joining me now live from the white house, nbc's kristin welker. kristin, we see the president using a little bit of humor. they always say a joke is funny because people think it's true. obviously the people there are supporters of the affordable care act. but the damage in some ways has been done. i think one analyst said it's always easier to make the affordable care act easier than to educate them how it benefits them? >> reporter: absolutely, tamron. the campaign to bring down the affordable care act has been a strong one on the part of the republicans. part of what you saw today is president obama answering that. this is his third such event that he has held this year really trying to counter those arguments and to bring in those people who are skeptical about the affordable care act. today he made the case that as of this summer 8.5 million consumers will receive rebates. that is because of a provision within the act that requires insurance companies to pay at least 80% of their proceeds to medical care and if they fail to do that, then they

nbc's kristin welker is at the white house. kristin, was today another attempt by the president to close that gap. >> reporter: that's exactly what today's event would give. the goal of the event was part of a broader campaign on part of the obama administration to get more people on board with the president's health care law and really to make them understand. this is a communications problem that they've had since the beginning when this law was first enacted three years ago. so they're trying to make up for lost time, make people understand what this law really does. today the president highlighted the fact that this summer 8.5 million consumers will be getting rebates of up to about $100 per family under a provision of the health care law which says that insurance companies have to pay at least 80% in medical care costs, not salaries. if they fail to meet that requirement, then they have to give consumers rebates. the president is also highlighting a report that just came out by the health and human services which shows that

joining us for more is kristin welker, live for us at the white house. n, we have seen the president's opponents compare the affordable care act to a pileup, a train wreck, and now a sha sharknado. and even rebates for those already insured. >> reporter: martin, look, the white house has struggled to sell this to the american people from day one. they always argued that once the affordable care act begins to take effect, americans would start to see the results. president obama now seizing on actual data. today he argued that 8.5 million consumers would get rebates, as you say, in the mail of about $100, that's due to a provision one the affordable care act that basically says insurance companies have to pay at least 80% of their profits to medical care. if they don't immediate those targets, then they have to give consumers rebates. the. also, as you pointed out, martin, pointing to the latest hhs report that found that as many as 11 states would see premiums go down for individuals who purchased health care once the affordable care act fully gets under

kristin welker standing by with more on this. first up, kristin, any reaction from the white house? >> well, we've got the e-mails out, alex. but no reaction yet from the white house. as you heard jim say, there seems to be an extradition request from the united states to venezuela. the guardian posted a link on its website dated july 3rd. so a couple of days ago. that's important to note. senior administration officials have been consistent on had point really for the past several weeks. they are in contact with a number of different countries that might harbor or grant asylum to edward snowden and have really sent those countries a warning. which is if that were to happen it could harm relations with the united states. of course venezuela has a strained relationship with the united states. has a close relationship with vladimir putin. president maduro has been quite critical of the united states foreign policy. you just heard jim talk about that to some extent. but this is also sort of the headache for president obama. publicly, he has come out and tried to sort of down play this.

pain around what happened here, i think it's important to >>> let's go to the white house and kristin welkerurday morning to you, my friend. tell me what went into this decision to make this surprise appearance friday and talk about the timing as well. what's behind that? >> well, alex to put it into a broader context, african-american leaders have been calling to the president to speak out about the george zimmerman verdict. behind the scenes, white house officials said the president had really been monitoring the reaction to the zimmerman verdict since it was handed down in the african-american community and also all across the nation. he spoke with how he should respond. on thursday he talked to senior advisers and told them he wanted to address the nation. it was really an extraordinary day at the white house because his remarks came as such a surprise. i have been covering this two years now, alex. every time the president comes into the briefing room, the reporters get some type of a heads-up. the the president wanted this to be a surprise. he didn't want reporters sitting around think

i'm kristin welker in for my friend chuck todd. this00 the president heads to capitol hill to huddle with house and senate democrats. on the agenda, selling his redefined grand bargain. in chattanooga, tennessee, on tuesday, the president promised to cut corporate taxes in return for investments in infrastructure, education and job training. republicans rushed to respond. no deal. >> if folks in washington really want a grand bargain, how about a grand bargain for middle class jobs? how about a grand bargain for middle class jobs? >> it's just a further left version of a widely panned plan he already proposed two years ago. this time, with extra goodies for tax and spend liberals. >> all i can say is what he said today really doesn't make much sense. >> sometimes it just seems this administration never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity to grow this economy. >> republican leaders are planning to make opposition to the health care law a centerpiece of the party's message when they return home in august. but the party is sp

>> kristin welker, thanks so much.man of the joint chiefs. >> i had no idea. he upstaged neil diamond. the famous nathan's hot dog eating contest was yesterday. joey chestnut known as jaws put down a record 69 hot dogs in ten minutes. on the women's side, the black widow, you see her there, sonia thomas. they both are going to join us later this morning. first question, how do you feel? >> and are we going to put hot dogs in front of them? >> i think we'll make them smell hot dogs and probably the last thing they want to see today. >> exactly. >>> also ahead, encouraging news on those teenagers injured on the parasailing accident. we'll hear from their parents. >>> new leads and persons of interest identified in the disappearance of madeleine mccann more than six years ago. we are live in london, but first this is "today" on nbc. >>> coming up on a steamy new york day after the fourth of july, what's behind their soaring numbers? the wild pig invasion spreading across the country and causing billions of dollars in dama

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now for the view from the white house, let's bring in kristin welker.now about that conversation between president obama and president putin? >> richard, the white house never gives too many details about those conversations. what we do know is president obama and president putin discussed a wide range of issues including snowden and they both noted the importance of the united states relationship with russia. publicly we know that the white house has used very strong language in terms of warning russia that the u.s. russian relationship could be complicated and damaged if they don't return snowden to the united states. on friday white house press secretary jay carney basically slammed russia for what he called a propaganda platform, essentially referring to the fact that snowden had that impromptu news conference yesterday at the moscow airport and say it ran count canner to russia's claims it was remaining neutral. as jim pointed out, russia is in a very difficult situation right now, snowden is there. they have to figure out what to do with him and m

let's get right to nbc's kristen welker with us from the white house. kristine completely taken by surprise as the president walked into the briefing room. i want to play just a bit of the reaction when the president appeared at the regularly scheduled briefing today. >> whoa. whoa. that's so disappointing, man. >> what are you doing here? >> jay, is this the kind of respect that you get? >> kristin, a light-hearted moment. you work around the white house. was it a surprise for you too? >> it was a surprise, martin. and that's what made this moment so the extraordinary in part. you notice that the front row was empty. we just weren't prepared for him to come out, quite frankly and just to give a little bit of context to that, usually the white house press corps gets somewhat of a heads-up, even if it is off the record. in this instance, we literally had a few minutes of warning that the president was actually going to come out into the briefing room. and the other thing that was remarkable, martin, is that he spoke for 18 minutes about this topic. this was an e