joining me now is tony christopher media correspondent and white house reporter at media eye dot com tommy welcome back thanks for having me to have you with us i want to play for you a clip from a press conference maybe you were at it this was in december of last year december seventh i think it was when the president was asked by a reporter from the national journal of republican or right wing conservative publication shall we say generally speaking who clearly knew what the republicans were already up to. about this debt ceiling thing this was after he the president said ok we will give you two years of tax cuts and change for one year of unemployment benefits and you know here it is take a look. at how do these negotiations facts because she should start talks republicans about raising the debt limit as it seems. that they have a significant amount of leverage over the white house that going in was there ever any attempt by the white house to. phrases that letter as part of this where you say it would seem to have a significant literature of what goes where your sense that you know they'll say

hello, i didn't catch your names but welcome to bbc news. >> tommy. >> tell us what you have seen. >> i came from work where we heard a smash on the sony center. and had a look to investigate, and i saw the door smashed in and a group of 20 lads came out with wiis and consoles and stuff like that. and as they run out and because they saw me, one punched me and ran off. >> you were assaulted as the looters were trying to get away from the building? >> that's it, as i was standing there watching them run away. he punched me and they left. and i went back to work and told everyone what was going on. and then after that, the whole building was ablazed. >> tommy, your mum told us of the heat in the area. and it must have been a surreal experience for you. >> yeah, in the premises it's 200 yards from the center. and we could see it straight away as it went up. we made sure that all the guests in the hotel were out safely and the customers were away from the fire. >> tommy, about the police in the area, did you see a lot of police officers there at the time? >> we hoped they would get there

[applause] >> please welcome the president of the tommy hilfiger corporate foundation, guy vickers. >> good evening. it is an honor to be here this evening. i am going to be very brief. i will wear two hats. 1 as vice chair of the mlk memorial board. on behalf of the board of directors i would like to welcome everyone to these festivities and to a wonderful week and weekend of activities that we have planned for you. and as president of the tommy hilfiger corporate foundation i want to say how deeply honored i am and our company is to be involved in this momentous occasion. tommy hilfiger and i grew up together in new york and of money to other since we were 10 years old. it is kind of cool to be able to run the corporate foundation. when i began as president of the foundation in december of 1999 i will never forget in march of 2000 tommy hilfiger and bill called me and said we have to get involved and i want you to research how to get involved in this organization, in building this memorial for dr. king. one of the things that resonates with me today that they said that we have been

and an east bay family is all smiles today after welcoming back a soldier who finished up a tour of iraq. tommy hugs and kisses from parents, nieces and grandparents. he comes from a long line of military men, serving as a gunner aboard a black hawk helicopter. he says before he left he was safetying in the draw down of military operations in iraq. >> a lot of installations to shut down. we're helping the -- taking guys to different bases so they can go home. so... we're taking personnel and equipment. >> as you can imagine, tom gee looking forward to a good, home-cooked meal from mom and plans on taking a rest before going back to work, and school. >> two uc berkeley graduates will learn if they'll be freed from an iranian prison on ease peen yauj charges. their attorney believes the court will deliver a verdict within a week. the two men spent two years in custody since being arrested by authorities long iran's border with iraq. ramadan begins this week, when islamic countries traditionally pardon prisoners. sarah showered was released on humanitarian reasons. she now lives in oakland. >> sti

welcome guy vicors. president of the tommy hilfiger corp. per >> good evening. it is an honor to be here this evening. i will be very brief. i am going to wear two hats tonight. what is vice chair of the mlk the moral corporate i would like to welcome everybody to these festivities and to a wonderful weekend of activities that we have planned for you. on the other half, as vice- president of the tommy hilfiger foundation, i am proud of how our company can be involved in this occasion. tommy hilfiger and i go way back. we have known each other since we were 10 years old. it is kind of cool to be able to run the corporate foundation. what i became president of the foundation in december of 1999, i will never forget in march of 2000, they called me and said, we have got to be involved. i want you to research how we can get involved in this organization in building the moral for dr. king. one of the things that stay with me that i am very proud of of my company, the thing they emphasized was, it is about dr. king did, not tommy hilfiger. not the company. it is about dr. king did. i am very proud that my c

. >> please welcome 5 vicars, president of the tommy hilfiger corporate foundation -- guy president of the tommy hilfiger corporate foundation. >> i am going to wear two hats 29, 1 as vice chair of the m l king memorial board. to wear two hats to night, one as vice chair of the m l k memorial board. the other, as president of the tommy hilfiger corporate foundation, i want to tell you how honored i am to be part of this occasion. tommy hilfiger and i have known each other since we were 10 years old. it is kind of cool to be able to run the corporate foundation. when i began as president of the foundation back in december 1999, i will never forget, in march of 2000, tommy hilfiger called me and said, we have got to get involved. i want you to research how to get involved in being part of building this memorial to dr. king. one of the things they said that we have been true to, that i have been very proud of my company, the thing they emphasized was, it is about dr. king, not tommy hilfiger. it is about dr. king. i'm very proud to say that our company has been involved a little over 11 y

welcome guy vickers. >> good afternoon. i am the president of the tommy hilfiger organization. i want to speak from the heart. i bring greetings on behalf of the tommy hilfiger corporate foundation, but more importantly, i want to talk just a moment about the man, tommy hilfiger. tommy hilfiger and i grew up in a very small town in upstate new york. i have known him since i was 10 years old. we went to middle school and high school together. he is the godfather of my son, who is here today along with my daughter and my lovely wife. the reason i mention that is that when we were youngsters -- i remember, we were sophomores assassinated. we had no idea that 20-30 years later, we would be working together, running a corporate foundation. when i was in uganda this past june with tommy, we were working in an african village and speaking about some of the work we were doing, and we mentioned that we were investing and supporting building the martin luther king national memorial. it was so awesome to see the people in this village acknowledge dr. king. they smiled broadly, and they we

please welcome the president of the tommy hilfiger foundation, mr. guy vickers.applause] >> good afternoon. thank you. women who dared to dream -- this is an appropriate title, and as i stand here today, i have a lot of emotions running through me. the tommy hilfiger corporate foundation has been involved in this project for 11 years. gm was the first company to step up to the plate, and we were the second company, contributed $6.2 million, and been involved over 11 years, have an executive loan, another strong sister that has been with the foundation for seven years that we are very proud of, but what i'm really thinking about his giving praise to mr. harry johnson, who was president of the memorial, and his staff, of whether a wonderful job. let's give them a round of applause. [applause] >> i would like to share with you something that is on my mind. in front of every man, and let me say that again -- in front of every man is a great woman. i would like to acknowledge my wife who is sitting to my right, who i love dearly, and has put up with me for all of thes

please welcome the president of the tom mihill dear -- tommy hilfiger foundation, mr. vickers. >> good afternoon. thank you. women who dared to dream -- this is an appropriate title, and as i stand here today, i have a lot of emotions running through me. the tommy hilfiger corporate foundation has been involved in this project for 11 years. gm was the first company to step up to the plate, and we were the second company, contributed $6.2 million, and been involved over 11 years, have an executive loan, another strong sister that has been with the foundation for seven years that we are very proud of, but what i'm really thinking about his giving praise to mr. harry johnson, who was president of the memorial, and his staff, of whether a wonderful job. let's give them a round of applause. [applause] >> i would like to share with you something that is on my mind. in front of every man, and let me say that again -- in front of every man is a great woman. i would like to acknowledge my wife who is sitting to my right, why loved dearly, and has put up with me for all of these