nbc's mike viqueira is there to help us navigate through this traffic jam. d the president's spokesman say the administration is willing to discuss these issues. >> yeah. >> but what in practical terms do you think he means by that? i mean, are we going to see some kind of change to the legislation? >> that is exactly the key issue because there seem to be two competing initiatives or goals. on the one hand, they say they have a commitment to make sure all women have access to contraceptive services with no copays and no additional costs. that's their bottom line, martin. that is the goal and when they promulgate this rule. but at the same time, they want to "allay some of the concerns that have been expressed." soap how do they do that? there's been talk about something called the hawaii compromise where these religiously affiliated organization don't necessarily provide health care coverage with contraceptive coverage but are required to point employees in the direction where they can obtain that coverage. but the question remains, how do they do it without

mike viqueira joins me to talk about this. what can we expect to hear from the president talking about manufacturing? >> reporter: wisconsin is another one of those swing states, you mentioned ohio specifically. both of those states key to the president's reelection prospects. interesting interplay here. when he touches down in wisconsin, he'll be greeted by the governor there, the republican scott walker. he's had a number of controversial issues, not the least of which are those labor problems he had with state and local employees. h effaces a recall election this summer. he'll be there at the bottom of the steps when air force one touched down in milwaukee, wisconsin. later the president has an event planned at master lock. the president trying to encourage companies to move the jobs that have been shipped offshore back to the united states. and master lock, we understand, has done so with about 100 employees. and it's off for fund-raising in california and seattle. >> mike viqueira at the white house, thank you. and we'll

. >> mike viqueira, where is it in this? >> dare we say the big tent. mean? if romney as we all thought 24 hours ago or 36 hours ago, if trump were to endorse gingrich, i think that would help gingrich a great deal. he's sort of taking that away from gingrich more than anything else. the election is going to be won or lost independence. it i don't think that's the kind that are eventually going to end up with barack obama. >> as newt gingrich finds out, if you get into bed with donald trump, be careful. he can bite you. here's newt thinking i'm the only guy who wanted to go to your debate and gave you a press conference and made you look like a legitimate figure. mitt romney ran out the back door, didn't want to be seen with you? >> i know he got left standing at the altar. the fact of the matter is that for romney, you can see the tight-grinned look on his face. he's standing there very stiffly. he knows that down the road there's going to be questions about well, do you associate yourself with fees, trumpian comments. to your point it takes a lot of t

for "today," mike viqueira, nbc news. >>> now to politics. and the race for the white house.dates are busy making their case this president's day weekend as they gear up for the next round of primaries, which are considered crucial. david gregory is moderator of nbc's "meet the press." david, good morning. >> hey, jenna, good morning. >> so we are just a week away from the primaries getting back into the swing of things. a lot at stake for two of the candidates. for newt gingrich, whose campaigning in his home state of georgia. mitt romney campaigning in his home state of michigan. both of them have this santorum surge to contend with. how big a factor is that going to be? he's really picking up steam. >> yeah, i think it's huge. i mean for mitt romney right now, the prospect of him losing michigan threatens to throw this entire race into a completely new dimension. and nobody likes it in the republican party. what that new dimension is. rick santorum is connecting with socially conservative voters in this primary. he is coming across, as i think more authentic than mitt romn

nbc's mike viqueira is live ke white house with us. what's the latest on this budget plan? any president is is required by law to submit a budget for the following year this time in february every year. the president will certainly do thaxt but alex it's late by become more of a notional thing. it gives everybody an idea of where the president wants to head, sort of a political document. almost like a written state of the union because it's really not going anywhere in its current form, sternal not in the house of representatives and probably not the sflat either. here's some of the stuff he's talking about. tax reform is big on the table. remember last summer when they had the debate about reducing taxes and had the grand bargain on the table. he's going to address that, talk about the buffet rule, the surcharge on income over $1 million, closing loopholes in the tax code. and expiring tax cuts for upper income people, those bush tax cuts for couples making more than $250,000 a year. he'll still be pushing that. on the front burner now, of course, is the payroll tax cut ex

for more let's go to nbc's mike viqueira live at the white house. ties agree that the business tax code must be revised. but in the president's plan, there are luxuries that some corporations would have to give up. how does the white house plan to sell this and willton work in this election cycle? >> it is certainly a tradeoff. legislatively, martin, frankly it's unlikely to work given the election year atmosphere. >> you surprise me, mike. all right, all right. and mitt romney and, of course, mitt romney came out with his own plan today. we can talk more about that later. remember last summer when the president was citing down behind closes doors on the golf course was speaker john boehner talking about the grand bargain, the package when the country was about to hit the debt ceiling that would have reduced the deficit by $4 trillion. it came off the table because of revolt that the speaker faced within his own party. part of that was a simplification of the tax code. that was certainly on the table. what the white house has done is sort of steal a

