and the emotional moment everybody is still talking about. tonight, the astonishing, unexpected return of gabby giffords. i'll ask her best friend in congress what's next. >> gabby melted everybody's heart last night. >> and glenn beck said he also could be assassinated because of what he wrote in his last book. so what's he written now? i'll ask him. this is "piers morgan tonight." good evening. president obama signs the debt deal. the country dodges a bullet avoiding the frightening specter of a national default. so why is nobody in washington or wall street or anywhere else for that matter happy about all of this? has battle made compromise a dirty word on capitol hill? here to explain, john king. john, i've never it seen a more miserable reaction from almost everybody in the world to what is supposed to be a good deal. >> well, piers, i like to use the goldy locks rule of politics. is it too hot, too cold or just right? we have this compromise. is it just right because nobody loves it or is it just awful? i think that's the question going forward. on the left in american politics, they think it cuts too much already and they're worried the super committee will touch medicare and social security and they're mad president obama didn't get a tax hike. on the right, they're worried it will cut defense more and they're worried there's a door open to tax increases. nobody loves it. everybody calls it a down payment. what it does do is what you said. the president who lives in this house will not be the first american president to have his country go into default. we'll have another round of this defwait over taxes and spending and role of government with the super committee first and then in the 2012 election campaign, make no mistake, this issue is not dying down. >> no. in it terms of the politics here, the real winners appear to be the tea party. who else do you think can come out of this genuinely feeling it's been a good period of for them? >> in an odd way, the president of the united states wins even though he loses. when i say loses, remember he said he wanted $4 trillion over ten years. he got a little more than half that. he wanted this one installment. he'll have to do two, the second one comes through the super committee. he said it has to be balanced, by that the president means tax increases. he didn't get them in the first sweep. no guarantee tax increases will be in the second. he did not get what he said he wanted setting into this. in fact, what he signed he described pretty much as unfair just a week or so ago. yet he does not default. he's not the president who gets that stain. and look at all the other economic data, unemployment, consumer spending down, confidence down. the last thing this president needs as a candidate for reelection is another piece of turmoil in a fragile recovery. the president wins even though he loses a bit. mitch mcconnell is the guy who came through the last minute through the back door negotiated this deal first with the vice president, then the president. he's feeling pretty good about it. >> the president said an interesting thing today. he said the voter hes may have chosen divided government but they sure didn't vote the dysfunctional government. there is this rising sense, although they've been pretty victorious through this period, the tea party, they haven't done it in the conventional washington way and they've attacked the very fabric, if you like, the way government is done in america. >> and they've it done it that on purpose. i've seen you going at it with them over the past few nights and some of them don't answer the questions the way we expect because they're not traditional politicians. they view it as a democratic president who doesn't want them to do what they want. they it don't like much of their republican leadership because they view them as establishment deal makers. in their view, they got us into this mess. and they view they won the last election in the united states so they believe, maybe public opinion has changed, the spub on their side. and here's the wild part. it it's not often in washington you meet a politician who says, i don't care if i lose the next election. most of these guys actually seem they mean it when they say it. they're willing to do battle on the spnd spending issue. if you go back to their campaign ads in 2010, this is where they said they would draw the line. it makes for very interesting politics. there's no doubt the conversation, the tone in washington, it's not about a health care plan with the government intervention anymore. it it's not about government spending to stimulate the economy. it's about shrinking the government, cutting taxes, less government involvement. you have to declare at least in the short term as a tactical victory for the tea party. >> john king, thank you very much. >> thank you, my friend. >> has the ugly debt battle already done serious damage to the country's economy? my next guest says a firm yes, the ceo of pi many mco, the markets reacted very unfavorably to the deal today, continued to tank after a very long hard week. what's your assessment of where we are with this deal? >> it's very simple, piers. both the deal and the one after the deal are sufficient that we are worse off today than we are before. we're worse off in economic outlook, growth lower, unemployment higher. and ironically we're worse off in terms of medium term fiscal solvency because we haven't done much to the debt but we're undermining our ability to grow out of the debt. that's why the ratings agencies are keeping us on watch, on negative outlook. everybody knows at the end of the day we actually haven't improved things but made them worse. >> also, given the nature of the global economy now, this is not just america's problem, is it? you've seen very worried people in places like china saying this process we've been through in america to try to get to where they've gotten and the results not satisfactory, but the process alone has been doing untold damage to the global economy, this uncertainty is very damaging. >> it it is. you know, the global economy, piers, is built on the assumption that the core, which is the united states is strong, has good economic governance and knows what it's doing, and what we have shown to the rest of the world is we have weak economic governance, political squabbles and even when we get something done, we don't get it done properly. so the rest of the world is saying, wait a minute, this was a self-inflicted crisis, and you couldn't get your hands around it. what about all of the other economic chal evens you