we love seeing this the big arrival at the white house. the officialtmas tree now up and all decorated inside. as aaron gilchrist shows us it is part of a holiday tradition that goes back, well, decades. >> reporter: a little better than being strapped to the roof of a chevy, a horse-drawn carriage wry arrives at the north portico, carrying the official white house christmas tree for 2013. first lady michelle obama followed tradition, along with her daughters and puppies, and send the gift of an 18.5-foot tall douglas fir from a tree farm in leighton, pennsylvania. >> the best part of the holiday season. check it out. >> reporter: presidents and first ladies have been welcoming christmas trees the white house for more than a century. delivering gift of greenery for the historic blue room from the national christmas tree association became a bona fied trapped commission 1966, one welcomed by every first couple from the reagans to the obamas. and every year, the delivery happens with much anticipation and a crowd of media with snapping cameras and extend

white house officials insist that will not happen.so say obamacare will lead to small business layoffs, and administration officials say the program's tax breaks will actually appeal to small businesses. jenna? jenna: wendell goler live at the white house, thank you. jon: this new potential fix to obamacare is asking insurers to extend deadlines allow people -- allowing people to sign up in the new year. meanwhile, republicans are hoping to take advantage of the rocky obamacare rollout in the 2014 midterm elections. let's talk about it with david hawkings, senior editor at "roll call." debbie wasserman-schultz who heads the democratic national committee be as well as harry reid, the top democrat in the u.s. senate, both say that obama care is going to be a winner for democrats next year when people go to the polls. are they right? >> well, it's 11 months away, so, i mean, it's one of the oldest cliches in politics that, you know, a year is a lifetime in politics, it's several lifetimes in politics. i'm not sure we know just yet. one t

this is according to the institute which tracked the official white house calendar. you've worked for a different number of white houses. the president can call you up at the last second. that might not be formally on the calendar. i'm trying to think, he might not have scheduled something on the calendar but would call her. it had to have been more than once, right? >> i don't think it had to be more than once because it was a signature initiative, a signature project. but he obviously dropped the ball. he had an idea or somebody gave him the idea or somehow he thought of the idea. but then he obviously didn't follow up. so the fact at he did not meet with her more than once now seems to me not strange at all considering how badly screwed up the whole thing got to be. it's a shame and it's deeply unfortunate. i know when i worked for mr. nixon and mr. ford, they met with their people all the time. they were not as avid golfers as mr. obama is -- >> ohcome on. >> but ford was a very good golfer. >> he was. i guess what i'm trying to get a handle on here is it's so un

president, it doesn't complement him. >> reporter: mister obama was the first president to hire an official white house videographer. arun chaudhary followed the president from his 2008 campaign until 2011. >> at the white house in the morning i would probably take a look at the president's schedule. and from a historical perspective think what are the most important things to capture for history. i think the president has a lot of back and forth with the media, just like all presidents and that the issues are fundamentally the same, i think what's changed is the media landscape, the way people get news, the manners in which they are able to access it and in general, just the economics of how it all works. >> reporter: carney and white house staff met tuesday afternoon with thomma and others from the press corps to seek some resolution. the press organization said it was encouraged by the meeting and that they would continue an ongoing dialogue with white house staff. the cooperative tone may get an early test. the president leaves friday for a family vacation in hawaii, an activity that's given

white house, taken aboard air force one on the way to south africa. president bush and his wife laura, secretary of state hillary clinton traveled with the obamas. official photo releases like these are not. >> reporter: now at the central of an escalating battle between the white house and the news media over access and image control. our white house reporter has more. >> reporter: this sumter president and his former secretary of state had lunch at the white house. a newsworthy event. the news media weren't invited in. only the one given access? the official white house photographer. >> we're the first eyes and ears for the public. if we're not getting access to the president, the public isn't getting access to the president. >> reporter: he calls images like these pure prop ganld a. arguing the obama white house consistently blocks journalists from events they routinely covered in previous administrations. the most recent example, those photos of the historic air force one trip by two presidents to nelson mandela's funeral. captured only through a white house lens while the press corps was in the back of the plain. >> the white house is getting the on

