>> carmen electra is coming up on our show. >> she is a great actress and has a wonderful body. >> i thought they were kidding that, i'm thinking guilty. viewpoint is next. ♪ >> good evening. i am eliot spitzer and this is "viewpoint." president obama and mitt romney took their battle to ohio today. the president tried to hit the reset button on his campaign with a tough speech that contrasted his vision for the economy with the g.o.p.'s. romney tried to freeze the president in place with a withering response that attacked mr. obama's performance in. mr. romney was saying: you haven't. >> he has been president for three and a half years, and talk

it cheap. action speaks very loud. and if you want to see the results of his economic policies look around ohio. look around the country. you will see a lot of people are hurting, and the policies the president put in place did not make america create more jobs. but. >> but are voters blaming president obama? according to the latest gallup poll 68% think his predecessor, president george w. bush bears responsibility for the economy compared to 52% who blame mr. obama. independent voters also blame bush more than obama by 67 to 51%. mr. romney added to the blame game today with a new web video that hammered mr. obama for a uniquely brutal gaffe last week. ♪ >> the private sector is doing fine. >> mr. obama proved once again a

bit of self deposit prec indication is the best response. >> there will be no shortage of gaffes and contro verse ease that keeps both campaigns busy and gives writers something to write about. i made my unique contribution to that process. >> that's us he is referring to. the president got back down to business defining romney's views on the economy as little more than a rehash of george w. bush's failures. >> governor romney believes deeply in the theory we tried during the last decade the best way to grow the economy is from the top down. we tried this. their policies did not grow the economy. they did not grow the middle class. they did not reduce our deficit. why would we think that they would work better this time? [applause.]

>> for those who think they wouldn't, mr. obama offered an alternative. >> i believe that you can't bring down the debt without a strong and growing economy. i believe you can't have a strong and growing economy without a strong and growing middle class. >> this has to be our north star: an economy that's built not from the top down but from a growing middle class. >> for more on today's contrasting speeches i am joined by felix sammon and nicholas from the "new york times." nick, let me start with you. was the president's speech new in any way? he needed a political reset but from an economic perspective was there anything new in there, or was this old wine in new bottles? >> so basically, what we are seeing him trying to do the same rhetoric. he has given a similar speech several times now. the problem is still there. the economy is still bad. he is still president. there is not much you can get congress to do in terms of

taking affirmative policy action or passing a jobs bill. so really he has to keep talking about credit and blame. of course, we all know the upside and the downside of being president is that when times are great and you get credit and when times are bad, you get blamed. >> we have heard this speech. when i was swatchwatching it and i would tune it out because i was thinking, i have heard this before. this was the state of the union, the same speech he has given every time he feels compelled to give a big economic speech. the fact that it's the same as the speech given before doesn't mean it's wrong. it doesn't mean his argument isn't the better of the argument but basically, felix action am i correct in saying the president says trines will things will get better and romney is saying. they haven't and blame him. >> if you elect democrats to both houses of congress and everything goes my way and i manage to push through my apology, then maybe i can make things better but if i get re-elected president and we have the republicans in control of

one of the houses then nothing is going to happen. >> that's a pretty dismal gloomy look. but let's focus on the economics for a minute. you watched and listened to that speech. did you hear an economic idea in the president's speech that was different from what we have heard over the past 18 months, two years, even three years? >> i detected a little bit of going to the right. in his jobs speech he was going sort of full-bore keynesian. in this speak, he was saying i want to bring down government spending to the lowest it's been in 60 years. i am going to be a moderate. i don't believe government can create jobs. i want to help you guys in the middle and this kind of thing. i think if anything he is. >> nick did you have that sense as well because i was beginning to hear a bit more of a populism we had heard from the president not surprisingly as we get close to election day but in terms of

