mayor ed lee. [ applause ] >> thank you, chuck, and i was just about to rec meant chuck that you and i and charlotte schultz buy the shoe polish and in a couple of years put that on and pose as 18 years and we can look a little bit like supervisor kim and get in for free, how about that? >> this is an incredible chuck, thank you for that enter did yousing, and i will be very brief because what i really feel today and in this particular ground breaking is a lot of sweat, a lot of good, hard, work, from chuck, from the board of directors and from robert and randy fisher. i want to thank you for your wonderful leadership and you have to raise an incredible amount of money for this to happen and it was for a great cause and i go back to our first lunch in, chuck that we had where you explained a little bit about our history to me and i did for you and we both talked about the old friendships that we had and you expressed your friendship with don back and that this what ises partly in honor of that. well i want to also express the city's official thank you to doris and don and fisher, col

i'm chuck todd. let's get right to my first reads of the morning. >>> president obama will have a lasting impact on the judicial branch, he has to start soon. this morning he is doing something he's rarely done in the past, holding an event to announce a handful of judicial nominations. he's making the, responding to criticism, that the white house has been too slow to give judicial vacancievacancies. two women and an african-american. core kneeledia pill lard worked in the bush administration. pa trisha ann millette is an appellate lawyer and robert wilkins is a federal district judged, kumpld without opposition in obama's first term. though individually not controversial picks, the d.c. circuit is often described as the second most powerful court in the country and seen as a feeder for the supreme court. for the nine supreme court justices currently serving, one served on the d.c. circuit, and the d.c. circuit has been at the center of the argument between the parties about whether the president's

that's according to iowa republican senator chuck grassley. he says the budget cuts are enacted earlier this year. >>> and a man for the ten most wanted list was nabbed in mexico a day after he was listed. a bibipartisan trio of senators is saying the u.s. must take more action in syria. they are trying to urge the president to change the balance of military power in syria. >>> south korean researches have developed a robot aimed at learned human dance moves. that includes the popular song by sy. as for how bell it can "gangnan style," when you decide. >>> it's going to copy your dance. what's your big dance? >> i don't know, like the "ymca." the electric slide, the worm. >> a dedication for a new location of a famed statue. frederick douglas will be displayed in the u.s. capital. one week ago today julian assange took refuge to avoid allegations of rape a. >> paula abdul turns 51 today. here is what is coming up later on "today." a recap of last night's "the voice." keep it right here for news, weather, and sports. have a great day. >>> just

chuck todd said it's no longer a gang of eight, it's marco and the gang of seven. title for a rock band and definitely bad for him to be breaking off like this. >> victoria, let me play you what senator lindsey graham said about this bill and the future of the republican party. take a listen. >>. >> if we don't pass immigration reform and get it off the table in a reasonable -- it doesn't patter who you run in 2016. we're in a demographic death spiral as a party. >> a democratic death spiral. vickie? >> he gets it. lindsey graham gets it. if you notice he said 2016. and the problem is, when we get to the house, members are only looking to 2014. they have a very short sighted is view of politics. and a lot of them are geographically insulated because of redistricting from 2010. even though in the long-term, 2016, it is a death spiral they're looking to what's in front of them. this they canning it survive to 2014, they'll cross 2016 when they get to it. that he just going to focus on conservative constituencies. >> dana rower backer as you know, a republican congres

nbc' chuck todd is in belfast where the president has just landed, chuck, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, veronica. he sure did. the entire first family is here, actually. the president's first piece of business, actually, is going to be in belfast. he's giving a speech to northern ireland students to talk about sort of the progresses or frankly what has been very slow progress for northern ireland's economy here in the last decade ever since the peace process between ireland and northern ireland. it just -- the country -- the province has gotten off to a slow start. but then after he does that speech that is directed to locals, it's beginning to the g-8 summit. and the issues here are going to be interesting in this respect when it comes to syria. you essentially have the old g-7 plus russia. russia, of course, was added to the g-8 a few years ago, and they're sort of isolated when it comes to syria. president putin is on the side of bashar al assad. he's been helping shar al assad with arms. putin had a one-on-one with british prime minister david cameron. that didn't go s

