and then at the white house is cnn's brianna keilar. briann brianna, i under that you just got back from a little bit of an update on the situation in washington. fill us in. what did you learn? >> reporter: well, yeah, don. basically as we said, senate democrats are meeting here at the white house with president obama. you have the top -- i should say senate democratic leaders, the top four, so you have harry reid, dick durbin, chuck schumer and patty murray. they're in, i'm told by white house officials, just basically doing a check-in with president obama, kind of comparing notes and getting on the same page after a lot of developments here in the last couple of days. after the white house rejected a house republican proposal that would have extended the debt ceiling for just six weeks right up to the beginning really right before thanksgiving which you could imagine that would have put us in this whole situation all over again in just a month and a half. and then senate democrats rejecting now a proposal by senate republican susan c

brianna keilar is over at the white house. what are they saying over there, brianna? white house officials, the president and others, when they say look, you're not going to get that complete spending bill passed without any extraneous measures like obama care or whatever, but why not do for the national institutes of health or for veterans or for the national parks what you already did for military personnel, pass legislation, sign it into law, that allows them to get their salaries? why not accept some of these piecemeal pieces of legislation, especially when they involve life and death issues, for example, clinical trials at nih for young children who have cancer? >> reporter: well, wolf, they look and they are sort of i guess you could say solidified with congressional democrats on this, they are saying that republicans are cherry-picking the easy things and not dealing with the hard things. what they'll try to do is get these things that are so popular through and really what republicans are trying to do is not fund the things that support obama care. so they're

let's bring in brianna keilar, kicking off our coverage live from the white house. leaders of both parties finally agreeing to meet with the president. they talk for an hour and what happens, brianna? good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning to you, chris. not a whole lot. that is the headline. senate republican leader mitch mcconnell called the meeting unproductive. sadly, that may be the one point where there was bipartisan agreement. for the first time since the government shut down, congressional leaders met face-to-face

brianna keilar following developments for us. brianna, is there a sense that the party had to say there was progress or truly green chutes of hope? >> reporter: there's both. that's what the truth is. there is progress. we heard from sources in this meeting yesterday between house republicans and president obama that house speaker john boehner made that point, that they ed

ea senior white house correspondent brianna keilar has the very latest. >> reporter: for the first time since the government shutdown, congressional leaders met face-to-face with president obama at the white house wednesday night. both sides emerging with no deal and no signs of progress to end the stalemate. >> the president reiterate one more time tonight that he will not negotiate. >> we are through playing these little games. >> reporter: republicans still demanding president obama xep a delay to his signature health care program. >> all we are asking for is a discussion and fairness for the american people under obama care. >> am i exasperated, absolutely i am exasperated. >> reporter: if house republicans first agree to reopen the government for several weeks. >> we have a situation right now where if john boehner, the speaker of the house, puts a bill on the floor to reopen the government at current funding levels so that we can then negotiate on a real budget that allows us to stop governing from crisis-to-crisis, it would pass. >> reporter: the president is probably right. but

brianna keilar, cnn, washington. >> seven days to go before the u.s. hits that debt ceiling. jack lew is headed to capitol hill this morning and testify before the senate finance committee in a few hours. the secretary has already warned congress that the u.s. will not have enough cash on hand to pay its bills if the debt ceiling is not raised before october 17th. that could send the nation into default for the very first time in history. >>> it's ten days since they rolled out obama care and the online glitches are continuing this morning. many have tried to logon to health care.gov. we are hearing more this morning about just what the administration was told about potential problems with this site way in advance. cnn's brian todd has that. >> reporter: luke chung operates a database company in northern virginia. he's an expert on heavily trafficked web sites but even he is frustrated navigating health care.gov. >> this is interesting. >> reporter: what do you got? >> i don't know what i had. i just tried to log into my account that i have already established. >> reporter: a

brianna keilar, cnn, washington. >>> it's back to work for some government employees. fema put a temporary halt to the temporary layoff as it gears up for tropical storm karen, expected to strike the gulf coast this weekend. the agency furloughed 86% of its staff but many are called back. why? they need to help protect life and property. >>> big news brewing right now off the gulf coast. literally bracing for tropical storm karen. landfall is possibly as a hurricane expected this weekend. storm watches up from louisiana to the florida panhandle. we have our indra petersons live in pensacola, florida. give us a sense of the latest, indra. >> reporter: good morning, guys. definitely feels like a typically morning in pensacola, florida, this morning. gusty conditions and a few bouts of rain here and there but we know that is quickly changing as we head into the weekend. karen is in the gulf and it's an unusually quiet season which now suddenly could be turning active. this could be actually our first hurricane to make landfall on the u.s. mainland. let's talk about those

