nbc's chris jansing is still with us. chris, what did you make of the president's comments there?>> well, a what did you make of the president's comments? >> you could certainly feel the chill and it will be interesting to see if he gets a call the last time the u.s. imposed sanctions from vladimir putin. we talked about that a little bit this afternoon, happening on the day of the downing of the jet. it's important to note that he started and put this in the perspective of almost 300 lives that were lost that day and praising essentially the eu for stepping up because what he has been suggesting since that day, is that it would only be through a coordinated effort, that more pressure could be put on vladimir putin and the economy, which is already to some extent feeling the bite of the previous sanctions but obviously not enough it has in any way affected its behavior. in fact, the president with the exception of talking about flight 17, making a lot of the same case he did before the plane went down, how russia continues to arm and finance and support the rebels, how it has not

chris jansing, thank you for that overview. really helpful and frames the debate in exactly the way it needs to be right now. people are pointing fingers at the last three administrations here. some people are saying the problem is just the border itself. obama says not. let's hear from you, mark. you've been there and seen exactly how the flow overlap order is looking right now. what do you think? >> well, right now, it's interesting. there has been a big up tick. in the last week, according to border control officials, some of the state officials we're talking to here along the river and others, they are seeing a slight downturn in the number of people going across the border. normally in the last couple of weeks they were seeing 12 to 1400 people a day that were picking up that many in the rio grande valley area. now it's about 1,000 a day. sometimes considerably below that. sometimes a little above, but 1,000 is about an average. an official says there's no reason to celebrate. that may just be a temporary blip but they are

chris jansing's over at the white house.hris, we saw the president give the briefest of remarks at the top of what was admittedly an event on another subject, not even addressing whether or not there were americans on board. we've heard that first hint during the state department briefing that there might have been 23 americans manifested on this aircraft. >> reporter: not surprisingly, brian, there is an abundance of caution here at the white house, but we are getting some more information about the timing and how the president learned about this. we know he was briefed by his advisers, but he was actually on that phone call with russian president putin who had asked for that call after the stiffer sanctions were imposed yesterday when the first published reports of this downed jetliner came out. and it was toward the end of that call that putin actually mentioned it. we are also learning in just a few moments ago from the white house that the president was very firm with president putin about the reasons for those increase

our senior white house correspondent chris jansing traveling with the president in texas. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. after days of back and forth over whether this meeting would even happen, the president is in that private terminal behind me with governor perry and about ten other officials talking about the crisis on the border. and in fact, the president and the governor is had some one-on-one time in the ride over here on marine one. all of it, part of a series of carefully negotiated compromises. but coming to some sort of common ground with congress will be far more difficult. when air force landed one in dallas, the president got an unexpected tarmac welcome from governor rick perry, but walked into a political firestorm over his decision not to travel to the border and witness the humanitarian crisis there firsthand. even something as seemingly simple as a visit to a bar to shoot some pool and have a beer with colorado's governor was fuel for his critics including a fellow democrat. >> i hate to use the word bizarre, but under the circumstances

>> chris jansing traveling with the president tonight. chris, thanks. >>> as this political fight continues in this country. south of the border tonight, the dangerous journey continues for so many children desperate to get here, no matter what the u.s. government says or does. nbc's stephanie gosk continues tonight on the journey with busloads of people trying to make that crossing. last night she reported from honduras. tonight we check back in with her in guatemala. >> reporter: nearly everybody that's gotten off this bus here at this rest stop is heading to the border with mexico and guatemala. they all want to go to the united states. some of them under the age of 18, minors traveling by themselves. i've asked a bunch of them whether or not they've heard this message from the state department, that the road ahead is dangerous, and when they get to the u.s., they're going to be deported. some have, they've seen it on tv. and it doesn't matter. stephanie gosk, nbc news, guatemala. >> by the way, stephanie's reporting continues tomorrow

