brianna keilar, our white house correspondent now has the report.dline out of it? >> reporter: wolf, a couple of headlines. one of the big questions that congress has about libya, how much has the u.s. involvement there cost? and for the first time, we have a number here. according to this report from the white house, $715 million, so almost $1 billion it has cost and that's accurate as of june 3rd. now, the other issue that really is headline here has to do with the legal justification for not asking for congressional authorization for having u.s. troops involved in the operation in libya. here's what this report says. the president is of the view that the current u.s. military operations in libya are consistent with the war powers resolution and do not require further authorization because they are distinct from the hostilities contemplated from the 60-day termination provision. you have the white house here, kind of looking to the fine print saying they don't have boots on the ground, and because of that, they are in -- or being consistent with t

brianna keiler has this lunch's political ticker. brianna. >> that's right.new york mayor, rudy giuliani, and new jersey governor chris christie. perhaps presidential politics will be on the menu. july annie is toying with throwing his hat into the ring for the company nomination. christie said he's not going to be doing it but has met with a lot of gop hopefuls. we'll see what comes out of that. take a look at this. it's day four. following this on the ticket. day four for jury deliberations in the retrial of former illinois governor rod blagojevich. he's beening retried on corruption charges. remember he was charged for essentially trying to trade in 2008 the senate seat vacated by then president elect obama. in august,

the timing is just intriguing. >> it certainly is, brianna. later, when we get more images, hopefully we can see whether there are smiles there on the golf course given this kind of potential friction you just spelled out for us. >> reporter: on a lighter note, we may be getting the scores as well. we'll bring those to you as soon as we know them. >> brianna keilar, thanks so much, at the white house, appreciate it. >>> it's down to the wire for a same-sex marriage bill in new york. it is stalled in the state senatement we'll fill you in on who ease opposing the measure and why next. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites... for greater access to all the things you want, whenever you want them. it's the at&t network... and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. your advertising mail campaign is

our correspondent brianna keilar is standing by.reporter: the headline certainly is the numbers. we do know ahead of the president's remarks from a senior administration official that the breakdown is like this. 10,000 surge troops home by the end of this year, 2011. the remainder, 23,000 more troops, home by the end of summer 2012, no later than september we're told. what we should be expecting the president to do is really make his case. we've been hearing white house officials doing this for days. justifying why this drawdown is okay. among the reasons, we're really expecting him to go back to the remarks that he made in december of 2009 announcing these surge troops and try to make his point that he's accomplished the objectives he laid out namely to really put a dent in al qaeda, which he'll of course point to the killing of osama bin laden in that and also as one of his goals said to curb the momentum of the taliban, also preparing afghan security forces and the government to take the lead. but, wolf, i think you can't miss th

and so does brianna keilar. now, i teed this up, brianna.ot of people may not know you've been playing golf since you were, i don't know, 1? >> 10. >> but you've been playing for a while. brianna is an excellent, excellent golfer. that's why i said that. but let's move on to these two men playing this weekend. you go and play with your buddies, people you're close with. these two, what do we actually know about their relationship? how friendly are these two men? >> reporter: you know, they get along. you said it, t.j., politically they're very far apart. are they bffs? no, but they get along, certainly. they've had a good rapport. even though during the first two years of the obama presidency, they didn't really spend a lot of time together, they have recently. that budget battle that narrowly averted a government shutdown, that really came down to negotiations between the president and the speaker. so, they were spending quite a lot of time together. and also, right now there is this kind of battle going on right now about whether to raise

brianna, i don't know if you have it in your hand, what are you learning?ow, brooke, i'm not sure what has gone up to the hill at this point but i did just get off a call with senior administration officials but the sort of crux that the president will make for why he's not in violation of war powers act resolution is something that was discussed. and i can talk to you about that. and with argument, this isn't really a surprise to some experts, especially one that i spoke to yesterday. it's basically that they welcome the white house -- the white house welcomes authorization from congress, but doesn't feel that it needed it, to be consistent with the war powers resolution. and to be clear, what that law says, is that the president can commit troops overseas for up to 60 days. and then if he doesn't have authorization, those troops need to be withdrawn, within 30 days. well, that deadline is upon us here in just a few days. that 90-day deadline. so the explanation from the white house, from senior administration officials, is that because they say they're op

