carolyn finney and jonathan capehart will join me. sex, lies, and e-mail brought down the director of the cia. tonight, the story is getting stranger by the hour. the newest twist involves the shirtless e-mails of one of the fbi investigators, and within the hour, law enforcement officials have conducted a search of paula broadwell's home in north carolina, which is just step as way from the home of rielle hunter, john edwards' former mistress. i always wait until the last minute. can i still ship a gift in time for christmas? yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift?

joining me now is jonathan capehart.ve may be our very first 2016 republican presidential sweepstakes segment. we've seen some grumbling and saw some at the time, who were grumbling about chris christie and his partnership with president obama in dealing with the disaster in new jersey as a result of hurricane sandy. but you don't hear it now and the interesting thing is i didn't hear anyone of prominence quoted by name in criticizing christie that way. plenty of people including jindal, happy to criticize mitt romney by name. >> well, sure, after the election and remember when bobby jindal criticized mitt romney, it was after mitt romney had said something like really, really dumb. also, the other thing about chris christie and particularly jindal in that statement he put out today about christie, these are now two governors who have had to deal with natural disasters. not only because they're republicans, governors, but they're also two men who have had to deal with mother nature wreaking havoc on their populations. so

carolyn finney and jonathan capehart will join me. sex, lies, and e-mail brought down the director of the cia. tonight, the story is getting stranger by the hour. the newest twist involves the shirtless e-mails of one of the fbi investigatoinvestigators, a the hour, law enforcement officials have conducted a search of paula broadwell's home in north carolina, which is just step as way from the home of rielle hunter, john edwards' form former mistress. >>> the first big battle in the republican civil war will be over taxes and some republicans are quickly finding their way to agreement with the president. yes, to raise taxes on the rich. that's going to be next. >>> and, later, the fbi has just conducted a search at the home of paula broadwell, the woman david petraeus has admitted having an affair with. a lot of new developments in the case. stay with us. zeebox would be a double chocolate chip cookie. when they unite...magic. cookie! [ male announcer ] and anyone who thinks otherwise doesn't deserve the extra chocolate chips. downloa

and jonathan capehart is an msnbc contributor and "washington post" columnist.aren, we've had no less than six national tracking polls in the last 24 hours. >> okay. >> i tell you, i'm polled to death. >> i bet you are. we all are. >> but the story changes a bit when you look at the battleground states. while the national polls appear to be tight, the president is up 6 percentage points according to nbc of likely voters in ohio. what does that tell us? >> i have long believed, we have talked about this, the state polls are the thing to focus on. >> you always maintained that. >> they have the best idea in terms of their sample, women, minorities, the demographics of those states. the other key things in those battleground states is if you take a look at the early vote numbers and you start to see how hard it will be for mitt romney to get to 270 because in most of those early battleground states where there's early voting he's got to win upwards of 50% of the remaining amount of votes to win the election. that starts to make that a lot tougher. >> right. now, kr

carolyn finney and jonathan capehart will join me. sex, lies, and e-mail brought down the director of the cia. tonight, the story is getting stranger by the hour. the newest twist involves the shirtless e-mails of one of the fbi investigators, and within the hour, law enforcement officials have conducted a search of paula broadwell's home in north carolina, which is just step as way from the home of rielle hunter, john edwards' former mistress. i always wait until the last minute. can i still ship a gift in time for christmas? yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift? uh... whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery. by december 22nd when you take a closer look... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ...with a deeper knowledge of their subjects. as a result, their students achieve at a higher level. let's develop more stars in education. let's invest in our teachers... ...so

