several people affiliated with conservative groups who say they became targets of the government based on their political beliefs. >> beginning in 2010 the fbi contacted my non-profit organization on six separate occasions wanting to cull through membership manifests in conjunction with domestic terrorism cases. they eventually dropped all matters and have now redacted nearly all my files? the expected star witness, the justice department barbara bosserman, a political donor in charge of the investigation, did not appear. deputy james cole sent this letter citing long-standing policy is to decline to provide congress with non-public information about a criminal investigation. cole wrote, quote, it also is founded upon our commitment to avoiding any perception that our law enforcement efforts are subject to undue influence from elected officials. jordan openly questioned bosserman's credibility. >> a lady with a financial stake in a specific outcome is heading the investigation. a lady who has invested in the president's success is heading the investigation and the president could potentially be a target of that investigation, and we're supposed to believe that this investigation is credible. >> reporter: a democrat defended her. >> it is the policy of congress that employees should be encouraged to exercise fully, freely and without fear of penalty or reprisal and to the extent not expressly prohibited by law their right to participate. >> reporter: there was also attention on president obama's comments to fox's bill o'reilly on sunday where the president blamed the irs targeting on some bonehead decisions out of a local office and said there's not even a smidgeon of corruption. former federal prosecutor south carolina republican trey gowdy teed off. >> the president of the united states has already pre-judged the outcome of this investigation, so either it's ongoing or it's not. either he's wrong or eric holder is wrong. in either case it is time for special counsel, mr. chairman. >> reporter: an attorney for some of the conservative groups issued this warning. >> the irs scandal is not over. it is continuing to this day, and the department of justice investigation is a sham. >> reporter: this e-mail provided by the house ways and means committee from june 14, 2012 revealed private internal discussions of possible new regulations. lois learner, official who took the fifth last year on capitol hill, is copied on the e-mail, and republicans say the proposed rule defining political activity is designed to muzzle administration critics. >> the obama administration now seems to be trying to legitimize the harassment after the fact to enact regulations that would essentially allow the irs to bully and intimidate americans who exercise their right of free speech. >> reporter: mcconnell and other top congressional republicans have sent a letter to irs commissioner calling on him to stand in and take a stand against this proposed rule. chris? >> mike emanuel reporting from capitol hill, mike, thanks for that. president obama may not be finished making unilateral changes to his namesake health care reform law. chief white house correspondent ed henry tells us tonight about the latest effort under consideration to soften the blow for millions of americans. >> reporter: president obama is mulling yet another major change to his controversial health care law that would affect millions who had policies cancelled last year. officials inside both the administration and the insurance industry confirmed to fox one of several tweets under consideration would let individual policy holders keep existing plans for an extra three years, pushing the cancellation issue beyond not just the 2014 mid-terms but also the president's time in office so his aides continue to insist other aspects are working just fine. >> health care costs have been growing at the slowest pace in 50 years, since the affordable care act was passed into law. >> reporter: a spokeswoman at the health and human services department stressed no more changes have been finalized but said the administration is considering a three-year extension for the estimated 14 million who buy individual plans, self-employed business owners, early retirees and people stuck between jobs. spokeswoman joanne peters telling fox, quote, while we're continuing to examine all sorts of way to provide consumers with more choices and to smooth the transition as we implement the law, no decisions have been made. these are the policy holders who were affected by the false claim that if you liked your plan you could keep your plan. at a november news conference the president urged insurers to let people keep those plans through 2014 as he also acknowledged the web woes. >> i mean, we fumbled the rollout on this health care law. >> reporter: a top insurance industry executive told fox democrats are privately worried this fall on the eve of mid terms policy holders will again start getting notices about cancellations and potential premium spikes for similar plans within the exchanges. in order to limit any political damage, the insurance executive said, the administration is exploring several changes adding, quote, i get the sense literally everything is on the table. today the chairman and ceo of aol revealed that in order to pay for more generous health benefits, he'll have to trim some 401(k) benefits. >> obamacare is an additional $7.1 million expense for us as a company so we have to decide whether or not to pass that expense to employees or whether to cut other benefits. >> reporter: pressed on whether other companies will follow aol's lead white house officials insist the new law is not to blame. >> i'm not concerned a shift, we're going to do a better job with health care. >> every