here's brianna keilar. >> reporter: the impasse in among is no closer to being resolved this morning. >> the motion to table is agreed to. >> reporter: with nearly 800,000 federal employees off their jobs for a second day, president obama is is blaming tea party republicans for shutting down the government over their objections to obama care. >> they demanded ransom just for doing their job. >> reporter: he's urging congress to act. >> allow the public servants has been sent home overnight to return to work. >> reporter: starting with veterans, national parks and the city of washington, d.c. >> we're -- we're ready to talk. and they have rejected that. and we have to send that back every day. >> reporter: their first attempt failed. most democrats voting no. >> this is a waste of time. it's not going anyplace. >> reporter: what's worst, we're about to hit the debt ceiling. treasury secretary jack lew again warned congress if it doesn't raise the ability to pay debts it will default october 19th. >> my goodness, they won't even sit down and have a discussion. >> reporter: president oba

here is brianna keilar. >> reporter: an embarrassing moment for president obama forced to defend his signature health care reform program. >> you've probably heard that healthcare.gov hasn't worked as smoothly as it was supposed to work. the product is good. the health insurance that is being provided is good. it's high quality. and it's affordable. >> reporter: he instructed americans to call in. >> i want to repeat that. 1-800-318-2596. >> reporter: but it's a slow process as cnn senior medical reporter found out. >> you apply for me and i wait a week or two and i call you back once i have my eligibility and then we would go over the plans. >> reporter: not exactly what the president had in mind five days before the obama care website launched when he said you could buy insurance. >> shop for a tv on amazon the same way. >> reporter: in states that launch their own web sites, users have had better luck. >> i'm not honored to introduce the president of the united states. >> reporter: janice baker, the first person to sign up in delaware was facing the possibility of going without in

but it does appear to be the more likely avenue at this point. >> all right, brianna keilar, you're going to be there for a while. thank you very much. we apreshiate it. >> reporter: have a good one. >> yeah, you, too. >>> even though the politicians are still bickering in washington and much of the government is quiet with the lights off, somebody found a way to reopen some of the most famous symbols of the united states. among them the grand canyon, mt. rushmore and lady liberty. the governors in five state are so fed up with the shutdown that they are taking matters into their own hands. those states will pay for their iconic symbols to once again be open for visitors. that's right state money -- state money -- well let these parks open temporarily. but if the federal government remains closed for another week or more there might not be enough money to keep those sites open. >>> authorities in mexico looking for this man. his name is scott chandler. he's a director of a ranch where troubled kids. an amber alert was issued for nine teenagers who police say were abducted from the ranch.

brianna keilar, cnn, washington. >> a new warning this morning from the social security administration. it gave no specifics about what could be cut and how soon it would need to stop paying. those details apparently are still being worked out. >> other big news. we are finding out more this morning about the terror raids in africa that netted man an important al qaeda operative but as john sciutto reports, one of the raids does not seem to have gone as planned and it may have been thwarted by the presence of children. >> reporter: the westgate mile talk in nairobi kenya, left dozens destroyed and a mall destroyed and a country terrorized. attacks like this that help lead the u.s. to target ab shabaab on its home territory. it was a daring operation. late friday night, s.e.a.l.s team six, the same team that killed osama bin laden, launched from a commercial ship aiming to capture the al shabaab leader but ikrima. they haet heavier resistance than expected. the element of seeing children lost in the compound, the s.e.a.l.s withdrew without their man. >> there was a firefight, absolutely

senior white house correspondent brianna keilar live from the white house. brianna, cautious optimism of striking a deal with republicans seems to have gone away. are we back to square one now? >> reporter: well, certainly when it comes to house republicans i think tuesday we saw president obama indicate a willingness on a short term deal. saw republicans back away from demands, thursday had a good meeting at the white house. yesterday we saw the white house briefing delayed beyond when the markets closed, when we heard jay carney essentially say they didn't like this idea from the house republicans, which was just a six week extension of the debt ceiling. by all appearances, it appears at this point substantive outreach to house republicans at least dried up, at least temporarily at this point. white house officials are insisting there are open lines of communication when it comes to the house and senate, but this also appears to be dealing with an appearance problem they had because president obama's whole we cannot negotiate or will not negotiate stance w