carolyn finney and jonathan capehart will join me. sex, lies, and e-mail brought down the director of the cia. tonight, the story is getting stranger by the hour. the newest twist involves the shirtless e-mails of one of the fbi investigatoinvestigators, a the hour, law enforcement officials have conducted a search of paula broadwell's home in north carolina, which is just step as way from the home of rielle hunter, john edwards' form former mistress. and you pick the price that works for you. great. whoa, whoa, jamie. watch where you point that thing. [ mocking ] "watch where you point that thing." you point yours, i point mine. okay, l-let's stay calm. [ all shouting ] put it down! be cool! everybody, just be cool! does it price better on the side? no, it just looks cooler. the name your price tool, only from progressive. call or click today. i got you covered. thank you. oh, you're so welcome. side by side so you get the same coverage, often for less. that's one smart board. what else does it do, reverse gravity? [ laughs ] [ laugh

busy ben smith, heather mcghee, richard wolffe, from "the washington post" msnbc contributor jonathan capehart. secretary of state hillary clinton is on the ground in the middle east. yesterday, president obama released clinton from their joint asia trip and sent her to jerusalem for an urgent meeting with ben ja man netanyahu. this morning clinton flew from jerusalem to the west bank to meet with mahmoud abbas, president of the palestinian authority, before returning to jerusalem with additional talks with netanyahu. secretary clinton is in cairo where she met with president mohamed morsi of egypt who's mediating the discussions. as secretary clinton carries the official white house message there is new attention being paid to the president's strategic options in the region. "the washington post" writes president obama's decision to send his top diplomat on an emergency middle east peace making mission tuesday marked an administration shift to a more active vist role in the region's affairs and offered clues to how he may use the political elbow room afforded by a second term. beyond a cease-

that's coming up with jonathan capehart and richard wolffe and the supreme court comes down on the sidef the people and against bad cops. that's coming up. you know how painful heartburn can be. for fast, long lasting relief, use doctor recommended gaviscon®. only gaviscon® forms a protective barrier that helps block stomach acid from splashing up- relieving the pain quickly. try fast, long lasting gaviscon®. >>> in the weeks ahead, i also look forward to sitting down with governor romney talking about where we can work together to move this country together. >> that was president obama being characteristically magnanimous so the president will have to fayne -- from the losing republican presidential candidate who will likely never be invited to the white house again by any president of either party. in the spotlight tonight, lunch with mitt. there will be no press, no campaign handlers, no moderators, just the president of the united states and a diluted man who chose someone to head his team on june 3rd, just five days after he secured the republican nomination for president. the pres

i am jonathan capehart, opinion writer at the washington post. mark, janet and chanel have set the stage for discussion. you have heard from mark. next to market is joel packer, a noted authority on federal education policy. to his left is michael fauntroy, a professor of privilege -- public policy at george mason university. we have just heard from janet murguia from the national council of la raza. with that, mr. packer, the microphone is yours. >> thank you for having me on the panel. i appreciated and i am unearned to be with my colleagues here. a couple of things about the reagan group. -- raven group. it is a public relations firm. the majority of our clients are progressive, non-profit organizations. our firm is committed to enhancing the ideals of the broad range of the progress of community. personally, i do education policy. i work for the national education association and have worked with them for 25 years. i have been doing policy for 35 years. i would like to talk about some of the challenges we are facing. we are facing a lot of ch

washington post" newsroom, pulitzer prize-winning editorial writer for "the washington post," jonathan capehart>> hello. i spent a long time on the road driving back from south hampton, but i made it in time. >> thank goodness. since andrew ross sorkin is adopting the bush policy of preemption, let's begin with him. >> okay. very good. >> what's at stake, obviously, a lot of posturing over the past couple of weeks since the election about the fiscal cliff. what is at stake here for both sides? what happens if they don't get a deal? >> well, look. i think what happens to both sides, it's not even what happens to both sides, what happens to us which is the collective, right? it's what happens to the country which is 4% of gdp disappears overnight. and that's what this is all about. by the way, it's not just about what happens january 1st or 11:59 the day before january 1st. it's already starting to impact the economy. whether it impacts consumers -- and we'll find out today, by the way, in terms of thanksgiving and what's that meant, whether consumers are coming out or not -- but thoorz the bigge