marra. >> chuck todd live in ireland. thanks, chuck >>> as the g-8 summit continues, a new claim from the self-identified nsa leaker edward snowden who says u.s. and british intelligence eavesdropped on world leaders at a previous meeting. andrea mitchell reports. >> reporter: as the g-8 summit opened, the guardian reported that the british with american help had spied on past summits, intercepting e-mails and phone calls at a london summit in 2009. one target, russia's then president medvedev encrypted calls home to moscow. >> what it does do for president obama, which is problematic, is it robs him with much moral authority in talking about this. >> reporter: snowden's leaks about hacking china undercut the president when he met with president xi lately. u.s. officials said no one should be surprised. we reported on nightly news 18 years ago that the clinton white house spied on leaders in miami in 1994. snowden has claimed extraordinary access to personal data. former officials say he's exaggerating. >> snowden is wron

chuck, good morning. >> good morning, mara. you played the president's comments to charlie rose there about syria. one other point he made in that interview had to do with the fact that the united states doesn't want to take sides necessarily in a sectarian war between sunni and shia. and what he -- the point he made to russian president putin behind closed doors was this, that the united states goal here is not to push the entire assad regime out, an important ally to the russians, just assad himself, that the assad regime seemed to be at the negotiating table. that seemed to help russia putin dial back his rhetoric rubbly when it kams to the disagreement with the united states and other nations. here is a little bit of wa putin said after their meeting. >> do not coincide, but happy tension to stop the violence in syria, to stop the growth of victims and so solve this situation peacefully. >> the important distinction there was a markedly different tone from what putin had said about two days earlier during a -- during a meet

now here's chuck todd. >> well, i'm in for chuck todd. chuck arrived in africa ahead of the president's trip. ahead of tonight's big congressional women's softball game. the ladies of congress will take on the members of the d.c. press corps team. all in the name of raising money and awareness for young women with breast cancer. we have a packed show. the president is just about to leave on a week-long trip to senegal, south africa and tanzania. you're looking now at live pictures of andrews air force base where he will be taking off. we're keeping our eye also on the courtroom in florida where the george zimmerman trial continues today. our legal team is standing by and we'll bring you new news as it happens. the big story of a big news day is at the supreme court. where just about an hour from now the nine justices will hand down decisions in two catises tt could define marriage for the next generation. one challenging the constitutionality of california's ban on same sex marriage. the the other challenging federal defense of marriage a

chuck, you as well. we'll talk about the significance. what do we know? there have been a lot of charges thrown around and they aren't substantiated as far as we know but there is trouble here, possibly involving cover-up. >> right. we know there was a draft memo prepared by investigators at the state department which was never released publicly. the state department has confirmed the existence of the memo and that it outlines these eight allegations but they've not confirmed any of the substance of the allegations. these alleged misdeeds by contractors, state department employees and in one case an ambassador over approximately the last couple of years and the allegation are two-fold. one, that these things happened, and two, that the investigators who were pursuing them were not allowed to complete will work. >> and in fact it involves diplomatic security agents which, chuck, are the state department equivalent of the secret service and are highly regarded in all of my experience over many decades. but the fact is, the allegation in this unsubstantiated

appreciate it, chuck. >> thank you. >> we'll have more with chuck todd shortly in europe. we want to move on. there are unconfirmed reports nsa leaker snowden has applied to the unhcr for asylum. he is bleaelieved to still be i hong kong. the debate over the nsa's surveillance programs continues. on fox, dick cheney defended the programs, saying snowden violated the law and might be a chinese spy. >> i think he's a traitor. i think he has committed crimes in effect by violating agreements given the position he had. >> but instead of condemning snowden, former alaska governor sarah palin wrapped up the conservative faith in freedom conference by blasting the quote orwellian u.s. government. listen. >> our government spied on every single one of your phone call, but it couldn't find two pot smoking deadbeat bostonians with a hot line to terrorist central in chechnya. really? >> the debate has produced odd bedfellows. they include the colorado senator who says he plans to introduce a bill that far rose the scope of the patriot act which allows the collection of phone records.

