Transcripts For MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports 20131017

Down and discussing a budget. I want to have a budget agreement that works for the country. I want to have a budget agreement that gets this debt and deficit under control. We believe there is Common Ground showing American People congress can work. Welcome back. Back in business, furloughed workers welcomed back to the office while memorials and National Parks are reopening to visitors. Even the National Zoos panda cam is back up and running. Thank goodness for that. Some things in politics may never change as senator ted cruz smiled and greeted tourists at capitol hill today, did we already forget how this whole mess started in the first place . Good day, im Andrea Mitchell in washington where president obama has today urged congress to solve the big challenges ranging from debt to the farm bill. Will the most recent near disaster really spark more cooperation on capitol hill . Joining me for our daily dicks is chris cillizza, host of tv in play, nbcs capitol hill correspondent luke russert and chuck todd, nbc news and host of the daily rundown. Welcome, all. Chuck, first to you, where do you think we are politically . Look, i think were in a sort of erie calm right now in this respect. We got this past us. Six weeks ago the president looked like he was teetering on being the verge of a lame duck. You had democrats more comfortable criticizing the president. You had Republican Party continuing to paper over their internal issues. It turned everything upside down. It strengthened the president. He has political capital. Well see how long and what he uses it for. Hes got renewed strength. The Republican Party has taken a big step back. The question is going to be the brand may be damaged, the question is how bad is the civil war that takes place. Does it break out into the open like some republicans fear it might . Luke, theres a lot of praise for john boehner from his colleagues last night maybe trying to paper things over. Any real rebellion there . What is the mood . No, andrea. In the perverse logic that is capitol hill, the 16day shutdown greatly strengthened john boehner. If i said to you guys 16 days ago that john boehner passed a bill that extended the debt limit, funded the government, did nothing to obama care and would have passed with majority democratic votes and Michele Bachmann would be praising him for his strength and resolve, you guys would have sent me to the insane asylum. That is the unbelievable reality on capitol hill. That has helped boehner in his hold on the speakership. Now, moving forward, it will be interesting to see what he uses that for. A lot of speculation, he wants to continue to be speaker until he has some sort of large scale deficit and Debt Reduction deal. He wants something he can have in his library someday, some piece of history that is him and president obama. Right now hes known as a weak speaker who has brought the Government Shutdown and had this internal warring faction underneath this umbrella that is his leadership. But i think moving forward, it will be very interesting to see what issues they choose to play on. You hear about immigration. I personally believe thats a difficult issue because we cant seem to define border on capitol hill. Maybe a farm bill, use the capital of the last few days and say, you know what, we should move and start to govern. From where we stand right now, while there is this division between establishment and more raucous caucus cruz wing they like boehner the guys on the latter. Heritage action, while they have the power to come out and say, hey, we cant change obama care until 2017, folks arent going to forget that too quick. Thats something leadership folks are happy to push out, guys. Kelly odonnell joined us. We want to put up on the screen what was in the bill passed last night and signed by the president. Were talking about funding the government through january 15th, when, by the way, the members level of sequesters would kick in if they dont do anything to change it into a real budget. Raising the debt ceiling through february 7th. It is kicking the can down the road. Letting treasury use extraordinary measures to prioritize payments if they havent raised the debt ceiling again and actually having a house Senate Budget. They met today. Actually having a budget which conferrees havent met in years. They met today to do things by regular order. Theres significance to that. What sneaked into this bill were special payments, dams, bridges, other kinds what people call pork, others call important payments. Before we let you explain all that, i wanted to play a little bit of john with rachel being asked about some of those items. Should we have expected all of these individual line item funding items in the bill that passed the senate tonight or was this a surprise . Its a surprise. I mean, i think this stuff was probably put in with all the best of intendings but its one of the reasons its one of the reasons our popularity ratings are so low is because of surprises. Kelly, there were surprises. Some of them you could argue are legitimate. But is this any way to run a railroad . Well, andrea, i had just come from a News Conference with nancy pelosi so i was running behind to get to you and its one of the things i asked her about. On the one hand she says a spending bill like the one that was passed last night is sort of the