luke russert as you can see the church emptying out after the funeral.york your thoughts. >> what we saw was an official function, a ceremony to bury someone who died but we also watched a very personal function, a very personal funeral that's been broadcast nationwide. people at home we're here watching a very personal funeral, a family member being buried and the president's eulogy was extraordinary because this is the third time that i can remember seeing the president tear up. seeing the president, hearing the president's voice choke up. today, when he went to the briefing room to talk about the shootings at newtown when the children were slaughtered and the day his grandmother died just before the election when he was giving that speech and the tears running, rolling down his face. that's what made this extraordinarily personal and to add to what jonathan said makes a fantastic observation, this is a bond we have never seen between a president and a vice president. vice presidents are usually shunted off, not this one. this vice president is an inte

let me go to luke russert who covers capitol hill. luke we just had congressman chris van hollen on noting nearly 200 votes from congress regarding this health care law. what are you hearing is the next level of this battle if any, from the gop? >> reporter: what the gop is going to do now is something we've long speculated will in fact happen. that is they will move forward on repealing obamacare through the bujddgetary process. they'll use a method called reconciliation where they can go in the senate and repeal the president's health care law only with 51 votes. they won't have to achieve that 60-vote cloture mark they can avoid the filibuster. they want to get president obama to have to veto a repeal of the health care law. that would be the furthest they could move on it. it's still very much alive within republican politics and republican circles, something they feel still warrants attention even though the law passed five years ago. make no mistake about it, they will still continue this fight. i want to throw one thing in here

joining us now from wilmington delaware, is nbc news capitol hill correspondent luke russert. luke, good morning to you, thanks for joining us. what can you tell us about what we can expect in today's services? >> reporter: good morning, steve. we can tell you president obama and the first family including michelle obama and the two daughters have just recently landed and are on their way to the church in wilmington via motorcade. and this church is really i think reflective of what the biden family is to delaware which is representing people of all stripes. it's a diverse neighborhood, working class neighborhood. formerly italian catholic neighborhood and it's diversified over the years. there's many people just watching the services, many paying their respects. as far as what we expect to see from the funeral, i think you can see this wonderful picture of beau right here. this is a very catholic funeral. you're going to have the catholic hymns that are often sang at funerals. also there will be some readings. one reading is from the book of wisdom which talks about not the qu

joining me now is nbc's luke russert and columnist marcus. both here and on the hill. first to you. the state of play right now, the president in this last ditch effort, first at the ballpark and then the ballpark last night at the congressional baseball game, and then today trying to twist arms on the hill. what's the reaction to the president's appeal? >> most loved that house democrats have ever gotten from president obama, andrea. we often talk about how the last thing he wants to do is try to move members of congress along or hang out with them. they've gotten a big dose of obama last night and tonight in a span of 12 hours, seeing the president in nationals park and here at their caucus meeting this morning. he essentially went into their meeting and said look i think that this is a good deal because i'm the one shepherding it. meaning this is a progressive trade deal. you mentioned ahead at the beginning of the show. there are three separate votes. the first one is taa, trade adjustment assistance. obama said to his fellow democrats play it straight. what democra

the sage of capital hill luke russert. bomb shell. what happened? >> house democrats have been taken for grant by this president since the beginning. if he thought showing up to a congressional basketball would move them a huge cause for labor and within the progressive community they he was sorely mistaken at the white house. this is kind of what's interesting what happened today. it deals with a lot of parliamentary procedure tools. we have taa, tpp -- >> you're losing the readings game right now. go ahead. >> tpp question mark. today an order for tpa, which is the president's ability to negotiate a trade deal that was contingent upon passing taa, trade adjustment assistance. ordinarily democrats support taa because it helps disenfranchise workers who lose their jobs because of trade deals. in this deal the afl said if we take down the taa even though we might like it it will take down the entire deal let's go for it. they did. all indications were nancy pe low pelosi was going to support this. >> what happened? >> she had a change of conscience.