senior white house correspondent brianna keilar is live from the white house. brianna, will this fly? i don't think now the house is -- what are you hearing? >> reporter: obviously, what was proposed in the house of representatives isn't flying with the white house, this idea of just a six-week extension of the debt ceiling without reopening the government. extending the debt ceiling really only until right before thanksgiving, so that you have this battle really it would look very similar to what we've gone through all over again in six weeks, just before the holidays. not going to fly. this idea of the senate plan is more in line with what, miguel, the president wants. he has said he's open to a short term, but longer is better. when you're looking at the senate deal, i think some of the things the white house would look favorably upon. funding the government for six months. and also the extension of the debt limit into next year, into january of 2014. you know, this is something that is certainly key, i think, because it allows a little more time. and that's

brianna keilar, reporting live from the white house this morning. you talk about reaching the debt ceiling. one of the biggest fears is not being able to pay back the countries that own america's debt. cnn's christine romans, our business guru is here to explain that side of the story. this could have serious consequences. >> it could. carol, i think it's fair to assume that the u.s. will pay its bond holders first and foremost. you just do not want to wreck your credibility among the people lending you money. let me show you first who those people are. china is our banker. this is true, china is the largest foreign lender to the united states, followed by japan and then the caribbean banking centers, offshore banking centers, cayman islands, for example, there's $288 billion in treasuries in accounts held there. oil exporting countries, and brazil is a big foreign debt holder. it's about a third of all of our $16 trillion in debt. the rest is held basically by u.s. investors. when i say investors i mean social security trust fund, big government ho

let's go to our senior correspondent brianna keilar. what are you seeing, brianna? >> reporter: wolf, the president's message is his hardball strategy is here to say, unlike in 2011, he did not negotiate with house republicans. he sidelined them instead and fared better because of it. >> after besting -- impossible default, president obama lectured them. >> all of us knee to stop focusing on the lobbyists, the bloggers and talking heads on radio, and the professional activists who profit from conflict and focus on what the majority of americans sent us here to do. >> he outlined a three-part agenda he plans to pursue, a farm bill, immigration, and a budget agreement that will determine how the government is funded as negotiators have i to rein in spending. the president says he wants bipartisan solutions. >> he really is serious will moving forward in a bipartisan what i on some of these initiatives, why did he chide them for following bloggers and radio talk show hosts? ivities the shutdown we went through had real consequences, real costs, as did the threat of def

. >> so brianna keilar is live at the white house to get us squared away. brianna, is this back-and-forth hurting or helping the process? what do you think? >> reporter: ana, here's the ugly truth, the back-and-forth is the process. this is just sort of how it's going to go. and over the weekend, while the markets are closed, probably no coincidence that the briefing here at the white house yesterday was pushed back repeatedly until it was after the markets closed. and the issue is that president obama has said he's amenable to a short-term increase of the debt ceiling, but he hasn't committed to exactly how short term he would accept. republicans had floated this idea of a six-week extension of the debt ceiling. but they weren't dealing with the government shutdown, and that would take us right till, when? right before thanksgiving when everyone's doing their holiday shopping, and it turns out that is not something that really, i guess, hits the mark for president obama. we really got the idea yesterday that that is something he will not accept. here's how

brianna keilar is joining us. what's the feeling over there? >> reporter: there's some optimi optimism. the meeting was postponed. we're told that is sort of the positive. the president felt like there was momentum in the senate negotiations. really a lot of focus now up on capitol hill. we did get a glimpse at vice president joe biden, who would have been in that meeting. he came out on what i think is the balcony of his ceremonial office in the eisenhower building right next to the west wing. some internal discussions obviously going on here at the white house about this, but right now, today we saw president obama really, he was visiting a soup kitchen today. this was a soup kitchen where some furloughed workers have been spending some of their free time during the government shutdown helping feed less fortunate folks here in washington, d.c. president obama used this as an opportunity to ratchet up pressure on republicans. here's some of what he said. >> not only is it untenable for us to continue this shutdown, this week if we don't start

senior white house correspondent brianna keilar joins us now. brianna, the president making a point saying there are no winners here. behind the scenes does the white house feel this is a victory for them? >> reporter: i think certainly white house officials feel like the strategy this time around worked much better than 2011. the president back then negotiated in earnest. this time with house republicans. this time he really sidelined them and ultimately at least in the polls he fared better. so i think part of the message you were hearing from him today is this kind of hardball strategy is here to stay. of course there's this question of does that tone really mean that there's going to be bipartisanship here? i think white house officials feel like they're external factors at play. some republicans may be tempted to try the strategy again. you heard dana talk about ted cruz. but i think they're banking on some of the other republicans concerned about the national brand for republicans and certainly the toll that that may take with independent