tool congress has to authorize projects they can argue are valuable. But to outsiders it does look like sneaking it in late of night, members didnt even know. She acknowledged to us she was not aware of some of what was in it because it had been part of the Senate Negotiations were. So as people look at those items and decide if there are merits to them or not, the process makes people uncomfortable and it is a symptom of the larger problem. You would have projects that are important in different communities or expenditures that might make some people sort of shake their head but might be a legitimate reason for it. Normally that goes through a very open process that results in the budget which congress hasnt had for years now. So this putting things in is a symptom of the bigger problem and also touches the frustration and cynicism and suspicion that the public has about congress. So not everything is pork in a way that suggests theres something wrong but the process certainly makes people uncomfortable. Lawmakers say this the way it gets done. Its not pretty. Nancy pelosi said the reopening of government was so important she had to vote for it, even though theres things in it she didnt know about and didnt like. That doesnt necessarily satisfy people today. Thats some of the ways of washington. Andrea. Chris cillizza, theres a fallout also for 2014 elections. What about winners and losers Going Forward . First read had a pretty good rundown how it will affect senators, matt cochran, a veteran senator is being challenged. The tea party is active. Senate conservative fund, a group jim demint used to be affiliated with, now a super pac run by former demint staffers came up and said were going to actively look at endorsing more conservative candidates in primaries. I will say, andrea, i was a little bit surprised, maybe im naive, i was a little surprised. I asked how many republicans in the house will vote for this compromise. I thought 150 maybe. Many people said well under 100. The safe vote when you think about a primary challenge, remember, thats what most of these members worry about now given where the redistricting lines are. The safe vote is voting against it. It wound up right, 87 votes in favor of it. Obviously all 198 or 200 who voted for it voted in favor so it passed. A remarkable testament. Look how that broke out. Look who voted for it and against it tells you everything you need to know about Republican Party politics at the moment. Tom cotton voting yes. General election guys. Guys who are worried about general elections yes, guys worried about primaries voted no. Chuck todd, you had an extraordinary conversation on the daily rundown with orrin hatch, conservative, utah, veteran senator. You pressed him. Lets play a little of that about the role jim demint and heritage played in the ted cruz wing of the party. Some of which have been good think tanks in the past but now losing their reputation because of some of this radicalness. Are you referring to heritage . Yeah, of course i am. Heritage used to be the conservative organization helping republicans and helping conservatives and helping us have the best intellectual conservative ideas. Theres a real question in the minds of many republicans now. Im not just speaking for myself but a lot of people. Is heritage going to go so political it really doesnt amount to anything anymore. Thats a real rupture. It is. This issue with heritage has been there for a while. You would have republicans grumble about it behind the scenes. They would tell you and i things off the record. Now youve got orrin hatch on the record this isnt john mccain, lindsey graham, usual suspects in the Republican Party that dont mind saying jim demint, i dont like him, this or that. This is orrin hatch, who, by the way, when he was first elected, he was part hes part of this new crazy conservative wing, people would say this about hatch in 76 and 80. My argument, this is a mainstream conservative. This is not a moderate republican. Hes calling our heritage. Ive been hearing this. This is part of the public is blaming republicans. Inside the Republican Party, the Tea Party Republicans looking to blame. People behind ted cruz and town halls was heritage. Some of the winners could be rand paul who took a much more moderate stance than ted cruz. He voted with them, supported it, all you, buddy. Talking about the 2016 republican primaries already. Yes, we are. Guess who goes to iowa next week. Ted cruz . Ted cruz. How about that . Here we go. Maybe a random trip he had long plan. Not. Do you guys mind if i dont go. Thanks to all of you, to chris cillizza, kelly odonnell, luke russert and our own chuck todd. It was the scene of rallies and protests and controversy during 16 days of the Government Shutdown but now, you guessed it, the world war ii memorial is back open to all visitors as d. C. Tries to return to business as usual. Barriers were removed, gates open, other monuments and National Parks. Capitol hill tours resumed while another symbol of the shutdown the ohio clock started ticking again after the specially trained curators returned to work. To the delight of everyone here at Andrea Mitchell reports, the National Zoos panda cam back up and running. The national zoo will reopen tomorrow. If you cannot wait until then for zoo news, the zoo released this video of the new arrival, giant panda cub almost eight weeks old. Just listen. [ male announcer ] welcome