mr. nelson's interview was seven months ago. a direct quote from you, mr. chairman, on a roger hitchcock show, you said, "atf people and justice people are telling us this goes all the way to the very top. it goes all the way to the atf and the director and the office of the attorney general. this is the approved plan that you know is basically at the highest levels of the obama appointees." if those are allegation that's you're going to make, then it will be important to have mr. nelson come in here and testify as part of that instead of blocking his testimony and continuing to make those assertions which now apparently are obviously not correct. >> i appreciate the gentleman giving roger hitchcock a plug. the fact is that those allegations were made with a number of other false allegations. i might note for the record that we were given statements, allegations that the atf director was viewing on closed circuit internet connection the actual purchases being made. after receiving testimony and multiple checks, we discovered that although he qurd aboinquirt

mr. nelson, i should say, the then acting atf director. mr. cummings asked the chairman to bring kenneth nelson as a witness. he said he is willing to come as a witness. in fact, he even testified or talked and interviewed with staff for both parties. they asked him if he ever approved gun walking. he said he had not. they asked if he was ever briefed about gun walking, he said no. he was aware if the senior justice department officials were ever thorsed gun walking. he said no. surely if the details of operation fast and furious were approved at the highest levels of justice as has been judged -- or accused. then mr. nelson would have known about it. this, is however, what he said in that interview. i quote, i don't believe i had knowledge of the specific tactics used in fast and furious until the facts started to be disclosed in the media. so mr. melson said he never justified gun walking. he wasn't aware of it in the fast and furious operation. and he never briefed the attorney general or anybody else about it. i think that is pretty dire in

mr. nelson or from mr. hoover. >> i want to, i want to go back over this chart again because it's really important for members to have an understanding here. you've got, you've got the u.s. attorney in arizona, the atf, i think with the atf, mr. hoover, mr. nelson, atf didn't report anything to the deputy attorney general, the u.s. attorney and for the district of arizona didn't put any information through to the deputy attorney general. so what i want to know is, all of this talk about resignation, what we're really devaluing the whole concept of asking a top level official to resign, when you haven't reached the level of proof that something was right on his desk. no one's proved that at all. but we keep talking about resignation. if we cheapen this whole idea of ju ask them to resign, you don't like the administration, you ask people to quit, you cheapen that idea, it makes this whole committee process less significant, and i want this committee to be important. i chose to be on this committee when i fir

mr. nelson i should say who was then acting atf director. mr. cummings has asked the chairman to bring in as a witness. mr. nelson indicate he is willing to come as a witness but, in fact, he even testified, or talk and was interviewed in the close interview with staff from both parties. they asked him if he ever approves gunwalking. he said he had not. they asked if it had been briefed about gunwalking. he said no. they asked if he was aware if the senior justice department officials have never been authorized and gunwalking, he said no. surely, if the details of operation passengers were approved at the highest level of the department of justice, as has been accused, then mr. nelson, the driver of the atf presumably would have known about it. this is however what he said in the interview and i quote, i don't believe i acknowledge of the specific tactics used in fast and furious into the facts begin to be disclosed in the media. so mr. nelson to the coming he never authorize gunwalking. the justice department or authorized a. he wasn't aware of

mr. nelson: i ask consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: mr. president, i want to speak today, along with my colleague from florida, senator rubio, about the nomination of judge adalberto jordan. a lot of our folks refer to him as judge jordan, but he has been nominated to the 11th circuit court of appeals, and at this time when we have a very sizable judicial vacancy rate with a lot of these judicial positions empty, we need to get them filled with qualified judges who are going to rule and rule expeditiously. confirming judge jordan to the 111th -- 11th circuit, which is one of the busiest in the country,about is going to be a good step forward in filling the need for all of these judges. we have in florida a long history of bipartisan support for our judicial nominees. that is especially so with my colleague, marco rubio, as we participate with our judicial nominating commission which the two of us appoint, and they screen and interview the applicants for the vacancies on the district court vacancies. and as a result, we have nomi

