that's next right here on "andrea mitchell reports." >>> which political story will made med lines inours. there's going to be a visit at the white house tomorrow. >> yeah. andrea, we're so focused and rightly so on fiscal cliff and benghazi, but immigration and what reform and what this election told us about the republicans' problems with hispanics, an important visit tomorrow. the president-elect of mexico to meet with president obama. he called him earlier in month to con the gragratulate him the victory. he will also meet with congressional leaders. the fiscal cliff is looming pending whatever words you want to use to get it done, but the new congress, republicans know immigration reform is a priority. let's see what comes out of that meeting tomorrow. i would assume the mexican president will push president obama to get it done. president obama wants to get it done. he wants to keep the sort of onus on republicans to get something done. that, i think, will focus us a little bit on immigration reform, maybe a slight move off the fiscal cliff for a few hours tomorrow. >> in fact,

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>>> right now on "andrea mitchell reports" campaigning again. president obama urges middle-class voters at the white house to press congress for tax hikes on the rich. >> i can only do it with the help of the american people, tweet using #my 2 k, e-mail, post it on a member of congress's facebook wall. do what it takes to communicate a sense of urgency. >> on the other side of pennsylvania avenue, john boehner says he thinks there is a way to avoid that cliff. >> it's time for the president and democrats to get serious about the spending problem that our country has, but i'm optimistic we can continue to work together to avert this crisis and sooner rather than later. >> and look who's coming to lunch. mitt romney will break bread with the president at the white house tomorrow. >> pledge of allegiance, anti-tax crusader grover norquist warns republicans against breaking their promise. >> it is possible if the republicans lose in such a way they've got their fingerprints on the murder weapon, then you have a problem. bush couldn't run again in '9

i'm andrea mitchell live at democracy plaza in rockefeller cent center. we've studied the polls, truth squatted the debates, argued the misleading ads, and now it's your turn. election day your turn to decide the future of our country. nothing more important than taking time to exercise that right, that obligation, that responsibility to participate in this great democracy. so joining me now for our daily fix, chris cizilla, msnbc contributor and managing editor of post politics.com and mark halperin, senior political analyst for "time" and msnbc. and before we move on to both of you, let's take a look at this moment on the tar mac in cleveland within the hour. an election day convergence of candidates from underneath air force 2 in cleveland, you can see mitt romney's plane in the distance, paul ryan's plane also on the tarmac. all three right there in cleveland, ohio. chris cizilla, just why were they all going to ohio? can't imagine why. >> that's it. that image picture worth a thousand words right there. i mean, we've talked about this and we've talke

i'm andrea mitchell live in democracy plaza in new york city. joining me for our daily fix, chris cizilla, msnbc contributor, and managing editor of post politics.com and mark halperin political analyst for "time" and msnbc. so, first to you, chris, let's talk about the state of the race. >> well, we're almost there, andrea. i think the state of the race is that president obama retains a -- this has been the case for a while now. he retains more paths to 270 electoral votes than does mitt romney. mitt romney, i think we're actually going to know relatively early how this is headed because florida, virginia and ohio are all closing on the early end of the evening. i really do think for mitt romney's math to be plausible he needs florida, he needs virginia and he probably needs ohio too. if barack obama wins one of the three, i think it's going to be tough but not impossible for mitt romney as the map moves west ward. if he wins two of the three, if one is florida, it's you could probably make it add up to 270 with the states left, but it would no

i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. no cease-fire and at least 30,000 israeli re servists perhaps more are amassed at the gaza border. surrounding roads have been closed and the soldiers cell phones have been confiscated to preserve battlefield secrecy. since the pace of hostilities escalated last wednesday more than 500 hamas rockets have fallen in israel. israeli air strikes have killed at least 90 gazans. nbc's richard engel, stephanie gosk and ayman mohyeldin are in the region reporting the latest from gaza to tel aviv. first richard engel in gaza, what is the latest from your vantage point and on the cease-fire negotiations? >> we are hearing that there are serious cease-fire negotiations going on right now. when you're on the ground here in gaza it doesn't exactly feel that way. there have been many air strikes today, a media building was killed. israel is sort of -- [ inaudible ] on hamas leader or one palestinian militant at a time. sources who are involved in the israeli/palestinian negotiations working toward