back all the sweet things your family loves with 0calorie monk fruit in the raw. Welcome back [ male announcer ] its made with the natural, vineripened sweetness of fruit, so you can serve up deliciously sweet treats without all the sugar. So let no drink go unsweetened. No spatula unlicked. And no last bit unsipped. You dont have to throw a party, but youll probably feel like celebrating. Raw natural sweetness, raw natural success. Welcome back. A sometimes overlooked part of last nights deal, revival of oldfashioned budget negotiations between housefer ht time. They have a chance to put together a real budget instead of another shortterm stopgap measure. This morning senate and house budget chairs met over breakfast to try to find Common Ground. How civilized is that . We shouldnt approach this process of creating a budget as an ideological exercise, just cutting for the sake of cutting. With him was congressman chris van hollen, top democrat on the house committee. Welcome very much for joining us. Everybody is scooting out of town but you guys are actually getting down to business. What happened today and what kind of start was it . Was it predictive of anything for the way youre Going Forward . Andrea, this was mostly an informal gathering just to kick things off, get together and begin the conversation. We have to schedule the official gathering of the budget conference so the chairs will do that. But everybody got together and said we want to make this process work, and i hope that we do. I know youve been critical in the past of the paul ryan house budget and house members have been very critical of what the senate did. The president says everything is on the table. Does that mean taxes from the republican standpoint thats been a nonstarter. Does that mean entitlement cuts in thats something a lot of democrats dont want. What are you really looking at and how big a deal can be accomplished in such a short timeframe. Thats something the negotiator will have to decide, what the scope of the discussion is. As indicated its a large scope. The House Republican budget, the ryan budget, then you have the Senate Democratic budget and other democratic propose as. There are very significant differences between the two. The answer is that everything in the budgets need to be on the table. Weve always been clear we would support finding savings in mandatory health programs. Weve done it in a way that doesnt hurt the beneficiaries by improving coordination of care, changing incentives in the system. We very much hope republican colleagues will agree to talk about revenue. After all, if you say you care about the deficit, if you say you care about the debt, surely you should be willing to close at least one tax loophole for the purpose of reducing the deficit. There are lots of Corporate Tax breaks that gum up the tax code. We need to have everything on the table as part of the discussion. Lets take a look at what paul ryan had to say. It wasnt about taxes today, at least not in public. I want to have a budget agreement that gets this debt and deficit under control, does right by future generations and helps us grow the economy. Were going to try to find out if we have an agreement to do that. Do you think everything is on the table . Look, as i said, by definition, the scope of a Conference Committee is the two budgets, house and Senate Budget. The Senate Budget takes a balanced approach like many bipartisan commissions have been. You have to look at the spending side, especially the socalled mandatory spending side. Things are on automatic pilot. You have to look at revenue. If you take that off the table, you put much too big a burden on everybody else. And so i was worried the other day when the speaker of the house said, hey, i want a negotiation. I want to sit down at the table. By the way, we refuse to talk about revenue. Thats not a negotiation. The American People recognize thats trying to rig the discussion before it starts. I hope our republican colleagues wont do that Going Forward. If were going to be successful, people have to be willing to have all these elements in the budget as part of the discussion. Nancy pelosi said just now, a little while ago, she was surprised by some of the stuff sneaked into the bill of it was supposed to be a clean bill. What happened at the last moment . Are you referring to the bill from last night . Im referring to dams and bridges and a lot of stuff. Some people say they are good projects in play that needed to be continually funded, because theres no budget a continuing resolution wouldnt have done that. That said, thats hardly a way to legislate. Look, i dont disagree with you an drachlt there wdrea. There was a proposal by senator mcconnell from kentucky. Hes going to have to speak to the merits of his proposal. What i do know is when it got to the house of representatives, we faced a simple decision, do we wan to shut down the government, do we want to default on our bills. We made the right decision in that regard. One of the hinges i hope comes out of this, people stop using the threat and club of Government Shutdown or defaulting on our obligations to try to extract some kind of partisan concessions. That is not the way it works. It was proven to be a failing strategy over the last 16 days. This was a totally unnecessary amount of pain that was inflicted on the country, on the American People, on the economy. So hopefully no one will try