Transcripts For MSNBC News Nation 20131021 : comparemela.com

Court. And we heard a pop, like a loud pop. And everybody was screaming. And then the teacher came to investigate, i thought it was a firecracker at first but the student was pointing a gun at the teacher and she told him to put it down. Then the student fired a shot at the teacher and the teacher fell and everybody ran away. This is the student you were referring to just a second ago. Tell us more about the town of sparks and what its like and the makeup of it, because outside of reno, it seems to be an eye dillic little town. Its a little more its a little lower income. Its along highway 80. There are casinos there. Its got a popular rib festival every year and farmers market. Its a generally quiet town, less busy than reno is. Less busy than reno is. How have Community Members parents of those inside that school been reacting . What information have you been hearing about that . Well, as you can imagine everybody is pretty upset and concerned. They put they moved the children right away and Law Enforcement from all over the region has come into town and they are helping out. They basically shut everything down. We can see from some of the images here how quickly Law Enforcement officials dexrended on the scene there. Martha, thanks very much. We are expecting a press briefing in the hour from authorities there. Well bring you any new information as soon as we get it here news nation also following the vow to fix the problems plaguing the healthcare. Gov website. The president said, quote, there is no excuse. So, some of the people that were around the president in the sound bite i wanted to show you there, included people that have been suffering from Health Conditions that havent been able to have proper insurance in the past. Now the president also said that there vk nearly 20 million visit to the website so far and half a Million People applied for coverage. Officials have not announced how many people enrolled and republican reaction was swift, even before the president was finished speaking. Ted cruz issued a statement saying, president obama should hear the plaes from the untold number of americans losing jobs and wages and Healthcare Plan and congress should act immediately to stop obama care from inflicting any more damage on the country on our hard working citizens. Peter alexander and capitol hill correspondent, kelly odonnell. Peter, let me start with you. The president insisted that the Health Care Law is more than the website. The product is good. The quality of the product is good. But its just this initial glitch with the website that is the biggest problem and he doesnt want people americans to be dissuaded from actually figuring out that they do need to sign up and the best ways to do it. Thomas, i think for a lot of americans, the problem for this white house is that the website is really been sort of like the bill board for most americans. Its the way theyve been drawn into better understand this Health Care Law. Whats interesting here and although its unlikely at least for the moment, it appears possible that these technical glitches could accomplish what the republicans could not over the course of that shutdown strategy where they try to defund or delay obama care. Its possible if the glitches are not resolved that the white house would be forced to extend the Enrollment Period for individuals and also perhaps delay the penalty for those who do not sign up. So its one other thing to consider as we move forward here. Kelly, peter makes a great point. If republicans had just sat on their hands and let the rollout take effect on october the 1st and then let the chips fall where they may in terms of the glitches that have seemed to be persistent. They would have had had a better argument for as peter points out trying to improve their standing about any type of delay or any type of improvements on the laws. So where is the president now . There was no discussion about any type of moving of those dates. So the Health Care Website in and of itself, the president says the product is good but its the way people have been able to access it. What are you hearing on hill, the reaction to this . If republicans had just waited they would have had had a lot ammunition to fire. There are certain republicans who believe there was time wasted and they are trying to make up for that by focusing on these issues that will resonate with the public and concerns and worries about the implementation of the law and seize on a moment of weakness for the administration where there are these glitches that are being acknowledged and trying to shine a bigger light on those. One of the things well find, a battle coming forward, how do they hold congress accountable, part of the function of congress, we should see that begin to play out later this week when theres a house hearing that will look at these issues. Theres been tension between the administration and the committee involved here about whether or not the secretary of health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius will testify. They are going to move forward with the hearing this week. The white house and administration are saying that the secretary does want to testify but there are scheduling issues. That will play out but that will be the kind of thing that republicans will try to seize on. Where are the problems and should individuals be penalized if they cant enroll in time. And looking at questions that they feel are unanswered by the administration. So i would say making up for lost ground period for conservatives and republicans who want to focus on what they see are flaws in at least the rollout, if not the law itself. So that will give them new things to talk about and try to forget about that shutdown 16 days we all lived through. Thats so long ago. We dont even have to worry