>> we don't flow what ultimately became of this woman except she surfed serious cuts and bruises. we do know this, she's not the only one. keeping them honest, until tonight the generals in charge of egypt these days were insisting what you just saw was only an isolated incident. >> translator: here i want to mention a very important point. the armed forces and police have pledged not to use violence against protesters. physically or even verbally. >> do these troops look leak they've taken some sort of pledge of nonviolence against protesters? i mean, does beating the daylights out of defenseless people qualify as nonviolence? it's been going on for days riot police engaged in rioting of their own. keeping them honest, we'll speak with "the new york times'" david kirkpatrick no one has been investigated of charged with any misconduct. in a statement today the military supreme council said it had already taken quote all of the legal action to hole whoever is responsible accountable. as we show you she's picture consider the rest of the statement. the supreme council quote say reashoours the respect for women and right of protesting and active positive participation in political life. it regrets violations, pleural, took place over the last several days. activist mona safe knew all of that. she's been seeing it firsthand. we spoke earlier tonight. mona, this brutal video, it's hard to watch. a woman being severely beaten and dragged through the streets. people have seen it all around the world now, as you probably know. you say that egyptian authorities are specifically targeting women. is that right? >> yes. seeing in the current clashes it's part of the tactic, they are specifically targeting women, specifically beating up women, and harassing them sexually assaulting them to threaten them and also to send the signal that there are no more red line for them. what we would have thought are things they would never dare to commit are things they are now doing publicly in the middle of the street with all cameras directed at them. this is a sign it's open war between us and them. >> they're not trying to hide it you're saying. i mean, you -- we see this incident here, we're watching it right now on the monitors on tv, but i mean, is that an isolated thing? are you seeing that offcamera as well? is this happening more and more? >> i'm seeing that what you are seeing right now has happened in the past three or four days to more than one girl. on the 16th there was more than nine girls detained by the army. actually more than 20 girls detained by the army. nine hospitalized, detained for overnight in the cabinet building and they were then transferred to hospital because of the wounds and bruises they suffered from the assault, they endured because of our army. so i'm saying that this is not an isolated incident. this seems to be a conscious decision to make them reconsider joining the street protests again. >> the video again is hard to watch. people literally stomping their boots on people's bodies. up until yesterday, as you know, military authorities were claiming they haven't used violence against the egyptian people. you can decide for yourself watching the video. but today, mona, they did issue an apology and said they will investigate these incidents. what do you make of that? do you trust they're going to do this? >> no, of course, an apology -- a written apology is nothing. we have -- we have hundreds of detainees that are facing trial right now, facing prosecution right now. all of them are tortured. majority of them are minors and they were all tortured. we have officially 13 marchers so far. we have tens and hundreds of wounded. the girl you just seen is not the single case. there's another one, an older woman, who insides and tries to protect another girl and she's currently in the hospital with a hemorrhage and broken skull. so we are talking about a horrible, horrible sequence of time against all sorts of ages and gender of revolutionaries and egyptian citizens and an apology on tv and facebook is not enough. >> thanks so much. you told me earlier you're in a safe place. i hope you continue to be safe. thank you for joining us. with us now in cairo david kirkpatrick of the new york times. in new york senior fellow at stanford. welcome back. welcome back. you've seen this video of a woman brutalized, undressed partially. it was stunning to see. what's the reaction where you are inside egypt? >> you know, i think that video may have been viewed more often in the united states than it has been in egypt. it's been widely shown on the independent satellite television here, television networks here and they've proliferated since mubarak left but a lot of egyptian get their news from state television, government television, telling a very different story. portraying the protesters as paid thugs out to take down the egyptian government, egyptian buildings and assaulting egyptian soldiers. so it came as something of a surprise tonight when so many egyptian women took to the street over this -- over this image and over this story, you know? thousands, maybe even ten thousand women, carrying this picture of the woman who we don't know her name, people here call her the blue bra girl marching through the streets. it's been really a galvanizing moment i think for a lot of egyptian women. >> looking at those images now as you're talking. secretary clinton said this today, this systemic degradation of egyptian women dishonors the revolution. she said women were being targeted. based on what you're hearing and learning, is that true, do you believe? are women specifically being targeted