and so if they want a better way of life, perhaps it s time for a new government. jenna: interesting story to watch as it develops, eric shawn, also sitting down with mahmoud ahmadinejad, and apparently into the newsroom, we re hearing bits and pieces but more outrageous comments coming from iran s leader. mike, thank you very much, always great to have you in the newsroom. jon, breaking news now. jon: that s right, jenna. we are continuing to watch that arms standoff at bank in south florida, rick folbaum is at the breaking news desk. reporter: this story, right near the university of miami, not yet contained. it started earlier this morning when a man apparently with an explosive device walked into a bank of america branch right near the university. there were early reports he was holding hostages inside that bank, but according to police, who just wrapped up a news conference, there are no more customers or bank employees inside that building. apparently, now, only the suspects. b
senate. yeah, 59 seats, so they have a big majority, but they decided they didn t want to make a vote before the election that would be a tax increase because they felt it would hurt their candidates to vote in the mid middle of a very bad economy for a tax increase. jon: but the president s been saying the rich people can afford it. yes, he s been saying that. the overall position of the economy and the potential damage trumps that class argument that he s been making which is, oh, just extend them for the middle class, lower tax rates, but you can raise taxes on people that make more than 200,000. that argument doesn t sell when everybody s worried, wait a minute, we don t want to raise taxes on small business, job creators, and that s what the democrats are reacting to. jon: it s not just tax rates for sam ri earners salary earners. capital gains would go up from 15% to 20%. the tax on dividends from 15% to nearly 40%. and about half of all small business income in the unite
the president particularly outraged by the fact that we are all right here in new york, so close to ground zero, where almost 3000 lives were lost, and so the president blasted back, pretty quickly, through his aides, and we expect to hear more from him today. in terms of his personal outrage and this great drama goes on with both world leaders who cannot stand each other, being in the same city, causing traffic jams for the people of new york but all kidding aside, they are so close, but yet they re talking past one another. jenna: and some would say that ahmadinejad made these comments more for the iranian people rather than his american audience to show how strong and powerful he is in his own country. are we doing anything as americans to make sure our message is getting across from that country? president obama is doing an interview with bbc persian, so we will see video clips of him addressing not only ahmadinejad s outrageous comments about 9/11 but also, about better relation
punished when they don t work together. reporter: how do americans grade the president? i would love to say it was a b-plus by i think it is more a d. i would give him an a. . i would say a d. i thought he was going to do a better job. certainly give him an a for effort. i think he came in there with the right mind set and, meaning to do the right stuff. i don t think he got there anywhere close. you had if one question for the president why did you want to become president if you can not handle, handle it? how much longer until things turn around? my first thing came to my head, i would ask him, is happy? you know, because he has got quite a load on his shoulder. reporter: jenna, one of the takeaways that i came away with is number one, it seems like the people we talked to still like the president. they believe he s trying and they admit they had unreal list i canly high expectations. part of that is their fault. part of that is the party s fault. and secondl
my opinion is it s too late. it happened too late. you know, one of the myths about this, it was only recent begun that we talked to the iranian regime and working with other people like russia. in fact this goes well into the bush administration. we either talked to them directly or through proxy. so no, there s nothing really new here. iran is very close to a nuclear weapons capability, at least the materials to make one and really, the time for sanctions would have been a while ago, and at this point, you need to look at i think other options. jon: christian whiten was adviser to the bush state department, christian, thank you. thanks jon. jenna: president obama, wrapping up meetings with world leaders in new york city today, and the white house saying mr. obama called the iranian leader s 9/11 conspiracy theories outrageous and offensive i mike emanuel is in new york, following the president. this is a tough spot for the president to be. he wants to respond, at the same time, h