une with "the war room" with guest host john fugelsang. have a good night. [ ♪ theme ♪ ] ♪ >> good morning, everybody. this is the bill press show for thursday june 21. fast and furious may be the obama administration if it didn't want to get in trouble with our government allowing guns to get in the hands of those who shouldn't have them, allowle them to get in the hands of criminally in sane in the

united states. republicans of all right with that. plus why is the museum here in washington excluding reporters from events involving presidential candidates? first, it's time for the current news update with jackie schechner. >> good morning everyone. the city of sanford fired police chief billie citing a lack of trust and respect from elected officials and lack of confidence from the community. he was in charge during the trayvon martin shooting. now he has been fired. >> we're hearing the 911 call that trayvon martin's dad has played after his son was shot wanting to file a missing persons report and the dispatcher saying someone was going to their house.

those were released yesterday. david was talking about house rupp leaders voting on negotiation whether to uphold eric holders contempt of congress but only if the obama administration turns over more documents for the fast and furious. the house oversight government reform committee found holder in contempt. >> the lack of transparency with respect to a dead border patrol agent is sick, inc. and this morning's threat of presidential privilege is more sickening. >> holder's turned over 7600 documents but some of confidential and said not to have anything to do with it itself but confidential internal communications. join us in chat.

we'll see you in a couple. 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. and who doesn't want 50% more cash? ugh, the baby. huh!

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you've heard bill's views, now let's hear yours. politically direct means no b.s. just telling you what's going on in politics today. >>at the only on-line forum with

a direct line to bill press. >>it's something i've been waiting for a long time. >>join the debate now. [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the >> david shuster here. dan is still fiddling with his ear piece. dad ready. how are you guys doing this morning? >> i'm well. i'm ready david. >> good. david shuster here. did i say that? >> hi. >> got peter and don in the big chair. >> happy thursday. >> happy thursday. what a day in washington d.c.

everybody is looking forward to the supreme court releasing more opinions this morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. will the affordable care act be were you ever those decisions? i think not. i think they're going to wait until the next day next thursday. the big news of course everybody talking about here in washington and now across much of the country involves fast and furious and assertion of executive privilege yesterday to keep certain justice department documents away from the house congressional government reform oversight committee. we got the word before yesterday's attempt vote of executive privilege. here's the reaction. >> this untimely assertion by the justice department falls short of any reason to delay today's proceedings. >> and the proceedings went on with a 23-7 party line vote to hold eric holder in contempt.

the full vote next week. we'll talk about and a few things i think you ought to know about fast and furious coming up in a couple of minutes. >> yesterday there was the allegation that alec baldwin punched out a photographer. last night he was on david letterman saying no punches were thrown. >> the same guy did it for me before. this guy did the same thing before where he's the master at getting really close to you with the camera where you think they're going to hit you in the face and you go like that. they want you to take a punch. >> nobody got punched by the way. >> nobody go ahead punched. >> i think a lot of people are sorry alec baldwin didn't get punched. >> michaeler win has a reminder to us when it's very hot and sticky, you need to be careful

what you wear around the office. >> make sure you talk to your manager, boss, tell them you understand that the weather's going to be warm and see what they say. it's the best way to avoid you standing out for although wrong reasons in the office. >> i know because it's going to be so warm, i want to ask if it's okay, if i take my shirt off. >> oh, please do. go for it. look, we're on t.v. now. couldn't hurt the ratings. >> this is the full court press. >> other headlines making news this thursday, female members of the congress and the media took to the baseball diamond in washington in the name of charity last night. the women's team beat the representatives 13-10. team lawmakers playing included

debbie schultz and laura richardson from california. her seventh grade softball coach was in the stands. >> adidas canceled plans for the shackle shoe after they were denounced as racist and in sensitive. it's been dubbed the shackle show for featuring rubber shackles that attach to the wearer's ankle to the shoe. last week, the caption red got a sneaker game so hot you lock the shoe to your ankles? >> the real crime here is whether they're made in the u.s.a. if they are fine, do whatever you wanted. >> i can almost guarantee that

those aren't made in america. >> yeah? >> yeah. >> the debut of bristol palin's reality show had lackluster debut yesterday. drew just over 725,000 viewers. the lead in show was dance moms. >> who knew that an audience would not want to watch bristol palin? >> thank you as always. we got a lot going on here in washington and a lot that's going to affect the litticcal landscape. we're going to jump right into it with fast and furious. back in the bush administration, there was an effort to try to track guns going to mexico so that the bush administration could figure out who was involved and start busting

mexican drug cartels so the federal government would allow guns to go there lose the surveillance of the guns and pick it up to figure out where they were going. the obama administration continued this policy known as fast and furious. there was a name change, but the policy went on through arizona. the problem was that some of these guns were ending up in the hands of mexican drug cartels and killers including one killing a federal agent. when the justice department was asked what do you know about this february, 2011. lenny brewer knew about it but failed to tell eric holder and others and so eric holder puts out a statement saying we don't know anything about fast and furious. then a couple of months later well the justice department actually did know here in washington and brewer had to

apologize and there were emails suggesting that he had four different notifications about fast and furious and why he didn't notify eric holder is a big question. a lot of republicans think maybe he did and this is part of some cover-up. since last fall when this came out about the justice department knowing more than they led on republicans have been engaged in these efforts to figure out what the justice department has been stonewall for covering up what it knew about this botched investigation, well yesterday the obama administration asserted executive privilege over discussions that eric holder brewer and others had at the justice department that had a handle on requests. the republican committee chair was not happy. here's what he said yesterday. >> he is asking the committee to close an investigation before the committee even gets to see the documents. he is pretending to offer.

i can't accept that deal. no other committee chairman would. >> there was a reference to holder made an offer to the committee saying i'll show you some of the documents if you just stop this investigation and isa said clearly they would not. here's democratic congressman comings. >> this idea, what's he hiding? i don't think he's hiding a damn thing. >> he's not hiding a damn thing. we don't know that for sure, but there's a pretty good sound byte. >> definitely. >> they said at one time there needs to be a legitimate investigation. it's painful to sit here and watch this turn into political theater. >> republicans said eric, if you don't want the show, provide us

the documents. here's mike tally. >> just give us the documents. what could be so damning in those documents that they can't be given to us? >> one thing that today is damning the obama administration is remember how we said a couple of nights aggravatorric holder was willing to show this committee documents if they stopped the investigation. yesterday the obama administration said now we're going to assert executive privilege over these same documents. here is republican from utah. >> why is it that president obama is suddenly invoking executive privilege on documents that we were told yesterday they would be glad to give us? that doesn't really add up. there's something here that we need to know about. >> hmm. there's something here. there's something going on. let's stop before we play more sound byte. here are a couple things you should know.

ok? this is widely reported. basically, there's been no evidence so far no evidence that attorney general eric holder was involved in fast and furious in any way that he was involved in the operations, that he even really sort of knew what was going on until perhaps a year ago. secondly on this issue of executive privilege and whether the justice department deliberations should be turned over there was another administration who agreed with the same view that eric older and the obama administration took yesterday. which? ronald reagan. that's right the reagan administration asserted that justice department deliberation like these should not be subject to congressional scrutiny and review. secondly actually i think thirdly, even republicans think that daryl isom is going too far. eric can'ter the republican majority leader said maybe this isn't such a good idea and tried

to put the kibosh on things. >> the other thing that sort of gets me and this is where it gets pretty weird. daryl isa and other republicans have suggested that this whole abrasion of allowing guns to go to mexico is part of some conspiracy theory. in other words he has said that the obama administration "made a crisis with this gun running when they continued the bush era gun running operations because they wanted to use this crisis to somehow take away or limit people's second amendment rights." hmm. allowing goes mexico would somehow limit second amendment rights. the theory in the right wing is that the there's a former militia man who supports violent resistance against our federal government and picked up tea

party suggesting that these botched gun stings would enable more guns to get in the hands of violent people in mexico who would in turn kill u.s. federal agents in turn causing the obama administration to say look at those federal agents being killed, it's time to take away everybody's guns. are you following the logic there? i don't. that is the theory, this is a grand plan by the obama administration to take away your guns. cuckoo. look, if the obama administration wanted to avoid trouble, instead of simply allowing -- the republicans complained that the obama administration is allowing guns to get in the hands of people who shouldn't have them in mexico and yet our federal government, thanks a republicans is allowing guns to get in the hands of the criminally insane here in the united states every day. what do the republicans do? oh no, we can't close the gun

show loophole. as soon as the guns of going to the mexican gun cartels then it's a problem. give me a break. total hypocrisy. we'll take your calls. more after this. >> that's wrong. >>it would be terrible if america lost faith in wall street insiders wouldn't it. junk like it did at any an arby's in colorado. yikes. >> stephanie: i guess we do know where the beef is. [ buzzer ] >> that's wrong.

