i'm in for the great chuck todd. we will go live to chuck in brussels as we wait for a live news conference with president obama and european leaders. however, we begin with more grim news from northern washington state. the rescue and recovery effort in the massive mudslide. the water logged hill side collapse and officially 16 people are now confirmed dead. crews say they have located eight more victims but haven't been able to recover their bodies. >> unfortunately, we didn't find any signs of life. we didn't locate anybody alive. >> there are 176 reports of missing people but that number is expected to go down as the recovery effort continues and duplicate reports are dropped. the weather is wet. the work is miserable and the community, they are still in shock. >> yeah, man, i got a big emergency. there is a house on 530 and a big slide. it is covering the road. >> my neighbor's house and their neighbor's house completely taken out and collapsed on several of them and they are trapped. >> there is no house here an

i'm luke russert in for chuck todd. chuck will be with us later this hour with more on the president at the hague. >>> developing developing news on the west coast. workers will begin a fourth day of searching for victims in mud debris. no one has been found alive in days. instead, six more bodies were pulled from the mud on monday. raising the death toll so far to 14. officials say they are trying to track 176 reports of people unaccounted for. although they expect they may be getting multiple reports about the same people. >> i would like to reiterate that that number is about individual names reported. they are not individuals that are deceased. they are not individuals that are injured. they are not individuals that are missing. there are 176 reports. >> the mudslide happened at the worst possible time early saturday as weekend visitors arrived and locals slept in. triggered by weeks of rain, it sent a wall of heavy mud cascading down the hillside. 49 structures were destroyed, some buried under 15 feet of earth. the

now let's get the latest from chuck todd. to pick up on where ian picked off, the economy, economic instability, i'm looking here, the dow is now up 202 points, we're not seeing the rattles, at least today on wall street, but we know what impact a global crisis will have, not just on the economy in russia, but certainly here in the u.s. and throughout the world. >> well, that's right. that's why the white house has quickly been reaching out to congress to make sure there's enough support for this $1 billion in guarantees to ukraine. what's unclear, does the obama administrationened up asking for more money from congress for ukraine if the imf, you know, the goal is to have enough money coming from the west, coming from the western allies for ukraine, that it replaces the lost money that they were going to be getting from the russians. but tamron, one other -- sometimes it's news when the white house reacts to something, and sometimes it's news when they have nothing to say. and there has been, andrea and i have been trading n

we'll see. >> chuck todd at the white house tonight. we'll be watching it all weekend long. chuck, thanks. >>> now we turn our focus to the west and that huge storm that looks like a hurricane on the map, complete with an eye at the core. this is a map of the water vapor out over the pacific. it's spinning into the state of california tonight, now dealing with more rain in just the past couple of days than they've had in over a year. and areas already hard-hit by the awful wildfire season are in danger now again because of this. nbc's miguel almaguer remains east of l.a. for us tonight, miguel, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. the concern here in the city of azusa is mudslides. authorities tell us now the area is stable. take a look at how deep the mud is, four feet in some areas. that basketball rim ten feet high. the concern is all of this mud which authorities fear over the next 48 hours could slide right down hill. the strongest storm in three years hammering the west coast. this is what an inch of rain every hour can do. streets are flooding, creeks turned

our chief white house correspondent chuck todd is traveling with the president in rome. >> reporter: president obama said his audience with pope francis featured a wide-ranging discussion, from middle east peace to immigration reform to their shared interest in eliminating income inequality. >> his holiness has the capacity to open people's eyes and make sure they're seeing that this is an issue. >> reporter: the president arrived at the vatican this morning amid pomp and pageantry, welcomed by swiss guards, a slow procession of dignitaries escorted mr. obama to the pope's study, where the two sat face-to-face across his unassuming desk. joined by translators, they eventually retreated behind closed doors for nearly an hour. it was longer than scheduled and afterward they exchanged gifts. the president gave the pope a custom-made chest, featuring a variety of fruit and vegetable seeds used in the white house garden. and the pope presented mr. obama with two medallions symbolizie ing peace and a copy of "the joy of gospel." the white house viewed this trip as a big domestic political

joining us, host of "the daily rundown" chuck todd. idt, he had breaking details late last night on the missing plane. and joining us, retired nbc news aviation correspondent, chuck hager with information on the flight simulator in the home of the pilot. it sure looks like whoever changed the flight plan on the missing jet. what's still iunclear is who di it and why and where the flight is today. but here's what we do know now. saturday, march 8, malaysia flight 370 departs from kuala lumpur airport. they are set to arrive in beijing six hours later. 1:07 a.m., about a half hour after the departure, the plane sends its last electronic transmission to air traffic control via the acars system. 1:19 a.m., 12 minutes later, one of the pilots say "all right, good night" to ground control. those were the last words spoken by anyone on board flight 370. 1:21 a.m., the plane's transponders go dead. there's no indication anything is wrong with the plane before dropping off radar. the pilots were supposed to check in with vietnamese air control.

