. >> on the house side, meanwhile, republican minority leader john boehner again stood by his comments that the president should not be traveling to denmark to push for the olympics. >> two weeks ago the president said himself that he would not be going to copenhagen because he had other priorities that were more important. >> and back to iran. republicans have harshly been criticizing president obama for engaging his administration in those direct talks with iran like those today. nbc's savannah guthrie joins us now live from the white house. savannah, is the white house paying any attention to the republicans and their criticism or sort of moving through and trying to focus on the bigger story, such as what looks like an parent breakthrough with iran? >> oh, yeah, they feel like this issue was fully mitigated in the campaign as the american people by voting for the president accepted his theory of engaging, and this is really where we're seeing the fruits of that. this is the first in time in 30 years that the u.s. has sat down with direct talks with iran. i thought the tone from the

he is going, john boehner, deet facto mayor of chicago.ich -- in a bid which really was very much a long shot. don't forget that rio and madrid were the early very much odds on favorites for many reasons. chicago is a city that may be a wonderful place, may rank up there with other international cities substantively but suffers from a very low profile. i think one of their problems, pat ryan, the head of the committee is telling a lot of these ioc guys, sophisticated as they are, a little bit about chicago. when you have the prime minister of tokyo, of japan, the king and kwaen of spain, the president of brazil showing, you know, i don't think it's necessarily fighting fire with fire just to have oprah and the first lady, all due respect to the two of them. >> well, jim, you sound like you're pooh-poohing this whole thing. i don't know. have to wait and see what happens i guess when we get a decision on this, you will come back and we will see whether oprah and her chitchat buddy what michelle calls oprah, her chitchat buddy whether they d

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. >> all right, well house minority leader john boehner thought it was important to remind the president of the united states, you are not the mayor of chicago. >> hi, everybody. it really is a campaign. it is. >> we look forward to welcoming the world to the shores of lake michigan and the heartland of our nation in 2016. >> so, the president, the first lady, " or winfrey all in copenhagen making a trip to the elements in chicago. the competing with tokyo, real visionary, madrid. is this a trip the president of made? >> he cannot even decide on afghanistan. he's got iran, unemployment, all of this stuff. look, what exactly was the eat indelible legacies that the atlanta olympics left? code gives a damn? >> this idea that he is wasting time -- in fact when he was in copenhagen he met with the general mcchrystal. it was actually easier in europe than the united states. >> less than half an hour? is that a serious meeting? >> i bet it was a serious meeting. i bet it was a serious meeting. >> whether he went for naught in the long haul will not matter as much. the real thing about the olymp

two who piped up in this meeting were ike skelton and john boehner, both from missouri, one a democrat, the other a republican. skelton reportedly urged the president to accept general mcchrystal's recommendations. jon boehner, house minority leader for the republicans, cautioned obama not to scale back the war effort to drastically. we also heard more about the president's thinking about when he will decide to decide more troops sent to afghanistan, if he will. steny hoyer that he intended to make the decision in a timely fashion. when asked what timely means, he said, well, my interpretation is a soon, within the context of weeks, not months. we should have a decision before thanksgiving. shepard: before thanksgiving. some democrats emerged, saying that critics are fighting strongmen. what is that about? >> this came out of john kerry, democrat from massachusetts, chairman of the senate foreign relations committee. he wanted to make it clear that in this meeting, no one is talking about bugging out of afghanistan and withdrawn all of our troops. he says no one is talking about pursui

i talked to john boehner, and he said he would have something for the house republicans to vote on, and think that is the way we ought to go. if we lose, but against the bill, vote for the bill, it is up to them. neil: do you have any regrets of being the leading republican who effectively stymied and then stomped bill clinton's health- care reform efforts? >> as i said in a speech in kansas city a couple of days ago, we are all to blame because there is no how care now. certainly, i'm in that group, so we did give it our best shot. we said two weeks during the august recess before they gave up and pulled the plug. he was the democratic leader. i was the republican leader. we appointed -- i appointed people, and senator mitchell appointed people to try to come together and compromise, and it just about out there but did not make it. the result was no bill. and it got pretty political at the end. neil: i remember. >> i think, frankly, certain people got a little too partisan. neil: senator, if it does go down to defeat, republicans seemed to say that they are going to politically benefit

apparently, republican congressional leaders like john boehner and senators mitch mcconnell and lamar alexander were not happy once steele unveiled a so-called senior health care bill of rights back in august without so much as consulting the congressional republicans. they want him focused on governor's races in states like new jersey and virginia and not trying to establish policy. and then there was steele's criticism of president obama's efforts to went olympics for chicago. first, here's steele and then the white house reaction. watch. >> i think while it is a noble idea for the president to want to pitch his home city, chi town for the olympics, the goal should be creating you know, not job opportunities seven years from now but job opportunities today. >> who's he rooting for? hoping to hop a men to brazil and catch the olympics in rio? >> so, is michael steele's freelancing helping or hurting the republican party, the way some of the congressional leaders subject. here to make their case, a political reporter for the daily beast.com and a blogger for the conservative.com. bria