mr. nelson, the head of atf, was not called to testify, and he is the one who has said under oath that he did not inform the attorney general of these tactics with regard to fast and furious, and he said that he didn't even know about it himself. if you listen to the testimony very carefully, you refer back to the report, clearly the attorney general has -- his testimony is consistent with what the report has stated, again, that he did not have knowledge of this. again, we are very pleased with the reforms that the attorney general is bringing about. we plan to work with him to make sure that those reforms come about. now you can hear from my other colleagues. >> go ahead. >> mr. norton. >> i want to say that unfortunately i think most of this hearing would have bored the american people, because they're looking to see what -- where's the meat? the meat was in the solution. except for questions on our side, there was no hint there was a solution. it was about he said, she said. and 2009, it's just the kind of thing that makes people wonder where they're going. i want to thank the attorney

mr. nelson mandela at a white house dinner in his honor in october 1994.ition of the song "greatest love of all." may she rest in peace. a month after that, she visited nelson mandela in johannesburg. they had a real relationship. >> yeah, obviously, they did. and he remembered that and never forgot it. he's always that eveninged those who stood up for him to be free, and whitney was one of those people. and we don't talk about it as much. i, too, agree with the governor and the half-staff for the flag. and we all really appreciate all those great accomplishments, including her voice. >>> mark thompson, thank you very much for joining us tonight. we leave you tonight with whitney houston, singing for nelson mandela at the clinton white house. ♪ ♪

mr. nelson. >> will this impact the lap band sales? was that something this will also effect?> i don't believe so. lap band treats pashtients that need to lose a percentage of weight that's approximately 20 to 30%. our drug treats that gap that goes between the patients that lose about 3% to 5% on diet and exercise and that 20% which the lap band is able to achieve. so our drug filters nicely in that gap in between those two therapeutic areas. >> the efficacy of qnexa was never in question. it was merely the safety raised by the fda advisory pant and some of the issues related to the heart. i think the majority of the members on the advisory panel ur urge for a study related to that. that is pre-approval or post-approval? >> no. one of the good news is they recommend this post-approval study to demonstrate the safety and long-term potential, even the benefits of using this in terms of reducing long-term morbidities that occur with obesity. >> i asked you earlier about how you were going to do this by yourself in the united states. what did you say? you have $145 billion? >> mi

mr. chairman. >> senator nelson? >> good morning. >> good morning. >> senator hutchinson from texas and i have had quite a round with omb and the two of us having responsibility for passing the massive bill back in 2010 and then going through the process of getting it funded. and basically, nasa had not until the head of omb came and met with us nasa basically had stone walled that omb -- that omb had stone walled the nasa budget. and since you are now the acting director, i think the constructive dialogue that we have with mr. lew having come and met with the congress and continued the discussion on nasa funding so that there was some certainty in the program i'd like to know what your attitude is about continuing those discussions? >> well, as you know, it's a difficult budget environment. nasa's held about even in this budget environment, and what we have done in this budget is to honor the 2010 discussions around the appropriation between the things like the heavy lift rocket and the international space station.

mr. chairman. >> acting chairman nelson, ranking member sessions and other members of the committee, i appreciate this opportunity to discuss my views to economic outlook, monetary policy and the challenges facing fiscal policy makers. over the past two and a half years the u.s. economy has been fwra gradually recovering, while conditions have improved the pace of the recovery has been slow particularly from the pr speck active of the millions workers that are unemployed. supply chain disruptions risked to stall the recovery indications have showed signs of improvement. the federal market committee paet a say they expect stronger growth this year. the close monitoring of economic developments will remain necessary. as is often the case the able and the willingness of households to spend will be an important factor in how the economy expands in coming quarters. households continue to face significant head winds. notably real household income and wealth stagnated and access to credit remained tight. consumer feelings has rise enbut is it low by historical standards. household spending will depend h

mr. chairman. >> acting chairman nelson, ranking member sessions, and other members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to discuss my views on the economic out look monetary policy and thing challenges facing fiscal policy makers. >>> over the past two and a half years the u.s. economy has been gradually recovering from the deep recession. conditions have improved, but the pace has been slow. particularly from the perspective of the millions workers that are unemployed or under employed. more over the slow pace has left it vulnerable to shocks. spill overs from the european debt crisis risk derailing the recovery. unfortuna fortunately over the past couple of months, there have been signs of improvement and economic projections just released the participants indicated that they expect somewhat stronger growth this year than in 2011. the out look remains uncertain and close monitoring of economic developments will remain necessary. >>> as is often the case the ability and willingness of households to spend will be an important factor in how the economy expands in the coming quarters. hou

