chuck todd, always, thank you. thank you.es it for this edition and this week of "andrea mitchell reports." join us next week when we talk about the super bowl winners. our guest will include public congressman paul ryan, wisconsin ranking member on the budget committee. tamron hall takes it over from here. [ male announcer ] when it comes to reaching your big milestones, and all your little mile-pebbles ameriprise financial can help. we have over ten-thousand advisors ready to listen to your dreams and help you plan for them. because the first step towards reaching what you want is reaching the person who can help you get there. our advisors. your dreams. more within reach. meet us at ameriprise.com. more within reach. hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! we're going on a field trip to china! wow. [ chuckles ] when i was a kid, we -- we would just go to the -- the farm. [ cow moos ] [ laughter ] no, seriously, where are you guys going? ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni

i'm savannah guthrie. >> and i'm chuck todd. let's get to the rundown.on from the administration on umar farouk abdulmutallab. a small group of us got a briefing last night at the white house, a briefing that came after national intelligence director dennis blair, in testimony before congress yesterday, revealed earlier in the day that abdulmutallab is actively cooperating with investigators and has been since last thursday, providing fresh intelligence on a number of investigations. a lot of them having to do with yemen. we've learned that abdulmutallab's family has been an asset in the investigation. on new year's day, fbi agents flew to nigeria. and on january 17th, they returned with members of abdulmutallab's family, who the white house says helped persuade the suspect to talk. the latest information may help the white house make the political case against republican critics, who have attacked the administration over the decision to read abdulmutallab his miranda rights. >> and chuck, the cia director, fbi director, and the director of national inte

chuck todd is nbc's political director and chief white house correspondent, and jonathan martin is the senior political writer for politico. we're going to assume the republicans are in good enough shape to hold on to the seats they have. let's talk about we're playing a game of poker here. let's imagine the republicans get not too great a hand. suppose they get a pair of -- well, an easy pair of republicans they could pick up. there's delaware, you see the map pictures there. and north dakota. that's beau biden, decided not to run, the vice president's son, he's not running. castle looks strong. he's a republican. congressman mike castle and governor john hoeven look to be pretty easy winners. your thoughts, chuck, is that a pretty much a gimme for them? >> it is. i would say delaware, democrats did find a good candidate, a better candidate than they found against somebody -- against hoeven in north dakota. and delaware is still delaware, in that it is a lean blue state. castle has to run a very moderate, sort of in the middle campaign. he's perfectly suited for it. he should be able

chuck todd is now with us, nbc news, and co-host of the daily rundown, cnbc john harwood, also of theyork times" and steve liesman, cnbc senior economics reporter. welcome all of you. first of all, steve, what do we really know? take us inside the unemployment numbers that went down to 9.7%. you did not hear a whole lot of celebrating in washington. >> the reason, andrea, there's two different report that is come out every first friday of the month. one is a household survey where they call and say are you employed? that gave us the number that showed the unemployment rate declining to 9.7%. in the other survey, the payroll survey, they get reports of some 300,000 businesses and say how many people are employed there? that still showed a decline of 20,000 workers. so, two different reports. these things usually come together over time. especially at turning points, where a lot of economists think we are,

chuck todd says the fbi did it by going to nigeria, and rather than threatening his family, getting their help. members of the family flew to the u.s. on january 17th and helped the fbi get abdulmutallab's cooperation. nevertheless, even though the shoe bomber, richard reid got the same treatment, republicans disapprove of this. lamar alexander calling for the resignation of eric holder whose prosecutors are overseeing the case, and whose fbi agents first interviewed the man. interviewers furious with abdulmutallabfusing to talk for a month. today the fbi director, robert muller explained the concept behind abdulmutallab's conversation were anyone not swift enough to follow an episode of "law & order." >> the system in the united states which allows for consideration of contributing intelligence information and credit for that, is a powerful incentive for persons to provide truthful, actionable information, evidence and intelligence. we have other country that is don't have the same system of justice, where there is no incentive to cooperate or provide intelligence, and the person stays i