providing more access of white house news photographers closing off events to them while allowing an official whitese photograph eer into those eye . he said this is sort of part of the historical push and pull between white houses of both parties and the press. >> i will not live to see the day and neither will you when independent journalists who cover the white house will say i got all the access that i wanted that is not going to happen. >> the president was on air force one and flown over with president bush and they came back and had dinner and no news photographers were allowed up to capture this historic moment. they said it was a private moment. they are saying if it was closed why weren't we let in? >> jay carney gets pummeled with health care questions. i assume you had questions about health care today. one of the things that they are pushing on right now. the white house had acknowledged. they have a new date and that is january 1st. when people will see whether or not their insurance kicks in. you have democrats like mary lan drew. her first tv add comes out and blasts the health care

we were told it was a private, closed event, and then an official white house photograph of them meeting and interacting was released on the white house web site. the press is arguing basically they're sort of this shadow media from the government putting out this information, not giving us the same access. >> ed henry, good luck with that. >> good to see you. >> thank you. you, too. well, flu season, you can now visit your doctor and get a prescription all without even leaving your house because there is an app for that as well. it's called "doctor on demand." launched in 15 states this week. states from new york to california. according to its web site it allows patients to talk to a doctor face-to-face using a video camera on your smartphone or tablet. physicians can offer a diagnosis, even prescribe some medication. it's $40 for 15 minute session so $40 to visit the doctor. what do how pay in copays? and the goose get -- the gas to get there the folks behind the apps say it's meant for nonemergency medical issues. let's get to dr. pat vasu? >> how are you in. >> he's on the ipad here

white house. she looked high and low but she cannot find my grandmother's official portrait.he called my grandmother and said mrs. truman do you know where the portrait is? my grandmother said it is on your wall. mrs. johnson said, you're not supposed to have that. my grandmother said it is my painting. that is where it's going to stay. mrs. johnson tried a couple of more times and she gave up. she had acopy painted. there were two copies made. one of them hangs in the truman library down the road. >> i do not know who did the portrait. [laughter] i can look it up. we have to tell the story about the renovation to the white house. trumans were there are almost eight years in the white house and spent less time in the building than any other president. absolutely. >> it was falling down. the piano almost fell through the floor. the engineer was worried it would fall on them. >> and there was an engineering survey. members of the crew, the ceiling in the east room had dropped 40 inches. he said he walked in there. it was considered a fire trap. they recommended that they moved

these are official white house photos no press allowed. what is the message here? i didn't think i would see the day that president obama would want to be in pictures with president bush. >> i think he would rather have pictures out there than him doing selfies at a funeral service than with the president of denmark. these are photos that he controls. these are better for the president to have out. that he can control and bring bipartisanship if you can call it that to an important mission to him. >> the photos that are making the news are not those that he wants out there. >> the president showing him his paintings. >> my question to him is that maybe president obama could get a new paint brush from president bush to gloss over the issues with the rollout. >> there was an area where democrats talk about his leadership with the roll that he played and the legacy that he had to squash the disease of aids in africa. in our party there is a great amu amount of respect for bush for what he did. >> president obama -- the idea that they all have president bush in them an

seems like only thing we're getting here are official white house photographer, which, good photographer. >> great photographer. >> let's hear the story. >> right, because if a foreign government was doing this, we'd be calling it pop beganeda. there is a push and bell and never going to be perfect. there have been other presidents restricting our access. we're just pushing for more. i think to answer questions there will be changes. and they realize some people think it's a distraction. people are whining. no. this is history. we're trying to get access and redeserve some of that access. the bottom line is that this president talked about openness and transparency. it puts a special burden onon him. >> it also is the debate. when you have independent photographers, some of them are clumsy. >> independent images, might catch a moment administration doesn't want to put out there. but if it's only images by a government-paid photographer, you're going to get the president in the moment flattering light possible. and we're not saying they shouldn't do this. put that on instagram and twitter

. >> and media outlets are frustrated that the official white house photographer has access to the presidentain events and that photois distributed to the media outlets everywhere. this week jay carney got an earful and played the bush card. >> anyone here can tell you that there is less access than under the bush administration. >> ouch! there is nothing that would hurt the administration more than to be compared unfavorably to the bush administration since they blame the bush administration for everything in history. sinking of the titanic and the press corps realizing that this administration wants to control the press and i guess they can. and you know how president obama is trying to get young people to sign up for obama care. a pro obama adwill do the trick. >> you need new health care. ♪ sign up cause it is hot. ♪ commander in chief and to terms strong and health care. i am ready to seen up because of that. my health is reduced to a rap video. and all part of a campaign get covered and the white house photographer took this photoof president obama that shows a sign get covered. no one