about that anymore. Thanks, gang, appreciate it. I want to bring in our political panel, Chicago Sun Times Washington Bureau cheat, sweet and michael smerconnish and also the author of deadly spin and Insurance Company insider speaks out on how corporate pr is killing health care and deceiving americans. Great to have all three of you here. The president emphasized today, the Health Care Law is not the Health Care Website. I want to play a portion of what more he had to say about that. Theres no sugar coating it. The website has been too slow and people are getting stuck during the application process. And i think its fair to say that nobody is more frustrated by that than i am. Were doing everything we can possibly do to get the website working better, faster, sooner. Weve got people working overtime, 24 7, to boost capacity and address the problems. So they are going to boost capacity, address these problems. Redouble their efforts. But heres the foundational thing about the aca, it depends upon younger people being able to get enrolled, to be able to level the Playing Field in certain states around certain states for the premium coverage. So when we think about the fact that people cant get on website and now the president is highlighting the Old Fashioned way of calling a 1800 line or seeing somebody in person, do you think the under 30 set will be paying attention to that . Well, i think so. Its interesting that the white house turned itself into the Biggest Call Center Customer Service center. But the real issue with getting the mill enials in is having insurance literacy, explaining the need to have insurance, no matter what your political views. That is whats at issue, not whether or not the website is working this week, last week or the week or next week. And thats the challenge. If you dont understand the need for Health Insurance, then whether or not the website works isnt at issue and thats the education that needs to be taken on by everybody. Its very risky not to have Life Insurance and you can have it now. I think thats an uphill climb for a lot of people who would look at the youth of today and people who consider themselves to be young, healthy, and untouchable, for them to be talking about Life Insurance and their Health Insurance and things that are necessary and logical for adults to be concerned about. But it may not get their attention. Michael, youve been tweeting about your efforts to try to get on healthcare. Gov. The president did not place blame today. Kathleen sebelius was in the front row. Do you think heads should roll for this, there is somebody thats going to be a fall person . I hope a head doesnt roll for the sake of saying, see that, someone lost their job over this. If there were incompetentance maybe that person needs to lose his or her job. I act for 3 million of the visitors because on a daily basis ive been trying desperately to get on. Thomas, i still havent gotten on. When i called 30 minutes ago, they said now weve taken down the whole system for repair and the only way you can get in is verbally over the phone. One thought if i might. The concern that i have, this rattles people confidence in a process that ultimately asks you to surrender very personal information about both your health and your income. I worry that this is going to rattle the young invincibles that you were just referencing with lynn. We desperately need them to have confidence in this system. Its a big ask for sure. Wende wendell, the president doesnt go into specific, but in your column you write that there are four possible reasons for the current mess. What are those reasons . One is that i think the administration thought a lot of states would bill their own exchanges rather than having the federal government do it. They wasted a lot of time and now they have to have an exchange for 36 states. Secondly, the administration was late with a lot of regulations and theres reason to think some of them might have been postponed until after the election. And that didnt give a lot of time for insurers to make everything work. Another is that you just have to set up an account right off the bat and that stimies a lot of people to start with. Then finally its an incredibly complex Health Care System and complex law. You have so much that has to work perfectly. We have a lot that needs to work perfectly and this is a synergy we need to get right. Lynn, i want your reaction to what former congressman tom davis said about health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius on the daily rundown look at this. How do you not send her up to capitol hill to explain and give an update . I think she can go on the comedy channel she couldnt go on the comedy channel, thats what turned out. Jon stewart ate her alive. Now we have late word that she will testify before congress as early as next week. Do i think shell eventually that this testimony can help alleviate the potential of having to take the fall . Yes, it can. But the main thing is getting the website working. Thats the end game, whether or not she does gribrilliantly on hill isnt the point if you cant get into healthcare. Gov. We have always indicated to the committee that she intended to testify, but that she had a scheduling conflict. Michael, whats your reaction to the news that she will testify . Im not surprised. I think shes good on her feet. I dont agree with the characterization that jon stewart ate her alive. I think shes been a competent and longstanding public servient and not the one who built the intracatcies of these search engines. Im anxious to watch her testify. When one specialist says as many 5 million lines of Software Code need to be rewritten, obviously as we talk about trying to get this right for so many reasons and the president has a great connection to this as his legacy of his president ial legacy. If thats the case, is three weeks really enough time to turn this ship around . I dont think you really need to look in terms of just three weeks. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Yes, they need to get this fixed really very soon. Theres no doubt about it. But we have quite a bit of time before the end of this current open enrollment. Theyll get it fixed. We have a lot of experts in the country who can fix this. I think they are probably working right now on this problem. Wendell and michael and lynn, thank you for your insight. I want to bring in democratic congressman from arizona. Whats your reaction to how the president handled the admission that there are problems today, that that was certainly not what they wanted, they think its unacceptable. But that they are redoubling their efforts, bottom line and didnt sugar coat it, as he said . I thought it was important to hear from the president that we have problems, some of them are Serious Problems and that its preventing real access to the Health Care System and to registration and those provide foder for the opposition and reasons to try to pull the wings off the butterfly that im sure my republican colleagues in congress are waiting to do. I think that it wasnt ready from day one. Its not ready now. And i think its incumbent that that become a priority because there are the uninsured have to be a target population and young need to be a targeted population. Those are the ones that theyll try once and try twice but wont persist in the effort to get on the system. It has to be fixed. One thing we notice today was the president talking about in 1 1800 line and i called it during the break. There is English Speaking and Spanish Speaking telling people how to get through. Tell us about the special problems with Health Care Enrollment in your district, including tucson, large hispanic population now and now there are further delays in the spanish website for aca. I know that they are trying to address that with the 1800 line but explain what youre seeing for the internet users. Its a hard to reach population of people and initially, the website didnt have the spanish capacity that it needed to. The one that went online is having the same difficulties as the English Version of it. So thats a group hard to get uninsured, latino population the highest uninsured rate of any population. Obviously its a targeted population and this difficulty is preventing and hopefully not for the short term and not the long term, people accessing which would be their first time to be able to have Health Insurance. So this still has major tension in washington, d. C. , the aca. I wanted to ask about the other major issue immigration reform. Youve done so much work to get this past the senate. Has its own bipartisan bill it passed back in june. Last week the president was urging congress to take this up, to urge the house to go ahead and make action on what the senate had done. Do you expect any movement on that by the end of the year . I do. I think a piecemeal approach is not going to be the solution for leadership in the house to say that we have too much to do and cant deal with this issue of immigration being the top domestic issue, the most devicive issue we have and opportunity to work on the compromise and go to the senate and fix the flaws that are in the bill and come up with something that is for the long run a piece of immigration reform. Yes, i have expectation. Were going to play out unfortunately part of the scenario we saw with the majority in terms of what were doing with the budget and debt ceiling. And at the end of the day, it still comes down to the ability of our speaker to put something on the floor and mr. Boehner does that, im very optimistic that we have a good shot at passing something and then going to conference. Congressman, thanks for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Lawyers for the couple accused of abducting a young girl now admit they adopted the girl illegally as thousands of tips come in regarding the girls true identity. Plus i declare joseph and orville to be lawful spouses in the state of new jersey. Senator elect cory booker officiating the first same sex weddings in new jersey. Chris christie dropped his challenge to Marriage Equality in the garden state. Will it be a problem should he decide to run for president . Alz always, you can join our conversation on twitter. At newsnation. Huh. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Mmmhmmm. Everybody knows that. Well, did you know that old macdonald was a really bad speller . Your word is. Cow. Cow. Cow. C. O. W. E. I. E. I. O. [buzzer] dangnabbit. Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you. Well, you know. In the past few Minutes Police releasing information on the shooting at the middle school outside of reno in sparks. They have 30 to 40 student witnesses to interview. They are waiting on that information before determining a motive, but we do know one of the boys shot is currently in surgery, the other is in stable condition. One witness says he saw a student shoot a teacher before turning the gun on himself. Both died from their injuries, another update is scheduled for later this afternoon. We will keep you posted. Authorities say theyve gotten more than 10,000 calls or emails in the case of a blonde girl found in greece. She was spotted peeking out from under a blanket last week as police swept a settlement for drug trafficking. The child is in a hospital while authorities figure out where she came from. The couple she was living with say the girls mother gave her to them as a baby because she couldnt care for her. The couple faces abduction charges and nbcs jim maceda joins me live from london with more on this. What more do we know about the couple and why is it the police dont believe the back story . Nice to be with you again. The greek Police Released the