absolutely. >> let's go to pulitzer prize winner, jonathan capehart.ell you what, pieae is breaking out all over the place, howard dean admitted that we had to cut medicare. michael steele admitted we had to raise taxes. and you admitted that you would give up your entire "time" selection if you could just be in the white house today. explain why. >> because at 12:30, president obama will greet former republican nominee mitt romney for lunch today. you remember in his victory speech on november 6th, the president said he looked forward to meeting with mitt romney to talk about ways they can work together to move things forward on all the problems that the country faces today. he mentioned it again, i believe, at his press conference last week or two weeks ago. and so this is the fulfillment of that promise. now, you know, whether the president, you know, says hey, mitt, i want you to sit on this commission or i want you to send me a briefing book or paper or something on any number of issues, if that happens, i'd be very surprised. but i do think that

in washington msnbc contributor jonathan capehart, democratic strategist julian epstein, and in atlantasnbc contributor goldie taylor. our tremendous trio. jonathan, fair to say this is not exactly what president obama expected to be dealing with the week after his triumphant election? >> no, not at all. in fact, after election day the president, speaker boehner, senate ma minority leader mitch mcconnell all talking about the facecle life, what they were going to do, not going to do, what they wanted to negotiate, not negotiate, but on friday, as news exploded out from the cia thanks to our own andrea mitchell that the president accepted the resignation of the cia director, general david petraeus, all of that -- you have to add that plus all the things you talked about, fiscal cliff, to what the president has to deal with. as you said, no honeymoon, indeed. >> and added to what jonathan just said, julian, there are some concerns over this that this is just the tip of the iceberg. i want to play you something senator feinstein said to andrea mitchell this afternoon. >> this thing came so

jonathan capehart joins us. hey, jonathan, what are we looking at tomorrow?of big doings in washington. >> well, the president elect of mexico enrique peno is coming to visit president obama at the white house. he gets inaugurated and vice president biden is going down to be part of that. i think that's what we're going to be talking about tomorrow. >> the fact that president obama said one of his big priorities in the second term was immigration. so clearly the president of mexico is going to want to see what he's willing to deliver. >> right. exactly. this is something that the current president of mexico, calderon, has been pushing for a long time as well. >> thanks so much, jonathan capehart. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." next up is my colleague tamron hall. >> the senate returns to work at the top of the hour as debate over the fiscal cliff kicks into shall we say high gear. are republicans ready to ditch their decades-old plunge not to hike taxes? we'll all talk with peter de-faiz owe who was just quoted as saying we're bet

we're joined with a round of applause by msnbc executive editor richard wolffe and jonathan capehart.aying there are more questions but they don't appear to be any more answers that susan rice can give. if she keeps going at this rate she's going to get to all 45 gop senators, republican senators, by christmas. >> right. the reason she can't give more answers -- she can always talk about this thing, but the subject matter is really limited here. and either the republican senators who are finding it hard to follow or maybe the viewers of another cable news channel who have lost all track of what this story is about, the questions are about her performance on a group of sunday talk shows. the real story should be, and was supposed to be, about the security of foreign service officials in dangerous countries. she doesn't get to speak about that. she's not responsible for the security of those officials. the framework they're trying to surround her and hunt her down on really comes down to her performance on a sunday talk show. there's only so many questions you can frame about that. they

jonathan capehart, that is a lot of money. thrown away? used for good?. >> that's a lot of cheddar. >> it is a lot of cheddar. another official term. >> yes, exactly. people are marveling at the fact that president obama's campaign put out there a long time ago that we're going to raise a billion dollars. people thought wow, we've never seen that before. now we're looking at citizens united that a billion dollars now might be the floor from now on. >> right. >> and those poor people in ohio. you know, i was down in florida, and just commercial after commercial after commercial, you know, romney, then obama, then obama, then romney, nonstop hitting people in the face. i begin to wonder whether -- you know, it's great you can raise all this money and spend all this money. but at some point, the people will rebel against the person who is spending all this money. putting their candidates in their faces and say you know what? enough is enough. i can't go this -- i can't go there with you. >> there is also the question of how effective it is too. if you've se