the official white house photographer has been allowed in. the dust off including the trip to south africa, president barack obama and president bush on air force one together. reporters were not allowed in there. there's questions if the associated press were there to take the photos. jay carney today said they're going to take steps to try to improve access and also said something all sides can agree. both of the press and the white house never completely agree on access and as someone that used to be here, you probably agree. >> i do indeed. thank you. >>> the house is voting now as you take a live look at the house floor of the bipartisan budget deal that plans to end for a while at least, the lingering shutdown and massive sequester cuts. carl cameron is following the action up to the minute from capitol hill. hi carl. >> reporter: in moments we'll get final total. before the debate began today, house speaker john boehner went off on conservative packs and tea party groups lobbying and pressuring republicans to kill this bill before it w

what we did is looked at official white house calendar on white house.gov. by looking at politico calendar and third looked at white house visitor's log showing sabeliuos went to the white house but there are no recorded meetings except for 1, april, 2010 where she and secretary of the treasury geithner met with the president but that is three and a half years ago. >> wow, did the government, did jay carney give a response? >> no. no. no response from the white house, their position now is difficult. because the outline and launch of obamacare has been a disaster. so, to a certain extent they're leaving her out there to kind of dry. >> i agree. >> which i think frankly is a little bit unfair. not saying hooes she's done a good job but one would expect that the president of the united states this, is his signature domestic policy. one sixth of the u.s. economy is being reconstituted under government control. he can't take time for a meeting in three and a half years with the person implementing it? that is shocking. >> i never agree with robert gibes. he says

. >>> well media outlets are getting frustrated with the official white house photographer is the onlyho has access to the president at certain events and that photo is distributed to the media elsewhere. well this week white house reporters gave jay carney a earful and played the bush card. >> anyone can tell you there is less access than under the bush administration. >> ouch. there is nothing that would hurt this administration more than to be compared unfavorably to the bush administration since they blame the bush administration for pretty much everything, in all of history. the sinking of the titanic, the kidnapping of the lind burg baby and all sorts of things. even the press core is realizing this is an administration that wants to control the press, and i guess they think they can. maybe not any more. >>> well you know how president obama is trying to get young people to sign up for obama care, a pro--obama group has come up with this ad they think will do the trick. [ rapping ] >> yeah, i'm ready to sign up because of that. my health is reduced to a rap video. got it. okay. w

the white house report says it, and the official white house spokesperson said it.hat is three more people. how much more evidence do we need? >> msnbc will figure that one out. health care, period, gov. >> they should switch to comedy. it should just be snl skits. this is what they do. >> your thoughts on the reverend al here. >> i think he's been asking for this for a long time. you have snl and i think it makes a great mix. >> your thoughts? >> it wasn't that funny. >> he is just an actor that is funny. when he walks into a room you start laughing. >> were you offended by the music? >> i felt it was bigoted. we become so grateful for anything that makes fun of liberals because it never happens. i don't watch it. >> it is called hunger for humor. >> nbc and nbc property, taking a shot at their own. >> i think they do a better job of having a bright line. >> well they need help with the ratings. >> you know what will help snl's ratings. >> no, not snl -- >> "the five." >> you can imagine what that would be. >>> ahead, he watched all of his fellow soldiers die, marc

it's a private event, it's a private discussion, and then a short time later, there will be an official white house photograph put out. so if a white house photographer on a government salary is allowed in that meeting, why can't we get 30 seconds to a minute in there so we can take independent photos, write independent stories about what's going on? it's almost like an arm of the administration putting out their own story without letting us into some of the same meetings. >> it's more policy if you can get away from it, but your job, ed, is to ask that question you asked and get that response, and then we can talk about it. let's talk about that. will there be any changes? it seems the only thing we're getting is pitsus. good photographer. let's hear the real story, right? >> if a foreign administration were doing this, we would call it propaganda. with jay carney, there is always a push and pull with republican administrations, democratic administrations and it's never going to be perfect. we're just pushing for more, and i think to answer your question, there will be some changes because i

on the right is the official white house photo.past august, they got a seat in front of the code yum for thea anniversary of the march on washington. they got the behind the scenes picture on the right. these are individuals from the president's visit to nelson mandela's cell. this picture of the president's visit to camp pentleton, he got pushed back and got a more intimate picture. here's the president speaking henry ford museum and sitting in the bus where rosa porks refuses to give up her seat. joining me now is associated press photographer and a member of the press corps. a white house photographer and a contributor to "time" magazine. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> you are not alone here. charlie, i look at the photos and the public might say so what. the white house does some photos and you are in front of the scenes. what do they say? >> the public needs to be aware that these white house photographs that are released are taken by photographers that are hired by the administration to make the president look good.