i want to bring if brianna keilar, who is at the white house. brianna, senate democrats clearly trying to tell the american people that we reached out, we tried, they won't come to the table. what's going on here? >> well, right now the future of whether the debt ceiling will be increased and how perhaps the government will be reopened is very uncertain. this is a sort of bad turn of events today here in terms of moving towards a solution miguel. you have one bill, which would have just extended the debt ceiling for more than a year, pushed it beyond the midterm elections, because it is such a political hot potato issue, it becomes different to deal with. that bill failed on basically a party line vote in the senate. you have that, but the other thing we're hearing that's making sinus, as we heard from harry reid, they are rejecting this plan that is sort of spearheaded by susan collins, one of the moderates who actually will break with her party at times to i guess see things more from the perspective of the white house or democrats. she had pr

senior white house correspondent brianna keilar joins us now. brianna, the president making a point saying there are no winners here. behind the scenes does the white house feel this is a victory for them? >> reporter: i think certainly white house officials feel like the strategy this time around worked much better than 2011. the president back then negotiated in earnest. this time with house republicans. this time he really sidelined them and ultimately at least in the polls he fared better. so i think part of the message you were hearing from him today is this kind of hardball strategy is here to stay. of course there's this question of does that tone really mean that there's going to be bipartisanship here? i think white house officials feel like they're external factors at play. some republicans may be tempted to try the strategy again. you heard dana talk about ted cruz. but i think they're banking on some of the other republicans concerned about the national brand for republicans and certainly the toll that that may take with independent

brianna keilar reporting live from the white house. this is all over obama care. but guess what, obama care is up and running. health care coverage available right now, at least for the last hour. the obama care portal, healthcare.gov up and running, allowing uninsured americans to get health coverage. how does it work? cnn chief medical correspondent sanjay gupta live in south carolina where 20%, just 20% of that state -- actually 20% of that state is uninsured. that's what i meant today. sanjay, explain this to us. >> reporter: as you mentioned, healthcare.gov is the main portal. look, no one loves signing up for health care insurance. it can be confusing for anybody. if you go to this site, a couple of things you might find. one is that you can't get on. we've tried visiting a couple of them. there's a lot of traffic and therefore people aren't able to get on right away. a sign that people are interested or technical glitches, depending on your perspective. when you get on, you have your choice of plans. everything from a bronze pla

brianna keilar is standing by. brianna, i was astounded when i heard that to come on down for a nice conversation. we'll all have a nice chat today. turned out 233 of them what are we expecting out of that meeting? >> we don't know. significantly more interesting if the entire republican congress had come to the white house, ashleigh. you would have had president obama making his case to all of them, including the tea-party backed republicans that he has blamed for all of this mess. but i think we'll probably expect that he will tell them -- i suspect more of what we heard him say, that he's willing to discuss, for instance, obama care. but making prochl e ining impro. it's hard to figure out where republicans would want to make improvements. the only improvement, quote, unquote, they've proposed is to get rid of obama care. president obama has made clear he is not on board for that. certainly the white house says they want to discuss deficit spending. because we've gone back and forth on this, the white house woul

keilar, who is at the white house monitoring all of this for us. brianna what did you make of the senate press conference? >> reporter: miguel, very much what athena said, which at this point is that it's really uncertain where things go from here. the discussions were kind of back to the brauing board. president obama has said all along he will not negotiate on the debt korean. a there obviously had been talk about the this idea of make striking a deal, but it appears in retrospect that was more of a messaging, i gill, more of just like a message that the without was putting out, because the president had been accused of being obstinate. it was an argument that the republicans those was taking hold. it appears the without is standing very firm after rejecting the house proposal, which was just a six-week debt ceiling increase that would have taken us before the holiday spending season and would have been a mess. can you imagine this fight all over again in six weeks? the senate democrats have now rejected a plan that was being spearheaded by susan