my friend, cnn's brianna keilar. look at her.d, i was kind of isawesome. she's stepping in for political pop today. this is washington. this game taken very, very seriously. a summer staple. talk to me about who you saw. >> reporter: it's pretty amazing this game. it brings out a lot of political heavy hitters, even just in the stands, brooke. we saw house speaker boehner, minority leader nancy pelosi. her deputy steny hoyer. those were just the spectators. there was a huge lineup of democratic and republican female lawmakers there and check out who was there to throw out the first pitch. none other than supreme court justice sonia sotomayor. you know, she did actually a pretty good job, i have to say. she told us we needed to report on it if she threw a strike. i have to say, she ended up doing quite okay. now, the reason all these people come out, brooke, really, it's for a good cause. it benefits the young survival coalition, the top organization in the u.s. for young women 45 and under who suffer from breast cancer. a really

our brianna keel ser at the white house. brianna, any white house from the white house?reporter: no reaction so far, but certainly what we heard this week from the president and from the white house, the first on the record comment, first from jay carney, and then from the president himself really upped the ante on the urging that congressman weiner was getting. carney went on the record on monday saying this was a distraction. then we heard the president in an interview saying not that anthony weiner should resign, but that if he were the congressman, he would resign, because this was a distraction that had gotten in the way of his job during a time when so much is going on with the economy and when democrats are really trying to promote everything they can to show the american people that they're doing stuff on jobs and on the economy. this became a distraction not only on capitol hill but over here at the white house. you saw the president weigh in this weeks. certainly that added to all of the pressure that congressman weiner was feeling from democrats. >> brianna ke

. >> brianna keilar live there for the white house, and brianna, the things that president obama and chancellor merkel a agree on are the fun parts to quote the president are the easy part, but i want to talk about libya, because the chancellor, wanted five nations to abstain from the national security council's vote to abstain from the air strike, and is that an issue today is? >> well, the reporters tried to get at that in the press conference, but no way that we saw president obama and chancellor merkel airing any of the thorny disagreements even though germany did not vote on the resolution, as you mentioned, and also that germany has not had a strong military presence when it comes to the mission in libya. what you heard instead was president obama highlighting what germany has done saying it has freed up or had a further commitment in afghanistan to free up other countries for the libyan mission, and then you heard the chancellor and the president talking about areas of agreement, and namely that moammar gadhafi must go, and the vague commitment on germany to do some more polit

brianna keilar, thank you so much. >>> 18 minutes past the hour now.turn now to a story, the aarp trying to clarify its position on social security benefit cuts after its comments in a "wall street journal" article kind of ignited a firestorm. the article says the powerful retiree lobbying group is now dropping its opposition to cutting social security benefits. but the aarp says the story's misleading and insists the group has always expected cuts will be included in a plan to keep the program solvent for the long run. >>> well, it's not a california broadcasters making headlines this time for his doomsday prediction. this time the talk centers around a village in the south of france. if you want to survive doomsday, this is the place to be. facinge tough challenges right now. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, w

there are many things you can do. >> brianna keilar at the white house.anna, run down the sticking points for us. >> well, kyra, there are a number, a big one as you mentioned has to do with spending cuts. what you have really is republicans looking more towards programs, largely democrats are looking towards the defense budget, and i think, obviously, there will be a combination of the two things. certainly those are some areas that both parties are looking to target. tax increases, as you heard, discussion of that. what democrats will call closing tax loopholes and entitlement reform. this was overhauling medicare was a hallmark of the republican proposal, democrats say no way, this would end medicare as we know it. those are some of the major sticking points. president obama really jumping into the fray today. he's meeting with senate majority leader harry reid this hour at the white house. he'll meet later today this evening with senate minority leader mitch mcconnell and these are meetings that he's largely left up to vice president biden who for wee