"chuck, do your chores." and you've got music playing, just, you know, seeping into your bloodstream and ear stream. and my father liked jazz here and there. but i was mainly into sports. i was into the organization of sports, and a lot of black folks made strong inroads into sports, and that captivated my interests. and the whole hip-hop thing that hit me in the middle of the 1970s got me into the music, because it was the technical aspect of it. technology. two turntables, a mixer, a microphone. i was totally confused. i was like, "why do they need two turntables? in case the one over there breaks down?" [laughter] "this person is very prepared." but that struck me as being, you know, something to get involved with this thing called hip-hop and rap music. and then if you study rap music, you will understand that it's not a music. it's rap, a vocal application over music, and the musics have already been defined as soul, jazz, rhythm and blues, then rock and roll, and so on and so on. and that got me into do

well, chuck levine, the president of a group that saved a park says hidden money wouldn't have solved. but how he solved it, that's tonight's bay area proud. >> reporter: to tell the story of the saving of jack london historic park one needs to start on a horse, one that in the late 1980s carried chuck levine to his first visit to the park on a second date with his future wife. >> i remember the trail up to the lake was a beautiful trail. i remember the historic buildings and being amazed at the architecture. >> reporter: it was the beginning, it turns out, of two long term relationships. chuck eventually retiring from a high-flying career in the telecommunications industry to a home right next to the park. >> we spend a tremendous amount of time in the park. i'm in the park at least four or five days a week. when i'm in town it's probably seven days. >> reporter: he also became a member of the valley of the moon natural history association, a friends of the park, if you will. although, when news hit that jack london was one of 70 parks the state was going to close, the park needed mo

. >> thank you, chuck. new this morning, may look like a ufrp a ufo, but this is a revolutionary solar plane. we were there when it landed just after midnight, after a ten-hour flight from cleveland. the plane is making a cross-country trek from san francisco to new york. solar impulse as wide as a boeing 747 but as light as a passenger car and can fly both day and night, thanks to batteries that store the solar energy it collects. pilots want to show how versatile the solar energy is. >> this technology can be used everywhere on the ground, for cars, trucks, construction of houses, lighting systems, heating or cooling systems. >> see the dollar impulse today dulles from 1:00 until 5:00. the ycrew hopes to attempt an around the world flight by 2015. >>> a flight carrying former president george w. bush had to be diverted. private jet had to make an unscheduled landing in louisville. a spokesperson would not confirm there was smoke on the jet. it did continue on to texas. >>> a woman lost her debit card and

chuck todd in ireland, safe travels. with you tomorrow at grmds. >> see you at the brandenburg gate, my friend. >> we bring things back closer to home, third and final debate in the massachusetts race tonight, before ed markey and republican nominee, former navy s.e.a.l. gabriel gomez face off. the following, markey widening his lead to 13 points ahead of gomez. joining me now is matt from the boston globe, a former romney rambler as we were traveling the nation not too long ago. a lot of romney helping him. a big push behind him, president, first lady, joe biden, al gore at a fundraiser supporting markey. are democrats that concerned this could be a repeat of scott brown? >> i think they are trying to prevent that, pulling out all the stops trying to prevent any lethargic aspects that riddled the martha coakley campaign in 2010. you're seeing everybody out there early trying to raise money. it seems to have given markey a comfortable lead. gomez has to do something tonight to shake this up. >> i want to give a sense of

>> right now chuck todd. take it away, chuck! >>> it's number crunch time. president obama looks steady on the surface of our new nbc/wall street journal poll but it's a different story when you dig a bit deeper. guess who is doing great. >> new jersey governor chris christie has some eye popping approval numbers across the country. we'll talk to his newly official opponent for reelection in september. also breaking this morning, u.n. ambassador susan rice in the worst kept secret in washington will be his next security adviser. and susan power, another highly influential figure behind the scenes. good morning. this is "the daily rundown." we'll have a lot more on president obama's new national security pick, including national security adviser later in the hour. he's set to make the formal announcement at 2:15 eastern today. by the way, there will be a transition period. the man who has the current job, tom donilon, will be staying on for at least another month and that includes being at president obama's side for the summit in china. >> the president's rep

. >> and chuck from the bronx takes on his toughest challenge yet. >> and i mean, literally the toughest. >> why eating a whole beef tongue isn't as much fun as it sounds. >> it is the biggest tongue i have ever saw in my life. >>> here's a remarkable example of how far technology has come in the world of safety and racecar racecars. this is the formula 3 australian drivers championship in hidden valley and now you can see the racecar pull off to the right in the pit, and the rolling start and the cars are about to open up, and they tap and cross the finish line and here they go. heading into turn one, incredible speed, and this car is gaining on the leader and -- >> oh! >> -- boom! >> ooh! >> violent crash as that car in third place tried to overcome the car in first place and basically misjudged. you can quickly see him come to the stop and give the thumb's up and you know he is okay even after that horrendous crash. >> it looked like the right tire folded up. >> it did. look at how it happens. the left front clips the rear tire which busts out, and then hits the first tire barrier and

