abc's chief white house correspondent jonathan karl has exclusive documents and he went toe to toe with these new questions for the white house. >> reporter: as the health care website melted down, the president told people there were other options working just fine. >> you can bypass the website and apply by phone or in person. >> reporter: a quick call. >> i want to repeat that. 1-800-318-2596. >> reporter: and voila. >> it usually takes about 25 minutes for an individual to apply for coverage. >> reporter: but ten days before the president said those words his own health care team knew that all applications were having the same problems. as one internal memo from the administration's health care war room obtained by abc news reads, "the same portal is used to determine eligibility no matter how the application is submitted. at the end of the day we are all stuck in the same queue." did the president not know that everything needs to go through the same broken website? >> these memos say that at the end of the day we're all stuck in the same queue because they all have to go through t

abc's chief white house correspondent jonathan karl tells us. >> reporter: today an embattled president obama met with insurance company ceos who are unhappy with his latest effort to fix obama care. many consumers are simply confused. suzie and jim fenelli of silver springs, maryland watched the president once again promise to help them, but right now the only thing they are sure of is they got a letter cancelling their health insurance. >> right now i'm promised a lot of things, and the only thing i got in my hand is this, and i have to figure it out. >> reporter: in an effort to repair his broken promise that nobody would lose insurance they like, the president said he'd change the rules, allowing people to buy old, preobama care policies for one more year. but what about the fine print? each state must approve the president's plan, and already some are saying no. case in point, washington state insurance commissioner, a democrat, says it would destabilize the state's entire insurance market. that left bill fullner totally out of luck, he got a cancellation notice. >> your new plan h

the president said enough is enough and abc news chief white house correspondent jonathan karl now tells us what began happening right away. >> reporter: for more than a century, the filibuster, immortalized in the movie "mr. smith goes to washington" has empowered the minority party in the senate to bring everything to a halt just by talking. >> i can hold this floor almost unless doomsday. in other words, i've got a piece to speak. >> reporter: it's a tactic republicans are using more than ever. from rand paul who tried to block the president's pick to run the cia to ted cruz who talked nearly 22 hours straight against obama care. republicans are now blocking dozens of president obama's nominees. but today in a controversial and historic move, referred to as the nuclear option, democrats changed the rules, ending the filibuster when it comes to most presidential nominees. minutes later they moved forward on one obama nominee who had been blocked for almost six months. >> a simple majority vote no longer seems to be sufficient for anything that enough is enough. >> reporter: but republi

abc's chief white house correspondent jonathan karl starts us off. >> reporter: during the first month just 26,000 people were able to select health insurance through the federal website or over the phone, a stunningly low number. 14 states and d.c. operate their own health insurance market places and did better, nearly 80,000. all tolled obama care is way behind the administration's goal of 500,000 for the first month and the 7 million they hope to enroll by march. those numbers and who they sign up are critical to making obama care work. even before the numbers came out today, the white house put the blame on the troubled website. >> i can only tell you that we fully expect that the numbers will be even lower than anticipated because of the significant challenges caused by the website. >> reporter: but that line is not quieting anger in congress where today the most eye popping revelation came from one of the government's top accountants, the first official estimate of how much the website has cost so far. >> by the end of september it was north of $600 million spent. >> reporter: $6

abc's chief white house correspondent jonathan karl. >> reporter: it all started when liz cheney, the daughter of the former vice-president, came out against same sex marriage in her campaign for senate in wyoming. that's not a surprising position for a republican in wyoming. but liz's younger sister mary is married to heather poe and the lesbian couple has two children. >> i love mary very much and i love her family very much. this is an issue on which we disagree. >> reporter: her sister mary spopd responded on fae facebook. "this isn't just an issue on which we disagree" responded heather poe, mary's wife, on facebook. you're just wrong and on the wrong side of history. "liz has been a guest in our home, has spent time and shared holidays with our children, and when mary and i got married in 2012 she didn't hesitate to tell us how happy she was for us. to have her say now she doesn't support our right to marry is offensive to say the least." mary cheney responded "i cooperate have said it better myself." >> i don't think we have ever seen the cheneys disagree like that. it's not ju