chuck todd, "the washington post" editorial that i've been looking at this morning says this.took vladimir putin less than a day to trample on president obama's warning against a russian military intervention in ukraine. the u.s. now faces a naked act of armed aggression in the center of europe by a russian regime that is signaling its intent to the steam roller this u.s. president and his allies, mr. obama must demonstrate that can't be done. and he said don't do it for ten days. >> this is not the first time with putin. he actions, obama warns. putin acts, obama warns. this is a pattern he can't afford to stay in here and just continue to warn. you heard john kerry more warnings. i've talked to some folks. there are some moves they could make and could make right now. they're not act of war moves. they are immediate economic sanctions. russia's largest banks are state owned banks. you could choke them economically in a hurry. the largest energy company is a pal of putin. just do it. just suspend it, be move, start the meeting. that was the sense that you're wondering why isn

i'm luke russert in for the great chuck todd. chuck will be here in just a minute live from the netherlands on the first stop of president obama's trip to europe and saudi arabia. however, we begin with developing news on day 17 of the search for that missing malaysian passenger jet. australia says search crews have found two objects in the primary search area. one is circular. the other looks rectangular. the crew of this chinese plane also spotted several other objects overnight in that same search area. no one's confirming the objects are part of flight 370, but one of the australian flight crew members says he's flown over the area three times, and this is the first time he spotted anything. >> an australian naval ship is checking on the debris. reports as we speak. nbc's tom costello has the latest on the search for the plane that was carrying 239 people. tom, what do we know at this time this morning? >> that's the royal ship, the royal hms ship. it's headed into this area right here. because those objects spotted by the aus

chuck todd, nbc news chief white house correspondent and host of the daily rundown earlier in the dayere traveling with president obama, chuck always a pleasure to have you on the program. what is the single most important thing you think the president needs to accomplish at today's meeting. >> it's going to be about unifying europe to do more than just agree to a rerhetorical denuns yags of putin. getting the europeans united on tougher sanctions against russia, that's the difficulty. that's the tricky diplomacy here. the european economy as a whole, particularly some countries more than others, they are finally tied into russia. they have more fragile recovery from the great recession than the united states has. think about our economy and how our own citizens believe it's an uneven recovery at best, majority think we're in recession. the feelings are even worse here in europe. sanctioning russia, there is fears among some that it could just make an already mediocre economy in europe even more so. he's got to figure out how to keep the fragile coalition together. at the same time th

first, i'm going to go to my colleague chuck todd, who is traveling with the president, and has the inside scoop on this. chuck, what do you expect will be the main theme of the president's remarks? >> well, ronan, it's interesting, three months ago this was all going to be about trade. this was all going to be about economic ties between europe and the united states. because that was the big agenda for the president on this trip. that's no longer the case. this is beginning to be more of the president's vision about what he believes the long-term security alliance should be between europe and the united states. and almost trying to rally europeans to say, who are we him rhetorically, but of course on the ground economically it's a different story. but saying all the work that's been done over the last 70 years. developing these ties, developing these new international norms, russia is trying to rewrite the playbook here. redraw lines. you know, this type of stuff cannot stand. and he's going to be making that sort of larger case, larger visionary case of saying, you know, this is why you'

we will get the latest details from nbc's chuck todd.he new reap's julia raffi and the president of the council on foreign relations richard haas. that's just ahead. . . before larry instantly transferred money from his bank of america savings account to his merrill edge retirement account. before he opened his first hot chocolate stand calling winter an "underserved season". and before he quit his friend's leaf-raking business for "not offering a 401k." larry knew the importance of preparing for retirement. that's why when the time came he counted on merrill edge to streamline his investing and help him plan for the road ahead. that's the power of streamlined connections. that's merrill edge and bank of america. [ mala body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day