nbc's chief white house correspondent chuck todd reports that the missing seal is not so much missingcording to chuck -- i have no idea. you can count down to it as being denounced as a communist plot in three, two -- >>> something to expect from the experience of modern american airline security. the transportation security administration is announcing it will start randomly schwabing travelers' hands to search for traces of explosives. you may have seen these swabs that they use to test already. screeners use them to check bags and shoes. the new gimme five policy where they check your hands has received a provisional thumbs up from the american civil liberties union provided the policy is not implemented in a zram natory fashion, the aclu says this is the right security measure that is not an invasion of privacy. we contacted security expert bruce schneider to get his take. he's very critical of tsa measures that he calls security theater. he told us about the testing and quote -- so you can file that under faint praise, damming whiff. the tsa already has about 7,000 explosive trac

nbc news chief white house correspondent chuck todd, quoting the senior administration official, said the fbi did it by going to nigeria and rather than threatening his family, getting their help. members of the family flew to the u.s. on january 17th and helped the fbi get abdulmutallab's cooperation. nevertheless, even though the shoe bomber, richard reid, got exactly the same rights from the bush administration, the republicans disapprove of this. senator lamar alexander calling for the resignation of u.s. attorney general eric holder whose prosecutors are overseeing the case and whose fbi agents first interviewed the man. republicans furious with holder for the fact that abdulmutallab stopped talking for a month, despite the fact that his agents, in just an hour of questioning, almost as soon as he landed in detroit, got abdulmutallab to reveal the key names and locations associated with the bomb plot. today the fbi director robert mueller explained the concept behind abdulmutallab's cooperation for any republicans not swift enough to follow an episode of "law & order." >> we have

it is february 26th, 101 2010, chuck todd. >> i'm savannah guthrie. >> we start with the weather this is stopping travel and work across the country. a snow hurricane of sorts, sweeping across the northeast, more like a classic nor'easter, winds up to 90 miles an hour, three-quarters of a million people without power, more than a thousand flights expected to be canceled today, just in new york. that's on top of hundreds of preemptive cancellations of airlines made yesterday. even if you're not flying in this direction, check your schedule before you go. the impact is being felt across the country, even in sunny tampa, florida. nbc's rehema ellis is in central park, a record-breaking snow there. and i have to be honest with you, rehema, thank you for not bringing that snow to d.c. >> well, you had your fair share, chuck. no doubt about that. the stuff is beautiful, great for making snowballs today. what i should tell you and people should know, it is also very dangerous. we had at least three fatalities blamed on this snow. one happened right here in central park, a man was killed by a

i'm savannah guthrie. >> and i'm chuck todd. let's get to the rundown.ment. the unemployment rate has dropped to 9.7%. that's a mild surprise and comes despite the fact that employers cut 20,000 jobs. analysts had predicted the unemployment rate would rise. but, of course, these predictions never seem to be correct. at the same time, though, we're getting a clearer look at the scope of this recession. after updating its numbers, the government now says 8.4 million jobs, 8.4

host: chuck todd on his morning daily rundown said we have already seen massachusetts flip to republican delaware and illinois have the potential of becoming republican seats, barack obama and joe biden's respective seats. guest: yes, those are two perspective seats. there are several others that can switch -- arkansas, nevada. michael bennett is certainly a candidate for switching. when you go down the list, it is obvious that republicans are going to drastically cut the democratic margin. look what democrats are not able to do with 59 seats. think about what they are going to have as of 2011. they are going to be lucky to have 52 or 54 seats. they are going to be lower than that. how are they going to get it done if they can't get a health care passage with 59 senators. >> do you think the house could flip and become a republican house? >> the important word there is could. >> look, if it is between 27 or 37 in february and it takes 40 to turn the house over to republicans, it is obvious that a flip is a possibility. it is a very real possibility. i don't personally think it isity a pr

lots of letters going back and forth, ann. >> chuck todd this morning.hanks a lot. >>> today, first lady michelle obama formally launcs a new campaign to fight childhood obesity. in addition, mrs. obama taped a public service announcement for nbc's "the more you know" series. she's encouraging better nutrition and more exercise. >>> it is now 8:06. let's get another check of the weather with al. >> announcer: "today's weather" is brought to youy kay jewelers, the number one jewelry store in america. >> well, this is kind of nutty. we've got folks honeymooning from hawaii. what's your names? >> steve. >> and? >> alice. >> well, congratulations! >> thank you. >> thank you. >> you're going to get a nice snowstorfor your trouble. >> we're excited. >> yeah, most people usually go to hawaii for honeymoon. anks for being here. congratulations to the two of you. let's checyour weather, see what's happening here. here it comes, big storm. green bay, minneapolis, all the way down to cincinnati looking at snow, and rain down to the south. here are the snowfall amou