>> i'm jonathan capehart. steve car knack k-- >> i wish they sold tickets to this one. >> every league has its basement dwellers. if politics is basketball, who would be the washington wizards? >> as you can tell we didn't win the powerball last night unfortunately. but today's show is a slam dunk. let's start the shot clock. >>> for all of you who loved my thursday political baseball metaphors during the presidential election, i've got some great news for you. with the month long debate now set for all of december on the so-called fiscal cliff, and with congress and the president probably waiting till the last minute, we now have basketball thursdays here on "the cycle." score! a tip of the jersey to hall of fame coach steve smith of north carolina. with all the talk and posturing going on, mr. director, do you have our fancy animation on this? he says it's not ready yet. >> why not? >> we'll go back to our preseason graphic. we're calling this, depending on how we feel that day, either the fiscal cliff. boo.

so i don't think that it's going to be -- i agree with jonathan capehart, it's fool's gold.sticking with robert. probably not. >> i like that. overall, one romney adviser said it's a tied football game. there's a loose ball. is that the talk of someone who is behind? i have been asking people today, if it's tied, don't you claim to be ahead? >> if only i knew the answer. this is the question that we all watch the same polls nationally and in the battlegrounds, they are tight. you can be buffetted one way or the other of the spin on both sides. they make the case the early voting numbers look like the obama campaign has lost the margin it went into election day with four years ago. on the other hand, it shows obama is up by two to one margins. you can glean whatever you want out of the facts that we have, the data that we have. the larger issue and maybe the more pertinent question, what are the factors that are going to decide this. one is whether obama's base comes out and the huge registration and ground game he pushed this year results in an increase in his base turning o

joining me now, two men, hugo lindgren and jonathan capehart. nathan, my friend, i must start with had this notion, this notion that sarah palin may somehow reenter center stage because she's hot and blue collar. >> no, no, please, for the love of god, no. talking about 2016 when 2012 is only two weeks old is crazy. but the idea that sarah palin could run for president in 2016 is absolutely ridiculous. the opinion piece that you read from is also ridiculous. and nowhere in the piece does it it talk about the fact that sarah palin, after 2008 when she had the opportunity to disappear, study, do all the hard work it takes to be leader in her party, study up on foreign policy, study up on nest domestic policy and come out of the gate running at full speed to run in 2012 to be the leader of her party and grab the nomination, what did she do? none of that. she decided to become a reality tv star, do all sorts of things that made her very, very famous, very, very rich, but incredibly unelectable. her approval rating, let's focus on the disapproval rati

panelists steve kornacki, jonathan capehart, michael eric dyson and ashley parker weigh in.enjamin wallace wells explained why mitt romney america could be releg e relegated to death history. starts in a mere 180 seconds. [ ] raise the roof! ah? raise the roof! [ male announcer ] it's our biggest toy rollback of the year. find hundreds of rollbacks on the season's hottest toys in stores now, from america's gift headquarters, walmart. something this delicious could only come from nature. new nectresse. the 100% natural no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. new nectresse. sweetness naturally. [ male announcer ] it's that time of year again. medicare open enrollment. time to compare plans and costs. you don't have to make changes. but it never hurts to see if you can find better coverage, save money, or both. and check out the preventive benefits you get after the health care law. ♪ open enrollment ends december 7th. so now's the time. visit medicare.gov or call 1-800-medicare.