we have the latest from s inbc' chuck todd just ahead. and speaking of obamacare, the individual mandate is basically dead. most of the news media may not have caught on, but the latest change exempts virtually anyone willing to fill out a simple form. and can president obama just change overtime pay rules by executive order? no, he cannot. this is a free country. this is free enterprise. he has no right to dictate compensation to our company. all those stories and much more coming up in the kudlow report beginning right now. >>> welcome to the kudlow report. it's 7:00 p.m. here on the coast and 4:00 p.m. out west. let's start with the fallout from the special election in florida. the poll has very bad news for the president. and the democrats. we welcome back nbc news chuck todd. so republican david jolly defeats alex sink. that's a race the democrats should have won. what does it mean, how do you read this? >> this is a case where you had the testimonies had the better on the ground organization and campaign if you look over a lemont pe

let's bring in chuck todd right now. outside money is pouring in. spent on outside groups and tv spots and airing 200 times a day in that market, meaning they feel the impact of what connecticut voters felt over two terms when a certain republican candidate ran statewide. but, chuck, let's talk about this race. this is a race that we republicans have said would go democratic the minute bill young retired and barack obama won it in 2008 and 2012. alex sink, of course, a national statewide figure. ran for governor. everybody knows who she is and been elected statewide office. do you agree with slate and this is an early indicator on where we stand on obamacare? >> i think it is because of the type of campaign sink has run. she has run a very aggressive campaign to try to neutralize the health care issue. if she pulls this off, this playbook that was developed by the sink and by key national consultants are part of her campaign will be used by mark pryor and others this whole idea of don't prepeel to fix the law and you can fight it to a draw. >> are y

chuck todd and howard fineman, editorial director for "huffington post" media group. david jolly beat a very strong democratic challenger, alex sink, in a special election down in tampa, florida. his message was simple. a vote for me is a vote against president obama and the health care law. the democrat talked about working with republicans to fix the problem with the law. turnout was a major issue in jolly's favor, 180,000 people voted yesterday. a little more than half the turnout in 2012 when barack obama wins in the same district. let's do the diagnosis. chuck todd, looking at the numbers, modest defeat for the democrat in the seat that was what? where would you put this? >> it is a pure swing district. about the exact number he got statewide in florida, alex sink carried this district when she ran for governor in 2010 and that was a race decided by less than a percentage point. it is florida's swingingest swing seat that you could have come up with. it has always been one that democrats for years have said when bill young retires, is no longer there, democrats h

chuck todd has details on that historyic visit. >> reporter: the president has left of a meeting with pope francis and a longer meeting with the delegation. we know the president wants to bring up the issue of income inequality because he believes it's an area of agreement and the white house for weeks has been trying to bring out that he aligns himself with him on this issue. >> i have been incredibly moved by his passion, his message of inclusion. i was grateful to have the opportunity to speak with him about the responsibilities that we all share to care for the least, the poor, the excluded. >> but there is catholic issues that the catholic church is uncomfortable with. they plan to bring up the birth control mandate in the health care plans. and they talk about the movement of gay marriage. it will be a tale of two spins. and perhaps, the vatican wanting to be a little more supportive on one hand, but also reminding of some of the disagreements on the cultural fonront. >>> there have been 55 ipos so far this year in the united states. the latest is trinet that started trading thi

now it's time for "the daily rundown with chuck todd."ssian president vladimir putin says crimea always was and still is part of russia. that declaration comes after president obama and european leaders level some sanctions. so, whose move is it now? >> 11 days of searching for the missing malaysia airlines plane and now frustrated families of passengers are pushing for more answers and action. hunger se

. >> joining me now, nbc's white house correspondent and host of "the daily rundown" chuck todd and richardlcome both. chuck, the president at the nuclear summit explaining how he evaluates the threat from russia. what about the support he got from the allies for the next set of sanctions if putin were to go farther beyond crimea? >> reporter: well, and that's what the white house aides are trying to tout, he got everything he wanted for next steps. what's left ambiguous, he only got symbolic moves for the status quo right now from the european allies. you can just see both in answers from prime minister ruda and the president, there's clearly angst about how to escalate sanctions further against russia. they did get u.n. nimty that they would do tougher sanctions about specific industries in russia, if, and this is the if, if the russians destabilize eastern ukraine crossing the border with troops, et cetera. while the president refused to be in the kacamp that others ar acknowledging that crimea is essentially gone, they didn't come to an agreement, how do you get putin to back out of cri