. >> we start the hour with nbc's luke russert on the hill. luke, what is in these changes that the house really objects to here. >> reporter: well what they say is on may 13th they passed a bill usa freedom act with 338 votes that was overwhelmingly bipartisan. this came after months much painstaking negotiations and the senate has no right to do away with the legs lagz because they screwed up. rand paul called his bluff and mitch mcconnell got left with nothing to show for it. the issue really at hand and hear this from republicans privately, mcconnell was working on trade legislation before the memorial day recess he knew where we stood and how the heck are we backing down from legislation that had 338 supporters. now there's an interesting question the first amendment mcconnell put forward it just went down. now there are three more going to be put forward. if any one of those gets the 51 votes to pass then that legislation would be deemed changed and the house would have to decide whether or not to accept those changes. as what you put up

nbc's luke russert, thank you so much from wilmington. my colleague, steve kornacki has live coverage of beau biden's funeral beginning here at 10:00 a.m. on msnbc. >>> other news in computer hacking, this affects 4 million current and previous employees. hackers working for the chinese government breached the computer service on the office of personnel management in december. chinese officials deny any involvement. >> we hope the united states can let go of this suspicion and stop groundless accusations. >> we don't see enormous amounts of attacks like this against the u.s. government institutions coming from china that are not government sponsor. >> officials say it's not going to be easy to figure out what was stolen because many of the government's computers are so antiquated. >>> new this morning pope francis is calling for peace during his one-day visit to bosnia. bosnia is divided among religious and ethnic lines 20 years after the civil war that depleted the catholic population. on a flight to bosnia the pope described them as the

. >>> next luke russert filling in for andrea mitchell.t worldwide. just show them this - the american express card. don't leave home without it! and someday, i may even use it on the moon. it's a marvelous thing! oh! haha! so you can replace plane tickets, traveler's cheques, a lost card. really? that worked? american express' timeless safety and security are now available on apple pay. the next evolution of membership is here. congratulations. you're down with crestor. yes! when diet and exercise aren't enough, adding crestor lowers bad cholesterol up to 55%. crestor is not for people with liver disease or women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. tell your doctor all medicines you take. call your doctor if you have muscle pain or weakness, feel unusually tired have loss of appetite, upper belly pain, dark urine or yellowing of skin or eyes. these could be signs of serious side effects. i'm down with crestor! make your move. ask your doctor about crestor. >>> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," terror network. an overn

luke russert now from washington. bring us up to speed. where do we stand on passage of reform act? is anything changing on this version? >> it seems the house will move forward with votes this afternoon. the problem with that, as you just showed there, house majority leader fellow republican kevin mccarthy saying if you change it it will be problematic. mcconnel thinks he can strengthen the house bill. it was a huge bipartisan vote. many of the bill's original sponsors said they don't want to see changes to it. mcconnel wants to do two things. number one, essentially delay phone companies from taking data six months to a year. white house other republicans say can be done in six months not a problem. the other thing which is controversial, director of national intelligence review any program the foin company sets up. they think this is an unfair thing to move forward. it's impossible to rectify what that individual would think. it's interesting to see what would happen with these amendments. if they pass, they're by no means no slam dunk in the house. it would keep programs dark un

i'm luke russert coming to you live from washington, d.c.e in our nation's capital this morning, where lawmakers have approved the first major overhaul of government surveillance programs since the 9/11 attacks. the usa freedom act is nows the law of the land after president obama signed the measure last night. in a 67-32 vote the senate authorized key revisions of the patriot act that expired on sunday but the law eliminates th

i'm luke russert coming to you live from washington, d.c.e begin here in our nation's capital this morning, where lawmakers have approved the first major overhaul of government surveillance programs since the 9/11 attacks. the usa freedom act is nows the law of the land after president obama signed the measure last night. in a 67-32 vote the senate authorized key revisions of the patriot act that expired on sunday but the law eliminates the nsa bulk collection of phone records. telephone companies will control the data and the nsa will need permission from a special court to review the records. it is a victory for senator mike lee of utah the bill's main republican supporter in the senate, but also seen as a defeat for senate majority leader mitch mcconnell who argued the measure jeopardized national security. >> this is a significant weakening of the tools that were put in place in the wake of 9/11 to protect the country. 60% of americans are in favor of the bulk data collection program, so i think congress is misreading the public mood if