♪ take just one more ♪

it's been dumbed down ♪ long before romney ♪ ever did ♪ >> thank you . >> stephanie: 45 minutes after the hour. we'll be back as we close "the stephanie miller show." >> on "the stephanie miller show" in suburban america this >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey, it is 24 minutes

after the hour. talking about jeb bush yesterday coming down, clasping down hard on the -- on today's republican >> david shuster in for bill. we're taking your calls. you know, maybe i'm wrong with this. maybe i just don't have it -- maybe i just don't know what i'm talking about republicans claiming executive privilege the obama administration must have something to hide, how dare they! let's see, karl rove asserted executive privilege over and over related to his inner actions with the bush administration justice department when he was having u.s. attorneys fired. he didn't want to talk about it to congress. i don't remember republicans raising a peep at the time. republicans say how could the obama administration allow guns to be flowing to the mexican drug cartel? well i've got a question for every republican who voted to hold eric holder in contempt yesterday. how can you republicans allow guns to flow to the criminally

insane here in the united states? you allow that every day that you oppose closing the gun show loophole. the hypocrisy is putrid, ridiculous. let me know. jeff from chicago welcome to the bill press show. good morning. >> good morning david how are you doing? >> good, welcome aboard. >> thank you i'm a big fan of this show. i think he is not doing his job. he's supposed to prosecute all of the criminals. he never done anything. all the criminals over there on wall street, what have they done to them? nothing. so whatever they decide, that's not a big deal.

>> let me stop you right there because i'm not a big fan of eric holder. the reason i'm not is precisely for the reasons that you mentioned. nobody on wall street has been prosecuted for all the malfeasance and corruption that brought our economy to its knees. furthermore, we're going to whitewash or excuse some of the things during the bush administration waterboarding is fine and we can torture people in our name. there's been no prosecution for that. this idea that eric holder should be held accountable for something he didn't know about and there is no evidence that he did, the only thing republicans can do is possibly say maybe the justice department in trying to figure out how to deal with media inquiries and dealing with congress maybe said some nasty things about the media and congress and they're trying to

figure out how to protect themselves. that's the best we can do? >> good morning, i was watching rachel maddow saying we're going to do everything we can to take down eric holder and then the president. in the whole thing is to go after president obama. what kills me is the american people are really stupid. channel five, i am finished with channel five. >> is that a fox channel? >> yep. >> let's go right there. yesterday on fox news, there were anchors, people who supposedly are paid to broadcast to know this stuff claiming that because the obama administration exerted executive privilege the president must have been involved. he must be protecting conversations that he had. it wouldn't take more than three

seconds of searching on the internet to realize no, executive privilege can oftentimes and most of the time does cover conversations that have nothing to do with the president, that the president wasn't involved in. one of the reasons that i know that fox news knows this is because back when i worked there, i explained to a lot of people during the clinton administration during the monica lewinsky scandal approximate conversations were not what bill clinton had, they were what his staff had. fox news knows this. this is part of the usual trickery they are involved in. it's ridiculous, they ought to be ashamed, but they're going to keep doing it. you are listening and watching the big press show.

[[vo]]joy behar is on 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.

[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] on your radio and on current tv, this is the bill press >> welcome back, david shuster sitting in for bill on this thursday morning june 21. we are talking about president obama, eric holder, the assertion of executive privilege yesterday in the face of congressional efforts to get republican hands on documents that the justice department, documents about the justice department deliberations over how to deal with a congressional inquiry into this gun running operation, fast and furious to essentially law guns to go to

mexico so our government could track who had them and then would that in and make arrests. there were mistakes along the way, guns were not tracked after allowed to flow into mexico and a federal agent was killed and since then, a federal investigation. as part of the assertion of executive privilege by the obama administration, in other words the idea that certain communications certain discussion that the justice department should be shielded from congress, folks pointed out that four years ago, five years ago, then senator obama made an argument against the bush administration's assertion of executive privilege related to karl rove and the effort by the bush administration to fire some federal prosecutors for political gain. here's then senator obama five years ago. >> there's been a tendency on the part of this administration to try to hide behind executive privilege every time there's something a little shaky that's taking place and i think the

administration would be best served by coming clean on this. there doesn't seem to be any national security issues involved with the u.s. attorney question. there doesn't seem to be any justification for not offering up some clear plausible rationale for why these u.s. attorneys were targeted when by all assessments they were doing an outstanding job. >> joining us now aaron blake. good morning how are you this morning? >> good morning thanks for having me. >> regarding president obama asserting executive privilege yesterday, condemning the use of executive privilege five years ago, how big a political problem is this for him? >> only time's going to tell on something like this. when you get in the weeds and you're really talking about process arguments like this, most of the american people tune it out.

i don't think the fast and furious situation rises up on the radar for most people. of course, that can change depending on how things are handled, but i think that the obama's decision to invoke executive privilege for the first time shows kind of a bit of confidence right now. he's basically going to congressional republicans and saying if you guys want to have a little bit of a fight here, i'm happy to have it, because i may not be terribly popular but you're less popular. >> the specter of executive privilege seems to rachet up the story, like pouring gasoline on a smoldering fire. just because the executive privilege and the status dating back to watergate. >> i think obama has a good point, this is the first time that he's actually invoked executive pitcher where as his predecessors clinton invoked it 14 times and bush around six or

something like that. so, this is the first time he's done it. anytime you do it, there's going to be some hand wringing involved. really it's something that is very much a part of the presidency and he can point to his predecessors and say this is something that is part of the job right now and his comments from when he was a senator don't help him in that reward, but being president is being president and i think a lot of people understand that there's some things that a president can't say, that the question is whether they think that these documents fall under that umbrella. >> i'm going to fear that perhaps this may have a little political drag on president obama. perhaps it doesn't really matter in part because there was a bloomberg poll yesterday in the head-to-head matchup between president obama and mitt romney showing president obama up by 13 points and what i found really interesting is some of the

questions about likability, obama was killing romney on the likability factor. who would you rather sit on a long plane with. obama is up 20 points on the question. >> even as his approval ratings have gone down, you've seen that measure, the fivability rating stay relatively strong. it's part of the reason i think people have given him the benefit of the doubt to the extent that they have as the economy has continued to suffer. it's remarkable right now the way the economy is that our president is still looking like a basically a 50-50 proposition for reelection. i think if he didn't have that personal likability factor, i don't think that he would be doing as well as he is right now with the caveat being the fact that he is not doing terribly well at this point but 50-50 is a pretty good situation for him

to be in. i think bringing this around to the fast and furious situation i think that that personal likability and that kind of benefit of the doubt mentality benefits him in a situation like this where there may, you know, seem to be something untoward to some people. the fact is that if most people genuinely like the president and think there he is a good guy that plays into his hands. >> especially if the obama eelection committee is making this a choice not so much a referendum on the obama presidency. there was a pretty effective ad released yesterday that i think has been running before and it's part of the general ad buy in which the obama campaign has done a very aggressive job defining mitt romney. >> i'm barack obama and i approved this message. mitt romney campaigned as a job

creator, but as a corporate raider he shipped jobs to china and mexico. as governor, he did the same thing, out sourcing state jobs to india. now, he's making the exact same pitch. >> i know why jobs come and why they go. out sourcing jobs. romney economics didn't work then and won't now. >> pretty tough ad, but effective, right? >> yeah, this is the obama campaign pivot from focusing on the main capitol stuff to his record as massachusetts governor. anytime you're an executive of a state, you have to make tough decisions. it's tougher in a lot of ways to be governor than a legislator or senator. i think that them talking about the job situation massachusetts in particular, something that we're going to see a lot of in the future, because

massachusetts didn't have great jobs numbers when romney was governor. that's the number one economic factor on people's minds right now. i would expect a heavy dose of this and less early capital gains effect -- it was less clear that that was working. this strategy is a solid one they'll employ for a long time. >> when someone runs a negative ad against you you have to respond. what is the romney campaign doing? >> everybody has their own statistics in these situations, and romney's campaign points out that job growth while he was there was stronger than in a lot of states, that he basically inherited a pretty poor jobs picture and made it better. and i think that they have a -- you know, they have a case to be made here, too and they've been putting that in ads and but not to the extent that obama's campaign has right now.

obama's campaign has run a whole lot poor more ads at this point. we saw that in financial reports that were out yesterday so the question from here is how much of an imprint did those ads make does obama's campaign really define mitt romney before mitt romney can define himself. i think that's what they're hoping right now and that's what they're using their cash advantage to try to do. >> aaron blake, you can catch his work at postpolitics.com. great to have you onboard. >> coming up, my rant about the museum, why is the museum shutting reporters out from covering presidential candidates? the museum! what are you thinking? we'll talk about that and what all of you can do about this on the bill press show. >> on your radio and on current

t.v., this is the bill press show. ♪ ♪

we have a big, big hour and the i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct. >>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today...

>> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv. >> bill: it is 13 minutes before the top of the hour. top of the next hour, we'll be >> at the polls we can rename this next segment how shuster burns his friends. do you have a favorite museum in d.c.? >> i like the air and space. i have two sons, so we go to the air and space. >> a lot of folks believe it or not have come to appreciate the

newseum, a museum for news june the newseum educates the public before a free press and tells the worlds events in a unique and engaging ways. it blends 500 years of news history up to the second technology hands on exhibits for a one of a kind museum experience. a museum called the newseum dedicated to freedom of the press, honoring journalism, sounds good, right? >> sounds legit. >> last week, there was mitt romney at the museum speaking to a group called the business round table which rented space there for their event. mitt romney is speaking, delivering a speech and then he's about to start taking questions from members of the business round table. and the newseum reporters said

now it's time for you to leave you must leave the museum now get out of this hall, because this is a private event paid for bit business round table and you're not allowed to cover the question and answer question with mitt romney. the reporters were like this is the newseum how can you do this? and they said we rented the space and it's up to the round table to determine what kind of press access they have. the newseum did the same thing with president obama. he delivered a speech to the same group. when it came time to ask questions of our president newseum officials told reporters now it's time for you to leave. unbelievable right? the newseum which has like a 70-foot wall talking about the first amendment freedom of the press, a museum that's supposed to honor press access, the work

of reporters to tell stories. what could be more important in a presidential campaign year than having access to presidential candidates and being able to report on how they respond to all kinds of different groups. i don't understand if the business round table on their own property or some other property, you know, rented space and said we are not going to allow reporters in, that's their prerogative. for the museum to abide by those sorts of policies and the museum says wait a second, it's a rental policy, we have a rental policy that says it's up to these private groups, that may be your existing policy, but i am calling on the museum and there's a petition now that's up at change.org sloosh museum calling on newseum officials to change the rental policy. from here on, the museum has an obligation to say any group that's going to rent space from us, we're going to require that if this involves a presidential candidate, reporters allowed to be in that event from start to finish and if you don't like it,

then rent from the chamber of commerce or private entity around town. but this is a place that's supposed to honor freedom of the press. to sell out to these private events accept that go money and allow these groups to say oh, the press is banned is absolutely ridiculous. if you want to make a difference if you're a currentlyist and feel this is outrageous that the museum of all places is excluding reporters or you feel there is something icky about a museum about freedom of the press excluding the press go to change.org/museum. i get this has been the policy until now. we're simply asking the museum, change your policy, this is an embarrassment. i tried to reach out to newseum for comment and they have

ignored my attempts. >> really? that's a shame. >> more on the other side of this break. ♪ ♪ [[vo]]joy behar is on 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?!

a great tasting mint core, frosted in powerful cooling crystals. ice breakers frost. feel the frost. >> announcer: taking your e-mails on any topic at any >> david shuster sitting in for bill press this morning. so the supreme court is going to be releasing some opinions this morning in about three hours

over in the great hall just east of the capitol. a lot of questions whether afford care is going to be released. all eyes of course on the supreme court. if they do not release the opinion on the obama health care policy today, they will do it next week, possibly monday or thursday, the last day the supreme court issues opinions. related to all of this, folks have said what's the harm? what is the harm if obamacare as republicans like to calm it or if the affordable care act but its proper name is repealed, what's the harm? so what that a couple of million people may lose health insurance. what's the harm? there's a study done by families usa analyzing how many people die, how many people die each year because they do not have health insurance. >> the states that had the largest number of people who

died due to a lack of health insurance were in the following order, california, texas florida, new york, and georgia. >> and overall so what's the grand number, the grand number overall who die each year? 26,000. 26,000 people die each year because they don't have health insurance. >> on a monthly basis we're talking about on average 2,175 people die due to alaska health insurance. >> when people say oh, health insurance doesn't really matter, it's not going to affect our country if people lose their health insurance. no it will affect them in a very bad way. >> it's incredible, in one year, 26,000 people just because they don't have health insurance. >> people think so what, people don't have health insurance it's their own fault. this hurts all of us. when people die in a society

obviously it hurts productivity, hurts us as a society. you don't want people dying in this society if you want to be economically fruitful, continue to grow and be a prosperous society. that's why we have things like seatbelts or like health insurance, or like drunk driving laws, because when people get into accidents that hurts all of w ones right? you figure this thing would be the same thing with health insurance that oh, we know that this saves lives. this helps people. we know this helps the productivity of our society. let's kick some more people off health insurance and repeal the affordable care act, we should all care. i want to finish on a lighter note. real hunter, the former mistress now partner of jon edwards, is that the polite way to put it? home wrecker. she has a book. >> first and foremost, i'm a

mom. reall hunter is a mom and also i'm a woman who fell in love with a married man. i'm not the first woman who has done that and i'm not going to be the last. >> being a home wrecker is not something to be proud of. why do people go out and give interviews and sell books? i don't get it. >> i do. she's hoping to become filthy rich off of this whole thing you know? >> i guess maybe she's trying to absolve herself somehow or get people to feel some sympathy for her. she caused a lot of pain. i think that's something she out to talk about or promote. >> coming up, senator chris coons, democratic from delaware. we'll talk about the transportation bill. why has congress not been able to approve this thing? oh yeah, there's problems with

the republicans in the house. go figure.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning, everybody! and welcome to the "full court >> good morning, david shuster sitting in for bill press on the bill press show on current t.v. what a great show we have coming up. we're going to talk with senator from delaware about congressional dysfunction. if you think it's bad now bipartisan vote to pass a huge transportation bill gets through the senate, it would create 2 million jobs, now stuck in the house? why, because of congressional republicans. can anything be done?

we'll talk about that. >> the university of connecticut huskies, ncaa basketball champions are on probation. they will not be allowed to participate in the ncaa tournament because of poor academic performance. we'll talk about that. first, it's time for current news headlines with jackie schechner. >> good morning. let's talk about money. the mitt romney campaign is boasting yesterday was its best fundraising day to date, saying that the candidate brought in $6 million to $8 million in michigan yesterday. today, mitt romney speaks to the national association of latino elected officials in orlando and back to fundraising this weekend where he heads to park city, utah. he's going to be at a weekend retreat being dubbed republican-palooza which sounds like something i would make up. guests brought in $250,000 for the campaign themselves giving

$50,000 to the campaign will get a mingle with mitt. >> president obama's campaign spent more than it brought in last month but still has $110 million on hand. it's concern is being outspent on groups like american crossroads and restore our future which brought in $5 million last month. the pro obama super pac is keeping up, however saying it's brought in $8 million between may and so far this june. as for the money or lack of money in the economy a new apgf poll says three out of 10 adults think the economy is heading in the right direction and 55% of americans disapprove of how president obama is handling the economy, however he is still up in a head head-to-head poll with mitt romney. even some romney supporters think obama will get reelected.

you can always join us and hot on line. we'll see you in a couple. [[vo]]joy behar is on current tv for one week only until the fall. >>try to be a little more conservative tonight. gaeme inc. thank gaemezilinsky, thank you for joining 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's go time! >>every weeknight cenk uygur calls out the mainstream media. >>overwhelming majority of the county says: "tax the rich don't go to war."

