Direction to go. Boehner is still held captive. This isnt the first time. We saw this with the fiscal cliff, the farm bill. John boehner does not have the votes. Seam problem here. Why are they doing this . We get closer and closer to the edge. We are about to default. Everybody gets hurt. Time is money. Working on a way forward. There is a battle for the soul of the republican party. Im very disappointed with john boehner. What a speaker has to do is get the job done. John boehner spent the day proving to the crazies in his party that it is impossible for anything that the crazies want to pass the house of representatives. First, boehner and the leadership offered republicans in the house the option of voting on something similar to the Senate Agreement with the difference being some changes to the Affordable Care act. It quickly became clear in their meeting that republicans did not have enough votes to pass that. Then, john boehner, offered republicans the option of maybe voting for Something Like the senate deal, but with simply a provision that would strip congressional members and their staff and the president and his cabinet and the Vice President of their employer Subsidized Health insurance. It became clear very quickly. That republicans did not have enough votes to pass that version of the bill, either. At this hour, harry reid and Mitch Mcconnell continued to work on a Senate Agreement. President obama is scheduled to meet with treasury secretary, jack lu tomorrow afternoon. Today the ratings agency, fitch, put the United States triple a Credit Rating on a negative watch. Although fitch continues to believe that the debt ceiling will be raised soon, the political brinksmanship and reduced financing flexibility could increase the risk of a u. S. Default. The u. S. Risks being forced to incur widespread delays of payments to suppliers and employees as well as Social Security payments to to citizens all of which would damage the perception of u. S. Sovereign credit worthiness and the economy. In an interview with wabc in new york city, president obama described how he seize tes the problem. The problem we have got. For Speaker Boehner for example, him negotiating with me, isnt necessarily good for the extreme faction in his caucus. It weakens him. So there have been repeated situations where we have agreements. Then he goes back and it turns out that, he cant control his caucus. The challenge here is can you deliver on agreements that are made. Are you able to come up with sensible bipartisan compromises. And deliver on them. Joining me now, congressman, chris van hall, democrat from maryland and Ranking Member of the budget committee. Congressman, first of all, the state of play at this very minute as you understand it. Well, the state of play is that after this failed attempt by some of the Tea Party Caucus in the house to sabotage the Bipartisan Senate talks which as you say collapsed now the senate talks are back on track. In a by all accounts, harry reid, Mitch Mcconnell are very close. And so if they can close that deal. Then the question of course is how long it takes it to go out of the senate. Whether senator cruz will try to drag this thing out. And then of course next is whether Speaker Boehner will finally stand up to the Tea Party Caucus in the house and allow us to have a vote to to prevent the default and open the government. In your meeting with the president today, was there some kind of general agreement, policy, and strategic about how to handle this as we go forward . Yes, the president again had hopes the bipartisan Senate Agreement would get back on track. Number one. Number two he emfa sized again, what he has emphasized again, what he has all along. Negotiate on budget issues. The republicans have the house budget. We have our democratic bumen ii. What he is not twiwilling to dod the republicans of the faith and credit of the government hostage. To extract the outrageous demands. I think the most important thing coming out of the discussions is we will have established that principle and precedent. Now, not that, not that the tea party guys will have learned that lesson. But will have demonstrated in the period of time that the president was absolutely firm and committed to those principles. Want to listen to something that nan secy pelosi said aftere meeting at the white house today. Listen to this. In the end you are trusting john boehner, will in your mind dupt rig do the right thing and put something clean enough on the floor. I dont know what the se sequencing of it is, yes. Congressman, has that always been your assumption that in the end, john boehner would not let the country default . It has the, after he exhausted all of the other crazy alternatives as you said. Yeah. Here is a guy who sd aid to s caucus it would be a mistake to go down the road. Senator cruz got everybody whipped up. They overrode their speaker. So he has thrown them a bone at every juncture. He is saying, look, we are out of rope here. And, thats what we are hoping that he will conclude for the good of the country not to allow us to go over the precipice. He seems to have the problem. Were he to conclude these things a day sooner than he does his party just would not understand it. Thats been the continuing problem. How do you negotiate with somebody who has no negotiating authority. How do you negotiate with somebody, lawrence, when you get a deal it lasts a nano