mccarthy just speaking to luke russert told luke russert that paul ryan would be a fantastic choice foruple that with "the washington post" reporting coming out from robert costa reporter at "the washington post." saying that he's reporting that boehner has been calling paul ryan all afternoon. a couple times this afternoon asking him to run and get in the race. even though we heard paul ryan say he didn't want the job. >> clearly kevin mccarthy is weighing in. you can see that bostehner is panicked right now. if john boehner is going to be gone you need to replace him. and kevin mccarthy didn't have the votes. you can count on one finger the number of people who potentially could get that kind of consensus. it is paul ryan. they need to get him into the race. we were talking earlier other names that have been floated who might be acceptable to the establishment, one of them was tom cole from oklahoma. that was floated earlier. >> two hours ago. >> he couldn't shoot it down fast enough. the exact problem that mccarthy had cole will have. you can go down the list. anybody that is close t

luke russert is live with break news. rt we have confirmed, kevin mccarthy has taken himself out of the race? >> reporter: andrea, this is a hung sho huge shock, a bombshell nobody saw coming. a few members of congress just left the meeting. a scrum of reporters went over and said hey, guys, why you leaving so early, we thought this process was going to take over an hour, hour and a half. they said kevin mccarthy stood up, announced he would not be running for speaker and the current speaker of the house boehner said as a result of mr. mccarthy's announcement we will be postponing the election. we do not know why kevin mccarthy has decided to take himself out of the running. every indication this morning at a meeting about this race that mccarthy went to and the other candidates gave us an indication that he was still in it. his staff today gave us all the indications he was still in it. about a few minutes before this came out, i saw his chief of staff walk in and i said how you feeling. he sort of shrugged. i took that a

for more from capitol hill, luke russert.s meeting scheduled for tomorrow, do we know if the subject is the speaker's race and is there any expectation that paul ryan will have something to tell his colleagues? >> well, if the subject is not the speaker's race, consider me shocked, because that's all the house gop members and their staffs are talking about, as well as having to raise the debt limit come november 3rd. paul ryan, i'm told, over the course of the week, spent a lot of time in wisconsin, thinking about the job. there's a sense of god and country that's been pulling at him. but also the sense of reality, which is, is there a path way forward on the house floor, which would enable to give him a mandate? we all talked about how boehner and mccarthy were trying to get the 220 votes on the house floor, if paul ryan is to go, he wants somewhere in the neighborhood of 235. he wants to take the gavel with the backing of the majority of the conference, he doesn't want to tread water similar to what boehner and mccarthy had

joining me now is luke russert on capitol hill. luke, looks like a bank of telephones there behind you. where are you and also, you got a glimpse of paul ryan earlier. what is he expected to say tonight? >> so let's start about where i am. i'm in front of some old 1980s and '90s era phone booths, steve. and the reason why, it's because the man of the hour, paul ryan is right through this door next to me. and this is the staff office of the ways and means committee that he chairs, and it's expected that in that room, he's going to conduct a meeting with members of the house freedom caucus, jim jordan, raul aber dor and ralph meadows to name a few. and we expect him to talk with them, and that's a sure sign that perhaps he really is considering the speaker's job, sort of getting a lay of the land, what a path forward would be. now, we talked about the number 235. that's what i'm told he would like to see in terms of the number of support he would get from the house gop conference if this were to go to the floor for the speaker's vote.

luke russert is there for us. luke, we also leave out john boehner leaving on friday. so we have a big week for john boehner. but let's start with paul ryan in this closed door vote. talk about the chances that he is not going to be the elected nominee that walks out. >> reporter: it would be a huge shock if paul ryan does not overwhelmingly win in the house develop conference vote which is slated to take place right behind me in a half hour, as you mentioned. his only competition for this speaker's race is daniel webster of florida who had the backing of the freedom caucus members because of his support of restructuring the process on how the house operates, on more of a bottom-up approach as opposed to leadership getting so much dominance. take a listen to what daniel webster had to say about his chances. >> i'm not going to condemn myself until it happens. so i'm going in here with an optimistic heart and we'll see what happens. >> reporter: webster is a long shot, thomas. he's such a long shot he has used this opportunity more as a fund raising mechanism than anyth

let's go to luke russert who joins me from capitol hill. you and i are hearing basically the same thing. the question is he's negotiating with his wife at home this weekend but he's also negotiating with his colleagues about how to reshape the job should he take it. explain. >> reporter: there are a few things at play, chuck. obviously what you just mentioned, how would he go about fund-raising, how would he go about doing all the parts of the speaker's job that are not that fun, i.e. doing the fund-raising, he would like some help with that. his wife has never been too keen on this idea. he has three young children at home. i'm also hearing another thing here. palm ryan is now the subject of some very aggressive mobilization efforts of the conservative media on the right, essentially calling him rhino ryan, saying the deal he cut with patty murray was way to conciliatory. so he's dealing with conservative outrage regarding his speakership as well. from everything i've heard is that he will not move forward until the path to 218 is complete