>> good morning everybody david shuster sitting in for bill press. so glad to have you with us today and again tomorrow. i'll be getting in again. bill has got a little minor medical procedure he's fine, probably watching at home wondering what is shuster doing to my show. sorry bill. >> how are you? >> hi, there. good morning, so what a day here

in washington, d.c. waiting for the united states supreme court, they're going to be releasing more opinions this morning. in just three hours, we will see if the affordable care act decision is among those. i have a feeling that that big decision on obama health care policy's not going to come until next week. we've got people standing by at the supreme court just in case. a lot of discussion here in washington today and now in the political landscape about president obama's assertion of executive privilege that the justice department not involving president obama, but her happens the attorney general discussions about how to deal with congressional inquiries into the fast and furious gun running program allowing guns to get in the hands of mexican criminals, used to kill a federal agent. president obama is exerting the executive privilege that others had but that is not something

that played well yesterday morning before darrell issa voted to hold eric holder in contempt for refusal to turn over certain documents. >> 23ayes, 17 nos. >> a contempt report is ordered reported to the house. >> house speaker john boehner is going to bring this to a full floor vote next week. >> alec baldwin the actor, star of "saturday night live" and regular star of 30 rock was accused yesterday of bunching out a new york daily news photographer. the photographer's lawyer says that the case is now in front of local prosecutors. >> mr. santos met with prosecutors this morning at the manhattan district attorney's office along with detectiving. they are taking this seriously. >> the notre dame football team is very seriously enthusiastic about the new playoff scheme

proposed for the bcs. it appears that it's going to move to a four team playoff. the notre dame athletic director seemed confident that that is a good thing for his school and most schools. >> we're excited to be on the threshold of creating a no postseason structure for college football. one that builds on the great popularity of our sport. we take our responsibility to our universities, our presidents, and to the student athletes seriously. we're determined to make this the best sport in the country even better. >> well, notre dame, it is such a great sport in part because the university of michigan has thrashed you three years in a row. just saying. >> this is the full court press. >> weather headlines making news march madness will be different next spring. the ncaa ruled 10 teams academically in eligible for the annual men's basketball

tournament including three time national champ you uconn. they and four other schools failed to meet the minimum academic rate. >> they don't care about academics in uconn. who knew. >> more in 25 minutes. >> brit and mitt have something in common. the car elevator that mitt romney is getting installed in his new home. u weekly confirming pop star britney spears had the same one in a house that she recently rented. no word if she has one in her new home. >> i didn't know that britney drove her own cars. >> i don't think she's allowed to drive. good news for the troubled american prospect, the political magazine raised enough money to stay alive. recently on the verge of being shut down after being published

since 1990 the huffing to know post reporting $1.2 million in donations from readers plus a grant to cover the budget for the rest of the year. the magazine was the clear starting point for many journalists, including washington post, and new york magazine's jonathan take it. >> all right, thank you very much. so pleased to be join the on the phone to talk about the latest developments in fast and furious and political landscape and what's happening in congress. chris coon is a democratic, senator, thanks for being on the show this morning. >> thanks for a chance to be on. i appreciate being on with my dell low person from delaware.

i did notice in the story about the upcoming national football champ series, somehow, it was an indiana team profiled. >> of course it was the wrong indiana team. >> delaware ends up being the new champion. >> i like the helmets but let's move on. first on fast and furious a serious question here. president obama asserted executive privilege yesterday to keep certain documents out of the hands of the committee. do you support the assertion of executive privilege? >> i'm always uncomfortable when an administration chooses executive privilege rather than full disclosure and we had eric holder in front of us on the senate judiciary committee. i'm impressed with the work attorney holder has done. he made a strong case that he had been complying as fully as he possibly could. i haven't heard from the justice

department after this assertion of executive privilege but i'm just inferring from what torn general holder told us on the senate side in a recent hearing that they frankly feel that the house investigation is an endless game of we're going to demand more, we're going to demand more. he detailed to the senate committee the thousands and thousands of documents that they provided the series of temperatures he'd given in front of a series of hearings. it may well be that the administration has detectived that there just was no way for them to satisfactory what is in their view an election year driven hunt for some sort of on going embarrassment or press about this. you know, the reality is that fast and furious builds on operation wide receiver launched under the bush administration. both administrations, the current attorney general and previous justice officials have said this is an effort that went wrong. it was poorly planned not well

executed and clearly resulted in the tragic death of an american border official, border agent. whether what's going on in the house really is just an election year search for embarrassment of eric holder or whether there's some more fundamental issue here that deserved executive privilege, i don't have in sight into, but i was impressed with attorney general holder's testimony in front of our committee. >> as far as lonnie brewer, there is evidence that he knew about fast and furious and failed to tell higher-ups in the justice department. that's why eric holder had to apologize. should brewer lose his job? >> i think that should be seriously considered if there was an intentional misrepresentation here. i hadn't prepared for that at a topic this morning. which people in the justice department new which pieces when

is something i don't have in front of me. my recollection was that the attorney general again covered the facts with us in front of the judiciary committee repeated the apology for the miss direction and misleading of congress. i'll leave it to the attorney general to make decisions about when he thinks that sort of mistake or misstatement justifies. >> if the transportation bill gets through congress, it will create 2 million jobs. the bill goes over to the house of representatives congressional republicans block it. what is the latest on that and what do you make of what's going on on the other side of capitol hill? >> this has been enormously frustrating to me and anybody in congress who cares about creating jobs, putting the american economy on stronger footing about the things frankly working people all over the

country would expect us to be doing in congress. when you've got very strong personalities, barbara a real progressive democratic from california jim a conservative republican from oak he can, they were able to bring this bill out of their committee last november unanimously, brought it to the floor, months of fighting in order to get it off the senate floor and over to the house but it did, as you said with a strong bipartisan vote. it came out of the senate because of the strong support of aflcio and chamber of commerce. this would save 3 million jobs and is exactly the shot in the arm the american economy needs. half the roads in this country are in disrepair bridges deemed insufficient. this is exactly the sort of thing that should have passed weeks and weeks ago. just yesterday leaders of both

chambers majority leader reed and speaker boehner bother down again to reach a final consensus. if this doesn't get past by june 30, we will be out of authorization for anything happening this year. in the state of delaware, there's more than 6,000 jobs that are directly tied to this two year $109 billion highway authorization. the senate is at a place where we are passing bipartisan bills. it's tough to get them through. we have to take hard votes on irrelevant amendments which is what we're doing to do with the farm bill. but why the house republican caucus are allowed to hold these critical bills hostage is beyond me. the president talks about dysfunctioning congress and how he can't get congress to work.

what he really means and this bill proves it is the small group of republicans in the house republican caucus who refuse to make any reasonable progress towards expanding federal power to do the things that the federal government does. >> do you believe -- >> creating a federal highway system. >> sorry to interrupt. do you believe those house republicans, including john boehner are deliberately trying to sabotage the american economy with this. >> that's a very hard conclusion to have to reach. you'd like to believe that the folks on the other side of a political registration for partisan divide have their own legitimate reasons. i know there were a few who had questions about whether this should be a six month or one year or two year extension but at the end of the day, it is really hard to come to any other conclusion david that with all the groups, all the traditionally republican groups, business groups, employment groups who have been pushing and pushing for this bill, why would it take weeks and weeks and

weeks? there are not big issues left unresolved in this bill. the conclusion i come to is they're dragging their feet in order to prevent a strong summer construction season. we're going to get jobs numbers back soon. i expect them to be disappointing because of the small group not allowing the federal to do what it can and should to create jobs in the farming sector. we've had month after month of private sector job growth in this country under the leadership of president obama and vice president biden but when congress doesn't do its work, we can't continue to grow this recovery. >> senator chris coons thanks so much for joining us this morning. good luck to those university of delaware football players this fall.

we love the helmets because they look just like those at the university of michigan. you've got that going for you. >> thanks, david have a good day. >> interesting interview. not so supportive of executive privilege assertions by the obama administration and he did say that he does believe that the house republicans are intentionally trying to damage the u.s. economy, at least damage the jobs growth and the construction sector with them holding up what's going on in the transportation bill. we'll be back after this. ♪ ♪ >> this is the full court press the bill press show, live on your radio and on current tv. ♪ ♪

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we have a big, big hour and the i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct. >>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today... [ ♪ theme ♪ ]

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: 27 minutes now after >> if you've missed any part of the show this morning, including news we just got from senator chris coons who does believe republicans are trying to sabotage job numbers this summer we'll have it at our website. lrfw says regarding congressional dysfunction you know damn well it won't change in your lifetime or your kids. i hope that's not true. >> and a couple folks are asking about the segment we did about

the newseum, the newseum a privately funded museum to honor freedom of the press press access and they have a rental policy that says if you rent out part of the museum, then your group dictates whether or not reporters are there. we have a petition up add change.org/museum to urge the museum to change the rental policies. they're entitled to do that, but if a group like the business round table wants to rent out a facility and exclude reporters they should find another facility. the museum should make it clear this is our facility, look at the wall honoring freedom of press. it's our policy if you rent space here and host a presidential candidate you allow the press in from start to finish. if you want to be part of that petition, go to

change.org/museum, and again for comments about the show or want to talk to peter or dan or myself twitter.com/davidshuster. we're going to be talking about the huskies now on academic probation. i thought connecticut was a pretty good school academically. >> i thought that, too but my favorite put down in sports is the duke basketball team, when the other teams would come to play, there was a sign up that would say welcome fellow scholars. which is just great. >> maybe the connecticut athletic problem were not attending players attending class pap lot of universities, notre dame, university of michigan, indiana university, ucla a lot of schools do a really good job making sure football players basketball

players, division one college athletes meet with tutors and actually go to study haul and they are not allowed to practice or play if they're skipping out on meeting with their guidance counselors and their tutors and doing their homework. >> i went to the university of alabama and they did a very good job of making sure that the ringers did their homework and tests for the athletes did all of their work on time. >> the ringers. >> they are very thorough. >> in michigan, we don't have those ringers. i wish i had some of the tutors those football players had. >> we're going to talk to the bcs coming up with new player norm mat for football. we'll talk about academic issues on college campuses and everything else in sports, including roger clements, right

after this. [[vo]]joy behar is on 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.