face? so what you're seeing are countries nervous that they are part of a system that assumes that the u.s. is a aaa and the u.s. today is not behaving like a aaa. >> moody's have just come out and said the aaa rating remains but they have a negative outlooking. not that encouraging, is it? >> no. a negative outlook means there's a possibility of a downgrade. s&p has taken a further step. they have put the u.s. on negative watch. a negative watch means that they will downgrade the u.s. unless good things happen. so the market is very nervous about what &p is going to say. they expect it to say something in the next few days. >> and we've got job reports coming on friday. if they are negative, if they've goon gone down again or unemployment has gone up, what kind reaction could we see from the markets to that? >> if the unemployment number comes in weak, this will supplement already some horrible data. so last week we got some very bad gdp numbers. we got bad manufacturing numbers. we got bad consumer numbers. if we get also bad employment numbers, markets are going to get very nervous and the sell-off will continue. we need to stabilize it. and at some point people are going to look to washington and say, what can you do? and there's a fear that washington can running out of bullets. >> mohammed, as always, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> the other big story, of course, is the extraordinary return of gabby giffords, congresswoman debbie wasserman-shultz was by her side last night for the remarkable scenes. she joins me along with congresswoman giffords' chief of staff. let me start with you, debbie wasserman-shultz. quite a remarkable thing to watch. no one was expecting it. everyone kept it very quiet. then the whole house erupted. what was it like for you to be with the congresswoman? >> well, it's always wonderful to be with gabby no matter what opportunity you have to spend timeme with her. and the chance to help her triumphantly walk back into that chamber and see the electricfication of the floor erupt as you said. members weeping, tears of joy. just the exhilaration that ran through people, you know, this was a time of a lot of tension of frozen hearts. and gabby giffords melted even the most frozen heart in that chamber yesterday. it was amaiszing. >> it was. and it was pretty ironic, of course, given the extreme partisan nature of this debate for the last few weeks an the general sense of washington losing its marbles that suddenly you had in this one frail recovering woman you had a moment of real unity that brought everyone together and perhaps -- i say perhaps, let give them the benefit of the doubt -- made everyone realized priority in life. >> gabby showed all of us, reminded all of us, where our priorities should be. hers are well placed. she wanted to make sure she came back to washington, if she needed to be the pivotal vote that decided whether we were going to default or not, she was going to make sure the country didn't default. and then she decided she should come to washington and on what is likely the most important vote we'll cast this whole congress her constituents have their representative's voice there. it was remarkable, from a remarkable woman. >> pia corazon, you obviously know the congresswoman very well. you're her chief of staff. what a day for all of you, i would have thought, yesterday. >> oh, it was. it it was incredible. i mean, you know, it was a moment we had all been thinking about, praying for, hoping for. but we weren't really sure when that day would come, and yesterday was a moment i'll never forget. you know, gabby was really proud to be able to make her way back for this important vote. >> it's probably very easy for us all to assume that she's perfectly okay again, given the remarkable resilience she showed yesterday. but that's clearly not the case. how would you describe her condition at the moment? >> well, she's in this rehab program for a reason. she was seriously injured less than seven months ago. but her progress to date has been remarkable, and her doctors continue to feel very optimistic about the next couple of months and what her -- the future holds for her. but she's still going to her therapy program all day, five days a week. it's as busy a schedule as most working folks. and she at the end will hopefully be in a very good place, a place that allows her to enjoy her life in the fullest extent. but where she's at now, she's come a long way, well enough she's able to understand everything. her speech is getting better. her physical therapy has greatly improved her ability to walk on her own. we feel very good about where she's at. >> debbie, let me ask you, what was her reaction afterwards? what did she say to you? >> well, on the way in and the way out, she just was emotional. it it was clear she was overwhelmed by the outpouring of affection from her colleagues. she definitely was thrilled to be back in the chamber casting a vote and being in the midst of what she loves the most, which is public service. besides mark, her husband. it was incredible. >> it's funny you mention that. i have just gotten a tweet from mark. i'll read it to you. gabby, i'm so proud of you for everything you've done and continue to do to make this country a better place. and there's a hash tag lucky husband. >> that's right. their love story is just incredible. you know, our families are very close and have spent lots of time together. they're an amazing couple, and we are all thrilled that gabby has made this remarkable progress with mark by her side. without the strength of a husband like him, it would be even tougher. she's very fortunate. and her constituents, piers. think about this. gabby knew how important it was to make sure that her stwentss in arizona 8 were represented on this decisive vote, and this they are quite fortunate. it's clear that they made the right choice in sending gabby to be their voice. >> pia, let me come back to you. i remember being on a flight to los angeles and reading as a fact that gabby giffords had been killed. that was what the media first thought. here we are seven months later. she's made this astonishing recovery. frankly, if the american public were voting late last night for their next president, i would imagine she'd win by a landslide. so what is her political aspiration now? >> well, you know, that's flattering of you to say, but, you know, for gabby it's day by day right now. she's focused on what she's got ahead of her tomorrow and next week. and the decisions about 2012 and her political future are just -- we're not there yet. they