brianna keilar is at the white house. brianna, the president stopping at ft.ving on to business of the re-election, right? why the quick turn? >> he's doing this in a couple of ways. after the follow on his adownsment last night, he heads to new york city where he's hoping to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars at each of three fund-raisers, including a couple that are of import. certainly one has to do with the lgbt community, kyra. and there's also a creative fund-raiser that involves a performance on broadway of sister act the musical. but one of the things that really struck me in what the president said last night, he tried to make the turn to the economy in his comment saying it's time to get to shielding here in the u.s. and he's trying to refocus the message on the economy and jobs. if you look at his schedule web heads tomorrow to pittsburgh. he's going to be at the national robotics engineering center and he'll be talking about new technology in manufacturing that the obama administration says will create jobs. this is no mistake, because even tho

let's bring in cnn white house correspondent brianna keilar.is is more than just a golf game, isn't it? >> reporter: fredricka, they wrapped up their round of golf at andrews air force base, a short while ago, after about spending four hours on the golf course. that's quite a lot of time. the most time that speaker boehner and president obama have spent together in an informal setting ever. we're certainly still awaiting the scores. but we know that the president and his speaker, they rode together in a cart, so certainly there was a lot of interaction. we're going to perhaps get a sense of what they talked about. and maybe we won't. but they certainly do have a lot to talk about, a couple of main issues coming to mind, those debt ceiling negotiations that are under way between the white house and congress, vice president biden who is in this foursome leading the talks. but the thought is that ultimately it will come down to the speaker and the president to negotiate all of the fine print and really close a deal on that. and then the other issu

brianna keeler has been looking into this story for us. what do we know brianna?nto this meeting, although the white house is insistent to nothing should be read into that. of course we're a small african nation like a meeting with president obama is a really big deal. but the reason this raises questions is because for some time now, the government of gabon has been considered quite corrupt. though some would argue an important ally right now for the u.s. >> reporter: on thursday, president obama welcomed gabon's president into the oval office for a visit. the white house allowed still photographers to capture the moment but would not let tv cameras in as they often do. bongo is a controversial figure, his family has ruled gabon for decades and at times with an iron fist and accused of financing a loov vish lifestyle with the country's oil riches and let the rest of the country go hungry. some improvement in human rights but says corruption was still a problem. authorities reportedly routinely monitored private telephone conversations, personal mail and the movem

brianna keilar, thanks so much. today, president barack obama announced he has a second job. assistant coach for his daughter's sasha's basketball team. in his weekly address, the father in chief said kids want their fathers to be a part of their lives. and he says he enjoys coaching, even though sasha rolls her eyes every now and then when he objects to the ref's calls. >>> this is a big weekend for presidential politics. the main event is the republican leadership conference in new orleans. but in minnesota today, there were two rival conferences. one involving liberal bloggers, the other involving conservative bloggers. cnn political producer shannon travis joins us now from minneapolis. what is going on there, shannon? >> reporter: well, what's going on, fred, is i'm running down my sneakers trying to shuttle back and forth between the two conferences. they are literally just a few blocks away from each other. let's explain to our viewers what is going on. on the one hand, in one corner, you have a liberal confe

it is a really difficult choice which is dividing opinion as brianna keilar reports. >> reporter: zainident is being pulled from two directions here. on one side, liberal members of his own party and even conservatives citing a war-weary public, the cost of the war in afghanistan and also recent successes against al qaeda saying those factors justify a significant drawdown of troops. on the other hand, you have the president's own military commanders who are concerned that bringing home too many troops could cause a setback in the war. president obama will tell the nation how many troops he's withdrawing from afghanistan, making good on this promise he made in december of 2009. >> these additional american and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to afghan forces and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of afghanistan in july of 2011. >> reporter: no matter what obama announces, he'll face criticism. the pentagon has been pushing for a slow withdrawal, just three to 5,000 support troops out this year, a proposal supported by john mcca

i under we now have our white house correspondent, brianna keiler.'re going to go to her in just a moment to give us more information about this story. there's a lost attention between law makers and the white house over this issue whether or not the president has this athought without first reporting to congress. all right we'll move on to another story. you want to do your part to save a planet? obvious, instead of paper or plastic, take our yoen fabric jobs to the grocery store over an over without watching them. our correspondent elisabeth cohen tells us why that might be a bad idea. >> you are doing a good thing for the planet. people don't think about this. hamburger, right here, you plunk it in your bag. guess what, this plastic wrap can leak on to other foods and on to the bag itself. >> so the canadian plastics industry did a study where they swabbed bag, based on the results the canadian government issued an advisory there's stuff in these bags. >> what do they swab? >> i wasn't tell you everything. people might be eating breakfast or lunch