>> david shuster in for are bill press this thursday morning. honored to be joined now by bill jion. on sous radio 1:00 p.m. on fridays. >> peter let me have you cue up the notre dame athletic director talking about the bcs bowl

championship series going to a four game playoff. here was his reaction. >> we're very excited to be on the threshold of creating a new postseason structure for college football, one that builds on the great popularity of our sport. we take our responsibility to our universities, our presidents and to the student athletes seriously. we're determined to make this the best sport in the country even better. >> why are the folks at notre dame so excited. as i said a minute ago they're not getting past michigan this fall. >> they're the michael dukakis of football. they're excited because this is the only moment in the next 365 days where we're going to say the words notre dame in any sense other than what happened to notre dame? i was listening to sports radio coming down here today and this is how they're talking about this meeting of the minds. they have to talk about it like this. they say the conference chairman

and notre dame met this week, because they have this kind of sanctified. they're excited they're invited to the party and not serving drinks. >> the bcs series, this four-game playoff, is it a-wise idea interview? >> if the goal is maximizing profits out of college football, a bod idea if they want to keep with the fiction that this is an amateur sport. this is an admission that we're giving up. we've made the speeches this is about student athletics but we're now living in a time where urban myer gets to coach for $4 million a year at ohio state. at his peek, it was $40,000 a year. they've now dispensed with the

fiction and said ok, we need to maximize as much money as we can, it's the second most popular sport in the united states college football to professional football and this is the way we can max out as much money at possible. >> uconn will not be ail to participate in the ncaa tournament because of academic deficiencies. >> they got caught. >> they are not known as a powder puff in terms of academics, but clearly that was the case with their academic program. >> that's with schools across the country. i've talked to enough athletes to know that any sense that you're getting any sort of academic training out of college as an athlete only happen if you have an 18-year-old who is so self motivated that they are going to go to practice at the equivalent of a full time job and they're going to go to class and to do when they have adult authority figures saying to them you know, you don't really have

to do this. like lauren profit said, we're not student athletes, we're athlete students, because the second we come to campus, it's made very clear to us what our priorities are supposed to be. >> i thought athletes from certain universities, if i had an opportunity to hire somebody and i was looking at a b athlete from the university of michigan versus an a student from who wasn't involved in athletics, i would take the b athlete because the ability to successfully time manage on campus and deal with those responsibilities is for more useful i would think in the real world. >> you to have look carefully at their major and what was demanded of them of that major. i know we can make a ton of jokes about basket weaving majors but athletes' are diverted away from their

academic interests. they talk about their interests and are told there is a basket that needs to be woven right now. your basic point is correct the time demands on an athlete that's another change from the 1970's or mid 1980's. bo jackson starring, that would never happen now, they are expected to do this the entire year and carry a decent g.p.a. if you have a 4.0g.p.a. and not doing well on the football or basketball team, you could get bounced. your scholarship is renewed on an annual basis. >> the roger clements trial i covered it the first time around. i'll never forget trying to explain this story as roger clements is going to face a prison sentence or face going

into the how many. >> right. >> i would argue that his chances now certainly have improved going into the hall of fame now that he's been found not guilty. >> it will take a while to get in. if you were making a list of the 15 best players of all time, he would be on that list from a statistical standpoint. when you consider that he didn't in the steroid era it's frankly all the more remarkable. the issue though is that the people who run the baseball hall of fame, they make the people who won prohibition in this country look like the people who foundedvasion. these are the temporance folks. sometimes, you're aware that there are players who played

under conditions of segregation,ty cob a terrible human being but they're yes this is sake rhett hallowed ground and someone like roger clements who is looked like as a steroid user. look at jeff bag well, how many numbers, terrific first baseman for the houston astros, never so much failed a drug test, never so much had people look at him cross eyed when he was actually playing for the astros, yet they say you know what, he got really big during his career and that was during the steroid era. he doesn't get in. >> the one that jumped out at me was a 1.87 e.r.a. with the texas rangers. >> it's what's going to make it very difficult for him to get in

is people look at accomplishments with great suspicion. it's going to be the same thing with barry bonds. in both cases i think we have to take a step back and say the u.s. government should get out of the steroid policing business. two to $4 million for the trial 10 to $40 million for barry bonds. this is our tax dollars supposedly in a recessionary time tightening bets. if you want to deal with steroids in baseball, collectively bargain between the commissioner and union to do blood testing. if you're not it's a joke. that's the only way to find out for ahdh or figure out a way to regulate it. the fact of the matter is, that a lot of players in baseball in particular with the long season, they take the stuff to heal from injuries so they can play day in and day out and if you're not going to figure out a way to regulate it and find out what's healthy and what's not you're

going to have people continuing to get their medical treatment in bathroom stalls. >> instead of the federal democratic figuring that out what else have they go after? some of of the bankers on wall street or people who brought our economy to its knees. maybe they can do both, but in any case, we'll be back with more on the other side of this break. you are listening and watching to the big press show. no. [ male announcer ] salty. sweet. and impossible to resist. >>it would be terrible if america lost faith in wall street insiders wouldn't it.

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>> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. >> good morning, david shuster in for bill press. we're talking about culture of corruption in college football. we're talking about the university of notre dame and also we're going to talk about the olympics. first we've got teddy. you're on the bill press show. good morning. >> i'd first of all like to ask you to please stop bashing notre dame, and i have a point to make on how you said see athletes in college when in 2005, jeff samardzija pitched for notre dame and also a very excellent

wide receiver, notre dame. i do believe that notre dame has the highest academic standards among college athletes. >> a couple things. one, i would make a very strong case that samardzija is the exception that proves the rule. he is a major league quality pitcher with an all-star level of talent, and when you get somebody like that, yeah, you're going to have a turf war inside the athletic department. that's very different from an athlete out of their own volition because they're an amateur and love sports pursuing multiple sports. most athletes, that's not an option anymore because of the year round schedule. as far as academics this is a great tension of the school. stanford has been able to pull it off that's what notre dame aspires to be. my big issue with north same

opposed to stanford, it's high level of athletics across the sports landscape and not just the big spotlight sports, basketball and football, but it's an athletic culture on campus. notre dame the football program has become so big and so powerful in terms of campus culture, there's something out of whack on campus. recent reports that sexual assaults of football players are systematically covered up not just by campus security, but campus police. the horrible death of a young man who was basically compelled to climb up this huge structure to be able to film what was going on on the field in the midst of a hurricane these are the sort of things that make you want a take a step back and say wait a minute, what are our priorities now as a campus. >> and then the girl who alleged she first raped taking her own

life. >> after not getting support from the campus or police department and then was actually pressured by her friends who were saying hey you're making us all look bad to show up to games with the notre dame fighting irish stenciled on her face. >> her allegations were against a notre dame football player. >> you have a book you're promoting, an infamous moment from 40 years ago. tell me about that. >> arguably, the most famous momenting in sports history maybe the history of social struggle, john carlos, tommy smith raising their black gloved fists at the olympics, getting more african-american head coaches hired standing up to avery brundige, head of the

international olympics committee. they wanted to try to pressure just the sports world in general to mohammad ali's title restored. >> he is able to see how much that sacrifice resonated with people. when we were in london, i felt i was traveling with michael jackson in china circa 1986, people rushing at him, tearing at him. the events we did were packed. it was thrilling. it gave us the opportunity to go around london and see the preparation for the 2012 olympics. john's jaw was on the floor and mine was because when you see them seriously bolting missile launchers to the removes of residential apartment buildings parking an aircraft carrier in

the thames, i was scared to pick my nose on a street corner, because the cameras are everywhere. you don't want to end up on you tube. it's this incredible security culture that i know is much more of a post 9/11 thing but everyone told me it's been stepped up dramatically for the olympics. >> we're going to ask you about the impact of that on our final segment coming up. >> heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the bill press show. i think that's really important for people to recognize is that [[vo]]joy behar is on 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?!