second until senator cruz calls or whips up the Tea Party Caucus in the house. And this does not bode well going forward. Because assuming we get over this hurdle. We have just got these new timetables set you. Have january 15th. February 7th. And unless Speaker Boehner is able to finally get negotiating authority. There is no sign he will. It is going to be very hard to conduct the budget negotiations and avoid a repeat of what we are seeing now. So again. We are hoping that the Tea Party Caucus has learned its lesson. But by all evidence suggests, that they still havent. Witness what happened today in the house. Quickly before we go. Congressman. What is your assessment of the timetable in getting this done with the clock now ticking down to the point where the treasury, by the end of the week, will no longer be able to meet all its obligations . Well it really depend on whether senator cruz and, some of the the folks who have been, you know, working for government shuft dot down. Whether they use all the time on the clock that they have got. As the you know, there is this revised cloture rule. I dont know if they would invoke that. But no matter what senator cruz if he chose. Could run 30 hours on the clock. Again, i hope he wont do it. But you got to believe that some of the House Republicans, are going to be looking at him saying, you know after you egged us on, what are you doing. So, again, hope, cooler heads will prevail. If senator cruz takes up all of the time, he, he could. Then obviously we could go past that midnight hour. If he doesnt. There is a question of getting it over off to the house. And Speaker Boehner then has to bring it up for a vote. Congressman, thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Crystal ball, we just got hurd that the United States senate adjourned until 12 00 noon tomorrow. That means the deal making is going on furiously. Absolutely right. I think as we are watching this end game. We can sort of start to see how this is going to play out. It becomes clear, the two weeks of government shut down. Back and fort. Threating stafferS Health Care. All of this stuff has been one thing, one thing alone. Providing cover for john boehner, so that he can go to his caucus and say, i did everything i possibly could, and now we are done to the wire. And i have to save the country. The sad fact of the matter is, though, even after exhausting all of those options. They are never going to be satisfied with him and what he did. It will never be far enough, so when we think about who is going to learn a lesson from this crisis. I think we need to give of on the Tea Party Caucus. Theyre never going to learn the lesson. But of maybe we will see more courage next time from the Reasonable Republicans in the caucus. Over here is a great demonstration. Video demonstration for you. Just how crazy the Tea Party Members of the house of representatives are, i want you to listen to now, to the voice of reason, pat robertson. Yes, pat robertson. Listen to this. The republicans have got to wave the white flag and say we fought a good fight. Now it is over. They cannot shut the government down. And then, bring about a default. We cant do it. I mean it would, it would be devastating, economically, to every human being, and the republicans just cant get tired with that. So, ted cruz new bumper sticker, crazier than pat robinson. Thats a winning message in texas, i think. You have to be careful. If pat robinson is your voice of reason and science tauchlt a. Who ever put that in his teleprompter. You are right. If americans take one thing from this. There wasnt just a government shutdown. There was a democracy shutdown. And the way this thing ends is tomorrow, or the next day, whenever we got to this end game as we are apparently getting closer, from, sources in both parties. It will end the way it could have been prevented to begin with. With finally a democratic vote on the house floor. John boehner has been preventing the entire time. That i think is what is so important here. And as you know from, from Election Night when you were predicting some of the debt ceiling shenanigans. When we looked in the senate. There are always people who vote against it. There were 66 republicans who voted against after they got the Super Committee sequester cut compromise, concessions the president realized he would never issue again. So the 49 members of the tea party. Plus a couple other whackos, a nice term for what, what theyre doing. May always be against this. The majority including republicans will hike it soon as john boehner gets out of the way of the majority rule. Want to listen, to another thing, nan seep pelosi said today about what this has already cost us. Lets listen to this. People are now going to pay more for their interest on loans for student loans, their mortgage, their car payments, their credit card bills. If theyre Small Business owners theyre going to pay more interest on their business loans. So, your interest will go up. And your 401 k will go down. Anyone here have a 401 k , do you check it from time to time. This is what is at stake here. And how it directly affects people. Some short term Interest Rates off already gone up, chris. Thats right. We saw large negative Economic Impact from the last debt ceiling impasse. We cant continuing to do this to ourselves. Even if we dont go over the edge, we are hurting ourselves economically, hurting the