concrete ousts, i haven't seen anything. we talk about education, infrastructure. we talk about protecting the middle class, all noble traditionally f.d.r. ideas but nothing there. i am not saying this critically. nothing there that tells me how we are going to do it. >> i think one irony here is that a lot of people on the left agree with mitt romney on the tone but not the substance. they actually do think that obama's policies are part of the problem. of course, they think he doesn't have a big enough stimulus in the first place. it's like how do you -- you know how do you argue for the thing that you didn't do and don't want to say you should have done. >> right. >> do you tack a little more right to be populist? i think they see in their polls and research that there is some mileage to be gained in pitting himself against the masters of wall street, the masters of the economy. there is a sense of sus springspicion and blame among voters. >> the populist emotional

argument is compelling which is why the fairness argument about making those who are wealthier pay more on their taxes. >> did you hear those in the speech? i didn't get a lot of propertyopulist emotional anything. this was 53 minutes long and it wasn't exactly stirring. >> there were al luciens to it but not teddy roosevelt. it wasn't as rhetorically aggressive as it might have been. we are left with a president, even though it was a gaffe last week when he said the private sector is doing fine. he has to argue things are getting better because of my apology. he has to argument mitt romney will take us back. mitt romney says the things we did under george w. bush are the right answer because romney's policies real. nick, am i missing something there. >> to feel i and your point, a year ago, he gave his teddy roosevelt speech that was much more fiery, much more populist if by the current modern

standards of pop ulism pretty thin, you know. he was kind of poking at the banks, poking at those who have the most and saying we have to share the wealth. you are right. there was not any of of that real positioning here maybe some hints of it. but it was not designed to be that kind of speech i think. >> right. and at the end of the day, this comes down to a bunch of numbers we are going to get between now and november. the unemployment numbers between now and november, first friday of every month, political reporters are now scouring economic data in a way they never used to. >> it's going to be an up hilt battle for him. >> here is an important distinction. in the swing states, things are not as bad as they are in other parts of the country. what i thought was interesting

about the choice of ohio to give a speech on the economy is things in ohio are pretty good relative to the country. their economy is improving. >> nick, you highlight what is increasing and fascinating tension between the president and the governors. actually, i suppose it's romney and the governor's. romney, the republican nominee wants to argue things are terrible and hence we need a fundamental change. the republican governors up for re-election say things are better. in ohio the rate has come down to 7 adopt 4%, the unemployment number down from i think it was up somewhere around 12. i may be wrong. it was somewhere in the strat fear so there is a tension between romney and the republican governors. how does romney bridge that camera chasm chasm. >> i think romney's economic policy is sten inchoate. i hope he will refreshflesh it out.

right now, he seems to say if we cut the taxes and magically, it will have lots of growth and job growth. i wish he could explain this a little bit more. >> okay. you are giving him more benefit than i am willing to give him right now. it is in choate. i think this proves the point the president was maying which is it is a rehash. his is bad old wine in bad new bottles. we have been there. we lived through it. this is rot-gut the first time you can go to a liquor store. this is bad stuff. right? romney, governor romney didn't give us anything more coherent than that that i heard. >> his speech is an attack on the president. we saw he moved his speech time up because he wanted to get in before the president. that was for a political position. he wanted to say look. i got here first. i am going to tell you what the president is going to say. he is going to say the same ol' stuff. he was partly right. this is not a big policy speech for governor romney. >> i want to come back to something you said.