he came under attack from republican leader john boehner saying he's the president of the united statesnot the mayor of chicago. this was the head of the trip, the white house wanted everybody to know this was going to be a short trip. just going to be overseas overnight. less than 24 hours. no one would miss a thing. they went so far as to schedule a meeting with general mcchrystal on the tarmac in copenhagen aboard air force one. released a photo of that. so everyone could see the president could multitask. there for a relatively brief time and while he was on his way back, of course, announced chicago not only lost, they came in last. the president immediately went to the rose garden upon returning to andrews air force base here in washington and said, this is a parallel to sports. there are metaphors. you can pull your best game and still lose. that's the lesson. let's hear what else he had to say. >> i believe it's always a worthwhile endeavor to promote and boost the united states of america. and invite the world to come see what we're all about. we obviously would have been eager

. >> let me play for you a bit of what your counterpart, your republican counterpart john boehner had to say about the democratic approach. >> democrat takeover of health care will cut medicare benefits for millions of seniors and by drafting amounts. how cthey can stand there and claim that they're saving medicare while they're proposing some $500 billion in cuts to medicare over the next ten years does not pass the straight face test. >> what are your response to that republican charge? >> what doesn't pass the credibility test is the republicans who have frankly been not in favor of medicare throughout its life and who have designed a program medicare advantage which ultimately would drive medicare out of business and then make it more expensive. what we're trying to do, yes, make sure that medicare is available to people long term. we think we are going to do that and medicare advantage is, by everybody's estimate, substantially overpaid. as a result of that overpayment, medicare recipients are subsidizing those who are in medicare advantage. that's what they're referring to, but,

this is house leader john boehner ripping into the president for this move as well. here it is. >> while the president is in copenhagen tomorrow, the american people are going to wake up and find out that hundreds of thousands more americans have lost their jobs. the administration's trillion dollar stimulus plan clearly is not working. >> why are the republicans going so hard on this, stephen a.? >> it's a little bit of desperation. in 1984, they made money from the olympics in los angeles. in 1996, they made money in atlanta, georgia. in 2002, they made money from the winter olympics in salt lake city. when you consider the fact that it's expected to be a $13.7 billion benefit to the city of chicago, particularly the state of illinois as well, that the olympics are there, there's no question that you make this move because you've got to go for it. in terms of the republicans and being direct with your question, the reality is, again, it shows a little bit of desperation. there's so many things you can point to, whether you agree or disagree with the united states,

. >>> john boehner, i hope he's blushing. accusing the president of abandoning important things to go to copenhagen. we know overseas president obama met face to face with general mcchrystal about afghanistan. colonel jack jacobs will give us an update and the landscape. it's quiet on the home front-- not a lot of activity. you read the news. and yet, some people need to sell and other people want to buy. this is a moment of challenge and opportunity. fortunately, re/max agents have the experience to help you meet the one and recognize the other. thanks. because the future's counting on us. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. as the decades have past, the promise of medicare has always been there. and aarp has fought to guarantee none of the benefits you earned were ever taken away. today we're continuing that fight by protecting your freedom to choose the doctors and treatments you need. and to have your tax dollars go towards your care-- not insurance company subsidies. you've done your work. and we'll keep doing our

congressman price call for disapproval against grayson and john boehner had to say. >> i think it is time for the leader to rein in the rhetoric that she decide several weeks ago. if he is not going to apologize to the american people and to republicans as he should, really, the democrat leadership's responsibility to have the conversation with their own member. >> joining us to talk about this, florida democrat congressman. your reaction to the republicans about the admonishment or formal congressm sense you are of what up. >> can't they talk about the issues? america kneads so badly health reform. do they have to make it about me? it has been 72 hours since i gave that speech and so far we've heard nothing from the republicans explaining what they plan to do to keep americans alive. >> there was a republican in florida who was on our air yesterday who complained not specifically about the statistics you cited, but about your use of the word holocaust. watch. >> to compare america's health care system to the systematic murdering of 6 million jews and millions of others. it is outrag

here's the latest line of attack from house majority leader john boehner.t's today. >> while the president is in copenhagen tomorrow, the american people are going to wake up and find out that hundreds of thousands more americans have lost their jobs. the administration's trillion dollar stimulus plan clearly is not working. >> so is the president right to make a personal pitch for chicago? we have joining us eugene robinson from "the washington post," used to dealing with bigger issues than this, and michael smerconish -- look at this guy. he has a phillies costume on. congratulations to the phillies. hometown team division champions in the national league east for the third straight year. now they've got to play the rockies, right, michael? >> sooner or later, yeah. i was afraid you wouldn't say it if i didn't wear the jacket. >> i don't mind a little coaxing, but thank you for that. i wore the hat the whole time they were in the series. look, let's go to the big question, is the president looking too much like a babbitt, a booster, a local yokel by going