worlds confidence in our condream con country. Its important to say to, no, you get nothing. Even if it is something we dont care about you. Cant have aevengt nything. It will encourage them to do it again. Senator Lindsay Graham trying to counter the ted cruz impact in the house of representatives, by publicly saying encourage things to john boehner, go ahead. We are with you. You are a good man. You know . He wants him to be able to have the string toout ength to defy party. He wants to send a message. A big part of what the republican grassroots has done is actually set themselves back. Because they hatch raive raisedr for what it means to be a conservative. Thats not possible, you know . You do it in the primary. That can make sense. What they have done here is make it so no one is a conservative. Thats why, hastert said, trent lott our republican mississippi friend said i couldnt work with these guys. Long term, they have hourt themselves. Thank you both for joining me tonight. Thank you, lawrence. Coming up threatening default has already cost the government millions. Well explain how. In the rewrite tonight, one of our greatest and most experienced actors, sir Anthony Hopkins, rewrites the history of acting and crowns a new king of acting. And he did it immediately after marathon viewing every episode of breaking bad. And later, the screen writer of the new movie about wikileaks, the fifth estate will join me. If we have time i will show you a clip of some of his writing for the west wing thats coming up. Versations than im equipped for, because im raising two girls on my own. Ill worry about the economy more than a few times before theyre grown. But its for them, so ive found a way. Who matters most to you says the most about you. At massmutual were owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. Ready to plan for your future . Well help you get there. The campaign for senate in the state of connecticut, allison grimes, outraised Mitch Mcconnell in the First Quarter of the year. Grimes raised more than 2. 5 million. Five term republican, Mitch Mcconnell. Minority leader of the senate raised 2. 2 million. Mcconnell need more money fast because he faces a primary challenge from a tea Party Businessman matt bevin pouring his own money into the campaign. Coming up next, how ted cruz got caught having a secret meeting with House Republicans last night. That turned out to be not so secret. [ male announcer ] united is rolling out global, satellitefed wifi to connect you even 35,000 feet over the ocean. Thats. Wifi friendly. Thats. Wifi friendly. Life with Crohns Disease ois a daily game of what ifs. What if my abdominal pain and cramps end our night before it even starts . What if i eat the wrong thing . What if . What if i suddenly have to go . 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 crohnsandcolitisadvocates. Com to connect with a patient advocate from abbvie for onetoone support and education. If john boehner cant control his caucus is anyone in charge . Maybe the tortilla caucus according to roll call, in the basement of the texmex joint. A small group of House Republicans had a not so secret, secret meeting with senator ted cruz. Also, at tortilla coast at the time, House Majority whip, republican kevin mccarthy. Who was apparently not on the invite list to the secret meeting, but just happened to go to dinner there. A source told role call mccarthy seemed particularly interested in what the group was up to. Ill bet he was. Ted cruz had no trouble finding the time to dine with House Republicans last night. But today, ted cruz and mike lee failed to show up at the allimportant Senate Republican lunch meeting where all republicans, senators have a chance to heard leinaon the lat strategy ted cruzs office and why he missed the single most important thing on his schedule today. The statement said that cruz had a previous commitment that went long. Joining me now, nbc news capitol hill correspondent, like russert, and former congressman from ohio, steve latourette, president of the main street partnersh partnership. Steve latourette, i have to ask you, about ted cruz going across to the house like this. Have you seen anything quite like it . I mean certainly senators work with cosponsors of bills in the house all the time. They try to find them. It tends to be done in the open. One of two things. I dent knont know if you have o the restaurant. A block from the capitol. Either theyre really, really stupid trying to have a secret meeting there or meant to be seen all along. I mean, hill staffers make up 90 of the of the customers at tortilla coast. So again, either pretty stupid or they wanted everybody to see them. Like, it seems like, cruz is just trying to to flash this in effect in John Boehners face. I mean, i agree with steve. Tortilla coast is not a hiding place exactly. No, it is not. Interestingly enough, lawrence. Where paul ryan once waited tables when he worked on capitol hill. There is a rich history of republican, big time republican events at tortilla coast. Whats interesting though about the meeting, all this talk about the cruz caucus within the house gop conference. I think you saw their might today along with Heritage Action. Leadership aide say they were going to pull the bill before Heritage Action. They were going to score against it. From conversations i had. Theyre depond espondent. They dont know what the future of the majority