breanna keie brianna keilar is at the white house. will it help some?dent obama has not met with all of the house republicans and certainly there will be a few who aren't here. the ideas that these are certainly almost all of the republicans in the house, he's only done this a couple other times by my count. this is being billed by white house press secretary jay carnie and also republican sources on the hill as a chance for the president to listen. this is going to be republicans kind of airing their concerns and saying their peace. the way we understand it, president obama will open this discussion briefly and then house speaker john boehner will take over and he'll be calling on republicans who will get to answer -- ask questions of president obama. this meeting is scheduled for over an hour, an hour and 15 minutes. you can imagine there will be a lot that will be discussed. the debt limit will be discussed. that vote failed last night with republicans voting against it and some democrats joining republicans. as i understand it from republican source

brianna keilar is here to tell us what we know. what do we know about this conversation today, brianna? >> reporter: wolf, this is a scheduled conference that the president has with karzai. we know that they discussed transferring control of security from u.s. troops to afghan troops. but in terms of the numbers, as we await the president making his decision on the troop drawdown, they didn't talk specifics. they also talked about osama bin laden and how his death affects fighting terrorism in the region. but really we're waiting and will continue to do so for the next few weeks for those troop numbers. the president has not received formal recommendations from his advisers, like general petraeus and carney said there are 31 days in july, wolf, sort of hinting that there is not necessarily something that we're going to see at the beginning of the month, wolf. >> did the president read the riot act to an ungrateful hamid karzai suggesting that u.s. and nato forces in afghanistan were quote, now occupiers? >> reporter: if he did, the

our brianna keilar live at the white house.na, that's a tall order. >> it is a tall order and president obama getting involved today. he will be meeting with senate majority leader harry reid this morning, meeting with senate minority leader mitch mcconnell later today. he met last wednesday night with house speaker john boehner, but largely, almost entirely, he's left these negotiations on the debt ceiling up to vice president biden who for hours and hours in the last several weeks has been meeting with democrats and republicans in both the house and senate. but that all fell apart on thursday morning when the number two republican in the house, eric rant cantor pulled out saying the democrats would not take tax increases off the table. talk to democrats and they call these closing tax loop holes but really there appears to be a little bit of an impasse and you have president obama stepping in, guys. >> what are the -- there are some sticking points other than the main points that it's not a spending problem and it's a revenue

cnn's brianna keilar is live at the who us with more. >> this is the report sent over from the white house yesterday, in the evening, to congress, really justifying the u.s. military involvement in libya and also giving a legal rationale for why the president says he doesn't need to seek congressional authorization. a couple of big headlines, one, the u.s. cost of involvement in libya. the price tag is about $715 billion, or pardon me, million. so that's about three-quarters of $1 billion. that's how much it cost up until june 3rd. there's also a projected estimate for how much it would cost it take it through the end of september, that's about $1.1 billion. and the bigger headline is the president's legal rationale for why he doesn't need to seek congressional authorization. which says after 60 days, he has to pull troops out. and the rationale is this, that basically the president believes he doesn't need it because the u.s. military operations in the words of this reporter, distinct from the kinds of hostilities contemplated by the resolution 60-day termination provision so what y

the international atomic energy agency it's been a pleasure talking to you live from brianna thank youvery much leisure talking to you thank you very much so now time for sports with matushka here on alt. more than a month. in one of the most extreme environments on the planet this is antarctica and people have to be aware that they're far away from civilization sean combs discovers what makes antarctica so special and instructive for many wildlife in antarctica is a place if you live in the front of the. expedition to the bottom of the earth are three. hello and welcome to the schools and r.t.m. let's go straight to russian football where ruth who it was the biggest football name to put down roots about five months later his stand here is absent technology is over the dutchman received orders to see his side to go down go down to a last minute goal at the last night's seven million was the guilty man heading home the opponents free kick who have been handed an ultimatum so evil in this game will go by chechen president charles uncut bit of despite signing in one thousand month deal wi