as nbc's mike viqueira reports the issue at hand here is whether or not yardley love's death was intentional. >> reporter: it's been a wrenching, two-week trial for the family and friends of both the victim and the accused. now the fate of george huguely charged with killing ex-girlfriend yardley love is in the jury's hands. in his closing argument prosecutor dave chapman became emotional, scoffing at huguely's claim that he went to love's apartment the night she died to talk things over. pointing out the hole huguely punched in love's bedroom door when she wouldn't let him in. what kind of conversation starter is that chapman said? adding that's the beginning of terror. he reminded jurors of the e-mail huguely sent love after she told him she had been with another man. it read in part, i should have killed you. just days later chapman charged huguely went to love's apartment, beat her, and left her to die slowly face down in her bed. during the trial experts testified love died of blunt force trauma to the head. the final defense witness neuro surgeon ronald ushinski told jurors he did not

our mike viqueira is standing by for us at the white house. mike, this comes, the speech, that is, on the heels of this really resounding jobs report that is out today. how likely is this going to play into the original remarks that president obama had scheduled for this morning? now it's probably going to overshadow that. >> reporter: well, thomas, there's no mistakes the white house regularly schedules these things every first friday of the month. when the jobs numbers came out, ever since august, largely by and large it has been a downward trend and the trend is certainly the president's friend, not only economically but politically for the president during this election. down 0.2% from 8.5% to 8.3%. some 240,000 jobs created during last month. that is certainly the kind of growth that economists have said all along is necessary to bring down a significant -- bring that unemployment rate down by any significant degree. it comes on the heels of a lot of good news about the economy. but one thing you're not going to hear the president do is de

. >> nbc white house correspondent mike viqueira, thank you, sir, enjoy that sunshine. >> i will. >>> on the economy at 2:25 p.m. eastern right now here on msnbc. that'll be in the great tamron hall's hour. don't want to miss that. >>> when you think about money laundering, though, or tax evasion, you might think of places like the cayman islands or panama. but turns out one of the best places for foreign internationals to set up shell corporations is right here in the good usa. in a new documentary, you'll meet a most unlikely character who has a hand in creating these corporations for potentially precarious interests. scott, tell me about this. what exactly did you find here on your investigation? >> well, the u.s. is one of the only countries that will allow you to create a shell corporation and just about any state and not say who's behind it. but critics say this is a big loophole and anti-money laundering provisions, it's big business in states like nevada where we found a guy named robert harris who does this for a living. he has 2,400 nevada corporations registered in his hous

. >> nbc news white house correspondent mike viqueira is live at the white house.ndling this backlash? how are democrats responding to the rhetoric? >> reporter: two words -- brand bargain. you remember last summer the closed-door negotiations between the president and himself and speaker of the house john boehner, republican, was on table $3 in tax cuts for every dollar of revenue raising. according to the white house version of events. they brought it back to john boehner to house republicans and rejected it. they were talking about $4 trillion in deficit reduction but by any measure it -- paul ryan is absolutely right. numbers are staggering and national debt in this country approaching $14 trillion. president's own budget next year, he proposed last week has a defense sift $1.3 billion of projecting and regardless of the fact the economy appears keep your fingers crossed to be turning around and unemployment rate has sunk.8% since last august there are dark clouds on the horizon. chris van hallen and paul ryan's counterpart on the budget committee responded to

thank you very much, mike viqueira.cam subpoena weighing an attack on rick santorum. "the wall street journal" says the president's aides are focusing in on santorum's record to assess his vulnerabilities and consider how their strategy might change if he becomes the gop nominee. joining me now is erin mcpipe. good day. good to see. >> did you good morning. >> perry, how -- we got it. good sunday. perry, how serious do you think the obama folks are on this? >> i think that the they are serious in they have to be. they get paid to like -- you know, watch the republican primary and figure out what's going on and they are considering what or santorum nomination would mean. every democrat i talked to involved in the campaign, their view is mitt romney is by far likely to be the favorite to win the nomination, even though he's struggling the last pew weeks. most of the attention is still on mitt romney and his vulnerabilities and what -- how to exploit them for most democrats involved in the campaign. >> erin, we have this c