you said it hasn't gotten better. i might disagree. not sufficiently better so anybody feels comfortable where the president can legitimately say things are going fine. i want to put a couple of charts up. we have private sector job growth over the last couple of years and if you see what the effect of a stimulus has been you will see that the stimulus, to say it worked may be an over statement but it had a dramatic impact. the private sector has given us more than four million private sector jobs in the last couple of years. >> that's not an insignificant number. >> and it had to because the government was cutting jobs. obama, unlike bush unlike his republican predecessor actually cut a diminution in government jobs, mostly at the state level. but you need a huge amount of private eyestioning job growth to make up for that and the point here is, surely the stimulus is running out. we had the stimulus at the beginning of obama's term. it did create some job growth. it is not creating job growth any more and going into the

election i don't see the job growth. >> i agree with you. it has stalled out. and nick when i read the columns in your newspaper, all of the economists are getting pretty bleak and gim and saying we need something more fundamental. but it may be another stimulus because if you buy what is shown in the data and even the chart i love, you know, the capacity utilization, which is the precursor, that one is going up as well. and when that happens, then you know something is going to happen. another stimulus might make the difference. >> that's certainly the an i think sys of what romney wants? >> it's a problem. the public. they are not sure who to blame and what to do. i think there is not a ton of appetite for huge public expenditures, even though i think most economists think that in the short-term, more spending would be useful. in the long-term, it would have to come down. it's tough for everyone to navigate that. they don't quite, i think, buy

the kind of pure republican argument if we taj we get magical growth. they are also suspicious of government spending. it worries them when economists tell them it shouldn't worry them? >> people think that if they need to balance their checkbooks and their personal lives, the government should balance its checkbook as well and should not live beyond its means whereas in fact that's the exact opposite. when the economy is in a trough you need to spend. obama is talking about how this is a glorious democracy and what the american people want is not what's good for them. >> personal finance metaphor could be the most desstructive metaphor. it has done huge damage. we have done that with austerity in europe. if we follow that here,

recession, depression round 2 will be fast approaching. righter's nick confessore. great to have you both on the program. tomorrow night, i will join by the soon to be host of our own show joy behar. she will occupy this time shot on current for one week only next week. but you can catch her right here on "viewpoint." john boehner says he has a jobs plan. the only one who could get a job out of it migigigigigigigigigigigigigigigigigigigigigigigigigigigigigig [[vo]]joy behar is coming to current tv for one week only until the fall. what happens if you ask her to tone down her opinions? >>sorry, i can't hear you. what? [[vo]]or tell her she has to stick to a script? >>forget it. [[vo]]that will never happen on current. >>try to be a little more conservative tonight.

and get elected if they don't on back to the middle. david catanese, political reporter at politico. and mcday coppins, political reporter for buzzfeed. gaeme inc. thank gaemezilinsky, thank you for joining . what happened to george prescott bush. >> no, he was jeb bush's son. >> oh, that one. >> the ricky martin look-alike

yeah. >> going in another direction. the direction away from his father. i look at her, and i just want to give her everything. yeah you -- you know, everything can cost upwards of...[ whistles ] i did not want to think about that. relax, relax, relax. look at me, look at me. three words, dad -- e-trade financial consultants. so i can just go talk to 'em? just walk right in and talk to 'em. dude those guys are pros. they'll hook you up with a solid plan. they'll -- wa-- wa-- wait a minute. bobby? bobby! what are you doing, man? i'm speed dating! [ male announcer ] get investing advice for your family at e-trade.

>> a supreme court rooming in citizens united made this number possible. now it's our number of the day. infinity. while presidential campaigns have limits, super p.a.c.s do not. sheldon adelson gave $10 million to pro-mitt romney groups and said he would have given as much as 100 million for newted gingrich. forbes magazine says he is willing to go limitless against president obama. this from a man worth $249,000,000,000. when sheldon adelson means limitless, it really is pretty close to limitless. consider this: even if he really did give $100 million, it would be like a family worth