mr. nelson that was leaked to your people was also inappropriate. with that, we recognize the lady from new york. >> i would like to respond to my good friend's statement that they had not responded to the death. he responded a immediately. he has expressed his concern for the other agents that are being killed at a higher rate than ever in our history. i will not yield. not only did he do that, he took swift action to stop gun walking, which did not happen in the prior administration, and established reform to prevent this from ever happening again. he called for, we could all help him do this, to confirm a permanent atf director. that would help more than anything. he also called for a federal firearms trafficking statute. he called for appropriate funding for the atf to do its job. these are some of the actions he has taken in response to that debt. -- tragic death. once again, this investigation continues on its vast and curious mission to fix the symptoms rather than the cause of so much that legal gun violence on the southern border. -- so muc

mr. nelson and i, senator rubio, senator ayotte and others were anticipating that we were going to begin to see exactly the kinds of things that this discussion this week has brought about. this is about the first amendment. it's about religious beliefs. it's not about any one issue. in fact, this amendment specifically does not mention a specific issue. it refers to the issue of conscience. and in the amendment itself, the reference is made to the letter that, in 1809, thomas jefferson sent to the new london methodist where he says of all the principles in the constitution, the one that we perhaps should hold most dear, if i can paraphrase a little bit, is the right of conscience and that no government should be able to come in and oppose itself -- impose itself between the people and their faith-based principles. in health care, we've never had this before. why didn't we need this amendment or why didn't we need the bill that was filed in august five years ago or one year ago or two years ago or three years ago? because only with the passage of the affordable health care act did we hav

mr. nelson that was leaked to your people was also inappropriate.ith that, we recognize the lady from new york. >> i would like to respond to my good friend's statement that they had not responded to the death. he responded a immediately. he has expressed his concern for the other agents that are being killed at a higher rate than ever in our history. i will not yield. not only did he do that, he took swift action to stop gun walking, which did not happen in the prior administration, and established reform to prevent this from ever happening again. he called for, we could all help him do this, to confirm a permanent atf director. that would help more than anything. he also called for a federal firearms trafficking statute. he called for appropriate funding for the atf to do its job. these are some of the actions he has taken in response to that debt. once again, this investigation continues on its vast and curious mission to fix the symptoms rather than the cause of so much that legal gun violence on the southern border. -- so much a deadly gun viol

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator. senator nelson. >> mr. secretary, thank you for your long and distinguished record of public service. even when i had the privilege of serving with you when we were both young congressmen, and you were the head of reconciliation in the budget committee in the house, and nobody understood what reconciliation was, and you were trying, and here we are some three decades later still talking about reconciliation, so thank you. i want to call to your attention on subject matter not directly in your jurisdiction, but i have filed what the administration has requested of veterans' conservation corp. for unemployed veterans, to bring them into the federal employee for one year, these are veterans coming home that are unemployed, to do projects helping the environment, teachers aides, ect., and give these veterans a chance to get over the hump, and that indirectly affects you. it certainly, even though it's going to be run through the department of the interior and with the concurrence of department of veterans' affa

mr. chairman. >> thank you senator nelson. we're going to take a five-minute break. strictly enforced. [inaudible conversations] >> come back to order, and senator portman has yielded to senator graham, and then we'll put senator portman back in his order when he returns, senator graham. >> if we could earmark ohio, i want to let rob know. i appreciate this very much. i have to run. secretary pa net -- pena a do you think is a viable option for the united states to contain a nuclear-armed iran. >> yes indeed. >> the idea of containment. shouldn't we prevent them -- >> it's not just contain but doing everything we took prevent them from -- >> i guess my question more correctly asked is, should we -- if they gate nuclear weapon, do you think the idea of containment is a way to go? should we prevent them versus containing them? >> no. i think we have to prevent them. >> if they have a nuclear weapon, the damage is done other, nations follow suit, terrorist get the material. so, secretary of defense view is that the idea of containing a nuclear armed irans the way to go the idea is to prev