joining us now is andrea mitchell. nbc's chief foreign affairs correspondent and the host of msnbc's "andrea mitchell reports." congratulations on this scoop. thanks for being here. >> thank you. i have to tell you, i don't take any pleasure in this in the sense that this is really a personal tragedy and there are families involved, people involved on all sides, and the men and women of the cia, an agency that has many -- many things to be proud about. many things to be proud about and that is under fire for other reasons. >> are you totally confident that this affair, this personal matter, is the full reason why general petraeus resigned today? and in so answering, i mean, are we sure that something like that would force him to resign this job? >> i am. i have that confidence. we had worked for 24 hours on this story. as it was evolving in talking to so many people in and out of government, and having covered general petraeus myself here and overseas, i am absolutely convinced, from all the communications i've had fro

>> joining us now is andrea mitchell, the host of "andrea mitchell." >> the interesting thing about that that that made the point that diane feinstein wanted to make today is that the fbi is not sharing with the people they are supposed to share with. you have a republican house chairman and a democratic senate chairman both saying they are not being properly briefed. and for months at a time. >> i understand the basic idea that intelligence matters need to be overseen aggressively by congress and that congress needs to be more aggressive than they have been. they have powers to do things confidently in ways that other parts of congress don't have because intelligence can be so sensitive. i don't necessarily understand why private marital infidelity would become a matter of national significance that congress needed to be briefed on. is that a clear line for you? >> that's the fbi's point. once they knew this was just a private matter. but the point that feinstein made today is that there were stages along the way where this was considered a national security breach. where initially, the

i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. we begin with the broadening and complicated scope of the petraeus investigation that has now ensnared his successor, commander of all forces in afghanistan, general john allen. joining me with their latest reporting, justice correspondent pete williams, nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker and nbc news national investigative correspondent michael isikoff. we now go to the white house where jay carney is first beginning to answer questions about this. so let's put our conversation on hold and listen to what he has to say and we'll be right back. >> supreme allied commander europe, pending the investigation of general allen's conduct by the department of defense ig. the president remains focused on supporting our troops and coalition partners in afghanistan who general allen continues to lead as he has done so ably over a year. the president has nominated general doneford to be the next commander of isaf and reiterates his belief the senate should act to confirm general du

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what's going to happen to the tea party and the partisanship in the house. >> andrea mitchell wrapping up our purely political subtext tonight. by this time tomorrow night, this plaza will likely be full of swirling snow from a huge storm that's going to add insult to injury to this region. already for millions of voters here in the northeast, this election day includes such a painful subtext as the suffering from hurricane sandy continues for so many people. ron allen's been covering that, he's across the river from new york city in hard hit hoboken, new jersey. ron, good evening. >> reporter: good evening to you, brian. this city hall has been the center for relief operations here. today they added voting to the long list of things they're trying to accomplish. for voters in new york and new jersey, still battling the aftermath of the storm, there was frustration and confusion, and a huge problem caused by e-mail voting. election day got off to a chaotic start in communities outside new york city that still don't have power. when voters arrived at polling places that were not ready.

and that does it for this edition of andrea mitchell reports.has a look at what's next. >> thanks so much. in our next hour, president obama takes his fiscal cliff campaign to pennsylvania. the president says allowing taxes to rise on the middle class would be, quote, scrooge christmas for millions of americans. >>> plus we're following developing news from the supreme court. waiting to hear if the high court decides to take up several new challenges to same-sex marriage. a live report on that coming up next on news nation. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ is a thrilling, dual-flavored ride to mouth fun-town. but it's not like everyone is going to break into a karaoke jam session. ♪ this will literally prob

