meeting at the vatican. one of the topics of conversation, the conflict in syria. couple months ago, pope francis penned a letter to putin ahead of the g-20, telling the russian president to help find ways to overcome the conflicting opinions and to lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution. i'm brooke baldwin. thanks for being with me. john berman in for jake tapper. "the lead" starts right now. i would like to tell you won't be having thanksgiving dinner at an airport sbarro's. i would like to. i'm john berman. this is "the lead." the national lead. a special welcome to everyone watching us on an airport television during a flight delay. the cold blast putting the freeze on travel ahead of thanksgiving and the worst is yet to come as this killer storm aims for even more americans. the world lead. historic or historic mistake? just how israel characterizes the deal aimed at curbing iran's nuclear ambitions. as long as the u.s. had iran at the negotiating table, why not

secure the freedom of this man? did the administration leave him behind? his wife joins us live. also in national news, the story does not end with these two high school football players convicted of rape in a case that seized the nation's attention. today, new charges reach deep into their school system. wait until you hear how high they go. welcome to "the lead." i'm john berman filling in for jake tapper. we begin with the national lead. i would like to tell you that you will all get to your destinations without a hassle this holiday. i would like to tell you that you won't have to eat thanksgiving dinner on top of your own luggage. i would like to tell you all that, but i can't. because take a look at this. this is what's happening right now in the southwest. this car just flying off the road and you can see this all over that part of the country. a killer storm system hitting the region right now, already being blamed on as many as 12 deaths and the way this storm is

moving, it could wreck your carefully laid travel plans or even worse. i want to get right to meteorologist chad myers in the cnn severe weather center. chad, break it to us gently. >> there's a low in the gulf of mexico down here. it is going to travel up across georgia and eventually run up the east coast. an awful lot like every storm of the century we have ever talked about. but this storm doesn't grab atlantic moisture. it's only grabbing gulf of mexico moisture. why does that matter? because that matters, all the big cities, d.c., raleigh, new york city, it's only going to rain. it's a rain event. don't think nothing happened. we're not expecting anything to happen there except wind. along the low, that's where the ice is going to be and then back out here is where the snow is going to be. you've got i-70, 64, 66, 75, so many interstates and 41 million people trying to go somewhere just over the next couple days. that's the issue. here's the rain now. it is going to travel up the east coast and much of it is

going to fall on areas here in the midatlantic, tennessee, west virginia, southeastern ohio, pittsburgh and it's going to be raining and 31. nothing could be worse to drive on than rain and 31. i'll give you some traction. i grew up in buffalo, i can drive a car in snow, but you put ice on the ground, then some spots, put snow on top of the ice that you can't see, that's where the travel problems are going to be and that's where the travel is going to be an issue. there won't be travel issues for driving, although driving in new york city in the rain is no fun anyway but traveling the northeast, big cities will be okay. the airports will be a mess because the winds in new york city are going to blow at 40, 40 miles per hour. you're not going to get every plane in and out that you want to and those planes are so full of people, there is no place to put those stranded canceled passengers. all the seats are full. they have to wait and wait and wait. >> chad, millions of people are looking at this thinking it will be a giant travel hassle but this has been a deadly storm already. does it still have that deadly capacity as it moves east?

>> without a doubt in the appalachian mountains, pittsburgh, dubois, state college, pennsylvania. it will be an ice event and it will happen at night as well. all the travelers will travel through these warnings from ontario and quebec all the way down into even virginia. every place you see purple, there will be ice on the roadway and people will skid out of control like we saw the people in oklahoma with the car that turned over. we showed you that video because those people were buckled up and were not injured but this is going to be a lot more people traveling these roads than oklahoma city highways. >> chad myers in the severe weather center, which is much too busy this week. thanks a lot. so now this holiday stretch that already has named days like black friday and cybermonday can add terrible torrential tuesday and wicked weather wednesday to the list. in fact, many early bird holiday travelers are already feeling the pain. nearly 200 flights were canceled today out of dallas-ft. worth airport which of course is a