means for them. They cant pass anything when you have cruz caucus and Heritage Action boxing them in. Fascinating development. Seeing how the debate and anything moving forward. It is wild. We have a new pew poll, 38 of americans would not like to see their own member of congress reelected. Thats the highest percentage in more than two decades of pew polling. Dhouz a poll like th how does like that land in the house of representatives . Theyre taking a pounding. Nobody is smelling look a rose in this thing. The old expression was you hate the congress, love your congressman. Thats turning this upside down on its head. The backdrop is that this Tea Party Caucus, theyre getting atta boys. And a certain number of districts across the country. From where they sit, theyre doing good. Like russert, what is your sense of of where were going tomorrow in the story. From conversations with house gop leadership aide they acknowledge theyre going to have to take what the Senate Passes over you. Might see some last hooray. I sincerely doubt it after tonight. If you want to, any of the places, tortilla coasts or bars on pennsylvania avenue near the capitol, chances are 100 you will run into a house gop staffer, very upstet what happened today. They lost their ability to lead. What will happen tomorrow. Whenever the senate, had, has their vote. And presumably that means ted cruz will not interrupt it. Could be on a fast track, way, in through out the house. But, as we get, to midnight deadline, lawrence, i mean there is all sorts of things that could happen. If there is a delay. From conversationize have had. The mind set is they want to get it done. Move on. After shutting down the government for two weeks. Going to the brink of economic disaster. They will half nothing to show for it with the exception of validating incomes of folks involved in the president S Health Care law. Like russert. Get back over to tortilla coast right now. Like, thank you very much for joining us. Steve latourette. Thank you. Thank you so much. Take care. Coming up the damage done by threatening default. Later, a miniwest wing reunion. Joined by a former west wing writer who has writ in a movie about wikileaks, the fifth estate which opens this weekend. B every time, which is great. What . Hes using you. He probably has a Citi Thankyou card and gets 2x the points at restaurants. So hes just racking up points with me. Some people. Ugh no, ive got it. The Citi Thankyou preferred card. Now earn 2x the points on dining out and entertainment, with no annual fee. To apply, go to citi. Com thankyoucards yeah . Then howd i get this. [ voice of dennis ]. Safe driving bonus check . Every six months without an accident, allstate sends a check. Silence. Are you in good hands . I have made clear for months and months, the idea of default is wrong. We shouldnt get anywhere close to it. We are very close to it. In fact we are just days away from the United States treasury being unable to meet awful its financial obligations. In the spot light tonight, default and downgrade. As we moved one day close tir t default. Harry reider eissued this warn. The debt is here. The deadline is looming. Rating agencies are talking about downgrading us as early as tonight. As they have said, and they have cheered over there, the governments closed. We dont mind defaulting on debt. Its good for the country. Thats what they have said. Hours later, fitch, a Global Ratings Agency issued a watch warning on u. S. Treasury bond despite john bane eoehners continuing to pretend we are not close to default. The Chinese State news agency reported this today. As u. S. Politicians of both Political Parties are shuffling back and forth between the white house and capitol hill without striking a viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a deamericanized world. Republican congressman, ted yoho, his real name tried and failed today to convince World Markets that there is absolutely nothing to worry about if congress doesnt raise the debt ceiling. Not raising the debt ceiling is not an automatic trigger for default. Thats one thing. Raising the debt ceiling and default are two different, use. We have enough coming in to service our debt. Principal and interest. We have more than enough to service that. Joining me now, msnbc contributor, former economic advise adviser, and the former Treasury Department chief of staff, now a senior fellow at center for am scan progress. Jared, we saw last week in one day the cost of short term borrowing to the treasury double. That cost doubling in one day. A cost that i think most republican members of the house of representatives dont even know about. Exactly. That cost continues to go up. This is exactly what you would expect if we start fooling around with the debt ceiling. Called a risk premium. And it means that anyone who considers lending to u. S. Government historically the safest creditor in the, in the world. Would, would want to see some extra points if you will, on their Interest Rate in order to be covered for the kind of risks that folks look mr. Yoho were just talking about. And you, know, lets be very clear about how wrong he is on that point. What he is talking about is prioritization. The argument is the treasury can pay some bills, not others. It is absolutely false that the treasury can do that even with the creditors. Even with the folks it owes Interest Payments. There could easily be a day. Mark