company, and this has been the case for a lot longer than the aca has been around, has been making decisions like that. >> reporter: gallup has a new survey suggesting that 68% are very or somewhat familiar with the new level, that's the same level as last summer suggesting the pr level needs a little more work. chris? >> ed henry reporting from the white house. ed, thanks. >> thank you. sticker shock has not limited to obamacare. some medicare patients are now getting bills much larger than they expected because of a loophole that favors the government. chief national correspondent jim angle tells us about that tonight. >> reporter: ruth felton is a real fireball, even in her 90s. >> how long have you been coming? >> several years. >> and you feel it really helps you? >> i do. >> reporter: when she was 95 she fell late one night and was taken to the emergency room in an ambulance where doctors found she had broken her pelvis in three places. >> they said that she would have to go to rehab and learn to walk again and to learn to function again. >> reporter: but her daughter was told that would mean a skilled nursing facility, which is expensive. >> she did indeed stay three full nights, and we were told that that was the criteria for having medicare pay for the rehab. >> reporter: there's a nasty catch, however. many people in the hospital are not officially considered inpatients but rather under observation. >> once they are in a hospital and in a bed for several days getting care and treatment and medicine and food, wrist band, they think they are inpatients. people have no idea that they are outpatients. >> reporter: ruth's daughter learned ten minutes before her discharge she was only under observation meaning medicare would pay nothing for nursing care and rehab leaving them to pay a $17,000 bill. many others paid tens of thousands more >> reporte. >> the inspector general calculated there were 600,000 cases across the country last year alone. >> reporter: and obamacare itself contributes to the problem. hospitals argue they are caught in the middle with the government challenging medical decisions and imposing fines under obamacare if they admit too many inpatients and they return. >> hospitals are penalized for excessive readmissions and that is for any patient that's admitted th admitted. that might be one of the reasons physicians are more cautious admitting patients to the hospital. >> reporter: the government hires contractors, who some call bounty hunters, to go out and challenge medicare claims as far back as three years giving them 9.5% to 12% and creating a financial incentive for second guessing. >> claims are held up in the appeal process for two and a half years. there's over $1.5 billion that's tied up right now while hospitals are appealing these denials. >> reporter: but the hospitals win 70% of their appeals. one doctor who studies physician practices in hospitals blames the government. >> you get hospitals basically overshooting and keeping more patients on observation status because they know if they admit a patient that could have been put on observation status they are going to face a penalty. >> reporter: congressman courtney has 136 co-sponsors from both parties for a bill saying any three-day stay is entitled for medicare payments for skilled nursing care. meanwhile sherry has been fighting the medicaid bourq bureaucracy for months and calls the whole situation a travesty. >> it was a good day on wall street. the dow gained 188. the s&p 500 finished ahead 22. nasdaq was up 46. three republican senators are asking president obama for more answers about the benghazi terror attacks. lindsey graham, john mccain and kelly ayotte are requesting responses to questions raised in the president's interview with bill o'reilly prior to the super bowl. a surprising move today by the speaker of the house. john boehner apparently pulling the plug on immigration reform for the rest of this year. correspondent doug mcelway tells us why. >> reporter: house speaker john boehner signalled time-out in the gop's willingness to pass immigration reform. >> there's widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws, and it's going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes. >> reporter: a senior gop aide put it more starkly telling fox news the gop is going to, tap the brakes on immigration reform but added it's not yet dead. republicans looked past the president's homage to immigrants at today's national prayer breakfast. >> for immigrants who want to step out of the shadows. >> reporter: focusing instead on his pledge to act unilaterally. i've got a pen and a phone and can i use that pen to sign executive orders. >> we can't touch it now. we can't touch it with a president that only can be trusted to do that which is in his political benefit >> reporter: president's promise to use executive orders has ride conservative talk radio. >> you know what this is, this is a gradual, quiet coup. >> reporter: other influential conservative voices have called immigration a recipe for gop disaster. firebrand ann coulter writing at the current accelerated rate of immigration, republicans will be a fringe party in about a decade. the white house today held out hope that moderate voices in the gop caucus will prevail. >> nothing is important, nothing this comprehensive ever comes fast or easy in washington, so this won't be any different. >> reporter: carney's view, also held by many in the democratic congressional leadership, is hoping that boehner will turn. >> he's in a very difficult position. he is trying to figure out, in my judgment, a way to get this done without his caucus or too many in his caucus rebelling. >> reporter: speaker boehner would continue to tal to his caucus on how