nbc's luke russert has been following this action for us all day on capitol hill. you have had an opportunity to speak to a lot of republican house members. what are they telling you specifically about whether they can convince paul ryan to take this job? >> reporter: well, it's clearly a fractured conference between the establishment and conservatives but paul ryan seems to be the only member that could bridge that divide. however, he has had numerous opportunities to say no, i'm not interested as you saw right there in that clip and he has not taken them. now, he stands by his comment that he is not interested in the race. that was a paper statement. he has never taken the opportunity to explicitly deny his interest in the job. until he does that, t

nbc's luke russert is live on capitol hill with a special guest. y there, craig, thanks so much for throwing to me. we just saw paul ryan become the 54th speaker of the house of representatives. i'll joined now by somebody who was in line for the job but then took a step back and thas the current majority leader, kevin mccarthy. thank you for joining us. what was it like for you watching that whole process, you were so close? >> i'm excited. paul and i have been such good friends for a long time, we wrote a book together. i think paul is the right man at the right time. if you noticed, he united this conference and that's what we need needed. i think we needed a fresh face, we needed to unite the conference. i feel very good about my decision. you've always got to put this country first and i think that's what paul is doing by taking the job. >> issues you had were the possibility of getting the 218 on the floor. you probably were going to get that but it was not necessarily the resound majority that you wanted. ryan was able to get 236. how importa

costa, national political reporter for ""the washington post"" and joining us from capitol hill, luke russert. what's your reading about what's going on in the house republican caucus tonight and in the freedom caucus? >> ryan is moving forward. he made that very clear. he just wants to do that on his terms with the hard liners on his side and the moderates on his side. he's setting the pace of this entire discussion, but he is moving towards running for speaker, no doubt about it. >> is he going to have to run for speaker or is he h just going to stand there, robert, as he said tonight, and have them come to him? >> it's not about whether he has the 218 votes he needs. his advisers tell me he already has that locked down. it's about getting to that number closer to 2467, the number of house republicans in congress. he wants to get 235, 240, so those hard liners who don't vote for them are on the fence, they're on the sidelines. >> luke russert, robert costas tells us team ryan believes they have the votes now. >> i think that's right. i think they believe that paul ryan had an outstanding pe

more from the hill on the republican leadership fight from luke russert. al roker is in south carolina where record flooding is making for extremely dangerous conditions. starting up in new hampshire, hillary clinton is stepping squarely into the gun debate, calling today for new limits on the availability and distribution of firearms. during exclusive "today" show town hall in new hampshire, clinton shared her distress over recent mass shootings. including that deadly massacre just days ago in oregon. but she said there are changes that can make a difference. >> we need universal background checks. we know they will work. we need to close the gun show loophole -- [ applause ] you know about 40% or so of the gun sales in america are done online, done in gun shows, done by people selling out of the back of their cars, basically. >> andrea mitchell is on the trail with secretary clinton and joins us now from manchester, new hampshire. andrea, interesting on the timing here. we have a poll coming out yesterday that shows secretary clinton now nine points behi

and then we'll go to washington and luke russert who is there, following the paul ryan official nominationl be on track to be the next speaker of the house. but let's start right in colorado with jeb bush. you could argue no one is under more pressure to perform than the former florida governor. polling mostly in single digits right now, both nationally and in key primary states. that's despite the fact that his campaign and the super pac backing him are spending more on tv than any other republican campaign. he let his frustration show during a weekend campaign event in south carolina. and a big gathering in houston spawned stories about a few anxious donors and a frustrated bush family. by the way, this is bush's first debate since his campaign slashed payroll for some of its staffers. kasie hunt has been following the campaign and joins me now. kasie, we have raised the pressure in the media on jeb bush. but does jeb feel as if the pressure's been raised on him? >> they're putting pressure on themselves, and yes, he absolutely does. i talked to donors and family friends who were at the

nbc's luke russert spoke exclusively to him about that run. >> are you excited for the job, mr. k and walk. >> are you excited about the support of your colleagues? >> very excited. >> thank you. >> ted yoho is a me believe of the house freedom caucus and the house committee of foreign affairs and i want your take on the strategy moving forward that we are going to be ramping up the assault on the oil infrastructure and the financing of isis in that part of the world. what is your take on that? >> i think it's a right way to move forward on this. this is something to go after. go after the moneys that are facilitating isis to do what they do. i think this is a smart strategy. and our hearts and prayers go out to the service members that died in this attempt to rescue the hostages. >> master sergeant josh with a wheeler, 39, just shy of the 40th birthday. let's turn to politics here in this country. you voted against paul ryan when your caucus met this week. instead supporting congressman daniel webster for speaker. i think you probably know in your heart of hearts that's not goin