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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey, how about it. president obama, busy schedule today. >> david shuster here. we were talking about missiles on top of rooftops in london, preparing for the lon son olympics. what's the feel there? >> ooh, the feel is like steak and kidney pie. people are eating it, but nobody pretends to be happy bit. there's that kind of national pride, yeah, we eat steak and kidney pie, what of it? at the same time, no one's threw thrilled. that's the mood across the city. the main reason is there's a real economic slowdown in great britain. it's not as bad as the euro countries, but they're the ones most affected with what's happening with the shock waves. you have a lot of very interesting things happening right now bus drivers have voted to strike during the olympics, for example. >> oh, no. >> yeah. and people are angry though,

one of the reasons they're striking is because the international olympic committee have now designed separate roads for v.i.p.s. you're talking about the 1%, this is the .001% so they can get to and from olympic facilities in peace. these are going to be a different color on the streets of london. ambulances and firetrucks are not allowed to go on them. so you're talking like one disaster away from this blowing up in london's face. >> again the other thing that is so striking to me, is never mind security threats and terrorism and what they're trying to do and the money it's costing, the idea of these special passageways, are the v.i.p.s also going to get a special escape route if something happens? >> let's talk about terrorism.

that's a risk anytime you have an event like this. do they they al-qaeda's going to come in from the skies? why do you put a surface to air muscle on the roof, an aircraft carrier in the thames? it's much more about the show of security. the scariest thing is a lot of local police departments have surveillance equipment for the olympics. some have said we're keeping these after the olympics is done. >> once the drones are in the air, they'll just continue. >> exactly. that's what a lot of people who are civil libertarian minded or people with missiles on their apartment roofs of going. just a year ago there was a man killed by police, this is very

real, there's a lot of anger tension, joblessness hopelessness taking place in the u.k. the hope that the olympics could be a side from that. people are saying after the olympics, the gloves will come off, and there will be all this security apparatus to help deal with people's anger. >> it is always a pleasure to talk to you. dave is the nation's sports editor follow him at thenation.com. his book is the john carlos story, the sports moment that changed the world available at bookstores and amazon all over the world. congratulations, dave, good luck to you. we'll be talking with you again. another great hour coming ahead. thanks for staying with us, everybody. ♪ >> this is the big press show.

[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] hey hey. >> good morning, everybody. david shuster sitting in for bill press. welcome to the bill press show on current. there's been interesting reaction from democrats to president obama's assessor of executive privilege to keep those justice department documents away from congressional investigators who are trying to figure out what happened with the fast and furious gun running operation where guns went to mexico. we'll talk about that and the political ramifications ahead and alley we'll get an update on what is going on with, well,

what's going on in egypt and how that's playing here at home and also a couple of stories we're following that are a personal favorite of mine. you'll have to tune in to watch. now it's time for the current news update with jackie schechner. >> good morning. the obama campaign is out with a new positive ad today targeting women. >> president obama knows women being paid 77 cents on the dollar for doing the same work as men isn't just unfair, it hurts families. >> the ads going to run in seven swing states. vice president biden is holding an event today at 11:30 at the white house debuting to new public service announcement that talks about preventing violence against women. he'll be joined by espn and pro

baseball players. the president the vice president, pro athletes, other role models are going to talk about dating violence and how it's unacceptable. we could finally hear today about mitt romney and what he plans today about immigration policy. so far republicans have struggled to figure out how to respond to president obama's announcement last week that he would stop supporting some undocumented immigrants under the age of 30. if romney decides to keep quiet today and not talk about immigration, he would be doubling down on the strategy linking latinos to a struggling economy and how they're having trouble. we could see backing a dream act type proposal, securing the border first. if he switches course on immigration, that could woo hispanics but alienate some in

his own party. we'll have to wait and see what happens. we're back after a sport break. stay with us. current tv for one week only until the fall. >>try to be a little more conservative tonight. the new slogan should be "we own wall street." that's my view.

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.

you've heard bill's views, now let's hear yours. politically direct means no b.s. just telling you what's going on in politics today. >>at the only on-line forum with a direct line to bill press.

>>it's something i've been waiting for a long time. >>join the debate now. [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: ♪ >> david shuster in for bill press. this is thursday, june 21. so glad to have you with us on current tv and the radio, bill press show. lots to talk about today including assertions of executive privilege. yesterday, the obama administration said that they would not turn documents over to a house committee investigating the fast and furious gun running program to mexico because of executive privilege. the administration asserted that because these were discussions about how to respond to

congressional inquiries after it began, therefore these documents would be covered by executive privilege. the problem the obama administration is having is that just the night before, as part of an effort to reach a deem, eric holder, the attorney general offered to let members of congress see some of these specific documents if the investigation in congress would stop. so the republicans are making the point that wait a second, how can the administration now assert executive privilege? here is congressman utah. >> why is president obama invoking executive privilege on documents they said yesterday they would be glad to give us? that doesn't add up. there is something we're we need to see. >> federal agent was killed,

they are frightened the federal government could take their guns. that was referred to by darrell issa. >> also the supreme court is expected to release opinions today. a lot of eyes to see if they will announce their decision on the arguments over the affordable care act. there were three days of arguments earlier this year about whether the act is constitutional. democrats nervous about what the court may do. what would happen if the court struck down the law and millions of americans suddenly went without health insurance? well, as it stands, a study has been done on how many americans die each year because they don't have health insurance. the figure they came up with was 26,000. 26,000 americans die every year because they don't have health insurance. here's ron polak. >> on a monthly basis, 2,175

people die due a a lack of health insurance. >> reall hunter is out with a book, the mistress of jon edwards. some would say she is a whole wrecker. she forward his baby when he was married to his wife. while hunter wants some sympathy is talking about who she is. >> first and foremost, i'm a mom. i'm also a woman who fell in love with a married man. i'm not the first woman who has done that and i'm not going to be the last. >> most women don't decide to right a book and ask for public sympathy. >> this is the full court press. >> big baseball game in town, the female members of congress taking on female members of the media.

they do this every year, raising money for the breast cancer charity. the women's media beat the representatives 13-10. abc news political director amy walter was the star of the bad news babies. she got multiple hits, played very well at shortstop for team members. >> on the lawmakers side, donna edwards for maryland and the republican from new hampshire. >> i knew lynn sweet was a great shortstop. >> she and meredith were in here together. >> with a glove and everything, came right from practice. >> does anheuser-busch want to make a beer or every airport in the country? they have acquired trademarks

for 42 airport codes meaning they have the rights to use letters like j.f.k. or o.r.d. for chicago's o'hare. >> is the beer maker also going to lose your beer when you order it to match up to baggage claims or change your beer on you or change the bar you have to go to get snit. >> alec baldwin went on charlie roses show, also david letterman yesterday to say this week's altercation with a paragraph in new york city has been misreported. he said he did not punch him. he said had he done that he would likely be in jail. >> alec baldwin apparently credible in all things. >> yeah. >> thank you. i guess we've figured out that alec baldwin's not coming on bill's show. >> nope, not going to happen. >> bill is resting comfortably.

he had a minor medical procedure. he is fine and may be watching the show and wondering good grief, when is shuster doing now. >> if i know bill, he's watching the show. >> he will be back next week. if this show doesn't give him anymore medical problems, he'll be in good shape so there's a great poll to came out for democrats and intriguing for everyone in politics finding that president obama in a head-to-head matchup against mitt romney is ahead by 13 points. 13 points in this poll. a lot of folks are saying what's going on, are the results flawed? there was a margin of error of three percentage points, but it seems solid when you look at how the data was collected. a couple of things, you ask well the president is ahead by 13 points, both president obama and mitt romney have real trouble. president obama is a lot of folks don't think the president

is doing well on the economy. a lot of folks think the country is headed in the wrong direction, and yet the problems seem even worse for mitt romney. most people don't like mitt romney. they don't feel like he's got a solution for the economy. the on the crucial issue of likability who would you rather be on a long plane ride with, obama 57%, mitt romney, 31%. that is a 26-point difference. here to talk about all of this is political reporter dave leventhal. what did you make of the poll? >> it's fascinating. the thing about nothing polls like this is they include states like new york and texas and california that at the end of the day are not going to matter one iota to the presidential election unless you're talking about fundraising where both candidates go to raise money.