100,000 donating $400. it wouldn't even hurt him. we now have two completely different campaign systems in one, individual donors give >>it would be terrible if america lost faith in wall street insiders wouldn't it. >> when the president's speaks on the economy, the republicans are in counter attack mode. john boehner decided he would record his own message on the economy. >> these are the many of the 30 jobs bills that have passed the house, currently stalled in the democratic controlled senate. these aren't big controversial bills no one has read practical common sense proposals to help

create a stronger economy for all americans. we are going to keep adding to this pile. we are going to keep calling on president obama and democrats in the senate to give these jobs bills a vote. >> in case you haven't been paying attention, this is not a few line of attack. >> we have 30 bills. >> 30 jobs bills passed over the last year. >> we have passed 30 bills in the past that would help get our economy moving again. 30 jobs bills sitting in the united states senate. 30 jobs bills all passed with bi-partisan support. the house has already cast nearly 30 jobs bills in the 30 past -- house-passed bills. >> of course in boehner's response message, he only appears to be standing in front of 24 bills. when you go to their website, you can find the full list of 27. we took a look at all of them. here is what they do. 9 of the bills deal with stripping away the epa's ability to protect public health. eight diminished the

government's broad regulatory power and three to open up for offshore. two alter rules for the formation offun unions making it more difficult if not impossible. one is a resolution publicing for the keystone xl pipeline a proposal to open a forest for copper mining and disproving of net neutrality. only one bill deals directly with creating job opportunities, hr 3012, the fairness for high school immigrants which makes it easier for companies to hire highly skilled immigrants. joining me is contributing editor tim dickinson. thank you for your time term. is this a jobs program, or is this just a lot of hot air and bills pulled together that don't have any nexus with the economy and job creation. >> if you believe these are job bills, this is what you believe, rolling back environmental protection that save the lives of young people and seniors will create jobs. you believe that stripping away

financial protections put in place to keep businesses honest to keep the sec with some oversight overstock exchanges, that's going to create jobs. this is very curious sort of message to be rolling out on the day that mit romney wants to have an up or down conversation about barackbam's performance in the white house, you know, obama wants to make this a choice election to say, hey, you may not love what i am being able to accomplish but look on the other side. they are showing just kind of crazy stuff that the tea party and business roundtable want. >> i think, in fact john boehner did barack obama a huge favor to pick up on your point. the white house highlights those bills actually are exhibit "a" for what the presidents was arguing, john boehner is precisely what got viewpoint

first place it is old wine in bad old bottles. there is simply nothing new there. you have to believe it was too much regulation that created the problem in the first place. what a lot ten at universe do you have to be in to believe that. >>? >> i think this is a tremendous favor because the president is in a perch here the economy is faltering his health bill is under assault. he is going to have a difficult time making the argument things are getting better. he has this robust record. so he is left with saying you know what? you may not love everything i am doing but these guys are frightening. he said one of his most effective lines is if you want to go back to the policies the last 10 years, mitt romney vote for mitt romney because he is capable of delivering on that. >> policies, compared to what?

compared to the what the alternatives might be garac obama compared has an agenda. something in the right direction. i am hardpressed when you look at what john boehner laid out there to see anything that will create a job except for a few fraudsters in the stockmarket. or seam companies companies going to pollute with bad technology to give your kid a case of asthma or kill your grandma. this is life-saving stuff that's literally going to kill people. >> you referred to, you know there is one they called the farm dust regulation prevention act of 2011. i am not sure farm dust is a major issue. what this does is and the clean air act by exempting dust. nobody at the epa is regulating farm dust. this is a kanard. >> little green footballs and,

you know, some third-rate talk show host on the right-wing. this is an entirely made-up thing. the only person who drives this further is a right-wing talk show host or staffers that have to invest their time in this nonsense. >> not to be too much about the farm dust regulation act which i am sure john boehner believes in deeply. i wish more people remembered the clean air act, one of the essential and critically important pieces of legislation ever past signed into law by that raving liberal, richard nixon. he signed that law, believed in it, understood why it made sense in terms of protecting our people, building the economy. they are anybody elsing around the edges dumn ideas. >> so far, it's frivolous. taking away requirements for actual toxins that are going to be released in the environment