crowley, chuck todd, thank you both, gentleman. >> thanks. >> you can catch him at 506789 a.m. on the "daily rundown." >>> calling the presidents a subhuman mongrel and the official barf bag. i did notally the i had to that on television. >>> texas republicans have a serious problems with democrats and dra demographics t. lone star state's vicky soso explains and who needs republicans when you have yet another massive winter snowstorm to shut down the federal government? we will get a live report coming up next. on that .le [ male announcer ] this is karen and jeremiah. they don't know it yet, but they're gonna fall in love, get married, have a couple of kids, [ children laughing ] move to the country, and live a long, happy life together where they almost never fight about money. [ dog barks ] because right after they get married, they'll find some financial folks who will talk to them about preparing early for retirement and be able to focus on other things, like each other, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. the same storm that brought th

joining me now, chris alissa, and chuck todd. chuck, first to you.do you see as the bigger story behind david jolly winning -- hardly the best candidate, a lobbyist who was criticized from even within republican circles, over alex sink who had run for governor, was well-known in florida and lost. >> well, i think it's a reminder that national environment and outside money, these are the two big advantages republicans have generically going into the start of this cycle, seem to be the difference makers. in a two-point race, you can claim boy, if they had done this right, done this right, but at the end of the day, jolly did not run as good of a campaign as sink. the democrats, particularly in the beginning were much more organized, much more focused on winning this district. the outside money at the end, the national environment at the end seemed to tip the scales. it's hard not to look at it. then you look at our new nbc "wall street journal" poll and you see the same dynamic playing out here. republicans are going to take away from this victory, tha

nbc's chief white house correspondent and host of "the daily rundown," chuck todd, is traveling with ident. i guess now since the cartejana incident, there's a zero tolerance policy, chuck? >> that's exactly right. folks said this is a classic case of damned if you do, damned if you don't. this was behavior that some acknowledged might have been tolerated, but there's no tolerance for any of this type of behavior now. the implication is it was no more than a drunken night on the town, nothing more than the type of events that took place in columbia, but given the cultural change the new head of the secret service is trying to instill, there's acknowledgment it takes time to change a culture, it's not going to happen right away. my understanding, these three agents aren't newbies. they have been in the service for at least five years. you don't get to the position they were in as part of this advanced counterassault team that they are part of without having been in the service and worked your way up, so these are guys that it's not as if the rules were new to them. they've done a lot,

chuck todd doing tough time in amsterdam. way to go there, chuck. what is going on, man?8 and now g-7? let's show the picture of, if you guys have the new g-7 leaders up, that we have been showing all morning. what is going on over there? were any selfies taken of the president and certain leaders of european nation? >> i'm going to try a lame joke here. first of all, i know, joe, you love the delay so at some point we will try to talk over each other because that is what we do for old time's sake when i'm overseas. >> yes, exactly. >> i want to make the -- i should have had a g-8 but they are all going to tomato juice now. is that bad? only barnicle actually understands that joke! only barnicle understands that joke because he needs tomato juice to get him going, a v-8. >> you're supposed to hit your forehead, you should have had a v-8! >> put me out of my misery! >> he just can't do that with a delay. he can't do that. what is going over there, chuck? go. >> i'm going to clean out my purse. >> look. the president got the minimum that he wanted to get out of the first da

chuck todd joins us from meet the press. >> good morning to you, erica. >> there are eyes around the world looking at this meeting set to happen. what is the thinking though? what is the hope of what can realistically come out of this? >> well i guess the best that can be hoped for and the united states will never say this publicly, they let putin lock in his games here in crimea in exchange for him backing his troops off of the border of ukraine. that seems to be the back and forth here. there is some good news. president obama and putin seem to have a decent enough conversation that it led to this idea that kerry could change his plans, go to paris rather than come back to washington and meet with lavrov and see if they can come up with a diplomatic solution. we've been down this road before. right before the crimean referendum. then in that phone call it was like two steps forward but three steps back because you had putin talk about moldova and making the same claims as in crimea. that he needs to protect russian citizens. we'll see what happens today. there's an inkling of hope

the question is legs lating after the fact. >> chuck todd. thank you very much. >> you got it. >> democratic congresswoman karen bass joins me now. thank you for being with us. what about the politics, the reality for mid-term elections. you're in a safe seat in california and don't have those types of concerns. in the swing districts and senate races, there are major concerns about what health care is going to mean for midterm elections for democrats. >> exactly right. even in california, my seat might be safe -- safe democratic seat but we have seats we plan to pick up. i have to say that california is an example of success where you have a state where everybody is focused on making the affordable care act workable and successful, i think the democrats that are running to pick up republican seats in the state of california can run on the success of the affordable care act. >> how do you explain it though, thinking nationally, outside of your district, when you talk to the dnc and to others looking at this campaign, it's pretty much assumed