brianna keilar, cnn, washington. >>> the centers for disease control is recalling experts furloughed in the shutdown to help deal with the salmonella outbreak that has sickened nearly 300 people and this across 18 states. it has been chased to raw chicken parts run by a company called foster farms. officials say the investigation into this outbreak began before the partial government shutdown. >> the shutdown has not impacted usda's food safety inspection to any major degree. the vacht majority of inspection personnel are still working because congress has viewed her function as a necessity. >> health officials say some salmonella strains appear to be resistant to antibiotics. and because of the shutdown, they're unable to track how widespread those are. >>> the shutdown apparently felt in the american psyche. the consumer gallup poll finds that measure has dropped 5% in one week. this is the beginning of the finance drop since 2008. that chargs should care you. >>> president obama's pick to be the next head of the federal reserve no secret here is janet yellen. the former vice chair

senior white house correspondent brianna keilar has the latest. >> reporter: an encouraging sign after house republicans met with president obama at the white house. >> i would characterize this as probably the most constructive. >> reporter: and pledge to keep the talks going. >> we will have more discussion. we will come back to have more discussion. >> on the table a compromise that would increase the debt ceiling for six weeks. the white house said the president looks forward to making continued progress with members on both sides of the aisle but the government shutdown is still up in the air. president obama and congressional democrats insist the government reopen as part of a deal. republicans want concessions from the president to make that happen. >> it was pretty clear earlier today they want to negotiate for you -- >> not going to happen. >> reporter: even as they were meeting, more signs the republican strategy is hurting them in the public's eye. in a new nbc/"wall street journal" poll, 53% of americans now blame republicans for the shutdown. 31% plamg tblaming the preside

brianna keilar, cnn, washington. when it came to that, it was really president clinton who ended up sort of winning the battle, if you will. house republicans who lost indicated a lot of observers believe that is going to be the case here. so now what you're going to see is the pressure. president obama with that address to the camera to military folks. i think that is a preview of some of what you're going to be seeing here in the coming days. >> i'd say that is probably the only good news that has come out of this, right? the military personnel, certain military personnel will actually get paid. so we will see how that all pans out and we will also see how history is written here and who actually takes the blame. brianna keilar, thank you. >> there have been government shutdowns before but this comes as a result of its own special kind of dysfunction. a republican party in battle sometimes with itself. cnn's brian todd explains. >> reporter: the group behind this strategy is led by a freshman congressman from north

here is brianna keilar. >> reporter: ten days away from a economic disaster, the white house and the republicans are as far apart as they have been. house republicans continue to demand concessions as president obama still refuses to negotiate on the nation's borrowing limit. the united states is set to default on october 17th in congress didn't raise the debt ceiling. >> i'm telling you that on the 17th, we run out of our ability to borrow and congress is playing with fire. >> reporter: in a rare sunday show interview, house speaker john boehner assisted, backing away from defunding or delaying obama care as an add-on increasing the debt sealing. >> my goal is to have a serious conversation about those things that are driving the deficit and driving the debt up. >> reporter: as the government remains partially shut down for a seventh day, the white house wants a vote to fund the government, no strings attached. again, rebuffed by republicans. >> there are not the votes in the house to pass a clean cr. >> reporter: but president obama, bowlstered by many objective observers, question

cnn's brianna keilar is at the white house this morning. good morning. >> good morning, carol. let me first tell you that we now understand house democrats will be coming to the white house this afternoon for a meeting. you have that going on. one white house official telling me not really to read too much into this. this is congressional outreach. they'll be having house republicans as well as house -- or senate republicans and senate democrats in the coming days as well. so this isn't necessarily to discuss a short term measure that we've been hearing the white house and house republicans may be open to. so at this point, this discussion isn't exactly a breakthrough. but it may be a positive development because you have both sides sort of talking about how they may be open to this. it come as politicians are really feeling a lot of pressure. day nine, the government shutdown is getting real. for families of troops killed in combat, they will not get automatic death benefits during the shutdown. $100,000 to help cover funeral costs and travel to dover air force base to witness

let's begin with our senior white house correspondent brianna keilar over at the white house. briann brian brianna? >> reporter: a lot of tech experts suggest erasing healthcare.gov and starring fresh. i asked jay carney about that today. it was fascinating. he didn't rule it out, although right now the administration is focused on fixes of the current website that includes increasing bandwidth as well as making changes to the structure of the web site and to the search database. rewriting 100 million lines of code. that's what some experts think government contractors are facing trying to fix healthcare.g healthcare.gov. some suggest scrapping the entire site and trying again. >> is that under consideration? >> we have tech teams working on the existing system so our belief is we are making fixes to the existing system. >> reporter: the white house is not ruling out starting all over and not batting down experts' opinions that it could be several months before the federal website to purchase obama care is fully functional. >> look at this. two years. that's a really long time