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator. senator nelson. >> mr. secretary, thank you for your long and distinguished record of public service. even when i had the privilege of serving with you and we're both young congressman. and you were the head of reconciliation in the budget committee in the house. nobody understood what reconciliation was. and you were try -- and here we are. some three decades later, still talking about reconciliation. so, thank you. i want to call to your attention on subject matter not directly in your jurisdiction, but i have filed with the administration has requested, a veterans conservation corps four unemployed veterans to bring them into the federal employee for one year. these are veterans coming home. they're unemployed. to do projects helping the environment, teachers' aides, etc. and give these veterans a chance to get over the hump. that indirectly affects you. it certainly, even though it will be run through the department of the interior, and with the concurrence of the department of veterans affairs. i wante

mr. chairman. chairman nelson, ranking member sessions, and other members of the committee, i appreciate this subject today to discuss my views of the economic outlook of monetary policy, and the challenges facing fiscal policy makers. over the past two and a half years the u.s. economy has been gradually recovering from the recent recession. about conditions of certainly improved, the recovery has been frustratingly slow, particularly from the perspective of millions of workers remain unemployed or underemployed. moreover, the sluggish expansion as of the economy vulnerable to shocks. indeed supply chain disruption stemming from the s quicken japan, the surge in the prices of oil and other commodities and spillovers from the european debt crisis risk derailing the economy. fortunately, over the past few months and begin as a spending, direction, and job market activity have shown signs of improvement in economic projections just released the federal market committee participants indicated they expect somewhat str

mr. jeter that the case would not have come out the same way. we know that with certainty because baker against nelson rejected that very claim and it rejected that claim on the heels of loving where the gay couple who brought that 14th amendment loving claim relied on loving very heavily. we also think that mr. olson is simply wrong when he says the baker case did not involve a claimed classification based on just gender. here's what the plaintiffs in baker said. "there is no justification --" and this is throughout their jurisdictional statement, your honor, "there is no justification in law for the discrimination against ho homosexuals. appellants are being deprived of a basic right, the right to marry. as a result of this deprivation, they have denied numerous benefits awarded by law to others similarly situated -- for example childless heterosexual couples." this is clearly a case where they challenged the classification as one based upon sexual orientation as well as one based on gender. the loving case would have been on all fours, and would have come out, excuse me, the baker case would have b

mr. chairman. >> thank you senator nelson. we're going to take a five-minute break. strictly enforced. [inaudible conversations] >> come back to order, and senator portman has yielded to senator graham, and then we'll put senator portman back in his order when he returns, senator graham. >> if we could earmark ohio, i want to let rob know. i appreciate this very much. i have to run. secretary pa net -- pena a do you think is a viable option for the united states to contain a nuclear-armed iran. >> yes indeed. >> the idea of containment. shouldn't we prevent them -- >> it's not just contain but doing everything we took prevent them from -- >> i guess my question more correctly asked is, should we -- if they gate nuclear weapon, do you think the idea of containment is a way to go? should we prevent them versus containing them? >> no. i think we have to prevent them. >> if they have a nuclear weapon, the damage is done other, nations follow suit, terrorist get the material. so, secretary of defense view is that the idea of containing a nuclear armed irans the way to go the idea is to prev

the president of south africa says former president nelson mandala has been hospitalized for a planned procedure to address longstanding abdominal pain. mrndala is described as being conscious and comfortable. the 93-year-old expected to be released sunday or monday. and pakistan's government has leveled the home where osama bin laden was holed up before he was killed by u.s. forces in may. the piece of land will now become a public park. back to "lockup." >>> due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >>> for many inmates, life at the orange county jail in southern california is one long wait for their cases to be decided in court. privileges are few, and inmates are only allowed minimal possessions. but with time on their hands, they often find creative solutions to everyday problems. jared petrovich has been here for five years now, on a murder charge to which he pled not guilty. what is it? >> it is a sewing needle, to sew your clothes with or pants. it is not quick, it takes -- got to have patience. you have to make a string. make a quick one real quick. ♪ got your string now. you got your string now, your needle. i

