is welcome denis mcdonough. -- please welcome denis mcdonough. [applause] good morning, everyone. thank you to georgetown university for holding this discussion on affordable care act. thank you to the two senators from the northern plains. has been anhle important mentor to me. good to see you again as well, senator. i appreciate the opportunity to talk about the affordable care act and what it has done and what it is going to do. i will update you on the progress we have made on fixing the website, healthcare.gov. before i talk about the law and its benefits, let me tell you about a visit i made to the emergency room on a friday night recently with one of my boys after he broke his left arm. excellent.s so much of our emergency trauma and specialized care is. what was remarkable to me is not the care that my son got as grateful as i am, but rather the crying of two babies i heard in their emergency room being treated for asthma. dramatic asthma attacks. i cannot know for sure whether those babies were insured or not. if they did have coverage and the access to primary care that

please welcome denis mcdonough. [applause] >> angood morning and let me sa, let me say thanks to georgetown university and arent fox from this form on the affordable care act. let me say thanks to the great sin of the northern flank, senator dorgan answered daschle. senator daschle has been a very important mentor to me for the opportunity to be here. senator bennet, good to see you again as well. i appreciate the opportunity to talk about the affordable care act, what it's done and what it will do. and i want to update you this point on the progress we've made on fixing the website, affordable carhealthcare.gov. before talk about the law and its benefits, let me just take about to visit i made to the emergency room on a friday night recently. with one of my boys after he broke his left arm. they care was excellent, as so much of our emergency trauma and specialized carriers. that's a fact. but what was remarkable to me was not they care that my son got, ma as grateful as i am for that care, but rather the crying of

we have denis mcdonough and tom daschle. we also have a panel that will be moderated with a number of distinguished people on the panel. that will be the day. we will have an opportunity for some questions and answers along the road. let me introduce the chief of staff of the white house, denis mcdonough, stillwater, minnesota. it was once said -- and i assume the northern great plains spirit of denis mcdonough exists -- it is perfect for any chief of staff of the white house at any time. he said we were raised by people who taught us that life is an enormous struggle. if at some moment you feel very happy, be patient. it will pass. [laughter] stillwater, minnesota, masters from georgetown university, chief foreign advisor for the majority leader of the senate, and then the deputy national adviser in the white house and now chief of staff to the president of the united states. please welcome denis mcdonough. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. thank you to georgetown university for holding this discussion on affordable car

i think that denis mcdonough is clearly in a position of influence.ll say that when you talk about the pack of wolves calling for resignations, there are people there who say -- wait a minute, if this administration is run by the west wing, the person who is the chief of staff of the west wing should be held accountable. again, to be clear, i am not making judgments about whether or not anyone should be fired or who should be fired, but denis mcdonough is clearly also carrying some of the burden of being responsible for this and fixing it. host: this from the website for politico -- host: rose, hello. caller: looks like john harris watched the brian lamb interview with the bush chief of staff. i have a couple of things to say here. first of all, when was the last time that media did some self reflecting? cbs news and what they have done? and no one needs to hold -- chief of staff should be held accountable. greta has asked i do not know how many times for kathleen sebelius to be fired, yet she ignores all of it. remember the census bill? in 2009 from

ç we are told denis mcdonough is goingç to be number one will h listen to that advisor listen to theinner circle that got him into some of this hot water and others here who will be in powerç despite bringing john todpodesta onboard. he is adding people on but not subtracting çanybody. still, will anybody be held a accountable of his botched rollout. >> in the meantime, president leftç south africa. what is the white house saying, he shook the hand of the cuban president for the first time in forever that an american president has @'e that. >> the bottom line is they know that they are going to face criticism for this. they are saying and pushing back look, this was a memorialç service. and that the president bumped into him. this wasn't a preplannedç encounter. we appreciate that people from all over the world are anticipating theç ceremony.ç ed henry live at the white house, thank you so much. we want to hear from you. what did you hear about the president's handshake? we'll read your commentsç at t end of the show. it is a key part of obama care. insurers can't turn anyone