please welcome via satellite chuck schumer. sir, welcome to the report!eers and applause) now charles schumer or should i call ucar loss schum-- carlos schumer. >> charles is good. >> for now, because we are taping this at 2:00 in the afternoon. and you are voting on the immigration bill around what time? >> about 4:00. >> okay, 4:00 and i'm showing this to my studio audience at 7:30 but we're not broadcasting it until 11:30, so thank you for staying up late with me tonight to pretape this look back at what hadn't yet transpired in the senate later this afternoon earlier today. so what will have had happened? >> well, i believe that this comprehensive immigration bill will have passed by a very large vote, two-thirds of the senate will vote for it, almost every democrat, probably every democrat, and a large number of republicans. and we're very pleased that a large number of republicans voted for the bill. >> by the time this airs what is your estimate of how many illegal immigrants will have been granted amnesty and voted for a democrat? >> well, none ye

as chuck said, i don't think landing in havana or caracas is going to increase our likelihood that mrill be flying on a government plane back to the united states anytime soon. i think to build off of what senator durbin said, i think, you know, it is incumbent upon this administration and this white house to have a more robust conversation about these programs. i don't know that this is a huge debate that's taking place outside of the beltway, but it is obviously one this morning that's raising inside the beltway and a greater discussion as much as you can about transparency and about what these programs are and what they aren't. i will say you listen to a lot of the coverage and you would think we had literally millions and millions of fbi agents listening to every single call that every single american is making. that's simply not true. having that discussion actively with the american people is an important thing to do. >> part of the tactics of this and part of the debate is frankly around journalism. glenn greenwald referenced it when i asked him a question about whether he shou

and with us today, nbc's chuck todd. the bbc's katty kay. nbc's kelly o'donnell. and "the washington post's" david ignatius. first up, the president's decision to supply some weapons to syrian rebels. taken together with the breadth of our national security data collection showed how much a commander in chief must meld his views to the realities he confronts in office. on syria, the president decided this country could not avoid involvement when chemical weapons had been used. and on the data sweep, obama's past strong statements about privacy have had to bend with the realities of the threats against the country as he has seen them. let's start with syria. david, i guess the big question is why are we now going in apparently with some kind of military support to the rebels in syria? >> syria is the problem from hell as one analyst has described it. the reason that we're finally two years into this war deciding to provide military aid is basically what the president said. when you have clear evidence that chemical weapons have been used against a civilian populati

details from chuck a little later..s. making a cross country trek. solar impulse as wide as a boeing 747 but as light as a passenger car. it can fly day and night. >> if the world would use today, literally all the technologies we demonstrate in polar impulse, we would divide by two our energy consumption and produce half our need with renewable sources. this would create jobs, make profits, the world needs new, efficient products on the market. >> see the solar impulse today at dulles from 1:00 until 5:00. the crew hopes to attempt an around the world flight in 2015. god weather to fly into. but it may not be sticking around all day. >> the big question, how long can we enjoy some blue skies? sewn it over to chuck bell. >> hey, erica and richard, good morning to both of you. good morning, everybody. father's day is here, clouds have snuck back in. little peak peeks of sunshine. 62 in bowie, and croftton area. and a few light sprinkles dotting the map first thing this morning primarily north of town. sunday planner, cl

the real messenger is meteorologist chuck bell. >> let's pass the buck to chuck. >> that was a pass theall right. no doubt about that. i can take it, though. cloudy skies this morning, and we've seen a few lonely sprinkles in northern most maryland and another little chance for rain up here in the next couple of hours. better rain chances much into the later and later afternoon and morning hours. 70 in manassas. and 69 in springfield, virginia, this morning. a couple of rain drops near hagerstown, but more rain toward morgantown. even more where that came from as well. relatively dry for the next coup o

nbc's chief white house correspondent chuck todd is in belfast where the president landed this morning. good morning, chuck. >> reporter: well, betty, the president finished up the first part of his northern ireland agenda. the theme of the president's speech was basically buck up. telling this new generation of students in northern ireland to take advantage of the fact that their parents took the risk of making peace and that was their job to help northern ireland become a greater part of the uk society, build a better autonomy. here's a little taste of the president's message. >> all of you, every single young person here today, possess something the generation before yours did not. and that is an example to follow. when those who took a chance on peace got started, they didn't have a successful model to emulate. they didn't know how it would work, but they took a chance. and so far it has succeeded. md the first steps are the hardest and requires the most courage. and the rest now is up to you. >> reporter: this later afternoon, the president begins g -- the g-8 summit. there the is