joining me now is krystal ball, jonathan capehart, writer for "the washington post" and an msnbc contributor. thanks for coming on the show. >> thanks for having us. >> gop consultant mike murphy tweeted something interesting today. he said, quote, one sad possibility, mitt was our hubert h. humphrey, 1968 equivalent. next up? our mcgovern of 1972. yes, it could get even worse before it gets better. the point murphy is making is that democrats ignored their loss in the election in 1968. instead of nominating a more modern figure in '72 they went further to the left and lost probably the biggest loss of that time. i think the governor only won one state. do you think that's going to happen to the republicans? >> i certainly think it's possible and somewhat of an argument can be made that they already sort of went down that path. the argument after john mccain in 2008 was he wasn't conservative enough. a lot of people are still saying he wasn't a real conservative. he really didn't believe in the values. there's also this notion that, you know, the problem isn't the policies. it's the marketin

alex wagner host of "now" and contributor jonathan capehart. alex, stop laughing.e have to discuss. that is paul ryan. this is what he was caught saying on a conference call with some evangelicals sunday. the president's path compromises those values, those judeo-christian, western civilization values that made us such a great and exceptional nation in the first place. why doesn't mr. ryan call him an islamic terrorist? >> he may as well. it's difficult to be both pathetic and outrageous at the same time, but mr. ryan has beautifully done that. this is a continuation of the narrative we have discussed which is trying to paint the president aed a kenyan revolutionary outside the american mainstream. there are racial dog whistles here. religious dog whistles here. the fact this is paul ryan's closing argument in the final hours of this election is a sign of not only the desperation but the shameless transparency of this campaign. >> last week we learned of a romney/ryan robocall to voters in virginia that also attacked the president on religious grounds. we've had th

joining me in new yoris a colum guardian," jonathan capehart and an msnbc contributor, writer for "theshington post." hello. >> if i can start with you, which was worse for mitt romney, his inept performance as a candidate or that republicans have yet to discover black ople, hispanics, women, anyone under the age of 30? which is worse? >> well, i tnk they're both worse. it's worse for mitt romney because, you know, couldn't quite figure out what he wanted to do with his campaign. we talked many, many times on your show about where are his ideas, where are his plans, where are his tax returns? and he got shellacked at the polls. now the sadness and despair and trauma moves to the party as a whole, because as you've said, the republican party has to deal with the fact that it is now confronted by a nation that doesn't look like its party. the country is younger, it's blacker and browner. and it doesn't look like the republican party. if the republican party want to go -- wants to, you know, remain a regional party, then it can just keep doing what it's doing. if it wants to be a governin

i have toure, my colleague, with me, and also msnbc contributor jonathan capehart of the "washington" toure, we were talking earlier about the conspiracy theories that are flying, the so-called benghazi cover-up that senators mccain and graham are upset about. they say it's bigger than watergate. >> whoa, that's huge. oh, my goodness. well, there must be some evidence to suggest that, right? >> there must be. >> oh, wait, there's none so the right begins with this thesis that this is a scandal of epic proportions and their evidence is we have questions, and those questions are not being answered, and as john than knna, questions are not evidence. i don't understand how they make that leap. this is a complex cia operation that was interrupted by a terrorist attack. the cia is never going to tell you everything that they are doing or did as they should not. but that allows a lot of innuendo room for the right to say, see, we're not getting answers, not getting transparency. you can't because it's an intelligence community. they can't tell you everything. stop making it a scandal when y

jonathan capehart joins me now. movie night for house republicans.ng to go watch "lincoln." >> yeah. they're going to go see the movie "lincoln" everyone is talking about. they're going with house majority whip kevin mccarthy to a theater to see the movie about the great republican, president of the united states. the other thing that's going to be happening tomorrow that we're going to be talking about is the president's trip to pennsylvania. you thought the campaign was over. the presidential campaign is over. but the president is going to pennsylvania as part of his tour to get the public behind him in pressuring congress to get something done, to get a deal done on the fiscal cliff. >> it'll be interesting to see whether any of the republicans take any wisdom from the example of thaddeus stevens and his willingness to compromise some of his more radical positions in order to get the 13th amendment passed. >> one can only hope. >> we're going to be watching for you, you're co-hosting "the sick cycle" at 3:00. >> kornacki, get well quick. >>> that

