Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Charlie Rose 20141111

From our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Neil Patrick Harris is here and were happy about that. Hes having a really big year. He won a tony for his portrayal of a transgender rock star in hedwig and the angry inch. He has finished a nineseason run as Barney Stinson on the cbs comedy how i met your mother. He stars in david finchs film gone girl. And, he was chosen as the host for the 2015 oscars. If that is not enough, he wants you to know more so he has a book. It is called neil Patrick Harris choose your own autobiography. I am pleased to have him here at this table for the first time. Welcome. Thank you, sir. You know what i say. I say it is never too young to write your autobiography. Do you think . I think youre totally wrong in there. I had been asked a couple years back to write a memoir. I think because i was a child actor that for some reason in people think that if youre suddenly unadult at all and were a child actor that means you have something to say. I never really frankly thought i had much to say. I still feel like my life doesnt have i dont have a and great story. Its just beginning so to speak. Ish. Ive lived a lot of chapters. I think that was the thing i keyed in on. I didnt have a big arc to tell, but i have lots of really, extraordinarily interesting things i have gotten to do. Whether it be act as a kid or Whitewater Rafting in costa rica, having kids through surrogacy, or hosting the tonys. They are all kind of elements and i thought itd be fun to find a structure. People like to read that stuff. They want to know what its like to be you. They want to know what youre doing, but unfortunately in the world we live in with the media, you have to answer yourself in a ninesecond sound bite that makes it clean for like the next question. Im really only getting to talk about things, nice things. Weddings and hedwig in a short span of time. With the book, it allows you to be me. It is written in second person. Why did you do that . I love do you know those choose your own adventure books . Yes. Thats what its based on. I love the young adult nature of it made it seem less filled with pay those and poignancy and drama and made it more fun to read. Can decide ifyou you want to read more about my childhood. You can go to dissipate and if you are bored and jump ahead, you can go to that page. You can go to where you want to go. That is why you called a choose your own autobiography. Is magic tricks i do in the book. The david proofread it . He did. There were couple of pages where is annotated notes are hand written in the book so you can see how he runs my lines. Is it easy to write a book about your life . Did you talk to a tape recorder, sit down at a computer . Help of ahe great another writer who is super funny you wrote for the daily show. Fill the smaller stories i had with life and comedy. It has a very playful tone and a very interesting humor, i hope. I think through the comedy, you can come up with dramatic, interesting stories. I think the idea of coming out in the media or having children with a samesex couple the my new show of that, if you told a whole book of that, it would get droll. If there are comedy elements throughout, i think it may have a little more impact. You thought of this book is a performance . A little bit of a variety show. [laughter] which is your favorite thing to do, i assume. I always loved the variety acts in the service. The circus would come to albuquerque at the state fair. We would go there once a year and it would go straight to the midway and straight to the carnies and freaks. I wanted to see the two headed woman and a guy named popeye rat eyes and he would go like this and the eyes would pop out of his sockets. I loved it. It was very politically incorrect to like that for a good 10 or 15 years. I still am into magic and juggling. Im a fan of somebody who has extraordinary skill and they can do it and be anonymous and go about their lives. What was it about magic that first attracted you . Was it that . A way you can have a certain skill you can keep with you . It was more about how it was done and appreciating there were secrets and trying to figure out what my left brain, right brain how it could possibly done and appreciated with the other side of my brain that sees something magical. Watching somebody float on stage. Levitation. You figure, there could be something else. Somebody else would destroy that. David copperfield had a whole special where he levitated himself with people all around. You go, how in the world is that possibly done . I like to know secrets. I assume there was nothing you were not prepared to include as long as you thought it was interesting because it seems to me easy for you to talk about coming out well, no. I would say no. Those were the ones that were trickier. Coming out, that involves attraction and stories about how i knew i was gay. I dont want to go into too much detail. Because . I want to be authentic in the telling of my story but i dont want it to seem the reason i am including you never had a thought about including it, did you . Absolutely. There were things i did not include. Like what . Well, i work with a lot of interesting people. There were certainly people i worked with and had less than enjoyable experiences. I thought i could include those. Professional . Sure. Ive been doing this for more than 20 years. I didnt want to include you didnt want to hurt people. That is not my sense