our senior white house correspondent chris jansing has the latest from there tonight. chris, good evening. >> good evening, brian. in fact, we just got word that the president late today did secure calls with both the national security team for the latest on the crash and with secretary kerry on the plane and the situation in gaza. both of those calls taking place on the ground in new york where he has two fundraisers. now this morning the president was on the phone with russian president vladimir putin when the first reports of the crash came out. and toward the end of that call, it was president putin who brought it up. the main reason for that call, which had been requested by moscow, was to talk about the tougher new sanctions the u.s. imposed on russia just yesterday when president obama specifically cited the movement of heavy weaponry across the ukraine-russian border. later, aboard air force one, the president called both the prime minister of malaysia and the ukrainian president poroshenko pledging u.s. support in the investigation. and then he said that the pr

chris jansing, nbc news, the white house. >> we're back in a moment with an electrifying night in new york city. >>> from italy, haunting new images from the costa concord yeah, the luxury cruise ship that smashed into rocks nearly two years ago, killing 32 people. a diver took this video showing a deck of the ship, a hallway, and part of a tangled wreckage. the ship was righted on to a specially built undersea platform last year and will be towed away and scrapped later this month. the ship's captain is on trial, accused of manslaughter. >>> here in new york some preholiday fireworks and an electrifying display of lightning as a storm passed throughment the new one world trade center building among those hit. people posted incredible photos and videos of the intense round of lightning. there could be a repeat performance tonight. >>> video of a japanese politician apologizing has gone viral, probably because of the way he did it. take a look. [ crying ] >> weeping and sobbing uncontrollably, the 47-year-old tried to address accusations he misused thousands of dollars in official fund

thanks to a recent movement by chris, nbc senior white house correspondent chris jansing has more. >>rter: 8 hour a day tony johnson operates heavy equipment at a plant at a makes asphalt to make roads. >> it's always hot and nosey. it's been good to me. i just need to keep it going. >> reporter: but work could dry up. congress went home for the holiday without replenishing the highway trust fund which help states pay for road, bridge, and rail projects. from fixing the broadway bridge in boise to new buses in columbus and in west virginia all road construction could grind to a halt. one thing that's everywhere, potholes. and when they don't get fixed it costs you money. $324 a year per driver. that's coringed to one study. in extra operating costs and repairs. >> without the trust fund, 700,000 workers could lose their job. >> are you nervous about work drying up? >> definitely. >> the president has been pushing congress to make a deal. >> that doesn't just put construction workers back to work? that puts engineers back to work. that puts landscape architects back to work. >> it woul

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nbc news senior white house correspondent chris jansing is in dallas awaiting the president's arrival. chris, what can we expect? >> reporter: hey, ari. i think when the president steps off air force one here at lovefield a little more than two hours from now, he's stepping into a political quagmire. they know that. there has been this explosion of a fight. should he or shouldn't he go to the border? and the real problem for them is the escalation by some democrats who are saying tomorrow when you're in austin, you're going to be 242 miles away, why don't you go there and see it up close? the white house is saying, this isn't about optics, it's about action. it's about results. and so they are looking at that $3.7 billion request that you just mentioned that would do a lot of things, including helping the children who have come over the border and are being held in detention centers, but also stepping up border security by more than $1 billion. this is really what's at stake here. already just in the hours after the president made his proposal, you started to hear pushback from the re

chris jansing is traveling with the president in austin. great to have you here. any sense that the president plans to take governor perry up on the plans in regards to sending the national guard to the border or traveling to see him before he heads home. >> absolutely not to going to the border. he will go back to washington this afternoon. they have been very clear about that. i talked to a senior white house official this morning who told me that the president would consider the national guard, but he doesn't think that's the answer. the white house has put forth what they do think is the answer. that's the $3.7 billion proposal to deal with the humanitarian crisis. there's no doubt about it, i listened to everything he had to say, i was there when he met with governor perry and the town local and religious leaders yesterday. when he came out and he spoke, he said, look, we don't have huge philosophical differences, the governor and i. i listened to what they had to say. i understand. but the bottom line is, i have a plan out there. what i want governor perry t