to move forward but in an election year when the gop may see gains based on obamacare's unpopularity alone, immigration can wait. chris? >> doug, thank you. up next, the man who might be the next president of egypt, but first, here's what some of our fox affiliates are covering tonight. fox 4 in dallas is reporting on no jail time for the silver spoon teenager who killed four people while driving drunk. ethan couch's attorneys contended he suffered from affluenza a wealthy discipline-free upbringing. he gets probation and a trip to rehab. pennsylvania's governor warns residents it could take time to get everyone's power back on following the latest winter storm to hit that state. and this is a live look at milwaukee from fox 6. the big story there tonight, the recovery of a stolen 1715 stradivarius violin worth $6 million. the instrument was snatched three and a half weeks ago. three people were arrested. this is a look live outside the beltway on tonight's "special report." we'll be right back. so you're telling me your mom has a mom cave? hi boys! i've made you campbell's chunky new england clam chowder. wow! this is incredible! i know. and now it has more clams! 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[ male announcer ] your heart. it powers your body to walk enough stairs in a lifetime to climb the empire state building. and then climb it again 1,000 times. your heart is amazing. take carof it with centrum silver. multivitamins with b vitamins and lycopene to help support your heart and packed with key nutrients to help support your eyes and brain, too. centrum silver. for the most amazing parts of you. late this afternoon the tsa banned all carried-on liquids, gels, aerosols and powders on flights between the u.s. and russia while the olympics are going on. opening ceremonies take place tomorrow. competition began today in sochi with snowboarding, skiing and skating. the russian government says it is doing everything possible to make sure that the games are safe. syria has missed yesterday's deadline for turning over its chemical weapons stockpile. last week an american diplomat said syria had removed only 4% of its most toxic chemical weapons. the russian government says syria is preparing a new schedule and will make further shipments soon. mixed messages coming from egypt tonight about the man many expect to be the nation's next president. meanwhile, new concerns about a comeback of sorts for the jihadists. national security correspondent jennifer griffin is watching it all from the pentagon. good evening, jennifer. >> reporter: good evening, chris. an influx of muslim fighters returning from jihad in afghanistan and syria are returning to egypt and joining the fight against egypt's military rulers. most alarming was their recent use of a shoulder-held missile to bring down an egyptian military helicopter in the sinai where the egyptian military is having trouble putting down an insurgency by al qaeda-linked groups n.recent weeks, that insurgency has spread to the capital cairo where islamist fighters have assassinated an egyptian official outside a government building and set off a car bomb outside security headquarters. during a global threat hearing on capitol hill this week, cia director john brennan warned of the rising threat of al qaeda-style attacks in egypt. >> the number of attacks has certainly gone up over the past six weeks and senior level egyptian officials have been killed at the hands of these terrorists. >> reporter: posters urging egypt's all-powerful defense chief to run for president this spring have all over cairo even though a military spokesman pushed back on reports that field marshall abdul fattah al sisi has decided to run. he overthrew mohamed morsi and cracked down on the muslim brotherhood. morsi appeared on trial in a class cage and his trial on terrorism charges is continuing as is the government's decision to prosecute four al jazeera reporters accusing them of aiding terrorism by airing interviews with the muslim brotherhood. in a letter from prison one writes the prisons are overflowing with anyone who opposes or challenges the government. another jailed egyptian-american student who worked on the obama campaign in ohio complained in a letter in the "new york times" recently that he feels abandoned by president obama. >> jennifer, thanks. president obama on god and politics, but first, the republican party's new odd couple. why chris christie and mitt romney seem to be headed in opposite directions. here in pn access a philly cheesesteak anytime, day or night. just like you can access geico anytime, day or night. there is only one way to celebrate this unique similarity. witness the cheesesteak shuffle. ♪ cheesesteak, cheesesteak ♪ ♪ it's the cheesesteak shuffle! huh! ♪ ♪ every day, all day, cheesesteak, cheesesteak! ♪ ♪ every night, all night cheesesteak, cheesesteak! ♪ ♪ 9 a.m. cheesesteak! ♪ 2 p.m. cheesesteak! ♪ 4 a.m. cheesesteak! ♪ any time (ruh!) >>geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. bulldog: mattress discounters bulldog: presidents day sale ending? get a queen-size sealy gel memory foam mattress for just $497! and get four years interest-free financing on the entire tempur-pedic cloud collection. ♪ mattress discounters mark twain's comment about new england weather, if you don't like it, wait a minute, could also apply to republican presidential politics. tonight chief political correspondent carl cameron looks at the rapidly changing fortunes for two of the gop's major stars. >> reporter: call it mitt romney's renaissance. he lost the presidential race, but he's back in the news and popular. on the eve of the sochi olympics, romney is a hot booking on olympic security, having secured the 2002 salt lake city games