major hub. that's on top of almost 300 flights canceled there yesterday. we are in the middle of all this pain and thanksgiving day travel getting off to a rough start already. >> reporter: absolutely, john. it was a mess here earlier this morning with passengers showing up hoping that their flights weren't delayed or canceled. you see behind me there's very few people here. a lot of that has to do with the combined 480 cancellations you were talking about over the course of the last two days. part of that was the airlines doing a preemptive move to try to limit the amount of passengers stranded in the airports and has been

especially angry travelers here. >> travelers are always so calm and collected at airports. any sense, you say they think the worst has passed where you are. any word of cancellations tomorrow or will the cancellations be over? >> reporter: i asked the airport spokesman about that, if we can anticipate further cancellations. he says no. it could have been a lot worse here. we were expecting freezing temperatures, expecting that temperature to drop below -- well below 30 degrees. we got yesterday a slight mi mixture of light rain or sleet. officials here feel they dodged a bullet even though some passengers may be angry about missing their flights or connections. one couple i spoke to earlier was coming from mexico and had a connecting flight here. so much of what happens here has a ripple effect coast to coast but the big problem is going to be as this system moves east and

goes towards the northeast, especially towards upstate new york, where pretty close to you, john. >> we appreciate that. thanks a lot. we're bracing for it here. thank you so much. in the money lead, gas prices have been steadily dropping all fall but that appears to be over now. right before millions hit the road for thanksgiving or at least try to, with the weather. the average price for a gallon of regular rose more than three cents in the past two weeks to $3.25 per gallon but there may be an upside now, thanks to the deal cut over the weekend in geneva about iran's nuclear program. zain asher joins me now. as we all know, one of the things iran has is oil. so the question is, how might this affect gas prices? >> if you look at crude oil prices today, they are already falling on the back of this deal. earlier this year, crude oil prices reached about $110 a barrel. right now they are roughly at $94. crude oil makes up the biggest component in terms of gas prices. if you see crude oil start to

fall, you will see an impact on gas prices as well. i do want to emphasize the sanctions against iran, especially oil, remain very firmly in place. it's not as if we will see downward pressure on oil overnight. i also want to emphasize that washington has said several times that this deal doesn't necessarily mean we will see a flood of iranian oil into the markets either. also, western energy investors aren't going to be allowed into iran but it does freeze sanctions against iran further down the line. so people are hoping if rouhani sticks to his side of the agreement, eventually we might see less sanctions, perhaps possibly in a year or two, more oil supply in terms of the global market and that eventually could put downward pressure on oil prices. >> change the tenor of the markets but not the supply just yet. zain asher, thank you so much. when we come back, americans might eventually see gas prices drop after this deal with iran, at least in a couple years. but israel, not so convinced this was the right way to go, to

say the least. was the deal worth risking our friendship with our biggest ally in the middle east? plus, how hard is it to get john boehner on the phone? just ask an obama care representative who was stuck on hold for more than 30 minutes when he was trying to help the speaker sign up. stay with us. ya know, with new fedex one rate you can fill that box and pay one flat rate. i didn't know the coal thing was real. it's very real... david rivera. rivera, david. [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex.

welcome back to "the lead." i'm john berman in for jake tapper. in the world lead, some called the deal to curb iran's nuclear program an historic accomplishment. but one of america's closest allies, israel, is not among them. >> what was concluded in geneva last night, is not a historic agreement. it's a historic mistake. >> so why is the israeli prime minister so miffed? the deal demands that iran freeze its nuclear program for six months while negotiators try to hash out a longer term

agreement. in return, some $7 billion in sanctions will be temporarily lifted off iran's shoulders. israel says that it's simply too generous, today, in a tweet the prime minister reiterated his concerns, writing the agreement reduces pressure on iran without receiving anything tangible in return and the iranians themselves say the deal saved them. so now, israel wants a seat at the table and they're sort of getting it, though some say it might be a bit after the fact. an israeli team led by the country's national security advisor will soon come to the u.s. for talks over the permanent plan for iran. now i want to talk about all this with richard haas, president of the council on foreign relations. i want his reaction to this. i want to start with israel, because earlier today i had a chance to speak to a spokesman for the israeli prime minister and i asked if he really thought that today after this deal, that the world is less safe, that israel is less safe than it was a week ago. listen to what he said.

