always nice to see you, jason chaffetz.. >> thank you, soledad. >>> john berman has the top stories for us. >>> news out of afghanistan this morning where two u.s. service members have been killed. a uniformedfghan officer turned his gun on the troops before being shot and killed himself. this is just the latest incident in a string of similar attacks on u.s. forces. and it follows a taliban statement where the group said it has infiltrated afghanistan's security forces. cnn at this point cannot verify that claim. >>> it appears wikileaks founder julian assange will risk arrest by leaving ecuador's embassy in london to make a public statement on sunday. we'll see. ecuador just granted political asylum to assange, a decision that's escalated tensions with britain. assange has been holed up in that embassy since june to avoid extradition to sweden, where he faces sexual assault charges. >>> wildfires burning out of control this morning across the sun-scorched pacific northwest. dozens of fires are now burning in 13 states, mo

and "starting point" begins right now. >>> our team this morning, jason chaffetz is with us.d frequent guest on "starting point." congresswoman kathy caster is a democrat from florida. nice to have you with us. ryan lizza, a washington correspondent for the new yorker. ryan, nice to see you. kind of shouting down the table. >> safe to say eastwood did make all of our day, no? >> yes. in some ways, a wacky highlight of last night. john berman, cnn anchor of "starting point." nice to have you with us as well. our "starting point" is mitt romney and his shining moment at the republican national convention. certainly the biggest speech of his political career so far. he attacked president obama's record, saying that his promises have failed, and it's time to turn the page >> how many days have you woken up feeling that something really special is happening in america? many of you felt that way on election day four years ago, hope and change had a powerful appeal. but tonight, i'd ask a simple question. if you felt that excitement when you voted for barack obama, shouldn't you fee

congressman jason chaffetz is on the committee beyond that lawsuit. there he is. live coming up next. plus this. >> come on, do it again. too close, to close. woe. martha: cue the jaws music, folks, it is shark week and it is back. incredible new shots, i watched it last night. unbelievable stuff. one of the guys that gets in the water and gets these shots is with us. he'll tell us how he does that. >> we can freeze on any one angle to focus on any detail >> announcer: meet jill. she thought she'd feel better after seeing her doctor. and she might have, if not for kari, the identity thief who stole jill's social security number to open credit cards, destroying jill's credit and her dream of retirement. now meet amanda. with a swipe of her debit card, she bought some gas... and an all-expense-paid trip to hawaii for ben. ben is the intity thief who used a device called a skimmer to steal her formation from her card to open a fraudulent account. every year millions of americans just like you learn that a little personal information in the wrong hands could wre havoc

ed, thank you so joining us now is republican jason chaffetz from utah . he something common with ryan. they sleep on the cot in the capitol building. good to talk. >> different offices. >> we'll make that distunction. i assume you are happy with the pick. what do you think that congressman ryan brings to the ticket to strengthen the romney campaign. >> i could not be happier. paul ryan is a man of principle and substance and integrit yewonderful beautiful family. but the substance behind paul ryan is most important. i fear that the democrats will want to engauge in the politics of personal destruction and tear apart the personalities of mitt romney and paul ryan. but it is one of substance. and president obama put forward a budget that not even a democrat voted for. 97-nothing in the senate . last year 99-nothing. and you know, in the house it was defeated 414-nothing . look at what paul ryan has done and balanced the books of the country, i think the country will embrace that. we have serious problems and need serious solution and that's what mitt romney

rick: jason chaffetz a republican congressman from the great state of utah. mr.sman, thanks very much for your time. >> thank you, sir. heather: coming up the justice department deciding it will not pursue charges against goldman sachs in relation to the 2008 financial crisis. this despite hefty allegations by a senate panel. we'll take a look at what the doj investigation found. rick: also what happened to this little boy after he went swimming in a lake in minnesota. >> once it hits it's tough to kick. i don't know if anybody's has been able to kick it. heather: one minnesota lake is off limits to swimmers after a child who swam there apparently died of a rare form of meningitis. 9-year-old jack aerola, fell ill just days after swimming at lilly lake. it was near minneapolis. now the minnesota department of health is working to confirm if in fact he died of the infection that is caused by an amoeba. the boy's death comes two years after a 7-year-old girl died in the same lake, the same type of brain infection. swimming in lilly lake. joining us now is dr. richa