chris jansing, our senior white house correspondent is on the north lawn. the president has been notified. he's traveling to wilmington, delaware, today. but we don't know anything further of what the national security team has been told. >> no, we don't. what we do know is that this kind of happened simultaneously. at least when we started to get word, both on wire reports and through social media that a plane had been down, that was the time that the president was scheduled to board marine one on his way to andrews and then to delaware. he was delayed slightly. we don't know why, but we know the president has been briefed on this. he has directed his team to be in close contact with ukrainian officials. but one thing that's very important to say is the white house has not at this point confirmed any details of exactly what happened here. we do know, according to the press secretary josh earnest that the president had a phone call with vladimir putin. what they told us about this phone call was about the new sanctions that were imposed yesterday. and as yo

chris jansing caught up with one couple in ecuador. >> reporter: the views are picture postcard perfect. ecuador's third largest city, called the paris of south america. and a growing number of american retirees like bill and judy collins call it home. >> every single day here is a whole new world. our only regret is we did not move here sooner. >> reporter: the former schoola for ecuador three years ago after realizing they just could not afford to retire in the u.s. >> we had checked out several other countries first and ecuador won. franco won hands down. >> i think they have lost their minds. >> reporter: their friends ron and ruby, who they met in tango class were shocked when the collins told them they were retiring abroad. >> never crossed your mind in any serious way that you might leave the united states? >> oh, no. no way. >> but your friends love it there. >> good for them. >> reporter: and good for the collins' budget. >> that's a good deal. >> reporter: there they pay $600 a month for their three bedroom apartment. compared to the westins who spend almost $900 a month. comp

. >>> nbc senior white house correspondent chris jansing is traveling with the president. she joins us now from austin. the president bushed back on republicans for not covering comprehensive immigration reform. >> reporter: we have already seen rick perry go to the border. he's with mcallen. the president has said he's not going, he will be leaving texas later today. so i think the focus shifts from will he or won't he, the president being 242 miles from the border but not making a visit. here's what rick perry had to say, start with sending out the national guard, we need to secure this border, echoing what john boehner had said when the $370 billion proposal came out from the white house. but the president said to rick perry, help me bring republicans into the fold. >> this is an issue in which my republican friends have said, it's urgent and we need to fix it. and if that's the case, then let's go ahead and fix it. >> it would be useful for my republican friends to rediscover the concept of negotiation and compromise. >> >> reporter: so the president did indicate a wil

. >> nbc news white house continue chris jansing is traveling with president obama. what more can you tell us about this portion of his trip before he heads back out? >> reporter: i can tell you that the doors have just opened here and that people who have been waiting since the middle of the night are going to go in and what we'll be listening for of course is to see whether he says anything more about the border crisis or about immigration in general. lo look, this is gob to be a shift now, because while the president has been traveling, the question has been will the president go to the border? me said he wouldn't. governor rick perry is down there, but now the question is what is going to happen next? you heard from rick perry, you heard from john boehner who said this is about sending national guard troops to the border. i just talked with josh ernest, the press secretary. he said the president is willing to do that, but the better way is to approve this $2.7 billion request. you just heard the heart felt comments, so the question is what ands next for these chi

i want to bring back senior white house correspondent chris jansing and mark murray standing by. chris, let me start with you. you predicted it. you said that the president was going to talk about the need to get unfettered access to the crash site. the need for all of us to become fully aware of the truth. what precisely happened on thursday. it's interesting to see how president obama follows up with those statements. >> yeah. the clear message was to putin. it was to get serious. you have encouraged the separatists. you have funded them. you have armed them. the reason that the u.s. increased sajss last week was because there was convoy of 150 vehicles that were moving everything from missile launchers to tanks across the border. it's time for you to do something. and stating, again, my preference for something diplomatic to happen here. but the president sending a clear message that we know what happened here. and there is no doubt about what happened. the case has been laid out very quickly. the intelligence has shown them where these missiles were launched from. they have a