brianna keilar has more on yesterday's match. >> reporter: president obama and speaker boehner teemdng to the white house and the speaker's office, the winner was the presidentant speaker and they won on the 18th hole. it was a bit of a cliff-hanger. sparing some of the players from embarrassment, they didn't play stroke play. we done the have numeric scores. they played match play. for each hole won by a team they'd get one point. as we understand it, the priz and t and the speaker walked off the course with a whopping $2 each. a tiny wager there. there are very serious issues that congress and the white house are dealing with right now. this was a round that lasted about four hours, giving the president and speaker a chance to communicate about the debt ceiling negotiations, if they wanted, that are going on on capitol hill. also the issue of libya, quite a thorny issue where the speaker and joined by a number of republicans and democrats, is saying that president obama needs to get congressional authorization to have american troops committed to this operation in libya or else he'

you can't get a greater good brianna members of the international nuclear watchdog gather to look at ways to avoid another fukushima crisis while people there so they don't feel safe even kilometers away from the experience of. europe finance ministers disposal a decision on a fresh bailout for greece they say more austerity is needed in the country already shaken by violent protests against banning parts is to be say. led here monday evening here in moscow welcome if you just joined us this is our table names kevin owen and first tonight nato has admitted its forces killed up to nine civilians in a bungled airstrike on a poor neighborhood in tripoli anger over the incident among libyans was heightened when the country's health ministry announced that intervention and left more than eight hundred civilians dead so far. reports now from the capital tripoli you may find some images coming up in a report disturbing to see mohammed that harry's extended family used to be one of the biggest in the neighborhood and native born mean killed five of them his father one of his brothers his sis

what are they saying, brianna? >> reporter: the president was briefed as he runned from iowa.t have an official reaction from the white house, but this attack coming less than a week after the president announced his plan for bringing home u.s. troops and starting to bring home troops from afghanistan and when he made that announcement to bring 33,000 u.s. troops home by september of 2012. he pointed to progress in three different areas. in two of them, they are of import when you are talking about this attack in afghanistan. one pointed to progress in terms of stopping the momentum that will taliban experienced and the other was progress in starting to train afghan security forces so they could be in charge of security in afghanistan. an attack like this is say jolt of reality. it calls into question how much progress has been made on those fronts. some say the president talking about congress. there critic who is say he is not bringing home troops fast enough, but as we know, there is also others who say this announcement of the beginning of the drawdown could hurt the progr

let's go straight to brianna keilar.her reporters at the white house have been getting briefings. what do you hear? >> reporter: from that senior official, here's the break down on pulling out all 3,000 of the surge troops by the end of the year. 10,000 out by the end of 2011 and the remaining 23,000 surge troops would be out no later than september 2012. keep manage mind that still leaves a significant number of u.s. troops, about 70,000 in afghanistan until 2014, but this is quicker than initial reports that we were hearing and you should expect tonight when the president addresses the nation that he will be justifying these drawdown numbers by touting successes that whout officials have been framing like this and they made significant strides in diminishing al qaeda specifically through killing osama bin laden and have been able to push back the taliban from population centers and they have been able to make afghan security forces more ready to take over. keeping in mind there major challenges here amongst them, the t

brianna keilar is at the white house. we know that the number is 30,000.nistan by the end of 2012 but now we're learning specifically when? >> reporter: this is going to be the headline of president obama's speech. all 33,000 of the troop surge that he announced in 2009, they will come out of afghanistan by the end of next summer. so no later than september of 2012. that would be 10,000 troops being pulled out of afghanistan this year, 2011, and the remaining 23,000 of the surge troops pulled out no longer than 2012. we were hearing yesterday that it would be all of the surge troops pulled out by the end of 2012. certainly this takes this -- this allows u.s. forces in afghanistan to continue through two sort of summer fighting seasons but this is somewhat significant. we should point out, brooke, that this will keep about 70,000 u.s. troops in afghanistan, remaining there until they are supposed to come home in 2014. this is a faster recommendation than what i just told you about than the pentagon had asked for. pentagon officials, commanders on the ground