of humor. Even during how i met your mother, that was a conversation we had. There were a couple of shows in a row where we had jokes that you are so embarrassing you are single that you are this and the audience will laugh. You are so fat, it is this. It was hitting below the belt comedy and we looked at each other and said that is not our style. We want to be smart funny. Of thes reading that one characters that you portrayed i cannot remember which 1 it was supposed be much more meanspirited than it came out but somebody said you brought such a nice this to it that you are core essence was there and they modified the character. That is good. I think i have that trump card. You are likable. People feel like they know me because i grew up im accessible. They grew up watching me through the years. Dark orif i get to play have secrets or something, it is a little more unexpected because you have seen me hosting a lot of shows where i say come on in. What is the art of that hosting the tonys . The tonys feel more like being p. T. Barnum. You are really the master of ceremonies. You are very good at that. I love respecting people and showing an audience specific people doing amazing things. The ed sullivan and maywood like to post a variety show. In me would like to host a variety show. We hope more than that. Roller skaters you couldve been ed sullivan. Would you like to do a show like that every sunday night at 8 00 . I am enamored by the fact that people for generations have studied a single thing and are the best in the world at an are not able to show it off. The tonys are great because it is live and massive amounts of performances. All performances that have been done at night after night after night. You are a shirt a quality level that is hard to achieve on the other award shows because those are oneoffs. Writing an original song, getting choreographers and getting people to perform with you and crossing your fingers. The tonys did it. They are so happy to be performing and they kill it. You do a comedy bit and you give an award and they are so happy being on stage and then another amazing number. Was the oscar selecting you a surprise . It was a surprise. That somebody call you up and say you wanted they wanted you to host the authors or did somebody ask you if you are interested . And the a call producers wanted to meet with me to talk about it which i assumed meant i was choice. Did you have that conversation . I didnt want to say yes to it because i had a lot of questions to them. As to how creatively it worked. You dont want to sign on for something and be told exactly what to do and you feel like that is not me. Right. I want to show that it is me. And amed with the academy show of that scale there would be a lot more hurdles and a lot more people saying you cannot do that. That i am not surprised about the selection at all. In reading about you, certain people call you Johnny Carsonesque. You know . That was something Johnny Carson did very well. Host the oscars. I love carson. I got to be on the show. I take that as a grand koppelman. Complement. Iment. A certain sense of being able to make it look easy that he had which you have. Thanks. I feel it is its own unique skill and have gotten to do it a fair amount. I also dont really feel i have a great amount to prove in that world. Like i want it to go well for the show. I am not trying to land a Development Deal by killing it at the oscars, you know what i mean . I am not saying im not looking for work but i am just saying i dont have an internal agenda for that. I want that night to go incredibly well for the people that are winning, the people that dont win, the people watching at home. I wonder to seem like we are honoring movies. It can sit back and enjoy all and not be nervous that something will go wrong. They want to see you have a good time. Really look like you are loving it. But all theme, presenters and the people coming up to accept their award. You dont want people coming up and shaking. Take a look at this. This is a clip from this years tony awards and here he is performing a number from hedwig and the angry inch. Take a look. A honey combike me,. Uve got sugar for bring it home blitzkreig, the sweetest tast ive ive known if youve got some sugar, bring it home bring it home pickt to [laughter] onwhen you have the heels and the microphone, you do what you got to do. A girls got to make 11. A living. How long did it take you to make that work . A little while. I have never done drag or put on a wig ever. I had a feeling of urgency. I thought it was emasculating me in some way. It was a challenge to see how much i can own that feminine side. It took a month or two of just walking in a circle in heels and figuring out how your hips move different. Guys walk straight, girls walk curvy. Did you have help in designing that . Much help. The director, the choreographer. Through the previous hedwigs. The wardrobe all of it was a real collaboration. Might we see Something Like that at the beginning of the oscars . [laughter] i had lost 21 pounds to do the gig. I was super emaciated. I will be a little more polished. You have to do it award show to honor the medium. For the emmys, you want to be very tv centric and for the tonys, you want to bsd at her centric. You want to be as theater centric. Are you happy us on stage happiest on stage . Really great for 20 performances and the matinee, they are less interested. It is hard to get out of your own head and think is it me, is at them . Is a different every night . It is always different every night. You cannot lock it. You have to be in the same world every show but you have to be able to listen to the other person, to the audience and augment based on what is happening in that performance. Ed,rting from a ending at z having the audience applaud for it is a great completion. When you are making a movie or tv show oregon hosting or even hosting, it is part and parcel. You edit together later and get to see how it came across the end. When youre on stage, you are performing it all the way through and seeing how it went. That is fun. This is an opening number of the tony awards as well. This was the biggest opening number the tonys have ever done. Here it is. Down them walking th aisle. It is bigger, so much bigger youll get a gift bag when you go 150 of those. Check this out can i have my tom hooper closeup, please . On broadway, we dont need extreme closeups to prove we are singing live. [applause] we sing live eight shows a week. Check it. Of the day, we are gathered to are the best and the brightest. Who wore it the tightest. Maybe just for the hell of it, tom hanks. Seeing a veteran get innovation. The kid in the middle of nowhere who is sitting there waiting for tony performances and flipping along. We might reassure that kid and there is something to spur that kid. I promise you all of you tonight we were that kid. And now, we are bigger. Lets do the biggest spectacle we know sister la, chicago,ock of ages, christmas story, seven stages boysmia, jersey bigger welcome to our bigger, better Broadway Tonys show that is talent. I still get goosebumps watching that. I have to catch my breath watching that. How fast you were speaking, out exhausting you would be afterwards and how did you have the breath control to do all of that because you are singing at the same time at a rapid rate . Of that was three quarters of the way through the number when you started washing. . , breath control was important. Was it built in how you breathe . When i ran up and set i have might close up and they came in to the audience and they laughed longer than i thought. I was so glad and you can see me realize i could take a breath. I got one more extra breath and but i was hoping i do not screw up the teleprompter feed. The words were scrolling so fast at the tv screen i was looking at. Someone described it as a flip of a girl. Punk is this wonderful musicalologueiish about an east german woman who was trying to get out of east germany when the wall was up. Met a guy. He was a boy at that time and fell in love. The only way he could escape was to marry this guy who was an american and the only way through that to prove they were husband and wife was to have a sex change operation. It was botched and left him with an angry inch. He got to america and things got sour. They got divorced and she left this guy that she had sex with who was a rock star. Andsings her storiey monologues her story about trying to figure out what oneness is. What defines completion. She is seeking your other half and caught in this loop and this track like a broken record. If she only is with this other if they are only together and only loved her, they would be complete. She follows that even though it is not meant to be. Through this story and things that happened, she realizes that you need oneness. Everyone is fractured. Everyone is broken. Nobody is completely whole. When you are ok with that, you are complete in who you are. You said it was more than learning and blocking memory. It was total absorption. It really had to be in every way. I have never done anything like it. It was 45 minutes of makeup. It transformed me into another gender. All the way through talking, bra, everything. I was a woman. I had to have a german accent and i had to sing in a rock style that was unfamiliar to me. I had to do the show with a lot of variables. I talked to the audience. People would talk back. The different people i would reference. It was a very wild rock show. You had to be immersed in it, you cannot go into autopilot because every night was different. Some people were not liking it. You had to decide how to win them over. How do you win them over . It is a good question. Normally i would try tricks i smiling at the end of a line to let them know it is ok or causing a little longer so the audience thing something wrong so when i say my line, i can win them back. I found it interesting because she is not supposed to be successful. She is not super talented otherwise she would be a big star. I had to embrace the idea that i was to improper did not work and keep on going knowing it was not working because i thought it was most effective for the character to be in a place of failure. I ended up feeling very egg on my face sometimes. I had to control myself to not try and fight my way out of it to stay in this place of not going well. That is good for the show and the part. That was fun to do. Who is barney . Barney stinson was the fifth wheel, best friend, consummately single, bro of ted, the protagonists. He exemplified why you should not be with anyone when the show first started. Ted was the center of the show. He had marshall and lily who were best friends and they were a couple. Then you had barney who was always single. You was always like ted, you dont want to get married. Lets see those chicks and bang them all. Lets take a look at this. This is when barney answers to a high council of players after he picks up a girl from the east side. Our deepest, thanks. I am sad to say the