understanding rely as i'm told saying essentially that he knows the vice president is speaking from the heart. you can imagine that conversation. and in addition, the vice president's office has put out an official statement which fits inside a twitter response. the president has been a leader on this issue from day one. the vice president never intended to distract from that. fewer than 140 characters, john. >> keep it short. when you are going to apologize, keep it short. in the sense that the president has been through this before where the vice president's tongue gets out ahead of the brain sometimes. assess where we are now, the fallout. did the president say apology accepted? what about the political team? >> this is one of the instances where sometimes the president is more forgiving than the president's aides sometimes. i think the staff has been somewhat bent out of shape because there was a thinking of a plan and a timeline. there was an intention to roll this out ahead of the democratic convention. the vice president's remarks got them ahead of that. so, it didn't throw something out there that was never going to happen. it didn't force the president to do something he never intended to do. it just forced the timeline up. in the end, alls well, as the president said, that ends well. this is not going to be a permanent rift. it is a temporary, if not deep, announce. it will end. the vice president is hitting the campaign trail next week to ohio, a key state. he is not really in the doghouse, john. >> they will be watching him closely. i bet they will be. our chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin. gloria is with me. the president sort of hinted that he wasn't so happy. let's put it that way. he did this abc interview with robin roberts. they did a walking interview outside the oval office. >> i had already made a decision that we were probably going to take this decision before the election and before the convention. it probably got out a little bit over its skis but out of generosity of spirit. >> i like that, a little bit out over his skis. that's a polite way to put it. you know, joe. he always does that. >> lasting damage? it is a big issue. i think these two men really like each other. i think the president values joe biden's advice. he values his candor, which you don't often get when you are president of the united states. i think joe biden has has a real adjustment. he was used to be the master of his own universe in the united states senate. senior senator, staff around him. he spoke for one person. that was joe biden. he had to learn. he is learning it the hard way. when he speaks, people believe he is also speaking for the president of the united states. normally, the president should go first and then joe biden should follow. that's something that i think has been a really difficult adjustment. >> it has been more than three years. you would think he would have that more figured out by now. >> people learn slowly. >> stay with me for a second. tonight's second dispute is between the president and republican rival, mitt romney. speaking to abc, the president ridiculed romney's recent suggestion that he, governor romney, deserves some credit for the auto industry's rebound. >> i think this is one of his etch-a-sketch moments. i don't think anybody takes that seriously. people remember his position, which was, let's let detroit go bankrupt. >> but, just a short time ago, governor romney stood his ground. >> this was back when george bush was president. i said, don't write them a check. they need to go through a managed bankruptcy. they have to get rid of the excess cost of the uaw and other excess costs and then the government can help support. don't write them a check. the head of the uaw, he said, that's absolutely wrong. these companies can go through bankruptcy. it would never work. you know what, that's finally what happened. the president finally came around. they went through a managed bankruptcy and they are back on their feet. >> can he win this argument? a new poll in ohio, a dead heat. a lot of auto workers in ohio. can romney win this argument or does he need to have a draw? >> he can't win the argument on the auto bailout in particular. if he wants to make the argument the jobs haven't been created well enough, those are arguments he can win. the question of the auto bailout, however, i think is a very, very difficult case for him to make. i think he ought to get off of it, because it is too easy for president obama to say, wait a minute. you folks were all against the auto bailout. i was the one who put myself on the line for it. i think it strains cred due lit. i don't think it works for mitt romney. he needs to get on to talking about his economic message. >> a lot of obama will be spent on t vfv ads. new leaked details concerning the agent that foiled the latest al qaeda plot to bomb a u.s.-bound airliner. they are hurting efforts to discover more about the terrorist intentions. >> so you think just so i understand, you think that the leak made now exposed this particular informant, the person who carried the bomb out? had the leak not happened, that person might have been able to try it again? >> correct. that's right. >> let's bring in fran townsend. fran, you heard senator lieberman. he said, you think if this word didn't leak, this guy could have gone back in? how does the mole go back? >> well, john. i think there is sort of a misconception here. when you have a deepen trags or a double agent like this, it is not as though you send him in and don't talk to him. this is somebody. i can't go into the details of how. it is someone with whom you communicate pretty regularly. you want to get ongoing information from him and you want to give him direction, things that you want him to do. so there would have been ongoing communication. you then have this big event. he gets his hands on the potential bomb. he is going to get it out. so you want to know, can we