. >>> nelson mandela could be going home from the hospital perhaps as early as today. a statement from the south african president said mr. mandela is in satisfactory condition after being hernia surgery. mandela is 93 years old. he has had a few health issues recently and has been kept largely out of the public spotlight for the last couple of years. >>> and to politics now. it has been four days since the republican primary. don't worry. we've got two this week. the stakes are high for the candidates in michigan and arizona. cnn political editor stall steinhauser has more. paul. >> reporter: hey, good morning, deb. that's right. just two days after the crucial primaries in arizona and michigan, and, yeah, a lot at stake, so let's break it down, and let's go alphabetically. arizona first. 29 delegates at stake there, and it's winner take all. you win, you get all 29. you lies by a couple of thousand votes, zip, you don't get a dell got wrash it's a semi-open primary. republicans can vote in the gop primary, and so can independent voters. it's not early voting in arizona. a lot of people have already cast ballots. maybe

mr. jay reports that over the years, people really have tried to sell the brooklyn bridge as well as nelson'sumn in trafalgar square in london. and in another cautionary tale, pigeons were both the investors and the investment. (watch ticking) >> stahl: coming up... >> i've have such tremendous for the live birds. >> stahl: the pigeon king next when "60 minutes" on cnbc returns. when "60 minutes" on cnbc returns. (watch ticking) [ male announcer ] the draw of the past is a powerful thing. but we couldn't simply repeat history. we had to create it. introducing the 2013 lexus gs, with leading-edge safety technology, like available blind spot monitor... [ tires screech ] ...night view... and heads-up display. [ engine revving ] the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. the the new spark cardnth from capital one. spark miles gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. the spark card earns double miles... so we really had to up our game. with spark, the boss earns double miles on every purchase, every day. that's setting the bar pretty high. owning my own business has neve

mr. jay reports that over the years, people really have tried to sell the brooklyn bridge as well as nelson'sfalgar square in london. and in another cautionary tale, pigeons were both the investors and the investment. (watch ticking) >> stahl: coming up... >> i've have such tremendous for the live birds. >> stahl: the pigeon king next when "60 minutes" on cnbc returns. when "60 minutes" on cnbc returns. (watch ticking) this new at&t 4g lte is fast. hey. did you guys hear... ...that mary got engaged? that's so 42 seconds ago. thanks for the flowers guys. [ both ] you're welcome. oooh are you guys signing up for the free massage? [ both ] so 32 seconds ago. hey guys you hear frank's cat is sick? yeah, we heard. wanna sign the card? did you know the guys from china are in the office... [ speaking chinese ] [ male announcer ] stay a step ahead with the 4g lte galaxy s ii skyrocket. only from at&t. ♪ (watch ticking) >> safer: arlan galbraith, who called himself the pigeon king, convinced hundreds of american and canadian farmers there was good money to be made raising the birds for food. >> safer:

nelson rockefeller to deny nixon the nomination, he would have really damaged himself with conservatives. >> rockefeller went on to become president with gerald ford. >> let's go to chris conway. >> hi, mr. buchanan. i had a question. i think it's fair to say that in 1968 you were fairly involved in the republican party, but by 2000, you ran as a reformed candidate and expressed some kind of dissatisfaction with the state of the party. could you tell me what kind of shift you saw and what you see as the state of the party today? >> well, there were about three or four issues i ran on in '92 and '96. one, 20 years ago now, i said if we don't get control of our border, you can have 10 to 20 million illegal aliens in the country, which we do. we didn't get control of it. i said your trade policies are going to destroy the manufacturing base of this country. we're going to lose all these factories to china, and in the first decade 21st century, we lost 65,000 factories. i opposed the gulf war. i said, if we get in there, this will be the only american held war we fight. there will be one after another after another, and that's happened. i said we'll be in a cultural war of america, and it l

mr. blunt: i do, too, senator. while we don't have as much bipartisan support as we'd like to have, we'll have some and senator ben nelson from nebraska along with senator ayotte from new hampshire and senator rubio from florida and i introduced this bill in august of last year. this is not just something that we came up with recently. members who were in the senate when the health care act, the affordable health care act passed said they believed if it had passed at a more normal way that this would have been in the final bill, that that would have been an understanding just like it was in the patients' bill of rights draft and legislation that was introduced in 1994 or the health care bill in 1999. this same language was an accepted and bipartisan part of who we are as a country in forcing -- enforcing the first amendment and in fact in the religious freedom restoration act it says government shall not substantially burden a person's exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, even a rule that would generally apply, the government should not burden a person's exercise of religi