council has a fracture in its ranks. He picked up a girl outside of his territory. The eastsides tuxedo charlies. If to afford to be a hunting grounds dividing lines. The westside College Girls you should know my eastside debutantes are quite for boat and. Members of the council, bros, nobody wants a war. I have not forgot the agreement of 2004. Bonehead move. Defendant, i am not able. Had i not been a bro to each bro in this table . Whomber that young tourist was looking for penn station . She came in from boston and had a wicked good in bed look. I gave her bad directions and she ran she ended up in red hook. Shut up, barney. Tuxedo charlie is not the only one here who has been slighted. You told her you were jeter. Impersonating yankees. Have you no honor . Please, lets not blow this to smithereens. Council recognizes captain bill from queens. You all know me and you will respect my game. I dress up like a pilot and meet girls at baggage claim. On the longest subway ride, i came up with a plan to keep this. Barney, you of wrong to these two. You must grant them a westside hottie of their choosing. That is the settlement . That is really silly. What say you . I want robin. I want lily. Wheret was the episode they wanted to do it like a nursery rhyme. The entire episode was told and right because marshall was telling a story to his son. I got to play five people at one time. That kind of stretching was a serious part. Whym all kinds of reasons he should not have cast me. For some reason david did. I was currently on a tv show. I hosted as a personality. Im openly gay and he is asking me to play a real series movie the second Love Interest of the lead woman. I was very appreciative i got the opportunity and frankly i am uniquely able to do that. I am so glad he wanted me to be able to try and present myself that way. Did he say why he wanted you . I think he said what you mentioned earlier that there is an accessibility to me. In this particular role, he did not come across super antagonist vaguely as just a bad guy but you felt comfortable with me into this world that is actually kind of a jail cell. That i am not just heres the scene from gone girl. Mr. Dunn. I know you. I wanted to help. I hope you dont mind me coming by. I got your address from this letter you wrote to my wife. Amy and i believe in the lost art of letter writing. I always wondered why you kept in touch. You were together for two years in boarding school, right . She was my first serious girlfriend. Why did you breakup . That is a rude question. Amy told me that she dumped you and you unraveled. If you stopped attended suicide in her bed and were institutional size. Your wife is missing and you came all this way to tell me this . It is a side of the story. Mr. Collins. All right. I was so still and weird to watch that after having watched the tony awards number. My skin was firing on all cylinders. Nice dialogue. I just wanted to service the material as best as i could. I was so appreciative i got to have a meeting with david fincher, a director ive legitimately admired. When he got cast on the movie, i got to realize i was spending more time with them and i wanted to make sure i was not the weak link. Do you know where you will be five years from now . You will be living in harlem and a townhouse that will be completed by then. Here is hoping. Five years from now will you have become a movie star . Have you done your last Television Series . I dont want to declare. I would say you are going through a thing where you are deciding a what you might say and what will be the repercussions im trying to weigh out if i won it to be a movie star and what that would mean and what if i wanted to be on another tv show and what that would mean. I am loving im able to do dabbles of it all. I am not sure if the movie star having an line with family and two kids right now because you end up being uprooted to go to prague for four months and i dont know if i really want to do that. I want to spend time with my kids. I could see providing entertainment for people in a consistent level. I dont know what that means i am playing myself or if i am playing a different part, but i am loving new york. In a Perfect World in five years, i am at sutherl ed sullivan. Once a week, get the show everyone amazing performances on broadway, magicians, this great restaurant we went to. A taste maker where i get to p. T. Barnum. Maybe the landscape has changed that all the wise people know why it has not been tried. Because it is offered and so different ways. More channels. The Attention Span of people is very small. When you used to watch ed sullivan or any of those variety shows, the magician could do eight minutes. He would come out and make his cane vanish. He would produce cards, does. People will change the channel now. You have to do a show now where they do the best 2. 