and rerun that play. The question is whether that lesson has, in fact, been learned by some of our colleagues as we go forward. Chris van hollen. Thank you very much, congressman. Thank you. Now that the government is back in business, people are paying more attention to one big thing that is not working. The online exchanges for obama care. According to the white house 15 Million People have visited the site since it opened october 1st but only a small fraction have been able to sign up for health insurance. Will the administration be able to get up and running smoothly any time soon . Tom costello has details. Reporter if the osh care website were a patient, it would probably be in intensive care by now. More than two weeks after its rollout healthcare. Gov is getting failing grades from supporters. I hope they fired people in charge of making sure this thing was supposed to work. Reporter and the white house itself. Despite the glitches we acknowledge and absolutely must be fixed, people are getting on and enrolling. Reporter the Washington Post called it a complete train wreck. Milwaukee journal sentinel said the Administration Needs to fix the problems and fix it now. When you see this as a software programmer, what does it say to you . Amateur hour. Looks like its created by someone whose never Done Software before. Runs a Software Company in virginia. If they dont change management this pronl is doomed. Weve seen what existing management deems ready for shipping and its not. And tom costello is with me now. Tom, this has drawn so much criticism, not nearly as much as if there hadnt been the shutdown. People are beginning to focus, are they straightening it out . Reporter they say they are making progress. They say they are making progress reducing the wait time. The volumes have dropped dramatically. This is a big series of problems. Its not one. Every expert i talked to said they have significant coding issues, software issues. Im not a Computer Programmer myself but they didnt design it in a user friendly manner or a manner most retail websites you use every day can handle this kind of volume. For example, amazon. Com allows you to go on and window shop, look around, if you see anything you like, put it in your cart. Maybe you buy it, put it on your credit card. In this website you put all your information up front, private, personal information up front. Before you shop. Before you shop. That might be turning people away. The reason they do that is there are so many different interlinking problems and issues that have to be resolved. They have to know whether you require for subsidies, what kind of insurance would you be eligible for and tax breaks. They cant quote you until they have that information. Because they have to ask for it up front and youre talking about 30, 40 steps to go through this process, its cumbersome, crashing and people are giving up. We should point out other government websites have a problem. This is opening a window into how bad this government is at it in an administration elected with the most advanced sophisticated computer modeling of any campaign. We should make the point keep in mind federal website designed for use for 30, 33 states. They either are partnering with the federal government or federal government doing the whole job. In those states where they have taken it upon themselves to do it by themselves they are having success. Kentucky a good track record, colorado, connecticut. So this seems to be a big problem with the federal governments website more than the individual states that are doing it on their own. Thanks for sorting it out for us. As best i can. Work in progress. We could be here all day talking about this. Another time. I know youve got interviews to do as well. Tom costello, thanks so much. Appreciate it. My pleasure. Disturbing house vote opened the vote wednesday night, a longtime house stenographer began yelling into the microphone about god, freemasons. You can see her behind the podium. She was carried away by house staffers. After being removed from the floor lynn sweet captured this video on her cell phone. It is not one nation under god. Capitol police said that the stenographer was transported to a local area hospital for evaluation. Avo the volkswagen sign then drive sales event is back. Which means its never been easier to get a new passat, awarded j. D. Powers most appealing midsize car, two years in a row. And right now you can drive one home for practically just your signature. Get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first months payment on any new 2014 volkswagen. Hurry, this offer ends october 31st. For details, visit vwdealer. Com today. 