joining us on capitol hill is luke russert. luke, brendon buck who's been a very busy man, a spokesperson for paul ryan. i mean, he's basically spent two weeks telling everyone, not happening, not going to happen. no, no, no. then today we get a brendon buck statement saying okay, paul ryan met with the house republican caucus. he's not a no. he's got a list of demands. what happened? >> it kind of goes along what we've been reporting over the last few days, which was that we knew that paul ryan was open to taking the job. but the words that his aide said to us and those close to him said to us was, he will take the job if the conference allows him to take the job. when you read into that, what does it mean? it means he wants a clear mandate. i've heard at least 2359 votes on the house, representatives for the speaker's job because if he takes it, he doesn't want to tread water like john boehner. he wants to enact a long-term vision for how he seize the republican party should go into the future. this is a job he's tried to avoi

let me bring in nbc's luke russert. he joins us live now on capitol hill. a couple of things there, this behind closed-door meeting. what have you learned? and let's compare what paul ryan said to you yesterday, luke, when you were chasing him down yesterday to what we're hearing now that he's going home to think about it. >> reporter: yeah, hi there, tamron. i'm actually in the room where the house gop conference just met. you see it's empty right now. a lot of garbage there in the back, coffee and danishes and what not. but this is the room where they just gathered to try and figure out a way forward, and that way forward is really centered on paul ryan. he has not definitively said no to running for speaker. now, i just caught up with him when he left this meeting. he said, look, nothing's changed from yesterday. and yesterday was, i'm pointing to my statement where he said he would not run. but tamron, there's all this speculation. if he wanted to quell the speculation, all he would have to do is get in front of some tv cameras and say i will not run for

the next leader and now there are growing concerns that the gop -- i'm sorry, let's go right to luke russert. luke is with some breaking news on this. luke? >> reporter: no, not necessarily breaking. what's breaking is paul ryan just walked into the house conference meeting. obviously paul ryan is the man who has the house gop in a holding pattern right now because they will not make decision as to who willbe spoke what butch has not flks did to do it, many are aing he needs to get into this and save the race. iffy wants it, it's there but he has to figure it out. speculation is he's probably going to go become to wisconsin this weekend. it's dlg see hide away from the past but lot of poohing still a dogmatic no as well we staub? he released a statement saying he not interested in the job immediately after mccarthy pulled out. butch he had an opportunity in front of ul of us reporters to say a definitive no, i don't want to do it, don't want to add it was a soft moeas ryan to def netly backing away from it. all eyes will be on him. we don't know if he'll speak up today. ryan is not somebody

nbc's luke russert is on capitol hill. luke, good morning.ary clinton next week, right? >> reporter: it is, jose, and we're eagerly anticipating huma abedin coming here. as you can see behind me, there's a full-on stakeout going with cameras from all sorts of organizations that want to see her. she is a huge witness because her close proximity to hillary clinton. some of the other clinton aides refer to huma as her second daughter. as far as what the actual testimony will be about today, jose, well, it's not going to be about a lot of the alleged improprieties that people have said that huma abedin had by having outside work while she was employed at the state department. the benghazi committee said they will not focus on that, that their charter only allows them to focus on what huma abedin knew about the incident itself and the executive branch's response. nevertheless, the clinton campaign says this is a witch hunt, saying, "the republicans' focus on huma of all people and their decision to leak details about her appearance is just another

let's get the very latest from capitol hill and nbc's luke russert. luke, good to see you, again.on. >> yeah, so, the candidate forum just wrapped up and it was two people talking. daniel webster the long-shot hopeful from florida and paul ryan, the heavy favorite who will become the speaker tomorrow and the formal conference meeting to decide the gop nominee for speaker will happen at 1:30 p.m. today and ryan is expected to do very well on that. his goal is to get 245, 240 votes and he wants a resounding mandate and this all plays out against the backdrop of that budget deal you were mentioning, jose. paul ryan coming out oin favin f the budget. annex tension of the debt limit and also a lot of the things they used in this budget were actually crafted by the ways and means committee that he was che chairing over the last year and change. something that he spoke out against the process but welcome the peace in how he can deal with the more far right members of his conference. >> luke russert, thank you very much. >>> we also have breaking news out of chicago this morning. former h