nbc news chief white house correspondent chuck todd is traveling with the president. now from brussels. obviously, chuck, there's a lot to talk about regarding ukraine and the ongoing crisis there, but you and i both know this headline has come out regarding the president's detail and some serious concerns there. first, how does this information get released publicly, what happened there, the back story here? >> well, here's sort of it looks like it became more public than maybe some in the secret service would have liked. it was a hotel security discovered the passed out agent. from there, they contacted the u.s. embassy and from there, "the washington post," this was their original scoop, they had it, but my sources in the secret service were pretty forthcoming about the whole incident, making a case this is the new zero-tolerance policy inside the agency in light of what happened in colombia a couple years ago. the white house staff is basically quietly fuming about it. you know, in some ways they are mad at us in the media, but mad at the incident itself because it

. >> our political director chuck todd has more. chuck? >> reporter: well, it has been fascinating to watch christie in the last four days, let's put into context where he was. this was a 2016 republican cattle call if you want to call it that. a bunch of 2016 potential candidates were there. so let's look at the remarkable 72 hours. chris christie comes out with his own investigation that clears him of wrongdoing, there was a massive press conference where the bravado comes back, he is trying to attack reporters, saying you don't know what you're talking about, and proclaimed his innocence and quickly gets on a plane because he wants to jump start his political campaign. he wants to jump for president. he wants out of this political purgatory. but as we saw today we had new photos released that came at the september 11th commemoration that took place at ground zero. and look at what he is with, all the key players from the new jersey port authority. and lester all of those guys, samson, wildstein, baroni, all of them with the governor whi

i'm kristen welker in for chuck todd, who is continuing to travel with the president. >>> we start with the grueling search for the missing in the wake of that devastating mudslide in washington state, and worries the death toll will rise dramatically over the next few hours. the search is slow-going, because crews are still in rescue mode as they sift through the mile-wide mudslide that wiped out an entire neighborhood saturday in oso north of seattle. for the first time, search teams allowed a photographer to get these pictures of the rescue effort. at least 26 people were killed, but crews have only been able to recover 17 bodies so far. as many as 90 others could be missing. now, late last night, the fire chief said he is not giving up. >> we're still in a rescue mode here. as far as i'm concerned, we're still in a rescue mode. i haven't lost hope yet, and there's a lot of people up there that haven't lost hope yet. and so, we're not going to run big, huge, heavy equipment over areas where we may collapse something where we could have a survivor. >> the sheer amount of mud in the se

and this is the "the daily rundown," i'm kristen welker in for chuck todd.e begin with the crisis over ukraine where all the action seems to be on the diplomatic front. this morning, secretary of state john kerry kicked off a meeting of the u.n. security council in paris, designed to try to end the standoff in the ukrainian region of crimea. kerry began by reading a 1994 agreement he says has been righted by russia's incursion. >> the united states of america and russian federation and the united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland reaffirm their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of ukraine. so there are very clear legal obligations that are at risk in this -- and we're going to talk about those here this morning. >> russia's foreign minister, sergey lavrov, did not attend the morning meeting, but he is expected to meet face to face with secretary kerry later today. before heading to paris, kerry stopped in kiev where he unveiled a billion-dollar aid package for ukraine

chuck todd. let's get to my "first reads" of the morning. i feel like we've had the first game of the nfl season, the midterms if you want to call it, after last night's special election. republican david jolly narrowly won a special election in florida's 13th district. it gives republicans a big victory and puts up a red flag for democrats hoping a strong candidate and campaign can overcome a difficult national environment. jolly beat democrat alex sink by just 3,500 votes, winning 48.5% to sink's 46.6%. the libertarian candidate pulled in nearly 5% of the vote. >> obviously, you've heard the results and they were not the results that any of us wanted. i have spoken to david jolly and congratulated him on a hard-fought campaign. >> jolly's going to have to run again for the st. pete area discorredi district in the fall. it will be tougher for him with the turnout. he becomes the 64th member of the congress sent to the house by a special election. jolly, a lobbyist and former aide to congressman young, was introduced by bob barker and walked