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Call unitedhealthcare today or go online to learn more. Ive got a big date, but my sinuses are acting up. Its time for advil cold and sinus. [ male announcer ] truth is that wont relieve all your symptoms. New alka seltzer plusd relieves more sinus symptoms than any other behind the counter liquid gel. Oh what a relief it is. Of providing a free worldclass education for anyone, anywhere. If you look at a khan academy video, they cover everything from basic arithmetic to calculus, trigonometry, finance. You can really just get what you need at your own pace. And so, bank of america came and reached out to us and said, we are really interested in making sure that everyone really understands personal finance. Were like, well, were already doing that. And so it was kind of a perfect match. Just moments ago the secretary of defense said the impact of the shutdown will still be felt by the department of defense and by Veterans Affairs. Senator jack reed is a member of the Armed Services committee and joins me now and, of course, a veteran himself. Senator, thank you for being with us. Thank you. What is the impact on defense. Some people might say, okay, we went through this for 16 days. Its over. The monuments have reopened. Where is the real cost in terms of our military . The real cost is many of the critical civilians were not able to work. You had to have meetings delayed. You had to have contracts deferred in terms of negotiation or oversight. Theres a host of costs associated with the shutdown that are just beginning to be felt and felt over the next several weeks if not months. What about Veterans Affairs . We focused a lot on people who were at risk of not getting their checks that veteran affairs was running out of cash by next week. Will that go smoothly . Is there a delay as people come back to work . I know the secretary is trying his utmost to start moving quickly so that our veterans do get our benefits, that the medical system continues to operate as it does so well. Its going to be an allout effort. The last 16 days were not at all necessary. We ended where we began, which is essentially a temporary continuing resolution so we could negotiate a complete budget package. We also reaffirmed the fact we wouldnt default on the debt. We could have done that 16 days ago. Unfortunately the process didnt work out well. It didnt work out well for the American People. I hope we learn something for that is correct the president cooperate, work hard in principle constructive debate and move the country forward. Secretary hagel had a News Conference a bit ago just talking about how serious the impact was for the pentagon. Lets watch. Its important to note that congress did not remove the shadow of uncertainty that has been cast over this department and our government much of this year. Like much of the rest of the government dod is operating on a shortterm continuing resolution which limits our ability to start new programs. The damaging cuts of sequestration remain the law of the land. Do you think now is part of the budget process that theres a chance of avoiding not only changing the current sequester but avoiding the next tranche which is supposed to hit january 15th . I hope we can do that. As the secretarys comments suggest, they have been able to manage through some sequestration cuts this year that gets more and more difficult. Incredibly difficult. Where they have to go is readiness accounts, training, maintenance accounts, investment accounts, platforms, new technology. Thats going to be very, very difficult. The size of these cuts and the fact they have exhausted all of their built up reserve at this juncture makes it difficult. I think we have to provide flexibility, as much flexibility as we can with respect to sequestration. In fact, we should consider in negotiations suspending it or eliminating it entirely. It is not an effective tool to manage Like Department of defense. In fact, it is counterproductive. What is outlook for producing something serious about entitlements, considering taxes, all of the really tough subjects being on the table . Well, the good news is were now actually sitting down. As you know we passed a budget in march. Weve been trying to get to this conference and frustrated by a small group of senators objecting. Now they have been mooted and moving to congress. Its going to be dionne all these issues because of the nature of the programs, the importance of the programs, not just defense but social programs, earned benefit programs like Social Security and medicare. All those things are difficult. At least now were in a position with senator murray and ryan to begin to focus and with the president s participation hopefully to resolve issues. I think the one thing we have to look at is not just the longterm but immediate term. The key in my view is getting people back to work, getting the economy to grow. If we do not grow the economy, then our deficit almost by definition gets worse. We also frustrate millions of people literally who are looking for work, who want to work and cant find it. We should put a priority on growth rather than the longer term. I think we have to immediately start growing the economy. Thank you so much, senator jack reed. Thanks for joining us from the hill. Thank you, andrea. It was the salute seen around the world. When army ranger josh har gus was awarded the purple heart, his commander thought he was unconscious, that is until he raised his arms, struggling with doctors and medical tubing to salute his commander. The commander said the gesture moved grown men to tears. Now were learning what it meant to his wife. Moves me to tears. I think thats why its gotten so much attention, its moving people. Its such an amazing thing that hes done and that he did. I was just amazed. I was overcome with pride. Thats my husband. Hes an amazing man. Everyone that knows josh is not surprised. Thats just the kind of man he is. Life with Crohns Disease or Ulcerative Colitis is a daily game of what ifs. What if my abdominal pain and cramps come back . What if the plane gets delayed . What if i cant hide my symptoms . What if . But what if the most