will come at some point, but it's not now. at this point, we're all fortunate to have her still with us and doing as well as she's doing. so i think a lot of people are asking and wondering, but she's not ready to make that decision yet. >> well, if you could just both just on behalf of all of us thank her for what happened yesterday, congratulate her and i think also salute the congresswoman gabby giffords for bringing a bit of humanity back to a place that had been severely lacking it it for quite a while. >> badly needed. we'll do that for sure. >> absolutely. >> thank you both very much. >> thanks. >> thank you, piers. senate majority leader harry reid today called the tea party's influence unfair to the american people. coming up, i'll talk to the people who started it all. not many winners in washington after this debt deal, but the tea p party has come out on top. joining me are co-founders of the toe party patriots. let me start with you perhaps mark meckler. is this the tea party's finest hour? >> you know, i think the finest hour it actually took place in 2009 when the tea party started and the uprising began. but i think it's showed the movement has progressed, we've matured and we're a political force to be reckoned with. >> jenny, part of the problem here is although the tea party has clearly had a good few week politically, no one can really seem to decide if you've been heroes orrvillens in the way you've handled the political process. >> we're working to empower citizen-driven government and we're doing that, whether we're the heroes or villains, it's crazy to ask that question about citizens concerned about our economic future. we're about to be -- after this money is spent that was just approved today -- $17 trillion in it debt in the next two years. who wouldn't be asking their politicians if this is the appropriate next step to take? >> but my problem, i guess, mark meckler, is that it's very easy to run into government on a ticker that we want to cut spending. obviously everyone will nod and say, that's a good idea. it's a bit like saying i want to put all terrorists in prison. the problem comes when you actually have to govern a country and you can't do it, i would argue, with the kind of very extreme behavior the tea party has shown this week, where you basically shove the president into a corner, threaten him with all sorts if he doesn't do a deal, then as you take on your own party and embarrass the speaker in the process. >> well, piers, you consider it extreme behavior. what we consider extreme behavior is the fact that congress can't cut any spending. let's look at the reality. here the gao, general accounting office, over six months ago came out with a list of hundreds of duplicative programs, billions of dollars of spending that a nonpartisan entity says is an absolute waste of taxpayer dollars. we haven't cut one penny of that spending. when you look at the extremes, the extremes are practiced today in our congress and by our president who can't seem to find a single dollar to cut from the current budget. that's extreme. >> jenny beth martin, you've been called hobbits and terrorists by the other side. do you feel you're either of those things? >> i think it's crazy that the other side calls us so many names. we've been called names from the very beginning so we're used to it. but to go to the extreme that the vice president is saying that we're terrorists or at least hearing that we are and saying, no, these are just american citizens who are expressing their first amendment rights, it really ratchets up the tone in washington and it's not what we're looking for. just after gabby giffords' shooting they said that we needed to have a new tone and needed civility in washington, calling american citizens terrorists is not civil. >> i mean, the other side in in relation to the hobbit claim was, of course, the republican senator john mccain, who is also opposed to you. so you have this division within your own party, don't you? >> to say it's within our own party is incorrect. we're not part of either party. we are standing up for the american people. we don't care whether it's democrats who want to stand up for fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limiting government or free markets or republicans. we just want elected officials to do that regardless of party. so yes we're making republicans angry, we're making democrats angry. but we must be doing something a little bit right because we certainly have their attention right now. >> you certainly do. let me come back to you, mark meckler. it's an interesting point. if what your colleague just said is true, then is the ideology of the tea party that you don't really care if there's a republican or democrat president? and could we see a scenario potentially following that argument where you would support barack obama in the next election? >> well, that is a fact. we don't care whether the president is a democrat or republican. we don't care whether any elected official is a democrat or republican. we care whether they stand for fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and the principles of the free market, the things that have made this country the greatest country on earth. those are the things we care about. would we support barack obama's reelection? right now, i can't see any scenario under which he stands for those three things. right now he stands for bigger government, spending, fiscal irresponsible, a disregard of the constitution, and he certainly is no supporter currently of free market principles. so if if he made a stunning reverse, anything's possible, but right now i don't see that happening. >> jenny beth martin, you talked there about your despair at the angry rhetoric of the republicans and democrats in all this process. but let's face it, people like sarah palin and michele bachmann are not shy about coming out with sharp rhetoric, are they? so it's a two-way street, this. >> it is. and we understand that. but it's time for people to stop throwing names, quit worrying about whose team tear on, republican, democrat, congress, the white house. it's time to stand up for the american people. our country is so deeply in debt that we're in a precarious situation right now and it's time to pay attention to that and quit the name-calling and focus on the problem at hand. >> jenny beth martin, mark meckler, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. coming up, i'll ask a former majority leader how he would be feeling right now if he were john boeh is. it is the bruising debt battle a sign of what's to come in washington