>> i think the world is less safe. that's the unfortunate reality. because this deal that was achieved over the weekend has created a situation where you've removed the pressure on iran. that pressure has been eased, the sanctions have been started to being lifted and we're concerned that without that economic pressure, the iranian regime won't make the decisions it's required to do to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. >> i'm wondering if you can respond to what mark regev said and the rhetoric from israel in general. could this deal actually go backwards? >> no. i think to give some perspective to this, this deal is neither an historic achievement, nor is it a historic mistake. it's something in between. it's an agreement of limited duration that does a few limited things. that's about it. i think in general, what it does is it relieves some, and i emphasize the word some, and a

small percentage of it, the economic pressure on iran. in return, the world gets some positive things. it gets greater access to what the iranians are up to through inspections. it puts many road blocks, if you will, on the path of modernization of their existing capabilities. it does do away with some of their capabilities but it also leaves many of them in place. so does it dismantle what the iranians have, no. could that have been negotiated. the answer to that is no as well. >> you do seem to support the deal and you think the critics are being too harsh. >> that's true. i think what the critics are doing is making two mistakes. one is they assume the alternatives were available again to have negotiated something much more ambitious, plus more important, i think you hear it in the comments made from the israeli spokesman, they're reading the worst possible case into things, assuming that all the pressure's gone, that iran is going to get out from under all the sanctions, that this is the beginning of the end of

international controls on iran's nuclear program. if that turns out to be the case, and it's possible, then the west has all sorts of options or the world has all sorts of options, including reintroducing even tougher sanctions or even using military force. it's also possible, though, in the comprehensive agreement that's meant to follow this one, the world will be able to get through negotiations and an acceptable outcome. it won't get the iranians down to zero, won't get them out of the nuclear business, but will establish a sufficiently low ceiling on what it is they're allowed to do that it should give us quite a lot of security. >> you seem to think it's worth a try. there's an expression with arbitrations and negotiations, people say you know it's successful when everyone leaves unhappy. the thing is, with this negotiation, it seems the only ones unhappy are u.s. lawmakers and israel. it's the iranians that seem thrilled. people on the streets there, according to our reporters, seem very, very happy with this. the iranian leaders are clearly very, very happy with this.

is this in and of itself indicative that the u.s. may have given up too much? >> no, i don't think so. the iranians set their goals fairly modestly and have achieved them. they are allowed to continue enriching, though they really can't increase the size of their stockpile and some parts of their stockpile have to disappear, and they got a little bit of economic relief which is obviously very important to them. but i think we got a lot of things as well. the problem is, if you hope that we were going to eliminate the problem, then yes, you're going to be disappointed. but if you think that we have made our situation better and we have, if nothing else, we have given ourselves considerably more warning time so if iran wakes up tomorrow and if the leaders decide to make a so-called dash or race to nuclear weapons, we'll probably have several more months of warning than we would have had otherwise and that again gives us all sorts of time to react. >> you have a lot of experience in the world of diplomacy. i want to ask you about

something that many people believe should have been involved with the diplomacy here. that's the american pastor, a christian being held, his family says, for his religious beliefs in iran. he apparently did not come up during the nuclear discussions, the negotiations. is that something that you believe should have come up, would it have been constructive to discuss his fate at the table in geneva? >> in any negotiation, you have to decide how much you're going to try to accomplish, and just tackling all the dimensions of the nuclear agreement is ambition enough. but there's everything from iran's treatment of its own people to individual human rights cases to what it's doing, say, in syria, to what it's doing in lebanon, its support for hamas, what it does in afghanistan. i could go on and on and on, including state support for terrorism. we've got a host of concerns that are legitimate. we just can't satisfy them in one negotiation. the most urgent is the one that this negotiation focused on which is the nuclear dimension

of iranian policy. >> it seems like a lot more talks will be going on very soon with israeli coming to the united states. richard haass, thank you so much for joining us. i appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up on "the lead," as we just talked about, the one thing missing from that deal with iran, freedom for an american pastor in prison there for the last 18 months. the question is, was he forgotten? i will speak to his wife. first, two football players have already been convicted of rape, but did school officials in steubenville, ohio know more than they admitted? we'll have all that and more. my asthma's under control.