mr. jeter that the case would not have come out the same way. we know that with certainty because baker against nelsonected that very claim on the heels of love wrg the gay couple who brought that 14th amendment loving claim relied on loving very heavily. we also they mr. olson is simply wrong when he suggests that the baker case did not involve a classification based on sexual orientation. it was just gender. here is what the plaintiffs in baker said. there is no justification in law for the discrimination against homosexuals. apellants are being denied basic right to marry. they have been denied numerous benefits awarded to others similarly situated, for example, childless heterosexual couples. this was clearly a case where they challenged the classification as one based on sexual orientation as well as one based on gender. the loving case would have been on all fours and would have -- would have come out -- excuse me, could have come out -- baker case would have been on all fours with loving if it were a fact that same sex sexual relations produced the children same as opposite sex sexual relations

mr. jeter the case wouldn't come out the same way. we know that with certainty because baker against nelson rejected that claim and rejected that claim on the heels of building where the day couple who brought the 14th amendment claim rely on loving very heavily. we also think that mr. olson is simply wrong when he suggests that the case did not involve the classification, claimed classification based on sexual orientation the was just gender. here is what the plaintiffs and baker said. there is no justification and this is true of the jurisdiction statement, your honor. there is no justification for this commission against homosexuals. of olives are being deprived of the basic right to marry as a result of this thing is been denied numerous benefits awarded by law to others similarly situated to a for example, childless heterosexual couples. this is clearly the case where they challenged the classification as one based on sexual orientation as well as one based on gender. a loving case would have been on all fours, and what have come out -- excuse me, the case would have been on all four with loving if it were a fact that same-sex se

nelson schwartz is a business reporter with the "new york times." mr. schwartz, what is this deal? how is it developing? who does it benefit? guest: basically this deal has been in the works for more than a year. the negotiations have taken place between state attorneys general, h.u.d., d.o.j., and the five biggest mortgage servicers. so the idea of the deal is to hold the banks accountable for the mortgage servicing abuses people may have heard about, like robo-signing, where, you know, these evictions were done with barely an examination of people's documents. so that investigation has been going on since the fall of 2010. and they reached an agreement to settle those claims. the banks are going to provide about $26 billion in credit and principal reduction. refinancing, plus payments to stay. the idea is to help people who are delinquent and who owe more than their houses are worth, and while at the same time there's going to be checks to about 750,000 or so people who are foreclosed who already lost their homes between -- that would be between the beginning -- or september 2008

nelson mandela. he has been discharged from hospital. he was admitted on saturday morning with what the presidency described as a long-standing abdominal complaint. the presidency being very vague about mrmandela's condition, not actually saying where he was admitted. we suspect it was at this hospital behind me. number one military here in the capital city pretoria. the presidency releasing a statement saying that mr. mandela underwent a diagnostic procedure that didn't indicate anything seriously wrong with him. of course, all this vague language is really raising more questions than answers. but south africans will be pleased to their former president is home and will be recuperating surrounded by family. cnn, pretoria. >>> the brazen killings of u.s. servicemens in afghanistan last week dominated the discussions on the sunday talk shows today. among those offering up their opinions, the two top contenders of the gop presidential campaign and top obama administration folks. let's listen. >> we have a situation here where the u.s. is working with a government, but we don't trust the security inside the ministries of that very same government. we won't put u.s. personnel in there becau

nelson mandela is in the hospital. the 93-year-old former south african president had a hernia separation. officials have said it was an abdominal problem. the family tells cnn that mr well and could be out of the hospital as early as monday. nadya joins me now for more on mandela. first of all, you're from south africa? >> with family members there. you have introduced him as -- explain why this is so crucial. he is beloved in south africa. >> and for good reason. let's take a look at this man who gets imprisoned in 1964 till 1990. he spent 27 years in prison and emerges as a conciliator. he says to bill clinton, aren't you bitter? aren't you angry at george ayales? he said, no, if i'm angry at them, they still have power over me. we look at a man who managed to take south africa from apartheid to a peaceful democracy, to one of the most democratic countries in the world. when he became president in 1994, the world changed how they treated south africa. particularly when we look at what's happening around the world, the arab springs, i think we look even more at ohio extraordinary mandela has been in taking a country through the most peaceful transition. at no poin