. >> jason chaffetz and tim griffin, thank you.ebate will continue. >> probably. >> supersized political panel is next. jonathan martin and msnbc's own lawrence o'donnell. they'll all be here. but first, you're asking for it. white house soup of the day. it's very fitting. it's hot and humid. it's chilled watermelon. i'll asked griffin what he thought of chilled watermelon when he was in the white house. pitching is 100% mental. you have to be locked in. you know i've been out there trying to focus with a headache and i can't do my job. bayer headache relief takes care of my pain fast. it definitely works for me. helps me get back to doing my thing. [ male announcer ] try the dual action formula of bayer headache relief. like a squirrel stashes nuts, you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® liquid gels. nothing starts working faster than zyrtec® at relieving your allergy symptoms for 24 hours. zyrtec®. love the air. >>> back now live from tampa. supersized political panel. i'll run through it quickly. former bush white ho

joining us first tonight is surrogate for the romney campaign, congressman jason chaffetz. >> when peoplen wants to end medicare, that's not what's happening. we're going to fall off a financial cliff. i think we're going to have to look at the nonpartisan group, who said president obama under his plan, what he's passed and proposed would cut $700 billion from medicare. that's obviously going to have an effect on the program. what republicans are saying -- >> that's obviously hypocrisy. your whole point is that we need to address entitlement reform in order to reduce the long term deficit and debt. my turnaround and all of a sudden play the mediscare card against president obama? >> that's the reality of the number. what we're trying to say is, in order to save medicare, we have to make some adjustments now. anyone who is 55 and older there will be no adjustment. for younger generations, we can save the program if we act now. that's what we're trying to say. to suggest that president obama wants to do nothing about this is inaccurate. we're trying to point that out. he pulled $700 billion

joining us first tonight is surrogate for the romney campaign, congressman jason chaffetz. >> when peopleul ryan wants to end medicare, >> is closing overseas tax shelters a position that mitt romney agrees with? sudden play the mediscare card against president obama? >> that's the reality of the number. what we're trying to say is, in order to save medicare, we have to make some adjustments now. anyone who is 55 and older there will be no adjustment. for younger generations, we can save the program if we act now. that's what we're trying to say. to suggest that president obama wants to do nothing about this is inaccurate. we're trying to point that out. he pulled $700 billion out of medicare. it's fair to talk about that. >> but isn't it also fair to point out that the ryan plan would also keep the $700 billion in cuts? >> there's a different approach to this plan. what we're trying to say is we have to save it. what i hear routinely from the democrats time after time and in that ad is that they're going to throw grandma over the cliff. that's not fair. that's not accurate. that's not wh

. >>> utah congressman jason chaffetz is a member of the house budget committee chaired by paul ryan and joins me now. good friend of paul ryan's. thanks for being with me, congressman. let's talk about your friend. have you talked to him, how is he reacting to this rollout and the excitement of first of all, the weekend bus tour and now being solo on the campaign? >> well, i traded some text messages the day it was announced and just so thrilled for him. he's the real guy, he's the real deal. i just couldn't be happier for him. he's the kind of person that i hope some day will first be vice president but then will also be the president of the united states. he's just that man of principle and quality and integrity and smarts that we need in the white house. >> i want to show you a little bit of paul ryan's interview with brit hume because some people are suggesting the paul ryan we all know who was mr. budget and had all the numbers at the top of his head is now in a different role and he sounds different. let's watch. >> i am on the romney ticket and what mitt romney is proposing i

republican congressman jason chaffetz of utah telling anderson he is stun zbld they put this ridiculous plan together. something understood amountly flawed from the beginning. look at it on the surface. we knowingly gave the drug cartels nearly 2,000 weapons. mostly ak-47s. there didn't seem to be an adult in the room that said, do we really do that? maybe this is a bad idea. >> democrats are blasting the gop report. they're calling it a political witch hunt. >>> gore vidal has died. a ubiquitous man of letters. a fixture on talk shows. his works included "the best man" playing on broadway now. he twice ran for congress. once in the '60s. again in the '80s. he lost both times. his nephew says he died in his hollywood hims home from complications from pneumonia. >>> a united airlines flight from boston to newark had to be diverted after flight attendants found a camera in the seat pocket. the thing is they couldn't find the owner. no one claimed the camera. investigators had to inspect the camera and the plane. >>> starting today, all new health insurance plans will have to provide eight

we'll talk to cathy castor from florida and speak to republican congressman jason chaffetz and the winnerst. these are amateur photos, 12,000 from across the globe and they are stunning. they are stunning. we're going to show you some of the 12,000 and also show you the winners as well. that and much more at the top of the hour in about 14 minutes. >> that does not look like amateur work. >> maybe it's amateur, but they are supposed to be amateurs. >>> she made olympic history as the first american to take gold in judo. but she had to triumph over tragedy. kayla harrison is joining us live coming up next. there she is. >> love her, great. [ kimi ] atti and i had always called oregon home. until i got a job in the big apple. becoming a fulltime indoor cat wasn't easy for atti. but he had purina cat chow indoor. he absolutely loved it. and i knew he was getting everything he needed to stay healthy indoors. and after a couple of weeks, i knew we were finally home! [ female announcer ] purina cat chow indoor. and for a delicious way to help maintain a healthy weight, try new purina cat chow he