. >> wow, a lot up there luke russert following the drama for us. luke the big question is did the president's appearance make the difference that he wants. i'm going to play the two different reactions. >> basically the president tried to both guilt people and then impugn their integrity. i don't think it was a very effective tactic. a number of us insulted by the approach. this is our only opportunity to have a major impact to maybe change it get enforceable standards in this every second every minute of every day of his administration he's been at the forefront of fighting for workers and working families for our country. for us as a caucus now to not even give him the decency and respect and trust him a little bit, we will have plenty of time in the future to analyze and determine whether it makes sense for our district, our states our country, i think is selling this administration short. >> we've got speaker boehner saying the best idea is to vote yes on this. so is the president's legacy deal going to be torpedoed by his own party? >> it's a g

i want to get right to luke russert on capitol hill.eporter: it's a somber mood. senator tim scotts the senate's lone african-american released a statement saying quote, the senseless tragedy at a place of worship where we come together is despicable and could never be understood. we'll come together as a city and state to lift those up who need us most right now. i think that echoes a lot of the sentiment on capitol hill, both republican and democrat. i should also say that the congressional black caucus say this is horrible because this happened in an african-american place of worship. this is something members of congress will have in the forefront of their minds over the next few days and months and weeks from now, in terms of what exactly happened here getting to the root cause of this and whether or not there could be legal actions taken. >> luke russert on capitol hill, thank you very much. before we go to a short break. i want to ask folks to put the picture back up of this gunman going into the church. we have a possibility tha

luke russert joins us again live from wilmington.the way looks like they're pretty close to getting ready to go out there. >> yes, we just received word that president obama has landed in wilmington and he is currently en route via the presidential motorcade. and of course he is going to be eulogizing bowe biden, specifically touching upon beau biden's public service as attorney general of delaware. beau biden will also be eulogized by the general who will talk about his military career and his brother and sister hunter and ashley who will talk about beau biden, the family man. this is really the culmination i think of three days of a lot of emotions here, not only in wilmington, but all across delaware. the biden name is so intertwined in delaware, not just politics but day-to-day life. folks in delaware are very proud of the bidens. people i've spoken to in this tight knit catholic neighborhood, they have their american flags flying, their lawns are being kept neat and tidy and they just say we miss beau. we want to send our love a

. >> luke russert has the details from capitol hill for us this morning. luke, good morning. so the program expired, where do things go from here? >> key provisions expired at midnight, jose and for lack of a better word the plug has been pulled on those programs. it remains to be seen what the implications are for national security but as you saw in the lead in, a lot of republican senators, even democratic ones say it's problematic backed up by the administration. for the debate as you mentioned tomorrow, it will be on the senate floor. today is an intervening day. tomorrow you'll see the debate on the senate floor, you'll have amendments authors to the usa freedom act. it's a bipartisan bill a was passed by 338 members, had the blessing of both john boehner and nancy pelosi. it remains to be seen what amendments will be offered to change the bill. mitch mcconnell wanted thing he is would view as strengthening in terms of meants to the bill. we have not seen those and that will be displayed on the senate floor. here's what you have to watch for, jose whatever amendments go

let's get right to nbc's luke russert. good morning. voters expected to -- votes expected to begin in, what two hours how? >> reporter: yeah, that's the expectation. and the question now becomes, jose is that the amendments that are going to be offered by the gop leadership in the senate specifically mitch mcconnell there are about four whether or not they pass and what that would mean the overall future of the bill if it were to go back over to the house. one amendment that is contentious is within the house bill, you mentioned how that bulk metadata would go to the phone companies, in the house bill, it's within six months. mitch mcconnell wants to change it to a year. the white house said that's unnecessary. and there's bipartisan agreement in the house that it's unnecessary. they don't want any changes. i spoke to the house majority leader kevin mccarthy, fellow republican of mitch mcconnell he said yesterday for the senate to pass the house bill. if the senate does take up these changes, there's no guarantee that the house will act

. >> we want to bring in nbc news' luke russert.ean with the reform act in place it's an exxonation for edward snowden. telephone data how is that changed going forward? >> the biggest change thomas what we had been operating on since the patriot act was passed into law over a decade ago was essentially the nsa would have a bulk data collection of different phone calls and what not. and the government would be in possession of this data and that's something that a lot of civil liberties experts found problematic and reflected in our polling, americans found problematic, why is the government just have the right to hold data about my personal phone calls for an eelongated period of time. it was done as a matter of national security is what was being said but this struck me as problematic. they did have to have a court approval. in this case now, instead of the government holding the data it's being held by the private phone companies. now some progressives and libertarians says this didn't go far enough because there's data being acc

let me bring in nbc's luke russert with more details from capitol hill. first, the politics of this. we know senator lindsey graham announcing he's running for president, taking on rand paul but to hear rand paul say there are some people secretly wishing for an attack so they could blame him, it's stunning rhetoric. >> it's quite stunning and it shows you just how heated the senate floor got yesterday. you also had senator from arizona, john mccain, who is extremely vocal and vehemently saying the fact that these provisions are allowed to expire made the united states less safe. and you saw a few dust ups he had with rand paul. you're also hearing criticism privately from people who have been understanding of rand paul that said look he's doing way too much for his presidential campaign regarding this issue and using that on the senate floor, which is a misuse of senate business. that's the criticism on him. in terms of where we go from here tamron we expect the senate tomorrow to go through a few amendments by mitch mcconnell and others which some say c

