good evening. this country h never seen anything like it. millions watched on television live, absolutely transfixed. a woman had come forward and accused a nominefor the supreme court of sexual harassment. it was graphic, it was shocking and explosive. her name, anita hill. his name, now justice clarence thomas. he went on to become confirmed for the court. she returned to private life and teaching law. well, she finds herself back in the news becausehe got a phone call from justice thomas' wife, saying she shod apologize for what she said back then, which she says was the whole truth. we begin with this turn of events tonight. nbc's andrea mitchell in our washington newsroom. hey, andrea, good evening. >> reporte it was a classic case of he said, she said, bearing historic wounds over sex and race. the questions, why after nearly two decades, would clarence thomas' wife reopen one of the most emotional confirmation battles in supreme court history? she's been living in relative obscurity for years. a professor, until she was yanked back into the spot light by a voice mail from t past. >> i am on my way to teach my class and i don't have any comment at this point. >> reporter: the caller, virginia thomas. conservative political activist, and wife of the supreme court justice whom anita hill accused of sexual harassment 19 years ago. >> do you swear to telthe truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? >> i do. >> reporter: now in a voice mail, thomas' wife was asking her toake it all back, saying i would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. so give it some thought and ceainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did. hill, who called the request inappropriate, later said she won't apologize for telling the truth. she called campus security. they called in the fbi. >> i think professor hill thought it was -- unsure what it was and thought it may have been a prank. >> it was the furthest thing of either of our minds that she would call and ask for an apology. in light of what happened to anita hill in 1991. it made no sense at all. >> members of the committee, my name is anita f. hill. >> reporter: it was a searing weekend of charge and countercharge. she volunteered to take a lie detector tesand passed. in the end, it all turned on his impassioned denial. >> it is a high tech lynching for up etty blacks. >> reporter: virginia thomas has emerged as a tea party activist. and skilled fund-raiser. >> america is at risk and didn't know how far president obama and the leadership was going to take us. >> reporter: an unusually partisan role for a supreme court spouse. as "the new york times" wrote on the 19th anniversary of the hearings, the same morning mrs. thomas called anita hill. >> i don't know whether the story, you know, had anything to do with ovoking her to call, but it's an interesting coincidence. >> reporter: once mrs. thomas acknowledged she did make the call, the fbi said the issue was closed since obviously no crime had been committed. neither woman wanted to be interviewed today. nor would mrs. thomas' friends talk publiy about what she had done. anita hill's students, some said they had no idea who she was until today. brian? >> andrea mitchell starting us off from washington tonight. andrea, than. we turn now to a big story in england tonight that relates, in a way, to some of the candidates here running for office this year, who believe that washington and just maybe our country is broken. and we can't keep pang for everything and everyone. but what would happen if the government just announced sweeping cutbacks and welfare benefits, services, the military? great britain is about to find out. the cutbacks announced there today will change life as they know it. the cuts are drastic, designed to reverse a massive deficit. tonight, stephanie gosk is in london. stephanie, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. these are the deepest, most painful cutshe country has seen in decades. britons are calling it ax wednesday because nobody is going to escape the in. this morning, the finance minister outlined the drastic plan. >> today is the day when britain steps back from the brink. >> reporter: it's prime minister david cameron's campaign promise. cuearly, cut deey or this country risks going bankrupt. >> we are not doing this because we want to. there is no idealogical zeal in this. we are doing this because we have to. >> reporter: 490,000 public sector workers will be laid off. welfare benefits are being slasd, including money for low income housing. university students will have to pay more to go to school. it's a sudden and unprecedented redefinition of the le of government itself. even the queen will take a hit. the royal household will lose 14% of its budget. the staff christmas party this year is canceled. then there's h majesty's armed forces. defense will be cut by 8%. 17,000 troops will lose their jobs. an entire fleet of fighter jets will be grounded. and an aircraft carrier under construction will never be used. when it's all done, the miliry will no longer be able to fight long-term major conflicts, like the wars in iraq and afghanistan. >> the danger is our influence has been diminished. we are managing to climb. >> reporter: cameron, in office just five months, is feeling the heat. [ inaudible ] >> first of all, can i thank you for everything you've done for our country. we do have to make decisio for the future. >> rorter: the uk is not alone. the global economic crisis and mountains of debt are forcing all of europe and the u. to make painful choices. leading in somcases to unrest. in france this week, clashes broke out over a proposed two-year increase in the retirement age. violent strikes erupted in greece after the government announced higher taxes and pension reforms. but what britain announced today is more drastic by far. >> no country has ever taken this much out o its budget deficit this much quickly. >>eporter: so far protests like this one have been mild. but the newly elected government knows day's bold move is both an economic and a political gamble. >> it is a hard road but it leads to a better future. we are going to bring the years of ever-rising borrowing to an end. >> reporter: with the stroke of a pen, the finance minister can do it. unlike the u.s., there's no wrangling in congress. the government in power determines the budget without ev having to put it up for a vote. and as we saw today, that tends to speed up the process. >> what a day in london. stephanie gosk covering the story for us. sthanie, thanks. back here at home, now that we're under two weeks to go until the midterm elections, the story line inevitably starts to change a bit. some close races are becoming blowouts. some blowouts begin to tighten up. presidt obama back on the road tonight trying to help push things the democrat's way. in some states where he won the '08 election by big margins, playing defense in other states with his signature accomplishme, health care. the story from our chief whi house correspondent chuck