joining us now is andrea mitchell. congratulations on this scoop. >> i don't take any pleasure in this that this is a personal tragedy and there are families involved and the men and women of the cia, an agency that has many things to be proud about, many things to be proud about and that is under fire for other reasons. >> are you totally confident that this is the full reason why he resign today and in so answering are we sure that something like that would force him to resign this job? >> i am. i have that confidence. we have worked for 24 hours on this story. as it was evolving talking to so many people in and out of government, i'm absolutely convinced from all the communications i've had from people directly involved that this was a matter of honor. he felt he had to offer his resignation. the president said to him i want to take 24 hours to think about it an there was a lot involved. i think absent the fbi investigation which we are told by law enforcement officials are likely to lead to any criminal charges. it

tom friedman and andrea mitchell will rejoin the conversation. plus, republican congressman raul labrador, former white house chief of staff for bill clinton john podesta, and gop strategist mike murphy, ahead here on "meet the press." >>> "meet the press" is brought to you by chevron. we may have more in common than you think. you can learn more at you think. you can learn mowe're sitting on a bunch of shale gas. there's natural gas under my town. it's a game changer. ♪ it means cleaner, cheaper american-made energy. but we've got to be careful how we get it. design the wells to be safe. thousands of jobs. use the most advanced technology to protect our water. billions in the economy. at chevron, if we can't do it right, we won't do it at all. we've got to think long term. we've got to think long term. ♪ yeah, and i took on all the bigger, tougher ones. but now that mr. clean's got this new select-a-size magic eraser, i mean, he can take on any size job. look how easily he gets things cleaned. it's enough to make you cry. you, specifically. not

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nbc's andrea mitchell breaks it down for you. >> reporter: the campaign was tough. victory was sweet. now comes the hard part. >> on january 21st, 2013, there's going to be a massive fiscal cliff. >> reporter: so what exactly is the fiscal cliff? it's a nightmare combination of tax heights and spending cuts that congress agreed to to force themselves into a compromise but so far they haven't agreed on anything so barring a last-minute fix at the stroke of midnight on new year's eve the tax cuts expire, alternative minimum tax kicks in, more than half the families with two children would oe 4,000 more. on top of that, the 2011 temporary payroll tax cut would expire. so add on a 2% tax increase for most workers. then there would be automatic spending cuts in 1,000 government programs, defense, welfare, extended unemployment benefits. everything from veterans benefits, social security. that would act as a brake on the economy, throwing it back into recession and could cause a market crash. >> nbc's andrea mitchell reporting. >>> today at 1:00 p.m. eastern president oba

andrea mitchell first broke this story. she has more on how the fbi inadvertently found out about the general's affair. >> reporter: general david petraeus tumbled from the highest levels of government service after act thcknowledgint he called unacceptable behavior, an extramarital affair. another woman not related to petraeus felt she was being harassed and complained to the fbi. in recent weeks, the fbi traced the e-mails to broadwell and only stumbled upon the relationship with petraeus as a result. >> it's so politically sensitive that my guess is the decision was made near or at the top level of the fbi to sit down with general petraeus and have a discussion with him and let him know that this information had been discovered. >> reporter: broadwell has not been shy about her access to petraeus, co-hosting a barbecue with jon stewart. she spoke often about her connection to the cia director acknowledging it rubbed some in the military the wrong way. >> i was imbedded with general petraeus in afghanistan and it was a li

the united states, we thought we'd talk a bit more with our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell in our d.c. newsroom. andrea, the significance of the american president ordering the american secretary of state into the breach at this hour? >> it's very important, it's very significant. this could be one of hillary clinton's final trips, only in the closing months of the administration, she's being sent in as a closer, to try to negotiate, if not a cease-fire, at least a cooling off period, a de-escalation, to try to win more time and prevent israel from invading. there really does seem to be very close synchronization with israel. there's no distance here between israel and the united states. netanyahu tonight in meetings with her thanked her profusely, thanked the united states for the iron dome defense system. the most important meeting is tomorrow with egypt's president morsi. morsi wants american aid for the survival of egypt, and she wants morsi to really pressure hamas to pull back and come up with some permanent agreement. interestingly clinton was going only briefly to r