brianna, do we have any formal reaction or even kind of behind the scenes reaction to this resignation? >> reporter: no formal word. there is a briefing at 1:30 eastern. no doubt we had reporters will be asking jay carney about the president's response, but the white house has been loathe to weigh in on this scandal, last week saying they didn't have a comment. even in a tv interview the president weighed in. what he said was that if he were the congressman, he would resign, that this was becoming a distraction, that it was getting in the way of being a public servant at a time when the party and certainly congressman weiner himself needed to be focused on getting the economy on track. the real point is for the white house it was becoming quite a distraction as well. when the president is trying to put a positive face on recently not so good economic numbers, with all the attention pedestrian to congressman weiner, the message wasn't getting out. >> i want our audience to know this is coming from weiner's office, an official statement saying he's going to make this announcement coming

let's bring in cnn white house correspondent brianna bealer.any scores or at least a progress report on what happened on the golf course. >> reporter: we do have this fredericka and i don't want to disappoint you. it turns out they didn't play stroke play, which would be to say the speaker shot this and the president shot that, they did match play, what that meant is that they paired into teams, you had the vice president with governor john casic of ohio, the way this works, they play a hole, which ever team wins the hole, they get a point and so on. so whoever has the most points at the end is the winner. so it turns out, that officially they had a great time. this is part of the official readout from the white house from the speaker's office 2. president and speaker boehner seemed up to beat the vice president and governor casick. a total cliffhanger, the match was won on the 18th hole, the president and the speaker winning two dollars each. >> very good. i guess of the players out there, boehner has, i guess, the best advantage, right? >> we

brianna, president obama naming a new political director. >> reporter: that's right. desk over to the white house today, randi. president obama beefing up his re-election team with katharine archiletta. as political direct, the first latina to hold a role in the presidential campaign. right now chief of staff to hilda solis. going from d.c. to chicago, joining the re-election team, including campaign manager jim messina and former white house deputy chief of staff, david axlerod, spearheading re-election efforts. also on the ticker, you'll find new poll numbers, a spike in support this poll shows, among americans for bringing home u.s. troops from afghanistan. you can check out the new cnn opinion research corporation poll at cnnpolitics.com. what it show is almost 3/4 of those surveyed said the u.s. should withdraw some or all troops from afghanistan. this significant because it's a 10% jump from may and if you ask our polling guru, keating holland, he'll tell you, randi, it's likely because of the death of osama bin laden. >>> thank you. >>> next update from the bes

our white house correspondent, brianna keilar, is joining us with more. it's a pretty shocking development. update our viewers. >> that's right. the treasury department is starting to withhold incentive payments to four mortgage lenders, including pretty big banks. we're talking about bank of america, j.p. morgan chase and wells fargo. they are using this idea of publicly humiliating these institutions into doing the right thing. here's the big picture, though. this is the first time in the history that we've seen the obama administration do something like this. >> reporter: february 2009 with millions on the brink of foreclosure, president obama rolled out his plan to keep them in their homes. >> the plan i'm announcing rescues families played by the rules. by refinancing homes for millions of families in traditional mortgages underwater or close to it. >> reporter: millions in families, 4 million, in fact, it's kept about 700,000 in their homes. a chief critic resigned from his post in march. >> so how do you characterize the outcome. >> it's difficult

here's abc's brianna with the details. >> nestled into the woods of upstate new york they have two calls one to the big man above, and one to these little guys below. >> come on, puppies, let's go. >> the monks are the true dog whisperers. owners across the country send their dogs here to be converted from unruly rascals to heavenly saints. >> i need to be focused on that dog and in a singular way. so it demands, that dog calls out in that moment my skills as a trainer. i try and respond to what the circumstances call for. >> the brothers' special bond with man's best friend dates back some 40 years when a german sheppard moved into the monastery. they soon learned that the skills that make them such good monks, patience and perseverance, also make them good trainers. >> this is motchy, who has been here approximately two and a half weeks. she came in because she was just all puppy, okay? the owners had no control over her. >> the brothers have been working with her to learn to calm down obey. sitting, standing, and lying down. now the true test of how much this irrepressible puppy has l