send him back in? well, you would have developed what's called a cover story. he would have said something along the lines of, i don't know what the cover plan was in this case but he would have said something like, i want to cross the border to go into country "x." they were doing physical searches so i had to dump it. what he really did is went into country "x" and handed it over to the cia or some foreign intelligence service. you then, if it hadn't been revealed, would have sent him back in. that would have been very difficult and sensitive time. you would have been very alert to see if people were suspicious of him. you would have sent him back in to try and find out whether or not there were other potential suicide bombers and whether or not there were other devices. when this case became public, especially when it became public, the fbi had their hands on the device, there is no evidence that it was a cover story. you have to get everybody out and do it quickly, called an ex filtration, to get them out of harm's way. there is a substantial loss to the investigation. that's why you hear congressmen and senators very angry about it. >> what's the impact of losing this valuable source? do you even know? >> you don't know. you don't know how long he could have been in there. the likelihood is, john, in all experience, that he wouldn't have been able to remain in country much longer. the questions he may have been able to answer if he had gone back, how did they reablhe reac loss of the bomb? that sort of thing, he might have been able to get that national detail. >> thanks so much for your help. a new low today in syria. the worst violence since the uprising began. the bloody reminder of the failure of the cease-fire agreement. two suicide car bombs erupted killing at least 55 people, nearly 400 more wounded. those chunks of metal, barely recognizable. the power of the 2200 pounds of explosives used. the regime blames the rebels. more evidence of the crumbling peace plan. one u.n. source tells us that syrian president has invited him back to damascus and he is reportedly thinking about it. why would you think about it? either go or call the whole deal off. an unflattering portrait of mitt romney in high school. he denied one particular incident was homophobic. those grading him an u.s. energy secretary. >> i think the president is on his way to a comprehensive energy policy. we could use a little help from the congress. 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[ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ helping you do what you do... even better. (sfx: car garage sounds) today my journey brings me to charlotte, north carolina, where i spent the day with geico driver casey mears. i told him the secret to saving money on car insurance. he told me the secret to his car setup. first he adjusts... first he adjusts... (sfx:engine revving drowns out gecko's dialogue) then he... then he... fx:loud drilling noise continues to drown out gecko's dialogue) then he... .and a quarter cup of neapple juice. or was that the secret to his barbecue sauce? hey, "secret" sauce. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. your pain at the pump is eased a bit in these days. let's focus on energy as we continue our focus on the major promi promises candidate obama made in 2008. this was a big one. the president promised to end our u.s. need from imported oil from unreliable and politically distasteful sources. >> as president, i will put the full resources the federal government and the full energy of the private sector behind a single, overarching goal. in ten years, we are going to eliminate the need for oil from the entire middle east and venezuela. >> that's one big promise candidate obama also promised to lower green louse gas emissions using an approach known as cap and trade, tough limits on those emissions. >> as president, i will set a hard cap on all carbon emissions at a level that scientists say is necessary to curb global warming. to ensure this isn't just talk, i will also commit to interim targets towards this goal. in 2020, 2030, and 2040. >> candidate obama also promised this, a green jobs revolution. >> i will invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy. wind power, solar power. an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced. >> the question now, in the re-election campaign, has he kept those promises. since he said ten years, with he would have to say in the works to be fair when it comes to ending all oil imports. it is a work in progress. pretty hard to see that happening. the president did say within ten years. we will say within the works. we would have to say broken promise when it comes to the cap and trade. democrats controlled congress for the first two years. they did not enact cap and trade. became a lost cause once republicans took control of the house. since the president's timeline was ten years, we would have to say in the works is the verdict when it comes to creating 5 million green jobs. stimulus programs have failed to produce as many jobs as supporters even in the white house had hoped. the president's critics say his approach has failed. the president insists when it comes to energy, he is on the right track. >> as long as i am president, we will not walk away from the promise of clean energy. we are calling on all of the above energy strategy. all of the above. a strategy that relies on producing more oil and gas here in america but also more biofuels, more fuel-efficient cars, more wind power and, as you can see, a whole lot more solar power. >> let's assess the president's record on enj i as we head into the re-election campaign with the former energy secretary and former governor, bill richardson and bill talent. >> i want to start with you, governor richardson. the president said within ten years, no more oil from the middle east or venezuela, because we don't like the chavez government. is that at all a realistic goal? >> it is