and have negative health impact. people are desperate to jobs but they don't want to come at the expense of their children's health or a premature death of a loved one. >> the soundness improvement act. first of all, that's a lunchingclunky name. you can do better than that john boehner, please. come up with something that sounds better. this begins to roll back dodd-frank. how can they begin this quickly to begin to roll back dodd-frank. it hasn't had a chance to be effective. but they are blaming excessive regulation to the crisis of 2008 which again is to live in an alternate universe. maybe they believed jamie dimon's testimony yesterday. beats me. how could they believe >> then. >> this says the wall street scene was great until uncle sam tinkered with bear stearns and the whole thing collapsed and the government created a crisis of confidence. it's ridiculous. this is the kind of thing that the president would love to run

against. >> that's why i do wonder why doesn't the white house start doing full t.v. as where ne say here are the bills they call the jobs agenda. let's look at them. respond in detail. respond with the sort of finely crystalized attack you do in a courtroom, piece by piece, taking apart the evidence. why doesn't the immediate i cant world attack these frivolous bills and say this isn't the jobs agend add? >> well, it's difficult. i mean, you know, this is ebb john boehner and the house of rep '70stives they are just 1, you know, one party to getting legislation through. sot everybody gets bottles up in the senate, you know, good bills and bad bills >> right? >> this is had a cya move on boehner's part to show his constituency we have been trying to do something here. you know i think it's really important for the white house as far as their politics are concerned to get beyond the talking point to sort of give it torun rub noses in the dirty

agenda. who profits? polluters, you know, wall street criminals, you know, this is not an agenda that moves forward. >> right. >> for the cause of the middle class. >> i would love to see the president give a speech where he took on these bills saying we are talking about bills 8 through 12. take them apart. be the lawyer he is and say that's why these guys really do not have any creative ideas. then payor, dallas his best argument. contributing editor thank you for your time tonight. >> always a pleasure. that you were. >> the biggest tightrope act since mitt romnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmnmn

the new slogan should be "we own wall street." that's my view.

of sununu, you're wrong. mitt romney, you're wrong. we need more teachers, not fewer teachers and more cops and more firefighters that support our

this this >> somebody said they tried to yell at you to come back? >> it must have been a woman. i don't listen to men yelling. >> casey anthony breaks silence. the most not ore oryos woman in the america. >> this is cnn. >> casey anthony was not a party girl and has not gained wait. >> this is cnn breaking news. casey anthony has not gained weight.

>> this is cnn breaking news. >> there is no more news. >> all right. tensions over syria. are they a >>it would be terrible if america lost faith in wall street insiders wouldn't it. and everyone likes 50% more cash -- well, except her. no! but, i'm about to change that. ♪ every little baby wants 50% more cash... ♪ phhht! fine, you try. [ strings breaking wood splintering ] ha ha. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. ♪ what's in your wallet? ♪ ♪ what's in your...your... ♪

the in syria now getting even more complexion. it smacks of the 19 or yugoslavia. it is exactly what i feared the most which is in effect a country that will explode not implode. >> when you say explode. you mean it would raid 80 out into the entire region. all of what happens. let's take it piece by piece. we are seeing whereas for a number of weeks through under the umbrella of the united nations we were trying goat russia to join us in some sort of concerted effort to bring them together now things have broken apart with a war of words. but that is a proxy for the underlying tensions on the larger issue. >> agreed. the russians have been providing

hundreds of mill kwrapblgs millions of dollars. they provide helicopter gun ships, i have been watching it go on through their major export company. they have a port that is receiving one shipment after the other. and the russians will do what they can to deny the fact that this is somehow interfering with their peace process that they themselves support. are we going to organize that they are hypocrites? of course we should. should they be called out for providing arms when they are denying that they are? absolutely. in the end will the russians stop providing their arms? absolutely not. they will keep providing arms until the a sawed regime tipped the balance in their favor and then they will say okay, now it's time to negotiate a seize fire. >> can the regime tip the balance that fa are in its favor such that those fighting standing up to freedom fighters we like to call them would be defeated and disappear into the either or should we and can be he web doing something to maintain the balance to drag it