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welcome back to "the lead." in national news, new charges of a sexual -- in a sexual assault case that captured the nation's attention not against the two steubenville, ohio high school football players convicted of rape, but against the educators that prosecutors say looked the other way. this reaches into the highest offices of the school system there. you may recall that trent mays and malik richmond were found guilty in march of raping a 16-year-old girl at a party in

august 2012. the case became infamous over social media. the public saw and heard evidence that in the past it would have really only come out during trial. now steubenville's superintendent michael mcveigh has been indicted in connection with that case on a number of counts, including tampering with evidence and obstructing justice. also charged an elementary school principal, wrestling coach and volunteer football coach. cnn legal correspondent jean casarez is standing by in steubenville. this seems like a sweeping indictment of the system, almost. >> reporter: you know, there's really three themes i would say of the charges today. first of all, the cover-up. second of all, allowing underage children to drink and contributing to the delinquency of a minor and finally for school administrators and teachers, failure to report when you suspect child abuse. now, of course, the superintendent is facing the most serious charges. they are three felonies there. the attorney general's office now says that he could face five

years in prison. you have a wrestling coach, failure to report suspected child abuse, not necessarily at the school at all. you also have a young man who was an assistant football coach who is charged with allowing underaged teens to drink. this is what we've learned from the attorney general's office. it's his parents' home, they own the home, he lived there. apparently one of the parties took place there and he witnessed it that night. we're talking august 11th and 12th, 2012. so now he's been charged with that. one of the most interesting things we found out today has to do with the school principal of the elementary school, lynnette gorman. she has been charged with failure to report suspected child abuse. but it was from april 2012 and what we're learning is that they were investigating two rapes. one that culminated in the conviction, but one that was never charged, and the school principal is the one that they said failed to report that.

i just spoke with her attorney minutes ago and he said that this is a 30 year educator, has been a principal for four years, has done mandatory reporting numerous times, and he is really, i would say, appalled at this point that she was the one that happened to be charged. yes, it's a low level misdemeanor but it could take her administration credential and teaching credential and she could lose it after 30 years of what he says is a stellar record. >> quickly, what's happening to these employees right now who are mentioned in the indictment and charged? are they being placed on leave? >> reporter: well, they went to work this morning, not knowing anything was going to happen, including the superintendent. obviously, they were given notice of the charges. they are to appear in court in december, december 6th, but the school board is meeting this afternoon to determine whether they will take paid leaves of absence until these charges are

culminated which will be in a trial. >> thank you so much for joining us. a lot of information there. still to come, she feels her imprisoned husband was forgotten during u.s. talks with iran. now she's afraid another eight years could pass before she sees him again. and the new hunger games movie filling up the seats, racking up the cash and setting a box office record. that is our pop lead. catching fire quite literally.

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welcome back to "the lead." time now for the buried lead, the stories we think have not been getting enough attention. this is a big one. while the u.s. government is celebrating the deal in iran's nuclear program, one family in idaho could not help being disappointed. sayid abadini's loved ones hoped the recent negotiations would address his captivity in iran. he's a pastor and was jailed last year on charges that his family says were related to his christian faith. he's facing eight years now away from his family. there are two other americans being detained in iran. but the negotiation made no mention, no mention of anyone's release. this thanksgiving will mark more than 18 months since the pastor has seen his family.

back on june 22nd, 2012, his wife and children dropped him off at the airport in boise, idaho, where they live. the christian pastor was headed back to iran to help start an orphanage but instead, his family says he was arrested and imprisoned. he was born in iran and converted from islam to christianity, then later moved to the united states and became a citizen. in january, he was sentenced to eight years in prison, convicted of threatening iran's national security for his involvement in christian house gatherings. so says his wife. are you concerned that he will not survive his prison sentence? >> yes. very much. every day is a battle of survival and that's why we have been fighting to get him out as soon as possible. >> we ask that you would use this for your glory. >> while his family has kept vigil, its lawyers at the american center for law and justice and u.s. lawmakers have

fought for his freedom. >> it's unacceptable for an american to be thrown in prison for preaching his christian faith. >> statements calling for his release have come from secretary of state john kerry and the white house says president obama even took up the case in a phone call with the iranian president rouhani earlier this fall. but instead of progress, the pastor's plight seems to be getting worse. earlier this month, the family learned he has been transferred to a notorious prison where they fear for his safety. and this weekend's short-term deal with iran came and went with no provisions for the pastor's release. >> we raised two issues with the iranians in our discussions with them. one is a nuclear program. the other is americans who are detained in iran. president obama raised it with president rouhani when they spoke. we have raised it at a working level on the margins of the p 5 plus 1 talks. that includes this pastor. >> ben rhodes, the deputy national security advisor at the white house, told cnn today negotiates for the pastor and other detained americans in iran