>> chuck todd, thank you very much. robert gibbs is the white house press secretary. mr. gibbs, good morning to you. >> good morning. how are you? >> i'm great. thank you. as chuck just pointed out, the president has spent a lot of time and political capital on this one issue of health care reform. today you have the summit. what does he hope to accomplish in six hours that he hasn't been able to do so far? >> well, look, i think washington can always benefit when the two parties sit down together, put aside their talking points and come with the idea of making progress and compromising on an issue that's important to the american people. i think he's anxious to listen to republican ideas and incorporate more of them into our proposal, and iope that republicans will come with an open mind about dealing with the problem of health insurance reform. >> you use the word compromise. this is what representative john klein of minnesota told "the new york times." he said "no republican is going to go back to his home district and say, you know what, i was wrong about the health ca

host: chuck todd on his morning daily rundown said we have already seen massachusetts flip to republicanw delaware and illinois have the potential of becoming republican seats, barack obama and joe biden's respective seats. guest: yes, those are two perspective seats. there are several others that can switch -- arkansas, nevada. michael bennett is certainly a candidate for switching. when you go down the list, it is obvious that republicans are going to drastically cut the democratic margin. look what democrats are not able to do with 59 seats. think about what they are going to have as of 2011. they are going to be lucky to have 52 or 54 seats. they are going to be lower than that. how are they going to get it done if they can't get a health care passage with 59 senators. >> do you think the house could flip and become a republican house? >> the important word there is could. >> look, if it is between 27 or 37 in february and it takes 40 to turn the house over to republicans, it is obvious that a flip is a possibility. it is a very real possibility. i don't personally think it isity a p

chuck. why is everybody moaning about todd? >> his questions are too precise. [laughter] >> we got the news today that iran is doing more enhancement uranium. secretary gates today in paris was quoted as saying basically the dialogue seems to be over and now the question is sanctions. where are we on sanctions? how close is this? i know you had and ended the year deadline when you stood up there with sarkozy and brown. it is now february. how quickly is this moving along? >> it is moving along fairly quickly. i think that we have bent over backwards to say to the islamic republic of iran that we're willing to have a constructive conversation about how they can align themselves with international norms and rules and reenter as full members of the international community. the most obvious attempt was when we gave them an offer that said, we are going to provide the conversion of some of the low-enriched uranium that they already have into the isotopes that they need for their medical research and for hospitals that would serve up to a million iranian citizens. th

chuck. why is everybody moaning about todd? >> his questions are too precise.ghter] >> we got the news today that iran is doing more enhancement uranium. secretary gates today in paris was quoted as saying basically the dialogue seems to be over and now the question is sanctions. where are we on sanctions? how close is this? i know you had and ended the year deadline when you stood up there with sarkozy and brown. it is now february. how quickly is this moving along? >> it is moving along fairly quickly. i think that we have bent over backwards to say to the islamic republic of iran that we're willing to have a constructive conversation about how they can align themselves with international norms and rules and reenter as full members of the international community. the most obvious attempt was when we gave them an offer that said, we are going to provide the conversion of some of the low-enriched uranium that they already have into the isotopes that they need for their medical research and for hospitals that would serve up to a million iranian citizens. the rej

chuck. why is everyone moaning about todd? >> he's too good.is questions are too precise. >> iran, we got the news today that they're doing more of these or trying to enhance the uranium even more. i think secretary gates today was quoted as saying basically the dialogue seems to be over, now the question is sanctions. where are we on sanctions? how close is this? i know you had an end of the year deadline when you stood up there with sarkozy. how close it is moving? >> it's moving fairly quickly. we have bent over backwards to say to the islamic republic of iran that we are willing to have a constructive conversation about how they can align themselves with international norms and rules and re-enter as full members of the international community. the most obvious attempt was when we gave them an offer that said we're going to provide the conversion of some of the low enriched uranium that they already have into the isotopes they need for medical research and hospitals that would serve up to one million iranian citizens. they rejected it. altho