. >> luke russert, we have been playing what has been said over the last 24 to 48 hours, criticism seemsom all sides. what's the white house saying this morning. >> reporter: they say richard, this morning, that this was necessary, that the situation has deteriorated to the point where they felt the 50 commandos to train, advise and a assist in a combat role could make an impact in trying to kur the country gonzalagainst the anti- forces as well as the more moderate syrian militia. this is interesting because they viewed it as an opening occurring because of how the kurdish forces that would be able to hold the ground which they have aiken. all that being said, richard, which is very interesting here, is that this comes directly after russia over the last few weeks has moved into syria to back up al assad. so a lot of people who work usually in the hills see this as a reaction by the white house that russia's continued involvement in syria as well as the belief they want to hold the ground they have taken so far. however i can also tell you from my conversations on capitol hill, there's

nbc's kelly o'donnell and luke russert are there. kelly, you heard the terms from paul ryan.ill republicans agree to them? >> many republicans in the conference will see those terms as a good solution to get someone with the national recognition of paul ryan and the respect of his colleagues. but what is particularly critical is will those demands or requests as ryan called them go over with the most conservative group, formerly known as the tea party, now the freedom caucus. there are warning signs there. one of the things that paul ryan wants to do is to change the rules, making it impossible for republican members to effectively oust their speaker during the session, mid-session. that was the threat hanging over john boehner. it would have required another vote, sort of like a vote of confidence. and that is politically untenable. ryan's team says that's basically having a weapon pointed at the head of the speaker at all times on every issue. he wants to see that changed. but that's what gives that group of three dozen or so most conservative members their power. if they d

joining me for a look at what's ahead for paul ryan, luke russert.senate taking that up. >> reporter: yeah, the senate is moving forward on that, kate. and we expect final votes to be around 1:00 a.m. tonight. i know you'll be awake for that watching c-span live tweeting, absolutely. they're moving forward on that process. that is john boehner's real last gift we could say to paul ryan, that he won't have to worry about what the caps are for the budge the for the next two years. eig it /* lit billion bit wonky. by december 11th they have to figure out how the money's going to be spent. that won't be the easiest thing but they shouldn't have a shutdown over it. paul ryan, at least in the beginning will walk into a clean barn, as john boehner has said, and not deal wither to speedo speakership off the flank. >> presidential politics invaded your turf today. senator rand paul up there, he said he wanted to filibuster the budget deal. what happened? >> so rand paul said that he wanted to filibuster this, as you mentioned. essentially, the deal would allo

luke russert is standing by with us.english, why is boehner leaving and what has changed around him since he's been in congress? >> well, interestingly enough, brian, john boehner has had to deal with a conservative flank in his conference. it's been very angry at him and said he hasn't done enough for the konconservative cause. he's always been puzzled why the pitchforks come out for him but he harkens back to an older legislation. he says he likes to get things done like the budget deal passed yesterday which will give paul ryan, his successor, peace avoiding what could avoid the most treacherous path for ryan. boehner is somebody who at age 65 has sort of outlived where the house gop has gone as a party. they have gone much further to the right. they want to see much more confrontation with the white house. almost in the frame of what ted cruz does over on the senate side and came to a point where he no longer felt he could governor the conference on a day to day, meaning that there's a risk, a motion to vacate the ch

nbc's luke russert joins me now. ching paul ryan, the other big political figure making a decision, other than joe biden. what are you hearing? we are hearing i know from your reporting that bill flores from texas that if ryan does not run, he would three his hat in the ring. >> reporter: it makes sense that someone from the texas delegation would take a look at the speaker's race. if they were to vote as a bloc you start off with 24 or 25 members there in a speaker's race. when it gets to paul ryan, no news. no news. his spokeman tweeting this morning quote, before you ask, nothing has changed and i don't anticipate any news this week. what you really see happening here is paul ryan taking a step back and sort of seeing how the gop conference as a whole, where their heads are. what do i mean by that? well, when they go back to their constituencies during recess weeks they talk to their voters, a lot of voters who express anger and it tends to make them more conservative or be more full of outrage, shall we say. ryan

. >> joining me now from capitol hill, luke russert. also with me, msnbc host and political correspondent steve kornacki. luke, i couldn't hear what was said and he looked anxious to make the plane and i think a joke about watching the packers game. >> reporter: yeah. paul ryan i think was readily to get out of town because he's the center of attention for the last 24 hours and it's not a place he wants to be coming the topic of becoming speaker of the house. this is a job that he's passed on on numerous occasions and so far on paper he is a soft no. however, as i can tell you, kate, from trailing him for the last day, he is not explicitly said on camera, no, i don't want the job. i'm not interested. it's been the soft statements, this sort of saying, look, nothing has changed. i want to go home. why is that? ryan right now from people i have spoken to close to him is sort of biding time. he'll go home for the columbus day weekend and see how things play out throughout the course of the next week. the leadership wants to let out the hot