in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. there's a new documentary portraying a warm, caring romney greatly at odds with the image many had of him in 2012 and looking ahead to 2016 romney is the front-runner with rand paul and chris christie and former florida governor jeb bush in the teens. ed rollins has been helping him win elections and doubts romney would run a third time. as for the rest of the field. >> no front-runner. polls mean nothing other than name i.d. and this is as wide open a primary as i've ever seen in my 40 years in the republican party. >> reporter: christie was a front-runner before the george washington bridge scandal erupted. his poll numbers have sedly dropped amid speculation it could derail his white house chances. christie chirs the governors association and held fund-raisers in dallas and fort worth for gop gubernatorial candidates nationwide but the one from texas, greg abbott, did not attend citing scheduling conflicts 200 miles away in houston, a sign, perhaps, that republicans are distancing themselves from the embattled new jersey governor. right before the 2012 election romney suspended his campaign and sat idle while the president toured the disaster zone with christie that some republicans felt was loyal. some republicans what might have been had romney won. christie's slide has some asking whether he should run again to which some answer, quote, no, no, no, no, no, no. chris? >> thanks, carl. unions want to speed up the organizing process. business says that's unfair to them. correspondent shannon bream is here to lay things out. good evening. what are the kinds of changes are they talking about? >> well, those who support the rules from the national labor relations board will speed up the process when employees want to unionize but the employers of those workers would have to turn over those numbers and information to the unions. richard trum "k" is applauding those rules saying the current nlrb election is riddled with delay and provides too many opportunities for employers to manipulate and drag out the process through costly and unnecessary litigation and deny workers a vote. these are rules are an important step in the right direction and will help improve the election process. board did propose similar rules back in 2011 but a federal court struck them down saying they didn't have a full quorum of members at the time. >> okay. what are the critics saying as they push back? >> they call these ambush rules. that's how they term these and they say it's a big union payback from the administration who supported them. gop senator lamar alexander the pop republican on the senate labor committee says this, quote, one more example of how the obama national labor relations board continues to be more of a union advocate than an umpire. this latest effort is a political power play on behalf of unions that makes an end run around employers and forces workers to make decisions without all the facts. these rules are not set in stone, yet the public does have an opportunity to weigh in. they can let the government know what they think up through april 7th. >> to be continued. >> yes. >> shannon, thank you. we may get to see if iranians who like their health care plan can keep their health care plan, and how many times do we have to say it? always assume someone is listening, especially if you're a top government official and you throw f-bombs around about your allies. we'll explain. the grapevine is next. this isn't real difficult. i'm going to have to say verizon verizon. the choice is obvious. verizon is america's largest and most reliable 4g lte network, with data plans starting as low as $45 monthly access including unlimited talk and text. plus free world messaging unlimited for three months. that's powerful. verizon. act now and get a free droid mini, plus $100 to spend. now some fresh pickings from the political grapevine. it would seem to be a rule of diplomacy don't get caught cursing the group you are trying to work with. and what appears to be a private phone conversation, assistant secretary of state victorialand discusses options for mending relations between the government and protesters in ukraine and tells the u.s. ambassador to ukraine, it, quote, would be help great to clue this thing and have the u.n. help glue it and, you know, "f" the eu. the state department won't confirm if it's his voice on the recording but says she has called the european union to apologize and a spokesman told reuters she worked on a russian fishing boat when she was younger and perhaps learned salty language there. if imitation is really the sincerest form of flattery, president obama has a fan in iran's president hassan rohani who announced his plan to roll out expanded health care. he tweeted gov will extend medical insurance to all iranians. first step to cover 5 million uninsured iranians, #rohanycare. didn't take long for that to start trending on twitter. if you like your nuclear program, you can keep it, and no question will there be death panels. finally, florida lawmakers are considering a bill that would giver kids the right to play cops and robbers. the measure would prohibit schools for punishing kids who pretend to have a gun. you can now use a finger to simulate a weapon and drawing a picture of a firearm and brandishing a partially consumed pastry that you have eaten into the shape of a gun. president obama says harming someone in the name of faith diminishes the relationship with god. the president made the comment at the national prayer breakfast. religion correspondent lauren greene tells us what else he said. >> reporter: at the 62nd annual national prayer breakfast president obama made one of his strongest pleas for religious freedom, joining a chorus