device tax. >> some states may have factories for medical devices, they're going, my constituents, this is what they want anyway. >> both sides say the other side is holding the other side hostage. louie gomert weighed in on it from the state of texas. this is what he said. >> we have made offer after offer after offer and we have voted for compromise after compromise after compromise. harry reid saying that there's a bunch of fire brands and radicals in the house that have hijacked the party, that's not the case. we are together but the hijacking has been the u.s. senate by left wing radicals who want to keep