a realistic goal. there has been substantial progress, john. the president has lowered our dependence on oil imports, under 50% for the first time when i was energy secretary. we were close to 61.1 billion barrels a day less. he has implemented fuel economy standards, double that, which is going to reduce our addiction to imported oil. green energy jobs. he has doubled solar wind, biofuels since 2008. which is going to be another step forward. he has created thousands of new green jobs from the stimulus in my state, which is an energy state, an oil and gas state, renewable energy state. thousands of new jobs were created. i think the president is on his way to a comprehensive energy policy. we could use a little help from the congress. the congress has not passed climate change legislation, the renewable portfolio standard mandating a certain percentage by every state to have clean energy. we could use a little bipartisan help. >> governor richardson says the president is right. anything he hasn't accomplished is the congress's fault. >> jim talent. >> i know he thinks it is a shame congress haven't given him everything he wanted. they did give him too much of what he wanted the first two years. yes, the press wants cap and trade. his cap and trade plan would skyrocket electricity prices. he talks about all of the above but it is really none of the above, john. the administration's energy policies have suppressed energy. production of oil on federal lands is down. the only reason we are importing less is the economy is off. that's like saying, you know, a sick person can save on their food budget because they don't eat so much. that is not the way you ought to do it. what we need to do and what governor romney wants to do is to produce the energy this nation needs to grow and create jobs. without prosperity, we can't do anything. we need to streamline permitting and leasing, not stone walling it, we need to build the keystone pipeline, which the president stopped. we need to stream light permitting of nuclear power plants and open up offshore lands for exploration. it would be nice if we had a survey so we knew how much oil and natural gas we have in domestic land. the president's policies have been suppressing the production of energy, not creating it. >> what governor romney wants to do is keep the subsidies for big oil, $4 billion a year. the president is all of the above, renewable energy, natural gas, biofuels, biodiesel, nuclear. you are right. the president is ready to proceed with nuclear power plants so long as they are safe. natural gas, he has just put forth a very sense i believe fracking policy that says we are going to do natural gas and fracking. we are going to be careful about protecting the environment, making sure chemicals are disclosed, that we protect groundwater and find ways to make sure there is no leakage. this is a president who has committed an awful lot on a comprehensive energy pol sichlt he wants a little help from the congress and wants to have a debate on this issue with governor romney who just says, no, no, no on every alternative. >> you hear the governor, senator. jim? >> look, john, the production of oil is up because the production on private lands is up. the production on federally controlled lands is down. leasing is down. permitting is down. those are the administration's numbers, not governor romney's. in the stimulus package, this he had $60 million in grants. grants to companies like solyndra, evergreen solar, that have gone bankrupt. $400 million for basic research that will produce the technological breakthroughs we need. that's what governor romney wants to do. we c we need a policy and can get it on a bipartisan basis where we are producing and not suppressing the energy we have. then, we will have job growth. we can create millions of jobs in the energy industry. bill mentioned green jobs. when the administration counts the number of green jobs it has created, it includes, for example, people working in the mass transit sector. it includes bus drivers and people working in wastewater treatment. those aren't green energy jobs. those are, they say, since it is mass transit, it has to be green. it is not a green energy job. those are the figures that are incorrect. >> senator talent, governor richardson, we appreciate you coming in. this is president obama's report card. we will get to governor romney's as well. thanks for your time. >> ahead here, remember those calls to boycott arizona after it passed a tough immigration law. now, some democrats say the party should move out of north carolina, because that state just adopted a very tough ban, not only on same-sex marriages but also civil unions. we will talk to the mayor who will serve as the civil chairman. the renewal of an ancient tradition in this summer's game. . ...protect water - through conservation and self-contained recycling systems... ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... that's smarter power today. with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing skin or eyes. tell your doctor about all your medicines, including those for migraine and while on cymbalta, call right away if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles or serious allergic skin reactions like blisters, peeling rash, hives, or mouth sores to address possible life-threatening conditions. talk about your alcohol use, liver disease and before you reduce or stop cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. ask your doctor about cymbalta. imagine you with less pain. cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer. welcome back. here is kate bolduan with the latest news you need to know right now. hello. >> hello, john. hello, everyone. let's get you caught up. here is something you haven't heard in more than three years. washington made more money than it paid out that month. that's right. there was a monthly budget surplus of $59 in april, the last time the federal government was in