5 minutes and then next. Instead of six acts, you need 26 acts like americas got talent. That is why it is so successful now. You meet the person, they do the best thing, talk about it and move on. That is the difference now. The name of television moveon. On. The song was so great because there was not much. You knew elvis on ed sullivan. That would be great. We live in a world of youtube where if you want to see the and thing, you click play you see a guy get kicked in the nuts and you move on to the next video. [laughter] you dont need to see the buildup. Exactly. You want to see the 20 greatest plays. Bang, bang. These of the 10 best highlights of sunday night. Although, they still watch a lot of football. The future of a righty would have to be like that. You cannot juggle three anymore. You have it come out and juggle seven. Neil Patrick Harris, congratulations on this and everything. Thank you for taking this time with us. It has been a great pleasure. Back in a moment. Stay with us. This is al hunt on the story. We are joined tonight by white house chief of staff Denis Mcdonough. Thank you so much for being with us. Its a pleasure being with you, al. Meeting, luncheon today at the white house with congressional leaders. Give us a sense of the mood and the content. Good meeting. Its always reassuring to see after such a hardfought fight on the election all the leaders get together. People still tired after a Long Campaign season. It was a good, candid conversation. There was good amount of debate covering a range of issues from ebola and the request for additional assistance ongoing efforts both overseas and here at home. Our ongoing effort against isil. Will also, focus on things we can get done right here now in the lameduck session to include questions about immigration as you would rightly expect. Lets take up some of those. I was told by people there that the conversations about ebola and isil were really constructive. People felt there was a certain agreement on a lot of that. Is that fair to say . I would say it was very will substantive. There was obviously agreement about the enormity of the threat of isil and the challenges of ebola. There was no kind of specific ask for anything specific out of the meeting. Were obviously going to need help on funding and funding not only for ebola, but also this enhanced train, advise and equip effort with the iraqis. It looked to me those things were received positively, but i dont want to jump to any conclusions. They will take a hard look at it. These same participants said on immigration, it was pretty contentious boehner and senator john thune said dont do any executive action and the president shot right back and said i am the president. Well, im not going to characterize what anyone else said because i have a rule on that. Id be happy to tell you what the president thinks and said. President said we have been looking at this question of Immigration Reform for quite some time. The understanding is the system is broken and even going back to early days of the Bush Administration and even the clinton administration, the steps that are required to fix the immigration system are quite clear. That recipe has been set for more than a decade. The question on the president s mind is what is stopping us from getting that done . Ought to take executive action if congress cannot get things done legislative and that should serve as a catalyst to get congress to take this seriously and get it done. If Congress Passes law, that will supersede any executive action. Johntch mcconnell and boehner say it will do just the opposite. They claim it will poison the well and ensure nothing will happen. It will be a shame. 1987 when president reagan paroled over 200,000 nicaraguans to stay in this country because of the ongoing strife, everybody uniformly supported that. Democrats in the congress at the time who controlled the congress, did not walk from corporation with president reagan. They worked with the administration on any number of things. As the president said the other day, there will be things in which we agree and we should get to work and get those things done. There will be things in which we disagree and debate and see if there is a place to come to Common Ground. No question he will do it before christmas . He said we will get this done before the end of the year if congress does not act. You dont expect congress to act . I didnt get that impression today. Were there any other issues any discussions of air raids and Common Ground or trade . Of those are examples of things the president said we should be able to Work Together on. He leaves tomorrow night for his trip to asia and where we are working on the transpacific partnership. It is a very important opportunity to not only open new markets but create very important, better paying jobs here at home. That is one thing they talked about and should continue to work on. There is backandforth on other issues like iran which is one that came up. As i said already on iraq. Focus on not a much the next congress as this congress and the things they need to get done now. Continuing resolution that expires in early december, getting that renewed so we can fund the government. And what do you think realistically can be achieved in a lameduck . You want to continue the resolution. What else can you get done . We would like to get the ebola money so we can make sure we are getting hospitals prepared to handle it. It looks pretty good. Prepared to handle it as effectively as new york did. I think they did a really good job with the case of dr. Spencer. Another thing we think we should get progress on is this question of a new authorization for the use of military force in iraq. The president said lets get some progress on that. The speaker indicated we will not necessarily get that done this year but we will take it up next year. They will get started on the debate which is just as important. We have a bunch of nominations that are pending up in the senate right now. We would like to see those get done. Governmenting the day in and day out. We have over 220 nominees that are stalled. These are career ambassadors, Foreign Service officers that have dedicated