you have to regain people's trust. >> jonathan karl, if heads aren't rolling, what will they do now? >> the big thing right now is getting that website fixed. the president has clashed with insurance companies, but he brought the ceos in and they have the same goal right now, the exact same goal, which is getting as many people as they possibly can to enroll in these health exchanges, he does have an ally there with those ceos. >> rebecca jarvis, give us a reality check. what are americans thinking? >> the issue is here who is signing up. right now, the numbers are skewing much older than the insurers anticipated. we were expecting people of the age of 40 starting to signing up through these exchanges. those who are younger are opting out, and that's a problem for the future years, because ultimately, in order for this to work, the insurers need a pool of people that's both young and healthy as well as the sick and the old. ultimately, if next year you don't see young people signing up the exchanges, then in 2015, that's when premiums start to go up because the insurers will say, we

abc's chief white house correspondent jonathan karl starts us off. >> reporter: during the first monthust 26,000 people were able to select health insurance through the federal website or over the phone, a stunningly low number. 14 states and d.c. operate their own health insurance market places and did better, nearly 80,000. obama care is way behind the administration's goal of 500,000 for the first month and the 7 million they hope to enroll by march. those numbers and who they sign up are critical to making obama care work. even before the numbers came out today, the white house put the blame on the troubled website. >> i can only tell you that we fully expect that the numbers will be lower than anticipated because of the significant challenges caused by the website. >> reporter: but that line is not quieting anger in congress where the most eye popping revelation came from the top accountant, the first official estimate of how much the website has cost so far. >> by the end of september it was north of $600 million spent. >> reporter: $600 million. to put that in context, that's mo

abc's chief white house correspondent jonathan karl has exclusive documents and went toe to toe with these new questions for the white house. >> reporter: as the health care website melted down, the president repeatedly told people there were other options working just fine. >> you can bypass the website and apply by phone or in person. >> reporter: a quick call. >> i want to repeat that. 1-800-316-2596. >> reporter: and voila. >> it usually takes about 25 minutes for an individual to apply for coverage. >> reporter: but ten days before the president said those words his own health care team knew that all applications were having the same problems. the same portal is used to determine el jiblt no matter how the application is submitted. at the end of the day we are all stuck in the same queue. did the president not know that everything needs to go through the same broken website. >> these memos saying at thehe the same queue because they all have to go through the same portal. >> jon, i get it but the person who calls isn't the one who has to wait after the application is filled. >>

jonathan karl, abc news, the rá.ing with a market milestone on wall street. the dow opens at a record high after closing above 16,000 for the first time ever yesterday. the blue chip is up 22% for the year. if it keeps up the wing streak it would post the boast performance in a decade. microsoft out with the new entry in to the game console wars. fans lining up for hours to buy the x-box one at midnight you can watch movies, tv and play games. it will cost 500 bucks. 100 more than sony's playstation. it hit the market last week and already sold millions of units. >>> here's the evidence you need that you never know what you will see across from our studio here in new york central park. >> case and point. the guy that took his pet, tyrannosaurus rex out for a walk in the park. the guy leading the t-rex around was telling people his name was cojo. >> quite a few kids were brave enough to get close it to and ended up in one couple's wedding picture. >> pretty cool, right. >> what is that when you drop in on somebody's p

. >> jonathan karl asked jay carney about the enrollment problems. here's some of that exchange. >> the answer is yes, as was reported widely at the time. the whole point is that c.m.f. is what g an account led to the bulk of issues. initially, on the launch of the marketplaces on october 1, you were not able to do that by phone. and in response to the trouble that users were having online, the unacceptable trouble they ere having, we bulked up the staffing of call centers and made it possible for individuals to call and enroll and sign up and bypass the creation of an account so that could be handled septemberers. the applications are processed through healthcare.gov and we it.working to fix the user experience was to alleviate the frustration that so many americans were having online and take that frustration away from them and allow a live person to handle their questions and their sign-ups and enrollment for them. it was a known fact at the time. we never pretended otherwise. as you know, because i know you talked to people about this that -- the

abc's chief white house correspondent jonathan karl with a brand new abc news poll. these are numbers the president has been insulated, his personal traits? >> reporter: clearly the obama care troubles are the biggest factor here but we are seeing something different. for the first time in our poll the majority say they have an unfavorable view of obama personally. take a look at this. on the question of whether he was a strong leader, the majority say no. we have never seen that before. asked if obama was honest and trustworthy, again, for the first time the majority say no. we have never seen such negative reviews of obama's personal attributes. that may be the most troubling thing as the president faces that race against time that every second term president must confront. >> jon karl and the trouble numbers for the president. thanks. >>> to another headline from washington tonight, after so much talk of the toronto mayor in trouble investigators are now pointing to an american politician behaving badly. congressman trey radel will appear in court tomorrow. >>> a