we begin our coverage tonight with nbc senior white house correspondent chris jansing. >> reporter: good evening. the president returned to the white house a short time ago with one major unanswered question. were any americans among the victims of the jet liner crash. the president has been working the phones. it started this morning. he was on the air with with vladimir putin talking with wbt new sanctions that were imposed because of the arms movement over the russian-ukrainian border when the reports first came out. since then he's talked to secretary kerry, regular briefings from the national security team as he traveled to delaware and new york for fund-raisers. what we know is intelligence officials believe it was a surface to air missile. you could tell the size of the debris field, nine miles that it was a catastrophic event that happened in the air. eyewitness reports have been gruesome of people strapped to their seats on the ground. there have been offers of assistance from the united states which have been accepted although no teams have traveled yet. the u.s. the leaders in

nbc news senior white house correspondent chris jansing has been along for the entire trip. the president talked for the better part of an hour about jobs and thechy. not the battle over the borders though. >> no, he didn't mention it until 34 minutes into the speech. then it was a lot of what we have heard before. that was what was expected. the white house sticking to script that this is a trip about the economy as well as the number of fund-raising stops. but of course it was yesterday, last night, the attention was focused on that meeting with texas governor rick perry and about ten local and religious leaders. if there's a common theme by the president about what he said today about the economy and what he has said throughout this trip about the border crisis and immigration, it's congress. pointing the finger at congress. and in fact, telling governor perry, bring your republican friends onboard. he said he's willing to consider what both john boehner and rick perry have asked for, which is national guard at the border. but he wants that $3.7 billion voted on. he wants

chris jansing at the white house, thank you. appreciate it. >> thank you. >>> we have a big scandal back home to address. the irs making it a lot easier for elections to be bought wholesale. senator bernie sanders is joining me live with the upsetting new details after the break. at every ford dealership, you'll find the works! it's a complete checkup of the services your vehicle needs. so prepare your car for any road trip by taking it to an expert ford technician. because no matter your destination good maintenance helps you save at the pump. get our multi-point inspection with a synthetic blend oil change, tire rotation, brake inspection and more for $29.95 or less. get a complete vehicle checkup only at your ford dealer. in the nation, the safest feature in your car is you. add vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance and get $100 off for every year of safe driving. which for you, shouldn't be a problem. just another way we put members first, because we don't have shareholders. join the nation. nationwide is on your si

response, nbc news senior white house correspondent chris jansing. what's next? >> that's a key question. the president said in that talk that there would be increasing consequences but exactly what they would be from the united states is something they had not been wanting to show their hand on. now here's what we do know. there were clearly two separate messages that the president made in those eight minutes. one was a moral argument. there is no doubt the way that crash scene has been handled is terrible. it's going to make it much more difficult to determine exactly what happened with the sort of specificity that investigators are looking for. but it's an abomination, the way the victim's bodies have been handled. and so that message going out, not just to the american people but to the european partners. it is mostly europeans, of course, who were killed an that flight. but also who would bear the brunt of the consequences if the next step is taken. and what the president has been saying for some time is europe needs to really up the ante. the united states

the facts in syria and iraq now are quite concerning. >> nbc senior white house correspondent chris jansingwhite house for us now. chris, we were listening to this very closely. what more is the attorney general saying today. >> i don't think there's any question about the fact that there is is a high level of concern here at the white house expressed by the attorney general about isis and other islamic extremist groups. here's the message that he had. they have been focusing largely in iraq and syria at this point. but the concern is if they make real gains there, if we allow them, if the west allows them to make real gains there, then the united states could be next. he sounded a familiar alarm about intelligence reports that the bomb makers in yemen responsible -- remember back in 2009 before the underwear bomb plot that they have now gone to syria and are fighting -- and are joining forces with the foreign fighters there. listen to what eric holder had to say about that. >> that's a deadly combination, where you have people who have the technical know-how along with the people who have