chuck todd is traveling with the president and joins me now. s speech is supposed to lay out the alliance and the strength of the alliance. still undercut by recent events. but tell me what white house officials are telling you to expect from what the president will be saying? >> well, he wants to do a 30,000-foot speech about how why pushing back against russia is so important when it comes to what just took place in ukraine and kiem crimea, that it flies e face of everything that western europe and the united states have spent 70 years post-world war ii trying to create, which is this international community that respects borders, that respects freedoms, that is much more interlocked than it even was just 20 years ago. so that is the goal, trying to put it in a larger context. because we spent a lot of time discussing this morning, the europeans don't disagree with everything that the president's going to be saying today. it's just there's the hard, practical matter of things. the pragmatic approach of the issues with the economy and how inter

nbc news political director chuck todd, host of "the daily rundown" and "new york times" national correspondentrrow, an msnbc contributor. welcome to you both. chuck, an interesting point emerged in the nbc write-up about this on how congressional candidates are doing based on their policy positions. 69% of voters say they are less likely to back candidates who want to cut social security or medicaid to address the deficit, and on another big policy question right now, as the president is meeting with the ukrainian prime minister, when you ask people about whether they want the u.s. playing a bigger role in resolving conflicts, 47% of voters less likely to back those kind of candidates. only 23% more likely. my question to you, chuck, is there any kind of room here in both parties for a candidate who runs on defending social insurance but having a realist and sort of humble foreign policy abroad? >> well, i can tell you this. the other -- the poll always has -- the poll every month, the big top lines that everybody obsesses over and today with the political top line in florida 13 there's plenty

i'm kristen welker in for chuck todd who will join us in a minute from vatican city. that's where we begin with today's historic meeting between president obama and pope francis. the president was greeted at the vatican by members of the iconic swiss guard after a slow and deliberate walk through the halls with dignitaries. the president arrived outside the papal library where the pope greeted him in the small throne room. photographers snapped their pictures when they were joined by translators for a private meeting. after their meeting, the president and the pope exchanged gifts. the pope gave the president a copy of his papal letter, the joy of the gospel, in which he calls for a church that is poor and for the poor and the president offered this. [ inaudible ] and it's not the first time president obama has met with the head of the roman catholic church. he set down with pope benedict xvi in 2009. president obama, who's made income inequality the defining issue of his second term has talked about how he has been inspired by the people's pope who has captured the i

nbc news chief white house correspondent chuck todd is traveling with the president and joins me from the netherlands. so far how is the president doing with the europeans who are so closely connected economically and their energy supplies coming from russia via ukraine? >> reporter: the big meeting hasn't taken place, the meeting of the old g-7. president obama called for that meeting and that will happen in a couple of hours. that's after a briefing we had with the national security adviser, there seems to be a hint there will be some sort of official announcement that russia is either suspended or kicked out of the g-8 or no longer welcome until they play by international laws and international rules again. ben was very careful as to hint that he wasn't going to get ahead of whatever gets announced and read out after. g-7 meeting. right now the president is in the midst of the reason and this nuclear security summit which was the brain child of president obama himself? he hosted the first one and the second one was in korea in '12. this one in the netherlands, they've gotten delive

i'm chuck todd. david is on vacation. obama, putin showdown. thousands of russian troops are massed on the border of ukraine. can president obama and the west stop putin with new diplomatic efforts? the latest from eastern ukraine. new jersey governor chris christieiz+:s on the offensive after an investigation that he commissioned that concludes he didn't know about the bridge scandal. can he get his white house ambitions back on track? we'll be joined by his most prominent defender form are new york city mayor rudy giuliani and a democratic critic from new jersey. and less than 48 hours before the health care deadline. the obama white house heralded the big 6 million number. will it still be a losing issue for democrats this election year? plus meeting america. kevin tibbles travels to the small town in iowa that hosted cold war leader nikki ta khrushchev. why are there new fears of a cold war in that same place today? >>> from nbc news in washington, meet the president with david gregory, substituting today, chuck todd. >> as you can see, it'

our chief white house correspondent chuck todd is traveling with the president in brussels. >> reporter: two years after an embarrassing episode involving prostitutes in colombia, another black eye for the agency charged with protecting the president. in the netherlands this weekend, three secret service agents from the counterassault team assigned to president obama's european trip were abruptly sent home after a night of drinking. the incident became public because one of the three agents was so intoxicated he passed out in a hotel hallway. after discovering who the drunken guest was, the hotel called the u.s. embassy. that's when the decision was made to send the passed out agent and his two drinking companions home immediately. this incident comes just two years after a dozen agents were involved in a prostitution scandal in colombia. in advance of a 2012 presidential visit. >> when we travel to another country i expect us to observe the highest standards because we're not just representing ourselves. we're here on behalf of our people. >> reporter: that incident led the secret serv