. >>> luke russert is at the white house.he white house has consistently said it would not put u.s. troops on the ground, so how is the white house justifying this turn? >> good morning, well, it was increasingly apparent that the situation on the ground in syria was spiraling out of control. and that's what really caused the white house to make an adjustment here. now, the number is small, 50 commandos, but the commandos can partner with moderate groups on the ground, groups that have a proven track record of combating isis and give the united states and our allies a best opportunity at trying to procure a more secure situation there in syria. it will be -- it remains to be seen. i covered capitol hill daily. i went around to different members of congress and asked for their opinions on this yesterday. almost to a person everybody would privately admit this is almost too little, too late. and there's this fear of mission creep. 50 advisers here, a hundred next month, what happens? it's an open ended commitment. this is also

nbc's luke russert joins me now from capitol hill. re we going to have a new speaker decision potentially with paul ryan before we have a new candidate decision from vice president biden? >> reporter: it's the decision, andrea. the decision. it should be hosted by andrea mitchell. you could have biden and ryan right there. you would be way better than jim gray with lebron. >> let's do it together. >> reporter: that would be fun. paul ryan. he has to make a decision this week, i'm told. it could come as early as today. he has a gop conference meeting, however, on wednesday at 9:00 a.m. that's really where to look, because at this meeting, paul ryan will have an opportunity to hear people coming out for him, he will also hear from his detractors. sources i have spoken to say they believe ryan will have privately made a decision by then as to whether or not it will come out at that meeting or perhaps sometime during the day, we'll see. thursday, hillary clinton comes here to testify about benghazi. you could conceivably have the ryan deci

nbc's luke russert joins me now. you are outside paul ryan's office. what is he going to do?'s the million dollar question. we still do not know the answer. paul ryan expected to address that at that house gop conference meeting you talked about with congressman labrador on your show a short while ago, that's 7 p.m. tonight. we are outside his office. the congressman is expected to arrive later this afternoon. what we can tell you is that paul ryan is open to taking the job but if he is to do it he wants a clear pathway on the house floor to somewhere in the neighborhood of 235 votes, i'm told. he wants a mandate from his colleagues, he wants the trust of his colleagues to enact a large term vision, long term vision, large scale operation for the house gop conference moving forward. whether or not he will get that, well, i thought what labrador told you was very telling. that freedom caucus, that bloc of 35 or 40 still support daniel webster, they want to hear from paul ryan. they essentially want concessions from him before they are willing to go all in on him. i think that'

luke russert is standing by with yet another member of the gop caucus. luke? >> reporter: hey, brian, i'm here with charlie dent, republican from pennsylvania, definitely more moderate. what happened today? >> it's pretty obvious what happened. members wanted to take down john boehner, i always said would try to frag the next guy. they just did it to kevin mccarthy. kevin mccarthy had a strong majority of votes among the house republican conference. did he have 180 votes or something closer to 210 votes. he did not have 218 votes. the concern was that if kevin were to go on the house floor, present himself as a speaker candidate, that he failed to get 218 points and would obviously be embarrassed and humiliated. i think that's what largely drove this decision today. i didn't speak to him prior, i didn't know he was going to do this. i was just as shocked as anyone. but the challenge for our conference is quite simple. we need to assemble bipartisan coalitions to pass any important legislation around here. we may have to assemble a bipartisan coalition to elect

joining me now is capitol hill correspondent luke russert.icans leading the charge with the benghazi committee. now it seems like maybe the democrats found an opening. >> reporter: oh, they certainly have, kate. it stems from that gaffe by the speaker in waiting kevin mccarthy last week. it's given not only the clinton campaign new life according to insiders over there but also house democrats who have long thought that this select committee cost over $4.5 million in taxpayer funds was essentially a political witch hunt. today they put the concerns on the house floor and while a privileged resolution went down it is the latest attempt to try to fight this. i thought it was really striking is after that vote went down a lot of democrats had a press conference including ranking member of that committee elijah cummings and flat-out said he believed that the committee solely had a laser beam focus on hillary clinton and constructed to hurt her poll numbers and that is the most criticism that he as a member of the committee in the minority as a ra