will back me up on this. Easily be a day where cash flow is less than the Interest Payments that have to go out that day. And at that point, you are, technically in default. Mark, go ahead. Well jared is absolutely right. I want to Say Something else. There is something scarier, lawrence. That is if we pass this date and the Treasury Department has left with no borrowing authority. You could have a situation where people whose debt is maturing each week. Decide to take their money elsewhere. Theyre spooked. Theyre afraid of what is happening in the u. S. Losing confidence in the u. S. A situation kind of like if you were a homeowner and all your credit was cut off. And the bank says you have to pay off your car today in full you. Have no cash to do it. That would be the situation that the u. S. Would be in if, if investors did not, what they call, roll over their debt. Which is reinvest in treasuries when their teasuries mature. So there is a lot of scary scenarios out there, lawrence. Thats just one of them. Mark, i want to go to your expertise in one of your other old jobs, back when you were working in the Majority Leaders Office in the senate. And that its the timetable from where we sit tonight. To getting this deal done on time. Which is thursday night. If, it is going to be within the time frame that we understand to be relevant here. How can the trains move through the house of representatives, and get this thing done . Good news, it is still doable. It will really take some doing. As you know, lawrence, very well, the senate does not move that fast. Normally. When everybody is pulling the same direction they can move fast. The trouble is as congressman van holland pointed out. Everybody may not be pulling in the same direction you. Have, yea have people filibuster. I dont know who the people are. If they decide to fill bust their could slow this down from something that could happen tomorrow. To something that could happen, maybe not until next week. So, the senate process is variable. When everybody is working in good faith and ready to go you can get it done quickly. I hope that is what will happen tomorrow . Jared bernstein. What kind of pressure could you imagine being brought to ted cruz and mike lee who are the likely possibilities for some kind of filibuster. Because as mark says, as you know, the senate scan do anything really fast if they can just get that phrase unanimous consent in there. True. Right. We dont typically think of senate and fast in the same sentence. Thats exactly what has to happen tomorrow. Im not sure what pressure can beep brought to bear. They seemed impervious to pressure from traditional republican pressure points like the Business Community or financial markets. In the senate. They havent been mucking up the process, as they were early. They will go outside. Cause trouble. Youve spoke earlier about cruz going to the house. Thats where things are particularly worrisome. Once things get out of the senate. We are not done. At that point, the only way this happens quickly is if john boehner decide to to let the peoples house express the, the will of the people. And put that vote on the floor. If he fails to do that, if he gets pressure from from cruz or others to start adding idea, and pinging the thing back to the senate. Then we are headed for, for the deadline. I want few get back to the costs already incurred just by the game. As it has been played so far. We had testimony of the House Financial Services committee today. Uncertainty sparked by the debate is triggering a drop in demand of loans from Small Businesses which will likely lead to the failure of some Small Businesses. A rise in short term Interest Rates. And a drop in stock prices. Also hilting consumer demand. That was from scott talbert, senior vp, Financial Services roundtable. One of the political dangers of this is that once this is solved. It will be forgotten that actual real money costs were incurred, imposed on the government and the private sector as a result of all of the stunts. Yeah. And what that means of course is that the deficit actually goes up. Not goes down. Opposite of what the proponents say they want. Look, lawrence. Our friend. Said when you have contempt for government, you get contemptible government. Thats what we have got right now. I have to say, taken a step back. All of this is about an extension only until february. The plans to do the whole thing all over again in february. Jared bernstein. Mark patterson, thank you. You know the fan letter you have been meaning to write to Brian Cranston. One of the greatest actors of our time, Anthony Hopkins wrote it for you. And it is tonights rewrite. [ male announcer ] with only minutes left before kickoff, thousands of tailgaters realized they needed one thing. And fast. 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Senator Barbara Boxer explains to the senate what republicans are trying to take away when they try to take away the Affordable Care act. Senator boxer told the story of Jeannine Reid and her son masons battle with brain cancer. There was a magnificent piece written in the Washington Post by one of my constituents, a mom, freelance writer who talks about her son who was born with a brain tumor and over the years they have had to have operation after operation after operation. And they came an inch away from reaching the lifetime limit on the policy. 