it's where we begin tonight with our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell in washington. andrea, good evening. >> good evening, brian. susan rice, by all accounts, the president's top choice to replace hillary clinton, had hoped to mend fences on capitol hill. it didn't turn out that way. the u.n. ambassador hasn't even been nominated to be secretary of state. but today she volunteered for a grilling in the senate. her critics were not satisfied. >> we are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get. >> the bottom line, i'm more disturbed now than i was before. >> reporter: rice acknowledged today she was wrong on a key fact, when she went on five morning programs and said benghazi was a copycat attack. >> what happened in benghazi was initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in cairo. >> reporter: there was no protest in benghazi, but she blamed the cia as she did last week. >> i relied solely and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community. i made clear that the info

tom friedman and andrea mitchell will rejoin the conversation. plus, republican congressman raul labrador, former white house chief of staff for bill clinton john podesta, and gop strategist mike murphy, ahead here on "meet the press." >>> "meet the press" is brought to you by chevron. we may have more in common than you think. you can learn more at you think. you c[ male announcer ] this is bob, a regular guy with an irregular heartbeat. the usual, bob? not today. [ male announcer ] bob has afib: atrial fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, a condition that puts him at greater risk for a stroke. [ gps ] turn left. i don't think so. [ male announcer ] for years, bob took warfarin, and made a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but not anymore. bob's doctor recommended a different option: once-a-day xarelto®. xarelto® is the first and only once-a-day prescription blood thinner for patients with afib not caused by a heart valve problem, that doesn't require routine blood monitoring. like warfarin, xarelto® is proven effe

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i'm andrea mitchell live in washington right now at the white house, the political power lunch of 2012. president obama and mitt romney meeting for the frts time privately since the campaign after having been together serve times overall, including three debates. ruth marcus, and kristin welker. kristin what are they saying about the private lunch? not much, i guess? >> reporter: not a lot, andrea. they're tamping down expectations. jay carney saying there's no formal agenda to this lunch. of course president obama, during his victory speech in chicago, said he wanted to sit down, talk to mitt romney about his views how to move the country forward. you have to assume that would include a robust discussion of the fiscal cliff, given that is what lawmakers are talking about now. mitt romney just arrived here. we're not expecting anything huge to come out of this meeting. no appointment. for example, to the cabinet. but the president certainly, i think, hoping to engage in a serious conversation. this, as you point out, will be just the seventh time that these two have sat down after what

we begin our reporting of the story tonight with nbc's andrea mitchell in our washington news room, good evening, andrea. >> reporter: good evening, brian, new questions tonight on why the fbi did not tell the president or the intelligence leaders about the involvement of petraeus's acknowledged mistress for months, even on new allegations on how it began. we learned today on what was in the e-mails to jill kelley, the family friend whose call for help to the fbi kicked off the investigation. nbc news investigative correspondent michael isikoff. the e-mails accuse her of associating with the general in tampa, but they had accesses on the comings and goings of david petraeus, news that somebody had high access to information. her brother says she is a victim >> my sister, number one is a mother, she has three kids and is very dedicated to the kids. number two, she is a wife and has been extremely dedicated to her husband. >> reporter: who would have access to the classified schedule? the fbi says that the trail led to the biographer, paula broadwell, seen here on a mission in 2010, in afg

i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. joining me on the phone, new york congressman peter king, whose long island district includes long beach, jones beach, especially hard hit. thank you for taking time. i know you've been touring the district. what are the most critical needs and where? >> southern part of the district, south massapequa, lindenhurst, devastated. there are shells of homes. in tragedies are alike. people's furn titure in street, life long momentums destroyed. fortunately not a great loss of life. three or maybe four have been killed. there was a very good all levels of government, state, county, towns and villages, so there's a lot of cooperation. the main thing right now, i would say, is to get people's power back on. there's 1.1 million customers in long island power authority and over 900,000 lost power. it's unprecedented. and that includes the hospital, police stations, fire departments, schools. you know right down the line. but it's, again, almost 90% of the residents in nassau county have lost the