. >> luke russert covers capitol hill for nbc news. hat are some of the conclusions from the report that has been issued again by the left, by democrats? >> reporter: yeah, we should mention that elijah cummings teased this report yesterday on one of the sunday shows and essentially the reason why it's being put forward this week by the democrats on the committee is to give hillary clinton a little bit of cover ahead of that testimony on thursday, which will surely factor or sorry, i should say would be based on a lot of the things that were in this report and refuted. take a look at some of the things they directly refute. quote, that hillary clinton ordered the military to stand down. they say that nobody has been able to corroborate that. personally approved or ordered security reduction, pressed the u.s. into supporting a u.n. campaign in libya under false pretenses, oversaw operations to destroy or scrub documents, distracted or authorized u.s. mission in benghazi to transfer weapons from libya to another country. so those are all

luke russert has the latest reaction from capitol hill. katy tur is in las vegas with reaction from the presidential trail. we're going to get analysis from somebody who knows a thing or two about crazy races for speaker, of course, i'm talking about "morning joe's" host, joe scarborough. let's start with the house speaker's race and the stunning news earlier today. it reached a new level of chaos with this shocking announcement of current majority leader kevin mckarcarthy. >> i think i shocked some of you. i'll stay on as majority leader. the one thing i found with talking to everybody. if we're going to unite and be strong, we need a new face to help do that. so nothing more than that. i feel good about the decision. >> house ways and means chairman and 2012 running mate paul ryan who was on this show last night sounding supportive of mccarthy is perhaps the only person who could get the 218 votes quickly. he released a statement saying he's disappointed and will not be speaker. jason chaffetz says he's still in the race. >> i was absolu

msnbc's luke russert covers capitol hill and joins me now.y, know better than anyone what kevin mccarthy faces. the vote is tomorrow. this is the vote to nominate him to be speaker. will he be able to get 218 votes on the house floor? >> reporter: well, that question they still have to answer, andrea, but they have time. that vote is not until october 29th. tomorrow all he needs is about 124 votes, that's the majority of the conference. and from aides i've spoken to as well as senior members of the conference, they believe he'll get that on the first ballot against jason chaffitz, the republican from utah. and the conference is slightly rallying behind him and mccarthy after the barrage of attacks that he's sustained by democrats because hillary clinton, quite frankly, has used this as a way to move her campaign past the e-mail issue saying that the republican attacks against me, same old, same old. so he'll get out of this conference fine. the question will become can he get the 218 on the floor? that still remains to be seen. they have over

. >> nbc's luke russert is on capitol hill right now with the latest. been the reaction from republicans, luke? >> reporter: well, republicans, obviously, because it's only a week after that horrific event out in oregon, are a little mum right now. they're not going to be actively opposing this vocally. however, what you will see is this die a slow death in the legislative process. what do i mean by that? well, democrats are saying they're going to put a block or hold on any other senate business until these measures get a vote on the floor. republicans will surely beat them. it's unclear how this would be able to break the filibuster needed in the republican is that the. but the democratic strategy is to put this issue at the front and center of the nation's conscience, but also to put red -- blue-state republicans on notice. what do i mean by that? you have upcoming races in 2016 in illinois, wisconsin, pennsylvania, and the idea politically, at least, is that we can put these vulnerable members in a difficult spot because this is really appealing to t

operational authorities and rules of engagement. >> let's get the latest from capitol hill and nbc's luke russertral's promising what he calls a thorough objective and transparent investigation. but when i hear that, that's exactly what he said during the last hearing, last time. what's going to be different this time around? >> reporter: well, it remains to be seen. and that's really what members of congress are trying to get at related to that specific incident regarding doctors without borders. i think you're going to see a real hardcore line of questioning on why the story changed from the u.s. intelligence community over the course of a few days. originally it was afghans called that special -- that air force strike and the u.s. special forces took responsibility for it. the other interesting development here in this hearing is you're starting to hear from democrats, frances, acknowledging that the drawdown of u.s. troops down to about half the force that is there now by the end of 2016 probably is not the best idea, considering the recent lapses in security that have happened in afghanistan

luke russert is following the latest developments.ing to continue? >> absolutely. they say they have dozens more witnesses after hillary clinton testified for 11 hours, as you mentioned yesterday. and we expect the investigation into benghazi from the select committee to last into 2016. the reason why i think the democrats will stay on the committee. while they've said their participation might give it too much validation, they understand the risks of removing themselves as the investigation would go into '16, a presidential political year and hillary clinton as the democratic front-runner. so politics is very much a part of this committee, especially after we found out after kevin mccarthy's statement a few weeks ago. so it's an interesting development. there was speculation they might walk out, but i don't think anybody took them seriously. you saw the amount of defense cummings was playing for hillary clinton yesterday, saying the select committee and the investigation was beneath the dignity of the country. and even now, you see c