their lives to this country. They should be confirmed. There were reports that you selected a group of prosecutors to be the new attorney general. Can you confirm that . Personnel have any news to make for you but will me get an attorney general nominee i wouldnt mind if you did. There is a lot of other news as well. After electoral projections which i think you acknowledged, the white house has often made some dramatic personnel changes. George w. Bush fired donald rumsfeld. Ronald reagan appointed new chiefs of staff. Denis mcdonough will stay there. Will there be any shakeup . I dont know about shakeup. Andll serve as a pleasure we are honored to be able to report to duty their everyday. I dont want to front run. I will tell you about the president s view and how i try to operationalize. The way i see the white house is you have no general manager for a professional Football Team in this country that would say lets keep somebody in here for two years and then after the end, we will refresh. Refreshing,e bringing in new blood and talent and ideas every day. When we find it, we will bring it in. That is why when i got this job i started to recruit. He has been a good help to us. Over the course of the last several months, we had added bob mcdonald ou. Stro. Ve added julain ca we have added megan smith as the chief technology officer. Very Senior Technology group from google. We will add people like ron klain and john allen. Asnew voices but a continuum opposed to any sort of sense that ok, we had an election and we have to make bigger changes. If the bigger changes now are us firing somebody, i dont see anything like that. Who was going to be the main contact in this differing environment with leader mcconnell . Will it be Vice President biden, Denis Mcdonough . The president will work very closely with the leader. You have heard things he said other day about his interactions with him over the course of time. They had a very good interaction today before the lunch. They will continue to build that. The leader has been very gracious to me over the course of my time in this job. He has developed a good working relationship with the Vice President. The chief contact will be the president. Will the Vice President play in a different role . Nobody knows the Senate Better than the Vice President. He has a long, enduring and very good relationships of there. It is a huge asset for us and they are working that out. I take it that means he will play a more active role . I think he is a huge asset for us. Let me ask you about the announcement you made today about doubling the forces in iraq. And giving them or latitude to go beyond baghdad and asking for 5. 5 million more dollars. It is not huge numbers but if this is a long slide, some critics will say this is mission creek. This is just the beginning. I have heard some of those critics already. We wanted to go what the number big enough that will be transparent even though we may not use all those numbers. We want to be transparent and make clear to the American Public what we are doing in this continuation of the train, advise and assist effort. We are trying to spread this out geographically to ensure that Iraqi Military units, Security Forces who are spread out kind of west and north of baghdad and even a little northeast of baghdad, have the ability to draw on experienced u. S. Trainers. This is a mission. It is more of our guys doing it in a wider array of places. Beingt see this something we will have to expand again in the near term. That is why we wanted to go with the big enough number to give us the opportunity for the American People to see what we are doing and to have the headroom to do it. Quacks do you think there is any prospect of these forces fighting in combat . No. They will defend themselves if they need to. That is one of the things the president has made clear. We will make sure the guys have the protection. We know to win this thing, our effort to degrade and ultimately destroy isil, the iraqi Security Forces have to be the boots on the ground to take this fight. Our guys will make sure they are forward at places so they can train them, make sure they are ready and have the wherewithal to take this fight to isil themselves. This is their battle to win, not ours. Today compared to three months ago . There was a good story yesterday. I think they are frustrated. They have had to change their tactics and their practices. Ableresult, we have been to slow the momentum. This effort to train more isf will be our effort now to allow the iraqis to not only have stop nets but to push them back. Do we have them on the run yet . I wouldnt use that phrase but it is not necessarily in minnesota, we dont use that phrase. Here is what i do know what we are doing. We are getting within their cycle of making decisions. We are limiting their freedom of action. We have an Iraqi Government that is now representative of all the factions in iraq which should then make the isf that much more capable. Morale the their graded, the freedom of movement limited, we should see the isf get more capable and them being able to push them back. Came up today. N what was said . Of questionsa lot as we approach the end of the interim agreement on the 24th of this month. A lot of questions in progress about what is happening next. Is a going to be a deal or not . What is the role of congress . The president was very candid saying we will be consulting very closely with congress. Theave made pretty clear to we and the International Partners on