jonathan capehart the president said it's out of my hands now. >> for 30 minutes the time the first lady introduced him we've been sitting here enraptured by this man who closed the loop on his presidential candidacy. going back to iowa where it started telling the story of fired up, ready to go before a crowd of 20,000 people there in iowa. richard and i were remarking at one point at with unpoint i thought i noticed the president's eye cracking. when he did this, that's when i knew this was hitting the president hard, the occasion he was a part of. >> of course he felt it richard. >> i've been e-mailing and texting with people who were there in iowa and people close to the president. this was an emotional speech for them. the premise of the story is it comes down to individuals. he needed to be fired up. he didn't believe in his candidacy. his wife didn't believe but the supporters made it happen. the people who showed up to vote in iowa and elsewhere and that's not a bad closing message. >> that concludes our live coverage of president obama's final campaign speech. msnbc knew resumes

. >> jonathan capehart. >> i learned president morsi of egypt is fanatical about "planet of the apes." >> that is really all you need to know. jonathan, thank you so much. rana, steve, michael and everybody, thank you for watching today. if it's "way too early," it's "morning joe." chuck todd is next with "the daily rundown." >>> together again. mitt romney makes his way to the white house. it's not exactly the way he wanted to get there. but can something constructive come out of a private lunch between president obama and the man he defeated just three weeks ago? that's right. that was just three weeks ago. >>> also this morning, a deep dive into america's longest war. look into lessons learned and the sacrifices made by troops at one combat outpost. tell us about what's been accomplished and what's not in more than a decade of fighting. as the country wakes up obsessed with numbers and winners, for the lottery, that, we've got a very important update on the election night numbers that gave us a winner. they've been changing steadily as the states keep on counting. and some importan

crowley, richard wolfe, heather mcghee, jonathan capehart and ben smith.itter at "now" with alex. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. into their work, their name on the door, and their heart into their community. small business saturday is a day to show our support. a day to shop at stores owned by our friends and neighbors. and do our part for the businesses that do so much for us. on november 24th, let's get out and shop small. >>> right knew on "andrea mitchell reports" crisis point. president obama leaves cambodia after dispatching hillary clinton to help egypt try to nail down a cease-fire between israel and hamas. >>> secretary clinton will emphasize the united stat

. >> crystal ball, karen finney, jonathan capehart. >>> stay with us, much more from democracy plazat. ♪ these are... [ male announcer ] marie callender's puts everything you've grown to love about sunday dinner into each of her pot pies. tender white meat chicken and vegetables in a crust made from scratch. marie callender's. it's time to savor. humans -- even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify. see what else comes standard at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] don't just reject convention. drown it out. introducing the all-new 2013 lexus ls f sport. an entirely new pursuit. campbell's has 24 new soups that will make it drop over, and over again. ♪ from jammin' jerk chicken, to creamy gouda bisque. see what's new from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. a great clean doesn't have to take longer. i'm done. i'm gonna read one of t

msnbc contributor jonathan capehart of "the washington post," always effortlessly elegant. and salon.com columnist and co-host of msnbc's "the cycle" steve corn knackster kornacki. army wives meets john hecarry. three ring circus, mission impossible the cohen brothers. the extramarital affair/political drama that enveloped former cia director david petraeus gets more extraordinary by the minute. this morning washington woke up to the news that the top commander of u.s. and nato forces in afghanistan, general john allen, has also been investigated by the fbi after having exchange, according to a senior defense official, possibly thousands of potentially inappropriate e-mails with jill kelley, the 37-year-old social liaison at the heart of the scandal that led to general petraeus' resignation. house homeland security committee chair peter king had another term to describe the unfolding drama. >> it's really a great tragedy. general petraeus, one of our most distinguished generals and general allen, considered a super star in the military, did an outstanding job in afghanistan