>> it doesn't appear that the vice president had a direct role but cnn is told by a white house official that the white house did have some sort of direct connection with the north korean government, which is unusual because of course there are no formal relations between the two countries and that apparently did result in newman being released. the back story behind that, deborah, will be fascinating. >> all right, dan simon for us there. thanks so much. with newman now free, washington is trying to secure the release of another american being held in north korea. kenneth bay, a christian missionary, has been in custody for more than a year. he was sentenced to 15 years for supposedly hostile activities towards the country. his family released a statement saying we have faith in our government to bring kenneth home. >> survivors of the pearl harbor attack gathered in hawaii for a special ceremony honoring those who were killed 72 yearsing a today. japan's 1941 attack on pearl harbor launched the united states into world war ii. the crowd observed a moment of silence, then a vintage worl

this is an official white house photo while the first family is on vacation in hawaii. it reduces the automatic across the board cuts. it saves more money than with other cuts and funding changes. this is one of seven bills the president signed today. >>> for the 15th time this year, the dow closed at a record high today. 122 points higher. investers were encouraged by a drop in people applying for unemployment benefits. >> twitter's stock surged. shares rose 6% to an all-time high of $75. twitter stock is now up more than 30% over the last year with an estimated value of $40 billion. that now makes the company more valuable than a huge chunk of the s&p 500. analysts aren't sure what is driving the spike and believe a correction could be coming at the start of the new year. >>> speaking of big bucks, an anonymous donor dropped a coin worth more than $1300 into a salvation army kettle. the website said leaders found the coin sorting through the donations at the walmart in leesburg. >>> amazing video showing two islands fusing together. >>> police chase down a suspected c

sebelius since the health care law passed amendments according to an institute which tracked the official white counter. we should stress here that doesn't necessarily mean that was the only time the president maybe met with kathleen sebelius. it's possible he called her on the phone and said, come over. that wouldn't pop up on the meter. pat knows having worked for jimmy carter. what do you make of it? >> even more news, the gai is saying the president met with the secretary of the navy down below, made this twice as much as she met with sebelius. had two private meetings. but more importantly, since october 1st, as far as they can determine so far, after the roleout, you know how many meetings the president has had with sebelius? about the crisis? zero. >> how do we know that? give white house cal calendar, the president cack call her up. that wouldn't be on the calendar -- >> the logs of calls are available, as well as -- >> was that part of this? >> no. this was, i think just -- but if you're the president and you have a crisis -- i've sat there we're in crisis. you have amassments somebody

obama, george and laura bush, hillary clinton, several other top white house officials, and many otherembers of congress. let's take a closer look with john king. i want to just -- these were not taken by white house journalists photographers, but these are the official white house phograph woohe picket terse, then released them to all of u in the media. one we'll put up there, john, because you and i flew on air force one on many occasions. there you see the president and first lady, ben rhodes, hillary clinton, that's a room you're familiar with. >> that's the president's office. regardless of your politics, it's nice to get a piece of these. it's a vip plane, with two presidents, perhaps a future president, two first -- three first ladies. by all accounts, pleasant conversations, and pleasant dinner conversations as well. i think we have the photo of george w. bush showing off his favorite new pastime. >> on his ipad or tablet. >> he's e-mailing less, because he had a hacking problem, he loves to show them to close friends. he's modest but proud about his work. laura bush is making

white house. during the cart carter years, the numbers are impressive of people invited to official events at the ite house. by 1978, grown to 40,000. in 1979, 5,000 and in 190, the election year, 100,000 official guests at events in the white house. how did they approach entertaining there? >> they seriously a lot of these have a serious purpose because if it as state dinner you have the head of a foreign country and if they were invited to a state dinner it probably has some diplomatic purpose attached to it. they serve very fine american products, fine wines and you have to get the protocol worked out. a lot of it is to say thank you for people that helped you in the campaign. and then, of course, in the election year, making sure you are touching all of the bases. they had some pretty great events at the white house in 1980. one of the callers mentioned the poetry conference which they had in january, i believe. and then they had all of the jazz greats came in for a lawn concert with u.b. blake and that was another stunning event. as much as she was the modern first lady in adopting the big is