of politicians and watchdog group who have long been decrying the global threat to that fundamental right. >> history shows that nations that uphold the rights of their people, including the freedom of religion, are ultimately more just and more peaceful and more successful. nations that do not uphold these rights so the bitter seeds of instability and violence and extremism, so freedom of religion matters to our national security. >> reporter: violence against religious minorities has escalated in the last year, including one of the deadliest, a suicide bombing of a christian church in back stan, that killed 81 people. but today the president also highlighted the plight of individuals persecuted calling for prayers and freedom for two americans held captive, christian missionary kenneth bey in north korea and pastor said aberdeeny being held in iran. >> we call on the iranian government to release the pastor. >> reporter: the american center for law and justice, spareheading efforts for aberdeeny's release noted it's the first time president obama has uttered his name. a statement on its website says we're hopeful that the new level of engagement by our government will bring even more attention to the unjust treatment of a u.s. citizen. >> let us work together to end extreme poverty in our lifetime. >> reporter: this year's keynote speaker, dr. rajiv shaw, heads the obama agency for international development, a much less contentious choice who sparked controversy by offering an alternative to obamacare. the national prayer breakfast is supposed to be a time when both sides of the political aisle put together their differences to unite in fellowship and hopes that a little bit of that spills over into the rest of the year. chris? >> lauren, thank you. is the administration trying to rig the outcome of the investigation into the irs targeting scandal? we'll ask the panel when we come back. my name is jenny, and i quit smoking with chantix. before chantix, i tried to quit probably about five times. it was different than the other times i tried to quit. 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[ male announcer ] ask your door if chantix is right for you. since filing in 2010 my private business and non-profit organizationses my family and i have been subjected to more than 15 instances of audit or inquiry by federal agencies. >> the committee's ten-month long investigation has uncovered no evidence to support claims that the irs was targeting any groups for political reasons. >> the head of a tea party group says she's still being targeted by the irs, while democratic congressman matt cartwright says there's no evidence of wrongdoing. time to bring in our panel. syndicated columnist george will, juan williams, columnist with the hill, and syndicated columnist charles krauthammer, author of the best-seller "things that matter." well, the president's statement during the interview before the super bowl that there's not a smidgeon of corruption in the irs targeting of conservative groups has now has house republicans questioning whether the justice department is really investigating this candaene sca today they made a big deal of the fact that one of the lead prosecutors for the justice department, a woman named barbara bosserman, actually made campaign contributions over the years to president obama. george, is that a legitimate concern? >> sure. there are six ongoing investigations, not one of them finished, two in the house, two in the senate, one in treasury and one in justice. subtract the two from the administration because they can't be trusted to investigate itself. still, not one of them has come to a conclusion. in the hearings today there were -- there was a story of two women. one was the lawyer who represents many of the tea party groups and who testified today that the harassment and delay of these groups is ongoing. now i know her to be, a, a woman of absolute integrity, of terrifying tenacity and prodigious legal talent. that's not why she's not only my friend and my lawyer, and if she says it's ongoing, it is ongoing. she represents the other woman who was featured at this hearing today, katherine englebrecht who heads true the vote and she and her husband have a small manufacturing plant in texas. she's experienced six visits from the fbi, two from atf agents, though their business has not concerned alcohol or firearms and osha showed up, the occupational safety and health administration, and the man who represented osha said i don't know why i'm here. i think we all know why he's there. it's part of the ongoing harassment of the president's critics. >> there was another development today, and that is that the irs announced after the scandal broke that it was going to look at the regulations and basically tighten it so the tax-exempt groups could not be involved in political activity, but it now turns out that one of the people involved in that discussion, you may remember this name, lois learner, the woman who was involved in the initial targeting of tea party groups and the woman, as you can see right there, who took the fifth amendment, against self-incrimination when asked about her involvement by a congressional committee. juan, doesn't lois lerner's involvement, doesn't that taint anything the irs may do with these regulations? >> no. she's an expert. i mean, she is an expert. i don't think anybody will argue. the question is whether or not you think that because she took the fifth and didn't want to get involved in this political frenzy that's being generated on capitol hill -- >> wouldn't it indicate some involvement in something? >> no. it's her choice. that's her constitutional right. >> i understand that. if she had no involvement in anything wrong. >> you know, that's