mike viqueira has the details this morning. good morning. >> reporter: good morning.t's one thing that's clear after the two-week trial this was a tangled relationship of jealousy, mutual infidelity and drinking. now jurors must decide if huguely went to yeardley love's apartment intent on killing her or whether her death was a tragic accident. it's been a wrenching two-week trial for the family and friends of the victim and accused. now the fate of george huguely charged with killing ex-girlfriend yeardley love is in the jury's hands. in his closing argument dave chapman became emotional, scoffing at huguely's claim that he went to love's apartment the night she died to talk things over pointing out the hole punched in love's door when she wouldn't let him in. what kind of conversation is that, chapman said? that's the beginning of terror. chapman reminded people of the e-mail huguely sent love. it read, i should have killed you. just days later chapman charged huguely went to love's apartment, beat her and left her to die slowly in her bed. during the trial experts

mike viqueira is live in charlottesville with the latest.ne thing has become clear over the course of this trial. theirs was a stormy relationship, off and on over the course of two years and it ended tragically. by the oenld f the day, huguely on trial for killing his former girl friend yeardley love could be in the jury's hand. as the murder trial of george huguely nears its end, alina me sar rowe, his aunt and godmother testified before love was dead in her apartment she saw them being affection at. she narrate add story where huguely and friends including love had gathered. there's george and yardley holding hands. it was not visible to the speck ta taters. it came after he send her an e-mail that read in part, i should have killed you. the defense says the video is important because it shows huguely and love acting in a friendly way. huguely is accused of breaking into her apartment after the night the tapg was record and killing her. there was testimony from two women who said five days before love's dead they witness add, quote, frust

nc's mike viqueira has more on the dramatic testimony. >> reporter: it was the most wrenching tay yet in the murder trial of george huguely. jurors heard an account from huguely himself when prosecutors played a recorded statement he made to police just hours after yeardley love was found dead in her apartment. waving his right to lawyer huguely told police after a day of heavy drinking he went to love's apartment late at night to talk, he says, about their troubled relationship. under questioning huguely reveals kicking the hole in her door and choke her but denies that she died. he says he shook her a little, they wrestled on the floor and she may have had a bloody nose. after tossing love onto her bed, he says he left her apartment claiming that love never lost consciousness during the altercation. the defense claims he did not intention ally kill love and medication love was taking may have trinted to her death. three days of testimony have revealed a pattern of mutual infidelity, mental abused on the part of huguely and love during the course of their fiery two-year relationship.

mike viqueira is with us.e of by all accounts a massacre in the syria city of homs, a hotbed fighting against the assad family led by bashar al assad. there have been problems there in the past. it's been unfolding and escalating and seems to have come to a head in the last 24 to 48 hours. some 200, as you report, upwards of 200, reports are sketchy, dead now in the city of homs an the president out with a very tough statement this morning. he says, in part, i strongly condemn the syrian government's unspeakable assault against the people of homs and i offer my deepest sympathy to those who have lost loved ones. assad must stop his campaign of killing and crimes of his own people now. he must step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately. you mentioned the security council is meeting behind closed tours. they have a resolution on the table calling for a cease-fire, for the assad regime to withdraw forces and release prisoners. we're learning -- russia had been dragging its feet on the res

let's go to michael viqueira. mike, the president obviously pleased with today's news. house not to, in his words, muck up the recovery. he's placing some responsibility, is he not, on the house leadership and speaker boehner in particular. >> reporter: if you were the head or your chief opposition had an approval rating of 13%, which is the approval rating of congress and granted before my friends on the republican said, i think most people identify congress with john boehner and his allegiance in the house of representatives, if it's so unpopular i don't think it's any surprise that the president will be singling them out. what he is talking about cast your mind back a couple of weeks ago. three weeks hence now will be the end of the two month period they agreed to extend the payroll tax cut. the tax that funds social security. the cut has been in effect in a year. it's going to expire after the latest game of chicken before the holidays. they punted it for two months. that expires in two weeks. he have talking jobs again today on day when great jobs number came out.

. >>> as the brothers coke c koch, michael viqueira by the white house. mike point to mitt romney speech tomorrow in michigan sponsored by the koch's american for prosperity group. why would they be doing that? >> reporter: it's a super pac backed by the koch brothers. they have become a democratic boogey man. they will wave that bloody gl f and incite their supporters to give money on their behalf. one of the things that's interesting about this, the obama campaign, in that e-mail, in an ad from the obama campaign that made in america ad we were talking about yesterday, they are playing in michigan as the republicans are fighting it out, they are getting an ore in the water. one interesting thing we learned is that next tuesday the president will have a meeting with the yunited auto workers. it's the same day as the michigan primary. he's been tauting what he did for the auto industry. they still say they would not have bailed out that industry there in the swing state of michigan. >> mike, is it your estimation that the white house is in full electioneering