when president obama flew off to nelson mandela's funeral, only an official white house photographerowed to take pictures. jay carney acknowledges the complaints. >> are you going to give the access? what does it mean working on -- >> i'm saying we're going to find ways of providing more access. >> reporter: it is said obama has done three to four more interviews than bush or clinton, but they are on jay leno, the view and espn. and the president has curtailed the practice of taking a few newsy questions when they are taking photo ones. bush said he took 354 questions in his term, the figure for obama 107. the administration is saying they are still working toward popeness in government, including more freedom of information requests and stronger protection for whistleblowers. but photographers say the president is still falling fall short of his promises. shannon. >> howie, thank you. >>> it didn't take long for president obama's newest senior adviser to stir things up. john pedesta is apologying of comparing republicans to those who killed millions. he said today, my snark got in f

and that actually brings me to this year's official white house holiday theme, which is gather aroundstories of the season. this holiday season will be focusing on the stories behind classic american holiday traditions, traditions celebrated here in the white house and across the country. our goal is for every room and every tree to tell eight story about -- to tell a story about who they are and how we gather together to mark the holidays. and that starts, yeah, with all of you. literally. when visitors arrive, the very first thing they will see is the tree decorated to pay tribute to our armed forces. graced with special gold star ornaments tells the story of some of our greatest heroes. those who gave their lives for starountry and any gold family who visits the white house can create their own ornament to honor their loved in addition, anyone who visits this white house this year gets it chance to fill out an operation on her card, pledging to serve their community and honor of our military families, service members or veterans, whoever you choose. just find a way to serve. we als

officials say white-out conditions are keeping a chinese rescue helicopter from landing at the site. weather conditions aren't expected to improve until at least tomorrow. when they do, the plan is for the chinese helicopter to take all 52 passengers to its vessel while all 22 crew members remain with the ship as ice breakers try to reach it. the ship has been stranded since christmas eve. >>> a california state judge extends life support for a teenage girl. a restraining order will keep 13-year-old jahi mcmath on life support. her family says it's found a facility in new york state that will accept the girl and has made transportation arrangements. >>> the federal aviation administration has made a major advancement in getting drones in the skies. six test sites have been chosen. from the bitter cold of fair banks, alaska, to the sweltering heat of corpus christie, texas, and back up to rome, new york, where drones will be tested. the goal is to have commercial drones sharing the skies by the end of 2014 in what's projected to become an industry worth billions of dollars. right now,

the statement from the white house says we continue to encourage the public to follow directions from the local officials. the white house will remain in touch with our federal, state and local partners and the president will continue to receive briefings as needed. in the last hour it was reported that the atf was on scene as well as the massachusetts state police. who takes lead, michael, in a situation like this? >> this will largely be managed by the cambridge police department, potentially the massachusetts state police if it's a large enough incident would take over. but the federal officials would really be in support of those local governments. i would highlight the fact that the president is being briefed on this shouldn't bring any additional alarm. that would be completely routine. as soon as something breaks of national news like this, the national security adviser, the homeland security adviser will go to the oval office, give him a couple quick minutes and say we'll update you if anything else comes of it. people should not read into this as being a more national or significant event just b

i will tell you when you ta you can to white house officials about some of the language we heard paule word fight for instance, they just sort of kind of want to roll their eyes a little bit because the president and white house officials here feel that what was done in that case was done very much to the detriment of republicans. and they don't understand why they would want to do it again. you heard dana using the term "break the fever." i think the expectation here is they believe in a way a lot of republicans learned a lesson and they're hoping ultimately that it's not going to get to a brangsmanship situation like we saw in october and at least a government shutdown is off the table. >> jake, very quickly, there are a bunch of republicans who say if you get into a fight over the debt ceiling, that detracts from what they see as their winning argument about obamacare. why allow that to be derailed by having a separate fight over the debt ceiling? into it is an important part of the republican message that he spends too much money and republicans want to rein him in. that's their p

