Moment. You probably already know the story. Let me tell you what happened friday afternoon. There fs watching president obama in his hometown delivering a speech on gun violence and poverty. He was speaking at hyde park academy, blocks away from the address he called home before he moved to 1600 pennsylvania avenue. The speech was especially poignant for his recognition of two audience members, nate and cleo pendleton. The shooting death of their daughter precipitated his visit to the city. He offered understanding of cities like chicago. President obama recognized this particular kind of gun violence is about more than just weapons used to commit the crimes. Its also about poverty, a lack of access to Economic Opportunity for all families. The president proposed a policy solution that goes beyond regulating guns to embrace a role for the government in helping lift struggling families out of poverty. We are singing the same tune until the record scratched when he said this. We should
This Government Shutdown. Worse yet, the approaching default on the countrys debt. This historic embarrassment to your party, to your beloved house of representatives, this deep injury to your country. Here i think its fair to say are your options, mr. Speaker. You can continue down the road, that little band of warriors on your partys right has assigned you. That means sticking with them all the way, following whatever course the fartherest out 30 of your caucus want you to take. Going after the Affordable Care act at every stop, giving up on any bipartisan solution to the debt crisis, then doing the whole thing over again every two months from now until the end of your speakership. Causing havoc Global Economic mayhem at maximum. The value of our currency, our word. You want to get down that road, mr. Speaker . How about this . How about you restore democracy to the peoples house . How about you set a vote to reopen the government and add it to whatever riders you dont think will bri
Featured speakers will be john lewis. Back in 1963 he was the leader of the student nonviolating committee. Nancy pelosi will also be speaking today along with the families of Trayvon Martin and emmett till. Well all get under way later this morning and checking in and bringing you the latest proceedings throughout the day. The panel here in new york. Amanda turkal for huffingtonpost. Com, evan White House Reporter for buzzfeed. Com and liz winstead cocreator of daily show and author of the book. Thank you for joining us. Seems like the entire political world is in washington, d. C. , glad we could see some people up here. I guess i just sort of start with your thoughts, amanda aama about 50 years later it says something that there is still a need for another march on washington, also says something about the progress we made that one of the speakers this week at the events will be the nations first africanamerican president. Its really exciting that president obama is going to be spea
Africanamerican to be elected to that chamber ever. He has a busy and active agenda before he arrives. Whats going to happen before he gets there . We will be looking inside his file of facts. If its saturday here on up, that means its time for up against the clock. Get ready to test your knowledge against news and pop culture. Thats later. But, first the government had been closed 16 days. A default was a mere hours away wednesday night when the senate planned to avert and fund the government. President obama quickly signed it. He expressed his hope the Opposition Party had learned an important lesson. One of the things i said throughout this process is we got to get out of the habit of governing by crisis and my hope and expectation is everybody has learned that there is in reason why we cant work on the issues at hand, why we cant disagree between the parties while still being agreeable and make sure that were not inflicting harm on the American People when we do have disagreements.
Dies because of failure of the system. Highly anticipated moment on capitol hill today, secretary of veterans afathers Eric Shinseki appear before Senate Lawmakers to address a potential scandal that has rocked his department. There to answer allegations that employees at a phoenix v. A. Facility, as well as several others around the country, that they falsified official waiting list records to conceal extended and in some cases deadly wait times for veterans seeking care. Any allegation, any adverse incident like this, makes me makes me mad as hell. I could use stronger language here, mr. Chairman, but in deference to the committee i wont. If any allegations are true, theyre completely unacceptable. If any are substantiated by the Inspector General, we will act. Shinsekis dismay stopped three republican senator and the americans legion from calling on the secretary to step down. He defended himself this afternoon. Would you explain to me, after knowing all of this information, why you