. >> reporter: i'm brianna keel are at the white house.alks continue in high gear this week. vice-president joe biden expected to meet with democrats and republicans in congress three times this week. thursday president obama has three fundraisers in new york, including one on broadway. a performance of "sister act the musical" hosted by whoopi goldberg. friday he takes his jobs message on the road to pittsburgh where he'll make remarks at a manufacturing plant. we can't forget about the first lady. she's making an official trip stop africa this week. >> reporter: i'm kate baldwin on capitol hill. coming up this week, general david petraeus faces a confirmation hearing in the senate thursday for his new post as the director of the cia. he could also, though, face some questions on afghanistan, the size and timetable of the planned u.s. pullout this summer of u.s. forces there. petraeus, of course, is currently the commander of the war in afghanistan. and the house? the house could be headed for a showdown with the white house over u.s. inv

. >> i'm brianna keilar and it is a busy week ahead for the president.ay, he steps into the ongoing talks with congress about raising the debt ceiling. tuesday, he is back to his jobs message with a visit to a manufacturing plant in iowa. and on wednesday, the president and the first lady host a reception to observe lgbt pride month and also a farewell dinner at the white house for out going defense secretary robert gates. >>> i'm paul stein howser at the desk. michele bachmann will announce her candidacy for president in iowa where she was born. iowa kicks off the caucus in the primary calendar. and the next day a positive film about sarah palin and her years as the governor of alaska and the running mate for john mccain. in 2008. >> the stock market has declined, the housing market continues to struggle and jobs have slowed. the first order of business at president clinton's meeting in chicago. we will get the latest on home prices, a reading on consumer confidence, and a look at construction spending, all indicators of the health of the u.s. economy.

. >> reporter: i'm brianna keeler at the white house where on tuesday president obama will host germanncellor angela merkel for an official visit. they'll be discussing a range of topics, everything from the nato-led mission in libya to the global economy. and then on tuesday night, the president will host a state dinner for the chancellor. on wednesday, following a week of some disappointing economic numbers, the president will host an event on manufacturing jobs. thursday vice-president joe biden leads yet another round of those deficit reduction talks with bipartisan congressional leaders. >> reporter: this week is going to focus on the office of the secretary of defense. the current man holding that job, robert gates, starts the week overseas on one of his last visits to some of his counterparts in other countries. the man who's been nominated to replace him, cia director leon pa net tax will be on capitol hill on thursday for his nomination hearings. a lot of big issues on the table, how many troops will start coming home from afghanistan in july and how much will the defense budg

. >> we are live at the white house with brianna keilar. explain this for us.ermission. >> reporter: that's right. all along, guys, you have seen congress -- and we are talking some republicans, some democrats -- who have posed a number of questions to the white house and what we're going to have is the white house essentially defending u.s. military involvement in libya. the white house says this is probably going to happen today, that they will answer a number of questions that congress has asked. this really comes amid sort of a fever pitch over tension between congress and the white house. yesterday, we saw a vote in the house of representatives to cut off funding for the military operation there. mind you, that's not going to clear the senate or not expected to. we saw house speaker john boehner send a letter to president obama saying, come friday, you will be in violation of the war powers resolution. that, of course, is that law that says the president can have u.s. military involvement abroad for 60 days and if he hasn't gotten congressional authorizati

here's abc's brianna with the details. >> nestled had into the woods of upstate new york they have two calls, one to the big man above, and one to these little guys below. >> come on puppies, let's go. >> the monks are the true dog whisperers. owners across the country send their dogs here to be converted from unruly rascals to heavenly saints. >> i need to be focused on that dog and in a singular way. so it demands, that dog calls out in that moment my skills as a trainer. i try and respond to what the circumstances call for. >> the brother's special bond with man's best friend dates back some 40 years when a german sheppard moved into the monastery. they soon learned that the skills that make them such good monks, patience and perseverance, also make them good trainers. >> this is m otc hy, who has been here approximately two and a half weeks. she came in because she was just all puppy, okay? the owners had no control over her. >> the brothers have been working with her to learn to calm down obey. sitting, standing, and lying down. now the true test of how much this i repress i belie