administration officials say the white house has already taken over supervision of that program "we areot leaving it to jim said onenymore" official, referring to the director of national intelligence. the resistance from the intelligence agencies is likely. months ago,iew two keith alexander, the soon to retire director of the nsa and commander of the military cyber a majorsuggested that comeback in american spying on foreign nationals would be naÏve -- a major cutback in american spying on foreign nationals would be naÏve. surprised how often they have been asked to weigh damage against -- the white house conduct a regular review of those collection activities, the way covert action by the cia is reviewed annually. recommendation is the creation of an organization of legal advocates who would argue against lawyers for the nsa in front of the foreign intelligence surveillance court, the secret court that oversees the collection of telephone and internet metadata and of wiretapping aimed at terrorism and espionage suspects. mr. obama has hinted that he objects to the absence of any adve

white house correspondent. >> reporter: early reaction as we await an official statement, they're looking on this very favorably. one white house official saying they see this as being a very positive development so i'm reading it off my iphone. they say it is great to move beyond governing by crisis. they said the sequester is doing real harm. this is a balanced package that helps deal with that and adding that they don't love everything but that's what company is about. so i think this is certainly what president obama will be saying that he supports. he is currently on his way back from africa and we are waiting for official reaction. >> just one question. the president has spend an awful lot of political capital last week. his entire speech to the country, his weekly address was about the un, unemployment insurance. he was talking about active job seekers. you've got this deal on the table that has nothing about that. the white house is saying that's a good thing? >> reporter: they're not saying that's a good thing. let me explain what we've heard from jay carny. the preference fortune employment insurance

independent photojournalists who cover the white house feel that it's important there are an independent view of what the president's doing and the president doing his officialgraph of the president meeting with dignitaries or whoever, the public needs to realize that this is one viewpoint, these are photographs made by photographers who are on the president's payroll, so this is not an independent view. it's not a full story of what's going on. and in a democracy, i believe that there could be a polarity of viewpoints on how our government works. >> dennis, you've studied this and certainly administrations in the past. how different is it with this administration versus past administrations? >> well, it depends on how far back you go. when we started out, teddy roosevelt, paragraphers weren't even allowed at the gates. then we worked our way in through harding and he was a a newspaper man and then truman was a great friend. then we had the advent of the 35 millimeter camera. before, it was four by five cameras. it sort of like you had these fellas here with big things and it was a pretty controlled situation. well, with 35, you could go behind the scenes an

. >> reporter: the white house no official comment about the new york times report, but officials were quick to point out the times account contradicts republican allegations that the white house tried to cover up benghazi. >>> still ahead, what a california church replaced in a nativity scene that's caused quite a stir. >>> and how snap chat has responded to reports of a security exploit that could reveal user information. >>> hi there, everyone. we had some unseasonably warm temperatures. a chance of any rain anytime soon. >>> if santa brought you a new iphone or ipad for christmas, you can download our updated app. iphone users can use our >>> a nativity sceneutside a southern california church has caused a stir in a neighborhood. it features trayvon martin covered in blood. the artist wanted to get the community talking about gun violence. the church has had controversial nativity scenes before. >>> photo social media app snap chat has responded to complaints of a security problem. an exploit could help hackers snap user names and passwords. the security team found the weaknesses.

a white house official put out a statement today revealing that as a symbolic gesture over the weekend, in between golf and watching college basketball, the president enrolled in the d.c. health insurance exchange. he was pleased to participate in a plan as a show of support for these market places which are providing quality, affordable health care options to more than a million people and he selected a bronze plan. but he will not have a bronze plan. since like past presidents, he will get his health care by the military. and then he added another caveat, the president did not sign up himself, the staff did it. after all, the president was in hawaii. and a white house official said the complicated nature of the president's case required an in-person signup since the commander-in-chief's personal information is not easily available in the various government data bases that healthcare.gov uses to identify identities. but most americans have to submit their personal information online and today they experienced extra long waits because of a surge of people trying to sign up by tonight's

white house. that's why on your television network n.b.c. averinsks if we a photograph. >> some argue that these are official business. the release of vetted photographs to be distributed widely shows the white house and recognises news worthiness. in a letter signed by organization, the white house is accused of controlling the photographs. >> we released a photo of the lunch. what was happening. >> the washington editor of mcclatchy, which operates 30 u.s. newspapers announced that his paper will not run of the photographs unless there was a national security event not to allow an independent photograph. i think we have seep a lot of measures that we have never seen before to this degree. to crack down on the flow of information. >> back at the white house the photo op is over. future historians will have plenty of documentation of the white house christmas tree moment of 2013. >> on the hook. fishermen stuck in another country without pay. why a group of six dozen fishermen are tuck in south africa. the stock market in egypt is up. is it a bear or bull market. some are hemming their bets on the ouster of president m