500,000. And they they learned that the Affordable Care act passed and this child got hiS Health Care. And now as she says he is talking and heap is walki inhe e is shooting baskets. I saw that mom and the son on the Lawrence Odonnell show the other night. If you havent seen it on msnbc you, ought to take a look at it. See that segment with jeannine and her son on facebook. Com thelastword. The rewrite is next. Anthony hopkins will rewrite the history of acting and crown a new acting king. Long live king cranston. [ male announcer ] its simple physics. A body at rest tends to stay at rest. While a body in motion tends to stay in motion. Staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. But if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. Prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. Because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. Plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. Celebrex can be taken with or without food. And its not a narcotic. You and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks. All prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. They all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. 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We helped sydney manage her debt and prioritize her goals, so she could really turn up the volume on her dreams today. And tomorrow. So lets see what we can do about that. Remodel. Motorcycle. [ female announcer ] some questions take more than a bank. They take a banker. Make a my financial priorities appointment today. Because when people talk, great things happen. So when coverage really counts, count on nationwide insurance. Because whats precious to you is precious to us. Love, love is strange just another way we put members first. Because we dont have shareholders. Join the nation. Baby. Nationwide is on your side remember how you felt when breaking bad ended. Remember how you wanted to jump up and hug Vince Gilligan for creating the show remember how you wanted to write Brian Cranston the first fan letter in your life. Well something even better than that happened. Oscar winning acting genius Anthony Hopkins wrote that letter for you. And in the process he did nothing less than rewrite the history of acting. He crowned a new acting king. King cranston. A crown bestowed by an actor who has worked with and seen the work of the greatest actors in history. He worked with peter otoole. The one charismatic, otoole, unique, special, he was extraordinary. He still is. I think a real acting genius. Anthony hopkins worked with Lawrence Olivier and says he was in awe. He never worked with marlon brando. He knows his work. Now Anthony Hopkins believes he has seen something better. Dear mr. Cranston, he wrote, i wanted to write you this email so i am contacting you through jeremy barber. I take it we are both represented by uta, great agency. So thats how the stars email each other when they have never met. Through their agents ive just finished a marathon of watching breaking bad from episode one of the first season to the last eight episodes of the sixth season if i downloaded the last season on amazon a total of two weeks addictive viewing. I have never watched anything like it. Brilliant. Your performance as walter white was the best acting i have seen ever. I know there is so much smoke blowing and sickening bullcrap in this business, and ive sort of lost belief in anything really. Anthony hopkins has been a working actor for 53 years, i would imagine the sickening bull of show business as he puts it drove him to sort of lose belief in anything quite a while ago. Imagine how hard it is to grab Anthony Hopkins as an audience member, to pull Anthony Hopkins into your imagined world that you are displaying on screen. Vince giligan and Brian Cranston and everyone involved with breaking bad managed to do that. They managed to hook Anthony Hopkins. They managed to addict him to breaking bad. And after saying he has sort of lost belief in anything, the 75yearold actors letter then says but this work of yours is spectacular, absolutely stunning. What is extra ordinary is the sheer power of every one in the entire production. What was it . Five or six years in the making. How the producers, yourself being one of them, the writers, directors, every department casting managed to keep the discipline and control from beginning to the end. Is that overused word, awesome. From what started as a black comedy descended into a labyrinth of destruction and hell. A great tragedy. If you ever get a chance to would you pass on my admiration to everyone, anna gunn, dean norris, aaron paul, betsey brandt, r. J. Mittey, jonathan banks, everyone, everyone gave master classes of performance. The list is endless. And the list of acting master class performances includes of course, gene carlo espozito, you know Anthony Hopkins meant to include by names in that list. Anthony hopkins continued. Thank you that kind of work artiart i istry is rare when once it occurs in this epic work it restores confidence. You and all the cast are the best actorize have ever seen. That may sound like a good lung full of smoke blowing, but it is not. Its almost midnight out here in malibu. I felt compelled to write this email. Congratulations. And my deepest respect. You are truly a great, great actor. Best regards, tony hopkins. Actors are dreamers. They dream of many things. They dream of getting the great parts. And dream of