jonathan karl has the details. >>> i'm afraid not! has empowered the minority party in the senate to bring everything to a halt just by talking. >> i can hold the floor almost until doomsday. in other words, i have a peace to speak. >> reporter: a tactic republicans are using more now than ever. >> i rise today to begin to filibuster -- >> reporter: from rand paul, who tried to block the president's pick to run the cia, to ted cruz who talked nearly 22 hours straight against obama care. republicans are now blocking dozens of president obama's nominees. in a controversial and historic move, referred to as the nuclear option, democrats changed the rules, ending the filibuster when it comes to most presidential nominees. and minutes later, they moved forward on one obama nominee who had been blocked almost six months. >> a simple majority vote no longer seems to be sufficient for anything. that enough is enough. >> reporter: republicans called it a naked power grab. >> friends, we are approaching a slippery slope that will destroy the ve

here's jonathan karl at the white house. >> today em ballots the president obama met with insurance companynhappy with his latest effort to fix obama care. many consumers are simply confused. sue and jim watched the president once again promise to help them but right now the only thing they are sure office they got a letter cancelling their health insurance. >> vit now i'm promised a lot of things and the only thing i have in my hand is this. i'm going to just have to figure it out. >> in an effort to rae pair broken promise that nobody would lose insurance they like, the president said would he change the rules. alug people to buy old pre-obama care policies for one more year. but what about the fine print? each state must approve the president plan and already some are saying no. case in point. washington state insurance commissioner a democrat says would it destabilize the state entire insurance market. that's left bill totally out of luck. he's one of those with got a cancellation notice. >> new plan has more benefits and different price. different price. >>reporter: different indeed. n

jonathan karl, abc news, the white house. >>> couple of stories from the nfl that have nothing to dot now. sources say the whole situation blew up after offensive lineman richie incognito sent text messages that were racist and threatening to teammate martin. that brought about his suspension. there is a wide ranging investigation by the league. >> the nfl will conduct a review of the workplace, and we are going to give as an organization our full and complete cooperation with the nfl. >> they said if the league's review shows the dolphins' locker room is not a safe atmosphere, he will do whatever it takes to make it one. johnthan martin is said to be with his family in los angeles for counseling. >>> meanwhile, houston texans' coach, gary kubiak, remains in the hospital undergoing tests with his family by his side. he collapsed at halftime of his team gate against the colts. texas management says he is alert and coherent and in good spirits and could be released as early as today. >>> after all of that, there was a monday night football game last night. >> packers hosting the bears

jonathan karl with abc asking those questions. goes back to a story first reported on abc from an h.h.s. war room memo released by the house oversight and government reform committee in which it says, quote, the paper am captions allow people to feel like they are moving forward in the process. at the end of the day, we are all stuck in the same cue. in other words, it has to be put in the web site. we're back with the panel. it's interesting to watch these briefings get more tense as the days goes go on. >> who says the white house briefings aren't no fun. come on. this is another angle of the story that is going to have some legs mostly because you can't get on to the web sight, so you do have to call over the phone out you do have to fill out a paper application at this point. and there has been this sense that that is a faster, easier way for you to enroll in healthcare and if everybody is getting funneled eventually through healthcare.gov and healthcare.gov is still having problems well then that's simply not happening. >> bi

mocked jonathan karl. >> these memos say that at the end of the day we are all stuck in the same couldcause they all have to go through the same portal. >> john, i get it but the person who calls isn't the one who continues to wait after the paper application was filled, right? >> your mocking is entertaining but the president said you could apply within 25 minutes. that was not true. >> the work that you do -- i think everybody else is looking quizzically. >> i didn't understand that but perhaps ed henry did. he joins us from the white house. is there panic inside the white house? is there real concern that this whole administration may go over the cliff? >> panic might be a slight exaggeration but i only say slight because i think it's reaching a critical state for this president and just in the last few moments we have picked up this new reporting about how today the white house, you know, brought in 15 democratic senators who were up for re-election in 2014, the key being they are the ones who are going to have to defend obamacare. they are very nervous they are going to lose their

for "this week," jonathan karl, abc news, washington. >> that is one big bowl of cereal.nks to the "alpha house" gang. the show launches on amazon on november 15th. >>> now, we honor our fellow americans who serve and sacrifice. this week, the pentagon released the name of one soldier killed in afghanistan. >>> and that it is all for us today. thanks for sharing part of your sunday with us. on this veterans day weekend, we leave you with the world war ii memorial. ? in the news this sunday, recovery efforts underway in the philippines following the gas stating tie about noon as crews bring food and aid to the victims. and a deadly mauling at an animal sanctuary, why authorities had trouble locateth caretaker. >> still plenty fog around the bay, 53 here. we will have more mild temperatures but more changes are on the way. i'll have