e-mails are between a small group of aides and do not reflect the decisions of higher level officials. and white house aides believe they've had one of their best weeks in terms of improving the website and getting more people enrolled. though when asked if they turned the corner, carney was cautious. >> i think we're making progress but we're not there. >> reporter: hedging, because there are still problems. in fact, "the wall street journal" reports some states are refusing to enroll new people into medicaid, because of incomplete data from the federal site. potentially a major problem since the low enrollment numbers have been beefed up by a large share of medicaid recipients signing up. republicans are vowing all these questions will be front and center next week when kathleen sebelius is back in the hotseat. and harry reid is pushing back on reports that he and -- he noted when he signed up, his health costs went up $4500. they say the error rate has been coming down. they think this has been a good week. we'll see next week. >> ed, thank you. >>> ton employment rate hit a five-year low of

last night white house officials announced any american who had their health care policies cancelled because of the affordable care act will not be penalized next year. lawmakers have claimed the number of cancellations would exceed the number of people signing up through the exchanges. the white house refutes that claiming saying fewer than o 500,000 have lost coverage because of the law. for the rest of america, monday is the deadline to sign up for obamacare to make sure you have coverage by january 1st. officials say hundreds of new agents have been hired to address the rising demand at call centers. still the white house is a long way to meet its own lofty expectations. through november 365,000 people signed up for health care through the exchanges and at one point the white house said they expected to sign up 7 million customers by march 31st of 2014. >>> eight inmates convicted will be released in april after president obama granted them comations. it's a rare move for the president. all of the inmates served at least 15 years for using or selling crack. it's part of a push to

errors have affected one third of the people who signed up for the plans, according to the officials, the white house disputed the figures but they declined to provide their own. pretty unbelievable. tonight, we want you to join the conversation. just log onto our facebook page to share your obama care horror stories. joining me with reaction to this and much more, former new york city mayor, rudy giuliani. how are you? >> good to see you. >> i interviewed this gentleman on my radio show today. he said there was no security built into the system. >> these are health care records, they're supposed to be private, protected. everybody feels about their health care records if they're going to be given out they should be the ones to have given them out. this is very damaging for the whole process. people are very afraid to have their health care records basically on line, because of the hacking problems. so i mean, this has done a lot of damage, not just the obvious. >> all right, so he says when you develop a website you develop it with security in mind. first things first. >> it has -- if the phar

enforcement official on the scene and familiar with the investigation says the train operator who is among the injured told investigators he applied the brakes but the train didn't slow down. a whiteicial tells cnn that president obama has been briefed and the president's thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected especially the friends and families who lost a loved one. there you see pictures from the scene as those train cars lining on their sides. investigators from the national transportation safety board on their way to try to unravel what it is that caused this crash. cnn's alexandra field is on the scene. what can you tell us? what's the latest? >> reporter: joe, right now we want to let you know there is still a huge emergency presence on scene. they've been out here for hours. i want to show you what's going on beyond me. you can see the coast guard boats have been in the water all morning. divers have been in the water. the main priority so to find out if every passenger that left poughkeepsie this morning on that short trip to grand central station have been located. the estimate is that there were probably 100 people riding the train. we know that 67 people are i

white house officials said biden reaffirmed that the u.s. does not recognize the air defense zone. >> the new model of great power relationship envisioned in the 21st century between china and the united states requires us to expand our practical cooperation and deliver results. >> reporter: president obama has met with ji twice since he took offi office. in an effort to contain the iranian and north korean nuclear programs, the u.s. has gained some limited cooperation by beijing, but by most accounts china over the last five years has only grown boulder in its human rights abuses, international property theft, territorial aggression and warfare. >> so you think that china is in some cases, and correct me if i'm wrong with the word, is somehow looking for a fight here? >> i think they are taking actions that will inevitably lead to that. i don't think he wants a war because he would rather prevail without fighting but he's doing things that are inevitably pushing the region to that. >> reporter: china scholars are divided over whether he has