nbc's chuck todd is traveling with the president. chuck? >> reporter: good evening, lester. the president's trip, we're doing our best to focus on trade and it's become all about the ailing nelson mandela. not only about his legacy in south africa, but for the whole world. from the moment that president obama set foot on presidential grounds on pretoria, only one question, the health of nelson mandela. >> he remains critical but stable. nothing has changed so far. we hope that very soon he will be out of the hospital. >> reporter: referring to mandela by his tribal name, president obama, as he has done, shared his personal feelings. >> madiba's moral courage, this country's historic transition to free and democratic nation has been a personal inspiration to me. >> reporter: he essentially called him the george washington of south africa, noting how like america's founding father, mandela knew to grow a democracy, he to walk away from power. >> nelson mandela, similarly, was able to recognize despite how revered he was, that part of this transition process was to make sure th

chuck felt like we could have done a better job, and they trusted that. any of thelook at first episodes of any great the -- i just re-watched pilot of all in the family or seinfeld, cheers, they are vastly different from a season or two in. no one is sure of the tone. the actors do not know -- their characters have not settled yet. the writers do not know what the actors strengths are. tavis: the fact that strike was happening at that moment, that it forced the network to play it over and over again, that is a food fate that fell on your lap. stage i think it showed all of us, we all love what we do, and we love working together, but if anyone had one foot out of the water before that strike, we came back with very grateful eyes and the people we were working with, and it really showed us how valuable this opportunity is. tavis: there are folk in this town who wait for years for something that never happens, no matter how gifted or talented they may be, they never get that .ne show you now have in your case lightning has struck a couple times. will say y

good morning, chuck. >> reporter: good morning, betty. yeah, syria has been the dominant topic here at the g-8. and at that meeting between president obama and russian president putin it was not nearly as contentious as some had feared given the sort of hotter rhetoric that russian president putin had used during a similar one on one meeting he'd had with the british prime minister. instead, behind the scenes, i'm told that the u.s. president made the emphasis to the russians that their goal is simply to see assad go. not to push the entire assad regi regime, out of the picture altogether. in fact, the united states made it clear that they would welcome parts of the assad regime if they were at the negotiating table for a political settlement. well, that seemed to be reassuring enough, at least for putin to publicly say this while sitting next to the president. >> -- do not coincide with the intention to stop the violence in syria, to stop the growth of victims and to solve the situation peacefully. >> reporter: while the two leaders agre

chuck, thanks. >>> now to an nbc investigation about the controversial use of drones by the u.s. overseas. the president recently gave an important speech on this topic. part of the appeal of using drones in place of live personnel is their accuracy but they may not be as precise as many u.s. officials claim. our report on this tonight from our chief foreign correspondent richard engel. >> reporter: look at the tall man in white flanked by body guards. experts say it's osama bin laden in afghanistan one year before 9/11 in footage captured by the very first predator drone mission. but the drone isn't armed. a year later, drones are fitted with rockets and pakistan quickly turns into a hunting ground. an estimated 49 drone strikes under president bush. more than 300 under president obama. >> conventional air power or missiles are far less precise than drones and are likely to cause more civilian casualties. >> reporter: does the u.s. always know who drone strikes are actually killing? nbc news has examined classified documents detailing 114 drone strikes in pakistan in 2010 and '1

>> yeah, chuck. governor christie said he's going to appoint new jersey attorney general jeff chiesa to hold the senate seat vacated by senator lautenberg. what do you think about that pick? >> christie did not want to appoint a caretaker. attorney general, he's not going to be a candidate. he's just serving out until a new senator is elected in the october special election. but that tells you cristy couldn't find somebody willing to give up their congressional seat, their state senate seat, what they have to do this because what looks like a long shot fi any republican to win. and i think that's probably a big disappointment to some national republican, and it goes to them being upset of the way christie, you know, intermented the law. he could have easily made the decision. now, he may have lost in court if he'd done this -- of trying to have the appointee last all the way till november 2014. had he been able to do that, my guess is he would have found a candidate willing to be on the ballot. the f