when we're looking at key states pennsylvanias ohio, colorado states like that, then in a way we're dealing with about seven eight, nine little mini races within this overall race that really are going to be the deciding factors in this race and national polls are nice but obama is certainly smiling broader than probably he was a day better he read that poll. it's key to find out what's happening in those individual states where they're going to be running hard like any other state throughout the country. >> in those battleground states, mitt romney has a problem with likability in those states, right? >> you certainly does. you're going to see him spending time resources and effort in those states. he took a bus tour recently. i believe he's still on it. he's going not to states where he knows he's going to win but states where he's got a fighting chance.

you're going to see a bar beinger for what's going to happen throughout the entire race. he knows now well before even the convention has started that unless he spends time there unless he tries to move those poll numbers not cutting his way, he's going to be coverage in some of these states and cannot win the election if he loses them. >> this has been a particularly interesting week in the ad wears. it feels the obama campaign is trying to define romney down particularly regarding his record as governor of massachusetts. here's one ad that is part of the rotation. >> i'm barack obama and i approved this message. >> running for governor, mitt romney campaigned as a job creator. >> i know how jobs are create. >> but as a corporate raider, he shipped jobs to china and mexico. as governor, he did the same thing, out sources state jobs to india.

now, he's making the exact same pitch. >> i know why jobs come and why they go. >> out sourcing jobs. romney economics. it didn't work then and it won't work now. >> shipping jobs to china, out sourcing to india. it's rough stuff but effective right? >> it is, and it kind of represents an evolution in the way that barack obama's campaign has been talking about romney. you got to remember it was just a couple of weeks ago where all the attacks coming from the obama camp, all the attacks coming from the super pac supporting barack obama were talking about one thing only, bane, the company romney ran and it wasn't sticking. it wasn't resonating with people in the way perhaps these ads might, talking about his work in the public sector and campaign trail. they're effectily tying to tie mitt romney business record with

his public record. he's been a one term governor, running for president for the past six, seven years now. there's a connection being made on the obama camp to the president and tying mitt romney of yore to the mid rom which today. the mitt romney of today isn't necessarily all that popular with a lot of independents, people who are going to be very deciding factors. >> how is the romney campaign trying to respond? >> as best as they can. first of all putting up plenty of ads of their own and talking about the thing that they've been talking about all along barack obama jobs, the economy his record, and really trying to hold barack obama up as a sort of an ugly symbol of the economic situation that we're still in today where unemployment is high, where jobs are not coming at the rate that certainly the obama administration would want them to. as long as that situation persists, you can expect romney to continue to talk about it all

the way to november. it's probably unlikely that things are are going to get significantly better between now and then, but a lot of people wonder if the unemployment rate goes down just a little bit or job creation, you know, comes back just a little bit if that's even going to sink mitt romney's message going forward. you can expect mitt romney to keep talking about it ad nauseam. >> thanks for joining us, dave. thanks for being part of the show, we appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> we'll talk more about presidential politics and how it might be impacted regarding executive privilege after this. >> this is the bill press show. ♪ ♪

tt we have a big, big hour and the i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct. >>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today...

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: joe cirincione is our guest from the ploughshares fund on the "full court press." >> heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the bill dress show. >> if you missed our interview with senator chris coons, we have that up on our website. he said he does believe house republicans who continue to refuse to pass the bipartisan transportation bill which cleared the senate and would create 3 million jobs, he does believe house republicans are engaged in an intentional effort to essentially slow down summer

road construction, which would of course put a drag on the u.s. economy. so, pretty tough stuff. if you want to hear any of that, go to our website. he was not entirely supportive of the barack obama ma administration invoking executive privilege yesterday. we're going to talk more about that coming up in a couple of moments. we want to take a few calls on this topic. joey from chicago, good morning. >> good morning, great job there, buddy. >> thank you. >> i am so proud of my president for acting like a president. it's about time he throws cold water on these republicans. he's been kowtowing to them too long. this is what a republican should do, say republicans go jump in the lake, pass it on. >> we appreciate the call. look, an assertion of executive privilege, that is pretty tough stuff. that's basically saying ok,

here's my trump card and i don't want to have to play it, but i'm throwing it down and take that. there's not much congress can do other than whine and complain. the problem republicans have is karl rove wasn't whining and complaining during the executive privilege issued then. republicans now are saying wait a second, executive privilege should only be asserted when it involves conversations with the president of the united states. well no. executive privilege was asserted by karl rove involving conversations that he had not with the president of the united states, but with officials at the justice department. again, some hypocrisy here from republicans as you might expect. cork key from new york, you're on the bill press show. >> hypocrisy understate that. you're talking about a couple

thousand guns missing. one border agent died, my heart goes out to his family. unlike the other 3,000 soldiers that died in iraq for some violation that the republicans should have been brought up on line, 3,000 soldiers ain't going to get the same compensation that the one guy got in arizona. talk about being brought before the court, how about the $3 billion on wooden pallets that was lost in iraq that nobody can find? >> here's my issue. you make an interesting point about iraq, but here's the greater issue of hypocrisy. republicans scream and yell that our federal government would even consider trying to stop the flow of guns to criminals and the insane. republicans don't like the gun show loophole legislation because they don't want any

restrictions on guns even guns that might go to people like criminals and the in sane, criminals shouldn't have guns, people saying we can't have the government infringing, stopping the criminals and in sane from getting guns. but all of a sudden, here the republicans are exam plaining because wait a second, the guns are now going to mexican criminals. therefore, let's all be upset infuriated. how dare that obama administration allow guns to go to mexican criminals. >> how dare the guns go to criminals in the united states at gun shows without background checks? that's the hypocrisy here. it is outrageous on the rep side terry, good morning. >> i think the republicans also forget a little bit of history here. if you go back to the late 1980's with iran-contra trading weapons with people that later

we'd be fighting with and they threw oliver north under the bus to take everything for the president. >> well, it's an interesting point. we are trying to accomplish something by trading arms. we thought we might get leverage in terms of getting the hostages freed. the argument could be made as i think you're making it that wait a second, we weren't intending to give mexican drug cartels guns, there was a purpose here, to track the cartels and make arrests with ringleaders. that didn't happen, that was botched, but it was an effort tried by the bush administration that the obama administration tried, as well. the question is how many people in the justice department knew about it and when asked by congress, did they cover it up. there is no evidence that they did. this is republicans in congress trying to cause trouble. more with the bill press show on the other side of this break. >> this is the bill press show.

♪ ♪ [[vo]]joy behar is on current tv for one week only

her unique mix of comedy and politics to current tv. >> it's like a reality show, they're just turning cameras on and we just do our thing. >>politically direct to me means no b.s., the real thing, cutting through the clutter. i'm energized to start my show everyday because it's fun, because i care about what's going on in this country, rather than some sort of tired banter it is actual water cooler talk it's the way people really talk about these issues. we've always considered ourselves a comedy show. let me just say i am not ready for my close up. i think it's important to laugh. i think it will be exciting, because you can't script three hours of radio. what is going on? i can't tell you how many times right wingers call the show and say, "i don't agree with anything you say, but your show is funny as hell." the only thing that can save america now, current tv.

can i say that? >> announcer: this is the "full court press," the "bill press >> this is the full court press the bill press show live on your radio and on current tv. >> david shuster here. what a wacky world we are in. with the way things are going with politics in cashing upon, this is the way things stand with guns. it is fine for republicans to block the gun show loophole and allow guns to flow to criminals here in the united states. that's fine, but when guns flow to mexican criminals oh, my

goodness, it is time to hold the obama administration accountable, the justice department must be turned inside out, eric holder must be. republicans, if you care about stopping the flow of guns to criminals, care about the guns going to criminals here in the united states. why don't you support the gun show loophole. then you might have some standing to complain about guns flowing to people who shouldn't have them. anyway, it's just my rant, and i'm on a rant today. >> yeah, good for you. >> a little bit lively. we're joined by josh israel, a reporter for think progress. he has looked into the claims of executive privilege and to try to put them in cob text. you can follow his work at thinkprogress.org or on twitter. josh, how are you doing? >> great, great to be with you. >> put the claim of executive

privilege by the obama administration in context. how many other administrations have claimed executive privilege and what were the circumstances? >> since the regan administration, all of them. i'm not sure if william henry harrison had much of a chance to in his presidency, but it goes back to washington and jefferson. this has been a pretty common thing and president obama has been pretty hesitant to use this so far for the first time in his presidency. >> president clinton, i believe it was 14 times a lot of them related to the monica lewinsky sandal. a lot of people had this impression that sort of executive privilege to protect just the conversations that the president has with his aides when it seems most of the cases of executive privilege don't involve a president. >> that's absolutely true. well, i think an average person who may not follow that closely might come to that assumption, members of congress who have

been talking as if that's the case really should know better. there are are two real types of executive privilege that we've seen historically. one is presidential communication privileges, and that is the conversation that the president may have with aides, trying to come to a decision. you know, he may solicit memos saying give me both sides of this issue. the idea is that you do not want to put any kind of chill on their ability to get good advice from their aides. they don't want to worry that that might be brought out to the public and misinterpreted. courts have given an enormous amount of deference to that. even in the u.s. v. nixon case acknowledged that there is a case for that sort of privilege. the second kind, not necessarily quite as strong but still used over the years and acknowledged to be valid is deliberative

process privilege used not just to apply to the president but to executive branch employees of all levels who are in the process of doing their, you know, due diligence to decide issues. the idea is you do not want their decision-making process to be subject to congressional misinterpretation. >> the most recent case of executive privilege, but that was karl rove, who did not want to testify claimed executive privilege to protect his conversations and the conversations of others at the bush administration justice department regarding the inquiry, regarding the investigation into the firing of u.s. attorneys for political purposes. >> right the bush -- george w. bush administration used executive privilege a couple of times and not all had to do with presidential communications.