were ongoing. >> the iranians make assertions based on their own legal system. we reject those assertions that these individuals have a legal basis for being detained. it shows one thing, which is we're trying to resolve the nuclear issue which is of great concern to us but even as we are doing that, it doesn't lessen our concern about other activities of the iranian government. >> joining me to discuss this is the wife of the pastor and her lawyer from the american center for justice and law. thank you both for being with us. obviously, u.s. officials celebrating over the last few days or at least lauding this deal that has been struck, this six-month deal on nuclear weapons with iran. meanwhile, you're heading into your second holiday season where your husband is away from you, imprisoned, separated. how does this all make you feel right now? >> it's painful. you know, it came -- it's a hard blow again as the holidays approach, thanksgiving and christmas, and for a lot of

people it's a happy time of the year. for us, it's a very painful time of the year. sayid is missing from our family but not just missing, he's in this horrible, horrible prison, this new prison. he's with murderers who are on death row. we are worried about his health. he will not survive eight years if he's not -- if he doesn't get out of there immediately. >> do you have any sense of how he's doing? as you say, he has been moved to this prison you think has much worse, much more dangerous conditions. >> his family was able to see him not today, but previously last week, and he looked -- his health looked deteriorated. he looked skinnier and even from the other prison. they are very much worried about his health and his wellbeing. there is high prisoner to prisoner violence where he's at, and, you know, has a high

suicide rate and prisoner to prisoner violence and deaths, and you know, his health, obviously he hasn't been able to get the medication for his internal bleeding and so he's not doing very well. we're worried about him and to think that we're here, the kids and i, i'm a single mom now, get to sit together and celebrate thanksgiving and christmas knowing where he's at, it's very painful. my kids were crying this morning, saying that god, don't let daddy die, bring him home. it's painful to watch that. >> it's got to be so hard. president obama apparently, we're told, brought up your husband in a telephone conversation that he had with the iranian president. secretary kerry, secretary of state has lobbied on your husband's behalf for his release. what more do you think the administration could do? >> well, they did, but what did the iranian government do? on the day that they were chanting death to america, they

took sayid to a different prison. they didn't put him in a political ward. they put him in a ward where there's murderers and rapists on death row and they know there's a high violence rate there. so here they get a call and get demands from secretary of state and president obama and they do the exact opposite. they show, it's not a confidence building step. you know, our government needs t, you know, i expect them to speak out and say we asked for his release and this is horrible, what has happened. he's not going to survive even a few months in that prison. this is iran's continuous violation of human rights and here's an american citizen who is being held there because he's a christian and he needs to be released immediately. >> let me say what could have been done here. this is what has me troubled and i sent a letter to secretary of state kerry on friday. the fact of the matter is that

before the release of billions of dollars of money that we have held back for sanctions, before the release now of quote, humanitarian aid directly to the iranian government, we could have had as a precondition to this the release of sayid and the other two americans that are held as hostages in iran right now. that should have been a precondition. when you've got the head of the national security council or the deputy making the statement that this was discussed at the peripheries, at the margins, and was brought up in the staff level but not any higher is outrageous. we had the ultimate negotiating capability. the iranian sanctions that the united states government has put on the iranians have been significant enough that it brought the iranians to the table, and we blinked. the united states blinked. that's the tragedy in all this. whatever happens with the agreement, whatever one views the merits of whether the agreement was the right move for us politically or not, or geopolitically, the fact of the matter is it would have been as one person told me today, a gimme, an easy one for the

iranians to have released these americans and as cnn's own wolf blitzer said today when questioning the spokesperson for the national security council, why is it that he is not released, why was that not a precondition, why wasn't sayid abedini and the others standing next to john kerry when he announced this deal being struck, so we were across the table from the iranians and we did not bring home americans. to me, that's a tragedy and it's outrageous. >> if you could get a message to your husband who is inside prison as we speak right now, what would it be? >> hang in there. we're spending every waking moment working to get you out. the kids and i miss you and we're proud of you for standing up for what you believe and your values, but hang in there and we are going to get you out quickly. you know, i want to say this is a family torn apart.

people usually see this and it's another news story but really, it's really our family that's been torn apart and two little kids hurting every day. >> we are sorry for all of you that you are all going through this. thank you both for being with us. appreciate it. when we come back, he fought against it but now speaker john boehner is a fully insured obama care customer. so how much is he paying and how is that smoking going to affect those rates? [ male announcer ] this store knows how to handle a saturday crowd.