brianna keeler has the story on today's big matchup. >> reporter: it is pretty twoerd. today, amidst negotiations over spending cuts and raising the debt ceiling and one day before speaker boehner says president obama will be breaking the law for not seeking congressional authorization to have the u.s. military involved in libya, these two men will hit the links. they may not be on the same course politically, but president obama and house speaker john boehner both spend a lot of time golfing. the president even takes practice swings at work from time to time. this one was before a 2009 event in california, and boehner's famous tan, he says, from hours spent golfing. appropriately, the president a lefty, speaker, right-handed. oddly, he putts left. some common ground perhaps? for the first time saturday, they will be playing golf together. the interest in this game is intense, at least among us reporters. jay carney has been answering questions about the round more than a week. >> i have heard no trash talk from the president on this. he feels it is a very useful thing

let's go to the white house correspondent, brianna keilar. the more powers act is coming to a head.test? >> democratic and sources tell us president obama will respond directly to concerns about the military and involvement in libya. the sources tell us they are expecting to get answers perhaps tomorrow, perhaps on thursday. i have to tell you i reached out to the and they haven't confirmed it yet. they are expecting for the president to justify why he has not sought congressional authorization to have u.s. troops involved in lib yachlt all of this happening is really the tensions between congress in the white house reaching a bit of a fever pitch. a vote in the house of representatives to cutoff funding for the operation and john boehner subject a letter to president obama saying come sunday, he will be in violation of the war powers resolution. that is of course the law you referenced that said the president can commit u.s. troops overseas for 60 days and if he doesn't have authorization after that, he has to pull them out within 30 days. day 90 will be on sunday. the white house

by the bed, her brother steve and charla's teenage daughter brianna.t's been a long, difficult road for them all. two years ago charla was visiting her friend who had a pet chimp named travis. without warning the chimp went on the attack. it was as violent as it gets. the chimp took off charla's lips, ears, nose, mouth and hands. travis's owner called 911. >> he's killing my friend. >> who's killing your friend? >> my chimp. my chimpanzee. >> oh, your chimpanzee is killing your friend. >> yes. she's -- >> ripped apart, hurry up. >> reporter: charla's been in treatment ever since and will never see again, permanently blind. she keeps fighting. >> you're kind of slow. >> i'm kind of slow? >> reporter: meredith vieira met with charla last june at brig ham and women's hospital in boston. >> why didn't you give up? >> everybody here -- my daughter. >> reporter: just days after her surgery there were complications. doctors had to remove her transplanted hands. another obstacle for a woman who's been through so much. >> the thing i hate about waiting is not b

let's go to brianna keilar who is working the story for us. >> reporter: wolf, july is the deadline forome of those so-called surge troops in afghanistan. back in april president obama said this would be a significant drawdown not just a token gesture. but it appears as among some of the president's top advisers there are some at odds over just how many troops to pull out. with july 2011 just around the corner, it's decision time for president obama. how many troops will leave afghanistan? just a few or a lot? he promised an announcement soon in an interview with hearst television monday but revealed no detail details. >> by us killing osama bin laden, getting al qaeda back on its heels stabilizing much of the country in afghanistan so the taliban can't take it over, it's now time for us to recognize that we've accomplished a big chunk of our mission and that it's time for the afghans to take more responsibility. >> reporter: the president has said his decision will reflect the reality on the ground. outgoing defense secretary robert gates in afghanistan monday said only a modest withdr

brianna. >> reporter: wolf, today at the white house, president and obama and they lost over there's differences in the nato-led mission and live on libyan state television he will fight to the death. >> translator: we will not surrender. we will not give up. we will remain until the end, dead, alive, victorious, it doesn't matter. >> reporter: just a few hours later at the white house, president obama warmly welcomed german chancellor on the south lawn and did a press conference in the east room he stressed the u.s. and germanies common goal for libya. >> gadhafi must stand down and the pressure will continue until he does. >> in the future, we agree that germany is showing that it is committed to the libyan cause. >> reporter: but behind the friendly atmosphere, a significant disagreement, germany was one of five nations to sit out the vote on the u.n. resolution that authorized a no fly zone and beefed up sanctions against the gadhafi government and there are no german troops taking part in the libyan mission. as the president looks for more support from allies like germany, backi