correspondent luke russert is on the hill where the president was just this morning lobbying his own party and even at the congressional softball game last night. luke, what happened here and maybe more importantly what happens next? >> well abby, a colleague of mine matt fowler said about the strategy of the president, the stepdad that wanted to have a relationship with his kid and went to the game and it blew up in his face. he was trying to make the case to them by going to that softball game, going to the meeting with them this morning to say, hey, help me out here an i wanted to take you through this. it's complex and important and interesting. today's vote on tpa, trade promotion authority, fast track status for the president to negotiate trade deal with other countries without a process in congress subject to taa trade adjustment assistance which helps disenfranchised workers that may lose their jobs due to trade deals passing. taa went down in a big way after nancy pelosi bucked president obama and her number two steny hoyer and said no way, i don't like how the deal is crafte

. >>> good day i'm luke russert in for the great drich drich. and more -- great andrea mitchell. and more details emerging in the alleged plot against boston police. right now the fbi and rhode island state police are on the scene at a home in the city of warwick. the fbi confirms with nbc news that this is a court-authorized activity currently underway. late yesterday, police and federal agents arrested another man related to the possible isis-inspired plot. this came just hours after usaama rahim was shot and killed by police. and fbi agents as they sought to question him. officers said they opened fire after approaching rahim, and they lunged at him with a knife. we'll bring you more. nbc justice correspondent pete williams joins me from boston with the latest. i think we'll" g go to rhode island. what can you provide on activity, is it perhaps related to this incident? >> reporter: that's our understanding. they've been doing this since yesterday. it's a search. so far no arrests. the arrest was outside of boston in everett, massachusetts. david wright will face charges in fe

i'm luke russert pinch-hitting for a quick minute for andrea mitchell.dolezal has just stepped down as president of the spokane, washington, chapter of the naacp. her resignation comes amid a growing controversy over claims she lied about being black. nbc's jinah kim joins us now live from spokane. gina, how is this decision reached? it seemed to be all but in inevitable as the clouds of controversy kept circling here. >> yeah in some ways one could say this was inevitable move by a woman who has just been battered since late last week when all of this news came to light. but in another sense, it's also very unexpected because she announced this on facebook. she wrote a very long statement addressed to the executive committee and naacp members. not necessarily to the public. in it she says it's been an honor to serve and there are so many issues facing racial inequality in america and yet she is shocked that international attention has been diverted away from that to focus on her. and she says people do not have the full story. they're continuing to make

luke russert joins us now. senator rand paul talking about high per boly getting the best of him. >> the chances are good. it is how quickly senate can get through the bill. aids tell me they expect it to get out tomorrow. those changes will then have to be accepted by the house. i asked the majority leader mccarthy whether the house can take those changes to the bill. he said it remains to be seen. he'd like to see them pass the house bill alone. that's the question how many changes are made to the bill? how fast can the house act on it? and will they act on it? >> real quickly, breaking news. someone was arrested for bringing an unloaded gun into the house office building. what do you know? >> 25-year-old josh wheeler in kansas, had unloaded smith and wesin gun trying to come in. this happened a knew times. notably last time. sometimes people that come from gun-friendly states they come to washington capitol building and make an honest mistake and forget their handgun was in there. that's what the office is s

after the aca decision came down one prominent gop house member telling nbc's luke russert that fightforced to do what they've been pledging to do for years. come up with a viable alternative to obamacare. the replace aspect of repeal and replace. even now a group of conservative members still focused on devising legislative strategies to get or repeal the law. house speaker john boehner saying there are no plans to continue the anti-obamacare battle in the house. saying most of the discussion so far is if the court ruled against the administration in king v burrwell what the response would be. many republicans on the 2016 trail facing gop electorate largely opposed to the affordable care act vowing to dismantle the legislation. marco rubio quoting i remain committed to repealing this bad law and replacing it. jeb bush tweeting i am disappointed in the decision but this is not the end of the fight. scott walker adopted justice scalia's language. quoting today's scotus care ruling means republicans immediate repeal this law. how will republicans move forward legislatively and rhetorica