. >>> nbc's luke russert has been following general john campbell's testimony in front of the armed services's been going on? >> reporter: well, jose, senators and staff i spoke to before this hearing said that the questioning would focus on three things. obviously the horrific attack on the doctors without borders facility that i think richard summed up pretty nicely. the other two aspects are why is the northern area of afghanistan suddenly falling victim to the taliban, specifically that town you mentioned, kunduz, as well as a third line of questioning about whether or not the withdrawal of u.s. forces by the end of 2016, which is the wish of the obama administration, is still a possibility. those are the three lines of questioning. now i think richard summed up pretty accurately what happened with the hospital's line of questioning, the general admitted it was up in the u.s. chain of command that authorized that and it was a mistake, they'll have restraining of their forces. but there are some interesting developments as to why the taliban has been able to have a resurgence. general cam

luke russert is on capitol hill.been following paul ryan around and waiting outside his office. how did he get here? >> reporter: here i am right outside his office again. he as a few more meetings to shore up some support. how did ryan get here? well, he was a firm no a few weeks ago and then that slowly started to change into a reluctant yes, a conditioned yes. paul ryan realized if he were to walk away from this position, he would be viewed at selfish and someone who did not step up when his party needed him. and he's not going to have to fund raise like john boehner did. i think he realized the speaker position will allow him the opportunity to move forward on these policies. but most importantly he got the -- not the full-on endorsement of the freedom caucus, but a motion of support from them where he thought, hey, i'm not going to come under the gun like boehner and mccarthy did, i'll get a few months at least of using my political capital. i talked to a lot of conservative members, they're rallying behind paul

luke russert is on capitol hill. it's changing by the minute. who have you got with you? >> it's changing by the minute indeed. i have a republican conservative from texas. and before i interview him, i just want to tell you about comments that kevin mccarthy made to "national review," the conservative publication saying the reason why he was not able to move forward as speaker is because he could not make the concessions that conservatives were demanding. he was not able to get a pathway to 218 votes on the house floor, also saying that sometimes you have to hit rock bottom in order to get back up as well as saying that he did not want to put members through a tough vote in their district to support him. and congressman, we were talking off camera, you said this was a selfless act by kevin mccarthy. why? >> listen, my facebook, twitter, town halls, phone calls have all been blowing up saying kevin mccarthy is just john boehner 2.0 and we don't want that. but i can tell you that kevin showed today that he's an honorable man. he put the country in front of his own politica

i want to bring in terence moore, national columnist for sports onner.com and luke russert.terence, this industry is booming. we mentioned it's a $1 billion industry. how badly do you think this is going to go over for them, if it appears that these games are rigged and that some of these allegations may be true? >> well, actually, the big question is, what are these sports leagues going to do about this? because right now when it comes to the national football league, major league baseball and other entities, this is going to be their great satan. and that's because these sports re leagues, these fantasy leagues are trying to make us believe that this is more skill instead of gambling. it's gambling. and gambling is bad funews whent comes to sports. and it goes beyond the 1919 black sox scandal that everyone knows about that nearly kill kd baseball. back in the 1950s, you had a couple of gambling scandals for college basketball that was not good. 1960s, you had alex cares with and paul horning that were suspended by the national football league. and in the nba, you had that

we'll see how much patience they have for paul ryan. >> luke russert, thank you. speaking of house republicans hoping paul ryan can unite the fractured party, nick mulvaney is a member of the freedom caucus and joins us from capitol hill. nice to have you with us, sir. we just heard from luke there, now former speaker boehner had to say, patience, and bringing patience in. there's been so much focus on the role of the freedom caucus in choosing a new speaker, and initially not all that support was behind paul ryan. so what changed your mind, in your conversations with him? >> exactly what you would expect would change somebody's mind, to sit down and talk through the issues. we had a lot of conversations with paul last week, more conversations again this week, and what we heard today in his first speech as the speaker was exactly what we wanted to hear which is that we are going to focus on these very difficult issues that the nation faces. we didn't hear a speech even approaching that out of mr. boehner's mouth the last several years. we work as ordinary people d

. >> luke russert is outside. you can see the flashes going off near the doorway, luke.ld put hillary clinton near your location a moment ago. >> that's right, brian. hillary clinton just walked by, obviously heavy security around her, her trusted aide in tail. she walked by one of the entrances of the committee room. she's in a holding room off to the left with her team. this is as tense a media scrum as i've seen on capitol hill. hillary clinton took into questions. i asked what she hoped to accomplish today, she simply smiled and moved forward. i've seen the republican committee members arrive, the democrats are here. this should get started soon enough. i want to reiterate that this is in terps of a capitol hill hearing is as big as you can get. the staffs have been out here for two, three hours talking to reporters, intense media scrum pushed back against the wall, hillary clinton now in this holding room. i'll be interested to see when she actually goes into the hearing room itself. i presume that will be in the next ten minutes or so, brian. >> luke russert, thank