our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell. in our d.c. news room with that, good evening >> reporter: good evening, brian, white house and intelligence officials are denying charges that there was an attempt to whitewash the origins of the benghazi attack to protect the president politically. today, white house officials say they knew it was a terrorist attack from the beginning. there was never a question in their mind, but to them that didn't rule out that it could have been spontaneous or planned long in advance. and they still get conflicting information on who the suspects were. so they say the intelligence committee, not the white house, wrote unclassified talking points for susan rice that were deliberately vague to avoid the compromising legal issues. that led to charges that politics were involved, something the spy agencies tonight say is just not true. >> andrea mitchell, who will remain on this story for us, thank you. >>> there is also news tonight on a story that got a whole lot of national attention on friday and had people

i'm andrea mitchell live in new york. as the nation learns about the key players and the controversy surrounding general david patreaus, successor at the cia on capitol hill briefing members of the house intelligence committee today. joining me now for our daily fix, chris cillizza managing editor of postpolitics.com, and kelly o'donnell and correspondent pete williams. pete, first to you. talk first about what is going on in the investigation? the fbi agent who was first only known as the person who triggered this, he was an acquaintance, friend of jill kelley's. we knew he had been taken off the case, was in fact the subject of an internal ethics review at the fbi and sent a photo without a shirt. now, they're pushing back, people speaking for the kelleys, to say this has been mischaracterized and this guy actually had a major role in one of the big terrorism or suspected terrorism takedowns. >> reporter: what the kelleys people are saying is limited to the question of the picture, andrea. they say that's been very much

. >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports" four more years. president obama sweeps nearly all the swing states and pledges to bring the country together. >> i believe we can seize this future together. because we are not as divided as our politics suggest. we're not as cynical as the pundits believe. we are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states, we are and forever will be, the united states of america. >> and in a brief speech notable for its civility, governor romney called for unity in boston. >> at a time like this we can't risk partisan bickering and political posturing. our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people's work and we citizens have to rise to the occasion. >> but will they? can the two sides come together? plus, more women entered the all men's club. mostly men's club. >> you've elected first woman senate from the state of massachusetts. >> a record-setting number of women senators. in new hampshire, the governor, both senators, and the

andrea mitchell has more on what happened last night. >> reporter: a lot happened last night, when it was all over, the house remained republican, the senate remained democratic, but that doesn't mean a lot didn't change in the election last night. in a year when a male senate candidate talked about legitimate rape, and mitt romney spoke awkwardly about binders of women. the new senate will have five women elected, ranging from the first asian-american woman, to elizabeth warren, who defeated scott brown in massachusetts. >> you better believe we're going to fight for equal pay. >> reporter: and tammy bald wind win is the first openly gay. >> i will be a senator for all of wisconsin. >> reporter: as for the republican candidates, richard akin, and akin lost to mccaskill, who held on to her senate seat. in new hampshire, all the top elected officials are now women. the governor, both senators and the members of congress, democrats started to recruit women candidates almost two years ago. >> almost at the beginning of the time when the republicans came into power in the house and the fi

andrea mitchell has more. >> reporter: the campaign was tough. victory is sweet. now comes the hard part. >> on january one, 2013, there will be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases. >> reporter: the economy could go off that cliff. so what exactly is the fiscal cliff? it is a nightmare combination of tax hikes and spending cuts that congress and the president agreed to. to force themselves into a compromise. but so far, they have not agreed on anything. so barring a last-minute fix at the stroke of midnight on new year's eve, the bush tax cuts expire. the alternative minimum tax kicks in. more than half of all married couples with two children would owe an additional $4,000 in taxes per year, for those with three children or more, that jumps to $4700. on top of that, the payroll tax cut would expire. so add on a 2% tax increase for most workers, with automatic spending cuts in a thousand government programs, including defense, medicare, extended unemployment benefits. everything but veteran's benefits and social security, and federal pe