this, including the russians and chinese, have made clear to the iranians what we expect them to do to be able to rejoin the community of nations. It is not clear if they are ready to take those steps. If they do, we will work closer with congress and if we dont, we will work closer with congress as well. Lets get to the possible deal in a moment but your friend john mccain and Lindsey Graham blasted the president with reports towards a private letter towards the Supreme Leader of iran. Saying it will hurt our alliances with other arab states. Yes. The coalition we have built with the other arab states is very strong. Over 60 nations. We are taking the effort squarely to isil. I will not get into any questions of correspondence you saw the statement. I watch what they say very closely. I admire them both. I listen to them privately and watch them publicly as well. They have hard earned and hardearned feelings about not talked to them but i know how they feel about the irananians. We are try to communicate to them over the course of the last several years. The kind of things we want to make clear to the iranians are that they should not miss understand our clarity of purpose when we have that in the region. We want to make sure they dont think they can get away with trying to threaten our people. We want to make clear what we expect to them in Something Like the nuclear deal. I am not going to get into whether or not there is any correspondence here. Frankly, we dont have much to coordinate with these guys on anyway, but if we have to pass a message to them, we are very clear about our interests. There are only 2. 5 weeks before the november 24 deadline. It seems it will be difficult to make that deadline. Please, correct me if i am wrong. Do you think you are at least close enough so that can be reasonably extended for a while . I dont want to let i think a deadline has a way of focusing ones mind and i hope that is what this deadline serves to do. The president has said we have made Good Progress and the iranians have lived up to their end of the bargain so far. We have basically seen their program frozen and in many key whichts pushed backwards is undoubtedly in our interest. We have no evidence that they have cheated. We dont believe they have cheated which is important. That is observation one. We are still pretty far apart on some key questions. You are right to. 5 weeks is tha you are right. 2. 5 weeks is not that long. We are sure we are right in this effort. The president has motivation to make sure iran does not develop nuclear weapons. Are you optimistic that you will get there . I am very realistic about this. We just want to see on the dotted line whether they do the right thing. You mentioned of the role the Congress Might play earlier. If you get a deal and we know that is a huge if if you get a deal, could, would the president suspend the sanctions against the arabians the iranians . They could do that himself and see if they abide by it and then take it to congress for some kind of permanent change . Deal, howevent of a the sanctions would then be taken up would be a key part of any deal. Lets remember that we have both multilateral sanctions that would require multilateral efforts up in new york at the United Nations and we have our bilateral sanctions which we have worked with congress over the course of time. Those will need congress to help us. We need congress to help us take those up. The sequence of all those things will be something we work closely with congress on. But, congress will have to be a full partner. You could do some perhaps initially and then later have congress do a more comprehensive i want to try to avoid leaving you with any impression that we know precisely what steps are going to be taken first and second. This will be the subject of ongoing negotiations because any deal will have to be verifiable. Sanction relief will occur when we verifiably see the reigning is living up to this see the iranians living up to this. You have good news today about the economy. A of jobs were added last month. You look at 40 below where the jobless rate was four years ago. The stock market up over 50 . Deficit cut almost in a third. On election day, polls show 70 said 70 of americans have a negative view of where the economy is. Is that in part a failure of the white house . That perception versus reality . More than 200,000 jobs a month over nine months. We have the starkest job growth since the 1990s. The Unemployment Rate is really people still feel very anxious about their own prospects. Having come to a very deep recession, the deepest recession since the great depression, people are just now clawing back because of their hard work and because of some of the good decisions we have made along the way. The depth of the recession will all be his intellect obviously impact peoples views. This economy for some time has been stuck on low wages. That is something we will have to address by really getting at training, apprenticeships, trade deals like the one we were talking about before so we have good, Strong Manufacturing export led growth. Thank you, Denis Mcdonough and thank you for joining us. With all due respect to the democratic party, right now you guys have too many cooks. President obama tries to avoid looking like a lame duck, goes to the land of seeking duck, and gets his ducks in a row for attorney general nominee. Democrats are coming to terms with the flogging they got last tuesday. What does president obama think his partys biggest weakness is