what she says. i don't know. we haven't heard from miss lerner so who can say, and i do think people have a right not to be exposed to a browbeating unnecessarily. it is the case though that i think the direction this story is headed has less to do with all these sort of paranoid charges, conservatives are being unfairly targeted at this point when there is no evidence this far. more towards this business of clarifying and codifying the rights that a 301-c4 organization has, a social welfare group, to participate in political activities. >> and still maintain its tax-exempt status. >> and what we've seen so far is speaker boehner, minority leader mcconnell in the house and the senate, i should say, have both written to the irs commissioner to see we feel that this is an unfair burden on grass roots conservative groups right now in terms of their activity and would punish us in a way that the unions would never be punished and never be exposed to such scrutiny and that's where this argument is right now, despite the sideshow that we saw on the hill today. >> charles, is it a sideshow, and, two, how effectively are republicans, if there is some there there, how effectively are they investigating this matter? >> well, of course, everybody in the administration would like to pretend it's a sideshow. obama says there's nothing here, just move along. you contrast with how obama reacted at the beginning. he said i'm outraged like everybody else. he fired for the first time and i think the last the -- the current acting head of the irs at a time as a way to show his displeasure and remember the very lois lerner who is an expert on this, i love that, you bring her in as an expert on stuff that she was involved in, i don't want to draw analogies, but al capone was an expert on a lot of stuff. i wouldn't have had him on a commission on law enforcement though he had a lot of expertise on that. of course, i'm not comparing the two. lois lerner herself, when she was the one who broke the story with the planted question at the aba convention, and she said we improperly, or at least these agents in the irs, improperly selected out organizations with names like tea party, admitted it was wrong and improper, so we originally had the admission and now the administration is pretending there never was in the first place. there is no story and it's a sideshow. it is a scandal that out of all the 10,000 lawyers who worked in the department of justice they have to pick one who is a contributor to barack obama. obviously a partisan as the one who would lead this investigation of which the president who could be a target in some way has already declared to contain not a smidgeon of corruption. that's a farce. >> george? >> almost two decades ago the republican candidate for the senate in illinois was a man named al salvie. late in the campaign charges were filed by the democrats by the s.e.c. charging campaign finance allegations. salvie called the s.e.c. and got in touch with the enforcement division. the head of the enforcement division said on the phone to him said we will drop this case if you will promise never again to run for public office. the head of the enforcement division was named lois lerner. it is time to give this woman a seriously difficult person immunity and get her to testify. >> i was going to just ask and just briefly because we're almost out of time. why aren't the republicans -- they do have control of the house. couldn't they be pushing this harder? >> exactly. on the day when she said i'm innocent and now i want the fifth amendment trey gowdy was the one who said she had forfeited that. either challenge her on that or give her use immunity and make her talk. who cares if she was a cog in all of this ends up in jail or not. we want to know the story and know who was involved and want to know who in washington because we know the orders came out of washington. wasn't cincinnati acting as a rogue agency, who in washington was involved. >> a minute ago you had her as a criminal, as al capone. >> i said i was not -- i was drawing a colorful analogy. >> suddenly she's been convicted and found with the money in her hands. >> like obama i make judgments in advance. >> doctor, i hope it's not paranoia. >> next up, the speaker of the house pulls the plug on immigration reform, for now. 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[ male announcer ] whatever the reason. whatever the dish. make it delicious with swanson. there is widespread doubt about whether this administration can be entrusted to enforce our laws. it's going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes. >> last week at the retreat, they outlined a principle of immigration. well, i guess today they decided they have no principles that relates to immigration. >> senate majority leader harry reid enjoying the dramatic change in direction today from the house speaker john boehner on the subject of immigration reform. and we're back now with the panel. well, last week, house republican leaders had their caucus and they released a set of standards for comprehensive immigration reform today, as you heard, house speaker john boehner said it would be difficult to push any immigration reform this year. george? what happened? >> well, i think they are rethinking the whole idea of comprehensive. we are waste deep in the big muddy of comprehensive healthcare reform. now they want to do comprehensive immigration reform. i will show you what it looks like. that big boy is the senate immigration bill. it's 1197 pages long because it answers every conceivable question. it tells you what should be the hourly wage of an immigrant, animal sorter in 2016, $9.84 if you are wondering about it. everything. this is how we used to do things. this is