out? on horrific thing from a humanitarian aspect. but may be necessary to defeat a sad. >> do you remember when they were receiving stinger missiles and shooting down the russian helicopters and that tipped the balance in the military any afghanistan against the russians. wither beginning to see the same thing happen but in a different context. anti-tank weaponry is now being smuggled in through turkey and jordan and being provided by the says and who knows who else and by the turks. that is one of the reasons why you are seeing so much of an artillery and helicopter gun ships because the anti-tank weapons were being used against syrian forces forces . >> are we behind that effort to get this useful armorments to the freedom fighters? >> no. >> you think it's just the sawed saudis. they are taken leftover rep weaponry from libya and reshipping it in through turk and i the turks aring aring complicit

in this. we have said we are only in favor of nonlethal weaponry being provided. there is a point that the united states can't say to the turns and saudis sorry don't do that. they are going do what they feel is necessary. >> should we be doing more? >> ababsolutely. but what we should be doing is not getting involved in legit the support but humanitarian assistance. >> get caught up in the massacres, elliot. they almost lamb camouflage the ca at that time fuss tpr*us i where ca catastrophe where aid is not getting in. >> let's switch gears and go south to the other trauma in the east. is egypt on the verge of a coup or does it in some way reinforce democracy by insuring that the process can work going forward. >> it's interesting you have this judicial system inky just a minute that somehow steps in and basically says, look that

parliament was supposed to be composed of two types of individuals. party representatives and individuals who are not affiliated with the parties. and they found too many people were affiliated with parties holding these so-called individual designated seats. so they through the whole parliament out and dissolved it. the question results matily is the muslim brotherly essentially and the extremist allies control the parliament. the question is what are they going to do? what is the next move in the wake of this? do they protest. or do they let it go forward. and also the other question i garther is thegathered is this the military try to reassert itself. >> one with can argue it's been there since the move bar i can mubarak regime was there and they have shown independence from the military. it's hard to tell. in some respects this third branch of government is taking

position that his could throw the whole country into an up heaval. >> not a pretty picture. mark former am ambassador to ma ma rackmorocco. a grim american milestone coming up on the "viewpoint." blam [ orbit glint ] fabulous! for a good clean feeling. ♪ eat, drink, chew orbit! ♪ desk top, lab top, ipad. iphone. >> pleasant your hearts. >> the big one. >> stephanie: all i know, the little flower is there and it means go to meeting. i love go to meeting.

it starts at $59 for the entire year for back up. put in code stephanie for your subscription. 18 minutes after the hour. the head of j.p. morgan chase faced the senate. but was the for example already in? but first let's head west and economic in with jennifer what have you got for us tonight governor? >> i loved today. it was a defining moment on the president shalt campaign trail. but the president made the choice crystal clear. are we going forward a pro growth for the americans or go back to the battle days and the laz a fair than sense. we are talking about the pro growth policy on his the state level. you remember this welt. with kentucky's democratic governor steve bashier because he just announced yesterday that

ford is investing $600 million in their state. good paying jobs, helping american families. a i am excited about that. we are all about jobs and what the policies are that will mutual country forward. >> interesting articles about how republicans governors are disagreeing with romney. i don't think he likes that. can't wait to see the see the show. more "viewpoint" coming up next. what? [[vo]]or tell her she has to stick to a script? >>forget it. [[vo]]that will never happen on current. >>try to be a little more conservative tonight. >>it would be terrible if america lost faith in wall street insiders wouldn't it.

a grim statistic making headlines today the report of the 2000th u.s. service death in operation endurance freedom the war that began after 9/11. the so-called war on terror. 1,184 in afghanistan others in pakistan, yemen and elsewhere. the number alone sounds too antiseptic. 2000, think instead of an entire high school gym filled with cheering students, that's how many soldiers we have lost in service. now think of their families. the cost of war is inn possible to grasp. we spoke on this show days ago of the new scourge of military suicides. just in this year through june 3rd, there are 154 confirmed military suicides. compared to 127 troops killed in the afghan war during the same stretch of time. more depth from suicide than in the field of combat.