todd. >> reporter: with the clock ticking down toward election day, the president hopped on air force one for a four-day western swing. the goal? keep democratic states blue. a pacific firewall strategy for the senate. as a president campaigns for embattled democrats. in california, washington, and of cou home of senate majority leader harry reid wre the vice president headlinea rall today. >> the reports of the death of the democratic party are exaggerated. >> reporter: the white house is grateful to reid, who found the 60 votes president obama needed to pass health care. an accomplishment still not being well received by the public. in a new poll, 46% call it a bad idea. just 36% believe it's a good idea. health care remains a political lightning rod. coming up in several debates just last night. in south carolina, they debated its effects on family farmers. >> they don't need mandated health care that's going to make them unable to function. >> reporter: the georgia governor, even the democratic nominee criticized it. >> i do think this bill has to be completely rewritten. >> reporter: most republicans on the trail promise to repeal the law. today in floda -- >> i'm the only one running in the u.s. senate that wants to replace and repeal health care. >> reporter: but repealing it is more unpopular than the law itself. in our new poll, a majority, 52%, believe the law should be given a chance to work. just 45% want to repeal it. the public's mixed feelings were reflected last night in florid >> let me tell you what's wrong with the health care bill that's passed. it's broken every promise they made. >> the real issue is that it's health care. en it comes down to it, we have people right now that have rights they did not have before the passage of that health care plan. >> i think obama health care was off the charts, was wrong. >> reporter: while health care is the most heated debate topic, it's still the economy viewed as the top issue. but on health care, the rhetoric may be clear, but the public view is very nuanced. and nuanced is something politicians don't do well 13 days before an election. >> especially under two weeks to go. chuck todd in washington. chuck, thanks. it was six months ago today the deep water horizon oil rig blew up inhe gulf of mexico and it started one of the saddest summers in memory. while, our chief environmental correspondent anne thompson spent five months in louisiana covering that story. she's here with us tonight with a progress report. anne, i was listening to local radio down there today and they are still hurting. >> they arstill hurting. the good news is most of the gulf of mexico the federal waters is open to fishing. only 7% remains closed but oil is still coming ashore. the federal government says 560 miles of coastline have oil on them in louisiana, mississippi, alabama and florida. the hardest hit area remains uisiana's plaquemines perish. mississippi, alabama and florida mainly has tar balls. plaquemines perish, particularly bay jimmy, has that thick, gooey oil. just last week, they collected about 18,000 gallons of oil and water mix. can you imagine? that's six months after this happened. the seood industry has been devastated. one of the backbones of louisiana's economy, shrimping, down some 52%. thshrimp catch, the first six nths of this year compared to the first six months of last year. then you have the whole issue with the claims that $20 billion fundhat's supposed to help everybody out. more than 220,000 claims have been filed, but only 76,000 have been approved and paid for a grand total of $1.5 billion. the majority of those claims have not been acted on and the people who have gotten checks say they haven't gotten nearly what they need to survive. still very difficult. >> the rest of the country goes on, we're talking about an election, this is life every day down there. >> and it's still happening. it may not be on the front page, but it's still going on. >> anne thompson, thanks for that. when our broadcast continues tonight, theorld's most popular hunting rifle. a deadly accident. and now questions about whether a boy's death could have been prevented. later,hey live in a place so remote, getting medical care was almost impossible until one doctor came along. our "making a difference" nominee tonight. our "making a difference" nominee tonight. i bring art to the people. and i want to do this until the wheels fall off. so i have to start taking care of my heart... and i'm starting with cheerios. 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[ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum ta tum tum ts weer back. our "making a difference" report tonight is bittersweet. it's about a man who saw a need and helped save more than a few lives along the way. now this extraordinary doctor in virginia is faci a new challenge, one that's very personal. the story tonight from nbc's ron mott. >> reporter: the w locals see it, tangier has it all, a tiny island in thehesapeake bay. population just 500. where women stroll, kids frolic and men, it seems, are happily never far from work. but until dr. david nichols landed here three decades ago, tangier was not a place to get sick. a rundown equipment, relics for dical equipment. no resident physician. >> they never complained. they were so grateful dr. nichols was there to take care of them. >> reporter: and tangier needed his help. a place as thick with diabetes and heart disease as unique as its thick accent. >> thereas a real need. there couldn't be more of a need than on this island. i just felt like it was a gap that needed toe filled. >> reporter: a pilot, dr. nichols flew over on his day off. >> you are looking pretty, girl. >> you're looking handsome. >> reporter: house falls for those too fragile to get to him. >> he's saved so many lives here. >> reporter: for 31 years, dr. nichols spent about every thursday near, thanksgiving was usually the exception. his long-time dream was to replace this building one day and this past summer that finally happened. in august, nearly the entire island crammed togetheto unveil the david b. nichols health center. >> it turned out to be everything we wanted it to be. >> reporter: what he didn't deserve is for his cancer return. >> a scan showed melanoma to the liver. >> he's like an angel that comes here and takes care of us. >> my prognosis, i was ld, is anywhere from four to six months. >> reporter: now forced into retirement, he's not only making the rounds to say goodbye, he's givinghanks, too. >> thank you, tangier for letting me into your lives. please know while i may leave you in body, i'll never leave you in spirit. is that good? >> reporter: no, doc, islanders say,ike everything you've done here, that's better than good. ron mott, nbc news, tangier, virginia. >> that's our broadcast for this wednesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we do hope to see you right back here torrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com . synctaxes 60 percent. property woman 1 syi didn't owatrnor man 3: he worked for ak 10 billn