there? >> i think they are being targeted and i think what it tells us, what we are witnessing is a mix of class and sexual violence because, remember, this recruit, the people you are watching and you described it right when you said it's the riot police having a riot of their own, charging these protesters. these recruits, these security forces, they come from the poorest of egyptian society and to them the protesters are prissy, the protesters are educate, the protesters are paid agents by foreign powers, unnamed foreign powers. so what you are witnessing is, if you will an amuss toward women and the protests and of this young recruits who are poor, who are very poorly paid, very poorly trained and i think it's a reckoning time for feel marshall the great oz hiding behind the curtain he must come out and own up to this violence. >> professor, some of this is disheartening to hear especially after all we saw this spring. there seemed to be a hope that the revolts of the arab spring would hold governments more accountable but also broaden social reforms. is that goal realistic with all that we're seeing now? >> these were 18 magical days. we remember them. 18 days in liberation square tahrir square, in a way the promise of the arab spring is alive. we're not witnessing the violence of the arab spring. we're witnessing the violence of the security forces, trains, nurtures by the mubarak regime, by the field marshall, when people look at events now, they say democracy is failing. this liberty, the new liberty's failing. no it's the instruments of repression of the old regime that are failing. >> david, i mean, as you hear all of that, and you put together events of last couple of days, we heard a general of the ruling military council at first denying there was any violence against protesters. today that same general expressing great regret for attacks on women, promiing to punish assailants. this some indication that change is possible? >> well, i think it is. whenever you see in a world of martial law, when you see the ruling military council bend the way they did tonight, cough up that apology while the women were in the street you know they got some kind of power. i have to say over the last few weeks we've seen the military council increasingly move to try to carve out for itself perm political powers and autonomy in the coming egyptian constitution. they want to hold on to power, perhaps behind a civil mask. for a while, i thought they were going to get away with it. it's been a violent few weeks here but it's really also made me question whether the egyptian people are willing to go along with that. i think what we're seeing is a very meaningful resistance to that plan, and really strong back and forth between the military council that done really want to go so fast and a lot of egyptians who are just as eager for democracy as they seem to be in february. >> professor, does the united states, do you believe, have a role here, given the extent of the violence that we're witnessing here? >> well, we have a role. we're invested in the egyptian, in egypt, in the egyptian regime, invested in the officer class who run this country because you do have an officer class, really kind of a ruling cast and they wish to as david kirkpatrick says they're not willing to relinquish power. we have ties to officer, there is $1.3 billioned a to the corps about we were implicated in some of this i think. i think we should speak out, as our secretary of state has spoken out, it's the proper thing to do. >> i mean you're hearing a lot of people speaking out but still what happens next remains to be seen. there's elections coming up in a month from now. we'll keep on top of that. professor, as always, thank you. david, please stay safe out there as well. and at home, let us know what you any, we're on facebook, google plus, follow me on twitter. i'll be tweeting throughout the night. next, house republicans block tax cuts and not only is the president upset at this move, so is john mccain. we'll explain what happened, what it means for your paycheck. also, what some republicans think it might mean for the overall gop brand. later, fascinating, series on junk science in court and potentially innocent people who could be doing time because of it. >> based on the evidence heard in this trial are you comfortable saying that mr. hornek is guilty of murder? >> i'm not, no. >> that's coming up. >> sanjay, i'm not going to sing it because frankly there's nothing festive about it but the weather outside really is frightful. in fact, it's beyond that. try dangerous. even deadly. we'll show you where this massive winter storm is hitting and where it's heading. that and much more when "360" continues. 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>> reporter: you wouldn't know this from public bravado, talking to members in both parties, particularly republicans in the hallways today, there concern, there's no question about it especially throws who have been around here for a long time, even the new members who really want to make a stand on things like this. that's they're saying they are concerned. this is something that's different. this is a pocketbook issue. as you mentioned at the top of the show, the segment, affects people's pocketbooks. people making $50,000 a year will see $1,000 sliced out of their paycheck. that makes a difference. >> especially this time of year. dana bash, thanks so much. to that point, there is new polling out today suggesting that tax battle is hurting republicans and helping the president. take a look at this. by 50-31% margin, people have more confidence in mr. obama than in