nbc's luke russert caught up with him as he was leaving his office last evening. >> how surprised were you by mccarthy not going for it all? >> i was -- i thought he was going to get the job. watch yourselves here. i was surprised. >> so you found out with everybody else? >> i was very shocked. he told me right before. >> right before. >> i was very shocked. >> -- the party is right now -- >> oh, this is not the time or place to have those conversations. >> nbc's tracie potts is live in washington. good morning to you, tracy. this is bad timing considering congress is up against some critical deadlines here. >> no doubt about that, dara. and also considering that this is a big job. it's second in line to the presidency. and a lot of people thought mccarthy, even though he had some opposition, had this wrapped up. however, after just a few hours, after he said he was running for the speaker's job, he suddenly decided to drop out. >> i think i shocked some of you, huh? >> reporter: including his competition. >> absolutely stunned. did not see that coming. >> you think it's a mess? >> it

nbc's luke russert has been following this action for us all day on capitol hill. luke, i know you have had an opportunity to speak to a lot of republican house members. what are they telling you specifically about whether they can convince paul ryan to take this job? >> reporter: well, it's clearly a fractured conference between the establishment and conservatives but paul ryan seems to be the only member that could bridge that divide. however, he has had numerous opportunities to say no, i'm not interested as you saw right there in that clip and he has not taken them. now, he stands by his comment that he is not interested in the race. that was a paper statement. he has never taken the opportunity to explicitly deny his interest in the job. until he does that, this entire house gop conference will be in a holding pattern awaiting a firm decision from ryan. i'm told by people close to ryan that there is no expectation of a decision today, that he is going to go home to wisconsin later on this afternoon, sleep on this, hear from more of his aides, hear from more peo

>> without a doubt. >> luke russert in washington, good to see you, buddy.nk you. >>> it's been one of the hottest online companies emerging over the last few years. now a resident job website linkedin is grabbing attention. nbc's joe fryer has that story. >> reporter: it's not your parents' home office. the website for linkedin features ping pong tables, open lunches and beanbag chairs. >> i think there's a greater emphasis here placed on the employees' well-being. >> reporter: now linkedin has a new vacation policy called discretionary time off. it means the company no longer has a minimum or maximum amount of vacation time employees can take in a year. linkedin's vice president says it's part of a growing movement to place more focus on results and empowerment, not hours worked. several other companies have done the same, including netflix, virgin, groupon and a southern california company called zest finance. >> we see more and more companies having a policy like this, what's your reaction? >> great. ultimately, we need to build a world where workers and

the next leader and now there are growing concerns that the gop -- i'm sorry, let's go right to luke russert

. >> you saw him in the video, trying to get some answers, luke russert. do you have some news? meeting that has just surfaced. in the next few hours, paul ryan will meet with a few members of the house freedom caucus, the conservative group that's taking credit for knocking off john boehner from the speakership, and ryan will be meeting with some members of that group later tonight. it's not a formal meeting of the freedom caucus, i'm told, just a get-together. ryan's staff saying, look, he never denies fellow members an opportunity to speak with him if they want to speak with them. as to where he is in terms of making a decision, the latest from his spokesperson saying, quote, i don't expect a final decision tonight. if asked to, i imagine he'd share his thoughts. and of course that would be sharing his thoughts at the 7:00 p.m. gop conference meeting. we expect the topic of that meeting to be what is going to happen to the house gop conference moving forward, specifically regarding the speaker position. he'll hear from his detractors, from his defenders. and he did pick up an

let's turn to nbc news capitol hill correspondent luke russert.ll from democrats is, look, this is what we have been saying all along. it reinforces the negative perception the democrats have had of the benghazi committee, saying this is nothing more than a witch hunt out to get hillary clinton and hurt her. they have been buoyed by a few things, number one, obviously, this admission from a staff member that once the focus went on to hillary clinton and not the deaths of four americans in benghazi, get fired essentially. the other thing obviously that was gaffe that kevin mccarthy had a few weeks ago where he said the benghazi committee was set up to go after hillary clinton's poll numbers. that he is two things put together have given democrat a lot of momentum ahead of that october 22nd testimony date of hillary clinton. now, republicans say this is nothing more than a staffer who was not doing a good job. i think you heard a lot from gowdy. also said to me privately that this is what they believe will be a textbook part of the clinton campaign,

joining me now, nbc's luke russert. , are things any better today with the house freedom caucus? because we heard from labrador and hill's camps. they're not in yet. where does the rest of the caucus stand? >> no, they're not, chuck. and i think this is a very important part of this story. in fact, this is the entire story now, this is the entire game. as i speak to you, paul ryan is about 25 feet away from me, in his hide-away room, right off the floor of the house of representatives chamber, talking to dozens of these freedom caucus members. and we expect them to come out in a short time and say how the meeting went. they have three concerns. number one, can paul ryan really do the job if he takes the weekends off like he said he will for his family? number two, his comprehensive immigration reform, and number three, perhaps the biggest stickler for them, his desire to change the conference rules, but not as far as they would like, specifically the idea of the motion to vacate the chair, which is the tool they used aga