toure is the co-host of the cycle and my msnbc colleague and msnbc contributor jonathan capehart is withshington post." toure, mr. o'reilly now says that those who make less than $30,000 won this election for the president because they were looking forward to free stuff. is it now the poor who are destroying what about o'reilly calls traditional america? >> apparently. i'm glad he's so brilliant that he finally figured out the key to why mitt romney lost. it was the poor who unseated one of the richest men in america. talk about david defeating goliath. oh, my god. so happy that happened. look, the gop has been defending the wealthy and attacking the poor for many, many years. do you think they're going to suddenly come home and vote for the gop after all these years of running their business like that? you know, look, it's not about free stuff. we want to protect personal liberty and use government to uplift people, to change their lives in better ways and protect the most -- >> free stuff, free stuff. >> protect the most vulnerable people in america. >> free stuff. >> isn't government

jonathan capehart, susan delpersio. great to have you here. and we were watching that a moment ago.senators came out saying they were more troubled by what they learned by rice and by mike morel being in this meeting about what was known at the time. it seems they've created bigger problems moving forward. >> well, let's be honest, they have dug in. the washington post editorial board called it bizarre. and i think it is bizarre. the fact is that susan rice went out there with the information she had at the time, intelligent assessments change over the course of investigations. and republicans have just decided to kind of basically wage this on political terms. and it's unfortunate because the reality is they haven't -- we haven't looked at the objectives the administration have laid out here. what happened, who's responsible? and making sure it never happens again. not relitigating something that happened on talk shows. >> all right, not to relitigate it, but at the request of susan rice, she went there to meet with these critics. mike morel at her side because petraeus, the former

jonathan capehart, lynn sweet, thank you both. >> thank you. >>> next, want to avoid holiday traffic,ly commutes, and offices altogether? run for congress. stay with us. with verizon. this monday online only. get the droid razr by motorola in cranberry, free. or a white 7-inch samsung galaxy tab 2, just $99.99. this holiday, get the best deals on the best devices on the best network. exclusively at verizon. >>> after a brief break for thanksgiving, the majority of americans made the trudge first back home and then back to work this morning, but this did not include our esteemed elected members of capitol hill. oh, no. with an urgent need to address the fiscal cliff, support our economic recovery and consider the unrest in the middle east, congress has the day off. in fact, the house has spent just 109 days in the office this year. nice work if you can get it. nbc's luke russert joins us from a very sleepy capitol hill. luke, you have got to be kidding me. another day off, another day off? >> well, martin, it's the house schedule. it's been out a while. republicans say that, look, you

i'm joined by planned parenthood president, arizona senate candidate, jonathan capehart and many more find us at facebook.com/now with alex. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] it started long ago. the joy of giving something everything you've got. it takes passion. and it's not letting up anytime soon. if you're eligible for medicare, you might know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, they help pay some of the difference. and could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and you never need a referral to see a specialist. so don't wait. call now to request a free decision guide to help you understand medicare. and which aarp medicare supplement plan might work best for you. there's a range to choose from, depending on your needs and your budget. a

contributor jonathan capehart, strategist jamal simmons and alice store. the speaker talked about his negotiations with the president. i want to remind everybody. take a listen. >> i'm the most reasonable, responsible person here in washington. the president know this is. he knows that he and i can work together. the election is over. now it's time to get to work. >> speaker boehner said that with a straight face. didn't bat an eyelash. can we take it at face value? >> he's reasonable and responsible. who hasn't been is the tea party caucus. the big problem that speaker boehner had during the debt ceiling crisis is he was part of the grand bargain with the president but when he said no. but after the election, speaker boehner and now that the american people have spoken, speaker boehner has more weight behind him to say to his caucus, folks, get in line. >> in last night's interview the speaker talked about obama care. i want to remind everybody what he had to say about that. >> the alexeis that. the the president is reelected. obama care is the law of the