to make sure that it's working better, and >> reporter: meanwhile, white house chief of staff denis mcdonoughorted the healthcare.gov web site had more than one million visitors yesterday after weeks of work to fix it. there also were reports not all the kinks have been smoothed out. yesterday, enrollment counselors in some states reported delays mounted as the day wore on and traffic on the web site increased. and a new problem loomed: insurers warned the system is generating faulty enrollment data that could prevent some people from getting coverage by january 1. at the white house, press secretary jay carney challenged those claims. >> that statistic that was cited in the newspaper today does not reflect at all the picture of what is happening right now. in fact, i'm not sure it's an accurate picture of issues with the back end of the system even going back weeks. >> reporter: the administration also reported that nearly 1.5 million low income people gained coverage under medicaid in october. 25 states have expanded medicaid under the health care law. but republicans, led by house speaker

information of a moment, reported by kathleen sebelius at the white house rolling her eyes when denis mcdonough putting up a county down clock to the first day, feeling they're being micromanaged. what is going on inside the white house? >> the reporting is that the relationship between hhs and the white house was poisonous and the relationship between hhs and the contractors was poisonous. so there is a huge mess and everybody basically knew the ship was going down but no one wanted to admit it because the white house's political game to rumble on no matter what and create facts on the ground and sign people up, say to the critics, get over it, this thing is reality. martha: what about down the road? it is working better. 800,000 users daily according to jeff zeints can come on to the website. they're trying to do 50,000 at a time. they say they have 90% stability rate as far as that goes right now. what about when it starts really cooking and more and more people start coming on is it likely they will run into the same troubles? >> we'll see. there are two key indicators to look at. obviously

my chief of staff, denis mcdonough, did a stint at cap. so you guys are obviously doing a good job training folks. i also want to thank all the members of congress and my administration who are here today for the wonderful work that they do. i want to thank mayor gray and everyone here at thearc for having me. this center, which i've been to quite a bit, have had a chance to see some of the great work that's done here. and all the nonprofits that call thearc home offer access to everything from education, to health care, to a safe shelter from the streets, which means that you're harnessing the power of community to expand opportunity for folks here in d.c. and your work reflects a tradition that runs through our history -- a belief that we're greater together than we are on our own. and that's what i've come here to talk about today. over the last two months, washington has been dominated by some pretty contentious debates i think that's fair to say. and between a reckless shutdown by congressional republicans in an effort to repeal the a

denis mcdonough will talk about the application. later, the house judiciary committee talks about how they have made certain changes to the affordable health care act by using executive powers. now, remarks from president obama on the implementation of the health care law and the .gov website. the president spoke for about 50 minutes from the eisenhower executive office building. >> when i was a 19-year-old college student at the university of central florida i began having symptoms of crohn's disease. at the time, i was covered under my parents insurance which is necessary since i required several surgeries. several years later while a grad school at florida international university, my symptoms returned and each and views and was $10,000-$15,000 in a clinic. fortunately because of the affordable care act i remain on my parents insurance and was able to receive the treatment i needed out an affordable cost. i'm 26 and working at a great organization affording me the benefits of having my own insurance. to haveize i'm lucky these be

they briefed denis mcdonough of chief of staff and susan rice last week.g to be exactly the same what this nsa review panel recommended. i can tell you on one issue leaving the phone records with the phone companies, there are some skeptics on the civil liberties board about that because of the civil liberties implications of that. some people say that could open up even more privacy violations if you do that. so it's a very difficult -- some very difficult issues here about how they are going to sort that out. i think it's clear that the basic metadata program is going to be changed in some form. >> i agree. >> support is there in congress for it. that's the major thing snowden exposed. in that sense, if it changes in any form, he will be able to claim victory. >> all right. nbc national investigative correspondent michael isikoff, thank you for those insights. >>> nothing like some last-minute holiday shopping. you've still got time to buy heck. for the third time the white house has extended the deadline to enroll in plans starting january 1st. it says