. >> our political director chuck todd is following all this tonight. check? >> well, lester, it's been fascinating to watch christie over the last four days. let's put into context where christie was today in las vegas. this was a 2016 republican cattle call, if you want to call it that. a bunch of potential 2016 presidential candidates were there. so let's look at this remarkable 72 hours. chris christie comes out with his own investigation that clears him of wrongdoing, does a network television interview, does a massive press conference where the bravado comes back, he starts attacking reporters, trying to basically say you don't know what you're talking about, again proclaiming his innocence and then quickly gets on a plane because he wants to jump start his presidential campaign. he still wants to run for president and that's the biggest lesson here. he wants out of this political purgatory. but we had no photos released that came at the september 11 commemoration taking place down near ground zero and look who he's with. all of the key players. this is

chuck todd?om susan rice and behind the scenes from john kerry. this is what the administration believes that this is. so i guess my question is with putin, so if he makes this, you know, if he gets what he wants with crimea, does he go somewhere else? the fear, of course, is after he gets crimea then he will continue to try to manipulate problems inside ukraine to try to get a leadership back in his direction. but he tried bribery essentially. glorified bribery by trying a financial situation. it didn't seem to work. what does he do? it doesn't seem like russia can afford to support satellite states the way they did it during the cold war. >> you have to remember crimea isn't that huge. two, you have to remember crimea has an important place in putin's heart. he has been going after crimea ever since he became president. >> isn't that part of the problem? this is almost an emotional exercise for putin. >> this is an exercise related to his vision of what russian power should be and how to positi

i'm chuck todd. david is on vacation. obama, putin showdown.ukraine. can president obama and the west stop putin with new diplomatic efforts? we'll have the latest from eastern ukraine. >>> truth or whitewash? new jersey governor chris christie goes on the offensive after an investigation that he commissioned concludes he didn't know about the bridge scandal. can he get his white house ambitions back on track? we'll be joined by his most prominent defender former new york city mayor rudy giuliani and a democratic critic from new jersey. >>> and less than 48 hours before the health care deadline. the obama white house heralded

stick around now for chuck todd. >>> is there an exit ramp approaching as russian troops amass in crimeais morning as secretary kerry arrives in ukraine. >>> what we can learn about the entire 2014 campaign and how one candidate is working on 50 years of family history on the ballot. >>> and more developing news this morning. the president's outside political operation making changes in the wake of an exclusive nbc news report on their fund-raising operation. we'll have more on what organizing for action chief jim

." >>> good evening, i'm chuck todd in for chris matthews. a defiant putin told a joint session of parliament that in quotes, people's hearts and minds, crimea has been a part of russia and they signed a treaty declaring the region part of russia official. the move comes a day after the united states and european union imposed sanctions on officials. ukraine since that country's -- an overwhelming majority of voters chose to break away and join russia. president obama today called for a meeting with the seven members of the g-8, the old g-7 of course with the notable exception to discuss the ukrainian crisis. that meeting will take place in amsterdam and vice president biden landed in poland in a trip to show solidarity with the eastern neighbors and met with the president of poland. >> today, mr. president, we spoke about a situation that's unfolding in ukraine. we agreed that a need for united states, poland and our european friends to stand together in support of ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally re

msnbc's chuck todd tweets cnn is overusing the breaking news banner and what happens? >> well, the problem was at the exact moment that he did that, msnbc had a breaking news banner on the missing coverage. even the next day during todd's show, breaking news banner about basically theory and speculation about no news whatsoever. there needs to be some responsibility here, howie. and i think the problem is that the personal tweets of an anchor or a host may not reflect that of the news organization they represent. i think what you'll see going forward is the cable news executives saying you have to use twitter responsibly. you're not just using twitter itself, you're representing our organization, itself. >> in fairness, the anchor doesn't know what banners or breaking news alerts are being put up under his or her face. what does it do to cable news's reputation if it's cnn which has covered it by far the most as a conscious decision and the ratings are up like 84% going into the latest thing i've seen. if it's cnn versus the other networks, then it turns into a bit of