congressional republicans to handle the major issues facing the country. the survey shows mr. obama's job approval at 49%, which is up 5 points from last month. disapproval number, 48%, is down 6 points. to be clear, they're not stellar numbers going into a re-election campaign, not by any means but it is something to ask our political panel. ari fleischer and democratic strategist paul begala. thanks for joining us. paul, let me start with you, december 20th, five days before christmas, are you surprised the way this is playing out the payroll tax cut debate? >> i think we've seen this coming all year. go back to the spring, republicans were flirting with the government shutdown. they wanted to shut down the government. in the summer they flirted with defaulting on the national debt, something we haven't done in 200 years. forgive me if i see a pattern here. there's pretty good evidence that the republicans seem to be willing to tank the economy in order to hurt the president politically. of course you tank the economy by hurting the middle class. i don't think it's going to work. i don't think it's good politics or economics but i think that's what they're doing. >> ari, i can't imagine you agree with all of that. before you respond, i want to play a clip of how senator mccain characterized the fight over the payroll tax extension on "the situation room" with wolf blitzer. take a listen. it is harming the republican party. it is harming the view if it's possible, anymore of the american people about congress. >> so do you agree with that assessment, ari? >> i disagree with john mccain and paul begala. the senate has turned into a killing ground of all good things in washington, d.c. they haven't passed a budge net two years and now instead of doing what has always been done, passing tax cuts that last a year, which is the way tax cuts work, they pass something that never happened before, a two-month tax cut which makes no sense. why? the senate couldn't figure out how to pass anything more meaningful so they did what they always do, rubbed each other's backs, did something meaningless, called it a day and the senate left town. now the house has calls the senate's bluff. nobody like to see this distribute happening in washington, d.c. from a pure policy point of view, what the house passed is superior to what the senate has done, much more serious, much more substantive. politically, risky, yes. but it is the sounder, better approach, of the two approaches. >> isn't it significant to you, in the senate, talking about a vote 89-10, both parties agreeing, at least voting on this particular proposal, in the affirmative. 89-10, that -- isn't that significant in terms -- >> no. it's exactly the sign of what's wrong with the senate. they couldn't get their act together to pass anything meaningful to last a year. they give up, let's get together, pass a bad policy and they all got together to pass a two of month extension. this is meaningless. we'll be back two months later with the same argument. the other thing, too, the senate's walked away from the table. always when there's a disagreement between the house and the senate on how to pass legislation, which is typical, happens in every congress, they meet in the conference committee to work things out. the senate's refused to meet in the committee and barack obama won't call the democrats to meet in the conference committee. this in is an abdication. this is bad policy. >> people have serious sort of opinions on what's going on, what's driving it. paul i want to play another clip. what david axelrod told fox news. >> you have to wonder whether some folks over there think somehow screwing up the economy, throwing a wrench in the works is a good political strategy for them, if they can slow the recovery down, if they can -- if they can cause a half million or delay a million jobs that that will hurt the president. >> do you think, do you agree, paul, this is an intentional republican strategy to try to hurt the president? >> if we look at what they do, i think the answer has to be yes. if you look at what they have said. it been their stated policy for quite some time. the senate minority leader, the republican leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell, he said, let me get it exactly right, the single most important thing we want to achieve is for president obama to be a one-term president. single most important. when speaker boehner was told his economic ideas would cause lay-off his said, i quote, so be it. a dozen or more prominent republicans wrote a letter to ben bernanke, chairman of the federal reserve, threatening him if he stimulated the economy. the letter said that they didn't want him to do anything more to stimulate the economy. so it just -- i could go on and on. of course they're profit and buddha, rush limbaugh began the presidency saying he hopes president obama fails. forgive me if elook at this economic sabotage that the republicans have been committing now for quite sometime and think they have a strategy here. >> if you want to do something fool herb to hurt the economy, pass a two-month tax cut. a two-month tax cut is bad economics, bad planning, bad policy, bad for decision making. it's economically meaningless. that's what senate has decided to get together and do. and that's why house republicans are a much higher substantive ground. they're trying to pass a one-ier tax cut for $1,000 and what the senate passed is $150 to $175 tax cut. that's nothing. that won't stimulate anything. the only thing that stimulates is the senate getting out of town. >> so what happens? you've got 11 days left before the