important question is the one youre not asking . What if the underlying cause of your symptoms is damaging inflammation . For help getting the answers you need, talk to your doctor and visit crohnsandcolitisinfo. Com to get your complimentary q a book, with information from experts on your condition. His day of coaching begins with knee pain, when. [ man ] hey, brad, want to trade the allday relief of two aleve for six tylenol . Whats the catch . Theres no catch. You want me to give up my two aleve for six tylenol . No. For my knee pain, nothing beats my aleve. A new book from former Vice President dick cheney is offering a rare personal glimpse into his 35year battle with heart disease. The New York Times got a copy and they report that cheney reveals he was close to death, so close to death three years ago, in fact, he said fairwell to his family. Cheney rights, if this is dying, i remember thinking, its not all bad. I believe i was approaching the end of my days, but that didnt frighten me. I was painfree and at peace and i had led a remarkable life. Cheney would go on to, of course, have a heart transplant at the age of 71 in 2012 five years after leaving office. The book entitled heart, an american medical odyssey was cowritten with his cardiologist. He will be live on the today show monday morning. [ male announcer ] this is jim, a man who doesnt stand still. 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For more information and savings options, call 1888xarelto or visit goxarelto. Com. Thank you. Thank you. I got this. No, ill get it no, let me get this. Seriously. Hey, let me get it. Ah, uh. I dont want you to pay for this. Its not happening, honey. Let her get it. She got her safe driving bonus check from allstate last week. And its her treat. What about a tip . Oh, heres one. Get an allstate agent. Nice [ female announcer ] switch today and get two safe driving bonus checks a year for driving safely. Only from allstate. Call an allstate agent and get a quote now. Just another way allstate is changing Car Insurance for good. A 14yearold girl is behind bars and a 12yearold girl under house arrest in the florida bullying case that led to a 12yearold girl committing suicide. The sheriff investigating is coming down hitandrun driver on the parents of alleged bullies. Part of the report filed this morning by nbcs mark potter. The death of 12yearold Rebecca Sedgewick who committed suicide by jumping from this tower at the cement tower haunts sheriff judd. My heart is broken. I want to make sure we do everything we can to send a loud message parents have to pay passengers. Reporter judd said the parents failed to monitor the behavior. At this point in the investigation we dont have a criminal case against any parents. We wish we did. Reporter nbc legal analyst Kendall Coffey says its a hard case to met. Unless theres proof the parents encouraged bullying, may be bat parenting moral responsibility but wont be a crime. Reporter the longterm hope, the sheriff said, is for rebeccas tragic death to raise awareness and prevent others. Mark potter filed that for the today show and joins me now from florida. Thanks so much, mark. What is the latest about the girls. Maybe its less like ly the parents will be held responsible what about these girls . You have a 14yearold behind bars. Absolutely of shes behind bars in a juvenile facility. Her attorney said last night shes going to try to file a motion to get released. The 12yearold is at home with her parents under house arrest. They are both facing charges of aggravated stalking of a minor. This is a serious charge. They have to go through the system now. Its playing out. They will both have lawyers. They will go through the system facing different punishments depending on how they deal with the judge in the case, depending how much contrition they show along the way. According to the sheriff, this had been going on two years, the pressure, the bullying of this child, really, to the point where she was so desperate she killed herself. And no parent picked up on any of their Online Activity . Is a real lesson to families about taking responsibility for what your kids are doing even on mobile devices if not home computers. Absolutely. The sheriff makes that point very clearly not only about the parents but about teachers and other students, friends. Everybody should be picking up on this. One of the parents said he regretted not being able to keep up with his daughter in terms of the technology. Parents arent as adept and im not as adept as a lot of kids with technology and they just werent watching. They werent minding the store in this case. The sheriff believes that the parents should have done a lot more. Hed like to, he says, bring charges, actually, but he knows he cant do it for two reasons. He doesnt have the evidence and the law is not with him. As was said in the piece by our legal analyst, you can say they were bad parents. You can say they committed a moral wrong, but really in terms of a crime the law is just not there at this time. But theres a lot of frustration over this. I spoke today with a staffer for our state senator here who says that senator is considering putting together a draft of a new law that would tighten the punishment for stalking and also create more teaching opportunities for teachers themselves, educating them about what to look for. This is something thats out there. This story is resonating way beyond