joining us with more on the significance of the latest round of sanctions is chris jansing. >> good evening. these are carefully coordinated sanctions, something the president has been talking about and pushing for ever since the day before the downing of the jet. i think a timeline is important to put this into perspective. the president announced new sanctions by the u.s. a day later on a phone call with president putin there was a brief mention of malaysia airlines 17 going down. that is really when the pressure started to come from europe and on europe to do something more significant. nothing much has changed since then. there has been an escalation on the border between ukraine and russia and the president pointing out it has escalated to the point where russian artillery is going over the border so that they are no longer just helping the insurgents, financing and training but they are getting more directly involved. in addition to that there is no access to the crash site and the investigation has been stymied. today a couple of hours after the sweeping sanctions were announced the

. >> you sign up on the website as chris jansing it may ping government records that your name is christine. that's what's described by the inspector general as an inconsistency. >> reporter: getting the right answers isn't easy. >> certainly something that will take some time. they have a whole process where they first mail, scene you contact through the mail then e-mail you then call you. >> reporter: the whole process is complicated because any number of changes can affect the amount of subsidy a family should get. >> many people change jobs resulting in gains or losses of income. many people receive differences in compensation again up or down. many people experience differences in real or expected overtime. >> reporter: or get married or divorced or have children. and once the money is out the door it may be hard to get back especially from low-income americans. >> when a taxpayer has been overpaid like this, and they are not really owing a lot of taxes anyway sometimes it's very difficult to recoup the money later. >> reporter: then hhs secretary sebelius assured congress months ago a

. >>> i want to take you to the white house chris jansing is standing by. >> we communicated with senior white house officials and now they say, jose, they don't want to get ahead of the president. there are two obvious areas we're looking for guidance from the president. the first is what exactly happened. you heard him and the u.n. ambassador laying out the case on friday and on sunday. secretary kerry on the sunday talk shows. laying out a very strong case saying there is a tremendous amount of evidence against russia. and in fact it was the movement across the border in eastern ukraine that lead to those sanctions. the day before the downing of that jet. that would be the first thing. obviously the president has said very clearly secretary kerry does, they need full an unfettered access to the crash site which has been difficult. and of course, the number of people who are -- a number of family members waiting for the bodies to be returned. and that has turned into a very difficult situation. so those are some of the areas where the president will be pushing. that's what happened. th

. >> senior white house correspondent chris jansing joins us now. secretary kerry is with ukraine's foreign minister. we hope to play some of the comments regarding what is happening in ukraine and the investigation of mh 17. you have a number of critics both in israel and out questioning some of the actions from secretary kerry. let me read quickly a column in israel writes of kerry. in trying to implement the cease-fire over the weekend john kerry ruined everything and went on to say very senior officials described the proposal that kerry put on the table as strategic terrorist attack. what is the pushback from the white house regarding the criticism? >> it could be stronger. they are fuming about this. they say it is a misinformation campaign. not only did we hear from susan rice yesterday, from the podium at the white house, we heard from josh earnest, we heard from the deputy national security adviser. they have a very firm stand that the united states is a strong supporter of israel, but they also know how fraught this is. they're very concern

as we wait for the president, let's get to nbc's chris jansing, who's at the white house. >> we're learningng to talk about

go across town to our senior white house correspondent chris jansing, and chris, just yesterday presidentlict, just yesterday, he announced the next incremental upping of the sanctions. take us through that and what is being said there today about what's going on behind you. >> reporter: i think most significantly, brian, it's that the president this morning shortly apparently after this all happened was on the phone with russian president vladimir putin, talking about those sanctions, and it was towards the end of that call, we've just learned, from white house officials, that putin said to the president that he had a report that talked to him about these earlier reports of a downed jet line ir. now, as you well know, these were significant sanctions that were levied against russia yesterday. that was the main part of the call. although we have know other details beyond that. what we do know, one of the things the president said when he was in the briefing room of the white house yesterday was that he had pushed russia over the last several weeks, and we know there was increasing concern