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welcome back to "the lead." the politics lead, and it could be rough thanksgiving at the white house. today, the administration did say it is on target to meet the self-imposed deadline to improve the health care.gov website. that target, 80% functional by the end of the month which is saturday, november 30th also marks the end of the second full month of enrollment for the affordable care act. so after all the problems with the obama care website and people losing insurance, this afternoon, could there be a new unexpected failure for obama care? a failure to fail, as it were, creating perhaps embarrassing

success for one key republican leader. look who's got obama care. that's john boehner. the once and future fully insured speaker of the house. last week, he tweeted about his experience trying to sign up for health insurance under obama care. hash tag, train wreck, he wrote. the speaker claimed it took a few hours, a few failed log-ins and some calls to the help desk. what he didn't realize was that somewhere in the middle of his for the cameras somewhat planned exercise in futility, someone from the d.c. health exchanged returned his call to help him sign up but was put on hold. >> you have reached speaker of the house john boehner's office. >> for 35 minutes. after half an hour of patriotic hold music, help gave up. so now the top republican in the land has health insurance from the law he has fought so hard. >> the law's a train wreck.

there is no way to fix this monstrosity. >> there is good news and bad news for the speaker. the bad news, when he unrolled his notes, he realized his premiums are going up. from $433 per month with a $700 deductible for the speaker and his wife, it's now $449 with a $1,000 deductible. that's just for him. mrs. boehner is going on medicare. the good news for the speaker, it could be worse. his new premiums include a $426 discount that members of congress and staffs are getting on their health insurance under obama care. the speaker is accepting that subsidy even though he once supported a republican plan to take it away. >> why don't we make sure that every american is treated just like we are. >> that sentiment apparently so october. that's not all. mr. boehner is also a famous smoker. >> i know that smoking is probably not good for my health.

>> if you bought insurance in his home state of ohio, insurance companies could have charged him up to 50% more. call it the beltway boondoggle. under obama care in washington, d.c. there is no penalty for smoking. guess those smoke-filled rooms where all that compromise happens are just too important. so i have been informed there are no more smoke-filled rooms in washington. you have to smoke outside. but you know what? there's no compromise, either, so that last joke still works. i want to bring in our panel for reaction. the founder of the political action committee democracy for america and the former governor of vermont, howard dean. and the former governor of maryland and author of "america, hope for change," bob erlich. i want to start with you, governor. the white house says healthcare.gov, the fixes are on target. the speaker even managed to get insurance last week. >> after awhile. >> after awhile. but he got it. so is this the beginning of the end of obama care being a

technical debacle? >> it's the beginning of the end of the technical debacle which is the beginning of the real substance which is going to be real problematic because sticker shock has already begun and will continue to hit hard as most of the bill kicks in over the course of the next year. i see this, it's the end of the beginning of the sort of nonstory. you can fix a website. you can fix a negligently put together website. you can't fix the bill. >> i should add by the way, there were some problems this morning. the site was down for a little bit. we just got that note here. governor dean, are you brimming with confidence that the site will work on november 30th, which is the white house self-imposed deadline, for 80%, to get an 80% success rate and is 80% in and of itself a good enough number? that means one out of five people will still fail to get insurance. >> i disagree with the governor. i actually think this is the beginning of a big victory because i think obama care is

