official within the egyptian armed forces. so some analysts here are saying that this is an attempt by mubarak to prevent a coup by giving these two positions, these two vice presidential posts, first vice president to the intelligence chief and then the second vice president to the senior army officer as an attempt to buy off his opponents. the protesters on the streets so far are not accepting this. they say it is just an attempt by mubarak to change the -- reshuffle the deck, and they want him to leave the country. >> okay. richard engel, thank you for your continuing coverage. excellent reporting. we appreciate it so much. right now we're going to talk about the white house angle of things. my colleague thomas roberts is in the studio with that. >> it's really a blunt message coming from president obama. he says that egypt's leader must take concrete steps for reform. take a listen. >> surely there will be difficult days to come. but the united states will continue to stand up for the