florida, way beyond polk county out into the country because this is a problem that grows as technology grows. There is a statement, we should note, from the parents of at least one of the alleged bullies who writes an attorney for the parents, since they frequently monitor her and never observed these alleged messages they did not see a problem to confront. They were unaware of misconduct at school regarding their daughter. If any issues had been brought to their attention, they would have spoken to their daughter and remedied them to prevent situations at hand. The alleged behavior is out of character for their daughter and they are attempting to deal with this as best they k its obviously the worst tragedy of all for the family that lost their child. Absolutely. The the bottom line im sorry, andrea. The bottom line, nobody wants to relentlessly punish these girls. They want to rehabilitate them. They are young, 12 and 14 years old. They want to get to them now to stop this from happening again and use this case as an example to teach kids there are consequences. More importantly from the sheriffs standpoint you have to watch them, you have to mind the store. You should be punishing your kids, monitoring these kids, otherwise we have to. Look what happens when we get involved. The sheriff is stepping up. We havent heard from teachers and educators responsible because they are with them for a good part of the day. Park potter, thank you so much for shedding light on this really terrible case. Thank you, andrea. Just after the senate voted and passed the deal last night, there was another vote, you might have missed it. Unanimous consent the Senate Confirmed Caroline Kennedy to ambassador in japan. She will be the first woman to represent u. S. In japan. She promised to Carry Forward her fathers legacy. As Congress Moves on from the crisis the senate will welcome its newest member, cory booker, the highprofile mayor won the special election last night. He will serve the last 15 months of frank lautenbergers term. This morning on morning joe he said hes prepared to face the problems. Everybody feels fatigue and frustration with how things are which creates a great climate for change. Only 20 before me American Mayors in the history of country have ever gone onto the United States senate. I look forward to bringing that kind of mayoral attitude to washington. Hey lady noooo no [ tires screech ] nooo nooo nooo hey lady, thats diesel i know. Will make headlines in the next 24 hours . Chris sill lis sa is back with us. The governor met with the Prime Minister of italy. He con great lated him on the success last night. I guess this is what passes as success. The government is reopening little by little. You know, andrea, i think that you cant be in our business or be in the business of politics unless you leave open the possibility that things can be different than they have been in the past, which means i have a healthy skepticism that theyll solve our longterm debt issues because the sort of differences between these two sides are so deep and so entrenched. But look. They did avert going over the debt ceiling and they reopened the government. Im not sure that constitutes victory, but in this day and age, its something that the government agreed to and got done. The question is does anything change. President obama seemed to be very forceful today to say this has to change. Look, the election is the election. You dont like my policies, but thats fine. You cant go outside the bounds of regular order to disagree with me. Im not convinced with me that that convinces some of the people who led this shutdown effort, including ted cruz. Im not sure that that logic is convincing to them, so i wonder whether were going to be in a similar position, though i would be very skeptical if republicans were willing again to sort of participate given how badly their damage was. Ted cruz seemed to be doing a victory lap today going from the victory senner to to the capitol shaking hands. Im not sure i get that. You and i have talked about it. For what ted cruz is ultimately interested in which i believe is running for president in 2016, i do think he probably helped himself in a republican primary with his filibuster long speech protesting obama care and then he sort of faces the opposition. As the nbc wall street journal poll says he hurt himself there. Its what he focused on in his political future. We will see. Of course, the zoo is going to reopen tomorrow, so the gate is still closed. Were reminding of the most poignant picture of the shutdown of all of all the pain really suffered. That little boy will be able to get into the zoo tomorrow. My son will be thrilled. Thank yo snu i know. That does it for this edition of Andrea Mitchell reports. Follow us online. My colleague Thomas Roberts has a look at what is next on newsnation. Hi, thomas. Hello, andrea. President obama now tries to refocus back to his dough mess tirk agenda, but will a beat about down Republican Party allow him to do it. And have lessons been learned with the next potential budget crisis. Does 90 days away Mean Congress will get it right this time . Its our newsnation gut check. For the first time were hearing from the fiancee whos professional football boyfriend was shot ten times by the police. And hes the main actor in the new movie captain phillips. Some say he outshined tom hanks. 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