going to work. but i do not think 80% is good enough for the website. they've got some work to do on the website. i think what they've done so far is a miracle considering the shape of the website when the new team went to work on it. i think this is going to work. i don't think this is going -- this is going to be some sticker shock. i expect the republicans to have every anecdotal piece of evidence but for the vast majority of americans, their costs are going to go down because of the tax subsidy and they will get decent health insurance. in kentucky, where this is working well because they have a state exchange, there are huge numbers of people who would never have thought of voting for barack obama who are benefiting from this health care plan. >> the problems haven't just been anecdotal. there are millions of people who have received those letters saying their insurance no longer applies, correct? >> yes, but for many of those people, the majority of those people, those were not good health care policies. there are some, of course, i have gotten letters saying what about this and there were some good health care policies. none of those policies meet the definition of under obama care

what a good health care policy is. i know a lot about this. we did this 20 years ago. we did community rating, got rid of the ability of insurance companies to kick people off because they got sick, got rid of bad policies where you would buy -- pay $50 a month and get two office visits covered and no health insurance if you went to the hospital. those are the kinds of policies that are mostly not being renewed. so of course the policies that you get will be more expensive. most of those people get the crumby policies in the first place because they're cheap. those are the people who will be eligible for a tax subsidy. when this gets straightened out, the vast majority of people who get their health care policies nonrenewed are going to get better care under obama care. >> i love the gov and we have been friends for many years, but what he just told you was the bottom line philosophical divide between the parties, because those folks who were pretty happy in the individual market, who had their health care, many young, healthy, they had the high deductible catastrophic

plans, they just didn't know enough. government knows better, trust us. that's the whole denominator with regard to obama care. the governor just said it, in fact. we know what's best for you. we know what a 25-year-old healthy male needs and you will pay big-time because this is all about redistributing income from the relatively wealthy to the relatively poor. that's all it is. >> i want to shift a little bit to iran here. but it is related to obama care. this weekend, senator john cornyn, the republican of texas, tweeted after news of this deal with iran, amazing what the white house will do to distract attention from obama care. do you agree with that? do you think the iran deal is some sort of wag the dog conspiracy to distract from obama care? is foreign policy supposed to stop until the website's perfect? >> i don't think it's a wag the dog deal, because you're not going to be able to wag the dog with how tangible this thing is. 5.3 million people canceled. the employer market about to

begin in a few months. that's when tens of millions will be hit and will be into the exchanges for a lot worse deal in many cases. but i don't believe, by the way, this is the president's wag the dog sort of thing. i think this is a lousy deal and a lot of democrats have come forward. you may actually agree on this, that what we have seen and read so far, i'm not a scientist, i'm a lawyer, guilty, but what i see in a bipartisan way when the senate leadership, senator schumer is the first one out of the box with this is a bad deal, when israel, prime minister netanyahu is this nervous already, i think the american public needs to take a long look at this supposed piece of progress. >> governor dean, last word here. >> just to quickly finish up on the health care, the nice thing about the argument we're having now, it will be settled by the american people. wecide w getting. >> that may be the first time -- let's not open the can of worms right now. governors, i appreciate you both being with us.

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welcome back to "the lead." today's pop lead, the movie that turned the norse god of thunder into a box office brides maid. the "hunger games" sequel blew everything else away, more than $161 million in its first weekend. that is the best november date ever. so you've got to fight for your right to parody. a company called goldie blocks did a send-up of the beastie boys' 1986 song "girls" for its educational products. the spoof version talks about girls [ inaudible ]. the original talked about girls. goldie blocks has sued the hip-hop legends claiming use of the song is okay. both surviving beasties are bewildered by all this.

they wrote long ago, we made a conscious decision not to permit our music and/or name to be used in product ads. when we tried to simply ask how and why our song "girls" had been used in your ad without our permission, you sued us. okay. downton abbey isn't the show for knee-slapping bathroom humor and "family guy" isn't really the place for drama and tears which makes this most recent episode so jarring. >> i think brian's trying to say something. >> you have given me a wonderful life. i love you all. >> there's no punchline there. brian the family dog got hit by a car and is gone. the show's executive producer defends the decision, saying it's less traumatic than killing off one of the kids. that's all for "the lead." i'm john berman. i turn you over to wolf blitzer in "the situation room."

happening now, storm front. severe and deadly weather making its way across the country just as 43 million americans are taking to the roads and skies for thanksgiving. what will it mean for your holiday commute? descent into madness. a new report details the final days of the sandy hook shooter. could he have been stopped? and closed door deal. has the u.s. secretly been negotiating with iran for months? what will a new deal with the former