they're demanding democratic congressman alan grayson of florida apologize to house minority leader john boehner for making these remarks on tuesday night. >> if you get sick, america, the republican health care plan is this. die quickly. that's right. the republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick. >> wow. republicans are trying to frame congressman grayson as the democratic counterpart to republican joe wilson who, as you remember, said to the president in joint session, "you lie." was grayson any more out of line than several republicans who have said democrats want to implement death panels? >>> also, dick cheney is drawing fire from a group of retired generals and admirals who say he's scare mongering about the hazards of closing guantanamo and relocating those prisoners to american prisons. two top retired military leaders will be here to talk about their view of the former vice president. >>> today, a new arizona law goes into effect that will allow people to carry concealed guns into bars. are guns and booze a smart mix? >>> finally, secretary of state hillary clinton got her sh

. >> no one in the republican leadership comes forward -- john boehner did not come forward and say thesen't have been celebrating when we lost the bid. he said you should be back here working on health care. >> peter, brad, we can talk about this all day, but i think at the heart of it is when you say you've lost your question, when did you lose it, what date did that happen? and the implication is the day when you got this president who is different. and people -- >> no. >> i'm not saying you. i'm saying there are people who play that difference under racial and as david said religious and all kinds of awful things. >> absolutely right, tamron. tamron, let me remind you. the guy is half white! >> you don't have to remind me. i know that. but we know his -- his race, brad. >> but why it's an issue is because he looks more black than white. if he looked more black than white -- >> you can e-mail me, brad, the day you lost your country. and then we can talk about it. thank you very much, both of you. greatly appreciate it. >> good to be here. >> david -- justin, some things we thought you

. >> but house minority leader john boehner says house speaker nancy pelosi needs to tone down the rhetoric comes from her party. >> i think it's time for democrat leaders and the speaker of the house herself to rein in some of the rhetoric that she decried just several weeks ago and if he is not going to apologize to the american people and to republicans, as he should, really, it is the democratic leadership's responsibility to have a conversation with her own member. >> mike viqueira is the nbc correspondent. good afternoon to you. deja vu all over again. what do you think? >> how we do love our united states house of representatives. all the action was on the senate side during that very long finance committee markup, which incidentally, could be ending within the next day or so alan grayson, let's review the chronology here, went to the floor during a period after hours in congress, called special orders. now it is not very important in terms of making legislation but a lot of members like it because it is aired live on c-span and pretty much say what they want for five minutes or even

i know john boehner was out with another myth about this stimulus isn't working.'t look at the amount of time george bush to create any jobs in his administration. be it as it may, they are the opposition, that's what they are doing now. >> steve, there's a big difference in the 2002, 2003 recovery small business was creating jobs. there wasn't a credit crunch. in this situation, i'm sure you agree, they are going to establish downward the jobs. over the next years more revisions. i think it will be downward because they are not picking up small business yet. this number we see today is a survey of big companies, how many people do you ploy. >> actual unemployment in the economy is much bigger than is being picked up because we're not picking up who establishment survey small business. >> job changes are much bigger. >> unemployment is a bigger survey. >> i think the elemental question is do you think you have a trajectory here where you're going to flat numbers, then job growth next year. i think straightforwardly notwithstanding this minor hiccup that's where yo

>> chuck, we heard earlier this morning, we played a clip of john boehner saying barack obama is not he's the president of the united states. he shouldn't be going over there. can you lay out exactly how much time of the day this is going to take for the president and how disconnected he's going to be, how health care is going to go down the tubes when he's gone? >> reporter: he leaves tonight after dinner, after dinnertime. flies all night. lands at about, i think, 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning east coast time. does all of his work. he'll be out of there before -- he'll be in the air on the way back to washington before lunchtime. he'll probably be back at the white house in time for members of congress to have their happy hour. >> that's terrific. >> and, chuck, do they have like a cb or a ham radio on the plane where he could talk to other people potentially? >> reporter: what it is is you rev the engine, and it's a smoke signal that comes out. it's very interesting the way they communicate. >> so he will be in touch. chuck todd at the white house. thanks so much. great to talk to y