certainly, karl rove's decision-making process or dick cheney's decisions making process, none of those were the president of the united states himself, despite what some people may speculate about dick that iny's role. that's absolutely correct. >> do you recall any republicans complaining in congress during the bush administration about those claims of executive privilege by the bush administration or by karl rove? >> no, actually, i don't. in fact, when the administration didn't want to be forthcoming with information about the e.p.a.'s regulation of carbon or non-regulation, one republican a congressman from california, darrell issa was vocal complaining that the democrats had the gal to ask them for this information. when administrator of the e.p.a.

johnson was testifying before then harry waxman's house oversight committee he gave this very impassed argument saying members of congress enjoy an exemption from having to have any criticism of their speech and debate so that they could come to decisions on the floor and said your conversations in the executive branch that led to your decision should also be protected. >> so there was darrell issa saying i support the opinion and how dare the democrats go after the bush administration. peter, i'm going to ask you to pull up the very first clip of darrell issa that we had loaded. saying i support executive privilege, how dare the democrats try to go there. when the obama administration

asserts executive privilege, this is how he responded. >> this untimely assertion by the justice department falls short of any reason to delay today's you proceedings. >> what do you make of it, josh? >> i think it's probably best described as hip pakoras. he also during the investigation of albert dough gonzalez over the firings described it as a political which hunt, and criticized the bush administration for releasing the documents that were released saying they shouldn't have done so, they should have been protected under executive privilege and there was no crime. so his relationship with this issue seems to depend on which party's in power. >> there is one part of this where i think the obama administration made a mistake.

that is a couple of nights ago when eric holder was trying to hold off this contempt vote, he offered to darrell issa and the committee, i will give you documents to look at so you can peruse them and see them, but you're going to have to stop the investigation. they said no, that we can't accept and the next morning president obama asserts executive representative. you have the republicans making the argument if the president didn't have a problem with us seeing the documents last night why make the claim of executive privilege? >> >> i think some of the documents would not be covered under executive privilege. i don't know what the thousand of documents this committee is trying to fish through. i think some are legitimate claims of administration process. some of them, i think the administration has pointed out

may deal with on going future investigations and releasing them could be dangerous. i would caution against just sort of accepting congressman issa's recount of the way that conversation went, because listening to the discussion in yesterday's hearing, it was pretty clear that he did not think that the conversation went at all like that, and that that was not exactly how it had gone down. >> such a good point. talk with josh israel, a senior investigate piefort are for think progress. it's sort of an interesting process that plays out in terms of what happens next. we'll talk about that next on the other side of this break. you're listening and watching to the bill press show. it starts at $59 for the entire year for back up.

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>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the bill press show. >> david shuster sitting in for bill. josh is covering the claims of executive privilege by the obama administration regarding the congressional inquiry into fast and furious, a program under a different name in the bush administration to allow guns to go to mexican drug cartels and then track them and use that information to make larger arrests in order to get the drug

kingpins and figure out their distribution. it didn't work for the bush administration for obama administration. congress has been angry bit. back in february, the obama justice department said that eric holder, senior officials had no knowledge of fast and furious, it didn't exist and a couple months later had to say actually, this program did exist. the question for republicans has been is there a cover up. joshua what do you make of where the investigation is headed now? >> i think there will be some on going discussions between now and next week when the house talks about having a full house vote on this proposal. the mere fact that darrell issa's oversight commit my on partisan lines voted to recommend contempt of congress

citation does nothing. it has to go before the whole house. if the republican house decides that they do want to hold attorney general holder in contempt. it would be the first time that u.s. attorney general had ever been held in contempt of congress dating back total history of the republican. then it would probably become a question for the judicial process, unless the house wants to have attorney general holder arrested and put in jail, which they rhettly they could do. >> the naked politics of this to me seems obvious when you look at the investigation and there's no evidence at all that eric holder knew what was going on, or was involved in any way. there's a lot of evidence that lenny brewer, the deputy attorney general was warned on four different times about fast and furious and this was a program that wasn't working and here is details.

the allegation acknowledged is that brewer failed to tell other folks higher up in the justice department about the program so when there's the justice department saying we don't know anything about this, brewer should have said the justice department did know about that. go after him but other than the political scalp the link to eric holder is tangential. >> the attorney general is not really free to release documents once the administration claims executive privilege. that is a privilege that is asserted by the president of the united states, and by him having done so, it would be illegal for the attorney general to release the documents now so they are essentially accusing him of a crime of not releasing documents which it would be illegal for him to release at this point. >> what happens next?

the executive privilege claim i suppose it can be withdrawn with agreement about certain documents and likewise, the contempt vote in the house can be delayed or put off if republicans and democrats reach some sort of accommodation? >> sure. and just a few years ago attorney general reno endured a similar contempt recommendation under i think it was dan burton's control of the house oversight committee back then, and you know, speaker newt gingrich wouldn't bring it to the floor because it was ridiculous partisan which hunt. the question is whether speaker boehner politicizes the process that much. >> do you think he will? >> i certainly wouldn't want to presume what he will or will not do. he's certainly been very vocal. his spokesman yesterday made a

rather reckless charge that the decision to invoke executive privilege implies the white house officials were either involved in the fast and furious investigation or the cover up that followed. as we discussed it implies nothing of the sort. >> well, josh, it's great talking to you about your work. jewish israel, senior investigative reporter at thinkprogress.org. thanks for coming on the show, we appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >> final thoughts when the program continues after this. >> this is the bill press show, live on your radio and current tv.

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>> on your radio and on current tv this is the bill press show. >> david shuster in for bill today with a couple of final thoughts. you know, the life of mitt romney has been criticized by some folks an romney has multiple sclerosis and she goes horseback riding, a special type known as dressage. neil cavuto is angry that people would pick on an romney. he also has m.s. >> she deals with her m.s. with horse riding as a treatment for medical conditions. namely for treating walking

difficulties. neurologists have argued whether riding on horses is a cure for m.s. but it helps with the symptoms. >> peter i learned from you that dressage is not just riding around on horses. >> well, i mean it is, it's riding around on horses on steroids. let's put it this way, it's teaching a horse how to dance and you ride on this dancing horse. if you're watching on current weaver got the video up of what it looks like, this outrage over she is just riding a horse she's not, you work on this horse and get dressed up in this weird suit and you teach a horse as to dance. by teaching the horse to dance i'm looking at this video and the horse is prancing around,

you're also running around barrels wearing a funny suit. >> it looks like it's got the hot foot. >> the horse jumps up and down, you can train a horse to do all sorts of different things. here's the points. if dressage helps m.s., then just ordinary horseback riding would help, right? >> cavuto's point is horseback riding helps rehabilitate people with m.s., helps them move on, helps them cope. great. one of my best friends when i was growing up had a horse. there's a big difference between having a large piece of property with a horse that lived in a barn out back and a dressage horse that you teach how to do the freddy while you're wearing a suit in the middle of a ring with a bunch of rich people clapping and gawking at you. >> the complaint about ann romney isn't about horseback riding it's she's doing a type

that most people who have horses can't afford because it costs a lot of money to train a horse to have a hot foot. >> exactly. there's a big difference between putting a saddle on a horse and teaching it to ride in the field and teaching it to dance. >> who knew you could teach a horse to dance, i didn't know that. >> ann romney does. >> i guess with a lot of money you can train an animal to do a lot of things. >> expert on animal husbandry. >> bravo peter. on behalf the entire gang here, i am david shuster sitting in for bill today and to really. join us again tomorrow. in the meantime, keep it right here on current and on your divert local radio station and have a great thursday, everybody. thanks for listening.