the homestead act of 1862, settled the american west. it was immigration bill. it was designed to attract immigrants. to be fair the copy and the parchment copy in the archives is four pages long but still 1193 pages shorter than this one. we don't do comprehensive well. we can break it up into little bits but don't do more comprehensive. >> now, it's interesting. speaker boehner said today that given president obama's selective enforcement, and i think that certainly is true of the rules and obamacare, that he and other republicans don't trust the president in terms of enforcing both the borders as well as a path to legalization. juan, do you think that's what's really going on here? >> no. i mean, it's such a cover story. i mean, it's incredible. i mean, obviously, a week or so ago, john boehner thought that he was able to lead his troops towards an immigration deal that was going to be acceptable, doing it piecemeal and getting that through the house in part. and then forcing the senate to negotiate and had the senate and had the democrats waiting, saying, you know what? the president is not going to get involved. we don't want to screw up what john boehner is putting together. what you have now is a situation where boehner says you know what? we can't trust president obama. but, gee, isn't president obama the one who is deporting so many hispanics at a cost of his political stature with the hispanic community? there is a real anger in the hispanic community at the fact that he deports a record historic number of people. two thirds of the american people that support immigration we form. what you have seen today is boehner who was, after the last shutdown, angry and able to speak out against heritage action and all the rest, caving to the talk radio crowd that sank immigration reform under george bush. that's what's going on. >> the fact is, charles, that after boehner released and the republican leaders released this set of standards for -- it was going to be piecemeal but it was going to add up to a comprehensive immigration reform, that there were a lot of republicans who said that no matter what he called it, it was still amnesty and that it was crazy to bring up an issue that divided republicans right in the middle of an election that they looked like they are going to do pretty well in. look, it was one of those rare, dawning of sanity among republicans. the principles, i think, are really good, and i would agree with almost all of them. border enforcement and then legalization. but not amnesty. but, the tactics that they have settled on today are exactly right. the point is that this is something you need to wait for next year. for several reasons. a, it would fracture the republicans in a year that will be all of theirs, all theirs if they concentrate on the one issue which is dividing the country extremely unpopular and is the embodiment of obama liberalism, namely obamacare. you don't want to introduce a distraction. second, you want him congratulation reform to concentrate now on winning the senate. therefore, second, if you win the senate and do you this next year in a position to pass a bill that would be infinitely better than anything you could get today. then, third, the republicans are absolutely right to say that if you cannot trusthe president to carry out the law faithfully. and he hasn't even carried out faithfully his own law, which he has amended 16 times and he is now going to continue to amend unilaterally and lawlessly. how do you expect him to carry out faithfully a law in which he is going to have to compromise on enforcement. so it's absolutely right. not this year. work on healthcare reform, win the senate, and do it next year. >> isn't it the case that he has deported a record number of people and don't you think there is a risk to the party of energizing hispanic vote. >> you have five seconds to answer that. >> deportation is irrelevant. the question is -- >> -- we enforce the law is irrelevant. >> we enforce the border -- >> -- that's it for the panel. stay tuned to find out why preparations for the winter olympic games in sochi are still such a mess. lobsterfest is the king of all promotions. the coconut maine tail in new lober in paradise -- amazing! 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[ male announcer ] hurry in to red lobster. and sea food differently. ♪ finally, the sochi olympics officially get underway tomorrow but some of the folks still on shaky preparations for the games and not on the competition. now we may know why things are still in such rough shape. >> the olympics are set to begin on friday but construction crews in sochi are still racing to complete work on everything from roads to hotels. when asked to explain the delays, vladimir putin admitted in retrospect, it was a mistake to fire his con foreman for being gay ♪ y-m-c-a. >> phil black, cnn, sochi ♪ they have everything. >> you just can't get rid of those guys. that's "special report" for tonight. i'm chris wallace in washington. "on the record" with greta van susteren is next. the irs targeting scandal exploding on capitol hill. representative trey gowdy calling out president obama for claiming there is not a smidgen of corruption. >> so how can the president say there is not a smidgen of criminality when lois lerner invoked the fifth amendment 41 witnesses haven't been interviewed including the two that are here right now? i wish one of of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would ask the president how in the world he concluded no criminality when lois lerner sat in front of them and invoked her privilege against criminality. he has gone on national television. he has pre-judged the investigation. and, in my judgment, has compromised the department of justice