current colleague my former colleague jonathan karl giving the press secretary a grilling today. >> yeah, it was something else. and specifically on this, we saw an internal memo from the white house that said that they knew this was an issue. they knew that sending people to the telephones or to an inperson call center working with the navigator would still put you through the same bottleneck. everyone according to this memo. everyone is in the same queue e. whether it's on the phone or web site. >> if you want to apply for obama care you can go on the web site theoretically, fill out an application or on the phone but all the information goes to one hub and that one hub determines whether you are eligible for subsidy, for instance. that is the one hub, as far as we can tell that is not working effectively. you are lined up in that could you e? >> that is the still broken web site. the only way to obtain the coverage to find out what options you are available for is through healthcare.gov which the web site we know is not working now according to the white house will be fixed by the end

abc's jonathan karl live in washington this morning with the very latest on all of this.ood morning, jon. >> reporter: good morning, robin. >> it was president obama like we have never seen him before. bluntly acknowledging the failures of his health care rollout. and admitting he didn't quite know what caused it to go so wrong. a deflated president obama is taking blame for the botched rollout of his health care law, declaring repeatedly, it's on me. >> i do make apologies for not having executed better. that's on me. that's something i deeply regret. we did fumble the ball on it. i feel deeply responsible. >> reporter: he conceded that he has not kept his promise, that anybody who wanted to keep their health insurance, would be able to. >> i completely get how upsetting this can be for a lot of americans. particularly after assurances they heard from me that, if they had a plan they liked, they could keep it. >> reporter: he vowed to change the rules to fix that. those americans who have had their insurances policies canceled, he said he will allow insurance companies t

last year, cheney told abc news' jonathan karl he was proud of mary and his new daughter-in-law. >> they've been an important part of the family for a long time. provided us with two of our seven grandkids. >> reporter: but in wyoming, where liz cheney is challenging a conservative senator, she's making her position clear, creating a deep family rift. for abc news, jeff zeleny, abc news, washington. >>> now to the latest for toronto's wild mayor. rob ford, stripped of all of his powers after that crack-cocaine scandal. but still refusing to step down. and telling abc news, he's getting help for his drug and alcohol problems. linsey davis has the story. >> reporter: this morning, toronto mayor rob ford is speaking out, just hours after city council members voted to strip him of most of his power. >> all they did was stab me in the back. over issues, the same issues, that i've admitted to that they do but nobody knows about it. >> reporter: accused of excessive drinking, drug use, and overall erratic behavior, ford has been in the public spotlight for weeks. and has made more than a few misst

abc's jonathan karl has more from washington.e white house said repeatedly that people canç bypass the problems on the website by sending an application over the mail or on a hotline. turns out that is not the easy fix that the white house suggested it 0 would be. president obama has repea( reassured frustrated consumers that they could easily bypass crash after crash on healthcare.gov by enrolling in other ways. >> in the meantime, you can apply for coverage over the phone, or by mail, or in person. >> reporter: he said enrolling over the phone is easy and quick. once you get on the phone with a trained representative, it usually takes about 25 minutes for an individual to apply for coverage, about 45 >> reporter: internal obama administration memosç obtained exclusively by abc news from republican congressional investigators show that applications over the phone have the very same problem as those on the website. why? they use the same computer system. determine eligibility no matter how the application is submitted, reads one

jonathan karl, abc news, washington. >>> now to two health headlines this morning.eed to take medication to lower cholesterol? experts disagree on this. two medical groups released new guidelines recently recommending 1/3 of all adults over the age of 40 stake statins but prominent cardiologists say it is overkill. even so, critics admit that the new guidelines are a big improvement over the old criteria. >>> moving to birth control. researchers are warning taking the pill may increase your chances of eye disease or blindness. experts say women who have used oral contraceptives for three years or more are twice as likely to suffer from glaucoma. however, the overall risk of glaucoma is fairly low for most women. still, if there is a history of glaucoma in your family, the recommendation is that you check with your doctor. >>> emergency officials in the midwest say early warning storm sirens and the fact that many people were in church saved a lot of lives during sunday's storms. despite the widespread destruction in illinois, the mayor says not one church was hit. w