nancy pelosi, john boehner, harry reid, mitch mcconnell, all the relevant leaders, it includes the rankingember on the hill right now. thank you for time. what is your message today? >> i am anxious to here with the president has to say. i hope he is bringing in advice rather than simply saying that he is changing his strategy. during the election and early in his presidency, he was a strong supporter of afghanistan and expressed the importance of afghanistan in our neighborhood. i think that the strategy he said in march was the correct strategy. general mcchrystal was put in place, given 60 days to come up with a plan to implement that strategy. he has done that, given that strategy implementation through the -- through his leaders to the president. the president has now said he is completely reevaluating that strategy. general mcchrystal said in his report that the next year is critical, and that report was submitted a month ago, so now we have the next 11 months. i think that in that report, he stated that we need to go all- in, that we need to have a decision made to give him the forc

but house minority leader john boehner criticized the president for going off to copenhagen when we have serious issues here at home that need to be debated. british book makers live books made chicago the 8 to 11 favorite to win followed by rio day de janeiro at 7 to 4 and then tokyo and madrid. rio is the toughest challenger, it would be the first time the olympic games were held in south america. toeblg i can't and madrid both argued their cities are more prepared to host the games. olympic officials here say the obama factor may clinch the deal. >> i think it can only help and certainly can't hurt. >> reporter: now, president obama only has about 45 minutes to make his presentation tomorrow morning, then voting begins. it works on a process of elimination until the last man standing. every indication it will come right down to the wire. harry? >> charlie d'agata in copenhagen this morning. thank you very much. janet evans knows how tough it is to bring the games to united states. the four-time olympic gold medal swimmer was involved bringing the 1996 summer games to atlanta and new y

here is nancy pelosi and john boehner. >> i think it's time for democrat leaders and the speaker of the house herself to reign in some of the rhetoric that she decried just several weeks ago. if he is not going to apologize to the american people and republicans, as he should, really, it's the democratic leadership's responsibility to have to handle this. >> apparently, they are holding democrats to a higher standard. >> in truth, there really are lots of harsh statements that have been made over time from members of both parties, and these take on a whole new life, and for somebody like congressman grayson, made his name a nationally recognized one. sometimes it inspires people to take risk with their rhett wreck. over time we have seen these kinds of incidents. now there is a new person at the center, all yele yelen grayson. >> and congressman, he joins us from orlando. welcome back. we are all familiar with the rhetoric. i am curious what your intent is? when you chose to go down this road, you know that you don't have to pick a fight in the house because you have control of the hous

in the gop's weekly address, john boehner said republicans have made a strong case for another directionth care. >> it was our obligation as a party to explain to the american people how we would do things better. and on the stimulus the budget, energy bill and health care, we have done exactly that. as a matter of fact only republicans have offered solutions to lower health care costs, and make it easier to obtain quality, affordable coverage without imposing a massive burden on the american people. >> boehner also called the democrats' health plan quote pages of bureaucracy that will centralize health care decision-making in washington, d.c. >>> the white house is now leasing the names of people who pay a visit. it was a campaign promise by barack obama to make those lists public. around 100,000 people visit the white house every month. so it is a pretty big list. in response to an associated press inquiry, we learned that actor george clooney and tv host oprah winfrey were among the early visitors to the white house. the list also shows that despite a campaign pledge to reduce special

. >> chuck todd, we had criticism from some republicans -- i think john boehner actually -- who saidresident would be getting his eye off the ball from going to copenhagen. i just found out they have a phone on air force one and the president spoke with general mcchrystal about afghanistan from air force one. what's the headline out of that? >> reporter: it wasn't by phone. general mcchrystal came on -- >> oh, he came? >> reporter: no. he went to copenhagen. this is a face to face meeting. >> that's even better. you can actually multitask and bring the generals to you. >> reporter: well, general mcchrystal was in london. so obviously, you know, europe, what is it, about ten miles wide? you know, europe not a big continent. i don't know. it's very european to me. what do i know? it's across a lake, right? we call it a pond. so seriously, general mcchrystal was in london. they set up this meeting yesterday. they had a 25-minute meeting on air force one. obviously, general mcchrystal was involved in the three-hour marathon session on afghanistan strategy that took place here at the whit

whereas in april of 2007, republican leader john boehner successfully urged semple republican members committee assignments after learning that each had become the subject of investigations into possible criminal activities, whereas leader boehner took the aforementioned actions when the former members were under investigation, subject to widespread public investigation but not under indictment. whereas speaker pelosi's continue red fusal to remove representative rangel after promising she would preside over the most ethical congress in history have held the house up to public ridicule, now therefore be it resolved that upon the adoption of this resolution and pending the completion of investigation into his affairs by the co >> , coming up a house debate on hate legislation. -- on hate crime legislation. >> later today on american and the courts, oral arguments from the supreme court case looking at the constitutionality of religious monuments. chief justice roberts speaks today. that is at 7:00 eastern here on c-span. >> president obama speaks at the human rights campaign national d