the silent courage is scourge is responsible for 20% of all active military deaths. how do we deal with this. accord to this experts we spoke to it might be the consequence of multiple tours of duty and the war without clear definition or end pints po*eupbts. it might be the changing nature of warfare itself and increased the emotional stress of being in combat. so far nobody really knows. when asked about the issue on wednesday by senators, defense secretary leanne for net expressed concern and said he asked for review across all services to see what could be learned. the trauma and emotional cost of war continues to be born by soldiers when they return and the threshold of 2,000 death and mounting suicide leads to reinforce what we know but too often forget. it's too easy to march down the path of combat while ignoring the price paid. it's our duty to neither be ignorant are forgetful in this

regard. that's my view. politically direct on current tv >> what should women be doing? >> electing women to office. the airplanes are going to get from one part of the country to the other without any air i mean this is ridiculous and mitt romney ought to know better. i stand with our public employees and cops and firefighters and their teachers? innovation matters now more than ever.

i look at her, and i just want to give her everything. yeah you -- you know, everything can cost upwards of...[ whistles ] i did not want to think about that. relax, relax, relax. look at me, look at me. three words, dad -- e-trade financial consultants. so i can just go talk to 'em? just walk right in and talk to 'em. dude those guys are pros. they'll hook you up with a solid plan. they'll -- wa-- wa-- wait a minute. bobby? bobby! what are you doing, man? i'm speed dating! [ male announcer ] get investing advice for your family at e-trade. our conversation is with you the viewer because we're independent. >>here's how you can connect with "viewpoint with eliot spitzer." >>questions, of course, need to be answered. >>we will not settle for the easy answers. after the commercial. >> it is a combination of low self-esteem, low blood sugar and missing red wine with my -- and mixing red wine with my painkillers.

admitted that that look, we were able to keep a lot of the folks because of the stimulus. >> bill: absolutely. again, do you great work, judd. thank you. all of your colleagues at think progress. we'll see you again next how much does it cost to buy a senate committee? apparently five number $82,888. that's how much jp morgan chase donated to 20 of the 22 members of the senate banking committee since 2007. which might be why which jamie diamond showed up for a supposed grilling in front of the committee yesterday. he was instead treated treated like a

hero. >> what should the functions of the regulators be? there there is no way for a regulate tore catch this activity, would you agree? >> what areas of oversight would be the most effective for us in terms of our regulatory talk true? >> a banker will always be ahead of a regulator basically and you are giving them the information that you are using to regulate, it's just not really realistic to think that a regulator is going to catch this. >> how much have your regulatory costs increased as a result of the rule whatever it is? >> i would like to come away from the hearing today with some ideas on what you think we need to do, what we may be need to take apart that we have already done to allow the industry to operate better? >> we are here quizzing you if you were sitting on this side of the die as what would you do? >> what an embarrass think. what not exactly the perry mason type cross-examination you would see for the ceo that helped

cause the cataclysm that caused middle america 30% of its wealth here to talk about the kid glove treatment of him washington reporter from the nation, george. thank you so much for your time tonight. is this committee really a whole i owned subsidiary of jp morgan chase, we just haven't seen it in public yet? >> it's hard to say that it's not. as you mentioned over $580,000 went to different mechanics almost every member of this committee save two, one of those two is retiring and not collecting money. you know, they have done a very good job of spreading their money out, both to republicans and to democrats. to lower ranking members, higher ranking members. two senators who number one sole contributor since 2000 has been jp morgan chase. they have given 8580 that you thursday which is to jp morgan chase is nothing insignificant something that we would never notice is gone, but to these senators is very, very important