winning awards. I have never known an actor to dream of getting a letter like this. From anthony hop kkins. It really is the ultimate reward. [ male announcer ] welcome back all the sweet things your family loves with 0calorie monk fruit in the raw. Its made with the natural, vineripened sweetness of fruit, so you can serve up deliciously sweet treats without all the sugar. Raw natural sweetness, raw natural success. But, dad, youve got. [ voice of dennis ] allstate. With accident forgiveness, they guarantee your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Smart kid. [ voice of dennis ] indeed. Are you in good hands . Election day in new jersey is tomorrow. Yeah, wednesday. Voters will pick between democrat cory booker and the special elect forcing u. S. Senate, cory booker leads by 10 points in the latest poll. The Republican National committee sent out a tweet yesterday to encourage people to vote. But the tweet told people to vote on the wrong day. The rnc took the tweet down within minutes and replaced it with a tweet encouraging people to vote on the actual day of the election. Wednesday. The writer of the new film about Julian Assange and wikileaks joins me next. 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Thats how ameriprise puts more within reach. 12 in the new york times. This is more coverage than all of the leaks we have had combined. We are winning in the information war. It goes beyond any Short Term Alliance we have with the mainstream media. You want to throw it all away because you fear the u. S. Government informer may come to harm. He is a human being. Their lives are at stake. What about the lives of the soldiers and civilians involved in these conflicts. Unreported civilian casualties, countless incidents of friendly fire. This is information the world need to know. So the next time you find yourself look churing ilecturis organization, please try to remember why i created it. And why i hired you to help me. And of course the organization he created is w wikileaks. In newt film directed, the fifth estate, which opens this weekend. Joining me now the screenwriter of the fifth estate, josh kinger, we have gotten a little miniwest wing reunion here. Josh singer, former west wing writer. So, the, the scene that he is playing there, the great performances in this movie. Thats Julian Assange with whom . The author of one of the books that this film is based on . Correct. He is. It is actually a bit of a controversial book. A book that julian himself was, some what critical of. Which, which, is something that we you know, when, when dream works took those books and decided to work off that book and the guardian book it made us really want to do a lot of research in terms of what what other information could be gather to see, you know, was that an actual account that we could all believe in. And so, i want out and i spoke, i spent some time with daniel. I spent some time with the guys at the guardian, david lee, i did all of the reading i possibly could. I spoke to everyone. I read his work. I, i you know, i tried to get as much information has i possibly could. You know, the thing that was remarkable. Daniels kuft his, interaction with julian was quite similar to the account that the guardian guys gave, quite similar. Daniel was his partner in getting wikileaks going. There was a split as the scene in kat indicates. Julian founded wikileaks. Heres what julian says. Writ any but tany writ any b movie. The movie is based on a deceitful book some one who has a vendetta against me and my organization. Some one who used to be his best friend. Says it all. Daniel praises wikileaks, but critical of julian thaech, that we spent so much time talking to daniel. People around the story. Making sure it was an account we can believe in. Ifdaniel. He is a charming guy. True believer. Young. After spending time with him. I thought this is this is a real account. And the guardian guys verified it. Lets take a look at the scene of the movie, how the wikileaks info dump landed in the state department. I just talked to libya. They have concerns about the ambassador. Im pulling the bfambassador. I need ten names of high priority sources who could be harmed if and when these cables are put out. If we can claim that assange has blood on his hand, we can turn this thing around. Hi. Do you think the president of turkmenistan will be more upset that i called him a liar or vain. Im sure those words. He does not like people smarter than him. Since he is not very bright. He is sus pi shupicious of a lo people. He has been around a long time. Dont think he is worried about a mid level attache. I signed him ears name to it. Laura lynny and stanley tuchi. She is not sure who has done more valuable work, her work in the state department or Julian Assange. What drew me to the film. Really trying to think about the issue. What should be public . What should be private . Who should be making the decision . The last ten years have not been kind to journalism. News pay efp kind to journalism. News pay efapers out of busines. We need people, to be a check on government. But who exactly are those people . I think is a good question. All right. West wing flashback time. Going to show a scene that i did not tell you about, a west wing scene. Written by mr. Josh singer. One that you might remember. Lets lack as look at this. We are pleased to welcome the president of the United States