to their reelections and to their political careers. >> there is another reason, you know george. that amount of money is not a big deal for jp morgan chase it's not even their money it's our money when they get short on cash they call up the fed and say can you wire us more, call the contacts tear pedroia and debit it from our account. this is the most ridiculous circle of money taxpayers bail them out to buy off the congressmen to permit them to be bailed out again. >> this is the daisy chain of fraud i have never seen. the public should be outraged at this. >> they should be. there were protests before the hearing yesterday. a hands of the of people got arrested. what's really interesting to note. as your magic showed most of these senators weren't very easy diamonds and that speaks to how powerful the money is because it's terrible politics to do that. the republicans and democrats don't have very high opinions of wall street. they would enjoy most likely, seeing a high ranking ceo get batted around yet they still

didn't do it. the money spoke powerful i have enough to em them. they chose for forego the politics and kissed his feet. >> in at an ought way in that regard it's a slightly greater en department on the democratic side. i think they believe that the banks did something wrong. the republican senators are living in an alternate universe they didn't get that point. when they ask these softball questions and bowed down and kissed his toes they are reflecting the warp view that they bring no this issue you the democrats have been bought and that's everybody more embarrassing. it's not only the money it's a deeper en french. in the staff that surround the senators. explain to us how some of the staff who used to work for these senators are now lobbyists for the banks and they pick up the phone, they are cozy, go to the same bars afterwards. this is part of what's going on here. >> yeah, we know of at least eight staffers who now work for either jp morgan chase or a lobby be firm doing work on behalf of them who used to work for the senate banking committee.

used to work for this exact committee. they now work for the bank. it's very -- it's hard to describe how important that really is when someone can call up their old colleagues on on the sen al banking committee. people that they know, they have a rapport with and speak about an obscure issue, a piece of legislation or wording in a piece of legislation that the public isn't working work watching that goes a long way and the debt reports of felt far and wide. it's important to know that not only do they have former staffers, they employ a former u.s. senator who sat on the banking committee [moaning] martinez wolves called to washington to help the bank deal with its fallout. >> that's been reflected in the questions not asked. which is more probe tough of what's going on in the minds of senators in the committee. there was not a single question asked that i am aware of about the phone calls that jamie diamonds made to the individual trader who placed these crazy bets in the market. and the reason that's important is that jamie diamond has been saying he was misled by intermediaries. those upon whom he rely i had

and reports have been that he spoke directly to the traders on the trading floor. and if that's the case either they misled them. they didn't follow-up with him and he didn't ask the right quiz and he's all critically important and shows his inability and the bank's inability to control risks which is the heart of the matter. >> exactly. they are coming to him saying we don't like what we are seeing here outed out of this investment office and he brushed off these concerns. as you said we know about this through press reports, they had these reports and had access to em this. he was sitting there a sitting duck to face the questions and didn't face them. >> not a single one. and you know, look, you understand this is not a courtroom. he's not going to be grilled for eight hours in a row by eye single prosecutor, but even in the time they had, they would fail out of law school almost to an individual if this was an asking that i as a law school professor said show me how he know how to ask a probative

question. they don't get it. next week jamie will be back. and hope that they will do something more useful there. >> i have a bit of hope. the press do ridge coming out of this was terrible. even mainstream outlets noting how softball these senators went. i am guessing perhaps i am being optimistic but i am guessing there are members in the house that don't want that kind of coverage to themselves. also the money speaks in the house, it doesn't speak quite as loudly as it does in the senate where it's more expensive to run campaigns, i think you have more democrats at least in the house financial services committee in safe seats that may not be as worried about the money. and so hopefully we'll see them go hard after him but it remained to be seen. >> hope springs certainly and of course our hopes will be dashed next week probably. barney frank is retiring maybe he will use it as his last chance. thanks so much for you on tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> that's "viewpoint for tonight, stay here to enter the war room